The timeline system has gone awry; they insist that steamed buns are a magic pill.

Chapter 88 Buying piglets went wrong, it's all my fault.

"There's no need to buy three at once."

"It's so tiring."

Li Qingqiu muttered to himself, raising pigs is no easy task. You have to feed them several times a day, and in the summer you have to clean the pigsty and cut pig feed frequently.

Gathering pig feed is especially one of the nightmares for many born in the 80s and 90s.

"Third Brother, three is still a lot? Mom said we'll raise at least five this year. In a few days, Uncle Fuyuan and the others will go to the commune's pig farm to buy at least another thirty or fifty piglets," Li Qingmei said with a hint of pride. "To be honest, this is all thanks to you, Third Brother. Otherwise, where would the brigade get so much money to buy piglets?"

"Oh, is there something else about me?"

Shi Lan Hua wanted to buy five piglets, which had already driven Li Qingqiu crazy, but when he heard that the brigade wanted to buy another thirty or fifty piglets, he was speechless.

"That's right. If the ox had died, the team would have tightened their belts to buy a new ox, and there would have been no spare money to buy piglets. But now it's different. The money earned from winter bamboo shoots and snow mushrooms is enough to buy an ox, and there's still a lot left over to buy some piglets."

"Another reason is that many families were originally going hungry because of the drought this year, but now things are much better. Families that sold a lot of winter bamboo shoots and snow mushrooms are not only not going hungry, but they also have a lot of surplus, which can completely cover the cost of pig feed."

Good heavens! Li Qingmei's words startled Li Qingqiu. It turns out it was all because of her! What was she going to do? (The pig demon's anger was about to erupt.)

It's swine fever! The team bought so many piglets, and even if half of them die, the team's economy, which had finally started to improve, will face annihilation again.

"Third Brother, I can't say anymore, Mom is waiting for me."

"Wait, I'll go with you."

Li Qingqiu felt it was best to go and take a look, and also to digest the pig disease prevention and control skills he had just acquired.

First, check the piglets' health. When they arrived at the brigade's pig farm, there were quite a few people there. Li Qingqiu even spotted Jiang Mei.

"Sister-in-law Jiang Mei is here too. Isn't she from the team's pig farm?"

"Yes, Uncle Fuyuan said to take the piglets to raise first, and pay back the money after selling them. Sister-in-law Jiangmei will try to get one piglet."

"What about the cost of the feed?"

Feed coupons, rice husks and wheat bran—a few years ago, not only pigs ate these things, but people did too. Li Qingqiu remembered his predecessor eating them.

"You'll have to pay for the feed yourself."

Li Qingmei said softly, "But Uncle Fuyuan said that those who compost more pig manure will receive some compensation."

"Alright."

Jiang Mei bought some mushroom branches a few days ago, and also made some money from digging and selling winter bamboo shoots. She has enough money to buy feed in the early stages, and will be able to prepare for summer.

Gathering pig feed can save some money, and it can be sold directly in the fall.

"The third son is here."

"Uncle Fuyuan, why did you buy so many piglets?"

"This is all thanks to you. If you hadn't sold the mushroom branches to Wangjiazhuang and Zhangjiazhai, their brigades wouldn't have had enough money to feed these piglets, so they had to sell them at a lower price." Li Fuyuan said, even more excitedly. "You don't know, the drought in Wangjiazhuang is even worse than ours. They were hoping to make some money from the snow mushrooms, but the agricultural technology station tricked them. Now they're not only selling piglets, but they're also planning to sell an ox for less than a thousand yuan."

"The situation in Zhangjiazhai is similar."

Well, Li Qingqiu didn't expect that he had anything to do with this. Well, he's carrying a heavy burden of karma.

However, there is some good news: the issue of the oxen is almost resolved, which means the task of being the pillar of the family will soon be completed.

