Chapter 2: Madam, would you like some salted duck eggs?
Item Details: Salted duck eggs with rich, runny yolks—the perfect match for millet porridge. Made with Grandma’s ancestral recipe, each bite brings profound peace and love.
Note: The lowest tier within the N-grade category.
Per system regulations, lottery items are tiered as follows: lowest-grade Gray N, followed by R, SR, and SSR.
Normally, even to encourage the host, the first ten-pull wouldn’t yield an entire row of N-grade items. Yet now, ten of the lowest-tier salted duck eggs stood lined up before Rong Ziyin.
This scene, viewed from any angle, was utterly mocking.
Rong Ziyin’s focus, however, lay elsewhere. “Does eating them really make you feel peace and love?”
“Absolutely. The system description never lies.” The system sounded listless, feeling deeply skeptical of Rong Ziyin’s perpetual bad luck.
Rong Ziyin didn’t try to reassure him. Instead, he quickly ended their mental conversation. After all, the pile of ducks before him needed handling.
But the village chief moved even faster. Before Rong Ziyin could mention keeping one for testing—so the two aunts could claim their subsidies—the village chief had already gathered people to round up both flocks.
Seeing this, Rong Ziyin stepped forward to add, “Duck tuberculosis spreads fairly quickly. After culling this batch, it’d be best to quarantine the breeding ducks in other households too, just to rule out any positive cases.”
“Positive?” The village chief didn’t quite grasp what Rong Ziyin meant.
“Positive means the virus is present.”
“Then… then what if we find a positive case?”
“Then there’s no saving them.” Rong Ziyin shook his head. “There’s no medical treatment for avian tuberculosis. If even one duck in a flock tests positive, the entire flock must be incinerated on the spot.”
[Panic Level +1000]
The villagers who had been watching the commotion instantly grew solemn. The two aunts had fallen silent, unable even to wail.
Duck illness was serious business, but they never imagined it could be this dire. For a moment, they were utterly speechless.
After a long pause, one of the aunts finally spoke up, “But this disease didn’t start with us! The first sick duck was brought over from my brother’s place back home.”
“The neighboring village?” Rong Ziyin pressed. “What kind of ducks does your brother mainly raise?”
“Muscovy ducks. The one I brought over was just a regular duck.”
“Muscovy ducks. That explains it. ” Rong Ziyin frowned. “Muscovy ducks are primarily raised in the south, and their breeding stock is generally older than northern breeds. Since duck tuberculosis is a chronic disease, northern ducks have shorter growth cycles. Many are slaughtered before symptoms even appear, making such large-scale transmission unlikely.”
“So it’s most likely their Muscovy breeding stock was infected, directly spreading it to all their ducks.” Rong Ziyin grew anxious. Poultry was a staple on dining tables, and diseased birds entering the food chain could easily threaten human health. Even if the outbreak originated in a neighboring village, it demanded serious attention.
But the auntie had already launched into a tirade!
“Damn that sister-in-law of mine! I knew she was up to no good when she insisted on giving me a duck before leaving!”
“What do you mean? Tell me exactly what happened.” Rong Ziyin pressed urgently.
The auntie wiped away tears and began from the start.
“This first sickly duck was a breeding duck I brought from my parents’ home.” Her parents lived in the neighboring village of Xiaowang.
Her father and mother now lived with her younger brother. Seeing their advancing age, she often returned to visit. Though she never went empty-handed, her brother’s household felt obligated to reciprocate with gifts to maintain proper etiquette.
In theory, such give-and-take among relatives is a good thing—especially between siblings. But her sister-in-law was overly competitive. Seeing her elder sister visit her parents’ home so often, she felt her own household was being taken advantage of and couldn’t resist making snide remarks.
Back and forth, their relationship grew increasingly strained. But one day, the sister-in-law changed her tune. Hearing Auntie raised ducks, she sent over a plump, sturdy drake as a breeding duck.
Auntie glanced at it and was quite pleased. It wasn’t about gaining a small advantage; she mainly felt the constant bickering between the family members was pointless. Now that her sister-in-law was making amends, there was no need to keep things so tense.
So in the end, she kept the duck money and happily carried the duck home herself. Little did she know it would lead to such a disaster.
“Oh, it’s all my fault! I… I just had to run into this ungrateful sister-in-law!” The auntie started crying again as she spoke.
This time, it was real tears. Her whole heart had been thrown to the dogs, and she was utterly heartbroken.
Rong Ziyin could only shake his head silently at the 【Sadness Value 400】 floating above the auntie’s head. But the villagers gathered around couldn’t hold back any longer.
“Damn it! This is just too much! Is this some kind of family affair they’re pulling?”
“Forget family! Now the whole village is going to suffer! Didn’t you hear what Doctor Xiao Rong said? All the ducks in the village are being tested! If any come back positive, we’re all finished!”
