Chapter 176 No, I still have to take my pants off.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Jianjun's eyes widened: "What did you say?! Jiang Meizi, you, you say it again! Don't joke with me about this! How could you have something like this?"

Jiang Wanqiu began to fabricate a story with a straight face: "Battalion Commander Zhou, you have to keep this a secret. My family used to do business in the South, and we've dealt with foreigners before. They say they have connections in the United States and can get some strange and unusual seeds."

In this era, anything associated with "the United States" exudes an air of mystery and power.

Sure enough, Zhou Jianguo's suspicion lessened, but his shock intensified.

Fearing that his expectations were too high, Jiang Wanqiu quickly added, "However, I reckon I can only get some seeds. How they cultivated this stuff is their core secret, and I definitely won't be able to find out. Besides, I heard that they're still in the experimental stage themselves and haven't quite figured it out yet."

Zhou Jianguo nodded repeatedly, clearly believing Jiang Wanqiu's statement.

His face flushed with excitement: "It's still in the experimental stage... It's good that it's still in the experimental stage! It means they haven't succeeded yet! If we can really get the seeds, we can do our own research and maybe even be one step ahead of those Americans! Then, our 'Dongnong 78' will shock the world!"

Seeing him like this, Jiang Wanqiu knew that Zhou Jianguo, who had been determined to die, had come back to life.

She nodded solemnly: "In that case, Battalion Commander Zhou, wait for my news, and I will go back and ask someone to think of a solution."

"Great! Great! That's wonderful!"

Zhou Jianguo said "good" three times in a row, as if he had been injected with a brand new vitality, and his previous dejection and lifelessness were swept away. He was so happy that he was a little flustered. He spun around twice on the spot, and then suddenly grabbed Jiang Wanqiu.

"Come on! Sister Jiang, you're my savior, no, you're the savior of our entire military region, the entire Northeast! I'll take you to see something good!"

Without saying a word, he pulled Jiang Wanqiu out of the greenhouse: "Besides the treasures in this field, I have another precious thing! I'll take you to see the pigs I raise!"

Before even getting close to the experimental field, a strong, pungent stench assaulted Jiang Wanqiu's nostrils, causing her to instinctively hold her breath and pause in her steps.

Before Jiang Wanqiu lay a vast expanse of pigsties, built of bricks, stones, and wood, row upon row, all dusty and grimy. Inside, the grunting of pigs filled the air. A dozen or so men and women, wearing rubber boots and with their trousers rolled up, were busily cleaning up the pig manure with brooms and shovels, chatting and laughing amongst themselves, seemingly unaffected by the stench.

"Hey? Battalion Commander?!" A sharp-eyed young man spotted Zhou Jianguo first and quickly turned to greet everyone, "Battalion Commander Zhou is back!"

His shout immediately drew everyone around, their faces filled with surprise and delight.

"Oh, my dear Battalion Commander Zhou! You've finally shown up!"

"Battalion Commander, are you enjoying being a hands-off manager? If you don't come soon, that old sow will refuse to eat for three days. I'm even thinking of begging her to eat me!"

"That's right, that's right! The pigs have broken the fence on the west side again. Even the boys can't hold them down. Go and take a look!"

A group of people swarmed around, chattering excitedly, their faces beaming with undisguised joy and familiarity.

They tacitly avoided that heavy topic, focusing instead on these trivial matters, expressing their welcome to him in the most lively way.

This vibrant energy completely relaxed Zhou Jianguo's face, which had been tense for several days.

He laughed and cursed at them one by one: "Get lost! You can't survive without me, can you? You all promised me the same thing when you joined my group, right?"

After a while of commotion, someone finally noticed Jiang Wanqiu behind him. A loud-voiced woman asked curiously, "Battalion Commander, who is this...?"

Zhou Jianguo then remembered and quickly introduced, "This is Zhao Wenchang's family, Comrade Jiang Wanqiu. She is very curious about our experimental research project, so I brought her here to see our precious gem."

Upon hearing that she was Zhao Wenchang's wife, the wariness on the faces of the people around immediately turned into good-natured smiles, and they all nodded: "Oh, she's Wenchang's wife!"

Hello, girl.

Zhou Jianguo led Jiang Wanqiu to a row of pigsties and pointed to several white pigs grunting and squealing inside.

