Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 125 I'll give you something

Having failed to find any bargains, Chen Fan felt like he had lost 3 million yuan. As he left the scrap yard, he was still muttering, "There wasn't even any waste paper. That's outrageous."

If you can't buy treasures, you can buy some used books with content. As long as they are professional books, he will need them, regardless of whether they are useful or not. Learn more skills, and you will need them sooner or later.

But the recycling station really was full of junk. There were no old books, not even old newspapers or waste paper. Even rats would run away with their faces covered.

Jiang Lili laughed from the side, "Ordinary people don't have waste paper at home. We should keep the students' textbooks. In case we have younger brothers and sisters in the future, they can use them. Even if we don't, we can leave them for the children of our relatives."

If there's anything that's useless after you've read it, it's newspapers. But newspaper subscriptions are usually for cadres' families. Old newspapers can be kept after reading to wrap things or for other uses.

Even if there was any paper to sell, it would be collected over a year, bundled up, and taken to the recycling center. The recycling center would collect it and then transport it to the county town by bus the next morning. Few people in the small town subscribe to newspapers, and even fewer are willing to sell, so naturally there's not much waste paper.

After hearing this, Chen Fan sighed at how small the place was, and his bad mood was quickly forgotten.

He got into the donkey cart, cracked the whip, and shouted, "Next stop, the food station!"

Unlike food stations in big cities that sell grain, food stations in communes only accept pigs and sell meat, and incidentally also take on the job of slaughtering pigs.

Chen Fan went there, naturally to buy meat. He had just bought two jin of meat coupons, and if the food station still had meat, he could buy it and take it back.

Although he eats meat every day, cured meat is different from fresh meat. Many dishes can only be made with fresh meat, but not with cured meat, such as braised pork or meatball soup.

Hmm, he wants to eat meatball soup.

Jiang Lili got into the car, Chen Fan whistled and cracked the whip, and the little donkey trotted forward.

Meanwhile, she rolled her eyes and muttered, "If you can't crack a whip, then don't crack it! You're clearly telling me to run forward, but you have to crack a whip that makes me turn left. If I turn left, I'll just crash into a wall!"

Chen Fan pretended not to hear and changed his whip technique again.

Soon we arrived at the food station, which was almost at the easternmost end of Jianshe Road.

There was a butcher shop facing the street, with a courtyard behind it. The main gate was right next to the shop, and you could smell the pigs being slaughtered even before you went inside.

As Chen Fan stopped the donkey cart and got off, a man stood up behind the meat stall and called out with a smile, "Master Chen is here?"

Chen Fan looked up and saw that it was one of Master Zhu's apprentices.

But we didn't know what to call them. Apprentices had no rights; back then, they were all called "little master."

In fact, they had already completed their apprenticeships, but with their masters around, they never got a chance to stand out.

Chen Fan hesitated for a moment about what to call him, and just as he was about to speak, the man walked to the back, saying as he went, "I'm going to call Master."

The person disappeared as soon as they finished speaking.

Behind the meat stall was a female sales clerk in her early twenties, who curiously looked Chen Fan up and down. "You're Master Chen? You're so young!"

Chen Fan grinned and chuckled, "That's why I need to learn more from experienced masters like you."

"Oh my, you're so good at talking. I've only been an apprentice for two years, I'm hardly a master."

Upon hearing this, the saleswoman beamed with joy and said with a smile, "We just cut and sell meat. You write articles that have been published in the local daily newspaper. How can you be compared to us? Besides, every profession is like a mountain. We don't have anything for you to learn. I'd rather learn how to write articles from you."

Chen Fan had already entered the store and said with a smile, "Who says you can't learn from someone in a different industry? I can learn from your attitude of serving the people."

The sales clerk couldn't speak as well as him, and just chuckled, unable to utter a word.

Just then, a tall and burly figure walked in through the back door; it was none other than Master Zhu, the pig butcher.

As soon as he saw Chen Fan, he shouted, "Master Chen, you're not allowed to go back today. Once you're here, you'll have to do as I say."

