Chapter 552 - 567: Before the Wedding

An Ning heard Jiang Xia’s quiet murmur perfectly.

Frustrated, she turned back and stomped on Jiang Xia’s foot even harder.

"Hey, hey, hey—what was that for?!"

"Stomping on you!"

An Ning huffed and walked away.

"But why—"

Jiang Xia was still hung up on the *why*. An Ning had never been the type to let her emotions rule her actions.

Unfortunately, the romantically inexperienced Jiang Xia couldn’t recognize the signs of a young woman’s first crush.

’An Ning was actually handling it quite well. She wasn’t overthinking things, she wasn’t sick with longing, she hadn’t lost her appetite, and she wasn’t taking her feelings out on others. It was just that Jiang Xia’s mouth was too damn provocative! He deserved it!’

After walking away, An Ning had a great time playing with a group of children.

A little after eight in the evening, the large group began their procession home. The ranks of their little troop thinned with each passing doorway.

An Ning didn’t say a single word to Jiang Xia all the way to the foot of the mountain before quietly returning home.

The dejected Jiang Xia stood at his gate, his head ready to explode from wracking his brain without an answer. ’What in the world is wrong with An Ning? Don’t tell me her research has fried her brain?’

Fortunately for Jiang Xia and his increasingly bizarre train of thought, he didn’t voice this idea. If he had, he probably wouldn’t have been able to save his feet.

That night, Jiang Xia had an exhausting dream. In it, no matter what he said, An Ning would hit him. He didn’t dare to strike back, so he just kept trying to appease her, on and on, until finally, An Ning’s head exploded!

In his dream, the exploding An Ning turned into a shower of rainbow-colored confetti, which scared Jiang Xia awake with a jolt. He glanced at the time. It was two in the morning.

"Sigh... I can’t get back to sleep."

He ended up lying there, wide awake, until dawn. At three-thirty in the morning, while the sky was still dark, he went out to work.

As luck would have it, Jiang Xia ran into An Ning.

It wasn’t even four o’clock, and An Ning was already in the fields, weeding the peanut patch.

An Ning looked at the disheveled, dew-soaked Jiang Xia, then glanced at her watch.

"I mean, what are you doing up so early? What’s the matter, got a world-shaking problem to ponder?"

It was a well-known fact that An Ning’s preferred method of thinking was to grab a hoe and work it out in the fields.

Jiang Xia was well aware of this. He couldn’t exactly tell her about his dream, so he put on a serious face. "I may not be pondering world-shaking problems, but I am pondering how to launch my company onto the global stage."

"Alright, you’ve got ambition."

An Ning gave Jiang Xia a sarcastic thumbs-up and went back to her work.

"President Jiang, who’s taking on the world, are you planning to work with just your eyes?"

Jiang Xia stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do with his empty hands. The next second, he squatted down. "I brought my hands with me."

Jiang Xia squatted down and started pulling weeds. An Ning didn’t call him out.

’Serves him right, making him work!’

The whole morning, Jiang Xia and An Ning weeded in silence, not a single word passing between them.

The dream kept flashing through Jiang Xia’s mind. The more he tried not to think about it, the more it surfaced.

An Ning, for her part, wasn’t truly angry. She just felt that Jiang Xia hadn’t been thinking straight for the past couple of days, so it was better to keep quiet.

From four to six, the two of them worked before finally heading back.

On the way, they ran into many people heading to the fields. The weather was hot these days, so it was only cool enough to work in the early morning and late evening.

By noon, or even as early as eight or nine, the sun was already scorching hot. No sane person could bear it.

When they reached their homes, they waved goodbye and went their separate ways.

At the An family home, Lin Cuihua saw An Ning’s soaked pant legs and immediately flew into a tizzy.

"Can’t you ever take a break? It’s not that you can’t go to the fields early, but who goes *that* early? The ground is soaked with dew!"

"Look at your pants! Are they even salvageable?"

"Honestly, day in and day out, not one of you gives me a moment’s peace!"

"Hei Dan’er, what are you laughing at!"

Hei Dan’er, caught in the crossfire, immediately flashed a pained grin and called out, "Auntie."

An Ning chuckled and gave him a helpless look.

Lin Cuihua grumbled as she brought An Ning a pair of pants, telling her to change quickly.

An Ning was used to Lin Cuihua’s ways. Her mother’s scolding went in one ear and out the other; she paid it no mind.

Next door at Jiangxia’s house, Master Tang circled Jiang Xia and sighed dramatically, enjoying the show. "Ah... after all these years. To think you’re almost thirty. It really hasn’t been easy."

Jiang Xia naturally understood the jab hidden in his words.

"At least I have a target. Unlike *some* people who still don’t even know what it feels like to fall for someone."

"Oho, getting bold, are we? That’s it, I’m on strike! No more cooking! I quit—"

Master Tang’s few words were all it took to get Jiang Xia right where he wanted him.

Both households started eating breakfast. The An family was particularly busy, as they were hosting a feast that afternoon.

After a simple breakfast, the helpers arrived, and villagers began to trickle in to have their gifts recorded in the ledger.

An Ning had done the job of managing the gift ledger once before, and she’d sworn never to do it again.

In the village, nicknames were far more common than real names, which many people didn’t know or couldn’t remember.

An Ning’s cooking skills were subpar, so she was relegated to the table-hauling crew.

She joined a group of young men, heading out into the village to carry tables, borrow chairs, and move bowls and chopsticks.

The An family’s celebration made the entire village exceptionally lively.

The An family wasn’t stingy. There were celebration candies, nuts, sunflower seeds, and watermelon for everyone to enjoy. Many of the children ran around chasing each other, clutching sweets in their hands.

"Slow down—don’t run with food in your mouth—"

An Guoping, a future doctor, couldn’t help but call out a warning.

"COUGH COUGH—"

"Holy crap! Since when did I become a prophet?!"

An Guoping reacted instantly. He dropped the stool he was holding and sprinted toward the choking child.

Mumbling "scissors, rock, paper" under his breath.

He made a "scissors" sign with his fingers to locate the child’s navel, then placed his other hand, balled into a fist, just above it. Then, the "scissors" hand flattened out into "paper," pressing down on his fist as he thrust upward from behind.

An Guoping performed the Heimlich maneuver on the teenage boy, and in less than a minute, a hard candy shot out of the kid’s mouth.

"COUGH, COUGH, COUGH, COUGH, COUGH—"

The boy coughed violently. An Guoping broke into a goofy grin; it was the first time he had ever saved someone.

"Not bad, you jinx."

His uncle’s son, Third Brother, gave An Guoping a playful punch. An Guoping didn’t mind, rubbing his own head and saying, "That was a first for me, too."

And then, the scene took a strange turn.

In an open area of the village, An Guoping gathered a group of children and began teaching them all about the Heimlich maneuver.

"Remember: ’scissors’ to find the navel. Your other hand makes a ’rock,’ a fist, with the thumb tucked inside, and you place it above your ’scissors.’ Then the ’scissors’ become ’paper,’ pressing on top of your fist, and you push hard a few times."

His explanation was so vivid, and the mnemonic so simple and clear, that the children remembered it easily.

Scissors, Rock, Paper!

After the children learned it, they were eager to show off and went home to tell their families. And so, Shili Gou became the first village to widely popularize the Heimlich maneuver.

An Ning watched for a moment before shouldering a table and moving on.

"An Ning."

The table blocked her view. An Ning set it down and looked toward the speaker, her expression souring.

"Miao Xiaohua."