After that, most of An An's time was spent on self-directed learning. During her free time, she was almost always reading books.
Her living environment was quite simple, but the worlds within books were colorful and diverse.
From studying history in the past to living in the post-disaster world now, An An felt that life had truly turned upside down, especially for her mother's generation.
If the disaster hadn't happened, they could have continued their previous lives, which must have been quite happy.
Although An An wasn't dissatisfied with her current life, she only marveled at the wonders described in books.
Among the many books, she preferred those related to history, international politics, and philosophy.
Even though none of these subjects were directly applicable to her current life, she found them all interesting. These books contained the wisdom of past generations, and she needed to think deeply to continue reading them.
She knew these books had no practical use in her current life, but she felt as if her perspective had risen from a firefly in the forest to a star in the sky.
It was as if she could look down upon the whole world, and her mindset became as vast as a prairie.
Reading made An An feel joyful, similar to the happiness she felt when her mother built her a swing in the yard when she was little.
An An's living environment was pure, but she wasn't naive about the world. Many experiences and knowledge she possessed weren't from personal experience, but learned from books.
She learned a lot of practical knowledge from law books. The law textbooks Wen Qian bought contained many case studies.
These alone opened An An's eyes to a world of bizarre and dramatic situations.
Seeing the books An An liked, Wen Qian thought that if An An had lived in her time, she would have been a liberal arts student.
An An did read science books as well, but she only picked them up when necessary because they were more challenging to understand.
As Wen Qian grew older and An An had more responsibilities, An An eventually focused most of her reading on the "survival quartet" of books.
This quartet was always emphasized by Wen Qian, who said that with the knowledge from these books, one could live well in any era.
An An also found it amazing how comprehensive these books were.
An An had always known there were many books at home, so she didn't think it was a big deal. It wasn't until she got married and brought Yin Chuan home that she realized how extraordinary the number of books really was.
Yin Chuan knew his family elders had suffered misfortune, and if not for that, his family might have been similar.
He developed an even greater respect for Wen Qian, even believing she might have been one of the persecuted scientists from that time.
When Wen Qian learned of his thoughts, she straightforwardly said she wasn't, that she was just someone who liked collecting cheap books, and her education was only at the undergraduate level, not a scientist.
However, she expressed her respect and regret for the scientists, saying that if there hadn't been malicious killings back then, perhaps the emergence of some technologies could have completely changed the world.
But there was no going back. Whether it was the controlled nuclear fusion research or synthetic starch technology, if just one had been realized, everything would be different now.
Yin Chuan's parents only wanted him to finish high school and then become an ordinary teacher, believing this was the only way to have a stable life.
Yin Chuan had originally wanted to continue his studies, but his family was unwilling. In the end, he went to study architecture.
His parents didn't want him to pursue research-oriented majors, seeing them as life-threatening. Yin Chuan didn't finish his studies because his parents passed away one after another.
When he saw architecture textbooks in the distant northern forest, he was surprised that even university textbooks were available here. When he asked his wife, he learned that she even had a high school level exam certificate.
Yin Chuan was silent for a long time as he looked at the date on the academic credentials his wife had dug out, realizing his wife's education level was actually quite high.
Previously, when they chatted, Yin Chuan had deliberately chosen topics he thought were suitable, not realizing his wife had read far more books than he had.
He felt he hadn't known his wife at all for so long.
An An hadn't been hiding anything; it's just that education level wasn't something she considered important.
Who would ask about someone's educational background when dating here? Wasn't it assumed that being able to read and do basic math was enough?
Hearing this explanation, Yin Chuan realized it was true. Only in more populated cities were there places for centralized learning. Situations like An An's family were rare.
After all, it was already difficult to bring so many things after the disaster, and Yin Chuan noticed from the professional books that the school name was from An Province.
This was even stranger, as usually, a university's professional textbooks are mostly authored by that school, so Wen Qian's books all came from one school during the same period.
Wen Qian's explanation for this was that she had bought them in bulk by weight out of curiosity about other majors' textbooks.
As for how they got here, Wen Qian said she brought them by car after the disaster, along with building materials.
She had arrived here first anyway, and there was no evidence to contradict her story from other neighbors.
As Wen Qian got older, she would just pretend to be confused if asked further, and the young couple wouldn't continue questioning.
Interestingly, Yin Chuan found his family member's name in one of these books. It was just a name, but he knew it must be his relative.
It was a miraculous connection that moved Yin Chuan deeply.
Across the vast expanse of time and space, he had met his relatives here.
After Wen Qian passed away, the young couple needed to air out the books every year. It was tiring work, but they both did it willingly.
Later, they donated some of the duplicate books to the reading room in the small town, while carefully preserving the rest.
Because these were all used books, they contained names, notes, and small sentences written during moments of distraction.
An An and her husband found joy in these books, and because their parents were always handling books, their children also developed an interest in them.
Fortunately, there were some picture books at home, so Qiu Qiu could also read.
Wen Qian had done this unintentionally, but coincidentally, the books she had preserved became the most valuable treasure she left for An An.
