Gasp! She's a Time Traveler Using Modern Tech to Improve Ancient Life-Chapter 607 - 605: Country Life

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Le’an Village Lady’s estate has distributed piglets, each costing just over twenty coins—better to take than not.

But soon, the families who received the piglets discovered the pain of it!

The piglets of the Great Tang farmers are usually raised beneath the toilets, feeding on human waste, but Lin Le’an doesn’t allow raising pigs this way!

She wants to separate the pigsties and toilets in the village, even sending fierce Kunlun slaves to forcefully demolish them.

These big figures really know how to torment us common folks!

It’s easy for them to say, but if pigs aren’t placed below the toilets, what are they supposed to eat? Who’s got enough food for their family, let alone to think about how to feed pigs?

But there’s no helping it, in this fief that originally belonged to Duke Xiao, the biggest person now is his fiancée, Village Lady Le’an. From the land to the manor guests, everyone must depend on her for survival, so naturally, whatever she says goes.

Fortunately, the village lady took everyone to the back mountain to identify a thing called pigweed, saying it could be used to feed pigs.

Actually, to the villagers, pigweed is also edible for humans, and feeding it to pigs is a waste.

But there’s no choice, raising piglets is a task given by the manor’s master. Even if the whole family starves, they must raise the pigs well, or who knows what consequences there might be—no one dares to bet on the nobility’s conscience.

But shortly after everyone’s complaints subsided, news spread from the village lady’s manor that all families with piglets could collect pig feed monthly from the manor, on time.

This feed is the fixed ration for piglets; the piglets weren’t a gift to the villagers but were given for them to raise on behalf of others.

Exactly, when would nobles so kindly give away piglets worth over twenty coins without a reason? It turns out they just found it troublesome and wanted everyone to help raise them!

However, everyone was happy nonetheless; if it’s to help raise, then help raise—it’s just that the pig feed given out with the piglets smells good!

Many families were about to run out of food; they didn’t even have enough grain for people to eat and had been foraging wild vegetables and fruits in the mountains every day to stave off hunger.

But now, the manor actually dispenses pig feed! Millet is being used as pig feed!

Oh my! This golden millet—people don’t even get to eat it, yet Lin Le’an wants everyone to feed it to the pigs!

Feeding pigs—is simply out of the question, all families receiving the pig feed tacitly and silently turn pig feed into human food. However, since the pigsties and toilets were demolished and rebuilt, everyone now lets their children gather pigweed and wild fruits to raise pigs.

Had it not been for a family secretly feeding pigs human waste at night and being caught red-handed by the manor steward Sun, getting beaten and having their piglet and feed confiscated, everyone would likely have continued to do so.

After all, for thousands of years, people have raised pigs this way.

But now, no one dares anymore; it’s better to obediently gather pigweed. A beating doesn’t matter, but losing the piglet would be too great a loss.

It’s not merely piglets but also the source of their rations!

Lin Wanwan originally intended to build a unified pigsty as a raw material base for the Soap and Music Workshop, but after visiting modern pigsties, she changed her mind.

First, modern feed being transported by her each time risks exposure. After all, even though this place isn’t far from Chang’an, it’s full of shrewd bigwigs, unlike the remote Wanghai area in Mao County, where people lack knowledge and Lin Wanwan could do as she pleases.

Second, making a unified pigsty would be too smelly and pollute the picturesque environment of her manor located in the pristine mountains.

After renovations, her manor now resembles a Peach Blossom Spring hidden within wheat fields. Looking out, it’s all boundless farmland—refreshing and invigorating, with especially fresh air. If a pig farm’s stench were wafting nearby, it would ruin the view!

So ultimately, Lin Wanwan decided to divide and conquer, distributing the piglets to villagers and providing the feed herself.

This way, it’s discreet and environmentally friendly; Lin Wanwan feels proud of her decision.

All piglets were health-checked before being given to villagers, and any necessary treatments had been secretly done with modern medicine.

After a period of raising, Lin Wanwan plans to have a veterinarian castrate the pigs—both male and female pigs treated the same.

The pigs near Chang’an are all black, and unless they’ve been castrated, the meat is gamey-smelling. Plus, they feed on human waste, so nobles don’t like eating pork—it’s only the poor, who cannot afford lamb, who do.

But since Lin Wanwan decided to raise pigs, of course, she wouldn’t continue such practices. She studied so much about pig farming and treating swine illnesses precisely to improve the backward pig-raising methods of the Great Tang!

Castrated pig meat lacks the gamey smell, grows quickly, and yields high; therefore, this must be done.

The only flaw is that the current castration techniques in the Great Tang are very immature, with few veterinarians skilled at it.

But it’s alright—it just takes practice! She can provide the theoretical knowledge!

Lin Wanwan isn’t concerned about piglets dying in practice sessions—she can afford such minor losses.

Moreover, the piglets Lin Wanwan brings aren’t just native Great Tang black piglets but also quite a few white piglets (purchased in modern times, and smuggled into the Great Tang Manor via a rented secluded countryside warehouse).

After deciding to raise pigs in the Great Tang, Lin Wanwan researched thoroughly.

It turns out the native pigs in Huaxia are all black, while the white-skinned pigs people eat daily were introduced from outside in the 1950s.

Because white pigs have a higher slaughter rate and leanness ratio than black pigs, the economic benefit of raising white-skinned pigs naturally exceeds that of black pigs. So ever since white-skinned pigs entered Huaxia, within just thirty years, white pigs prevailed across the land.

And the native black pigs, since they weren’t favored for raising or consumption, became almost extinct. In modern society, as many as twenty-nine breeds of black pigs are either nearly extinct or endangered, and eight unique pig breeds have already gone extinct.

For Lin Wanwan, tossing what seemed like extinct black piglets into the modern mountains was merely a handy act—not done to save black pigs.

When talking with the villagers, Lin Wanwan claimed these piglets came from the Hu Shang in the Western Regions. With the villagers lacking worldly knowledge, whatever Lin Wanwan said was taken as truth.

To prepare thoroughly, Lin Wanwan even mentioned the Western Regions’ white-skinned pigs to Princess Changle, also discussing breeding them as seed stock.

The other party showed no interest whatsoever—pigs, being such lowly filthy creatures, how could a high princess have the patience for them?

Only someone like the rural-born Le’an would be so interested in such matters.

Regarding pig farming, Li Lizhi had no objections; though she didn’t care, she didn’t mock Lin Wanwan either.

However, other noblewomen who heard the news certainly had their fair share of private laughs at Lin Wanwan being a country woman.

The rumors reached Lin Wanwan’s ears, but she didn’t mind at all. She inherently enjoyed the pastoral life of the Great Tang and didn’t care for the games of decorum or domestic intrigues among noblewomen!

Among everyone, Old Sun is the most supportive of Lin Wanwan. He appreciates Lin Wanwan’s down-to-earth approach.

Now, when off duty, Old Sun also stays in the manor—it’s much more comfortable than living in Chang’an City.

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