“Comrade, what are you doing here?!”

Hearing the voice, Jiang An’an turned her head and saw a man dressed in a Zhongshan suit.

Oh no, oh no—could he be here to catch her for illegal trading?

Jiang An’an couldn’t even bother with the few pairs of socks she hadn’t sold yet; she turned and bolted.

After running several hundred meters, she glanced back and saw no one chasing her, only then did she stop.

Panting heavily.

In these times, illegal trading was a serious crime.

This business was too risky—next time she’d need to find a more hidden place.

But harvesting six jin of rice still counted as quite a fruitful trip.

After all the fuss, it was only a little past four in the afternoon.

Worried that the road would be difficult to walk after dark, Jiang An’an quickly prepared to head home.

On her way back, she passed the weedy field again and thought of the man she had glimpsed earlier today.

She didn’t think she had been seeing things.

And if the original host’s memory wasn’t wrong, the man who had once tried to drug her on the mountain to take advantage of her… his build looked somewhat similar to this man she saw today.

That mountain lay between Sihe Village and Dashitou Village. Most likely, that man came from one of those two villages.

If the person who appeared today really was him—what did he want?

Last time he had failed. This time…

Jiang An’an furrowed her brows tightly.

It seemed she had to think of a way to find out who that person was.

By the time she got home, it was already six o’clock. Jiang An’an had just sat down when the Jiang family returned.

“An’an, nothing happened to you, right?”

Mother Jiang entered the door and, seeing her eldest daughter, was worried sick.

“I’m fine. I sold everything, and I even brought back six jin of rice.”

As for the other incidents, she didn’t mention them—saying it would only make everyone worry needlessly.

“Six… six jin of rice?”

Mother Jiang thought she had misheard.

“Yeah, it’s right there.”

Jiang An’an pointed at the six jin of rice sitting in the basket on the table.

At this moment, the brothers also walked in. They had been exhausted and lifeless, but when they saw the bag of rice on the table, their eyes instantly widened, staring in disbelief.

“Mom, am I… am I seeing things? Where did our family get rice from?” Jiang Dazhuang stammered.

“You’re not seeing things.”

Mother Jiang snapped back to her senses, walked over to the table, and scooped up a handful of rice.

“Your sister got it.”

Hearing that, Jiang Dazhuang’s face, which had just been full of delight, suddenly darkened.

“An’an, return this rice to them. I’ll go borrow some grain from the Yang family!”

After saying that, he turned to leave.

“Brother, where are you going?” Jiang An’an was puzzled.

“I know you must have gone to the village chief’s wife again. Don’t worry, An’an, you don’t have to worry about food at home. Yesterday, Old Yang said if I helped him with some work, he’d give me some grain. We’ll just ask for an advance today.”

Jiang Dazhuang blurted it all out in one breath.

Last time, his sister had accepted the marriage to the village chief’s foolish son just to get some food. He had been heartbroken when he found out. This time, he absolutely wouldn’t let her sacrifice herself again.

“Brother, you’re overthinking. This isn’t grain from the village chief’s wife—it’s rice I exchanged for in the city.”

Jiang An’an explained helplessly.

“The city?”

Both Jiang Dazhuang and his younger brother turned to look at her at the same time.

Jiang An’an had no choice but to trot out the excuse again—that she had caught some wild fish from the river and traded them with people in the city for food.

“Mom, is she telling the truth?”

Jiang Dazhuang still found it a little hard to believe.

But when he thought about how last time his sister had managed to bring back two sacks of brown rice, he felt it wasn’t entirely impossible.

His gaze fixed on Jiang An’an. Since when had his sister become so… different?

Her appearance hadn’t changed, but it felt as though she had turned into an entirely different person.

Catching that probing look, Jiang An’an’s heart skipped a beat. Oh no—could her eldest brother have noticed something?

“Brother, hurry up and cook, I’m starving!”

Jiang An’an quickly changed the subject.

“Oh… alright! I’ll get to it right now!”

Cooking at home was usually the job of the two Jiang brothers.

Jiang Dazhuang stopped thinking about it. If his sister had skills and was capable now, he was genuinely happy for her. Taking the rice, he went straight into the kitchen.

Jiang Xiaoqiang hurried to follow and help.

“An’an, nothing really happened to you today, right?”

Once the house was quiet with just the two of them, Mother Jiang couldn’t help but ask.

When she had been working in the fields at noon, she had felt a sudden spell of panic.

The last time she had felt that way was when her eldest daughter had gotten into trouble on the mountain.

“Really, nothing happened, Mom. You’re overthinking. See? I came back safe and sound, didn’t I?”

Jiang An’an grinned cheekily.

Seeing her like this, Mother Jiang had no choice but to drop the matter.

“Where did these socks come from?”

Out of nowhere, Mother Jiang noticed several pairs of socks in the basket.

Hearing this, Jiang An’an froze.

Crap, she had forgotten to hide the leftover socks.

“These are…”

Her mind raced.

“These are from a friend of mine in the city!”

“Socks aren’t cheap, and with patterns this complicated, they must cost at least two or three yuan a pair, right? What kind of friend is this, giving you something so expensive?”

Mother Jiang might not have been worldly, but the older you get, the sharper your instincts become. She wasn’t a fool—she knew what was valuable.

And socks, at that time, were a scarce commodity. Even some city folk couldn’t get their hands on them. How could anyone so casually give them to her daughter?

What she feared most now was that her daughter was being deceived by someone.

“An’an, be honest with me. Who gave you these socks, and why?”

Mother Jiang sat down beside her.

Seeing her mother wasn’t easy to fool, Jiang An’an frowned slightly and finally whispered:

“Mom, actually, I didn’t catch fish in the river to trade for grain. I went to the city to help someone sell goods. These socks are what they asked me to sell. Since I did well today, they just gave me a few pairs.”

“Selling goods?!”

Mother Jiang sucked in a sharp breath and cautiously glanced outside.

“An’an, how could you be so bold? Buying and reselling like that—you could be arrested!”

“Mom, the South is already starting the reform and opening-up, and they’re even talking about self-employed households. I think it won’t be long before it reaches Hecheng. Don’t be scared, it’ll be fine.”

Jiang An’an tried to explain.

But Mother Jiang clearly didn’t believe her.

Before, someone from the village had gone to the city to resell goods. In the end, he had been arrested—and hadn’t come back since!

“No, you can’t keep doing this. It’s too dangerous!”

Mother Jiang’s tone was firm.

Jiang An’an wanted to argue, but Mother Jiang stood up with a sigh and said, “An’an, listen to your mother. I’ve lived through it all…”

Seeing this, Jiang An’an could only fall silent.

Meanwhile, in the city, Zhao Chunmei held her swollen, bruised eye, her teeth grinding furiously.

It had to be Jiang An’an who deliberately set her up. Otherwise, how could it have been such a coincidence?

Just wait. Tomorrow she would make Jiang An’an kneel and beg her!