"Village Chief Li, is this the pig raised in your village?"

Lin Sanqi looked at the skinny white pigs in front of him, his face wrinkled like a chrysanthemum.

In his eyes, a fat pig must be fat and round, and the flesh on its body would shake three times when it walked.

But the pigs in the Taipingzhuang pig farm in front of him were as thin as lambs. Although they were not skinny, they were not fat either.

Village Chief Li proudly introduced:

"We have 15 pigs in total in our village. They are our treasures. When we sell them, we can share the money with the villagers. During the Spring Festival, the villagers rely on these pigs for their money.

So, even if people have nothing to eat, we must ensure that the pigs have something to eat. Look, two section chiefs, right next to us is where we cook pig food. We specially arrange for the villagers to cook pig food every day... Get out of here, you little brats, how dare you compete with pigs for food!!!"

Village chief Li was smiling as he introduced the great achievements of the village. When he turned around, everyone saw several children around seven or eight years old squatting beside the stove where pig food was being cooked, eating the pig food with broken bowls.

Hearing the loud roar from Village Chief Li, they were so scared that they jumped off the stove and ran away.

One of the little boys was about to run away, but he turned back and quickly scooped a bowl of pig food from the pot. He didn't care about the heat and ran away like a flash.

Lin Sanqi was sharp-eyed and noticed that these children were barefoot in the middle of winter...

"Li Agou, Wang Ermao, and that damn kid from Zhao Haibo's family, I'll remember you all and I'll deal with you later. This pork is the lifeblood of our entire village. If you try to steal it again, I'll break your legs!"

Village chief Li cursed at the children who ran away.

Lin Sanqi walked to the side of the stove. As soon as he approached, he smelled a sour odor. He scratched it with a shovel and some strange things floated up from time to time.

This stuff is pig food, why are these kids trying to steal it?

"Village Chief Li, what ingredients are used to make this pig food?"

Village Chief Li cursed for a long time, then turned around and saw Lin Sanqi's question and replied with a smile:

"Chief Lin, you city people haven't seen this before, right? This pig feed is mainly composed of rice bran and cornmeal. You can also put some pig grass, radish berries, dried sweet potatoes, and straw powder in it. Then you boil it over and over again. By the way, the heat is very important.

When cooking pig food, the fire must be high. If the fire is too low, the food will be undercooked and watery, which the pigs will dislike. Also, the action must be quick. If the action is too slow, the bubbling liquid will swell up and the rice, which has not had time to be heated, will be trapped in the middle, forming a bun, with rotten skin and raw bones, which the pigs will dislike even more.

Lin Sanqi thought, this is truly pig food. How could anyone eat it? And how could a few kids secretly scramble to eat something like this? How hungry must they be?

Lin Sanqi suddenly became interested and wanted to understand the people's sentiments, so he interrupted the village chief who was still talking.

"Village Chief Li, can I have a taste of this pig food?"

Village Chief Li was shocked: "Oh, Chief Lin, this is not fun, this, this..."

Lin Sanqi thought that Village Chief Li was stingy and was afraid that if he ate one more bite, the pig would eat one less, so he laughed and said:

"Don't worry, I'll just try it. I won't eat too much. It can be considered as remembering the bitter past and thinking about the sweet future."

Village Chief Li scratched his head and said, "Chief Lin, it's not that I'm stingy, it's just that this pig food is inedible. Because before cooking the pig food, the staff at the pig farm have to urinate in the pot..."

Lin Sanqi was holding a bowl and eager to try it, but when he heard what Village Chief Li said, he suddenly felt nauseous and wanted to vomit.

"Village Chief Li, even if it's food for pigs, you can't pee in it, right? That's too disgusting, right?"

Village Chief Li laughed awkwardly, but Yang Shaohua beside him burst into laughter:

"Xiao Qi, you're wronging Village Chief Li. Peeing in the pig feed is a last resort. Otherwise, how could the pigs have a turn to eat the food after it's cooked? It would have been snatched away long ago. Ordinary people generally don't touch pig feed that's been peed on."

Lin Sanqi understood immediately after hearing this. It turned out that the pigs were deliberately trying to stop the villagers from eating pig food in this disgusting way.

But precisely because I understand, I am even more amused and helpless:

"Well, those kids just stole the pig food. Didn't they know there was urine in it?"

Village Chief Li sighed.

"Yes, everyone in the village knows about it. When we first came up with this idea, we promoted it for several days in the village, and everyone knew about it. But there's nothing we can do. People are so hungry, who cares if there's urine or feces in it?"

Seeing that there was no one around, Lin Sanqi asked in a low voice, "Has anyone starved to death in our village?"

Village Chief Li's face was filled with horror: "No, absolutely not! If anyone starves to death, I'll chop off my head and let the people kick it around like a ball!"

Lin Sanqi was relieved at this point. As long as no one starved to death, it seemed that some jokes on the Internet in later generations could not be taken seriously. But the hunger was real, and Lin Sanqi had seen it with his own eyes.

"Village Chief Li, the pigs in this village are eating better than humans these days. How many kilograms are they ready to be slaughtered?"

