Chapter 18: Swine Fever

Jiang Cuihua was also quite worried. “Alright, I’ll have your brothers clean the pigsty thoroughly.”

Liu Yinyin didn’t have pigs, but she did have a few hens.

These hens were very important to the family. Liu Yinyin was hoping to make some money from the eggs they laid.

Once she got home, Liu Yinyin quickly checked on them. Fortunately, the hens were still lively and appeared to be in good health.

However, she still wasn’t entirely at ease. She disinfected the entire pigsty inside and out.

For now, she decided not to let the chickens go outside to forage.

After finishing her work, Liu Yinyin’s stomach growled.

Sigh!

She had been so busy in the morning that she had completely forgotten to eat breakfast!

It was about ten o’clock by then, so she decided to make lunch instead.

She made braised carp, cold eggplant salad, and cornmeal buns as the main dish.

During the rainy period, she hadn’t had the chance to go up the mountain to dig for wild vegetables. While she still had some dried wild vegetables at home, she couldn’t be bothered to cook them, so she steamed the cornmeal buns instead.

Just after finishing her meal, her older brother, Liu Mingcheng, arrived with a small half-bucket of fish.

“Younger sister, mother said you like small fish, so these are for you.”

The river had receded, and most people who went to catch fish had returned with full loads.

Liu’s family was lucky; they managed to catch a bucket of fish, though there were more small fish than large ones.

Jiang Cuihua didn’t want to bother with the small fish and shrimp. She picked out the bigger ones, and the rest were sent to Liu Yinyin by Liu Mingcheng.

Liu Yinyin didn’t mind and gladly accepted.

“By the way, younger sister, mother asked me to check if you’re still planning to make the immortal tofu for tomorrow’s market?”

Tomorrow was the market day again. The heavy rain had stopped, so the market would go ahead as scheduled.

The market?

Liu Yinyin thought for a moment and shook her head. “We don’t have any moringa leaves for the immortal tofu, so I won’t be going tomorrow.”

She was pregnant, and since immortal tofu had medicinal properties, she didn’t want to eat too much of it. So, she had stopped making it and had been drinking mung bean soup instead.

Since the chickens hadn’t laid eggs yet and there was nothing else to trade at the market, she decided not to go.

In the afternoon, many villagers went up the mountain to dig for wild vegetables and pick moringa leaves.

Since the roads on the mountain were bad after the rain, Liu Yinyin decided not to go up with them right away.

The next day, the sun came out, and it was a beautiful, sunny day.

After breakfast, Liu Yinyin took a basket and went up the mountain to dig for wild vegetables. Since it was the market day, there weren’t many people on the mountain.

Liu Yinyin collected a lot of wild vegetables and picked quite a few mushrooms.

She didn’t sell them to the system. Her belly was almost five months along, and soon she wouldn’t be able to dig for wild vegetables anymore.

So, she decided to dry some wild vegetables and mushrooms while she still could, so she’d have food for later.

Jiang Cuihua went to the market in the morning and brought two baskets of immortal tofu to trade. However, business wasn’t as good as before.

“Sigh, you won’t believe it. I saw several families from our village taking immortal tofu to the market, and people from other villages were making it too. The news spread so quickly. I ended up selling the tofu for just one coin a bowl, and didn’t make much money. Looks like this business won’t be viable anymore.”

Jiang Cuihua came to deliver some things to her daughter, chattering about the market situation.

Then, she took a piece of pork out of her basket and happily said, “You won’t believe it, but they were selling pork at the market today, and it was really cheap—only five coins a pound, and no meat tickets required!”

In the county town, pork was sold with meat tickets and cost eight coins a pound.

Seeing how cheap it was, Jiang Cuihua quickly bought four pounds and brought one pound to Liu Yinyin.

Liu Yinyin felt something wasn’t quite right when she heard this. People in the countryside usually raised pigs starting in the spring, and the pigs were only three or four months old.

Pigs still had a few more months to grow before they could be slaughtered. Why would anyone slaughter pigs now?

When Liu Yinyin looked at the pork Jiang Cuihua brought, she almost threw up.

The pork was covered in white lumps, and it looked disgusting.

Liu Yinyin covered her mouth and frowned. “Mother, the pork you bought must be from sick pigs. We can’t eat it.”

Jiang Cuihua didn’t care much. “What’s the big deal? It doesn’t matter if it’s from a sick pig. As long as it’s cooked, it’s fine to eat.”

Raising pigs in the countryside wasn’t easy, and if a pig got sick, they wouldn’t just throw it away. They would slaughter the pig and sell it cheaply.

Liu Yinyin was silent.

She felt this was a serious matter, so she advised, “Mother, this isn’t just any sick pig. If I’m not mistaken, this could be plague pig meat.”

Jiang Cuihua’s smile instantly vanished. “This… this can’t be true.”

If it were plague pig meat, then it really couldn’t be eaten.

“Didn’t you say the pigs at home weren’t feeling well? I’m starting to suspect that the pigs in other villages might have contracted swine fever.”

Liu Yinyin wasn’t sure, but when it came to these things, it was better to be safe than sorry. No matter what, it was best to be cautious.

“It cost me two coins.” If it really were plague pig meat, Jiang Cuihua would be devastated.

Liu Yinyin reminded her, “Your life is more important than money. You absolutely can’t eat this pork.”

Jiang Cuihua still wasn’t happy about it. “We won’t eat it for now. I’ll ask around and find out more.”

If swine fever had spread to other villages, there was no way there wouldn’t be some rumors about it.

Liu Yinyin refused to eat the pork, and Jiang Cuihua couldn’t bear to throw it away. When they got home, she salted the four pounds of pork, planning to keep it for later, just in case she found out that there was no swine fever and it was safe to eat.

Unfortunately, Jiang Cuihua didn’t get the chance to ask anyone about it.

That afternoon, word spread that someone in the village had eaten sick pork and had been vomiting uncontrollably, and they had already been sent to the health clinic.

There were more than one person affected. One family had sent all their members to the hospital.

Jiang Cuihua’s face turned pale when she heard the news and hurried home to throw out all the pork.

After Liu Laifu returned from work, he told her, “The village head says there’s a meeting at the threshing ground. It’s urgent, and every household needs at least one person to attend. Go tell Yinyin.”

With that, Liu Laifu left.

When Jiang Cuihua pulled Liu Yinyin to the threshing ground, the place was already crowded, and they could only stand at the edge and watch.

The noise at the threshing ground was deafening, but after a while, Village Head Liu Changquan and the team leader Liu Baomin arrived. Liu Changquan took out a loudspeaker and shouted to the crowd, “Quiet!”

Once the villagers stopped talking, Liu Changquan began with the important news: “Folks, I’ve just received word that several households in Shijia Village have pigs infected with swine fever.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the threshing ground erupted into chaos.

Someone said, “My pigs have been looking weak and don’t want to eat. Could they have swine fever too?”

“My pigs are the same! What are we going to do?”

Others, who didn’t raise pigs, seemed to enjoy the misfortune. “What can we do? Of course, we’ll just dig a pit and bury the pigs.”