I raise furry animals and fly them to my motherland.

Chapter 162 Science VS Metaphysics
"No, the medicine will only cause some side effects after it is taken. The cow will recover its health once it gets better."

Xu Ying felt a deep sense of helplessness.

The villagers readily believed some outrageous and almost fantastical claims, while showing little trust in scientific explanations.

"Station Chief Xu, perhaps we should wait for Master Wu to come and assess the situation."

The villagers tried to persuade Xu Ying.

Xu Ying was inwardly amused and annoyed, but she maintained a polite smile on her face. "Alright then."

Let her see who this Master Wu really is.

Xu Ying then spoke up, "How about this? With so many cows, you bring out a few, and I'll treat them. Let's see whose treatment is more effective."

The villagers looked at each other in bewilderment, but then Village Chief Miao said, "I think what Station Chief Xu said makes sense. She is a professional veterinarian and she has some skills. We can't underestimate her abilities just because she is young."

"Here's what we'll do. There's an abandoned old cowshed in the village, it's nearby. You can take two cows to the old cowshed for treatment."

Xu Ying gave a grateful smile: "Okay, thank you for your understanding, village chief."

At this moment, Liu Kai finally arrived slowly. He was so frightened when he learned that Xu Ying was going to challenge some kind of master who was very authoritative in the eyes of the villagers that he turned pale.

Liu Kai said in a low voice, "What are you doing? We're just here to collect animal samples, why are you causing trouble?"

Xu Ying sighed, "These cattle are clearly not in good condition. If treatment is delayed, the villagers will suffer significant losses."

"And they were crying out in pain right in front of me, I couldn't just stand by and do nothing."

She originally only wanted to have the cow checked, but the villagers insisted on calling Master Wu over, so this situation was hard to avoid.

Liu Kai was incredibly cowardly: "If a fight breaks out later, I'm not strong enough to fight, so I'll leave first. You can communicate with animals, so you can ask these cows to help you."

This Master Wu has quite the airs; he didn't arrive for half an hour.

Xu Ying had already roughly observed the condition of the herd of cattle and made an assessment.

"The master has arrived! The master has arrived!"

The sound of an engine came from outside the cowshed. A pickup truck covered in mud was parked outside the yard, and a young man in a plaid shirt jumped out.

The young man didn't come in immediately, but instead walked quickly to the passenger side of the pickup truck and opened the door for the passenger.

A man dressed in a black Tang suit got out of the passenger seat. He wore sunglasses, had a mustache, and his hair was tied up in a bun like a Taoist priest's, secured with a jade hairpin. He looked quite dignified and had a very imposing air about him.

"Oh, so this is Station Chief Xu, the veterinary expert from the big city, right?"

Miao Zhong, the village chief's nephew and also the village's fertilizer agent, greeted Master Wu respectfully as he entered Yin An's cowshed. However, upon seeing Xu Ying, his attitude turned contemptuous, a stark contrast to his sycophantic demeanor towards Master Wu.

Xu Ying was completely unconcerned about Miao Zhong's attitude and calmly observed the second brother.

She had just learned from the Yin couple that the village chief's nephew sold fertilizer.

Although everyone praised the village chief for his integrity, justice, honesty, and kindness, Xu Ying couldn't help but overthink things because of this relationship.

Especially since she had only recently arrived in Dongcun, the village chief's nephew knew of her existence and what she was there for without ever having met her.

This clearly shows that someone had given him a heads-up.

However, she did not voice her suspicions.

After all, the village chief, who had been with these villagers for decades, held far more authority than she, an outsider.

When the Yin family and other villagers saw Master Wu arrive, they were practically kneeling to welcome him.

After learning about the strange situation of the ox licking the wall, Master Wu smiled slightly and said, "It's possessed by an evil spirit."

"I'll perform an exorcism ritual for you; you go and prepare the offerings."

