Sorry, My Beloved Is The Motherland - Chapter 16.1 - Slapping Faces is Better Than Falling in Love

“Stop! Stop!”

The incident happened so quickly that it wasn’t until Xu Cuicui had beaten the broom’s twigs off, scattering them all over the ground, that the people in the courtyard reacted and hurriedly pulled her away.

The person being beaten was clearly in severe pain, judging by their cries. Now, they couldn’t even stand up, lying on the ground in a sorry state with the basket still over their head.

Fresh cow dung from the basket had spilled all over them.

Aunt Ma, feeling distressed, scolded Xu Cuicui, “Xu Daye, have you gone out of control?! If you must beat someone, fine, but what a waste of the dung we just collected yesterday!”

Xu Cuicui, quick-witted in the moment, remembered the first piece of cultural knowledge Ning Fu had taught her, “This is an emergency measure!”

By now, a large crowd had gathered both inside and outside the courtyard to watch the commotion. Xu Cuicui, undaunted, stood tall and proud, looking down on Aunt Ma and the others.

“In urgent situations, one must adapt to the circumstances and not rigidly adhere to rules!” She held the broom as if it were an imperial sword, pointing it at the person crawling on the ground. “Such a scoundrel! Trying to sow discord between the educated youths and the poor and lower-middle peasants must be punished! What’s wrong with using a dung basket ?”

She was so imposing that her scholarly-sounding justification of “emergency measure” left everyone momentarily speechless, and no one thought to help the person on the ground.

Xu Cuicui then softened her tone, “I’ll collect another basket of dung for you later, Aunt Ma.”

She walked over and roughly lifted the basket off the person’s head, sweeping the scattered cow dung back into it.

She glanced regretfully at the animal excrement that had fallen on the person and muttered, “Dried and used for fuel, it works great. You city folks really know how to waste good stuff, what a pity—”

The onlookers whispered among themselves.

“It’s Xiao Liang—”

“Which one? Which Xiao Liang?”

“Oh, it’s Liang Huixue! She and Ning Fu were once called the two flowers of Tula Gaqi!”

“Ahem, how can she compare to Xiao Ning?”

Some of the onlookers at the back, not knowing exactly what had happened, craned their necks to see and asked, “What’s going on? Is that cow dung on Liang Huixue’s face?”

Liang Huixue felt a surge of anger and humiliation, her head spinning, the stench of dung clinging to her body, surrounded by whispers of disdain and ridicule.

She suddenly burst into sobs and screamed, stumbling out of the crowd.

It wasn’t until dusk, when work was done, that Ning Fu heard about the incident from Xu Cuicui, who was proudly boasting about her “heroic” actions.

“I heard long ago that it was Liang Huixue who didn’t want to come to our livestock division because she thought it was dirty and hard work. She instigated Gao Han to speak ill of you to the secretary, which got you transferred here!” Xu Cuicui said righteously. “Without the smell of dung, where would the fragrance of grains come from?! Besides, she was spreading rumors and causing trouble, so she deserved a good lesson!”

She also shared another piece of news mysteriously.

“Muren Chena was there too, and he made a vow.”

Ning Fu was taken aback. What was this all about?

“He said he absolutely doesn’t like you, won’t marry you, and that the relationship between you two is as pure as a newborn lamb.”

Ning Fu: seems to feel a sense of rejection.jpg

For the people of the grasslands, oaths are serious and sacred.

Lying to the Changsheng Tian is a grave matter; even after death, eagles and wolves would not eat the bones of a liar, symbolizing the sin of falsehood.

Muren Chena would never lie to Changsheng Tian.

Ning Fu shrugged.

Well, she had once worried, somewhat presumptuously, about how to reject Muren Chena if he liked her.

Now that this good lad had figured it out himself, she could be at ease.

—Because she really didn’t have the energy to deal with these matters at the moment.

Her golden finger boost, which increased her focus, memory, and enthusiasm for learning by 50%, had not yet worn off.

Ning Fu didn’t know what tasks awaited her after achieving [Top of the Golden List], but the system panel had already unlocked the next phase—choosing a university major.

All the buttons were still greyed out, but Ning Fu already knew what her options were.

Basic disciplines like Literature, History, Philosophy, Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry, as well as Law, Agriculture, and Forestry.

At the bottom, there was an option with a longer name than the others—Aerospace Engineering and Power Engineering (Experimental Class).

This was a special option, the kind you know will unlock a unique side quest when playing a game.

Just as well, Ning Fu never played it safe.

She was like an enthusiastic pioneer player, already doing her homework before entering the game.

—That’s right, Ning Fu had maxed out her points again.

Taking advantage of her golden finger, her brain was now a super-miniature human computer far above normal human levels. She linked to CNKI once more.

T/N: CNKI, or China National Knowledge Infrastructure, is a comprehensive database of academic resources in China. It provides access to a vast collection of Chinese academic journals, dissertations, conference papers, newspapers, yearbooks, and other scholarly materials. Researchers, students, and professionals use CNKI to find and download academic papers and articles across various disciplines. It is one of the most authoritative and widely used academic databases in China.

Ning Fu was fully confident she could earn back the points.

The more she bet, the greater the return.

This system’s personality was very much like hers.

In the fields, everywhere you could see Ning Fu writing and calculating. All the books were in her mind, and she was frantically digesting, absorbing, and integrating the knowledge.

People couldn’t understand why, after the college entrance exam, Comrade Xiao Ning was working even harder than before. She was almost always deep in thought, even during meals, her eyes fixed on people with a burning intensity.

She had even rapidly lost weight, which was somewhat alarming.

During this period, they were planting winter wheat, and the educated youths were all looking forward to the New Year celebration, filling the fields with laughter and excitement.

—Only Ning Fu, after finishing her row of land, would squat to the side and start writing and drawing with a tree branch.

She was so engrossed in her calculations that she was almost oblivious to the sounds around her.

T/N: A dung basket is a container traditionally used in agricultural settings to collect and transport animal dung, which is often used as fertilizer. These baskets are typically made from materials like woven straw, bamboo, or other natural fibers, and are designed to be sturdy and easy to carry.