A stunning beauty arrived on the island; she invented everything from childcare to babysitting.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Anning invited Zhao Xuemei's family to her yard for a barbecue. She chopped up a chicken, cut large pieces of pork belly and ribs, and castrated a fish. She served it with all sorts of side dishes and soft drinks that she usually couldn't afford. The two families, consisting of three adults and two children, ate until evening, their mouths greasy with oil.

One meal wasn't enough, so early on the second day of the Lunar New Year, Zhao Xuemei brought home ingredients and came over, and the two families ate together for another day.

On the third day, Xu Desheng went to work with a mouthful of foam.

The situation in the military is different from other places. Many units will not resume work until after the 15th of the lunar month, but in the military, normal work resumes immediately after the three-day statutory holiday.

Those who need to do their work should do their work, and those who need to train should train.

An Ning received another summons from Commander Li, but this time she was not to go to his home, but to his office.

"Happy New Year, Comrade Xiao Shen!"

Commander Li greeted her with a smile.

To prepare for Anning's arrival, he had Yan Fei clean the office in advance and open the windows to let the smoke dissipate before going to call for people.

"Happy New Year, Commander Li!" An Ning replied.

She did send a gift to Commander Li before the Lunar New Year, but this is the first time they have met since then.

"I wonder what Commander Li wants to do with me?"

"I do have something to ask you. Do you remember what the military announced at the medal awarding ceremony before the New Year?"

"Is it about building a factory?" Anning asked.

Li Bowen's smile widened, and he gave her a thumbs up.

This wasn't originally within his job scope, but he took it over by claiming he was familiar with Comrade Shen Anning.

"That's right. You know, there are a lot of things to prepare before building a factory. Building the factory and recruiting workers are the simplest things. The main difficulties are in the technology and the machinery."

An Ning nodded in agreement and continued listening to what Li Bowen had to say.

"The cannery business is relatively simple. You may have heard some news about it in the family quarters. Our military region has reached a cooperation agreement with the county cannery. We buy their outdated equipment, and they send technicians to train us. We also get orders from the county cannery. Sales are not under our control. We just earn some processing fees to subsidize military use."

"Yes, I have heard people mention it."

“But toy factories are different. There are no established toy factories on our island. If we want to start a toy factory, we have to go to the other side of the strait to find technicians and machines.”

"There are a lot of these trinkets in Guangdong Province, and there should be quite a few toy factories there. With the military taking the lead, finding partners shouldn't be difficult, right?"

"Finding partners is not difficult, but our purpose in building a toy factory is not limited to that."

"Then you mean..."

Li Bowen pushed a document in front of An Ning. An Ning took it and saw that it was a printed confidentiality agreement.

"What do you mean?"

Li Bowen smiled and said, "This matter is originally classified and should not be told to you, but the blueprints you submitted previously made outstanding contributions to our national defense. So after discussion, it's okay to tell you this, but the necessary procedures still need to be followed. If you're willing, you can sign it. If you're not willing, just pretend I never mentioned it."

As he spoke, he handed over his own pen.

To be honest, Anning was unwilling to get involved in such troublesome matters that required secrecy. If anything went wrong, she would only face endless trouble.

But Commander Li has helped her a lot since she came to the army. Not long ago, he helped her fight back against Cao Huiyun. He didn't really need to do that. If he hadn't gone in, she wouldn't have known that the other party was in the hospital and wouldn't have thought much of it. But the other party did it anyway and even used Cao Huiyun's words to shut her up.

If she were to refuse directly like that, it would seem rather cold-hearted.

But if I agree...

An Ning hesitated for a moment, then asked, "If I knew about this, how would it affect me in the future?"

"Of course it will have an impact."

Li Bowen's answer made An Ning's heart sink, but his next words restored her to normal.

"If you want to go abroad, you will definitely be subject to restrictions. However, as a military wife, even if you don't sign this document, you will still face certain restrictions. Secondly, the people you associate with, if their identities are problematic—I mean, if they involve other countries—will also be subject to investigation by relevant departments. Finally, you must keep what I'm about to say a secret, not even to your husband, otherwise you will be held accountable."

Hearing Li Bowen say this, An Ning understood that it had nothing to do with Song Wenyuan and would not have any impact even after the divorce.

She picked up a pen and signed her name on the confidentiality agreement.

Now, she was curious about why the other person had contacted her.

Li Bowen carefully put away the confidentiality agreement and said seriously, "The higher-ups have decided to add two military factory production lines below the toy factory. These two production lines need to be secretly built under the cover of the toy factory's production lines, which requires the cooperation of the toy factory's technicians. Therefore, we have very strict requirements for the backgrounds of the toy factory's technicians, and we can't just find them from outside. But we don't have enough people inside who understand these things, so we want to ask for your help. Given your previous performance in the army, it won't arouse suspicion. Of course, you can refuse, but remember to keep this a secret. If you can agree, that would be even better, and we will try our best to give you a satisfactory reward."

Anning thought for a moment and asked, "If I agree, what do I need to do?"

"First, because we can't bring outside technicians here, you'll need to go to Guangdong Province as a technician from the toy factory to learn about the toy factory's operations for a period of time. The specific time will depend on your learning speed. Second, you'll need to approve the purchase of the toy factory's production lines. We'll provide a price range, and as long as it doesn't exceed that range, you can choose whichever production line you want. Third, you'll need to cooperate with us to simultaneously move both the above-ground and underground production lines into the factory. That's all."

If she were alone, Anning would agree without hesitation.

Once she completes this task, her plan to sell the blueprints to toy factories will almost certainly be a done deal.

But now she has a child with her, and she doesn't know how long it will take for her to go to school. She doesn't know if Shen Changle will have any problems if she is alone at home.

If she were to agree, it would have to be after discussing it with the child.

"Could you give me some time to think about it?"

“Okay,” Li Bowen agreed. “However, the toy factory has already started operations, and the higher-ups hope that we can finalize the production line as soon as possible. You have the background in this area, so you are our first choice. But if you are not willing, we can still find other family members with higher levels of education to go. We hope you can give us a reply within three days.”

"Okay, thank you for your trust, Commander. I will get back to you as soon as possible."