After returning from my cultivation journey, I built a farm through fortune telling.

Chapter 102

They set off at eight in the morning, and after such a long journey, they didn't get home until almost five. After taking a shower, Qin Xiu and Bai Jiang had already prepared dinner and were waiting for them.

Looking at the two meat dishes on the table, no one had much of an appetite and only ate a few bites quickly.

In the living room on the second floor, Qin Xiu was still discussing the matter: "I don't know which god this is, he's so wicked and immoral, he dared to commit murder on our village's territory!"

Bai Jiang also asked, "Lu Lu, how long did you say this person had been dead?"

"Three months."

Before Bai Lu could speak, Bai Chen answered first, glancing at Qin Xiu and Bai Jiang in the process—had the two elders accepted Bai Lu's uniqueness so easily?

She said three months, and you actually believed her?
He was at least shocked at first, but the two of them reached a consensus in the process of slowly boiling a frog in water.
Master Qingxu's name is really useful!

Bai Jiang had no idea that Bai Chen had so many thoughts in his mind. After pondering for a while, he asked Qin Xiu, "Three months... I can't recall any new faces visiting our village."

Dongshi Village is the last village at the end of the cement road connecting all villages. Further in, there are only farmlands and barren mountains. The village is relatively isolated. If a new face comes, it will definitely be remembered!

That is a clue.

Bai Lu was still racking her brains about how to give the police a hint when her dad handed her a pillow!

But Qin Xiu wouldn't let her tell anyone, so Bai Jiang took a shower, ruffled her wet hair a couple of times, and went out.

After coaxing Qin Xiu to sleep, the three siblings immediately went into Bai Lu's room and sat cross-legged on the wooden bed that didn't even have a Simmons mattress.

Bai Lu sighed, "Once the vegetables are sold, we'll probably get a whole house custom-made. Look at our house, look at my bare walls, how can this be worthy of a noble cultivator like me! Just consider it supporting my colleagues' business."

They have money, yet their accommodations are so basic.

The female lead, who is in the same situation as Bai Lu, would have been living in a villa long ago!

Bai Chen: "Cultivators... are noble, but why do you have to say it yourself? Can't we be a little more humble?"

Egret: "..."

"Sister, do you know something about what happened today?"

Bai Wei suddenly asked.

“Hmm.” Bai Lu nodded: “I know where the murderer is, but Master Qingxu said that we cultivators should not interfere directly, but can only provide them with some clues.”

"I see..." Bai Wei said thoughtfully, "Does that mean this is just a simple murder case, without any other strange elements like unidentified creatures involved?"

"That's how it is at the moment. I haven't found anything unusual at the scene."

"Sister, when can we learn this technique that can pinpoint a suspect's exact location?"

Bai Chen's eyes also lit up as he looked at Bai Lu. Who wouldn't want such a precognitive ability?

"You can learn it now! But when you'll be able to learn it depends on your comprehension."

As Bai Lu spoke, he brushed his hand across his storage ring, and a jade slip appeared in front of the three of them: "One by one, touch your head to the jade slip—what are you doing?!"

Bai Lu's lips twitched as she watched Bai Chen cross-legged, then bang his head against the bed—no, the jade slip on the bed. She picked up the jade slip and spread her hands—

Bai Wei almost laughed herself silly. She slowly pressed her forehead against the jade slip, and all the characters she didn't understand before suddenly flooded into her mind. She found that she could read the characters, but she couldn't fully comprehend them yet, and her head felt a little sore.

Bai Chen was the same.

"First, put it in your mind, then slowly integrate it into your present understanding—"

With a flick of her hand, Bai Lu sent five array plates into the encirclement formed by the three people. She picked one up and said, "Let's go. It's a dark and windy night, too quiet to do anything. Let's get to work!"

This array is multifunctional, capable of preventing floods and droughts, repelling insects and birds, and also providing some protection. If this function is activated, it can, to a certain extent, prevent entry while allowing exit. The egrets do not intend to activate it, in case anyone enters their territory and is blocked by the invisible barrier.

She might be able to contend for tomorrow's headline news!
The array plate can be placed in a fixed position or used as needed, like the egret spreading spiritual rain in the cultivation world. However, this would negate the long-term insect-repelling effect.

The egret chose the former, set all the data, and then buried the array plate in a certain place.

Bai Wei was worried that the array plate might get wet and rust if it remained underground for a long time, so she put it in a mooncake box. As soon as she put it in, she heard a rustling sound and two huge rats scurried out.

