Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 15 Adds Skills

Back in his room, Chen Fan continued reading, but after a while, he couldn't concentrate. His mind was filled with Jiang Lili's words from earlier.

If the chickens are eaten, then the pigs won't be raised.

Everyone else went home for the New Year, but they didn't leave any good things for the girl?

That's absolutely despicable!

After a while, Chen Fan couldn't sit still any longer, so he put down the book, got up, and walked outside.

He walked to Jiang Lili's door and greeted her, "Hey, Xiao Jiang."

Jiang Lili immediately came over, "Coming."

She paused for a moment, a strange look flashing in her eyes, and asked in a low voice, "Chen... Chen Fan, I have a question for you."

Chen Fan was about to speak when he heard her say that, so he smiled and said, "Go ahead."

Jiang Lili looked him up and down curiously, "How old are you this year?"

Chen Fan blinked, guessing what she meant, and said, "Eighteen."

Turning sixteen, then seventeen, and then adding another year to the age limit, eighteen is quite reasonable, right?

Besides, I'm already 28 years old, so calling her "Little Jiang" is perfectly fine.

Jiang Lili nodded in realization, "Oh, then, you're a year older than me."

Since he's older than her, it's perfectly fine for him to call her Xiao Jiang. She thought Chen Fan was only around 16 years old.

Chen Fan blinked again, "What year were you born?"

Jiang Lili: "I'm 59."

Chen Fan: "Oh, they're from the 50s."

If I do the math, she's 17 this year? She went to the countryside three years ago, so she must have been 14 when she left?

The timing makes sense. The recommended age for starting primary school is 7 years old. After completing 5 years of primary school and 2 years of junior high school, one will be 14 years old, which makes perfect sense.

Jiang Lili was a little confused, (⊙_⊙) "Huh?"

Chen Fan: "The term 'post-50s' refers to those born in the 50s."

Jiang Lili, (⊙﹏⊙) "Oh."

Where does this saying come from?
Just as she was about to ask Chen Fan what was wrong, Chen Fan pointed outside and said, "I'm going for a walk in the village to let you know."

Jiang Lili smiled and nodded, "Okay, I understand, you can go now."

Then it dawned on me that I seemed to have laughed? So I quickly lowered my head.

Chen Fan waved his hand. Well, she couldn't see him anyway, so he smiled and said, "I'm leaving, bye-bye."

Then he turned and walked outside.

Jiang Lili watched his retreating figure, a hint of curiosity in her eyes, "Bye-bye?"

Although he started learning English in junior high school, he doesn't use English much in his daily life in the current environment. At most, he might exchange one or two words with close friends. He even uses English in his daily conversations.

Chen Fan stepped out of the courtyard, and directly in front of the gate was a grove of cedar trees. Looking around, he couldn't count the exact number of trees, but it looked to be at most a couple hundred. Now all the cedar leaves had turned yellow, and there was a layer of yellow and green fallen leaves on the ground. The large patches of yellow gathered together would definitely be a popular spot for taking photos on social media decades from now.

Walk west for about ten meters along the cedar tree, and you'll find a dirt road about five meters wide.

Chen Fan put his hands in his pockets, wrapped his loose cotton-padded coat tightly, and strode upstairs.

To the left is a cedar forest, and to the right is a bare earthen slope.

This village, built on a hillside, runs north-south. The northernmost point is the educated youth settlement, the east side is a river embankment, and the west, north, and south sides are all farmland.

However, unlike the flat fields of the north, this area is clearly hilly, with raised earthen slopes every so often. These slopes are either used for residential purposes or cultivated as dry land. Therefore, the farmland here is not very standardized, but rather distributed according to the rule that low-lying areas are paddy fields and sloping and high-lying areas are dry land. It is scattered and difficult to manage intensively.

Chen Fan walked higher and higher along the path, occasionally passing by a low, mud-walled house.

Just like what we saw on the dike, there was a flat rice paddy in front of these houses, where crops could be spread out to dry after harvesting.

As for the large, unified drying yards common in rural northern China, there are none here. The reason is simple: there isn't enough flat land!
Therefore, they had to break the harvest into smaller parts and bring the crops to each household's doorstep to dry.

When Chen Fan's parents were still alive in his previous life, he lived for a period of time at his maternal grandmother's house in the countryside. Although it was not in Gufeng County, but near the prefectural committee, the situation was similar.

Thinking of this, Chen Fan suddenly felt a sense of curiosity and anticipation. He wondered if his grandmother and mother were still around. If they were, his mother would be about 7 years old.
Shaking his head, he realized that his situation was still unstable; he had no household registration, no money, and couldn't go anywhere. Thinking about these things was useless. Once he resolved the household registration issue and saved up some money, he would definitely go there to see for himself.

Perhaps due to the cold winter winds, all the doors of every household were tightly closed, with only the windows open for ventilation.

So along the way, Chen Fan didn't see a single person.

This path isn't straight either; it's built on a ridge and is a bit winding.

The houses are not level with each other, but staggered, so a house only has people living in front and behind it, while the sides are empty.

Some are even built at bends in the road, with no other houses around them, just a single thatched hut hanging there, hidden among the trees, which has a rather wild charm.

But as long as you step out the door and shout, everyone in the neighborhood will hear you.

He felt that this kind of village, which was integrated with nature, was much more interesting than the orderly houses of later generations.

Chen Fan walked and looked around, and soon reached the top of the slope.

There are four households on the hilltop, scattered in different locations.

Compared to the houses at the bottom of the slope, the houses on the top are noticeably older, suggesting that the houses at the top were built first, and then the houses were built down one by one.

He suddenly remembered that Captain Yang had said his house was on the top of the slope, so he stood in the middle of the road and looked around to see which house was his.

Just then, a dog barked, startling him.

Turning around, he saw a large yellow dog standing at the door of a house, staring at him menacingly and barking wildly every now and then.

It would occasionally turn back to look into the house, whimpering as if calling for someone.

Most importantly, this house doesn't have a yard in front!

Oops.

Chen Fan's heart was in his throat. This dog doesn't bite, does it?
The dog, perhaps seeing that he still hadn't left and no one from the house came out, suddenly became enraged and charged forward.

Chen Fan knew he had to do something, otherwise the dog might rush up and bite him.

He immediately took a deep breath, spread his arms, stood shoulder-width apart, and crouched slightly, unleashing a lion's roar at the big yellow dog, "Awooo~, Awooo~, Awooo~..."

Perhaps the dog had never seen such a dog before, for it was so frightened that it darted back two or three steps. When it realized that the person wasn't coming, it ran back to its original spot, tilted its head to look at him, and decided to test him again, "Woof woof."

Seeing that the dog had run back, Chen Fan could only continue, howling.

"Wang Wang."

"Ouch~ow~"

"Wang Wang."

"Ouch~ow~"

Just then, Chen Fan heard a "ding" sound, and the voice in his mind appeared again.

"Talking to the dog rewards you with +1 Beast Language experience point. Current Beast Language skill level is 1."

What?
Animal language skills?
There's such a thing? Did you get it from arguing with a dog?
Chen Fan was completely dumbfounded. Could it be that I've become Gongye Chang?

(End of this chapter)