Wealthy beyond measure, yet you call me a sister-supporting-brother demon?

Zhao Mingde excitedly grasped Yuansheng's hand, "Yuanbao, this is already a top-notch business. Don't even mention collecting ten pigs a day, even if you can collect five, at twenty coins per pig, that's one hundred coins a day... That's three taels of silver a month! And thirty-six taels a year!"

"If you can collect ten pigs a day, that's two hundred coins a day, six taels of silver a month, and seventy taels of silver a year."

"If you hadn't told me, I would never have imagined that pig farming could be scaled up. Pig manure is also a good fertilizer for fertilizing the land."

"Brother-in-law, thank you so much! With this money, I can now afford to send Youliang and Youxue to school."

Yuan Nian'er wiped away her tears with excitement, "Yuanbao'er, we originally brought four taels of silver with us today, but we didn't expect that instead of lending out those four taels, we received a donation of sixty taels from you. Sending Youliang and Youxue to school is something I wouldn't even dare to dream of, let alone realize, but now it's about to come true! I don't know what to say."

Yuan Sheng said, "Second sister, second brother-in-law, this is what I should do. If you find a good way to make money, I think you will help me out too."

Hearing Yuan Sheng's words, Zhao Mingde and Yuan Nian'er were even more grateful.

"Second sister, second brother-in-law, before dawn tomorrow, Butcher Li will come to deliver the meat. I'll have him tell you what to pay attention to when buying pigs, and if there are any tips for catching pigs."

Zhao Mingde nodded, "Okay, I'll learn from Butcher Li tomorrow."

Butcher Li can earn more than 100 coins per pig. Yuansheng has a large order volume now and has already slaughtered nine pigs in the past few days. He may increase the number later. Yuansheng asks Butcher Li to give up 20 coins per pig. Yuansheng does not feel guilty.

Buying pigs is a time-consuming job, so Butcher Li is definitely not at a loss.

Just as the business for my second sister and brother-in-law was settled, Dr. Zhong arrived.

Yuansheng asked Doctor Zhong to examine his second sister and brother-in-law. Although they both seemed to be in good health, they both had some health problems, and if they didn't get treatment, it would definitely affect their lifespan in the future.

At first, Yuan Nian'er and Zhao Mingde refused, but after hearing from Doctor Zhong that the medicine was not expensive, they agreed to prescribe it.

Yuansheng then consulted Dr. Zhong about methods for preventing swine fever. Although large-scale pig farming is profitable, if swine fever cannot be prevented, the death of a batch of pigs will result in financial losses. Therefore, preventing swine fever is of paramount importance.

Zhong Langzhong hadn't expected Yuan Sheng to ask this question. He pondered for a moment, then said, "You've come to the right person. I happened to have seen it in a book."

"The first thing is to keep the pigsty clean. Cleaning the pigsty every day is very important."

"Secondly, the pigsty must be well-ventilated. Diseases usually enter the body through the wind. If the pigsty is well-ventilated, the chances of the pigs getting swine fever will be much smaller."

"Another thing is to disinfect regularly by burning mugwort and atractylodes. The smoke from burning them can disinfect and prevent swine fever. Mugwort is everywhere, so you can cut some in advance and dry it for later use."

"If swine fever breaks out, you can also feed them honeysuckle and astragalus, which, according to the book, are also effective."

“There are also radishes with roots, which can also prevent swine fever. You can feed them to pigs occasionally.”

"Another point is to isolate them. If any pig is found to be unwell, it should be isolated and treated separately to prevent the infection from spreading to other healthy pigs."

Yuan Sheng nodded repeatedly, acknowledging the wisdom of the ancients and recognizing the scientific methods Zhong Langzhong provided for preventing and controlling swine fever.

While Dr. Zhong was speaking, Zhao Mingde listened very attentively, afraid of forgetting, but he only remembered two or three points after listening, so he looked flustered.

"Brother-in-law, don't worry. I've remembered all the points that Doctor Zhong mentioned. I'll write them down for you later."

