After traveling through time, she took her husband to be a food doctor

Ding Xirui and Lin Mingxuan came to the outside of the village and saw villagers working on the hillside. There was little flat land in this place, so the villagers planted rice in small plots near the river and even reclaimed the lower hillsides to grow food. Even so, the arable land was still too small. After deducting the taxes to be paid, the food they received each year was barely enough to make ends meet.

The hillsides in some places have been damaged, and when it rains heavily, mud and sand are washed down. Over time, the silt in the river channel has increased. The originally narrow river has had even smaller water flows in recent years. Villagers used to catch some fish and shrimp in the river to improve their meals and supplement their household income, but recently the harvest has been getting less and less.

While observing and asking questions, Ding Lin and his team got to know the general situation of the place.

"The mountains, forests and rivers need to be managed, but we cannot intervene at the moment. The magistrate needs to step in," said Lin Mingxuan.

"Yes." Ding Xirui agreed.

"However, these cannot be accomplished overnight. We cannot wait to solve the problem of children's nutritional deficiencies," Ding Xirui continued.

That being said, Lin Mingxuan had no idea at this time and did not respond. Ding Xirui had been trained and had seen similar cases before, so she had some ideas in her mind. She said:

"Are all the children in this village weak? Without exception?"

"That's not the case. I've seen several relatively healthy children." Lin Mingxuan recalled and answered.

"Yes, the two children of Zhang Laosan's family are fatter than those of other families." Nanxing added.

"The ones from Brother Wang Yu's family actually look pretty good too." Banxia said.

"They all live here and eat similar food, but some of them grow up healthier. Is there any special reason?" Ding Xirui asked.

"What you mean is that those families may have something different, and it is this 'difference' that allows the children to grow up strong. And we need to find this 'difference' and then promote it?" Lin Mingxuan understood at once.

"That's right, we are looking for that special thing," said Ding Xirui.

"Hmm." Lin Mingxuan paced back and forth, thinking.

"Why don't we just find a few thin and a few fat people and ask them?" Nanxing said. He thought this problem was easy to solve.

"Of course we have to ask, but we may not be able to ask the questions, because even parents may not realize how what they do every day is different from others," said Ding Xirui.

"That's right, don't be anxious, you need to think about it carefully." Lin Mingxuan said.

"Nanxing's idea is correct. We do need to compare the usual eating habits of thin children and fatter children and select comparable children and families. This is the first step," said Ding Xirui.

"The second step is to observe different places. The three reasons we analyzed at Brother Wang Yu's house this morning may be used as a reference: first, whether to eat breakfast; second, whether you can eat enough for the main meal; and third, whether the food is diverse enough. Of course, these three points are just our speculations, and the actual reasons are more diverse. As long as we think they are valuable, we will write them down." Lin Mingxuan said.

"The third step is to compare different places and see which ones can be promoted without adding burden to the villagers. If there is extra financial burden, it will be useless." Ding Xirui continued.

Lin Mingxuan and Ding Xirui thought very quickly, and Banxia and Nanxing were stunned.

"The Young Master and the Young Madam have such a good understanding of each other." Nan Xing said.

Ding Lin smiled at each other. Now that they had a direction to act on, they were full of energy.

"So what should we do now?" Banxia asked.

"We now need to find the head of the village. If we want to observe the children, we have to go into every household and understand each family's background. If the backgrounds are too different, it won't work." Ding Xirui said.

"For example, the family of Brother Wang Yu whom I just mentioned cannot be selected because his family has a relative who is the county magistrate. Every year, they receive financial assistance from the county magistrate, which is something other families cannot compare to," Ding Xirui continued.

"That's the truth. Moreover, if we want to enter someone else's home, we need an introduction from the head of the village, otherwise we will definitely be kicked out." Lin Mingxuan said.

With the help of the village head, Lin Mingxuan and his team finally identified eight families. These eight families had similar economic conditions and were ordinary local families with no relatives in the county or provincial capital. The children of four families were relatively weak, like most children in the village; while the children of the other four families were relatively strong, so they formed two groups for comparison.

"Let's first assign a group of numbers to the eight children. Otherwise, names like Goudan and Shuanzi will confuse me enough," Ding Xirui suggested.

"Well, it's more convenient to say it this way." Lin Mingxuan agreed.

Lin Mingxuan wanted to divide the children according to the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, with the weak children divided into Jia, Yi, Bing, and Ding, and the healthy children divided into Zi, Chou, Yin, and Mao. Ding Xirui found it boring, so he changed to Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Plum, Orchid, Bamboo, and Chrysanthemum. Banxia and Nanxing thought Ding Xirui's number sounded good, so they voted for her. With a three-to-one ratio, the numbering was finalized.

Then they were divided into groups to investigate. Banxia and Nanxing were relatively young, especially Nanxing, who was more impatient. If he was asked to complete the observation task independently, the quality would definitely be worrying. So on the first day, Ding Xirui led Nanxing, and Lin Mingxuan led Banxia, ​​carrying pancakes as dry food, and walked into the homes of "Chun" and "Xia".

Although the village head had led them to greet the villagers, they were still a little nervous about the sudden arrival of a stranger in their home. Ding Xirui explained again:

"Sister-in-law, let's do what you usually do today. We just want to see what and how you usually eat."

"I'm not used to people watching me work." The sister-in-law felt embarrassed.

Seeing that the eldest sister-in-law was still very reserved, Ding Xirui thought for a while and said, "How about this, you can treat us as hired workers to help you out, and we will just do what you tell us to do."

"Okay." The sister-in-law finally relaxed.

It was not long after dawn, and the couple of the "Chun" family were ready to go to the fields to work. Today they were going to pull out the weeds. Their two children were also called up. They drank a few sips of cold water and followed their parents to the fields in a bad mood.

They worked with their parents for a while, then ran off to play somewhere else. Ding Xirui and Nanxing stood on the ridge of the field and helped pull out some weeds. At this time of year, there were already some small shrimps and crabs in the paddy field, so the two children caught them to play with, and when they got tired of playing, they put them in a small backpack.

"What are you putting in the backpack?" Ding Xirui asked.

"Take it home and cook. There's not much meat on it. My dad likes it, but I don't." said the older child.

"Crabs are so hard and I don't like eating them," said the younger child.

The sun slowly turned to the south, and the couple packed up their things and called their two children back home. Ding Xirui and Nanxing helped to get the farm tools and followed them back.

The eldest sister-in-law cooked some rice, steamed some sweet potatoes, fried the shrimps and crabs in the basket, and mixed some wild vegetables. When the food was served, the small bowl of shrimps and crabs was basically eaten by the child's father. Although the eldest sister-in-law picked some for the two children and told them several times, the two children basically didn't eat much. As for the wild vegetables on the plate, the children said they were a bit bitter and didn't eat too much, but they finished the rice and sweet potatoes.

While the sister-in-law was cooking, Ding Xirui and Nanxing had already finished eating the pancakes. After dinner, they helped the sister-in-law clean up. Ding Xirui saw the wild vegetables and after asking for permission, he picked one and tasted it. It was indeed a bit sour.

Dinner was porridge and sauerkraut. The sauerkraut was spicy and the two children ate a lot of it.

At the end of the day, with Ding Xirui's encouragement, Nanxing asked a few questions:

"Sister-in-law, don't you usually eat breakfast?"

"No, we don't have this habit."

"So do you usually eat like this at noon and in the evening?"

"It's like this most of the time. Sometimes when the kid's father catches a bigger fish, we improve the food. In the summer when the vegetables in the yard grow, we don't eat pickles at night."

"Can the two children eat enough?"

"They never complained about being hungry. They just played every day."