“Come on, hurry up. Take the tractor and drive faster! You’re about to be dismissed, so you’d better get in good with District Chief Gao. Maybe he’ll assign you to another farm as the director. Go on now,” Sun Xiangnan said, giving Liu Jiefang a push.

Liu Jiefang jogged over to his tractor, which chugged along as it left Mulan Farm.

Just as Huang Huacai and Sun Duoyu were about to shout for him to avoid the nails, he had already driven over them and was far down the road.

Sun Duoyu watched the tractor sputter off the road and onto the sparsely vegetated desert, then yelled, “Mom, my second brother-in-law got lucky—he didn’t get a flat!”

But just as she finished, they heard a loud “pop,” followed by a massive “boom” from the tractor on the desert floor, as the whole front end blew out, and a broken tire flew high into the air.

If Sun Duoyu had spent a few more days in school, she might have understood this as “reaping what you sow.”

The new director arrived at the farm with a group of “cowshed experts” and District Chief Gao.

Instead of entering through the main gate, they went in through the back.

Liu Jiefang limped along, looking rather pitiful—no surprise, given that he was lucky just to survive after his tractor’s tire exploded.

Of all the Sun family’s sons-in-law, he was the most useless; if he hadn’t acted so pitiful, he never would have secured the farm director position in the first place.

On her first day, the new director’s main task was to take over the warehouse and the accounts, as they were the farm’s most crucial assets.

Sun Xiangnan was the warehouse keeper and managed the farm’s finances.

Each year, she handled expenses for seeds, fertilizers, and labor supplies, amounting to at least tens of thousands of yuan.

Managing these accounts required basic math skills.

To prepare for the role, Sun Xiangnan had taken arithmetic lessons at Wumayi Elementary School with her sister Sun Zhuannan’s support.

But her accounts were a mess, entirely dependent on her personal calculations.

Even as she was about to hand over the records, she was busy scribbling and erasing in the ledgers, her abacus clattering.

The more she calculated, the messier the accounts became.

It wasn’t until the new director entered the warehouse that she finally stood up from behind her old counter.

Liu Jiefang shot her a pleading look, urging her to hand the ledgers over to Chen Lina. Reluctantly, she picked up both the key and the account book, finally surrendering them.

Many people were seeing Sun Xiangnan’s full face for the first time today, as she usually stayed hidden behind the tall counter like a shopkeeper in an old pawnshop, with only her chin visible.

It must be said that the Sun family’s daughters were, frankly, unattractive.

“District Chief Gao, please take a look at the account book first. I’m in no hurry to complete the handover,” Chen Lina said.

Since District Chief Gao had entered the farm through the back gate, he hadn’t seen the commotion outside the front gate.

But just from looking at the youths’ appearances and hearing a few words from some of them, he was already quite upset.

Until last year, the farm had been run by Sun Zhuannan, and he had only recently been assigned here himself.

Due to the Sun family’s eldest son’s revolutionary zeal, the district leadership had essentially avoided getting involved with the farm, focusing instead on petroleum production.

In hindsight, he realized how poorly they had treated these idealistic youths, who had come from the city full of passion and dedication to transform the frontier.

But as a district official, he had to stay in his lane.

Since Chen Lina was the new director, he decided to let her take the lead.

After skimming a few pages of the ledger, he said, “This accounting is a mess, Comrade Sun Xiangnan. Didn’t you attend the Red Special School for a year and graduate with honors?

Look at what you’ve written here! A donkey is a donkey—what is a ‘horse-donkey’?

And gloves come in pairs, not by the ‘mouthful.’ And the number ‘8’ below the word—is it missing because you ate it?

This is such sloppy work, I can’t even bear to look at it. Tell me, how do you expect to hand this over to the new director?”

“Leader, that’s exactly how our teachers at the Worker-Peasant-Soldier School taught us. We have red hearts and follow our teachers’ instructions,” Sun Xiangnan retorted.

“Well, here—what is it, 36 feet of homespun fabric, or 360 feet? There are marks all over the page; what on earth is it?” District Chief Gao pointed at the ledger, clearly frustrated.

Even for a “hero’s family,” handling accounts like this was unacceptable.

Chen Lina interjected, “Zhang Huaiwu and Wang Dewu were both major embezzlers, convicted for taking only 360 feet of fabric. The Chairman has said that anyone caught embezzling public property must be severely dealt with, with no exceptions.”

Zhang Huaiwu and Wang Dewu were notorious embezzlers, repeatedly criticized in public reports.

Sun Xiangnan’s face went pale as she heard their names.

Chen Lina didn’t accept the ledger and walked out of the warehouse with District Chief Gao, only to be met with a bucket of coal ash right in the face.

Young and nimble, she dodged it skillfully.

But District Chief Gao wasn’t as fortunate—he was covered in coal dust from head to toe.

“You shameless woman, you’re nothing but a reactionary! You stole my daughter’s child, now you want to steal her job as director!

Why don’t you just take my life, huh? I’m telling you all now: today, I’m going to die here to show you!

