My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 728 You Are Not an Ordinary Rural Youth
Under the curious gazes of everyone, Chen Ling went to the storeroom and took out the spicy strips.

He certainly didn't keep this at home on a special basis.

These were the leftover spicy strips that Wang Qingzhong and his wife had brought back a couple of days ago when they called them back to rest.

I said I'd eat it as a pickled vegetable, but I can't remember it after I got back.

That is, Wang Zhenzhen would secretly eat two pieces every day.

The others genuinely couldn't remember, and even Rui Rui didn't go near them.

In addition, spicy strips have a very long shelf life.

Because of its high oil and salt content, it can be stored for quite a long time even in summer.

So even after a few days, the taste won't change much.

However, when Elder Wu and the others picked it up and ate it, their reaction was different from what Chen Ling had imagined.

There was no sense of amazement on their faces as they enjoyed the delicious food.

The two elderly women and one older woman even took two bites and couldn't eat anymore.

Then they looked at each other, and everyone frowned slightly...

Finally, Old Wu apologized, saying, "Young Chen, this is very spicy. We older folks can't handle it."

Actually, this is a euphemism.

Most people in Taiwan prefer milder flavors, and this is especially true in this day and age.

I can eat spicy food.

But I don't like to eat it.

Don't even think about expecting them to be amazed by just one bite of spicy strips.

Hong Kong Island is also included.

Even in later generations, spicy strips are extremely rare in Hong Kong.

If you want to buy them, you have to go to a dedicated mainland snack shop to find them.

Of course, this is not absolute; it doesn't mean that you can't find any spicy food at all in those places.

Taiwan also has super spicy chili sauce, and some people from Sichuan, Chongqing, and Xinjiang who have tried it are quite impressed.

When Chen Ling saw the reaction of Elder Wu and the others, he was taken aback for a moment, and then changed his words and said that these were snacks he had made himself, and wondered if they were not to the taste of the people in Taiwan.

Only then did Old Wu and the others reveal the reason.

The woman even said that the thing smelled a bit bad.

That's true. For people with a milder palate, spicy strips can sometimes smell a bit pungent.

This has nothing to do with the formula and ingredients that Chen Ling researched.

Spicy strips undergo a slight fermentation process during production and storage.

Even after spicy strips developed, when the shift from bean products to puffed white flour products began, everyone was still exploring in the early stages, and fermentation was a necessary process.

In short, Chen Ling understood the tastes of Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Spicy strips will never be able to develop into a large-scale sales product.

In comparison, braised beef noodles are more universally appealing.

No wonder this thing makes so much money.

"Xiao Chen, I see you really enjoy researching things. You've dabbled in all sorts of things, from food and household items to toys. You even read these medical books, right? The handwriting on them looks a bit like yours."

Back in the living room, Chen Ling had just boiled water and was looking for tea leaves when Old Wu picked up a book from the table, glanced at it, and smiled.

Upon hearing this, Chen Ling thought to himself, "You old man, you've actually seen my handwriting before?"

He smiled and said, "I wrote it. I read the book, and my wife reads it too. It's mainly my wife who reads it; she's a doctor."

"Oh, Susu is a doctor too." The woman's eyes lit up.

At this moment, Wang Susu walked in carrying Rui Rui under an umbrella, and the women started talking together.

The old men, including Wu, exclaimed in amazement as they looked at the book, "Young Chen is really amazing. He can understand medical books and has taken so many notes."

"You can learn a little bit of everything! You're so young, how are you so amazing?"

"..."

Chen Ling had heard about and witnessed a series of things that scientific instruments could not detect for some time, so he spent some time studying various medical books on traditional Chinese medicine, including classic prescriptions, acupuncture, and folk remedies.

Driven by curiosity, he was able to read through the texts and is now able to understand some of the prescriptions.

Of course, I knew absolutely nothing about pharmacology and medical principles, such as the roles of principal, assistant, adjuvant, and guide herbs in prescribing medicine, or pulse diagnosis.

"Hey, I'm just reading randomly, just reading books. How can you treat illnesses and prescribe medicine without a teacher's guidance?" Chen Ling looked up and smiled.

Meanwhile, he squatted down by the table and searched around, and then discovered that the tea leaves were almost gone.

In summer and spring, it would be fine, since we have plenty of medicinal herbs at home, like dried thorns, mint leaves, and chrysanthemums. We can just brew some and it will taste refreshing. But now that it's winter, why bother with something refreshing? It's more comfortable to drink some black tea.

"Out of tea leaves?"

Wang Susu turned around and said, "When Jiajia came last time, she brought two large jars of tea, which I put in the back storage room."

"Oh, right, I'll go get it."

Chen Ling then remembered that a lot of the tea in the house was brought over by Liang Hongyu and Zhao Dahai.

But that was when we first met a couple of years ago, and they would bring their children to my home.

