With three superpowers at his fingertips, he could dominate the 1970s.

Jiang Zhiyu pushed open her courtyard gate and saw a half-sack of sweet potatoes placed at the entrance. Just as she was wondering about it, Aunt Wang's voice came from next door: "Little Jiang, these are sweet potatoes that we grew ourselves. They're not worth much, but they're very sweet when you cook them."

Jiang Zhiyu didn't refuse. She knew how precious coarse grains were in those days, especially since she had given Aunt Wang peach shortbread and milk candy yesterday, making Aunt Wang feel a little embarrassed. "Thank you, Aunt Wang, you're too kind," Jiang Zhiyu said with a smile as she accepted the sweet potato.

After storing the sweet potatoes in her spatial storage and releasing a few more, Jiang Zhiyu started a fire to steam them. It was only normal for the chimney to be emitting smoke. She steamed a total of four sweet potatoes, ate two, and then stored the remaining two in her spatial storage while they were still hot.

After closing the courtyard gate, Jiang Zhiyu walked towards the village. She wanted to confirm whether the black bear she had caught last night had succeeded. To get to the brigade headquarters, she had to pass by the educated youth compound, and Jiang Zhiyu walked past it casually.

"Jiang Zhiyu! Jiang Zhiyu!" Zhang Chong saw her from afar and called out excitedly.

Jiang Zhiyu looked up at him, feigning surprise: "Zhang Chong, what are you doing here?"

"We've been in the village for several days now, I've missed you so much!" Zhang Chong ran over and grabbed Jiang Zhiyu's arm. "You haven't been working with us these past few days. Speaking of which, you were so cool beating up Liu's second son that day, I admire you so much!"

Zhang Chong kept muttering to himself, as if he had endless things to say. As he talked, he pulled Jiang Zhiyu toward the educated youth settlement. Jiang Zhiyu pretended to be helpless and let him pull her in.

As soon as they entered, they saw Jiang Wenwen sleeping with her head covered. Jiang Zhiyu looked at Zhang Chong questioningly, and Zhang Chong immediately understood. He leaned close to her ear, his voice actually quite loud, loud enough for everyone to hear: "Last night, someone went out somewhere and didn't come back until late at night. Her clothes were torn, her hair was messy, and she was crying and sobbing. I don't know if she fell or..."

Zhang Chong deliberately left the explanation hanging; those who understand, understand. If it was just a fall, how do you explain the red marks on his body?

Upon hearing Zhang Chong's words, Jiang Wenwen, who was still covered by the blanket, immediately stood up with red eyes, pointed at Zhang Chong's nose, and yelled, "What do you mean? You're just spreading rumors!"

"What did I spread rumors about?" Zhang Chong retorted, not to be outdone. "What did I say? What are you so guilty about? I just said I didn't know if I fell or what, did I say anything else? Or did you admit it yourself, what happened last night?"

Jiang Wenwen's face turned red with anger. She turned her head and stared intently at Jiang Zhiyu, her eyes filled with jealousy and regret that almost overwhelmed her.

Seeing Jiang Wenwen looking at Jiang Zhiyu like that, the female educated youth at the settlement subconsciously shrank back. "Jiang Wenwen must have lost her mind. It's not Jiang Zhiyu's fault that she's like this, so why is she looking at him like that?" one of the female educated youth muttered softly.

"Sure enough, some people's brains are just not right," another female educated youth chimed in.

Jiang Zhiyu didn't tolerate her. She already had a height advantage, and standing in front of Jiang Wenwen, she sized her up from head to toe, then smiled contemptuously. This smile further provoked Jiang Wenwen, who wanted to go forward and hit Jiang Zhiyu.

"Jiang Wenwen, what are you doing!" The other educated youth at the settlement quickly pulled her away.

"What am I going to do? I'm going to beat her to death!" Jiang Wenwen screamed hysterically.

The other people at the educated youth settlement also found Jiang Wenwen's behavior inexplicable, but only Jiang Zhiyu knew what Jiang Wenwen meant. Her attempt to harm someone backfired, while the person she wanted to harm stood perfectly fine in front of her. One can imagine how distressed Jiang Wenwen must have felt.

Fortunately, the female educated youth at the settlement were all kind-hearted and didn't publicize the matter. "It wasn't easy for us to come to the countryside. We knew that a few words could ruin a woman's life, so we didn't say anything more," one of the female educated youth said.

"If this had happened to any other female educated youth, Jiang Wenwen probably wouldn't have kept it a secret," another female educated youth sighed.

Jiang Zhiyu, now certain that Jiang Wenwen had been violated by the black bear, scrutinized her from head to toe with a piercing gaze. Jiang Wenwen was filled with shame, anger, and hatred. Why wasn't it her? Why wasn't it Jiang Zhiyu? The black bear was clearly someone she had prepared for Jiang Zhiyu; if the black bear saw Jiang Zhiyu, it certainly wouldn't let her go. She was waiting for Jiang Zhiyu to suffer the same fate.

