I couldn't take it anymore; when I went home for Chinese New Year, the family genealogy book ha

Four o'clock in the morning.

It was still pitch black, and even the village dogs were still asleep.

Wang Xiuying tiptoed out of bed, her movements as light as a cat's.

She changed into a set of old clothes that she wasn't afraid of getting dirty in the dark, then quietly slipped into the storage room and picked up the old hoe that had been with her for decades, a hoe she knew by heart.

The wooden handle of the hoe has been worn smooth and shiny by the years, gleaming with a warm light.

Carrying a hoe, Wang Xiuying tiptoed and sneakily opened the back door, ready to carry out her "land reclamation plan".

However, she had just stepped one foot out of the threshold.

"Mom, where are you going?"

A soft voice, accompanied by the lights coming on in the living room, sounded behind her.

Wang Xiuying's body stiffened abruptly, and the hoe she was carrying on her shoulder almost fell off.

She slowly turned around and saw her son, Jiang Chen, standing in the center of the living room with a glass of water in his hand, looking at her with a half-smile.

Wang Xiuying blushed, like a student caught skipping class by the teacher, and hurriedly hid the shiny hoe behind her back.

"Chen...Chen'er, why are you up?"

Wang Xiuying's eyes darted around as she forced an explanation: "Mom...Mom couldn't sleep, so she was thinking...going out to practice some kung fu and stretch her muscles."

"Practicing martial arts?"

Jiang Chen's gaze passed over his mother's shoulder and landed on the hoe that could not be hidden at all.

He neither laughed nor got angry.

Seeing his mother's guilty expression and the hoe she treasured, Jiang Chen felt a pang of sadness in his heart.

He understands it all too well.

Rural people of our parents' generation have suffered and worked hard their whole lives. They are not afraid of poverty or hard work, but what they fear most is being idle and becoming a useless "good-for-nothing".

Making them do nothing is worse than killing them.

Jiang Chen stepped forward, without blaming her, and gently took the heavy hoe from his mother's hands, helping her back into the house.

"Mom, please sit down."

Jiang Chen pressed Wang Xiuying down onto the sofa, then solemnly moved a small stool and sat down in front of her.

"Mom, I have something to tell you, but you have to keep it a secret."

Jiang Chen's expression was so serious, as if he were about to announce a major national event.

Wang Xiuying was taken aback by her son's mysterious behavior: "What's wrong? Why are you being so secretive?"

Jiang Chen lowered his voice and whispered in his mother's ear, "We can't turn over that patch of land in our backyard with a hoe."

Why?

"Because... that land has already been requisitioned by the government!"

"Requisition?!"

Wang Xiuying was startled, her voice trembling, "What? What are you doing? What could you possibly be doing in our backyard? Are you... building a missile launch silo?!"

She simply couldn't understand what value her small vegetable patch could possibly have that would alarm the nation.

"puff--"

Jiang Chen almost spat out his water, but he managed to suppress his laughter and continued to lie with a straight face.

"Mom, what are you thinking!"

"It's not just building missile silos, it's something far more advanced!"

Jiang Chen cleared his throat and presented the "script" he had been working on all night.

"This is the latest nationally supported 'Smart Agriculture Experimental Field No. 1' project! It's specifically designed to help people grow vegetables from the comfort of their homes without bending over or exerting any effort!"

"This project is highly classified, which is why they chose our village, our backyard—it's secluded enough!"

"And the person in charge of this project is none other than your son, myself!"

After Jiang Chen finished speaking, he patted his chest with an air of importance.

Wang Xiuying was completely intimidated.

The words "national," "secret," and "chief person in charge" hit her in areas where she had no knowledge, leaving her dizzy.

But she still grasped the most crucial point.

"No...no need to bend over? Then...can that still be called farming?"

Wang Xiuying's face was filled with doubt and disbelief.

In her decades-long understanding, farming meant facing the loess soil with her back to the sky, and it meant a harvest for every drop of sweat.

Is it a fantasy to farm without bending over?

Jiang Chen looked at his mother's eyes, which were half-believing and half-doubting, yet clearly intrigued, and knew that the matter was settled!

He snapped his fingers, a confident smile spreading across his face.

"Mom, just you wait and see!"

"So what if you want to grow vegetables? It's no big deal!"

"Starting today, I'll show you what it means to turn farming into a game!"

Looking into her son's frighteningly bright eyes, Wang Xiuying still felt a little unreal, but the urge to hoe the field was completely suppressed by an unprecedented sense of anticipation.

She had a vague feeling that her eccentric son was about to do something earth-shattering again!