The commune sign-in area is about to be unlocked. Of course, unlocking the commune sign-in area is not all good. The newbie village benefits are gone, the beginner lottery now requires 100 points, and the points required to open a new trial area have been doubled.

"These piglets look pretty good."

The piglets were all shiny and healthy, grunting and snorting, and seemed quite energetic. Li Qingqiu glanced at them and found no sick pigs. But Li Qingqiu had underestimated them. As the person in charge of the pig farm, he knew exactly what kind of piglets they were.

"Mom, maybe we shouldn't buy so much yet. We still have a fat pig at home."

"Go away, look at this little piglet, isn't it great? If I hadn't come early, I wouldn't have been able to buy it."

Shi Lan Hua waved her hand at Li Qing Qiu. "Besides, you don't know anything about raising pigs or anything like that, so don't worry about it."

"Mom, I've been reading a lot of books about pig farming lately, and I'm even planning to learn how to treat pig diseases."

"Where did you get the book on pig farming?"

"My brother-in-law's, and some booklets that I bought on my way to the county town."

That's true; Li Qingqiu does indeed have several booklets on pig farming.

"Then study hard."

Shi Lan Hua still didn't quite believe that one could learn how to raise pigs simply by reading a book.

"I will definitely study hard. Maybe one day I will be invited to work as a technician at the commune's pig farm."

"That makes things much better."

Shi Lanhua thought Li Qingqiu was talking nonsense again. "Where's your female classmate?"

"Now that they've gone back to the county town, do you think those girls can stay here with us?"

"That girl is so beautiful."

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After some hesitation, Shi Lanhua decided it was best to be frank with Li Qingqiu sooner rather than later. "I'm not the type to settle down and build a life together."

"Mom, he's doing great."

"Good, that's great. Think about it yourself. She's such a good girl, as beautiful as a flower, and she's a cadre working in the county. You're just a peasant. She must be out of her mind to come looking for you." Seeing that Li Qingqiu was a bit stubborn, Shi Lanhua stopped hiding it.

"Mom, didn't I tell you we're classmates? You're overthinking it."

"I was really overthinking it."

Shi Lanhua rolled her eyes at Li Qingqiu. Who wouldn't like that pretty girl? You're overthinking it. You don't know what kind of look you're giving her.

"If you had a proper job, Mom wouldn't stop you. But you have nothing now, you're just a peasant. What kind of person would want to be with you?"

"Mom, why are we talking about this again? Never mind, let's talk about the piglets instead. Mom, our pigsty is so shabby, it's filthy. We need to fix it, otherwise these piglets might get sick if they stay there too long." Li Qingqiu changed the subject.

"What's wrong with the pigsty? Every pigsty looks like this."

Shi Lan Hua said nonchalantly, "It's normal for pigs to be dirty. Do you expect us to treat them like servants, cleaning up their excrement?"

"Then it's better to clean it up."

"I read that in a book."

"It's what the book says, okay, I'll talk to your sister-in-law and second sister-in-law about it later." Shi Lanhua still trusted the agricultural technology station's booklet quite a bit.

However, Li Qingqiu knew in his heart that it would be difficult to keep the pigsty clean under the current conditions. The pigsty was basically a shed with soft soil on the ground. Pigs urinated and muddied, and then there was pig manure. If you stepped on it, well, how could you clean it?

Every three to five days, or every ten days or half a month, we would clean it up and shovel up all the manure and mud to compost it. After all, in those days, composting manure was rewarded; grain and feed coupons were all obtained by exchanging pig manure.

You think there's no benefit to it? Everyone is happy to raise pigs, but gathering pig feed takes up so much time.

"Just be careful, no need to clean it specially."

"I don't know yet."

Shi Lan Hua looked at the three piglets. "I'll save one for you next year."

"Leave one for me?"

Li Qingqiu was somewhat confused by Shi Lanhua's words.

"What's wrong with you? How old are you? The year is almost over, so I won't say anything more. But if you don't find a wife by next year, don't come back. You're a disgrace."

