Interstellar to 80s: A Scientist's Farming Mission

An Ning dutifully attended class, where she answered two questions the teacher deliberately posed to her.

After those two questions, the teacher left An Ning alone, no longer caring whether she was listening or not.

Her first class of the morning ended. An Ning had another class in the afternoon, but with nothing to do for now, she decided to head back to her dorm.

Just as An Ning reached her dorm room and was about to open the door, it was pulled open from the inside.

”An Ning? You’re back.”

”Where else would I go?”

An Ning stepped past Luo Li into the room. Luo Li, who had been on her way out, tilted her head, then turned and followed her back inside.

”I thought I’d scared you away.”

”Luo Li, didn’t you go to class yesterday?”

”Yesterday... I did. Why? What’s wrong?”

Luo Li genuinely had no idea what had happened. She had just gotten back and had tuned out all the campus gossip.

”You’ll find out in class today. And I’m not leaving.”

An Ning gathered her things into a shower caddy, grabbed a change of clothes, and got ready to go take a shower.

”Alright.”

Luo Li didn’t dwell on it. She figured she’d find out soon enough.

She turned to leave again, but paused at the door and looked back. ”I’m going to buy a bike. Want to come?”

”A bike?”

”Yeah. A lot of the academic buildings are really far apart, so having a bike is super convenient. Haven’t you noticed how many of the upperclassmen ride them?”

Now that Luo Li mentioned it, An Ning recalled that she had seen that. It was true.

”Where are you going to buy one?”

”Some of the seniors specialize in selling used bikes, old textbooks, and that sort of thing. I was planning to go check it out. You in?”

Having gathered her things, An Ning headed out with her shower caddy. ”Just give me the address. I’ll go after my shower.”

”In that case, I’ll go shower too! I can even scrub your back for you.”

Completely unreserved, Luo Li nimbly packed her own caddy and fell into step beside An Ning, chattering away. ”I heard that showering together is the best way to bond!”

”Are you sure that doesn’t apply to a man and a woman?”

An Ning’s unexpectedly provocative question made Luo Li’s eyes light up, as if she’d found a kindred spirit.

”So you think so too, huh?”

”No.”

An Ning immediately refused. She had a premonition that if she admitted it, the topics of conversation in their dorm would get completely out of control from now on.

Unfortunately for her, she was with Luo Li, who could get chummy with anyone.

”It’s fine, it’s fine! I get it, I totally get it. We’ll talk about it when we get back.”

Luo Li kept giving An Ning meaningful looks, which made An Ning want to laugh, but she remained silent.

An Ning might have been quiet, but Luo Li loved to talk.

”So, let me tell you, we only had one class yesterday. I went straight home afterward since my family doesn’t live too far from here.”

”And get this—my dad got this machine from overseas called a gene-sequencing instrument. They’re all the rage abroad. He spent all of his personal savings on it, and now he’s so broke he can’t even afford to buy shoe insoles.”

As Luo Li chattered on, An Ning suddenly cut her off. ”You said your family has a gene-sequencing machine?”

”Yeah! You know about them?”

Luo Li was just rambling, so she was surprised that An Ning actually knew what she was talking about.

An Ning knew more than just a little about them. ’Back in the interstellar era,’ she thought, ’genes *were* a person’s ID. No other assigned number was reliable; only a person’s genetic sequence was their one true proof of identity.’

’In fact, she herself was a product of genetic engineering.’

An Ning nodded but didn’t press the matter.

But Luo Li was sharp. She asked, ”You want to use it?”

Looking as though she’d just stumbled upon the secret of the century, Luo Li leaned in close to An Ning and whispered, ”Do you suspect your dad isn’t your real dad, or that your mom isn’t your real mom?”

”Neither.”

”What? Neither of them are? Oh, you poor thing.”

Luo Li had, of course, completely misunderstood her. Exasperated, An Ning had to explain, ”That’s not what I meant. I’m my parents’ biological daughter. I don’t need to use it on them.”

”Ohhh—you scared me to death.”

Now that she understood, Luo Li didn’t agree outright, but she did say she’d go home and ask her dad.

”You know, my family life is pretty... weird. How can I put it? It’s hard to explain. Let me ask him, and then I’ll invite you over. You’ll understand once you see it.”

”Thank you, Luo Li.”

”Don’t mention it.”

The two entered the public bathhouse together. It was An Ning’s first time experiencing a communal shower, baring it all with a group of people and scrubbing each other’s backs.

’How should I describe it?’

’It was a novel experience.’

When the two of them came out, Luo Li was leaning back stiffly, wincing and sucking air through her teeth, rendered speechless.

”Sorry, I’m not very experienced. That was my first time.”

An Ning apologized, but Luo Li waved her hand magnanimously like a martial hero. ”No, no, it’s fine! You’ve got some serious strength in those hands. I’m telling you, if I ever need to take apart a skeleton, I’m calling you. You’d do a beautiful job.”

Luo Li said this with a look of genuine longing on her face—the same Luo Li who dreamed of disassembling human bodies.

The two of them dropped their things back at the dorm, washed and hung up their clothes to dry, and then headed out together to the place Luo Li had mentioned for buying bikes.

By noon, they each had a new bike and had also picked up a considerable number of books.

Luo Li rode alongside An Ning, eyeing the stack of books tied to her friend’s rear rack. ”Aren’t you a math major?” she asked, confused. ”Why are you buying law and computer science books?”

”Law to protect myself, and computer science to keep up with the current state of technology.”

Luo Li sighed. ”We really are worlds apart. I can’t get into anything besides medicine. The second I try to read anything else, I get sleepy.”

”You have no idea. Back in high school, I used to read all my surgery textbooks in the dissection lab.”

Chatting the whole way, they dropped the books off at their dorm. Since they both had class that afternoon, they parted ways.

It was then that Luo Li finally understood what An Ning had been talking about. Turns out, a lot of drama had gone down while she was out of the loop.

But compared to yesterday, the campus today was at the opposite extreme—it was completely quiet.

It was as if yesterday’s uproar had been an illusion, like the moon’s reflection in water or a flower in a mirror—not real at all.

With An Ning, the other main party involved besides Jiang Xia, attending class so quietly, many students were left wondering, ’Is it all over?’

So, where on earth was this mysterious Jiang Xia?

In a place unknown to anyone, Jiang Xia was busy plotting to deal Jiang Dongcheng a heavy blow.

That night, five different newspaper offices received a notice—one that they were required to publish.

All five newspapers agreed to run it, now only waiting for the morrow.

The next morning, many of the people who had read yesterday’s paper immediately grabbed a copy of the day’s edition, eager to see the follow-up.

Sure enough, it was the headline again, only this time, the party that had placed the article was different.

”System Error... Scores for Jiang Xia and Jiang Xia... Mistakenly Swapped. Now Corrected.”

In her dorm, An Ning read the article published by Xiao Yan.

’The headline’s no good,’ she thought. ’Should’ve been ”Jiang Xia and Jiang Xia: Can You Even Tell Them Apart?”’

RUSTLE. She folded the newspaper and took a sip of the soy milk in her cup.

’It should be about time,’ she thought.