Bai Chen ran over and exclaimed, "What a huge hole! This rat has made our vegetable garden its home—holy crap, could it be stealing our vegetables?! Do rats eat vegetables too?"

"Mice are omnivorous; they eat everything!"

As Bai Wei inspected the seedlings, the moon was quite bright tonight, and cultivators, with their keen hearing and sharp eyesight, could see even in the dark. She discovered that the roots of the seedlings had been pulled out two meters from the mouse hole.

Rabbits don't eat the grass near their burrows, and neither do mice, but they do hide things there; mouse holes are full of either rotten or fresh vegetable leaves.

……

The next morning, as Bailu slipped on her slippers and went downstairs, she heard Aunt Gui's loud voice: "Xiu, Xiu! Lulu, where's your mother?"

"I'm filling rice husks to feed the chickens! Aunt Gui, is something the matter?"

"Yeah, I need to talk to your mom about something!"

"Hey! What's up? Why are you here so early?"

Qin Xiu, wearing an apron and carrying a small bucket, hurried out.

"Hey, don't mention it."

Aunt Gui looked unwell: "I don't know if it's because of Grandfather, but our pigs were fine yesterday, but this morning they won't eat anything! They're covered in red bumps, just like the pigs that A-Gui lost. I thought about treating them, but they won't heal, so I thought I'd just sell them. Do you know anyone who can help?"

"I do know a few, but I don't know if they'd be willing to take them. Let me ask around for you!"

"Alas, we must have done something wrong in our past life! These forty-odd pigs, each weighing 270 or 280 pounds, are almost ready for market. If they become unsellable, the whole family will be in tears."

"There's definitely no market price for this kind of thing. It'll probably be a dollar or two cheaper. You'd better be prepared. If someone takes it and the price is right, then sell it. Don't take any chances. This disease is a death sentence. Look at the families in our village, aren't they all hauling away truckloads of dead pigs to bury?"

"There's nothing we can do but accept the low price. We're just grateful that someone's willing to buy it."

Egret: "..."

She really didn't want to hear about such sordid things, really. Recently, a new disease has emerged in the pig world.

When pigs get this disease, their whole bodies are covered in red bumps. They become extremely short of breath, lose their appetite, and die within a few days.

To minimize their losses, many farmers will sell their still-living pigs to pig dealers at low prices—provided that the dealers are willing and dare to buy them.

Bai Lu was unaware that Qin Xiu had such a method. Her first reaction was that it was wrong, after all, she had studied for over ten years and her basic moral values ​​were already formed.

How can they sell diseased pigs? What if consumers get sick after eating the pork? This is a terrible crime!
But with 43 pigs, each averaging 275 jin (approximately 187.5 kg), and given the current rising price of pork at 8.9 yuan per jin, if all of these pigs die, Aunt Gui's family will lose more than 100,000 yuan.

This is truly a devastating blow to livestock farmers in rural areas.

The egret pursed its lips.

Qin Xiu has already spoken with the pig broker on the phone, and they're having a lively conversation, mainly about negotiating the price.

If you listen carefully, you'll hear them haggling over a penny or two per pound. Aunt Gui kept asking if the price could be raised by a penny.

Bai Lu sighed, rummaged through his storage bag, looked at the various kinds of animal-eating pills he had bought, picked one out, and went to Aunt Gui's pigsty. As soon as he got close, he was almost suffocated by the mixed stench. What's more, there were dozens of sick pigs inside, making the smell even more unbearable.

She shut off her sense of smell, took a water ladle, dissolved the pill, and then poured the dissolved medicine directly into a large bucket. Finally, she poured the water from the bucket into the feeding trough.

The pigs were uncomfortable and initially didn't want to pay attention to the sudden appearance of clean water. After all, they had bottle nipples and taps for drinking water, and this method of drinking from troughs was long gone. But as they lay down, they discovered—

Why does this water smell so good?
The second brother, feeling very uncomfortable but not quite dead yet, crawled a couple of steps on his forelegs. Without standing up, he simply lay there, reaching into the feeding trough and, following his instincts, took a sip of water. Mmm—

Delicious!

My throat felt soothed after drinking it.

The cultivation world is an extremely efficient one, and elixirs are generally tied to one's life—

If you weren't injured, who would take the elixir?
If taking pills doesn't immediately restore more than half of the injury, who would take them?

In the world of cultivation, elixirs are all about immediate results.

