After a long silence, she finally sighed and said, “Mom, I’ll find that scoundrel and make him pay for this!”  

Hearing this, Mother Jiang’s heart sank completely.  

It was over—her daughter’s purity had truly been tainted…  

The next day, as soon as dawn broke, the work broadcast blared to life.  

It was planting season, and anyone capable of labor had to go to the fields to earn work points.  

The Jiang family had taken leave the day before due to their unusual circumstances, but today, the entire household had to pitch in.  

Jiang An’an was no exception.  

With the sun high in the sky, the Jiang family was assigned to a small team to work.  

The whole family toiled away until evening, finally finishing the tasks assigned by the brigade secretary for the day.  

Jiang An’an called the brigade secretary over to inspect their work and record their points.  

After checking, the brigade secretary was quite satisfied and awarded the Jiang family nine points each—out of a possible ten.  

However, Jiang An’an’s sharp eyes caught something unexpected: the work points recorded for her and her family in previous days were only one or two points?!  

According to the original host’s memories, they had worked even harder on those days than they had today. Even if their performance hadn’t been as good, there was no way they should have earned only one or two points!  

Moreover, just the day before yesterday, the brigade secretary had even praised the original host and her family for doing well!  

Jiang An’an stopped the brigade secretary before he could leave.  

“Secretary, what’s going on here? Why were our family’s previous work points so low?!”  

Hearing this, the brigade secretary froze.  

He reopened the work-point ledger and saw that the Jiang family’s previous points really were just one or two…  

“That’s right, Secretary! Didn’t you even say we did well before?!”  

Mother Jiang, standing nearby, turned pale.  

Work points determined how much grain the family would receive at the end of the year—essentially their food supply for nearly the entire year!  

Jiang An’an steadied her trembling mother and stared at the brigade secretary.  

“Secretary, there must be a mistake with these points. There’s no way ours were this low. Even last year, our family’s points weren’t this bad!”  

The original host’s father had gone missing, and Mother Jiang had been in poor health the previous year. With only the original host and her two older brothers working in the fields, their year-end points had been pitifully low. The meager grain they’d received in exchange hadn’t been enough to feed the family.  

In the end, the original host had agreed to an engagement with the village chief’s mentally disabled son just to secure a few bags of grain as a bride price. Otherwise, the whole family would have starved.  

This year, with the entire Jiang family working in the fields, they’d expected to earn more points and secure more grain by year’s end. But now, their points were shockingly low?!  

“Your points really shouldn’t be this low. Wait here—I’ll go fetch the village chief to sort this out!”  

The work-point ledger was usually handed over to the village chief at the end of each day to prevent the brigade secretary from falsifying records to inflate their own family’s points.  

Now that a problem had arisen, the brigade secretary naturally had to call the village chief.  

East Sihe Village, the village chief’s home.  

“Village Chief, are you here? Hurry up and come to the fields with me—there’s an issue with the Jiang family’s work points!”  

The brigade secretary began shouting as soon as he stepped through the gate.  

But it was the village chief’s wife, Zhao Chunmei, who came out.  

“Old Liu is at a meeting. He won’t be back for a while…”  

Zhao Chunmei frowned.  

She had only recently altered the Jiang family’s work points—how had they already been discovered?  

She’d been waiting for Jiang An’an and her family to come begging to her!  

The brigade secretary grew frantic.  

Just then, the village chief returned. Upon hearing about the issue with the work points, he immediately followed the brigade secretary back to the fields.

Zhao Chunmei couldn’t stop them, so she had no choice but to follow along.  

By now, many villagers who had finished their work had gathered around Jiang An’an and her family, asking questions.  

Even though it was the Jiang family’s work points that were in question, who knew if others might have the same problem?  

As soon as the brigade secretary and the village chief arrived, the villagers swarmed them, demanding to see the work-point ledger.  

The village chief was so overwhelmed by the noise that his head throbbed.  

“Let’s settle the Jiang family’s issue first, then I’ll show you the ledger! Don’t worry—from now on, we’ll double-check the recorded work points every day and have a separate person keep another record to ensure fairness!”  

This temporarily calmed the villagers.  

“Jiang An’an, you’re the one who said there’s a problem with the work points, right?”  

The village chief walked up to Jiang An’an.  

Jiang An’an nodded and pointed at her family’s recorded points in the ledger. “Village Chief, look—our family’s points are all just one or two.  

What does one or two points mean? Even the laziest person in Sihe Village earns at least three points a day!  

You’ve seen how hard our family works. Didn’t you even say we were doing well and told everyone to learn from us? How could we possibly have only one or two points?”  

Her tone was neither submissive nor aggressive—just firm and reasonable.  

Mother Jiang and Jiang An’an’s two brothers nodded in agreement. Their initial panic had settled, and they now felt steadied, as if they had a pillar of support.  

“You’re right. The Jiang family’s points really do seem off…”  

The village chief frowned deeply and turned to the brigade secretary. “Old Yang, you’re the one who recorded these points. Why did you give them so few? We can’t play favorites—or target anyone!”  

Hearing this, the brigade secretary nearly choked on his own indignation.  

“Village Chief, this has nothing to do with me! I record the points fairly every day. How would I dare target anyone or falsify records?”  

The previous brigade secretary had been removed precisely because of work-point issues—he wouldn’t dare repeat the same mistake!  

“Jiang An’an, think about it. I usually give your family seven or eight points a day, sometimes even nine or ten. You remember that, right?”  

The brigade secretary was frantic.  

If he were blamed for this, he’d lose his position on the spot.  

Was he an idiot? Why would he stir up trouble like this?!  

Jiang An’an thought for a moment, then nodded.  

“That’s true. I remember the points Secretary Yang recorded for us before—they were never as low as one or two.”  

She had to be fair.  

The brigade secretary had always treated her family decently—he had no reason to target them.  

“Well, besides you, I’m the only one who’s looked at this ledger. And I certainly wouldn’t change the Jiang family’s points for no reason!”  

The village chief wiped sweat from his brow.  

He was swamped with work every day, and these past few days, he’d been tied up in meetings with higher-ups. Now, the moment he returned, this mess erupted. Did anyone really think he’d have time to tamper with work points?  

“This…”  

The brigade secretary was just as confused.  

Zhao Chunmei, who had been standing silently to the side, suddenly spoke up, her eyes darting around.  

She couldn’t let her husband take the blame—but she also couldn’t afford to be suspected herself.  

“Maybe someone else took the ledger when Secretary Yang wasn’t looking and changed the points! Who knows?”  

“Our family hasn’t offended anyone… except…”  

Jiang An’an trailed off, her gaze suddenly locking onto Zhao Chunmei.  

Had the Jiang family angered someone enough for them to go through the trouble of slashing all their work points?  

Aside from Zhao Chunmei, the village chief’s wife, she couldn’t think of anyone else.  

“Could it really be you? Our family’s only recent conflict was with you!”