Jiang Zhiyu, feeling bored, pulled Zhang Chong out of the educated youth compound. "Zhiyu, don't pay any attention to that lunatic, she's just mentally ill," Zhang Chong said angrily. "It wasn't you who made her leave, it wasn't you... sigh, I don't know what to say. You know, after what happened to her, everyone was quite sympathetic to her, but when she came back, she cursed at all of us and smashed a lot of people's things, especially Song Laidi and Zhao Jing's. Neither of them are well-off. We wanted to confront her, but seeing her miserable state, we all chose to endure it."

"None of us have told anyone about this, it's like we've tacitly agreed," Zhang Chong continued. "The male educated youth don't know either. When we educated youth go to the countryside, we have to stick together as one, but this Jiang Wenwen is an exception. Not only has she offended the brigade leader, but now even we female educated youth don't like her."

"I'm so envious of you, being able to move out," Zhang Chong said enviously.

"You can move out too," Jiang Zhiyu said.

Zhang Chong thought for a moment, then shook his head: "Forget it, I don't have your skills. Judging from Jiang Wenwen's situation, there are quite a few people in this team with ulterior motives. Living together would save a lot of trouble, but the food is terrible. I've been craving it for the past two days."

Jiang Zhiyu rarely had a friend she could chat with, so she took Zhang Chong's hand and led him into her small courtyard. "Wait here, I'll get you something nice to eat."

Jiang Zhiyu took two sweet potatoes from the pot—actually, from her spatial storage—and then brought out the braised rabbit she had made the night before.

"Wow! Rabbit meat!" Zhang Chong's eyes widened. "Zhiyu, you caught a rabbit on the mountain? How are you so amazing?" He then picked up a piece with his hand.

"Go wash your hands before you eat," Jiang Zhiyu patted her hand.

Zhang Chong rushed into the kitchen, quickly washed his hands, and then rushed out, grabbing chopsticks and stuffing rabbit meat into his mouth. "Zhiyu, I'm so happy! Do you know how much I've been craving these past two days? Do you know what they've been eating every day? Corn porridge with pickled vegetables and dumplings every day! And the other day, when it was Jiang Wenwen's turn to cook, she burned the corn porridge! My mouth has been so bland these past two days."

"Only Song Laidi could still eat. She ate the corn porridge with great relish, which shows that her family isn't well-off. But I felt that her hands and feet weren't very clean. I saw her secretly applying Zhou Jing's face cream," Zhang Chong said while eating.

"Yes, by the way, do you know Lin Wei? He's that educated youth from Shanghai, the one who's so arrogant, always talking like he owns the place, and he keeps throwing in a few words of Shanghainese that nobody can understand. I don't know what he's so superior about. Weren't we all sent to the countryside? We were eating corn porridge, and he was complaining about it the whole time." Zhang Chong continued, "Song Laidi just touched him lightly, and he started washing his hands and changing his clothes, making everyone so embarrassed."

"And then there's Gu Yan. He doesn't talk much, but he's very aloof. He's polite to everyone, yet he seems to keep everyone at arm's length." Zhang Chong chewed on rabbit meat and continued gossiping, "Wait, wait, wait, let me tell you, there's a lot going on at the educated youth settlement."

"And I've noticed that Lin Wei has been secretly inquiring about you. Is it because you're both from Haishi?" Zhang Chong suddenly asked.

Jiang Zhiyu paused for a moment upon hearing this: "Inquiring about me? Why are you inquiring about me?" However, she didn't take it to heart; she would deal with whatever came her way.

In no time, Zhang Chong had finished a plate of braised rabbit and two sweet potatoes. He slumped in his chair, patted his stomach, and said, "I'm finally alive again. Jiang Zhiyu, you are my savior."

Jiang Zhiyu looked at him amusedly: "Eat slowly, no one's going to take it from you."

After Zhang Chong finished eating, he slowly looked around Jiang Zhiyu's small courtyard, becoming more and more envious as he looked: "Zhiyu, this is what it means to go to the countryside. What we did wasn't going to the countryside, it was going to suffer. Look at how well you live, the firewood is piled up so high. It's going to get cold soon, and we're preparing to go up the mountain to collect firewood these days. You've already stored up so much."

Jiang Zhiyu didn't hide anything from her: "I didn't pick much; it was all given to me by the brigade leader's family."

"Oh, by the way, Zhiyu, you and the captain seem to get along quite well too," Zhang Chong asked curiously.

"It's all because Jinbao and I go up the mountain to cut pig feed together every day. We got to know each other after a while, and I took care of him a bit. The brigade leader felt bad about it, so he brought some firewood over," Jiang Zhiyu explained.

"Oh, I see. You're so kind, Zhiyu." Zhang Chong sighed. "In a little over a month, there won't be much work left in the fields. Actually, the team leader won't say anything if you don't go to the fields these next few days, as long as you don't feel like you're losing work points. I heard the team is organizing everyone to go to the mountains to collect firewood for the winter in a couple of days. Do you want to go, Zhiyu?"

Jiang Zhiyu was unaware of this, and nodded upon hearing it: "Going to the mountains? We absolutely have to go, it's my favorite place." Then she thought of the cave she had discovered in the mountains, wondering when Song Yanzhou would be able to come over.