“Ningning, what are you looking for?” Yao Chunhua asked in a low voice, noticing that her daughter seemed to be searching for something.

Soon, Gu Jianing used a tree branch to sift through a pile of leftovers from the pigs’ feed. Her gaze quickly locked onto something. She picked up a clean, large leaf and used the branch to place the object onto the leaf. “Mom, do you recognize this? Have you ever fed this to the pigs?”

Yao Chunhua leaned in to take a look and immediately recognized it. “This… this is crotalaria. How did this end up here? I’ve never fed crotalaria to the pigs before.”

Surprised, Yao Chunhua’s voice rose noticeably.

By now, the villagers outside had heard her.

“What? Crotalaria? Did the pigs get sick because they ate crotalaria?”

“Crotalaria is poisonous. How could anyone feed that to the pigs?”

Old Zhang was the first to step forward and take a look. His cloudy eyes quickly identified it. “Yes, this is crotalaria. So that’s the reason.”

He glanced at Gu Jianing with approval. This young girl was impressive—she had noticed something he hadn’t and even recognized the plant.

A long time ago, someone had accidentally eaten crotalaria and gotten poisoned. After that, knowledge about the plant spread, and everyone learned to avoid it. They wouldn’t pick it or even step on it.

By now, Yao Chunhua had already taken the large leaf outside the pigpen.

“Everyone, take a look. This is what my Ningning just found. Do you all know what this is?”

An experienced villager stepped forward, squinted, and quickly identified it.

“Isn’t this crotalaria?”

“Yes, even though it’s broken up, you can still tell it’s crotalaria.”

“But crotalaria is poisonous. Oh my, the pigs got sick because they ate this.”

“Chunhua, how could you feed crotalaria to the pigs?” Qin Zhaodi blurted out, ready to pin the blame on Yao Chunhua.

Yao Chunhua glared at Qin Zhaodi. “Qin Zhaodi, if your brain isn’t working, do you want me to knock some sense into you?”

“Everyone who’s been up the mountain knows what crotalaria is and that it’s poisonous. I’d have to be blind to feed this to the pigs.”

“I’ve been raising pigs in this pen for three years. Do you think I can’t tell the difference between pigweed and crotalaria?”

Qin Zhaodi muttered under her breath, “Maybe you are blind.”

Yao Chunhua sneered, “If I were really blind, how could I have raised fat, healthy pigs for the past two years without any issues?”

Hearing this, the villagers nodded in agreement.

That made sense.

Even children know about crotalaria. There’s no way Yao Chunhua, who’s in charge of the pigpen, wouldn’t know. If something happened to the pigs, she’d be the first one held responsible.

Besides, everyone knew what kind of person Yao Chunhua was.

“Aunt Yao, so what you’re saying is…”

Yao Chunhua, now calm and assertive, spoke up, “Last night when I left, the pigs had already been fed. This morning, I planned to feed them again, but they refused to eat. The pile of pigweed I prepared is still sitting there untouched. This means that between last evening and this morning, someone secretly fed the pigs crotalaria!”

“If that’s the case, then this person is either targeting me, Yao Chunhua, or trying to harm the collective interests of our village.”

Her words immediately stirred up the crowd.

If this person was targeting Yao Chunhua or even the Gu family, that would be one thing. But if they were targeting the collective interests of the village, then this person was truly malicious and couldn’t be let off the hook.

Someone spoke up, “Qin Zhaodi, you were so quick to jump in earlier. Could it be that you’re the one who secretly fed the pigs crotalaria?”

After all, it was clear that Qin Zhaodi had some grudge against Yao Chunhua.

Qin Zhaodi’s eyes widened. She hadn’t expected that her dislike for Yao Chunhua would make her a suspect. She immediately jumped to her feet. “I’m also a member of Huaihua Village. I’m looking forward to eating pork at the end of the year too. Why would I want the pigs to die?”

“Don’t talk nonsense.” Qin Zhaodi’s eyes darted around, and she quickly came up with an idea. “I think it’s more likely to be the educated youths. After all, they don’t get a share of the pork.”

Hearing this, the villagers thought there was some truth to her words.

It was indeed unlikely that the villagers of Huaihua Village, who were looking forward to eating pork, would do such a thing. But the educated youths were a different story. Although they had been relatively well-behaved lately, no one had forgotten how troublesome they were when they first arrived.

“Don’t make baseless accusations. Do you have any evidence?”

“We’re educated people. How could we do something like poisoning pigs?”

“If you want to accuse someone, you need evidence. Did anyone see anything? Without evidence, we’ll go to the commune leaders and report this to the police to clear our names.”

For once, the educated youths stood united.

The villagers and the educated youths began to argue, and the area outside the pigpen became noisy and chaotic.

Until Old Man Gu stepped forward and shouted, “Enough arguing!”

“Everyone should first think about whether anyone approached the pigpen between last evening and this morning.”

“If someone saw something or has evidence, then we can talk about it.”

“Right now, the most important thing is to make sure the pigs recover.”

The brigade secretary, who was also a relative of the Gu family, Gu Shun, spoke up, “That’s the truth.” He then turned to Gu Jianing. “Ningning, since you figured out that the pigs got sick from eating crotalaria, do you have a way to treat them?”

All eyes turned to Gu Jianing, filled with hope, including Old Zhang’s.

Although he had seen cases of crotalaria poisoning in humans before, he had never treated it. Whenever someone was poisoned by crotalaria, he would immediately recommend they go to the hospital.

Under everyone’s expectant gazes, Gu Jianing did not disappoint. “Yes, I do.”

She then listed a few medicinal herbs and asked Old Zhang, “Uncle Zhang, do you have these herbs in your clinic?”

Old Zhang quickly nodded. “Yes, I do.”

“Then I’ll go to your place now to prepare the medicine and brew it.”

“Of course.”

Hearing that Gu Jianing was going to Old Zhang’s clinic to prepare medicine for the pigs, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. As long as the pigs could be cured, that was what mattered.

Gu Jianing didn’t dare delay. The pigs’ condition was critical, and they needed to be treated as soon as possible. If they waited any longer, the acute poisoning could kill them.

But before leaving, Gu Jianing quickly spent 5 points in the system store to buy something.

【Scent Tracker: 1-month duration. Can track the last person who directly touched a specific object, no matter how far away they are, and automatically mark their location.】

Gu Jianing only had 20 points left, but she felt that spending 5 points was worth it, as long as she could find out who had framed her family.

“System, activate the Scent Tracker. Track the last person who directly touched this crotalaria.”