Shili Gou Village, Committee Office.

BANG!

"What the hell! Those little bastards! How dare they pull this shit!"

"If I don’t beat the shit out of them, I’ll take their damn family name!"

An Ning stood quietly at the entrance of the committee office, watching the fuming Accountant Liu.

Beside him, Sun Dazhuang made no attempt to calm him down. Instead, he was pacing the room, a broom in his left hand and a wrench in his right, weighing them back and forth.

CLANG! The broom was tossed to the ground. The wrench was the victor.

The Women’s Director, who had been knitting behind her desk, wielded a knitting needle like a martial arts master, a murderous glint in her eyes.

"That damn girl, she didn’t even come home and tell me."

"How many times have I told her? If any boys bully her, she should beat the hell out of them for me. I didn’t name her ’Sheng Nan’ for nothing."

The Women’s Director slammed the knitting down on the desk with a THUD, shot to her feet, and sent her chair scraping backward.

"Captain, Liu, go home and round people up. Tonight, we grab our tools and lie in wait."

"Let’s see if I don’t catch those little bastards red-handed."

Wrench in hand, Sun Dazhuang agreed, "Right, we have to catch them in the act. Otherwise, that old scoundrel from Five Mile Fort won’t admit to anything."

Accountant Liu also stood up in a huff. He stopped writing in his ledger and tossed his pen aside.

"Damn it all, that old scoundrel doesn’t deserve to be a captain."

"Home! Grab your weapons!"

An Ning, standing at the door, took a step back, intimidated by the trio’s intensity, and quickly made way.

An Sancheng didn’t try to stop them. When it came to the children, especially the girls of the family, who wouldn’t be anxious?

He followed the three of them, the last to walk out, and called to An Ning.

"Go home! Wait for tonight."

"Oh!"

An Ning had made the trip, hadn’t said a single word, and was now heading back.

But as An Ning walked behind them, her steps revealed her excitement.

’A fight’s about to happen!’

The three from the committee office all had daughters, and all of them were in junior high.

As soon as An Sancheng explained the situation, he had stirred up a hornet’s nest.

This was outrageous!

Within minutes, the news that boys from the next village were waylaying girls from Shili Gou had spread throughout the entire village.

For a moment, An Ning felt like she was back in the interstellar preparing for war.

Men and women, old and young—from white-haired, toothless grandpas and grandmas down to toddlers who had just learned to run in their split-crotch pants.

The crowd was seething with righteous fury, brandishing knives and clubs.

’How dare they bully my granddaughter!’

’How dare they bully my sister!’

’How dare they bully my daughter!’

Standing at the entrance to the An’s house, An Ning’s breathing grew ragged.

Jiang Xia, emerging from next door, couldn’t help but smile when he saw An Ning’s ragged breathing.

"Picked your spot? What position are you playing tonight?"

"The whole field!"

An Ning’s proud declaration made Jiang Xia laugh even harder.

"I’m starting to think you really like to fight."

"Don’t you?"

An Ning stared at Jiang Xia with a frank gaze. He slowly nodded and said, "Beating people up is indeed satisfying, but it’s even more satisfying when you don’t have to face the consequences afterward."

An Ning grew pensive.

"You’re right. We have to fight, but we have to fight in a way that leaves them speechless."

"Smart!"

Their eyes met, a silent, unspoken understanding passing between them.

Behind them, An Guoping and Li Chengze, who were huddled together, also shared a look of tacit understanding.

An Guoping: ’My sister is getting more and more amazing.’

Li Chengze: ’My future master is learning from the great demon king!’

The group at the door didn’t stand there for long.

An Ning began tutoring An Guoping, Yang Jianguo, and Yin Xuemei.

After their lessons, the three gathered together with practice exams that An Guoping had gotten from a teacher. They set a time limit and held a mock test.

An Ning and Jiang Xia joined in as well.

The five of them, each at their own desk, sat in a row and wrote furiously.

Li Chengze became the temporary proctor, standing in front of the small blackboard with his arms crossed and a deadpan expression.

In reality, he was internally conflicted. ’Should I walk around?’

’What are proctors supposed to do?’

Just as Li Chengze finally decided to take a stroll around the room, An Ning turned in her test.

"Master, you’re finished?"

"I’m finished."

Li Chengze took An Ning’s test, but he wasn’t all that surprised.

The first subject was Language Arts. An Ning hadn’t made a single mistake on the foundational knowledge section.

As for the reading comprehension that followed, there didn’t seem to be any major issues, and even her essay was written to standard.

Li Chengze had just finished grading the test when, before he could even give it back to her, An Ning handed in another one.

And it wasn’t just An Ning; Jiang Xia turned in his test as well.

While the others were just starting the second subject, An Ning had already finished everything.

Math and Comprehensive Science were both perfect scores.

Her scores in Politics and Language Arts weren’t low either.

During a break when An Guoping and the others were swapping papers, he looked at An Ning’s test and asked, "Sis, you did really well in Politics and Language Arts?"

"You can’t get the rote memorization parts wrong in Politics or Language Arts. As for reading comprehension and the essay, Jiang Xia told me a formula that I found very useful."

An Guoping, Yang Jianguo, and Yin Xuemei all looked up at An Ning.

An Ning cleared her throat and said, "You describe the atmosphere, express how it reflects such-and-such... basically, you link the environment to the character’s state of mind to show how it highlights such-and-such. You can basically score a few points that way."

"The essay is even simpler. I’ve memorized a hundred model essays, plus a ton of idioms and poems. String them together logically, and that’s an essay."

"Simple, right?"

Everything An Ning had said before made sense, but her final "Simple, right?" made the three of them shake their heads and say in unison, "Not simple."

"Sis, that method only works for you. I can’t do it."

"Me neither."

"I can’t memorize a dictionary, let alone a whole Language Arts textbook."

After saying her piece, Yin Xuemei resignedly lowered her head and went back to her test.

A genius’s study methods aren’t suitable for everyone.

An Ning looked innocently at Jiang Xia.

"I think it’s pretty simple."

Sure enough, An Ning found a kindred spirit in Jiang Xia.

At this point, Jiang Xia had also finished all his tests.

He stayed behind to proctor. Li Chengze hadn’t even really started his proctoring duties before An Ning called him away for his lesson.

When An Ning finished Li Chengze’s lesson and returned, she found Jiang Xia critiquing the others’ work.

"An Guoping, this score is a disaster. You’re an embarrassment to your sister."

"Yang Jianguo, take the time you spend combing your hair every day and use it to study."

"Yin Xuemei, go home and do math problems."

An Ning walked over, looking at the tests, each with scores over one hundred.

"They do need to improve."

The moment An Ning said that, the trio’s slightly proud expressions were completely crushed.

The three obediently took their tests and left to go study.

Jiang Xia and An Ning each grabbed a tool and went to do their chores.

"See you tonight."

"See you tonight."

That evening, before the junior high girls were out of school, all the able-bodied men and women of Shili Gou mobilized.