“Jiang Meizi, look at this,” he gestured, spitting as he spoke, “Our pigs are called ‘Northeast Minzhu.’ Their advantages are that their meat is fragrant, they are cold-resistant, they are not picky eaters, and they are easy to raise. But their disadvantages are also obvious: they grow slowly, have small litters, and are wasteful of feed. The task from above is for us to crossbreed them with foreign ‘Largofowl’ pigs, to learn from their strengths and make up for their weaknesses, and to cultivate a new breed that can adapt to our Northeast climate, grow quickly, and produce more meat!”

He paused, pointed to a large, listless white pig lying beside him, and sighed, "But this is difficult! These foreign pigs are precious and don't adapt well to the environment. Our boars can't breed with them, they scream and scream but nothing happens. Even when they finally do breed, the offspring are weak and few survive. Look, it's been more than half a year, and there's still no progress. It's driving me crazy!"

Jiang Wanqiu followed his finger and saw that the so-called "Largonauts" sows did look listless, lying lazily in their pens, showing no interest in anything around them.

Jiang Wanqiu suddenly remembered the sow aphrodisiac spray she used to deal with human traffickers.

That stuff really works; it's even effective on people.

She casually asked, "I remember you had aphrodisiac powder for sows, didn't you?"

"Sigh." Zhou Jianguo waved his hand helplessly. "To be honest, there's nothing I can do. They're probably foreigners and can't get used to our local food. That powder only works on boars; it doesn't affect sows at all."

Jiang Wanqiu nodded: "If that's the case, I do have some medicine for sows. Should I bring it over with me?"

Zhou Jianguo was extremely surprised: "You have all of this?"

Jiang Wanqiu smiled sheepishly: "Yes, yes."

Jiang Wanqiu made up her mind that next time she came, she would bring the spray and the seeds to Zhou Jianguo together.

Just then, a woman wearing a blue work jacket came running over, carrying a ladle. She had a gentle smile on her face and spoke softly: "Battalion Commander, you're back."

"Sister Liu!" Zhou Jianguo's smile deepened when he saw her. "What's making you so happy?"

"Come and see!" Aunt Liu said with a smile, pointing to a small, secluded circle not far away. "Hei Niu has given birth again! Seven in a litter, all very healthy! There's even one with a flower on it, how rare!"

"Really?!" Zhou Jianguo's eyes lit up when he heard this. He quickly pulled Jiang Wanqiu along, "Come on, Jiang, let me take you to see the newborn piglets!"

Jiang Wanqiu followed him to the pigpen, where a glossy black sow lay there, with seven pink, trembling piglets huddled on her belly, their eyes closed as they struggled to push against her, emitting soft, weak grunts. One of them was indeed black and white, like it was wearing a little cow's coat.

Zhou Jianguo watched with a broad smile, his mouth practically agape. Jiang Wanqiu, however, noticed that Liu Sao, who was beside him, was also smiling, but her eyes were constantly and cautiously scrutinizing Zhou Jianguo's expression, her gaze revealing unconcealed worry and a hint of searching.

"Ouch!" Jiang Wanqiu was so engrossed in watching that she didn't notice where she was standing. Before she knew it, a wet clump of pig manure had rubbed against her trouser leg, and an even stronger stench wafted up.

"Ouch!" Zhou Jianguo reacted quickly, even more concerned than she was. "I was so busy talking to you that I forgot to give you your work clothes when we came. Jiang, wait here, don't move, I'll go get you some water and a towel!"

As he spoke, he turned and ran quickly toward the water room.

Taking advantage of this lull, Aunt Liu, who had been standing to the side, quietly leaned closer to Jiang Wanqiu and whispered, "Sister, I saw you came with the battalion commander... He... he's really alright, isn't he?"

She gave a soft "hmm" in response, "I saw him chatting and laughing with everyone, and he seemed to be in good spirits. He must have... recovered."

"That's good, that's good..." Aunt Liu breathed a long sigh of relief. Then she sighed softly, "Sister, you don't know, the battalion commander is such a good man. I'm a woman with two children. If it weren't for the battalion commander introducing me to this place and assigning me a dormitory, the three of us would be starving right now! So when I heard about what happened to the battalion commander, I felt so sorry for him! Such a good person..."

Jiang Wanqiu sighed inwardly and said softly, "Men at times like this may seem to be putting on a brave face, but they are actually the most vulnerable inside. If there is someone who cares about them by their side, they might recover faster."