Master Wu seemed to be performing this kind of ritual before. As soon as he mentioned the offerings, Yin An's parents immediately rushed home to prepare them.

Lamb legs, fruit, and wine jars were brought out one after another.

Master Wu took out a small cloth bag from his cloth bag, and then used toilet paper to sprinkle white powder crystals on the wall.

Xu Ying felt that the thing looked like salt. If it were a normal mineral deficiency, sprinkling salt would work, but since it was caused by mineral imbalance due to oil and fertilizer pollution, sprinkling salt would be useless. Comprehensive drug treatment was needed.

Master Wu lit a few incense sticks, held a candle, and walked around the cowshed once, thus concluding the ritual. Yin An's father, being very considerate, gave Master Wu a red envelope: "Master, this is a token of my appreciation for your hard work."

Master Wu accepted it with a calm expression.

Xu Ying, expressionless, led the two cows in her hands and followed the village chief to the old cowshed.

They were going to spend the night in the village, and the village chief arranged for Xu Ying and Liu Kai to stay in the old house of Song Dongbai, the eldest of the teenagers.

Liu Kai, who was doing the hard labor, had already gone to clean the old house.

Yin An's parents also quickly moved from their own cowshed to the old cowshed.

"Let me look at their eyes."

Xu Ying approached the oldest black ox.

Livestock usually resist contact with strangers, but this cow was unusually docile, even nuzzling its head toward her hand.

Xu Ying gently opened the cow's eyelids; the conjunctiva was an unhealthy pale white with tiny bleeding points at the edges.

She took a tongue depressor from the toolbox: "Come on, open your mouth, let me see if there's anything wrong with your mouth."

The black bull obediently opened its mouth, revealing horizontal grooves on its teeth—a typical sign of fluorosis, a marker of excessive fluoride intake.

"Is the stool loose?"

"Absolutely! It's like water; we have to clean it several times a day."

Yin An's father looked worried. "Station Chief Xu, could it really be a plague?"

Xu Ying did not answer immediately.

She took out several sampling bottles, which contained feed and drinking water respectively.

She took a fecal sample from the cow's rectum.

Seeing how dedicated Xu Ying was, and how she wasn't afraid of getting dirty or tired, the Yin couple changed their opinion of her.

When she dipped the test strip into the cow's water trough, the originally yellow test strip immediately turned dark blue.

"The pH is 9.2, too alkaline." Xu Ying frowned. "Did you change your water source recently?"

"No, we've always used the old well water."

Yin An's father suddenly lowered his voice, "But last month, the village chief Miao's nephew said he was going to improve our soil by spreading a lot of 'high-efficiency fertilizer' in the upstream fields."

Xu Ying's eyes sharpened.

She took out a syringe and drew a tube of blood from the cow's jugular vein.

After centrifugation, the serum appeared abnormally turbid.

"The preliminary diagnosis is chronic fluorosis combined with mineral deficiency."

The Yin couple were completely baffled by the technical terms; all they knew was that the cow had been poisoned.

As she spoke, she took out calcium and magnesium injection solution from her toolbox, saying, "One injection will relieve the symptoms, but we need to find the source of the contamination to cure it completely."

The Yin couple watched her prepare and administer the medicine with hesitant expressions.

Well, it's just two cows anyway, might as well let her give it a try.

After finishing the treatment, Xu Ying took a walk around the village to check on the situation again.

She squatted by the dried-up irrigation ditch, gently parting a clump of withered camel thorns with her fingers.

Before coming, Xu Ying carefully reviewed the materials sent by headquarters, and she immediately recognized the abnormal yellow spots on the leaves—typical chemical fertilizer burns.

Along this irrigation canal leading to the oasis village, signs of ecological imbalance are becoming increasingly apparent.

The setting sun cast a long shadow of Xu Ying, casting a slender silhouette on the cracked bottom of the canal.

She took the water bottle off the side of her backpack and suddenly heard a faint "squeaking" sound.