Chen Fan quickly raised his hands, "Master Zhu, please let me off the hook. I really have something to do back home today, and I can't miss the 4 o'clock afternoon broadcast. Next time, next time I'll come over in the morning and mooch a good drink from you." Master Zhu couldn't help but laugh twice, then deliberately put on a stern face, "Your 'next time' isn't just an excuse, is it? Last time you said you'd come to the commune to drink with me, but when you came you didn't drink."

Chen Fan wore a bitter face. "I came to the market today. Well then, I'll definitely come tomorrow."

Master Zhu clapped his hands and said, "Okay, it's settled then. Come over for drinks tomorrow at noon."

After finalizing the deal, he asked again, "Come to buy meat?"

Chen Fan nodded immediately, "Is there any meat left?"

As a result, Master Zhu simply pulled a whole piece of pork belly from under the stall, made a cut on it with a knife, and held it up to him, asking, "Is two pounds enough?"

Chen Fan quickly handed over the money and meat coupons, saying, "That's enough, thank you."

Master Zhu took the money and the bill from his hand, handed the money to the clerk next to him, and then returned the bill to him, saying, "Let it go this time, keep it for next time."

Chen Fan glanced at him, then at the grinning sales clerk beside him, hesitated for a moment, then took it back and said with a smile, "Thank you."

Seeing his straightforwardness, Master Zhu couldn't stop smiling and then asked, "So where are you going later?"

Chen Fan said, "I still need to go to the supply and marketing cooperative's store to buy some things."

The sales clerk next to me immediately said, "If you want to buy something there, find someone named Wang Xiaoling. Just say that Wang Xiaofang from the food station sent you. She's my third sister. If you buy something from her, she won't give you inferior goods."

Chen Fan quickly clasped his hands in thanks and said, "Thank you, Sister Wang."

After greeting Master Zhu, he and Jiang Lili got into the donkey cart and drove back.

The supply and marketing cooperative is located at the crossroads, so they have to cross the entire Jianshe East Road to reach its store.

Sitting on the cart, Jiang Lili asked curiously, "What else do we need to buy?"

Not counting the pottery jar and the toy horse, I bought eggs, chicks, milk, and soybeans at the market earlier. Just now I bought a stone mill, a dozen or so books, and two pounds of meat. Now I'm going to the supply and marketing cooperative's store.

Buying so many things at once is rare, not only in this small commune, but even in the city.

It's not that we don't need these things, but whose family doesn't plan ahead little by little? We buy a little bit when we need something, in small quantities and often. It's rare to see someone like Chen Fan buying things like he's moving house.

Chen Fan turned to look at her and chuckled, "I just got some tickets from someone. It's rare to have a carriage today, so I bought them all at once to save myself from having to keep going to the commune."

Hearing him say that, Jiang Lili nodded in understanding and then fell silent.

The little donkey trotted along, and soon arrived at the entrance of the veterinary station. Just as it was about to continue forward, it heard Chen Fan shout, "Stop!"

After stopping the donkey cart, Chen Fan jumped off and walked towards Secretary Yang and the others who were standing at the entrance of the veterinary station.

Before they even got close, Secretary Yang laughed and said, "Even Station Chief Zhou praised you for being cultured. His little colt, which he couldn't handle, was cured by you. You're amazing!"

Chen Fan was somewhat surprised, "Did it work?"

The book said it would take until the next day to see results? How come it's so fast?
Zhang Changjiang, standing to the side, said, "You had only been gone a short while when the IV drip was only half finished and the foal started having diarrhea. Station Chief Zhou said the herbal medicine had been effective, but it was just missing the final push. The prescription you found was the one that helped. After the foal comes out, it will be fine after two more days of medication."

Chen Fan was delighted as he listened. Just as he was about to speak after Captain Zhang finished, Zhang Wenliang, who was standing next to him, came over impatiently and handed him a small bag. "Here, here, I'll give you something. Take it carefully, don't drop it."

Are you giving me something?

Chen Fan was stunned for a moment, took the bag from his hand, opened it and saw that there were two fluffy puppies inside.

He was overjoyed. He had been walking around the lake all day looking for someone to sell kittens and puppies, but he hadn't seen any. He never expected that Zhang Wenliang would find them for him!
(End of this chapter)