Wang Fugui's mung-bean eyes suddenly lit up, and he slapped his thick palms on the bamboo basket: "Director Zhao, it's wise! If you want to engage in breeding, our village has a bigger field--"
His gold teeth clattered, and his stubby fingers poked Chen Changyuan's nose. "This kid fenced off twenty acres of land in the back mountains to raise wild boars!"
The threshing ground suddenly became so quiet that you could hear the fluttering of flies' wings.
Chen Changyuan slowly rolled up his pus-stained sleeves, revealing three hideous scratches on his forearm. "Is Village Chief Wang talking about the litter of wild boar cubs I rescued last month?"
He turned and raised his chin towards the foot of the mountain. "Could you please, Director Zhao, move over and take a look?"
The mountain breeze brought the smell of disinfectant to my face.
Director Zhao had just taken two steps when Wang Fugui suddenly grabbed his trouser leg and said, "Director, don't believe him! That farm doesn't even have a proper fence. Who knows..."
Before he finished speaking, a voice came from the mountain path.
"Changyuan, our farm is fine. We've checked it out."
Old Yuantou shouted loudly.
The wild jujube trees on the mountain path were curled up by the sun. Chen Changyuan used a branch to push away the thorn bushes, and the twenty acres of gentle slope suddenly became clear.
Seven or eight sleek wild boars were rolling in the mud, and when they heard the human voice, they all pricked up their ears.
"Director Zhao, please take a look."
Chen Changyuan knocked the half-man-high wooden stakes with a branch. A dozen sharpened bamboos were inserted diagonally into the cracks in the mountain. "Wild boars are most afraid of bamboo barbs. There's a bamboo trap buried every five steps along this fence."
Director Zhao's gold-rimmed glasses had slipped to the tip of his nose. As he bent over, he saw chestnut shells scattered on the dirt floor. "How do you mix the feed?"
"Old Yuan, bring over yesterday's trough."
The old man lifted the straw curtain in response, and the brown paste in the wooden trough exuded a medicinal aroma.
Chen Changyuan picked up a piece of bamboo and stirred it. "Bupleurum leaves are anti-inflammatory, kudzu root powder is stomachic, and plantain prevents dysentery—all freshly picked from the mountain behind."
“Nonsense!”
Wang Fugui suddenly squeezed out from behind the crowd, his satin jacket stained with grass debris. "The county requires the use of formal veterinary drugs. You're using unconventional methods..."
"Village Chief Wang."
Director Zhao picked up a handful of feed from the feed trough and rubbed out light green juice with his fingertips, "The smuggled veterinary drugs seized last month were stamped with your village's official seal." The mountain breeze wrapped in the smell of disinfectant swirled in the threshing ground. When Wang Fugui was put into the car, his satin jacket was rubbed up, revealing the gold-plated abacus hanging on his waist.
Chen Changyuan poked the abacus beads with a branch, and the sound of metal collision scared away the green-headed flies on the bamboo basket.
"This abacus is cleaner than a pigsty."
Director Zhao took out his notebook and started writing. Chen Changyuan's rolled-up sleeves were reflected in his gold-rimmed glasses. "Young man, your Chinese herbal feed..."
"30% Bupleurum leaves, 40% Pueraria root powder, 20% Plantain."
Chen Changyuan fished out an oil-paper bag from his trouser pocket. The powder that was shaken out glowed a turquoise-gold color in the sunlight. "The rest is roasted chestnut shells, ground up and mixed in."
Suddenly, an old man wearing a straw hat emerged from the crowd. His dark hands reached directly into the feed trough and said, "My piglets have had diarrhea for half a month. Can you give me some?"
"Uncle Liu, go to the back mountain tomorrow morning and dig two baskets of Bupleurum."
Chen Changyuan stuffed the oil-paper bag into the old man's pocket, turned to Director Zhao and said with a smile, "People in the mountains are honest. When they see good things, they can't move their legs."
Director Zhao paused his pen on his notebook and suddenly tore off a page with a red stamp on it. "The Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences will be coming to inspect next month. You better prepare for it."