Zhao Mingde said anxiously, "Even if you write it down, I still won't recognize it. It recognizes me, but I don't recognize it." That's why he was so eager for his sons to learn to read, otherwise they would truly be blind.

“Brother-in-law, I didn’t think it through. Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll teach you and my second sister a few more times later, and I’ll also have Youliang and Youxue memorize it. Kids have good memories, so I think they’ll remember it quickly.”

"That's good." Zhao Mingde thanked Yuansheng for his thoughtfulness and care.

Zhong Langzhong listened from the side. He admired Yuansheng for valuing his family and having a grateful heart. He was also impressed by Yuansheng's photographic memory and thought that this young man would surely be extraordinary in the future. He was determined to befriend Yuansheng.

Since the Yuan family couldn't accommodate so many people, Yuan Laifu and Sheng Guihua had to trouble their kind neighbors. The two found Old Lady Zhang's house, and when Old Lady Zhang heard that it was Yuan Nian'er's family coming to stay, she happily brought out clean bedding.

Yuan Laifu and Sheng Guihua expressed their gratitude. Remembering Yuan Sheng's instructions, Yuan Laifu said, "Sister-in-law, my family doesn't have enough firewood. I wanted to ask you if Shuren and his family would be willing to deliver two loads of firewood to my house every day? The price is the same as in the city, ten coins per load."

City dwellers have to buy firewood; a load of firewood weighs 100 jin and costs ten copper coins. It's more expensive in winter, costing fifteen copper coins.

The Yuan family makes a lot of braised meat every day, which requires a lot of firewood. They had some stored up before, but it's all gone now. These past two days, Yuan Laifu wanted to go into the mountains to chop firewood, but Yuan Sheng stopped him.

Yuansheng was worried that his father wouldn't know his own strength when he was working. While Zhong Langzhong was treating his health, his father, who was quite old, was carrying over 100 pounds of firewood up the mountain. Yuansheng felt sorry for his father and insisted that he not let him go. Instead, he told his father to buy firewood.

When Yuan Laifu heard that they needed to buy firewood, he jumped up. Buy firewood?! That's something only rich people in the city do. Even poor city dwellers go out of town to collect firewood. Yuan Sheng tried to persuade him, and Sheng Guihua also tried to persuade him, but Yuan Laifu was worried about the cost of medicine, so he finally agreed to buy firewood.

After discussing it with his parents, Yuan Sheng decided to entrust the matter to Old Lady Zhang's family. Old Lady Zhang was kind and had always been good to the Yuan family. She had even lent them a lot of money for Yuan Sheng's wedding to bring good luck, so now it was a good opportunity to repay her.

In addition, the Zhang family is tight-lipped and not the kind of family that can't keep secrets. To this day, Yuansheng still doesn't want others to know that he makes braised meat.

After hearing Yuan Laifu's words, Old Lady Zhang was completely stunned!

What the hell?

Yuan Laifu wants to buy firewood from her?! Two loads a day?! And at the city price of ten coins per load?!

It's not firewood season now, so firewood is hard to sell. It's hard to sell even in town; you have to go to the county town. Because there are so many firewood sellers, you'll get pressured to lower the price.

Carrying a load of firewood weighing over a hundred pounds all the way to the county town is exhausting! And after all that hard work, you only earn ten coins. Now, you get ten coins just for delivering it to Yuan Laifu's house?

Grandma Zhang was a little confused. "Laifu, Guihua, are you serious?"

“Sister-in-law, of course I’m serious. To be honest, my family runs a cooked food business now, which uses a lot of firewood. We also have a lot of land and a lot of work to do these days, so we don’t have much time to chop firewood. I thought the three of us didn’t have anything important to do, so I came to ask you.”

Grandma Zhang clapped her hands and exclaimed, "Oh my, you're going to take care of my whole family!"

Grandma Zhang was overwhelmed with emotion. She hadn't done anything special; she had just lent some money when Yuanbao was getting married to bring him good luck. The Yuan family was truly grateful!