Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 118 Learning Skills on the Spot
The two of them continued forward.

Chen Fan also met bamboo weavers, carpenters, candy sellers, and firewood sellers.

There were also pot menders, furniture repairmen, and even people making and selling straw ropes on the spot, which made Chen Fan exclaim that his eyes had been opened.

Before they knew it, they had walked more than half of the lake.

When we reached the inner corner of the L-shape, we found another place where a large crowd had gathered.

When the two arrived, Chen Fan realized that his act of steaming and selling turtle meat on site was nothing special.

Have you ever seen pottery being fired and sold on-site?
This is it!

On the other side of the lake embankment, in the fields, a kiln was being fired, while the kiln masters were preparing another one. A pit was dug in the ground, and the masters were putting firewood and the already shaped clay blanks into it.

Even Jiang Lili was greatly surprised. "Is it too late to fire pottery now?"

She was asking Chen Fan, but Chen Fan directly asked the potter, "Master, aren't you afraid that everyone will leave before your pottery is finished?"

An experienced craftsman straightened up and laughed, “We fire pottery, not porcelain. Besides, the temperature for firing pottery doesn’t need to be too high. It only takes four or five hours to fire. We’ve already fired two pots this morning. Once these two are finished, we’ll stop firing.”

Chen Fan understood immediately. They were firing low-temperature pottery, which doesn't require high temperatures, only 7 or 8 degrees Celsius. During the Western Han Dynasty, a large number of low-temperature pottery kilns appeared. After two thousand years of transmission, this craft is not uncommon among the people.

Of course, pottery fired in this kind of traditional kiln shouldn't be expected to be very exquisite, and the glaze isn't very attractive either. For example, large water vats can be fired in this kind of traditional kiln.

Thinking of this, Chen Fan suddenly became interested and began to probe the kiln master's limits, "Master, how did you dig this pit? Why are the firewood and pottery arranged like this? How will you seal the top later?..."

As long as it doesn't involve the clay formula or firing techniques, the master craftsman is very easy to talk to and will answer almost any question.

Once the earthen kiln was completed, a new companion appeared in Chen Fan's skill list: Pottery LV1 (5/20).

At this moment, Chen Fan was silently calculating that he had already learned carpentry, bricklaying, tailoring, and painting, and now he would add pottery as another skill.

So, I can make my own thatched hut by hand?
Unfortunately, there is no land available for homesteading at the moment.

When I get the chance to acquire a piece of land, I will definitely build a thatched cottage that combines classic and modern elements, with an elegant rural style!

To express his gratitude to the pottery master for generously passing on his skills, Chen Fan spent two yuan to buy a foot-tall pottery jar.

Looking at the green earthenware jar, Jiang Lili asked, puzzled, "Why did you buy this?"

Chen Fan pointed to a spot not far ahead, "I just heard someone say that they sell buffalo milk there, let's go see if they still have any."

Buffalo milk?
Jiang Lili followed behind him with a blank look in her eyes. There were no children at home, so why buy milk?
Soon they arrived at the place and saw a person with a bucket in front of him, which was more than half full of buffalo milk.

Someone in front of the stall was asking, "Master, where does your milk come from?"

The man immediately laughed and said, "Of course it's squeezed from a cow."

He paused for a moment and explained, “This is from a cow I raise at home. It just gave birth to a calf a few days ago. Today is market day, so I’m selling some milk. I milked a little yesterday and a little today, and that’s all I have.”

Then, pointing to the wooden bucket, he said, "This bucket is still new. I washed it with boiling water, so it's guaranteed to be very clean. There's definitely no water contaminated with schistosomes."

If he hadn't mentioned that last sentence, some people would still want to buy it, but after hearing that, no one said anything.

Chen Fan seized the opportunity to squeeze in. "Master, how much is this milk?" The man smiled and said, "There's no standard for this stuff. Even the supply and marketing cooperative doesn't sell it. We only have dried milk powder. This is my first time selling it. How about we discuss a price?"

Chen Fan chuckled, "You're probably the first person to sell something without a price right before it's gone."

The man laughed and said, "We should act with conscience. If the price is too high, it's not good for you; if it's too low, it's not good for me. Why don't you name a price first?"

Chen Fan wasn't about to name a price first. Pointing at the milk, he said, "You're the seller, so you name the price. If I think it's too high, I'll negotiate."

The man nodded. "That's fine. Bargaining is perfectly normal."

He gritted his teeth and thought for a moment, "How about this, 5 cents a pound?"

Chen Fan immediately shook his head, "Too high."

He then explained, "I'm not afraid to tell you frankly, I read in the newspaper a few days ago that residents in Shanghai are ordering milk, and a bottle costs 1 cents. That bottle is 200 milliliters, which is about 4 liang (8 grams)."

However, their milk is sold at the supply and marketing cooperative's price. To give you an example, if you are a farmer, you first have to sell to a purchasing station, then the purchasing station sells it to a dairy factory, the dairy factory processes it, and then sells it to the supply and marketing cooperative, which finally sells it to residents. The price in this process is at least 7% off.

"And yours is buffalo milk, while theirs is dairy cow milk, which is cheaper. Do you agree with that?"

Upon hearing his words, not only did the milk seller feel dizzy, but the others around him also whispered among themselves.

He reads newspapers frequently and speaks eloquently; is this person perhaps an official?

Shaking his head, the milkman said with a wry smile, "Then you should name your price."

Chen Fan laughed and said, "Shanghai is a big city. Their milk is only 45 cents a pound. I'll offer 32 cents for yours. What do you think?"

The man was counting on his fingers when someone suddenly shouted, "Oh, I remember now! He's Master Chen, the one who published an article in the Prefectural Committee Daily. He's the broadcaster from Lujiawan!"

Upon hearing this, everyone else immediately turned to look at Chen Fan, eager to see what this "God of Literature" looked like.

After a thorough examination, both the eldest daughter-in-law and the young girl nodded in approval; he was indeed a handsome young man.

The young man and the big man had mixed feelings. It was one thing to be handsome, but to be so talented as to leave no room for others to live?

Upon hearing that it was Chen Fan, the milk seller simply gave up on calculating and laughed, "So it's Master Chen. Then you certainly won't lie to me. I'll do as you said, 32 cents a pound."

Chen Fan immediately poured the water from the kettle into the newly bought ceramic jar, rinsed it twice, and then handed it over, saying, "Here, fill it up."

A water buffalo can be milked an average of 3 times a day, with each milking yielding about 4 jin (2 catties). Yesterday, it was milked 3 times, and today it was milked twice, totaling nearly 20 jin (10 catties) of milk.

The seller was straightforward. He first weighed the milk along with the bucket on a large scale, then poured the milk into a ceramic jar, weighed his own bucket again, and finally calculated that there were 19 jin of milk, which cost 6.8 yuan.

After rounding down the amount, Chen Fan took out 6 yuan, handed the basket containing the eggs and chicks to Jiang Lili, and walked forward with the pottery jar in his arms.

I had only walked a short distance when I saw a group of people shouting ahead.

"Poor thing."

"Pity."

Chen Fan glanced over there twice. What had happened this time?
(End of this chapter)