Village Chief Li continued to smile bitterly:

"It would be good if we can get 100 kilograms when we sell them. We also need God to help us. We hope that a few of them don't die before we can sell them. Otherwise, all our hard work this year will be in vain."

"I threw it, it only weighs a few pounds? Wouldn't that mean the amount of meat is even less?"

Although Lin Sanqi saw it with his own eyes, he was still surprised to hear the number again. The number was already small, and they were so thin. No wonder the pork supply in the country was difficult.

Yang Shaohua also sighed: "It's difficult for our fellow farmers..."

Lin Sanqi then got to the point and asked softly:

"Village Chief Li, if our Chinese Medicine Hospital wants to buy some pigs, and the price is negotiable, can you sell them to us?"

Village Chief Li shook his head like a rattle:

"That won't work. Of these 15 pigs, 13 are on a special order and must be sold to the supply and marketing cooperative. Not even one less will do. The remaining two can be distributed to our village, but we villagers don't have much meat to eat all year round, so we can't sell them. We'll save them for the New Year and give them to the villagers to have a good meal."

Lin Sanqi actually knew that these farmers could not make any money at all, but there was Yang Shaohua watching him, and the dean would definitely ask him what he had done and said.

So Lin Sanqi decided to continue acting.

Lin Sanqi asked with some embarrassment:

"Village Chief Li, pigs are out of the question. Does your village have any eggs, sweet potatoes, potatoes, flour, or other food that we can trade? Our Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital can buy them all, and the price is negotiable."

Village Chief Li rubbed his hands and said embarrassedly:

"Chief Lin, you may not know this, but for ordinary people, having a bite to eat is priceless these days. Who would be willing to exchange it for money? The key is that we really don't have any surplus food. We won't even have enough to plant crops next spring."

Yang Shaohua chuckled:

"Well, I told you it's impossible to buy grain in the countryside. Workers in the city are having a hard time, let alone our fellow farmers. Believe it or not, if you take out 30 kilograms of flour right now, you can pick any young lady or widow from Taiping Village and they'll go home with you immediately."

Village Chief Li joked, "If you give me 50 kilograms of Fuqiang flour, my wife will give it to you as well."

"Bah, you old woman can be Chief Lin's mother, you want to eat tender meat? You have the nerve to say that? You can almost give Chief Lin 50 kilograms of corn flour."

Hahahaha~~~

The two old men started joking and laughed heartily.

Lin Sanqi couldn't laugh. Looking at the pot of pig food stained with urine, he felt an indescribable sadness in his heart, just like the winter in the north in December.

When Lin Sanqi and Yang Shaohua were about to leave Taiping Village, Village Chief Li secretly handed them two small bags.

Lin Sanqi opened it and found half a bag of corn kernels inside. Then he looked at Village Chief Li with a little surprise.

Village Chief Li had a misunderstanding, thinking that the other party was dissatisfied with the amount, so he blushed and begged for mercy:

"Section Chief Lin, Section Chief Yang, you came to our village to inspect our work in the middle of winter. This little bit of food is a small token of our respect. If you have any work to do at the Chinese Medicine Hospital or the farm in the future, please think of the people of Taiping Village. Hehe, when there's food in the future, I'll definitely carry a large sack of it to thank you."

Yang Shaohua chuckled and put the bag back into Village Chief Li's hands:

"Lao Li, if I take your food, I'm afraid God will strike me dead. You're not having an easy time either, so save it for the members who are in even greater need."

Lin Sanqi also quickly put the food back, feeling extremely ashamed.

He came to Taiping Village to "act", but was misunderstood by the village chief as "extorting money". It was estimated that the two small bags of grain they gave out were already the limit.

That night, Lin Sanqi slept in the newly built dormitory on the farm.

Although they are called dormitories, they are actually just bungalows. There is no lime on the walls and no cement on the floor. They are just a frame.

Because there was no heating, Yang Shaohua set up a brazier in the house and left a crack in the window to prevent carbon dioxide poisoning in the middle of the night.

Lin Sanqi wrapped himself tightly in a military coat and quilt, and secretly stuck a few heat packs on his body, only then did he feel a little warmer.

Although Lin Sanqi is the head of the purchasing department of the future branch of the Chinese Medicine Hospital (farm) and a middle-level cadre, everyone knows that this position is specially used to give Lin Sanqi a promotion, which is equivalent to a temporary position.

Therefore, Lin Sanqi did not participate in the entire farm from preparation to construction.

But he had received the mission secretly, which was to take good care of 12 national treasure-level traditional Chinese medicine practitioners. If the environment was like this, it was estimated that these 12 old men would not see next spring.

Lin Sanqi thought, it seems that just supplying food is not enough, we must also do a good job of keeping warm in advance.

"Section Chief Yang, can I make a small request regarding our farm's development?"

Yang Shaohua said indifferently: "Tell me, I will definitely help you with the ability."

"I'm wondering if you could help arrange four dormitories, with a fire pit in each one."

"Fire pit? Hey, that's great. With a fire pit, you won't feel cold in the winter. But you need to hire a skilled craftsman to build a fire pit, and that's extra money."

"Don't worry, you can spend the money. I will report it to Dean Shen when the time comes. I will definitely not make things difficult for you."

"Okay, just a word." (End of this chapter)