With those words, how could Jiang An’an not understand what was being implied?  

So Zhao Chunmei was still hung up on this matter!  

It seemed that the issue with the work-point ledger was just her excuse to pressure Jiang An’an into marrying her brother…  

Why was she so insistent?  

Something was fishy here!  

“Is your brother that desperate for a wife? Does it have to be me?” Her tone carried a hint of probing.  

Zhao Chunmei’s heart skipped a beat. She wanted to force Jiang An’an to marry her brother, but she was also afraid Jiang An’an might remember something. A flash of guilt crossed her eyes, and her voice suddenly grew louder, “I was only thinking of your Jiang family’s good! Fine! If my kindness is repaid with ingratitude, then why bother begging me for help!”  

With that, she shook off Mother Jiang’s hand.  

“Chunmei, please listen to us—” Mother Jiang tried to plead again, but her daughter held her back. “Mom, forget it. Zhao Chunmei never intended to help us in the first place.”  

Hearing this, Mother Jiang sighed.  

Of course, she knew. But what else could they do? The work points were messed up, and she wasn’t familiar with the brigade secretary. At this point, aside from begging Zhao Chunmei, the village chief’s wife, who else could they turn to?  

Zhao Chunmei, upon hearing Jiang An’an’s words, flared up in anger.  

How had she never noticed before how difficult this girl was to deal with? So all that meek and obedient demeanor earlier had just been an act?  

Fine! Then she’d just have to see what Jiang An’an could possibly do to fix the work points without begging her for help!  

With a final “Don’t come crying to me later,” Zhao Chunmei stormed off.  

Watching Zhao Chunmei leave, Mother Jiang felt even more helpless.  

Her eldest daughter-in-law stood with her head bowed, while her two sons remained silent, their faces gloomy.  

Mother Jiang sighed. Was there really no one in this family who could step up?  

But at that moment, Jiang An’an took her hand. “Mom, don’t worry. I can think of a way. Our work points—I’ll make sure they correct every single one of them!” Her voice was quiet but firm.  

Mother Jiang paused but said nothing.  

Work points were a serious matter. Even after all her pleading, there’d been no solution. Her daughter was only eighteen—what could she possibly do?  

Then, suddenly, Mother Jiang’s expression changed. She clutched her daughter’s hand tightly. “An’an, back then, when you were engaged to the village chief’s foolish son, Mom already failed you. Now, you can’t throw away the rest of your life for this!”  

The only thing she could think of was that her foolish daughter might go back to Zhao Chunmei and agree to the marriage.  

Jiang An’an understood her mother’s misunderstanding.  

There was no way she’d marry Zhao Chunmei’s brother—some old man. But for now, she didn’t know how to explain, so she could only silently comfort Mother Jiang.  

To Mother Jiang, however, her daughter’s silence only confirmed her fears. Worried sick, she couldn’t sleep all night. Early the next morning, before dawn, she got up, intending to go to the village chief’s house and beg again. But just as she stepped out, she ran into Jiang An’an, who was planning to sneak into the city to sell some goods from her spatial warehouse…  

The two locked eyes, both looking guilty.  

“Mom, why are you up so early?” Jiang An’an took the initiative, hoping to avoid her mother’s questions.  

“I was just going to the outhouse…” Mother Jiang replied softly.  

But as soon as she said it, it struck her—why was her daughter up so early too?  

With the family in crisis, the only possibility was that the girl was also heading to the village chief’s house to beg Zhao Chunmei!  

Her heart clenched.  

She couldn’t let her daughter suffer this humiliation!  

“An’an, Mom suddenly feels a bit dizzy. Help me back inside to lie down.”

Mother Jiang quickly came up with an excuse, thinking to keep her daughter at home to prevent her from going out.  

Seeing this, Jiang An’an had no choice but to temporarily shelve her plan to go into town to sell goods.  

Mother and daughter exchanged glances, enduring the awkwardness until the work bell finally rang, and they could leave the house.  

Along the way, Mother Jiang hesitated, trying to think of an excuse to go plead with Zhao Chunmei again. But for some reason, her daughter kept a close eye on her the entire time.  

In truth, Jiang An’an was worried about her mother’s health. She had already fainted once yesterday—if it happened again today, it would be troublesome, especially since she had a big show to put on.  

She had even suggested that Mother Jiang take the day off, but how could her mother rest? With the previous work-point discrepancy, if they didn’t work hard now, the family would receive even fewer rations at the end of the year.  

Behind them, the Jiang brothers trudged along, dejected and unsure what to do. They were strong and capable workers, but when it came to speaking up, they were hopeless. They knew the work points had been tampered with, but they had no idea how to argue their case.  

Especially the eldest son, Jiang Dazhuang. His wife had just gotten pregnant, and with the work points messed up like this, how were they supposed to support their growing family?  

A few villagers passing by noticed the gloomy atmosphere around the Jiang family, but none of them stopped to talk.  

What could they even say?  

The Jiangs’ situation was clearly the result of offending someone. People were afraid of getting dragged into trouble, so they kept their distance.  

At work that day, the brigade secretary assigned tasks by household and quickly left after handing out the assignments. For some reason, he felt uneasy whenever he saw Jiang An’an—her gaze seemed to pierce right through him.  

Jiang An’an ignored him and focused on working alongside her family.  

By mid-afternoon, they had finished their tasks as usual and called the brigade secretary over to record their work points.  

Seeing that she wasn’t making a scene, the brigade secretary relaxed and, out of guilt, gave the Jiang family a full ten work points.  

Jiang An’an said nothing, but her eyes flicked to the left page of the ledger, where the work points of the village chief’s elder brother’s family—the ones who had backed Zhao Chunmei yesterday—were recorded.  

In the original host’s memories, this family was notorious for slacking off. They rarely completed their assigned tasks and at best earned three or four work points a day. Yet, in the ledger, they were consistently given full marks!  

But now wasn’t the time to make a fuss.  

Yesterday, she had realized that her family alone raising a stink wouldn’t achieve anything. Only by rallying more people to their cause could they hope to resolve the work-point issue.  

So, she had temporarily backed down—partly for Mother Jiang’s health, but mostly to confirm whether the village chief’s brother’s family’s work points were indeed falsified.  

And sure enough, her suspicions were correct.  

Now that the evidence was right in front of her, how could she not make full use of it?  

As the brigade secretary closed the ledger, he couldn’t help but mutter, “About the work points… I really don’t know what happened…”  

He wanted to explain that it wasn’t his fault, that he was just trying to keep his job. But Jiang An’an had no interest in listening. She turned and walked away, heading straight for her target—Auntie Liu, the village’s biggest gossip.  

“Auntie Liu, busy with work? Let me help you!”  

With that, Jiang An’an immediately started assisting.  

Auntie Liu was overjoyed. Who wouldn’t want free help? She pretended to refuse at first, but her actions spoke otherwise as she happily made space for Jiang An’an. Then, she casually brought up, “So… about your family’s work points…”  

Before she could finish, Jiang An’an seized the opportunity, swinging her hoe as she replied, “Auntie Liu, honestly, I’ve accepted what happened to our family’s work points. But what really bothers me is how the village chief’s brother’s family can slack off every day and still get full marks!”  

Auntie Liu froze.  

Full work points?!