The reason for her panic was that, just before she ran home, two of the pigs had suddenly collapsed, twitching and making hoarse noises, while some of the other pigs had urinated.

“…But there was blood in the urine, Ningning. I couldn’t have mistaken it—it was definitely blood.”

“These pigs have been raised for almost a year now. In just a little while, the commune will come to take half of them, and the rest will be distributed to each household in the village. How could something go wrong at this time?”

“Do you think the pigs might die?”

At the thought of this possibility, Yao Chunhua’s face turned pale.

If something really happened to the nine pigs, the village would have a hard time explaining it to the commune. Not only would she lose her job of raising the pigs, but she might also have to compensate for the loss.

Nine pigs—how much money would that cost?

As soon as Yao Chunhua noticed something was wrong with the pigs, she immediately ran to find her daughter, since her daughter was training to be a doctor and knew a bit about pathology.

“Mom, don’t panic yet. Let’s go together and see what’s going on.”

Gu Jianing didn’t waste any time and quickly went out with her mother.

As they walked, she asked for more details.

When she learned that her mother had been feeding the pigs the same way as before, Gu Jianing thought that the problem likely wasn’t due to her mother.

The question was whether this was an accident or intentional.

If it was an accident, that would be one thing. But if it was intentional, then someone was definitely targeting her family.

Who could it be?

Gu Jianing’s mind was racing, but she couldn’t come up with an answer for now. She could only follow her mother as they hurried toward the village pigsty.

On the way, they ran into her father.

“What’s going on? I just saw you running home in a hurry.” Gu Jianing’s father, who had been at the village committee, had seen his wife rushing home earlier. By the time he realized something might be wrong, he hadn’t been able to stop her, so he had come to check on her.

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

“I’m taking our daughter to see what’s going on.”

“I’ll go find Old Zhang. He’s also the village doctor—he might have some ideas.” Gu Jianing’s father immediately understood the seriousness of the situation. Aside from his daughter, Old Zhang was the only other village doctor. Whether he could figure it out or not, it was best to bring him along.

“Yes, yes, go find Old Zhang.”

With that, Gu Jianing’s father immediately turned around and hurried toward the village clinic where Old Zhang was.

Gu Jianing thought that whether this incident with the pigs was an accident or intentional, they had to save the pigs—that is, cure them.

At this moment, she suddenly remembered something.

She asked in her mind, “System, this divine doctor space of ours shouldn’t be limited to just binding with humans, right? It can bind with animals too, can’t it? Like pigs.”

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

Gu Jianing was delighted. That was great.

This meant that as long as she bound the nine pigs, the system would automatically analyze the cause of their illness.

It would also provide corresponding treatment methods.

Once she spent some time quickly learning these treatment methods, she could cure the nine pigs.

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

However…

As they got closer, Gu Jianing frowned at the sight of a large crowd gathered not far away. She asked, “Mom, were there this many people here before you came home?”

It looked like a lot of the villagers who were supposed to be working had come.

They were all crowded around the pigsty.

“No, there was only me. Why are there so many people now?”

And it was clear that they were gathered around the pigsty, discussing something.

Gu Jianing’s thoughts shifted rapidly. How had so many people found out in such a short time?

Someone must have called them here.

Were they trying to make a big scene?

The person who called the villagers—was it a coincidence, or had they been waiting for this moment?

If it was the latter, did that mean this incident was intentional?

And was this person the one behind the scenes, targeting the Gu family?

“Hey, it’s Yao Chunhua. She’s here.”

Someone in the crowd with sharp eyes spotted Yao Chunhua and immediately spoke up.

At once, all eyes turned to Yao Chunhua, and people rushed forward to ask questions.

“Aunt Yao, what’s going on with the pigs? Are they sick or have they caught some disease? They look so off, twitching like that.”

“Heavens, they’ve been raised for a year. These big, fat pigs—if they die, what are we going to do?”

“Chunhua, where did you go? The pigs are almost dead, and you ran off. Did you do something to them?”

One after another, they questioned Yao Chunhua, their tones carrying a hint of accusation.

Of course, Yao Chunhua wasn’t one to back down easily.

Though she was worried about the pigs, she held her ground.

“Qin Zhaodi, has your mouth been eating dung? Why do you spew filth as soon as you open it? Do you believe I’ll tear your mouth apart? What do you mean I ran off? If I had run off, would you be seeing me now? What do you mean I did something to the pigs? Am I crazy? I just saw something was wrong with the pigs and went home to get my daughter to take a look.”

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

At this moment, Gu Yunnan and Gu Yunzhou, hearing the commotion, also arrived. The two young men stood behind Yao Chunhua, making the others hesitate to push further.

They could only mutter weakly, “But you’re the one raising the pigs. Now that there’s a problem, who else are we supposed to turn to?”

Qin Zhaodi had always been jealous of Yao Chunhua for having a village chief as a husband and getting the cushy job of raising pigs.

Back when the village had decided to set up a small pigsty and was looking for someone to raise the pigs for ten work points a day, many of the village women had wanted the job.

Qin Zhaodi was one of them.

But in the end, the job had gone to Yao Chunhua.

Because of this, Qin Zhaodi had secretly made many bitter remarks and even complained that it wasn’t fair.

But she didn’t stop to think that the village pigsty hadn’t existed before.

It was Gu Jianing’s father who had negotiated with the commune leaders for a long time to get the pigsty set up. The piglets had also been bought through his connections.

In other words, it was Gu Jianing’s father who had made this happen.

So what was wrong with letting his wife raise the pigs?

It was completely reasonable, and no one could find fault with it.

Seeing that no one supported her, Qin Zhaodi had no choice but to let it go.

She could only secretly curse Yao Chunhua, hoping the pigs would die.

But curses aside, Yao Chunhua had always raised the pigs well.

Now, however, the pigs Yao Chunhua had raised were finally in trouble.

As soon as Qin Zhaodi found out, she rushed over and even called others to come along.

Seeing the pigs twitching as if they were about to die, Qin Zhaodi was thrilled. She immediately latched onto Yao Chunhua like a rabid dog.

If it hadn’t been for Gu Yunnan and Gu Yunzhou arriving in time, and Yao Chunhua standing her ground and firing back, the villagers’ emotions might have been stirred up by Qin Zhaodi.