“No way, Village Chief. We can’t just let this slide.”
“Exactly! We need answers from Wang Village! How dare they do this to us?”
For the villagers, livestock was as vital as their land. Word of potential livestock losses would inevitably spark immediate uproar.
The village chief remained relatively composed. He quickly gestured for the villagers to calm down, then turned to ask Dr. Rong, “Dr. Rong, are you certain this disease was brought in by the foreign ducks?”
“It’s highly probable. Both groups of ducks are now infected, and even the ducklings show symptoms. If it were a local pathogen, the entire village would be affected now, not just these two groups. Based on the incubation period for duck tuberculosis, it aligns perfectly with when this auntie brought home the breeding duck.”
“Is there a way to confirm this definitively?”
“Yes. If we can sample and test the ducks from the neighboring village, we can confirm it. Since this breeding duck fell ill after arriving home, it proves it was already infected beforehand. We can assume their situation is even worse than ours. I’ll contact their quarantine station first.”
With that, Rong Ziyin pulled out the phone, dialed the number, and activated the speakerphone.
“Wangcun Village Animal Husbandry Station. What’s this about?” The veterinarian on the other end sounded like a middle-aged man, clearly still half-asleep despite it being morning. His speech was slurred and indistinct.
Rong Ziyin explained the situation: “I hope you’ll take this seriously. Duck tuberculosis is a serious infectious disease.”
The other end scoffed dismissively. “Impossible! Our village conducts epidemic inspections twice a year.”
“Young man, you’re not old enough to be stirring up trouble.” The veterinarian clearly didn’t take Rong Ziyin seriously.
The village livestock station’s veterinarians were all directly dispatched from Yanjing. So the moment Rong Ziyin took office, his school incident had already spread throughout the system.
After all, such a high-achieving graduate ending up in a remote livestock station spoke volumes about his circumstances.
Compounding matters, this vet was, strictly speaking, distantly related to Rong Ziyin and harbored intense jealousy toward him, making him utterly unwilling to listen to any explanation.
Back in the day, his family had berated him for twenty years for being useless. Then, when Rong Ziyin got into Agricultural University, the entire village turned around and fawned over him.
Now look at him—a fallen phoenix worse off than a chicken, trampled by anyone.
That vet was just waiting for Rong Ziyin to speak so he could humiliate him.
But Rong Ziyin merely replied with an utterly flat “Oh,” then hung up.
[From Vet Wang Da Zhuang: Pathetic Level 888]
Wang Dazhuang punched the air in frustration, utterly humiliated. But Rong Ziyin couldn’t care less.
Rong Ziyin: “Quite auspicious. Da Zhuang is a man who values tradition.”
The system was stunned by this retort, momentarily speechless.
But the village chief and villagers who heard Wang Dazhuang’s response were furious.
Good grief! Your village’s ducks got sick, dragging ours down with them, and now you just ignore it?
The village chief’s pent-up fury erupted instantly. “What kind of vet is this? If the folks in Xiaowang Village are useless, their vet’s just a quack too!”
“Exactly! Chief, we can’t let this swindler off the hook!”
“Every household in the village raises ducks, all free-range. What’s the big deal? No way, we must seek justice!”
“Yes! Village Chief, you’re the leader—you have to stand up for us!” The two aunts started crying again.
The village chief was furious too. Finally, he steeled himself, grabbed a hoe, and declared, “Let’s go! We’re heading over to demand an explanation.”
A child of about ten overheard this from the crowd. He dashed back home, grabbed a copper gong, and ran down the dirt path toward the fields, banging the gong and shouting as he went.
“Xiaowang Village is committing murder for profit!”
“The village chief is leading us to seek justice! Men and women, grab your tools and let’s go!” ”
“A murder? Then call the police!” someone on the ridge called back.
The kid was quick on his feet, explaining everything in a few words.
Those who gathered behind passed the news along, and soon Xiao Wang Village was branded with the crime of murder for profit.
What? It wasn’t a person, it was a duck, so it doesn’t count as murder for gain?
Bullshit! A duck’s life is money! We must demand justice.
A group of burly villagers shouldered their tools and followed the village chief to Xiaowang Village in a swarm. Before they left, Rong Ziyin instructed them to bring along the gutted dead duck along with its heart, liver, and lungs. Only then did he watch them depart.
With Rong Ziyin’s backing, the village chief and villagers grew increasingly confident. Within minutes, they provided Rong Ziyin with over three thousand Excitement Points. That meant three more chances to draw prizes.
Rong Ziyin: You think I’d draw right away?
The System calmly suggested: How about we wait for a ten-draw?
Rong Ziyin glanced at his watch: Shouldn’t be long.
