Chapter 177: The old man who doesn’t want to die anymore (1)
After discovering this, Chu Yue's expression changed instantly. Her eyes were cold and she turned to look at Village Chief Lu.
"There's one chicken missing from the coop."
Village Chief Lu was shocked and immediately denied it. "Impossible! I've already notified the whole village. The area ten meters around Song Dashun's house has been marked and no one is allowed to get close. How could someone steal chickens? Doctor Chu, maybe you saw it wrong? Count again, let's count again."
"There can't be a mistake. Song Dashun and Du Juan raised eighteen chickens in total. They killed one, leaving seventeen. The seventeen were placed in three cages. There should be six, six, and five chickens in each cage. Now there's just one missing."
There weren't many chickens, and Chu Yue could count them with just a glance, so it was impossible for her to make mistakes in these small details.
Village chief Lu immediately bent down and counted the chickens in the chicken coop, and Song Hongmei followed suit.
There are a total of sixteen chickens in the chicken coop now, but there is one missing.
Song Hongmei frowned. "Yesterday I watched Ah Yue pack all the chickens in. How come one is missing?"
"Why is it missing... How could it be missing..." Village Chief Lu asked in embarrassment, "Doctor Chu, now there's one missing, what do you say we should do?"
"There are fewer chickens now. Someone must have stolen them. It must be someone from the village. We must find this person and also find the chickens infected with fowl plague." Chu Yue spoke meticulously, every word precious.
Village chief Lu nodded, looking embarrassed.
Their village is not a small village. There are hundreds of households in total, and every household raises chickens. It is not easy to find a chicken.
When Village Chief Lu chose to remain silent, another villager standing next to Village Chief Lu complained after hearing what Chu Yue said.
"It's just a chicken. If it ran away, it ran away. Maybe it died somewhere. How can you be sure it was stolen? You said you wanted to find the chicken. Do you think it's easy? You say it's easy, but in the end, we are the ones who have to do the hard work."
Chu Yue and Song Hongmei frowned slightly after hearing these words.
Village Chief Lu immediately growled, "Zhu Zi! Doctor Chu is our village's great benefactor. How dare you talk like that! Apologize to Doctor Chu now!"
The man snorted and glanced at Chu Yue.
After yelling at everyone, Village Chief Lu said to Chu Yue, "Doctor Chu, if you want to find someone in the village, that's easy. You can find them within an hour. But finding a chicken... is really not easy. Who knows if it's in the village or in the mountains? We don't have enough people to climb the mountain."
After all, even Village Chief Lu felt that Chu Yue was just looking for trouble. It was just a lost chicken, not a serious matter.
The ignorance of the plague is the ignorance ingrained in the bones of these villagers.
These thoughts could not be changed no matter how much Chu Yue said.
Song Hongmei looked at Chu Yue worriedly, afraid that Chu Yue would feel sad.
However, Chu Yue was not frustrated at all.
She knew that education alone would not change the minds of the foolish villagers, so it would be better to provide a practical solution.
Chu Yue said to Village Chief Lu, "Village Chief Lu, there's no need to look for chickens. Just ask around in the village and see who's having chicken or chicken soup today."
Village Chief Lu's eyes widened and hesitantly asked, "...is that all?"
Chu Yue nodded, "Yes, that's all!"
Chickens infected with the plague look sickly and will not live long. Ordinary people would think like the cuckoo, killing the chicken before it dies completely and trying to eat the freshest one.
They also think that as long as the chicken is not dead, they will not get sick!
When Song Hongmei heard Chu Yue's idea, her eyes lit up. It was a simple and good idea. She hurriedly said to Village Chief Lu, "Village Chief Lu, it's not difficult now. Why don't you go quickly!"
"Yes, yes, yes... I'll go right away..."
Village chief Lu pulled his men and left in a hurry to find someone who wanted to eat chicken and chicken soup.
Chu Yue opened the matchbox in her hand, the flame jumped, and after throwing it on the pile of dry firewood, it ignited immediately.
As the wood burned, the fire grew larger and larger until the flames engulfed the chicken coop and reduced everything to ash.
Not far away.
Song Dashun and Du Juan watched this scene with tears in their eyes. All their hard work over the past year disappeared in the black smoke.
Du Juan held Song Dashun's hand tightly and comforted him softly, "Dashun, it's okay. Let's start over again."
Song Dashun endured the sourness in his nose and nodded heavily, "Well, let's start over!"
…
After using Chu Yue's method, Village Chief Lu quickly found the person in the village, in just a quarter of an hour.
The families in the village live very close to each other. If someone cooks pork or chicken in the kitchen and eats even a little bit of meat, the surrounding families will smell the odor immediately, and it will spread throughout the village in less than half a day.
That's eating meat, a big event that only happens a few times a year, and not something that every household needs to know about.
Song Hongmei was a little surprised and asked Chu Yue how she came up with this idea.
Chu Yue said, "The family compound is also a small village. If someone eats meat or fish, the sisters-in-law around will know."
Song Hongmei thought about it carefully and realized that it was true.
Chu Yue realized that practice makes perfect.
"It's Old Man Li's house! This afternoon, the smoke from Old Man Li's kitchen was rising high, and I could smell the aroma of chicken soup long ago! I went to see him, but Old Man Li stopped me from even taking a look. Tsk, I'm just taking a look, I'm not going to eat a piece of his meat, what a stingy guy!"
"Old man Li is a notorious stingy person in our village. You know that. If he didn't charge you for the fragrance, just smile."
"Usually, Old Man Li wouldn't even eat eggs, so why is he willing to make chicken soup today? Did he finally kill his old hen?"
"No! Just their old hen. I saw it still jumping around in the yard. It's alive and well."
"If they didn't kill the chicken, what would they use to make chicken soup?"
There must be something wrong when things are abnormal. The notoriously stingy person actually stewed chicken soup and it wasn't a holiday. It was really like the sun rising from the west.
After inquiring about the situation, Village Chief Lu immediately turned back to find Chu Yue, "Comrade Chu, I found it... I found it... Only one family in the village had chicken soup at noon today."
Chu Yue said without a word, "Let's go, go there right now."
In a blink of an eye, led by Village Chief Lu, a group of people rushed to the door of Old Man Li's house.
Old Man Li heard the commotion and saw Village Chief Lu with so many people, standing in front of his house with a crutch, fiercely refusing to let anyone in. "What are you doing? This is my home! Go, go, go, get out!"
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