Suddenly, a truck braked sharply from the direction of the threshing ground. Two young men in uniform trotted over and said, "Director, twenty boxes of expired vaccines were found in the village committee warehouse."
Director Zhao slammed his leather briefcase shut and looked at Wang Fugui who was standing beside him.
"Comrade Wang Fugui, come with us to the county."
The mountain breeze, carrying the smell of disinfectant, swirled across the muddy ground. Director Zhao's pen tip lingered on the notebook for a long time.
Chen Changyuan squatted beside the material trough with his sleeves rolled up. The kudzu root powder embedded in the cracks of his fingernails shone with fine golden light in the sunlight.
"30% Bupleurum leaves..."
Director Zhao pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses and asked, "Does this ratio have any test data?"
Chen Changyuan pulled out an oil-paper notebook from his trouser pocket. The yellowed pages were densely covered with simple drawings of wild boars. "Starting from the third of last month, I've been recording the color of my feces every day."
He flipped to a page in the middle and rubbed his fingertips over the charcoal marks. "The day we fed the plantain, the piglets had diarrhea twice less."
"Just because of this?"
Director Zhao circled the word "plantain" with his pen. "The county agricultural technology station will need three months to conduct the experiment and compare the data."
Suddenly, there was a "splashing" sound of water in the mud, and a black-haired wild boar half a man's height rushed ashore with its fangs wagging.
Old Yuantou picked up a bamboo pole and hit the mud ground twice, and the beast actually lay back obediently under the shade of the tree.
"Look at this fur."
Chen Changyuan grabbed the wild boar by the scruff of its neck, fine dust rising from its glossy bristles. "The Zhou family's pigs are about to get scabies by now."
He rubbed his fingers behind the pig's ear, pulling out a piece of tender pink flesh. "This time last year, over thirty pigs died of swine fever in the village."
Director Zhao's leather briefcase snapped open and he took out an aluminum lunch box. "Can you give me some of the feed formula?"
"I've prepared it for you a long time ago."
Chen Changyuan winked at Lao Yuantou, and a bamboo basket was immediately carried out from the straw hut.
Twenty or so oil-paper packages were neatly stacked, each tied with a different colored grass stem. "The red string is for a fever-reducing prescription based on Bupleurum root, and the green string is for a stomach-strengthening prescription based on Pueraria root."
The noise from the threshing ground gradually faded away, and Chen Changyuan squatted in the shadow of the straw shed and counted the oil-paper bags.
The old man poked him on the back with a bamboo stick and said, "Twenty packets, enough to exchange for three bags of flour."
"flour?"
Chen Changyuan tied the rope between his fingers and said, "Old Yuan, look at this red stamp."
The stamp of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences on the corner of the oil-paper paper shone coldly in the setting sun. "The truck from the County Supply and Marketing Cooperative should be arriving tomorrow."
At dawn the next day, Chen Changyuan was already busy.
When we arrived at the entrance of the village, we saw a blue truck parked there from a distance. Zhang Qinghai and his assistant were waiting beside the car.
Chen Changyuan got out of the car and walked over quickly.
"Changyuan, I had a dinner party yesterday, and Director Zhao mentioned you. I was very surprised. He said your formula for the current swine fever has a red stamp certification. Is that true?"
Zhang Qinghai expressed his surprise directly as soon as he opened his mouth.
He couldn't believe that Chen Changyuan could actually be recognized by the Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Chen Changyuan smiled slightly, took out the paper with a red stamp from his pocket and handed it to Zhang Qinghai.
In the sunlight, the red seal of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences is particularly conspicuous.
Zhang Qinghai took the paper and his eyes lit up with joy: "This is great news. In the long run, I'll have to bring back a few more trucks."
At this time, there was a noise in the distance.
Uncle Liu came running over panting, followed by several villagers.
He waved happily at Chen Changyuan: "Changyuan, it really works! My piglet is completely healed, it's really amazing!"
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