"That's right!" Sister Liu nodded immediately. "The battalion commander is such a good person, God must be watching him closely. He's sure to meet an even better girl in the future!"

As they were talking, Zhou Jianguo quickly walked back carrying a half-worn enamel basin filled with clear water, and in his other hand he was holding a dry, old towel.

He placed the things on a wooden post beside him, and with a somewhat stern look on his face, he said to Aunt Liu, "Aunt Liu, thank you for your trouble. It's not convenient for me to do it myself, so could you help Sister Jiang wipe her trouser legs?"

"Okay, sure!" Aunt Liu readily agreed, took the towel, and pulled Jiang Wanqiu a few steps outside the pigsty to find a cleaner spot.

Jiang Wanqiu actually wanted to do it herself, but looking at the sticky, yellowish-brown stuff clinging tightly to her trouser leg, she felt nauseous just looking at it and couldn't bring herself to do it.

Aunt Liu was quite efficient; she soaked the towel, wrung it out until it was half dry, and squatted down to start wiping.

She had a strong grip and wiped very carefully, but the pig manure was extremely sticky. After wiping for a long time, although the filth was removed, a large dark brown stain remained on the brand-new blue cloth pants, sticking wetly to her legs and looking glaringly unsightly.

"Oh dear, what should I do..." Aunt Liu frowned in distress.

Jiang Wanqiu looked down and saw that the wet mark was emitting an even stronger, fishy stench that seemed to hit the top of her head.

She couldn't hold it in any longer, covered her mouth and gagged with a "whoosh," her face instantly turning bright red.

"It's nothing...it's nothing, sister-in-law," she waved her hand, panting, "I...I'll just go back and take a good shower...ugh..."

"Look how pale you are!" Aunt Liu said, supporting her as she saw her vomiting violently. "Don't try to be brave! Come on, let's go to my place. I'll find you a pair of pants to change into, and I'll wash these for you!"

"No, no, it's too much trouble for you, sister-in-law..."

"What trouble!" Liu Lanhua didn't allow her to refuse. "Don't you believe me? If you get pig manure on your clothes, and you don't know how to remove it properly, the smell will seep into the fabric and you won't be able to get rid of it no matter how you wash it! You'll ruin a perfectly good pair of pants!"

Jiang Wanqiu was still hesitating when Liu Lanhua grabbed her arm and turned to shout to Zhou Jianguo, who was peeking out of the pigsty, "Battalion Commander, I'm taking Jiang to my dormitory to change her pants. She needs to get rid of these pants quickly!"

Zhou Jianguo scratched the back of his head and gave Jiang Wanqiu an extremely embarrassed smile: "Okay, go ahead!"

Liu Lanhua's dormitory was in a row of bungalows behind the pig farm.

Pushing open the door, the entire home was laid out before you. It was a small single room with a wooden bed against the wall, clean bedding neatly folded at the head of the bed. Next to it was a small square table and an old wooden chest with peeling paint—that was all the family's belongings. Although the room was small, it was kept spotless and without a trace of clutter.

"mom!"

Two little girls with pigtails ran over from the bedside, hugged Liu Lanhua's legs on either side, and looked up with their big, dark eyes, calling out in their childish voices.

Seeing Jiang Wanqiu following behind her mother, the older girl let go of her hand, stood up straight, and called out in a clear voice, "Hello, sister."

The younger one followed her older sister's example, timidly whispering, "...Hello, older sister."

Jiang Wanqiu's heart melted instantly. She couldn't help but squat down, a gentle smile on her face, and softly replied, "Yes, hello to you all too."

Looking at the two adorable little figures in front of her, she couldn't help but think of the one in her belly.

If... if it were a little girl, that would be nice too.

If she inherits Zhao Wenchang's high nose bridge and deep-set eyes, who knows how handsome she'll be when she grows up.

Just thinking about it made Jiang Wanqiu's lips curl up into a smile. She would also braid her hair into two pigtails and dress her in a floral dress.

"Quick, girl, stop standing there and take your pants off!" Liu Lanhua's voice interrupted her thoughts.

Liu Lanhua deftly lifted the old, chipped wooden box at the foot of the bed and began rummaging through it. The box was filled with worn-out clothes, and she carefully pulled out a pair of trousers from the bottom.