An Ning was completely oblivious to An Guoming's silent complaints. She fell into a rhythm, her movements growing smoother and faster.
She quickly outpaced Lin Cuihua, who was working beside her. Seeing how fast An Ning was moving, Lin Cuihua glanced back in surprise.
"She's doing a fine job."
Lin Cuihua, who had been worried An Ning wouldn't be able to handle the work, finally relaxed. She even felt a strange sense of pride. 'My daughter takes after me. She's a quick worker.'
But when she saw An Guoming still struggling with his first row far behind them, that pride vanished in an instant, replaced by annoyance. 'Just who does my second son take after?'
"Mom, where should I work next?"
Lost in thought, Lin Cuihua was startled by An Ning's sudden voice.
She clutched her chest and let out a long sigh as she looked at An Ning, who was shouldering her hoe.
"What are you doing over here? Are you finished already?"
An Ning nodded vigorously, her eyes sparkling. Full of energy, she asked again, "Where to next?"
"Aren't you tired? You should take a break."
'A break?' An Ning shook her head rapidly. She didn't want to rest at all. The more she worked, the more seeds she could harvest.
With seeds, the people in the interstellar era could eat the same food she did.
Just the thought of it filled An Ning with boundless energy.
"I haven't even broken a sweat. I'm not tired at all."
Lin Cuihua saw that An Ning really hadn't broken a sweat. She raised her right hand and pointed east. "Just keep heading east. There's as much work as you could possibly want."
An Ning followed her mother's arm and gazed out at the vast, seemingly endless fields stretching to the horizon.
'That's so many seeds!'
She shouldered her hoe and walked toward the edge of the fields with renewed vigor, eager to get back to work.
"Little Sister, you tired?"
An Guoming saw An Ning walking away and assumed she was quitting, just like he wanted to. But before a smile could fully form on his face, An Ning suddenly looked up and glanced at him.
"Second Brother, why are you still here?"
After landing the first verbal blow, An Ning twisted the knife. "I guess I overestimated your stamina, Second Brother. Don't rush, just take your time. It's not your fault you're weak. If you can't finish, I'll help you."
With that, An Ning skipped away, each footstep landing with precision, never once touching a single seedling.
Stung by her two jabs, An Guoming looked down at his row and muttered, "My row must be longer than hers."
"Long, my ass! You, second son, hurry up! Finish this row and go home to start cooking."
Lin Cuihua had come back because she was worried about An Ning's work and wanted to inspect it. As it turned out, the rows were perfectly clean—even cleaner than her own.
And it was just in time for her to overhear An Guoming's grumbling.
Chastised, An Guoming immediately got a move on. He didn't argue or try to act tough. Cooking was a good excuse to stop fieldwork; he was more than willing to cook. He knew he'd better not talk back.
After dealing with An Guoming, Lin Cuihua walked over to the village's Accountant Liu to exchange a few words. She returned with a face full of pride.
'My daughter's work can't be for nothing. She needs to get every work point she's earned.'
Meanwhile, An Ning, guided by the precise control of her spiritual power and bolstered by her strong physique, worked with both speed and quality.
Accountant Liu, who came by specifically to inspect her work, was full of praise. The An family had produced another excellent worker. If she kept this up, she was sure to earn full work points.
An Ning's performance didn't go unnoticed. While working, some of the villagers liked to chat.
"The An family's youngest daughter... not only has her mind cleared up, but she's become a nimble worker too."
"She was only slow before. If it weren't for her... condition, she'd always have been a good worker."
"That's for sure."
Many watched An Ning as she worked, and ideas began to stir in their minds.
"She's pretty, her problem's gone, and she's such a nimble worker. What a fine girl."
"What's that? Got some ideas of your own?"
"Nope, not at all."
The speaker said no more. 'Even if I did, I wouldn't tell you.'
But her words planted a seed in many minds. Aside from breaking off her engagement, An Ning was truly a top-notch girl.
An Ning, the center of all this gossip, had no idea she was attracting such attention. The more she worked, the more excited she became. Her spiritual power, in particular, was incredibly active, reaching out bit by bit to make contact with the corn seedlings in the field.
The spiritual power she had depleted by controlling the Klein Bottle was actually beginning to replenish itself, little by little.
The process was slow, but it was working.
An Ning was inwardly stunned.
'Does farm work have this effect?'
To replenish her spiritual power, she was supposed to need special energy stones from the interstellar era. She had transmigrated as a being of pure spiritual power, and aside from the Klein Bottle, she hadn't been able to bring anything with her.
But every time she used the Klein Bottle, it consumed her spiritual power. That was why she had been in such a rush to bribe her second brother, An Guoming, for seeds—with her current reserves, she could only open the Klein Bottle a limited number of times.
But now, this slow replenishment opened up infinite possibilities.
An Ning didn't understand the connection between farming and spiritual power, but she was happy to enjoy the gift these lovely crops were giving her.
The hoe in An Ning's hands rose and fell gently, eradicating every last weed.
Meanwhile, the corn seedlings at her feet, touched by her spiritual power, showed no signs of wilting. On the contrary, their leaves seemed to unfurl, and in that instant, they gave the impression of growing a little bigger and stronger.
An Ning noticed this change. She had no idea what these corn seedlings would grow into, but as long as it wasn't harming the crops, she was relieved.
An Ning finished four rows, then went to the other end of the plot and worked her way back, completing four more.
Back and forth she went, losing track of how many round trips she had made.
"An Ning! An Ning!"
Lin Cuihua's voice carried loudly from the edge of the field. An Ning looked up from her work to see her mother waving a yellow headscarf. "Time to come home and eat!"
An Ning hesitated for a moment, torn between work and a home-cooked lunch she had yet to experience.
'Eating is important, too,' she told herself. 'I'll come back and work more after I've had my fill.'
An Ning wanted to wave back like her mother, but she didn't have a headscarf, so she waved her hoe instead. "Be right there!" she shouted.
After shouting, An Ning put down her hoe and moved even faster. In no time at all, she reached the edge of the field. She and Lin Cuihua, who was waiting for her, returned their tools before heading home together.
"Are you tired?"
"Not at all."
Lin Cuihua glanced at her daughter, a little skeptical. 'How could she not be tired after all that work?'
An Ning wasn't completely tireless, but the fatigue was manageable. Besides, her excitement over solving the spiritual power problem far outweighed any exhaustion.
"Mom, are we coming right back to the fields after lunch?"
"Of course. It's not too hot yet, so we don't get much of a break at noon. It's much better than the old days, though. We used to have to eat right here at the edge of the fields."
Remembering something, Lin Cuihua added, "When the autumn harvest comes, we won't have time to go home for meals either."
An Ning silently filed away the information in her mother's words and continued walking.
But perhaps it was true that enemies always cross paths. The mother-daughter pair, walking a little behind the rest of the An family, ran into Miao Xiaohua and Chen Mingliang.