Daily life of farming and supporting a family on the ancient Loess Plateau

"Old Niu, don't say anything more. Just compensate me for these piglets of mine at the price I paid you for them a couple of days ago. Hurry up and finish compensating so you can bury the pigs and not harm other people's pigs!"

"If anyone's going to be compensated, it should only be my dog! Why should I have to compensate for the others too?" Old Niu Er's face turned red with anger.

"You won't pay, huh!" Zhang Sheng said viciously, rolling up his sleeves and picking up a piglet to throw it into Niu Lao Er's pigsty.

"What are you doing? What are you doing!" Both Niu Lao Er and Niu Lao Da went to pull Zhang Sheng away.

Ji Manqing rolled up his sleeves and rushed forward, shouting, "How dare you cause trouble in my Niujiazhuang! I'll make you pay!"

"Stop!" Niu Gensheng and Grandpa Ji shouted together.

"Brother Ji, you go first."

Because of his advanced age and the fact that the Ji family had contributed greatly to the fight against bandits in the older generation, the villagers respected Grandpa Ji very much.

Grandpa Ji stepped forward to stop Zhang Sheng, picked up a piglet and examined it closely, saying, "I've been dealing with livestock for decades, and although I'm not as good as a veterinarian, I still have some experience. In my opinion, this is not swine fever."

"If it's not swine fever, then what is it? You think it's not just because you say so?!" A burly man from Zhangjiapan's group stretched his neck and rolled his eyes.

"What did you say? Say it again!" Ji Manqing glared at the big man.

"What? I told you so, what can you do to me?" The big man crossed his arms and glared at him.

Ji Yongling moved closer to Grandpa Ji, stood on tiptoe to look at the teeth of the piglet in Grandpa Ji's hand, then looked down at the cages containing the piglets and picked up some bits of pig feed. She rubbed the bits of pig feed together and smelled them.

Ji Yongning, who had somehow squeezed in, shouted, "Sister Ling'er, don't touch! Aunt Da Zui said that swine fever can infect people!" Some onlookers, upon hearing this, unconsciously stepped back.

Auntie Big Mouth in the crowd coughed awkwardly, then exclaimed, "Look, that piglet isn't moving!"

The crowd continued to disperse, murmurs escaping their lips.

Ji Yongling frowned, looked at Zhang Sheng, and asked, "Uncle Zhang, what kind of pig feed did you give your piglets this morning?"

Seeing that it was a small child, Zhang Sheng said impatiently, "My piglets are raised very carefully; they eat wheat bran."

In order to ensure the survival of piglets, rural people generally feed them better than adult pigs, giving them staple foods, while adult pigs mainly eat pig feed.

Ji Yongling continued, "Did you feed them any crop seedlings? Like sorghum or corn (for convenience, we will use corn in the following text)?"

Upon hearing Ji Yongling's question, Grandpa Ji reached out and pried open the pig's snout in his hand, examined it carefully, and then switched to another piglet to continue examining it.

"Does grass count?" Zhang Sheng asked.

"Whose pig doesn't eat grass? Do you think it's the emperor's golden pig?" The burly man from Zhangjiapan crossed his arms and sneered.

Ji Yongling ignored him and looked at Old Master Ji, saying, "Grandpa, this piglet probably ate something bad. Can we try to make it vomit?"

"What, induce vomiting?" came the same question from the crowd as from Grandpa Ji.

Grandpa Ji remembered that when people were poisoned by eating the wrong things, doctors would sometimes prescribe medicine to induce vomiting, right? But pigs could do that too?

"Dad, break off a branch for me!" Ji Yongling looked at Ji Manchuan in the crowd and gestured with his fingers.

Ji Manchuan didn't say anything, turned around, pulled down a pear tree branch next to him, broke off a branch, and handed it to Ji Yongling.