The first person to drink water, Pigsy, suddenly felt that his head was no longer dizzy, his legs were no longer tired, and he even wanted to eat from the three-compartment trough!
I don't know if there's a language of pigs, but after the second brother (pig) grunted a few times around the pigpen, more and more pigs went to drink water. A few wanted to drink too, but they were too sick to get up.

The egret had no choice but to divert two streams of water for them to drink, ensuring that every pig had a drink. The remaining piglets were separated from the other pigpens—living under the same roof, these smaller piglets might also get sick.

Inside Aunt Gui's pigsty, gongs and drums resounded, and firecrackers crackled.

The two brothers banged on the iron bars, making a loud banging sound, and kept groaning—

I want to eat!
When I'm sick, I don't have a good appetite; I've gone without food for three days!
Even a young man wouldn't dare to be this hungry!

The pigs were crying for food, and some of them couldn't resist and had already put their two front hooves on the pigpen wall, which was only a little over a meter high.

Where's the food?

I'm eating!
What could the egrets do? She could only scatter a few handfuls of feed, but it wasn't enough to fill their teeth, and even if they ate it, it was as if they hadn't eaten anything. The pigs were practically about to rebel!
When Aunt Gui and Qin Xiu brought the pig broker over, they had the illusion that the pig was going to eat people.

"What's going on?"

Aunt Gui jogged over immediately. Bai Lu had already left when she heard the commotion. She hadn't changed her "equipment" before entering the pigsty. Although the pigsty was full of sick pigs, the term "taking one's anger out on someone" was completely unreasonable. In addition, Aunt Gui was in a bad mood, and Bai Lu might have given her an outlet for her frustration.

Is this pig sick...?

The pig broker craned his neck to look inside, and the two pigs clinging to the wall of the pigpen all turned to look at him. Their pig eyes, which were extremely similar to human eyes, stared straight at him, startling him.

My mother!

Even more frightening was that the pigs became agitated. Upon seeing Aunt Gui, the pigstykeeper, they completely lost their composure, and the entire pigpen echoed each other with loud squeals, the enormous noise making Qin Xiu's head buzz.

"Ah Gui, this pig isn't sick at all! Even wild boars aren't as wild as these!"

And there are no red bumps on the skin at all!

"Are you sure you're not mistaken?! He's so lively and energetic, he doesn't look sick at all."

She asked Aunt Gui.

"That's impossible! I'm not senile. I can still tell if someone is sick or not. When I went to your house, they were all lying down, without any energy at all."

She herself wondered if she had wandered into the wrong pigsty, but she was still very happy, well...

She glanced at the pig broker. She had just told him the pigs were sick. Now, could she ask him for the price of a healthy pig?
"Sister-in-law, we can't do this!"

The pig broker refused without hesitation. Although the pig looked very good and didn't seem sick at all, who knew if it was being kept alive with hormones!

If the pig you bought dies on the way to sell it, you'll be the one who suffers the loss!
Aunt Gui was definitely unwilling to sell it cheaply, as it was only 1.2 yuan per jin (500 grams), which meant a difference of more than 10,000 yuan for over 40 heads!

But she couldn't say she wouldn't sell it to him, since she had already told him it was a sick pig. If he just said something in their pig brokerage circle, no matter how healthy her pig was, she wouldn't be able to get a good price!
So she could only try to negotiate with him: "Boss, how about this—my pigs are indeed a bit sickly, but we went to pay our respects at Taigong Mountain yesterday. Maybe it's Taigong's blessing that these little guys are better again. Let's wait a few days and see how it goes. If our pigs are still healthy in a few days, then you can give me a fair price. Is that okay?"

The pig broker hesitated for a moment without speaking. Aunt Gui secretly nudged Qin Xiu in the lower back, and Qin Xiu chimed in, "Old Zhu, we all know each other well. Whether it's an illness or a cure, we won't hide it from you. Just wait a few days and see how it goes, okay?"

"Since you've said that, what can I say? But Xiao Qin, we have a deal: if the pigs don't recover from their illness, or if they get even sicker in a few days, I can't guarantee I can take them in again!"

"This..." Aunt Gui hesitated for a moment.

Hesitating between making an extra 10,000 and losing 100,000, she felt the risk was too great, so maybe... she should just sell it!

What if this pig is just experiencing a final burst of energy before death?

But... so many pigs experiencing a final burst of energy at the same time?

"Well? You'd better think it over."

When it comes to money, Qin Xiu dared not give advice to others casually.

Bai Lu was even less likely to be involved; she didn't even know how to explain her profession as a "veterinarian," and she couldn't possibly pin everything on Master Qingxu.

(End of this chapter)