Zhu Yan and the other four left the brigade headquarters with 1.13 yuan each for medical expenses paid by An Moxue, their resentment turning into petty people wanting to bite An Moxue.

Zhu Yan casually remarked, "This Comrade An is really rich. He even carries money with him to work. I bet it's close to twenty! Honghong, don't you think so? It's true that different people have different fates!" After saying that, she held up the money that An Moxue had given her above her head and looked at it again and again in the sunlight.

......

Only An Moxue and Village Chief Guo remained in the brigade headquarters. Village Chief Guo said, "Let's go home together."

An Moxue smiled sweetly and said, "Uncle Guo, don't worry, it's just a few dollars. It might be a big deal for others, but for me it's just the cost of one or two meals at a state-run restaurant. It's nothing."

Village Chief Guo thought to himself, "Look, this is true character." But aloud he said, "You didn't actually have to take the money. If you had just insisted a little longer, why did you agree so readily? This isn't like you!"

An Moxue smiled slyly and said, "Uncle Guo, you can see that. My money isn't so easy to take. They need to be scared and restrained."

Village Chief Guo wondered to himself, what had this girl done? He hadn't noticed anything amiss in front of everyone!

"Don't worry, I'll go see Old Liu, who manages the livestock shed, this afternoon. You don't know, three of these five people have minor demerits from the educated youth office—Chen Hong, Wang Yu, and Li Zhao. A bunch of clueless fools. They're lucky; if they were assigned to other villages and had a powerful village cadre, who knows what would have happened to them! They don't know how lucky they are. I'm just too easygoing." Village Chief Guo rarely spoke ill of anyone, but he couldn't help but complain a few times.

"Who told you to be such a good person, Uncle Guo!" An Moxue exclaimed sincerely, feeling fortunate for her decision back then.

"You little rascal, you're good at making this old man happy. Your aunt has been talking about you these past few days! I wonder what you've been up to! You've been nowhere to be seen." The two of them said as they walked.

"It's not that I'm avoiding these people, they're so annoying, like flies in the toilet, disgusting and irritating. They think they're the smart ones and everyone else is stupid, their ulterior motives are practically written on their faces." An Moxue didn't even want to mention it.

“You’ve had those two wolves for a year now, they’re adults. In the past, it wasn’t a problem with just the people in our village, but this year, with these educated youth coming, it’s quite troublesome. You should think about how to settle them. Keeping them at home is no longer appropriate. Adult wolves are not like dogs. If someone reports it, there will definitely be trouble,” said Village Chief Guo.

"Uncle Guo, will this really be a big problem? They've never hurt anyone before."

"Yes, wolves are ferocious beasts that harm the people. Every year there are several wolf attacks around here, and people hate wolves. If you had two dogs, I wouldn't have asked you to pay compensation today. Those educated youths who broke into your house deserved to be bitten. The difference is that you didn't raise dogs, you raised wolves, do you understand?" Village Chief Guo was genuinely concerned for her, which is why he pointed out the key point.

To put it bluntly, people cannot accept wolves because they have long suffered persecution from them.

“I raised them when they were little, and almost everyone in the village knew that, but I didn’t see them objecting!” An Moxue said, puzzled.

"First, you live in a remote area; second, they were small then, easy to overlook, and less harmful. Things are different now, and I can tell that your two wolves are not ordinary breeds."

"Hmm, they are descendants of the Snow Wolf King. Let me think, if it doesn't work out, I'll send them back to the deep mountains, and I'll visit them occasionally. Uncle Guo, how about I take a day off tomorrow and go into the mountains? Is that alright?"

"Okay, go and come back soon."

"Go home and tell your aunt that I'll visit her when I have time."

"Um."

"Goodbye, Uncle Guo."

At the crossroads, the two parted ways; Village Chief Guo went home, and An Moxue also went home.

As she walked, she kept thinking, realizing that she had been simplistic in her understanding of some things.

Back home, I quickly washed my hands, went into my spatial dimension to get the antidote and took it. The discomfort in my body subsided after lying on the kang (heated brick bed) for a while.

A mocking smile slowly crept onto her lips. "You've taken my money, enjoy it now."

With her physical symptoms relieved, she closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

The alarm rang, and An Moxue woke up. She took a meal from her spatial storage, ate, and then went to work with a water bottle and a hat.

As soon as An Moxue arrived at the field, Taohua mysteriously ran to her side and whispered, "Sister Moxue, Zhu Yan, Chen Hong, Wang Yu, Li Dezhi, and Li Zhao, those five, I'm telling you, at noon they kept running to the toilet, and then they stopped running, but they just kept farting, one after another, and it smelled absolutely awful! It was unbearable; no one could stay in either the boys' or girls' dorms at the educated youth settlement anymore, it was too smelly. What did those five steal to eat? How could it smell so bad? What are we going to do if it's like that tonight?"

"We can let them sleep somewhere else for a while, since they were the ones farting. Don't you think so? Get back to work! Otherwise, the scorekeeper might see you slacking off."

"Okay, Sister Moxue, wait for me after you finish work. I'll tell you everything in detail. Wait for me, and don't forget." Peach Blossom walked away, turning back every few steps.

An Moxue secretly wanted to laugh, and squatted down to start pulling weeds.

Just as An Moxue was about to finish her work, Tao Hua came running up, her rosy cheeks glistening with sweat.

"Sister Moxue, are you still not done? Let me help you." She reached out as if to pull up some grass from the ground.

An Moxue pressed her down on the ridge and said, "You don't need to. You're all sweaty. Take a rest! I'll be done in a bit. There's only a little left. Look, the water bottle is on the ground. Take it and drink it yourself. There's still some water."

"Okay! Sister Moxue, I worked really hard this afternoon just to talk to you about this."

An Moxue smiled helplessly and said, "What can I say to you! It's not a big deal. We can talk about it when we have time, okay?"

"No, not even for a moment! You have no idea how annoying Zhu Yan is. She always speaks so gently, but she always manages to provoke people's anger. Especially Chen Hong, she just spews insults at everyone, it's so irritating. Now that they've finally embarrassed themselves, I'm going to let a lot of people know. Those five smug brats, I'll make sure they're pointed at and talked about wherever they go, unable to hold their heads up. Let's see if they still have the nerve to talk about others!" Tao Hua first gritted her teeth, then gloated.

"You seem to be in such a hurry, are you planning to talk to someone else about it?"

Peach Blossom thought to herself, 'Why didn't I think of that? No, after I've finished talking to Sister Mo Xue, I'll go find the girls in the village.'

"Sister Moxue, I have something to tell you..."