The system hadn’t grasped Rong Ziyin’s hidden meaning, but before long, it indeed received a barrage of complex emotional boosts.
[Village Chief of Neighboring Village: Embarrassment Value 890]
[Villagers xxx, xxx, xxx… Stunned Value 2333]
Even bizarre categories like [Sick Duck’s Despair Level 250 in Xiaowang Village].
But the most abundant contributions came from Wang Dazhuang, the veterinarian who had cornered Rong Ziyin over the phone. His frustration, resentment, anger—just this one person alone provided Rong Ziyin with over four thousand gold coins.
Rong Ziyin smirked, “See? I told you so.”
Duck tuberculosis was a major disease. Rong Ziyin had identified the pathogen and reported it promptly out of moral obligation. Otherwise, he could have simply handed it over to the county authorities and been done with it.
But if word got out about this, it wouldn’t just be that one village suffering—the surrounding villages would be in trouble too. Once the outside buyers heard about it, they’d all cut off cooperation. For villagers whose livelihoods depended on this trade, it was a matter of life and death.
Sure enough, in Xiaowang Village, Wang Dazhuang was now surrounded by villagers from two villages. The dead ducks Rong Ziyin had instructed the village chief to bring were thrust right in his face.
“Look! Look! These are the ducks from your village! Don’t you vaccinate them twice a year?”
Wang Dazhuang couldn’t explain it. Over the past two years, he had admittedly been lax about poultry vaccinations. But Xiaowang Village only had a handful of households raising ducks. He had even inspected them last month and found nothing amiss!
The worst blow came when they inspected the duck flock at his sister-in-law’s maternal home and discovered the same disease there.
Now, there was no escaping it. The source was right here.
Sweat instantly beaded on the village chief’s forehead. “Quick! Quickly find out who bought this flock! Disaster! Pure disaster!”
He was at his wit’s end. But the village chief on Rong Ziyin’s side patted his shoulder reassuringly, taking the opportunity to praise their own village’s Doctor Rong.
“Don’t panic. We caught it early. Problems get solved where they arise.”
“See? This is the power of knowledge. That’s why the country keeps advocating for following science!”
“Yes, yes, yes. All thanks to this young Doctor Rong.” The village chief of Xiaowang Village nodded vigorously while shooting a fierce glare at his own village’s veterinarian, Wang Dazhuang. The look clearly said, I’ll deal with you later.
Wang Dazhuang instantly felt as if he’d swallowed ten pounds of bitter herbs, his mouth filled with bitterness. All because of jealousy, he’d tried to pick a fight with Rong Ziyin, only to end up with a mountain of trouble for nothing.
As the village veterinary station’s vet, when livestock issues arose in his own village, it was another village that ultimately discovered the problem. If the disease turned out to be severe, he might even lose his job. In short, it was a lose-lose situation.
With this realization, he provided Rong Ziyin with another 1000 points of regret.
Back at the veterinary station, Rong Ziyin and the system tallied up the gains—this round had netted them a whopping 20,000 gold coins, perfectly enough for a twenty-pull.
The system was ecstatic, pounding its chest again as it assured Rong Ziyin: “Host, go for it! This time, the Dragon-Slaying Sword will absolutely appear. Trust me!”
Rong Ziyin was equally decisive: “Alright, let’s do it now.”
As soon as Rong Ziyin spoke, the lottery wheel’s pointer spun rapidly once more. Yet with each stop, a familiar item appeared before him.
Watching the twenty pulls pass the ten-pull mark without a single different item, the system muttered in bewilderment, “No… no way!”
Then, the twenty pulls ended. Neatly arranged before Rong Ziyin lay twenty salted duck eggs. Combined with the previous ten, they filled an entire basket.
Another crash landing.
Just then, Rong Ziyin’s phone buzzed with another timely debt collection text from the loan shark. This time, the loan shark had gone too far—they’d sent a photoshopped image of Rong Ziyin’s funeral portrait. It was a blatant curse wishing him a miserable death.
The system fumed, bouncing up and down. “Damn it, these jerks are toxic! Wait, no—the lottery system is toxic! With drop rates this low, are we supposed to earn 200,000 yuan by selling salted duck eggs?”
Rong Ziyin listened thoughtfully. “Maybe we could.”
The system went completely offline, yet Rong Ziyin’s next move sent it into even deeper meltdown. He picked up the basket of salted duck eggs and headed straight for the snack shop next door.
This was the most popular eatery in the village, but it wasn’t mealtime yet. Plus, everyone had gone to the neighboring village to demand answers, so the place was deserted.
“Is the owner here?” Rong Ziyin knocke
d on the door and called out.
“Coming, coming! Doctor Rong, what can I get you?” The owner greeted him warmly.
Rong Ziyin placed the basket of salted duck eggs before her and asked earnestly, “Do you take salted duck eggs?”