Chapter 26: Are They Trying to Make a Scene?

The reason she was panicking was because, just now—right before she ran home—two of the pigs inside suddenly collapsed, twitching on the ground, their mouths letting out hoarse cries. Some of the other pigs even started urinating.

“…But there was actually blood in the urine, Ningning. I’m sure I didn’t see wrong—that was blood.”

“These pigs have been raised for almost a year now. In just a little while, people from the commune will come to take half of them, and the rest will be divided among the families in our village. So why would something happen at this critical moment?”

“Do you think… do you think the pigs are going to die?”

Just the thought of that possibility made Yao Chunhua’s face go pale.

If something really happened to all nine pigs, their village would have to answer to the commune. At that point, not only would she lose her job raising pigs, she might even have to pay compensation.

Nine pigs—that’s a lot of money.

As soon as Yao Chunhua noticed something was wrong with the pigs, she ran straight to find her daughter. After all, her daughter was going to be a doctor and knew a thing or two about illnesses.

“Mom, don’t worry. I’ll go with you to take a look.”

Gu Jianing didn’t waste any time and pulled her mother out the door.

As they walked, she asked for more details.

When she learned that her mother hadn’t changed anything about how she fed the pigs recently, Gu Jianing thought, It looks like the problem isn’t on Mom’s end.

But was it an accident, or did someone do this on purpose?

If it was just an accident, that would be fine. But if someone did this deliberately, then they were definitely targeting her family.

Who could it be?

Gu Jianing’s mind was racing, but she couldn’t figure it out for now. She could only hurry along with her mother toward the village pigsty.

Halfway there, they ran into her father.

“What’s going on? I just saw you running home in a hurry.” Old Gu, who was at the village committee, had seen his wife rushing home. By the time he realized something was wrong, she was already gone, so he hurried over, worried something had happened.

“Husband, something’s happened…” Yao Chunhua didn’t hide anything and explained about the pigs.

“I was just about to take our daughter to check on them.”

“I’ll go find Old Zhang. He’s the village doctor—maybe he’ll have some ideas.” As soon as Old Gu heard, he knew it was serious. Besides their daughter, Old Zhang was the only other doctor in the village. Whether he could help or not, it was best to get him to take a look.

“Yes, yes, go get Old Zhang.”

So Old Gu immediately changed direction and hurried off toward the village clinic where Old Zhang was.

Gu Jianing thought, No matter whether this is an accident or sabotage, the most important thing is to save these pigs—to cure them.

Just then, she suddenly remembered something.

She asked in her mind, “System, this Divine Doctor’s Space of ours—it’s not just for people, right? It can be bound to animals too? Like pigs?”

[Host, yes, it can. Whether it’s animals, plants, or people, as long as it can get sick, it can be bound.]

Gu Jianing was overjoyed. That’s great.

As long as she bound those nine pigs, the system could automatically analyze the cause.

And it would even provide the corresponding treatment.

Then, as long as she quickly learned the treatment methods, she could save all nine pigs.

With a plan in mind, Gu Jianing felt much more at ease.

But…

As they got closer, Gu Jianing frowned at the crowd of people gathered up ahead. “Mom, were there this many people there before you left?”

It looked like half the people who should have been at work had come.

They were all crowded around the pigsty.

“No, I was the only one there. Why are there so many people now?”

And it was obvious they were all discussing something about the pigsty.

Gu Jianing’s eyes flickered with thought. In just this short time, all these people already knew?

Someone must have called them over.

Are they trying to make a scene?

So, was the person who called the villagers over just passing by and happened to see, or were they waiting for this to happen all along?

If it’s the latter, does that mean this incident was planned?

And that the person behind it is targeting the Gu family?

“Hey, it’s Yao Chunhua—she’s here!”

Someone in the crowd with sharp eyes spotted Yao Chunhua and called out.

Immediately, all eyes turned to her, and people rushed forward to ask questions.

“Auntie Yao, what’s going on with the pigs? Are they sick, or is it swine fever? They look really bad, just twitching there.”

“Heavens, after raising them for a year, if these big fat pigs die, what are we going to do?”

“Chunhua, where did you go? The pigs are about to die and you ran off. Don’t tell me you’re the one who made them like this?”

One after another, people crowded around Yao Chunhua, their tone carrying a hint of accusation.

Of course, Yao Chunhua wasn’t one to take things lying down.

Even though she was worried about the pigs, she wasn’t about to let herself be bullied.

“Qin Zhaodi, did you eat shit for breakfast? Why is it that every time you open your mouth, it’s just crap? You think I ran away? If I ran away, would you see me here now? What do you mean I made the pigs like this—am I crazy? I just saw something was wrong and went home to get my daughter to take a look.”

“Besides, I have a clear conscience. Why would I run?”

At this point, Gu Yunnan and Gu Yunzhou arrived too, the two young men standing behind Yao Chunhua, making the others hesitate to push things further.

Someone muttered, “But you’re the one raising the pigs. Now that something’s happened, who else are we supposed to ask?”

Qin Zhaodi had always been jealous that Yao Chunhua, with her village chief husband, got the job of raising pigs.

Back when the village decided to set up a small pig farm and needed someone to look after the pigs for ten cents a day, plenty of women wanted the job.

Qin Zhaodi was one of them.

But in the end, the job went to Yao Chunhua.

Because of this, Qin Zhaodi had complained endlessly behind her back, saying it wasn’t fair.

But she never considered that the pig farm only existed because Old Gu had negotiated with the commune leaders for a long time. Even the piglets were bought through his connections.

You could say, the whole thing was thanks to Old Gu.

So what’s wrong with him letting his own wife raise the pigs?

It was perfectly reasonable—no one could say otherwise.

When no one supported her, Qin Zhaodi had to give up.

She could only secretly hope that Yao Chunhua would mess up and the pigs would die.

But no matter how much she cursed, Yao Chunhua’s pigs always did well.

Now, finally, something had gone wrong.

As soon as Qin Zhaodi heard, she rushed over and called others to come too.

Seeing the pigs looking like they were about to die, she was practically gleeful, attacking Yao Chunhua like a mad dog.

If Gu Yunnan and Gu Yunzhou hadn’t shown up in time, and if Yao Chunhua hadn’t stood her ground and talked back, who knows—maybe the villagers would have been incited by Qin Zhaodi by now."