The wicked mother-in-law doesn't try to whitewash herself; she only abuses her awful children.

Chapter 400 Rhetoric
Everything about the old house has nothing to do with Tong Huaqiong.

She had no energy to pay attention to the old house; all her thoughts were on the pigsty.

Several more pigs were sold from the pigsty.

The remaining pigs were mostly pre-ordered by butcher shops.

Two days ago, Tong Pandi noticed that one of the pigs in the pigpen was not doing well while feeding the pigs.

Tong Huaqiong's heart pounded with fear; she was afraid of contracting swine fever.

If that's the case, wouldn't those pigs that were sold be a disaster?

If a city-wide plague were to break out, not only would her family's pork reputation be ruined, but she, the Lady of Suifeng Township, would likely become a sinner in history books.

Tong Huaqiong certainly didn't want to "go down in history" in this way.

These past two days, Tong Huaqiong and Tong Pandi have been taking care of the pigs day and night, and she has been browsing through a lot of breeding knowledge in her online space.

Fortunately, it was a false alarm.

That pig was just listless because it was too full.

After the false alarm, Tong Huaqiong dared not be careless.

What the biggest fear in animal husbandry is is disease.

A plague would not only wipe out all the money, but it would also likely affect all the livestock and people in the village.

When Tong Huaqiong set her sights on using the dilapidated temple as a pig farm, she was drawn to its location on the outskirts of the village, ensuring it wouldn't pollute the village's water source.

This false alarm made Tong Huaqiong even more determined that there must be no problems at the pig farm. She personally led Tong Pandi, Cao Shi, Gu Dahan and others to inspect every corner of the pigsty carefully.

Every day, Cao was instructed to sprinkle quicklime to disinfect areas prone to contamination.

The pigsty is washed clean with water every day, and pig manure is cleaned up promptly.

"Keep these newly arrived piglets separate from the existing pigs for seven days. Once you're sure there are no problems, then you can raise them together. Use this method for all new pigs that come in the future."

"These seven piglets belong to Fenglelou."

Gu Dahan purchased another batch of piglets from the neighboring village. After the piglets were unloaded, Tong Huaqiong gave instructions to Tong Pandi, a management trainee in the pig farming industry.

"Don't worry, Auntie," Tong Pandi said, then wrote something down on a piece of paper.

Tong Pandi learned to read with Chen Sufen and Liu Yue'e. She was very diligent and practiced every day. When she didn't know something, she would ask Master Su, who often came to the village, for help. Now she can write quite a few characters.

Under Tong Huaqiong's training, Tong Pandi has developed a scientific approach to pig farming, writing down all the problems encountered at the pig farm on paper.

According to Tong Huaqiong, this is a pig farming log.

"Auntie." Gu Ruinian entered the pig farm.

Tong Huaqiong frowned.

Intuitively, she didn't like Gu Ruinian.

"What brings you here?" Tong Huaqiong asked casually.

"I was just passing by and thought I'd come in and take a look," Gu Ruinian said, his eyes scanning the pigs in the pigpen.

Tong Huaqiong said, "What's so interesting about raising pigs? It's dirty and smelly."

Gu Ruinian said, "Auntie, your pigsty is so clean. I can't even smell that it's a pig farm when I pass by. How do you do that?"

It seemed unintentional, but it was actually an attempt to elicit information.

Tong Huaqiong smiled but remained silent.

Tong Pandi said, "How did we do that? By being diligent. We clean this pigsty countless times every day."

It turns out it was done manually.

Gu Ruinian felt a surge of disdain.

He had always wanted to find out about Tong Huaqiong's background, how could a widow from the countryside open a shop and a pig farm and make a lot of money?
You should know that this modern high-achieving student always fails when he tries something.

Before he could even visit the pastry shop in town, he first wandered around the village to check out Widow Tong's pig farm. Gu Ruinian clung to Tong Huaqiong, calling her "Auntie" affectionately.

"Where did Brother Jingzhe go? I passed by your house earlier and wanted to ask him a question, but he wasn't home," Gu Ruinian said.

In fact, he didn't even knock on the door.

Tong Huaqiong said, "He went to the private school in town. By the way, didn't you say he was going to the private school for class? Why didn't he go?"

Gu Ruinian put away his smile and said, "I think studying is not about the classroom, but about oneself. I will review at home first, and then go to the private school in a few days."

What he didn't say was that his family couldn't afford tuition and was trying to find a way.

He wandered around the village these past two days and discovered that there was actually a private school in the village, and it was the eldest son's coachman who was teaching a group of children.

Gu Ruinian listened through the window and felt very worried about the teaching quality and student quality of this era.

I imagine the private school in town isn't very good either.

No matter how good the teachers are, it's useless if the student body is poor.

He had originally intended to go to the town's private school to recruit a few ambitious scholars as his followers, but now it seemed unnecessary to waste that effort; turning Gu Jingzhe into a die-hard fan would suffice. Moreover, he had also learned that there was a Wanliu Academy in Ningcheng, the prefectural capital, from which half of the current dynasty's Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations) had come.

He planned to become a Xiucai (a successful candidate in the imperial examinations) and then go to Wanliu Academy to recruit followers.

Ignoring Gu Ruinian's thoughts, Tong Huaqiong went to see a sow that was about to give birth.

Gu Ruinian quickly followed and asked him all sorts of questions.

Tong Huaqiong realized that her adopted nephew had come to test her identity.

If it were someone else, Tong Huaqiong would reveal where she comes from.

But Gu Ruinian clearly had a wicked plan to trick her into revealing information.
Tong Huaqiong still wanted to subtly reveal his background.

"Auntie, why did you think of raising pigs instead of sheep? Pork doesn't taste as good as mutton," Gu Ruinian asked.

Pork is so pungent these days, which wealthy or noble family would want to eat it?

Tong Huaqiong said, "My family's old sow gave birth to more than a dozen pigs, and we couldn't bear to sell them, so we raised them."

Gu Ruinian asked, "Who do you sell these pigs to, Auntie?"

Tong Huaqiong said, "When the butchers come to buy pigs, who knows who the meat will be sold to?"

Gu Ruinian couldn't help but feel disappointed.

The old lady's business acumen wasn't particularly sophisticated; she was too down-to-earth.

"Don't you think pork tastes bad, ma'am? It has a gamey smell."

"In ordinary families, who eats meat every day? Who can afford mutton or beef? It's good enough if we can have pork."

"Auntie, would you like to make the pork taste even better? That is, to make it without the gamey smell."

Do you have a method to make it taste even better?

"I don't know either, I'm just asking if you know."

"Then I don't know."

Gu Ruinian tried to probe Tong Huaqiong many times but failed to get the information he wanted, which made him very unwilling.

Suddenly, he remembered an important piece of news. On the day he arrived at Qinghewan, he overheard the clan chief mention that his aunt had developed a pesticide to cure a disease in corn, resulting in a bumper corn harvest in the entire Ningcheng. As a result, she received an imperial decree from the Shengjing Emperor and was granted the title of Township Lady.

He wondered how an ordinary peasant woman who spent most of her life in Qinghewan could concoct pesticides.
She must be hiding a secret, and most likely she comes from the modern era like him, using information asymmetry to formulate pesticides.

She was just luckier than me; she succeeded.

With this in mind, Gu Ruinian chatted casually with Tong Huaqiong about the crops in the fields.

After discussing it for a while, he asked calmly, "Auntie, I heard that you were granted the title of village lady because you concocted a pesticide to repel insects from corn. How did you concoct it?"

Tong Huaqiong thought to herself, "This is a different way of finding out where she came from."