After they got to know each other better, Chen Ling stopped letting them bring them along.

Fenglei Town has local tea, and the village also has tea mountains; they can't even drink all the tea they want.

But now the father-in-law and mother-in-law don't come back to Fenglei Town much. When Wang Qingwen and his brother come, they only bring some things for the children, and no one remembers to bring tea.

After all, her brother-in-law has everything he needs.

So when the tea was almost gone, he realized that he was out of tea at home. If Wang Susu hadn't reminded him, he wouldn't have known that his little apprentice had brought two more cans of tea.

Seeing Chen Ling about to leave, Rui Rui hurriedly followed.

Wang Susu quickly grabbed him and said, "Dad isn't going out to play, he's just going to the back to get some tea leaves. Why are you following him? It's raining outside, what's there to follow?"

The brat struggled with his elbow, grunted, and broke free, then ran outside with his head down.

Chen Ling noticed that the raindrops outside had lightened, so he ignored it.

So what if he got wet? His eldest son is in great shape, and he knows that. As long as he doesn't bump into anything, he's never worried.

"Xiao Chen, can we read the books and manuscripts here?"

"You can watch it, you can watch it as much as you want."

Chen Ling responded and went out of the living room to get the tea leaves.

Rui Rui took two big dogs and ran wildly in the rain.

Just as Chen Ling went into the storeroom next to the kitchen to get some tea leaves, he heard his son excitedly shouting from outside, "Dad, Huang Huang!"

Chen Ling came out, carrying a tea canister, closed the door, and glanced in the direction of the sound. He saw a listless weasel sheltering from the rain near the waterway, its fur wet and dirty...

Chen Ling has a keen eye; he even noticed a ring of white fur around the weasel's mouth.

"Don't go over there, that's not our Huanghuang."

Chen Ling called out to her son.

I don't know if these kinds of creatures are just bold, or if this weasel was in a strange state.

Seeing people and dogs here, they weren't afraid to run away.

But Heiwa and Xiaojin didn't go over either.

It was Erhei who heard the shouts and ran over, barking loudly and scaring the weasel away. Chen Ling glanced at the weasel's sluggish movements, then looked at Heiwa and Xiaojin, whose eyes showed no ferocity, and immediately understood.

"Dad, Huanghuang ran away."

Rui Rui, with a pained expression, ran up to him, jumping up and down in her haste.

Then she glared at Erhei and swung her little hand at him, saying, "I'll hit you."

"Why are you hitting Erhei? I told you that's not our Huanghuang. Our Huanghuang has moved into the mountains."

Chen Ling picked him up, knowing that the little rascal hadn't seen weasels in a long time. At first glance, he thought they had returned, and he was a little surprised and happy.

Ever since Chen Ling trained them into high-end little hunters, Little Yellow and his pack have frequently roamed the mountains, and later they even lived in the mountains and never came back.

These little guys have always been like this.

Who knows when it might appear.

They used to live all over the village, and you could only run into them when Wang Zhenzhen and her friends were out playing.

Now that they've run into the mountains, well, let's not even talk about it. If they don't want to come back, under normal circumstances, no one will be able to find them.

"Okay, Dad will go to the mountains to call them back another day, and then they can sleep in the same bed with you."

The brat's eyes lit up, and he nodded vigorously with delight.

He used to bring weasels into the house all the time, and even put them on the bed. Every time, Chen Ling had to give those little creatures a bath.

"Come on, let's go back inside. Mom has made you some sugar water."

Chen Ling led him back to the living room. As soon as they entered, Old Wu and the others stared in disbelief at some of his manuscripts, gasping in astonishment.

"Xiao Chen, do you even understand Western medicine? We've seen this paper, this...we..."

Mr. Wu and the others were shocked, embarrassed, and at a loss.

"Have we stumbled upon some secret? As far as I know, does this require a patent? And shouldn't it be prohibited from being disseminated before publication?"

"Huh? What does that mean?"

Chen Ling walked over with a blank look, picked up the few sheets of paper and looked at them: "Oh, so this is it. This is fine, Europe and America have been doing this for a long time."

The manuscript contained his bold ideas on the cultivation of medicinal maggots after submitting an article to the National Animal Husbandry Magazine.

It's not about feeding chickens maggots.

It is used to cultivate sterile maggots for cleaning wounds and removing necrotic tissue to save lives.

In other words, maggots are used to clean up necrotic tissue that cannot be removed by conventional methods, such as in burn patients, patients with bone infections, and patients undergoing limb reattachment...

It's no wonder that Elder Wu and others were shocked by this.

Chen Ling was also shocked when he learned about this thing.

He was not only shocked, he also wanted to curse.

Using maggots to cure diseases? I think you're out of your mind! That stuff can cure diseases?
But after truly understanding it, he felt that whoever came up with the idea wasn't crazy, but a genius.

