“Alright, everyone, let’s all calm down for now and focus on today’s work. I’ll definitely give you all an explanation in the next few days, okay?”  

The village chief tried to pacify the crowd.  

But how could Jiang An’an let this go so easily? The show had only just begun!  

“Chief, discrepancies in work points are a serious matter. Shouldn’t this be investigated immediately?”  

As she spoke, Jiang An’an casually glanced at Zhao Chunmei.  

Zhao Chunmei caught her gaze instantly. It was her! So this whole mess was Jiang An’an’s doing after all!  

She had truly underestimated Jiang An’an!  

“What’s there to investigate? This is clearly just a clerical error by the brigade secretary. Just correct it and be done with it. Overthinking things won’t help—harvest season is the priority. If we delay the harvest and our village can’t deliver the grain, what then?”  

Zhao Chunmei shouted, her voice loud despite her guilt.  

The villagers were momentarily swayed.  

Right… delivering the grain quota was the most important task every year…  

But just then, Jiang An’an suddenly spoke up.  

“Then are everyone’s work points not important too? Work points determine how much grain we get at the end of the year! Are we just going to let those who exploit loopholes eat their fill every year while the hardworking folks go hungry?”  

As she said this, she pushed Auntie Liu forward.  

“Look at Auntie Liu—she’s already so old, yet she works hard every day. After all that effort, she still can’t eat her fill by year’s end. Is that fair?”  

Auntie Liu, now in the spotlight, felt tears welling up in her eyes.  

That’s right! Sure, she slacked off occasionally, but she still put in honest work. It was tough!  

The other villagers were moved too.  

In these times, no family had surplus grain, and with so many children to feed, a single household could devour a whole cow’s worth of food in a day if they ate freely. Who ever really had enough to eat?  

“That’s right! The girl from the Jiang family is speaking sense. Should we just resign ourselves to going hungry? This needs to be set right!”  

Seeing the crowd grow agitated, the village chief broke out in a cold sweat. Who on earth had brought this trouble upon him?  

Zhao Chunmei was frantic too. She wished she could tear Jiang An’an apart right then and there. The girl seemed so meek—who knew she could stir up such chaos!  

But Jiang An’an had no intention of stopping. Before Zhao Chunmei could speak again, she cut in:  

“Chief, if you don’t give everyone justice today, we’ll have no choice but to take this to the commune leaders!”  

“That’s right! Let’s go to the commune!”  

“To the commune!”  

The villagers now rallied behind Jiang An’an. This girl truly cared about them—following her lead was the right call!  

Go to the commune?!  

The village chief and his wife turned pale.  

Before they could say anything, the brigade secretary cried out in panic:  

“No, you can’t go! You mustn’t!”  

If the work-point ledger issue reached the commune, he, Yang Aijun, would be the first to lose his position!  

“Chief, you’d better give them an answer now!”  

He looked on the verge of tears.  

Hearing this, the village chief nearly spat blood. Why did it sound like he was the one who’d tampered with the ledger? He knew nothing about it!  

He turned to glare at his elder brother, Liu Quanwang, but before he could even ask, Liu Quanwang was already shaking his head frantically, denying any involvement.  

Gritting his teeth, the village chief swore that once he found out who had messed with the ledger, he’d beat them so badly they wouldn’t be able to get out of bed for a month!  

He took a deep breath, steadying himself.  

“Fine, no need to panic. We’ll settle the work-point issue today. Liu Quanwang family’s points will all be adjusted to three per day. Is that fair enough?”  

Even after the village chief’s declaration, the villagers still weren’t fully satisfied.

Just lowering Liu Quanwang’s work points? They still felt their own were too low—shouldn’t they be raised instead?  

But no one here had worked particularly hard, so there was no justification for it…  

At this thought, three words suddenly popped into everyone’s minds—  

The Jiang family!  

That’s right! The Jiang family was the hardest-working household in Sihe Village!  

Auntie Liu was the quickest to react. She immediately pulled Jiang An’an to the front.  

“Chief, it’s not just the Liu family’s work points that are wrong—ours must be too! Look at the Jiang family—they work so hard, yet they only get one or two points. That’s just not right!”  

As soon as she said this, the other villagers chimed in.  

Using the Jiang family’s unfairly low work points as a starting point, everyone began arguing about how they’d worked extra hard on certain days but still received meager points, stirring up chaos.  

The village chief felt his head pounding. He had no choice but to pull the brigade secretary aside.  

“Don’t worry, everyone. If anyone has concerns, just talk to our brigade secretary. We’ll make sure all the work points are corrected today! Lao Yang, hurry up and adjust the Jiang family’s points first to put everyone at ease!”  

The brigade secretary sighed and obediently got to work.  

Once the Jiang family’s work points were adjusted, Jiang An’an slipped out of the crowd—it had been so packed she could barely breathe.  

Outside, she spotted the original host’s family standing not far away, their eyes swollen as if they’d just been crying.  

“An’an, you’re such a good child…”  

Mother Jiang burst into tears, finally feeling like their family had a pillar of support. It was as if this child had suddenly grown up overnight. Overwhelmed, she wept openly.  

The two brothers also choked up as they looked at their younger sister. They knew their family’s work points had been corrected thanks to her, but their mouths were too clumsy—they couldn’t even muster a proper word of thanks.  

The elder sister-in-law was already a tearful mess. Just last night, she’d been thinking that if the family really couldn’t get enough grain by year’s end, she’d have to abort the baby—to avoid being unable to work the fields while needing extra food. But how could she bear to do that?  

None of them had expected that An’an would solve the problem so effortlessly. How did her brain even work?  

Jiang An’an smiled.  

In her past life, she’d been an orphan and never experienced familial love. Now, watching everyone cry together, she felt a faint stirring in her heart—was this what it felt like to have a family?  

As she left, she glanced at Zhao Chunmei out of the corner of her eye.  

Just as she’d expected, Zhao Chunmei was glaring at her, her eyes practically spelling out the words “You just wait.”  

Jiang An’an merely raised an eyebrow and walked away with Mother Jiang.  

Right now, she just wanted to figure out who had drugged and stalked the original host, and… sell off the supplies in the warehouse. With the current diet and workload, combined with the original host’s malnourished body, she probably wouldn’t last long otherwise.  

She’d have to make another trip to town tomorrow afternoon!  

As soon as she sat down after returning home, the original host’s two brothers suddenly loomed in front of her, nearly scaring her to death.  

“What’s wrong?”  

Before she could finish speaking, Jiang Dazhuang and his brother each pulled out several earthworms from their pockets.  

“An’an, eat!”  

These were what they usually dug up in the fields. When they were starving, these were all they had to stave off hunger, and they weren’t easy to find. Today, they’d saved them all for their sister.  

If not for her, their family’s work points wouldn’t have been corrected.  

They had nothing else to give—only these.  

Jiang An’an jumped up in fright.  

“N-no thanks, Big Brother, Second Brother… I’m not hungry. You eat them…”  

Too terrifying. Right now, even the dry, throat-scraping cornbread at home seemed like a gourmet delicacy in comparison.  

Meanwhile, as soon as the village chief returned home with Zhao Chunmei, he shut the door behind them, his face dark.  

“Did you tamper with the work-point ledger?”