Interstellar to 80s: A Scientist's Farming Mission

Her hair was matted with sweat, her face streaked with undried tears. Her eyes were wide with terror and fear. The fabric over her knee was torn, faintly showing bloodstains. But the most shocking sight of all was the wound on Lin Cuihua’s forehead.

The location of the wound, the force it must have taken... it made An Ning want to turn right around and kick that scammer one more time.

”Mom—”

”Ning’er! How are you? Are you okay?”

”You scared me to death! That damned bastard, he insisted you were in a car accident and on the verge of death.”

”I didn’t have any money, and they wouldn’t save you!”

Lin Cuihua clung to An Ning, sobbing, the fear in her heart slowly melting away.

For a mother, there was no greater fear than something happening to her child.

An Ning held her mother, a cold light glinting in her eyes. ’I let them off too lightly.’

An invisible wave of spiritual power shot out, ensuring that from this day forward, every one of those people would suffer a heart-wrenching agony.

Family was, and always would be, the one line that could not be crossed.

”Mom, I’m fine. They’re scammers. Look, the police are here. They’ve arrested them.”

An Ning gently patted her mother’s back. Lin Cuihua, panting for breath, glared furiously at the people being led away.

Her eyes darted around before she yanked off one of her shoes, lunged at one of the scammers, and started whacking him with it.

”You son of a bitch! My daughter is perfectly fine! How dare you curse her! How dare you!”

”You’re the ones who are gonna die in a car crash! I curse your ancestors for eight generations!”

As Lin Cuihua struck him, the man clutched his chest, collapsed to the ground, and began to writhe in pain.

One of the police officers shouted impatiently, ”Get up! She’s hitting your back, why is your front hurting?”

”Stop faking it!”

But the man’s pained expression looked too real to be an act. The officer reached down to help him up, and at that very moment, the man’s pain vanished.

Seeing the man’s suddenly relaxed expression, the officer pulled back his hand and, SMACK, slapped his own face.

”What the hell? I can’t believe I fell for a scammer’s act!”

An Ning, who had been watching from the side, pulled Lin Cuihua back. She knelt down to put the shoe back on her mother’s foot, a secret light glowing in her downcast eyes.

’From now on, whenever he harbors malicious intent or evil thoughts, he will be seized by an unbearable pain in his heart.’

’Who knew the combination of Feng Shui and spiritual power could be so effective?’

After putting the shoe on, An Ning turned and squatted down in front of her mother. ”Mom, I’ll carry you home.”

”Carry me? Don’t be silly, I can walk on my own.”

Lin Cuihua used An Ning for support to stand up, but An Ning wouldn’t have it. Ignoring her mother’s protests, she hoisted her onto her back.

”Hey—put me down! This is so embarrassing.”

Lin Cuihua didn’t want An Ning to be embarrassed. In her eyes, An Ning was an important person now; she shouldn’t be doing things like this.

”Mom, you have a choice: I can carry you on my back, or I can carry you in my arms. You know I can.”

An Ning wasn’t about to argue. She just gave a simple choice, which made Lin Cuihua settle down on her back and fall silent.

’Carried in her arms? No, thank you.’

An Ning smiled smugly. ”Being filial is a virtue,” she said softly. ”Who would dare laugh? And anyone who does isn’t worth knowing anyway.”

On her back, Lin Cuihua’s body relaxed. She self-consciously wiped the corner of her eye with one hand and let her daughter carry her.

An Ning carried Lin Cuihua to a sedan, which Director Hu himself had driven over.

The two of them first went to the police station. After they had answered all the questions, Director Hu drove them back.

When the car pulled up to the dormitory building, Wei Hong was waiting at the entrance. She bowed deeply to An Ning and her mother in apology.

”I’m sorry. It’s my fault.”

Wei Hong’s job was to look after An Ning and her mother, yet something like this had happened on her watch.

”It’s not your fault. My mom is an adult, and the scammers were very sophisticated.”

An Ning didn’t blame Wei Hong. Still carrying her mother, she listened as Lin Cuihua also offered comfort. ”Wei Hong, it’s not your fault. This old aunty just got too worried. The moment they called, I panicked.”

”It has nothing to do with you, so don’t take it to heart.”

Lin Cuihua’s comforting words only made Wei Hong feel more embarrassed. She resolved to do better in the future.

Director Hu, who was standing nearby, also stepped forward to apologize to An Ning for what felt like the dozenth time.

”An Ning, this was a lapse on our factory’s part. I’m sorry.”

An Ning paused and looked back at the two of them. ”Let’s not talk about it anymore. We won, didn’t we?”

”That’s right, that’s right! Those people will all die horrible deaths,” Lin Cuihua chimed in resentfully, and An Ning nodded in agreement.

The mother and daughter entered the dormitory building. Director Hu and Wei Hong spoke outside for a while before Wei Hong ran inside after them.

Inside the dorm room, Lin Cuihua changed her clothes. Her wound had already been treated at the police station.

”Mom, just rest well at home for the next couple of days. I’ll be back every day. It was my fault, too. I get so caught up in my work that I neglect everything else.”

”What are you talking about? You’re so good at lecturing others, but you can’t seem to take your own advice.”

Lin Cuihua leaned back on the sofa and looked at her knee. ”This is nothing. Back home, if I got a little scrape, I’d just rub some ash on it and be done with it. You’re the only one making a fuss.”

An Ning didn’t argue, simply handing the remote control to her mother.

”Where’s Xiao Lan?”

An Ning, who had already turned away, froze.

’Holy shit! I forgot about the hidden little big shot!’

”Mom, Xiao Lan is at a neighbor’s. I’ll go check on him. You just watch some TV.”

An Ning’s pace was a little hurried, but Lin Cuihua didn’t notice. She had no idea that when she had rushed out in a panic, Xiao Lan had secretly followed her.

As An Ning left, she ran into Wei Hong coming up the stairs. She told Wei Hong to look after Lin Cuihua, receiving a vow that was just short of being sworn on Wei Hong’s life.

An Ning nodded urgently and began retracing her mother’s steps in her mind.

’Lin Cuihua’s phone number must have been leaked; they were targeted. She got the call from the scammers in the dorm, telling her I’d been in a car accident.’

’Lin Cuihua ran out in a panic. Xiao Lang followed her, but his legs are so short, he could have easily gotten lost.’

’Lin Cuihua went out the main gate and ran right into the scammers staging the fake accident. They had a beat-up car, and one of them, who had a similar build to me, was made up to look like a bloody mess from being hit.’

’She never even saw the fake ”An Ning’s” face; she just saw that the clothes were the same as mine and immediately believed them.’

’So, Mom followed the scammers to a ”hospital.” They entered through the main doors of a real hospital, but after leading her through a winding path, they ended up outside again in a makeshift emergency room where they played out their scam.’

’Mom didn’t have any money, so she knelt and begged them. The scammers had an even better idea: scamming both sides. If they could squeeze some money out of her, too, all the better.’

’Even if they got nothing from her, they still had me as a target.’

’Their main goal was to keep her trapped. That way, when I couldn’t find her, I’d get desperate and hand over the money.’

’And as long as the fake ”An Ning” was supposedly undergoing emergency treatment, my mother would never leave.’

’Even when the police arrived at the address I gave them, Mom still didn’t believe it. She even pushed them away, screaming at them not to delay her daughter’s rescue.’

An Ning’s thoughts came to a halt. She unleashed her spiritual power, sending it out along her mother’s route to search for Xiao Lang.