Medical maggots were the first recorded intentional use of them in the United States during the ten-year Civil War, but sterile maggots could not have been cultivated in the environment of the early 19th century.

There is also a lack of tools and methods for disinfecting maggots.

So the Americans have abandoned it again.

It was only in recent years that it was rediscovered from the dusty archives, which is why people in China only associated Chen Ling's breeding secrets with sterile maggots.

I want to get him involved in researching this together.

In this day and age, as long as you have the skills, even if it's unorthodox or unconventional, you can gain recognition and sometimes even help your country achieve breakthroughs.

Chen Ling simply couldn't bring himself to kill the maggots.

Every time I think about it, I selectively forget it, and I selectively ignore the letters urging me to finish my work.

Even if he could conduct the experiment without touching it in the cave, he was too lazy to do it.

Even though he had a premonition that it would be easy to cultivate sterile maggots in the cave, he kept delaying it.

"Oh, so it's already been studied abroad. Then it's fine."

"However, we see that you have written a lot of bold ideas, Xiao Chen. Is it possible that foreign countries have once again engaged in technological monopoly?"

"Yes, this medical maggot treatment is very expensive. Even if you can afford it, you have to go all the way to the US to use this treatment. As for the technology to cultivate sterile maggots, forget about it. They won't even allow you to bring the maggots to China. Even if you just throw them away after use, you can't use them to reproduce sterile offspring..."

After the sterile maggots cleaned up the rotting flesh, they became medical waste, which naturally contained bacteria.

It cannot reproduce sterile offspring.

Maggots are easy to raise, and they do indeed have a scavenging habit.

The current problem in China is that maggots gnaw on the rotting flesh of patients, and they don't just eat a bite and leave. Even small wounds can take more than an hour to heal. With such a long time, they must be eating and defecating at the same time.

By the time the rotten flesh is cleaned up, the wound will be infected again. What's the point of all that?
So medical maggots are excreted under sterile conditions? What are the Americans doing? I really can't understand it in China.

This is why Chen Ling's draft only remained at the conceptual stage.

"Are you trying to use honey to feed flies and raise their offspring?"

Old Wu and the others asked curiously, "How much honey does this take? Is it really necessary to invest so much?"

The two elderly women and the older woman had also gathered around out of curiosity.

Many people raised questions.

Chen Ling smiled slightly at this: "The purpose of doing this is naturally to tame flies, let them mutate slowly, cultivate new varieties, and produce clean maggots."

"Old Wu, you are very knowledgeable. Have you ever heard of this idea? If a place is free of dirt, garbage, and bad water sources, flies will be forced to feed on pollen in order to survive, and slowly mutate into beneficial insects like bees."

From then on, maggots weren't so dirty anymore..."

"Uh, no, this idea is obviously your own, Xiao Chen. It's just that you've replaced the honey with pollen." Old Wu shook his head, then stared at Chen Ling and smiled, "People used to say that you were an amazing young man, and I thought it was an exaggeration. Now I realize how capable you are."

You're daring and willing to do anything...

At your age, to have achieved so much and to be able to focus on so many things shows that you can quickly get the hang of anything you're interested in.

Your talent is simply extraordinary.

"Yes, Lao Wu is right. No wonder you can raise new breeds of fish and dogs, and come up with new recipes for instant noodles. I think you can definitely do this breakthrough in sterile maggot technology."

No one else would dare to think of that.

The others echoed their agreement and expressed their amazement.

They weren't actually flattering me; they were just saying nice things on purpose.

Rather, Chen Ling was simply too different from what they had imagined.

In their imagination, Chen Ling was just an ordinary young man from the countryside with some strange skills, or someone who had figured something out by chance.

Now that I look at it, they've all started submitting academic papers.

Moreover, the medical book was filled with notes.

This is hardly an ordinary rural youth.

Moreover, judging from his demeanor, he seems capable of discussing anything, so he must have genuine knowledge.

Upon arriving here, they strongly suspected that Chen Ling was not reading medical books to cure diseases, but rather to experiment with certain recipes, such as researching seasonings for food or medicines for animal husbandry.

Chen Ling smiled without saying a word, then poured water for them to make tea.

He cursed inwardly, "Damn it, Yilin magazine has been lying to me for so many years. I know for sure that the claim that Australian flies collect honey is a lie... And those other foreign bastards, just wait until I actually create honey-collecting flies and export them back to you."

He heard yesterday that Old Wu goes to Australia every year. If he didn't know that, it must be absolutely fake. It's a low-level brainwashing tactic to deceive kind and honest Chinese people and cultivate Western-worshipping dogs.

But it doesn't matter. If it weren't for this story, he wouldn't have been able to come up with a way to deal with the deadlines they were pressing for the manuscript.

He can't write papers either, so he just resorts to outrageous and imaginative ideas.

After dealing with the flies that come out to collect honey, we can also export a wave of counterculture.