The new director Chen Lina is driving a hero’s mother to death. She’s a shameless woman, a reactionary, a Soviet revisionist!” The old woman’s scolding echoed loudly.

By now, practically the whole farm had gathered at the warehouse entrance to witness the scene.

Huang Huacai, a lowly shrew, screamed out insults like she was throwing feces, behaving much like those who fall on the street and blackmail bystanders who try to help, thinking, No matter if it’s true or not, I’ll squash your momentum first.

Unfortunately, she was facing someone like Chen Lina, who could handle both strategic planning and street brawling.

She had never lost and had never been cornered.

Chen Lina broke into a light run, prompting everyone to follow her.

Huang Huacai trailed behind, pointing and cursing.

Then, as they neared the entrance to the Sun family’s dugout, Chen Lina suddenly stopped.

Chen Lina kneeled down to pick up the stale white buns that had been pecked at by the birds—some were rotten, some still edible, and others were just discarded.

She turned around and, with a force similar to raindrops, threw them at the old woman, Huang Huacai.

“Old woman, I know you’re the tyrant of Sunjia Zhai and the most hated figure in this farm, the number one villain among the black seven categories, a local bully.

Others may respect you a little because of Sun Gong’s death, but I won’t, because I know that a hero’s good name must be protected and nurtured.

I won’t allow you, a remnant of the feudal era, the kind of stubborn, old-style land tyrant, to tarnish her reputation.

I won’t say anything else. I just want to ask, why is it that the educated youth and farm workers have to eat cornmeal buns with sweet potato leaves and bean curd skins in them, while people like you from Sunjia Zhai can throw away big white buns?

Didn’t you ever suffer hunger?

Have you forgotten about your four daughters, who died from malnutrition when they couldn’t even pass their stool?

You always sit there, talking about how you couldn’t even defecate in 1958 and 1959, how you had to use a stick to help your body.

These big white buns are the spirits of those ancestors who starved to death, watching you.

Today, I stand here to punish you on behalf of the workers, peasants, and soldiers, and in the name of Sun Gong’s spirit.”

She shouted while throwing the buns, and when the buns were gone, she threw soil clods, becoming entirely like a shrewish woman.

After that, everyone thought she was done, but unexpectedly, she suddenly grabbed a young girl from the crowd, pointed at the girl’s thin Liberation shoes, and knelt down.

Without hesitation, she pulled off the girl’s shoes.

The young girl was from Henan and thought the new leader was trying to take her shoes.

She quickly covered her feet and cried out: “Leader, these are the only shoes I have!”

Huang Huacai, with a hoe on her shoulder, came rushing out: “I am the mother of a hero. I am not afraid of death. What do I have to fear from you, you little slut? Today, I will make sure to deal with you.”

Huang Huacai was determined, even willing to risk her life to fight Chen Lina.

Unexpectedly, she had no time to act.

The younger woman was already on her knees, gesturing towards the girl’s frozen feet in her thin shoes, and spoke with a choked voice: “Look at this girl’s feet, comrades. People from Sunjia Zhai are wearing big, thick cotton shoes, at least one kilogram of cotton each, but the young revolutionary soldiers who came to work in the countryside are walking barefoot, suffering from frostbite because they have no shoes.”

At once, several other young people began to cry, rushing to stand in front of Chen Lina: “We can’t let you bully our respected farm manager.”

“Respected farm manager,” it was indeed quite flattering, and Chen Lina loved hearing such things.

She had always been fond of flattery.

District Director Gao was stunned, and Secretary Xiao Zhang suggested, “Director, maybe we should mediate this. Chen Lina’s behavior is not good for her image; after all, she’s a leader.”

“Prevent what? Yang Zirong pretended to be a bandit to fight Zuo Shan Diao. He has performed all sorts of tricks.

To defeat a local bully, you must have the cunning of a bandit.

I was worried that Chen Lina wouldn’t be able to handle the farm manager, but now it’s clear—this farm manager is perfect for her,” said District Director Gao, itching from the coal dust on his head.

“Down with Sunjia Zhai! Punish the local tyrants!” someone in the crowd shouted.

Immediately, everyone joined in: “Down with Sunjia Zhai! Punish the local tyrants! Defend Sun Gong’s spirit!”

Just like that, the battle of words turned into a physical confrontation.

The old woman, who was used to bullying people, never expected to be so thoroughly attacked.

But Chen Lina wasn’t finished.

She suddenly stood up and shouted again: “Everyone, do you know that this old woman is not just a local tyrant, but she’s also been withholding the children’s support money, the allowance meant for the kids from the mining district?

Instead of using the money for milk powder to nourish the children’s health, or for cotton to make them shoes, she has kept it for herself as savings. She’s just like the landlady from the old society—nothing but a leech.”

“I now stand here to demand on behalf of Sun Gong and the three children: give me the children’s support money!”

Her words hit hard, causing Huang Huacai to gasp for breath and collapse onto the ground.

It was like the final scene in a model drama where the villain is cornered by the people.

---

As the scene unfolded, Chen Lina was returning to her children at the base, where they waited anxiously for their mother to return and cook.

Her children were used to her quick thinking and strong actions.