The group trudged through the mountains with Shen Mu Ning back to the educated youth settlement. A few male educated youths, not believing in the superstition, even tried to weigh the withered pine tree together.

Two people lifting it, hmm, it was a bit difficult. Three people lifting it, and finally, they could lift it onto their shoulders.

When Shen Mu Ning returned, she took half of the branches from her basket and placed them in front of the kitchen stove to make up for the firewood needed for cooking lunch.

Only then did they neatly bundle the remaining firewood and stack it in the woodshed.

She walked from the woodshed at the back to the front and saw three male educated youths, Zhao Chuan, Zhu Yang, and Xu Ji, taking the pine tree she had dragged back down from their shoulders.

Shen Mu Ning looked puzzled and asked, "What are you doing, playing games?"

Lin Siqi, Zhuang Xue and other female educated youths laughed so hard they couldn't stand up straight after hearing Shen Mu Ning's words. Shen Mu Ning looked at them with a questioning gaze. What's so funny? It's just a question, isn't it?

The male educated youths watched speechlessly as the female educated youths mocked them, too embarrassed to explain to Shen Mu Ning.

Lin Siqi was the first to control herself and try not to laugh before explaining to Shen Muning, "They just wanted to see how heavy this tree was, and it took the three of them to lift it up and put it on their shoulders."

Shen Mu Ning nodded knowingly; they probably couldn't believe they had such strength.

"We're just testing our strength, hehe," Zhu Yang said sheepishly.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Chuan bluntly replied, "We were shocked by your appetite before. What you eat is enough for me to eat two or three meals a day."

"Now we see you dragging this tree, which weighs over 200 pounds, back all by yourself. It's really amazing, so we wanted to test how heavy the tree is."

Shen Mu Ning: "Yeah, it's okay. I eat so much because I'm strong. I feel terrible if I'm not full."

Shen Mu Ning knew that these people weren't necessarily just curious about her appetite and strength, but now she had a chance to explain why she ate so much, so that not many people would be jealous of her eating so much at every meal.

Upon hearing this, Zhuang Xue looked at Shen Mu Ning curiously, "So, will your strength continue to increase?"

Shen Mu Ning nodded, "I think it's okay. I wasn't this strong before, but as long as I keep eating a lot and make sure I'm not hungry, my strength will increase."

Zhang Jiayang was also curious about her strength: "Wow, how strong are you now? Will it keep increasing in the future?"

"I don't know how much strength I have right now, so I've never tried to use it to its full potential. I guess it won't keep increasing in the future. I heard my mother say that my second maternal grandfather was naturally very strong and ate a lot every day, but after his appetite normalized, his strength stopped increasing."

Shen Mu Ning wasn't lying to them. In fact, Shen Mu Ning's original body was also strong when she was a child, but she was only stronger than other children her age, not as exaggerated as Shen Mu Ning is now.

When the original owner was a child, she made other children cry. The other children's parents came to Sun Qing to complain. Sun Qing then told the original owner that she was a little stronger than other children and that she should try not to use her full strength in the future.

From then on, she behaved like any other child in public. After her parents passed away, she didn't eat much at Shen Guoliang's house, so her strength didn't improve any further.

However, when Shen Mu Ning thought of Gongsun Wu, the second disciple of the original owner, she felt that he shouldn't die so easily.

Previously, the Sun family donated money and medicine to the country, and her second maternal grandfather, Sun Wu, also went to the army along with the supplies. According to her mother, Sun Qing, her second maternal grandfather was both strong and resourceful, so he wouldn't die easily.

Unfortunately, by 1955, my maternal grandfather had not been able to see his second maternal grandfather return. He could only tell Sun Qing about this before he closed his eyes in regret.

Speaking of which, Shen Mu Ning also found a family photo of her maternal grandfather in his childhood in the small box containing the house deed and bankbook. Maybe she'll even meet Sun Wu in the future.

After hearing Shen Mu Ning's explanation, everyone felt that her strength wouldn't keep increasing and would probably stop at a certain stage.

The educated youth present were all very fortunate that they had not formed any major enmity with Shen Mu Ning, otherwise, with Shen Mu Ning's strength, they would have been in serious trouble.

As for the other good-natured former educated youth, they were also very happy to have such a strong educated youth as Shen Mu Ning.

She not only suppressed those educated youth with ulterior motives, but also ensured that they wouldn't have to give way to the locals in the brigade in the future.

Although the brigade leader and secretary of Xinshan Brigade were decisive and fair in important matters, they didn't concern themselves much with trivial family matters, and the educated youth always suffered in these areas.

But now that Shen Mu Ning is such a powerful weapon, the people in the team will always be more considerate and won't go too far.

After discussing Shen Mu Ning's strength, the group of former educated youth went back to their quarters for a midday nap, where they could sleep for another half hour.

Although it's not harvest time yet, there's still a lot of work to do in the fields, like weeding, fertilizing, and turning the soil. I need to sleep for a while to have the energy to go back to work.

"Siqi, did you buy an iron pot today?" They all have a stove for heating a kang (a traditional heated brick bed), and they all need an iron pot to be built into the stove opening so that the water can be kept warm when the kang is heated.

"We bought it. Zhang Jiayang and I both bought it. Do you want to find someone to build the pot up now?"

Shen Mu Ning indeed thought so. "Yes, I was thinking that we could start gathering mountain produce and planting radishes and cabbages in August, and then it would be harvest time, and everyone would be busy. Why don't we take advantage of the fact that we're not too busy now and finish building the pot?"

Lin Siqi thought about it and realized that was indeed the case. So they and Zhang Jiayang went to find Uncle Wang Ziqiang, the bricklayer in the brigade. Uncle Wang only said that he would come to lay the bricks after work in the afternoon.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!