Chapter 19: Don’t Laugh in the Middle of the Night

Jiang Manman was taken aback by the team leader’s question.

Take the veterinary exam?

She had never considered it. In her past life, she didn’t even like treating people—now she’s expected to treat pigs?

“Team Leader, to be honest, I really haven’t thought about that yet.”

The team leader chuckled cheerfully.

“No worries, take your time. But if you want to treat people, you’ll definitely need a barefoot doctor’s license—basically, a medical license.
Otherwise, if someone reports you, you know how it is.
Same goes for veterinarians.
The regulations are still quite broad. It’s fine once or twice, but doing it long-term for profit definitely won’t fly.
So I suggest you take the exam and get licensed, just in case someone gets jealous and reports you.”

With that explanation, Jiang Manman understood.

“Then Team Leader, can I start by just working here, cutting pig grass?”

She didn’t need to say it—he had already planned to assign her there.

“Director Zhou already told me: if the sow is cured today, you’ll work here at the pig farm.”

Before he finished speaking, someone shouted from nearby:

“She’s up! She’s up! The pig is standing!”

Everyone finally relaxed.

They all rushed over to the pigsty to see.

Sure enough, the sow was standing again. Though she wasn’t yet leaping with energy,
she was clearly in much better condition than before.

Granny Ge exclaimed excitedly:

“She’s fine, she’s finally okay!
Comrade Jiang, looks like you really know a thing or two!”

Jiang Manman smiled.

“If I didn’t know anything, would I dare try?
Looks like starting tomorrow, I can officially begin cutting pig grass here, right?”

Zhou Ye opened his mouth but didn’t speak yet.

Granny Ge beamed and said excitedly:

“Welcome, welcome!
With someone who can treat pigs here, that saves us a ton of worry.
Right, Ye-ge?”

Zhou Ye pressed his tongue to the inside of his cheek and nodded.

“Yes, welcome, Comrade Jiang.”

Jiang Manman gave a light smile and nodded.

“Thank you.”

“Aiya, no need to thank us. We should be the ones thanking you.
Now that the pig seems fine, everyone can go back.
It’s my turn to do the night watch tonight.”

Yes, even though no one’s going to steal pigs around here, someone still has to keep night watch.

With that said, everyone finally breathed a collective sigh of relief and left.

Seeing the pig was okay, both the team leader and Secretary Zhao were relieved.

“Zhou Ye, you live close to Comrade Jiang—keep an eye on each other on the way back.”

As soon as Secretary Zhao said this, everyone turned to look.

One of the aunties boldly spoke up.

“Aiyo, I heard it was Comrade Jiang who saved Director Zhou from drowning yesterday.
Since you’ve already been held in each other’s arms, Director Zhou, aren’t you going to marry her?”

Jiang Manman was speechless.

“Auntie, what are you saying?
What era do you think we’re in? Still clinging to those old-fashioned, feudal ideas?
Just because I did a good deed and saved someone doesn’t mean I should be forced into something.
That makes no sense. I’m heading home.”

Zhou Ye smacked his lips and watched the plump girl stride off ahead. He hurried to catch up.

When they reached a place with no one around, Zhou Ye asked her,

“You really don’t want me to take responsibility? I could marry you.”

“Scram!”

Startled by her sudden outburst, Zhou Ye froze and scratched his nose.

Fine, it’s not like he didn’t offer—if she didn’t want it, he couldn’t be blamed.

Jiang Manman grumbled at him in irritation.

Sure, the guy was good-looking and had a great figure,
but she didn’t come here to get married.
She came to cut pig grass.

Hmm, actually, that wasn’t quite right. She came here to help build a beautiful Huaguo.
She wasn’t going to get married and start having kids right away.

No, no, this was the best era—she had so many things to do.
How could she possibly get married now?

“You’ve really got quite the temper, don’t you?” he said.

“You brought up something that makes me mad—how could I not be mad?
From now on, don’t bring up that topic again.
Did you use the method I gave you? Did you figure out who handled the poisonous plant?”

At this, Zhou Ye’s expression immediately turned serious.

“I found out. But I’m not sure if it was intentional or accidental. I need to observe a bit more.”

Jiang Manman was curious.

“So who was it?”

Zhou Ye thought about it. She was the one who gave him the method.
She cured the pig. She had only been here a couple of days.

So he said,

“You wouldn’t know him even if I told you. His name’s Qian Duoyu.”

Jiang Manman paused and tilted her head to look at him. It wasn’t that dark—the moon was bright, stars were out,
definitely not pitch black.

“Who says I don’t know him?
If it’s that Qian Duoyu, I’ve met him before while collecting firewood in the mountains.
Three words to describe him: Takes. Advantage.
I ran into him twice—both times he tried to take advantage of me.”

Zhou Ye clearly misunderstood what she meant by “take advantage,” and his face turned cold.

“He tried to take advantage of you? That’s a serious issue—definitely a matter of conduct. Can’t be tolerated.”

Jiang Manman paused, then quickly realized what he meant.

“No need to be so dramatic.
He was trying to get my chicken and rabbit, that’s all.”

She explained the situation, and Zhou Ye was speechless.
Did she have to phrase things that way?

Apparently, her version of “taking advantage” wasn’t the same as his version of “taking advantage.”

“Fine. Next time, please be clear when you speak.”

Rolling her eyes at him, they both arrived at their respective doorsteps. Jiang Manman thought of something.

“I plan to build a courtyard wall outside. But lately everyone in the village is busy.”

“I think that’s unnecessary. I’ve been here for over a year—
even if there are the occasional arguments, no one’s ever broken into a house to steal anything.
Our area’s quite safe.
Even those random thugs rarely come this way.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m here.”

Jiang Manman gave him a massive eye-roll.

“Have you considered that I might be building it to keep you out?”

“HAHAHAHAHA—”

His sudden burst of laughter made Jiang Manman want to clamp a hand over his mouth.

It was already late. Every household had turned off their lights and gone to bed.
If he kept laughing like that, who knew what he might attract…

“Comrade Jiang, you’re back! Thank goodness—I was getting scared being home alone.”

“I’ll get a dog for you later. That way, you won’t have to be afraid.”

“Ooh? That sounds good!”

Jiang Manman thought about it—yeah, not a bad idea.

Even though it was dark, it was only around 8 or 9 PM.

She washed up and lay down. Tang Xiaomin lay on the other side of the curtain and asked curiously:

“You really know how to treat pigs?”

“Yeah, there was a clinic not far from where I lived. I used to help out there often,
so over time I picked up quite a bit.”

That wasn’t a lie—her original body did go there a lot.

Because Xiao Wenxuan’s mom worked at the health clinic,
she would often bring her meat as gifts.

Of course, that was like tossing meat buns to a dog—gone without a trace.

To win favor with who she thought would be her future mother-in-law,
she frequently helped out at the clinic. Over time, she learned a lot.

Starting from cleaning, sweeping, and wiping tables,
she eventually picked up how to prepare medicine and give injections too.