Ji Yongling used a tree branch to pry open the mouth of the piglet in Grandpa Ji's hand, and gently wiped the mucous membrane of the piglet's throat. The piglet was stimulated and immediately turned its head and opened its mouth, spitting out a bunch of crumbs.

The onlookers moved back a bit, and some asked curiously, "So this is how you induce vomiting? Can you use a twig to do that if someone eats something bad?"

Ignoring the dirt, Ji Yongling said to Niu Lao Er, "Uncle Niu, quickly get some water to wash the piglet's mouth."

Niu Lao Er immediately took a basin of clean water and rinsed the outside of the pig's mouth to wash away the spit-out bits of food.

Ji Manchuan quickly broke off a few more tree branches and joined in to help.

Ji Yongling took the water from Old Niu's hands and let the piglet drink from it.

Soon, the piglets, which had been listless and weak just moments before, began to struggle vigorously after drinking a few sips of water.

Grandpa Ji let go and put the piglet on the ground. The piglet, which had been listless and unable to stand up, actually stood up straight on its own and started walking around.

"Look, look! That plague-ridden pig has come back to life!" "Oh my, it really has come back to life!" People pointed and whispered among themselves.

Following that, with Ji Manchuan's help, Ji Yongling processed the piglets in the same way.

The Niu family, who were initially so nervous they were about to cry, now all had smiles on their faces, finally relieved.

Although Zhang Sheng saw that the piglets were in good spirits and seemed to be alright, he was still worried and was about to ask Ji Yongling and Grandpa Ji.

Ji Yongling spoke first: "Uncle Zhang, think again, did these piglets eat any unusual grass or seedlings this morning?"

“Well, we farmers know which grasses are safe for pigs to eat and which are not, so we certainly wouldn’t feed them just anything. But this morning my wife said some beet leaves have been sitting around for a few days and she wants to throw them into the pigpen.” Zhang Sheng frowned as if he remembered something.

"I see." Ji Yongling understood. Rural people are used to being thrifty and frugal, and they are reluctant to throw anything away. Not to mention this era of extreme poverty, even in the past when material resources were extremely abundant, many elderly people were reluctant to throw this away or discard that.

"Beets!" Something flashed through Ji Yongling's mind, but she couldn't quite grasp it.

"Yongling, what's wrong with this beet? My pig ate it and it was fine." A question arose from the crowd.

Ji Yongling glanced at Grandpa Ji, then turned to the crowd and explained, "The piglets are still young and have weak digestive systems. Whether it's beet leaves or any other leafy greens, they'll rot in this hot weather after a few days, and any pig that eats them will get sick."

What she really meant was that if vegetable leaves accumulate in a humid and hot environment for a long time, the nitrates they contain will be converted into nitrites.

If livestock ingest large amounts of this substance, they may drool, foam at the mouth, or even vomit, stagger, experience muscle tremors, and have cyanosis of the mucous membranes. In severe cases, they may experience difficulty breathing, convulsions, and even death.

"Yes, when feeding the pigs, whether it's grass or vegetable leaves, you have to cut them and feed them immediately. You can't be lazy," Grandpa Ji added, looking at the crowd of onlookers.

After discussion, Zhang Sheng's family agreed to leave the piglets with Niu Lao Er's family for a few days to observe and ensure that the piglets were indeed fine before taking them back.

After Zhang Jiapan and his group left, Ji Yongling went home with Grandpa Ji and the others.

On the way, Ji Yongzhou and Ji Yongning skipped and jumped around Ji Yongling, showering her with compliments without reservation.

Grandpa Ji remained silent until they were almost home, when he finally asked, "Ling'er, where did you learn this vomiting technique?"

Can Ji Yongling say that it was accumulated from her medical studies in her previous life and from working as a barefoot veterinarian with her grandfather in villages and alleys?

Because of her parents' accident in her past life, the scene of the car accident was too vivid. Later, her grandmother suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and often had leg and bone pain. Therefore, when applying for university, she chose clinical medicine without hesitation.

However, she eventually gave up her job at the hospital.