Chapter 164: Upgrade
Crouching beside the sow in the pen, Ning Xiyue stretched out her “magic claws,” reaching straight into the sow’s belly and feeling around roughly.
One head. Two heads. My god — she seemed to have felt six little heads in there!
That was more than any sow in the brigade had ever carried.
“System, our sow is truly incredible.”
Talking to the system, Ning Xiyue simultaneously pushed gently on the sow’s belly to assist with delivery, helping the piglets come out faster and reducing the sow’s energy consumption.
The assistance was quite effective — under Ning Xiyue’s hands, the piglets came out one after another.
Within an hour, six piglets had been delivered — all six that she had felt earlier.
Still, there was no sign of the placenta. Ning Xiyue thought she might need to wait half an hour for the sow to expel it naturally, but just a few minutes later, with a “squelch,” another piglet slipped out.
It was a very small one — about half the size of the others — and it came out together with a large piece of placenta.
Seeing the placenta, Ning Xiyue knew that the birthing was finally complete.
In total, twenty-two piglets had been born. Twenty-two!
Heavens, she had never seen a pig so prolific before — and what’s more, every single piglet was alive, with even the smallest one appearing healthy.
Looking at the two large baskets full of piglets, Ning Xiyue started calculating the pigpen requirements.
First, the feed problem.
“With twenty-two pigs growing, their food consumption will increase day by day. The two-month stockpile I have will barely feed them until they’re about ten catties each — that’s absolutely not enough.”
Second, the space problem.
“Five square meters can raise ten pigs. Twenty-two pigs will need about thirty-three square meters. If I want them to grow comfortably, I’ll need forty. But the current space is already maxed out.”
Faced with this, Ning Xiyue had no choice but to initiate a system sign-in.
She tapped the icon on the map near the brigade’s grain warehouse where pig feed could be collected.
[Ding! Congratulations, Host, on successfully delivering twenty-two new lives. Reward triggered — you may now upgrade the pig feed collection point. Would you like to upgrade it?]
“Upgrade.”
Hearing this unexpected message, Ning Xiyue grew excited about what the upgraded point might yield.
[Upgrade successful.]
As soon as she heard the system notification, she immediately tapped the upgraded icon and began signing in to collect feed.
She had five sign-in chances in total — two from yesterday and three from today. Ning Xiyue decided to use four of them.
At the wheat warehouse:
[Sign-in successful. Obtained 500 catties of wheat bran, 5 catties of flour.]
At the sweet potato warehouse:
[Sign-in successful. Obtained 500 catties of sweet potato residue, 5 catties of sweet potato flour.]
At the corn warehouse:
[Sign-in successful. Obtained 500 catties of corn grits, 5 catties of corn flour.]
At the rice warehouse:
[Sign-in successful. Obtained 500 catties of rice bran, 5 catties of rice.]
Wow — the rewards had multiplied several times after the upgrade!
Beaming with joy, Ning Xiyue looked at the feed she’d just collected. Finally, she no longer had to worry about these twenty-three pigs eating her into bankruptcy.
What a relief!
With one sign-in attempt remaining, Ning Xiyue rubbed her hands together, hoping to score some space-upgrade materials.
“Sign in.”
[Sign-in successful. Obtained a large bag of piglet-specific organic milk powder, enough for all 22 piglets for 30 days.]
Hmm. It was a bit disappointing not to get upgrade materials, but at least the piglets’ nutritional needs were now guaranteed — still a pretty good prize.
Looking at the cluster of piglets in front of her, Ning Xiyue frowned. Expanding the pigpen was now urgent.
“No choice — I’ll have to weave some items to exchange for points and gather 1000 points. I must upgrade the space before I go to sleep tonight.”
If she didn’t upgrade, she wouldn’t be able to sleep — and since she’d already pulled an all-nighter, a little more time wouldn’t hurt.
With that, Ning Xiyue cleaned up the sow, prepared the feed, and hurried into the system’s simulation room to start weaving crafts.
She picked her most practiced items — vegetable baskets, flower vases, and winnowing baskets — and began weaving nonstop. One after another, the finished items were handed over to the system.
Finally, the system notified her:
[Host, you now have 1000 points.]
Only then did Ning Xiyue put down the vines.
“Exchange for space upgrade materials.”
[Ding! Exchange successful. All upgrade materials collected. Host must leave the simulation room and enter the space interior to upgrade.]
Upon hearing this, Ning Xiyue immediately exited the simulation room and stood between the building and planting zones.
“Upgrade space.”
[Ding! Space upgrading…]
With a loud rumble, Ning Xiyue felt the materials merge into the space, triggering visible changes. The most obvious change was the space’s greatly expanded size.
Moments later, the system chimed again:
[Ding! Space upgrade complete. Space area expanded from 200 square meters to 900 square meters. Building and planting zones are now 400 square meters each.]
[Ding! A new 100-square-meter pond has been added to the space.]
“Beautiful!”
Ning Xiyue snapped her fingers, a joyful smile spreading across her face as she looked at the new pond that had appeared near the planting area — an unexpected bonus.
She could now transfer the fish from the well into the pond.
Later, she could even raise shrimp or plant lotus roots in the pond. Perfect.
But for now, the piglets still needed to be settled.
Ning Xiyue walked to the wall on the right side of the pigsty, where there was a control panel for upgrading the pens.
Following her plan, she set it to expand by two new pigpens, each 21 square meters.
After pressing the button, two new pens materialized in front of her within moments.
After nursing all 22 piglets, she placed them into the new pen beside their mother.
The remaining pen would be used once they grew up — she’d raise eleven pigs per pen.
After finishing all this, it was already 6:30 in the morning. Exhausted, Ning Xiyue exited the space to catch up on sleep.
A few hours later, Chen Yechu saw that she was still sleeping and walked to her bedside, calling out worriedly.
Half-asleep and groggy, Ning Xiyue mumbled, “Don’t worry about me. I’m going to sleep all day today.”
Seeing that she was fine, Chen Yechu left, still muttering in confusion, “She went to bed so early last night, why is she still so tired? I guess being a doctor really is exhausting — I’m never studying medicine.”
But in the end, Ning Xiyue didn’t get to sleep all day. After just three more hours, she was jolted awake by a deafening commotion outside.