Shi Lanhua patted Li Qingqiu a few times as she spoke.

"Tell me, we arranged a blind date for you today, and you found two pretty girls, especially that classmate who was so stunning. What girl would like her? Now look what's happened, it'll be hard to find a matchmaker for you in the future."

Shi Lanhua got angrier and angrier as she spoke, but luckily Li Qingqiu had already dodged away. He wasn't stupid; he was gritting his teeth as he listened and was sure he was going to hit someone.

"Forget about finding a girlfriend, Mom. Don't worry, I said I'd find you a wife from the city, and I will."

"When the time comes, a city girl will be your son-in-law. Tell me, who in the village wouldn't be envious?"

"No, I don't have that kind of luck. It's better for you to find an honest and capable wife." Shi Lanhua was sincere. City wives are so easy to keep; you can't maintain that kind of relationship.

Back home, the three piglets weren't put in their pen; in this cold weather, they'd need a few days to adjust before I felt at ease.

"Where are the kids at home?"

"Mom, there's a movie showing today, so Xian'an and the others are probably at the threshing ground by now."

"Third brother, I just heard that you're the one who arranged this movie screening?"

"No, but the projectionist is indeed my classmate."

Li Qingqiu wondered to himself, why was Han Guodong so kind as to show a movie in Lijia'ao?

"Third Brother, could you ask him to show some new movies?"

"It's a new movie, don't worry. We arranged it during lunch. Today we're showing 'The Bright Sun,' which is said to be a new film released this year."

"Really, that's great."

Li Qingmei was quite happy and told Xianjing to go there early to get a good spot. Li Qingqiu, on the other hand, didn't care. At dinner, Li Qingqiu even invited the brigade to come and keep them company.

"Old classmate, let me toast you." Li Qingqiu raised his glass quite consciously.

"Then I'll have a drink. There's a movie coming up later, so I can't drink too much." Han Guodong was quite pleased with himself and took a small sip.

"It's alright, do as you please."

Li Qingqiu didn't mind that they were just entertaining guests. He invited Han Guodong to eat, chatted about the movie for a bit, and then didn't say much more. Li Fuyuan and Li Fuluo were also shrewd people. Judging from their appearance, the two of them didn't get along.

That's strange. Weren't we talking about classmates? What's going on? I'll ask them later.

Around 5 p.m., before it was completely dark, the members of Lijia'ao commune, who had eaten early, brought their stools and children to the threshing ground. At the threshing ground, a pile of firewood was already lit, and Han Guodong was setting up the equipment.

Li Qingqiu glanced at it, not quite understanding, so he didn't get involved. These days, showing movies was actually hard work.

"Third Brother."

"Third Uncle."

"Let's find a place to sit."

Li Qingqiu waved. "It'll be warmer if you stay closer to the campfire."

"understood."

Li Qingqiu glanced around and saw that it wasn't just people from Lijia'ao who had come, but also from Wangjiazhuang and even Zhangjiazhai. He really didn't know if it was worth it for these people to travel ten miles in the dead of winter just to see a movie.

A campfire and a movie sounded romantic, but it was actually quite cold. However, everyone watched very attentively.

"There are too few entertainment options these days."

Li Qingqiu muttered to himself, "It's a pity that Lijia'ao doesn't even have electricity, otherwise we could get a TV to watch."

"This movie is really good."

"Yes, the new movie is great."

"Thanks to Li Laosan's classmate."

"You said Li Laosan has some skills, and there's also the projectionist classmate."

"What's so special about that? Didn't you see those two female classmates? They look like they stepped out of a painting. No wonder Li Laosan keeps clamoring to marry a city girl."

"What? Him? That girl is so beautiful. Li Laosan doesn't even have a proper job. I don't believe anyone would be interested in him."

Damn it, why are you guys keeping your voices down? I'm sitting right here, what's wrong with that? Is it embarrassing to be attracted to me?

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