Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 213 Spring is blooming
From that day on, Chen Fan's life entered a new phase.

I would get up at 6 a.m., ride my mare and foal to the brigade headquarters, leave the horse at the livestock shed of Team 5, and then go to Uncle Lu's house to learn calligraphy and ask him about traditional Chinese medicine.

He has now memorized the four minor classics and started learning "Acupuncture" and "Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica". Acupuncture is a little easier, as it mainly tests his memory, which is his strength. Memorizing all the acupoints is a piece of cake.

However, Master Lu was not particularly proficient in acupuncture; he could only barely manage it. He said that after Chen Fan memorized classics such as the "Huangdi Neijing" and "Nanjing," he would introduce him to a teacher who could perform acupuncture and pulse diagnosis.

What Chen Fan found challenging was the "Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica," mainly because the old version's illustrations of herbs were somewhat abstract, making it difficult for him to accurately distinguish them.

There was nothing else Master Lu could do but wait until spring arrived and the wild herbs grew in the fields before taking him to the site to pick and identify them.

Besides traditional Chinese medicine, Chen Fan's calligraphy has also made rapid progress. Holding that feather brush, he can skillfully write a piece of regular script, and it looks quite professional, no longer like painting.

After studying for almost half an hour, it was nearly 7 o'clock before he went to work at the radio station.

Now that the veterinary class has ended and classes are no longer held in the morning, he has nothing else to do, so he practices his skills and calligraphy at the broadcasting station, and occasionally gives Zhang Cuie some pointers on her studies.

The veterinary class in the front yard was closed, but the classroom was not taken back by the brigade headquarters.

Taking advantage of the fact that each team eliminated girls first when the veterinary class was started, Yang Xingxiu took advantage of the disbandment of the veterinary class to successfully occupy the classroom and set up a "cultural tutoring class".

She screened all the girls in the brigade and, based on their personal wishes, selected eleven girls to participate in the cultural tutoring class. These girls were almost all eager to go to school, but their families did not support them. They only attended the village primary school for two years, but they have been persisting in self-study ever since.

Yang Xiuying also asked Huang Ying and the other two, but they were already holding onto Chen Fan, this great treasure, so they didn't care about the tutoring center that was two floors away and politely declined.

The tutor was Zhang Cuie. She taught the "students" school knowledge, as well as the "barefoot doctor's manual" and "veterinary textbook" that she borrowed from Chen Fan. She also asked Chen Fan questions whenever she didn't understand something.

Anyway, she doesn't come every day. When she does come occasionally, she brings an egg or a sweet potato, so Chen Fan is happy to teach her.

That said, the boys in the veterinary class were already quite hardworking, but these girls were even more dedicated. Take the barefoot doctor's manual, for example; even if they didn't understand what it meant, they would memorize it word by word. As for the English textbook, if they couldn't pronounce it, they would memorize the words and letters first, and then teach them after Zhang Cuie learned it from Chen Fan.

This perseverance touched Chen Fan a little, so sometimes he would go over and tell him a story.

Besides the fact that Zhang Cuie is very sensible and these girls are very hardworking, the reason why Chen Fan was willing to spend some time teaching them was because he had a bit of a mischievous streak.

He thought to himself that once the news of the resumption of the college entrance examination was announced, he would encourage all the girls to register for the exam. If many of them could get into vocational schools or even universities, he wondered if Lujiawan would become more female than male in the future.

Unless the boys in the veterinary class are willing to listen to him and persist in learning the knowledge required for secondary school, it's hard to say what will happen.

After killing two hours, he would ride his horse to the veterinary station with Yang Zhijun and Li Zhengqun after finishing his morning shift.

In fact, as Station Master Zhou put it, they no longer need to learn theoretical knowledge; they can just start gaining clinical experience directly.

So from the very first day, Yang Zhijun and Li Zhengqun were the only ones treating the animals at the veterinary station. Dr. Wang and the others just stood by and gave instructions, and later they even stood by with their hands behind their backs, not saying a word from beginning to end.

As for Chen Fan, these common cases were of no significance to him, so he spent his days drinking tea and reading books in Station Chief Zhou's office. Naturally, he was reading the veterinary station's journals and other materials.

Whenever he comes across an interesting case, he shares it with Station Chief Zhou and other doctors.

So, in his hands, students became teachers, and teachers became students. Sometimes, Station Chief Zhou and other doctors would recall special cases they had encountered in the past and ask him for advice.

As long as it's in the veterinary station's archives, Chen Fan can find the corresponding case. If not, that's fine too. He will record the symptoms in detail and then write a letter to the "Jiangnan Agricultural Sciences" magazine in the name of Station Chief Zhou for help.

Sure enough, they actually received replies from experts at the magazine. They provided solutions for cases they were certain of, and offered ideas for solutions for cases they were not certain of, which greatly improved the medical skills of Chen Fan and Station Chief Zhou.

Therefore, during their studies, the veterinary station provided them with all their lunches.

Normally, the meal expenses during the training period are to be covered by the sending unit or individual. Ye Shubao also approved 10 jin of grain coupons for each of them so that they could eat in the town and not have to come back.

Now it's all good; all the food coupons have been saved, and not a single one has been touched.

Food coupons are a valuable thing; you can't live without them whenever you go out.

These grain coupons were different from grain ration books. Grain ration books were linked to household registration books. The number of people in a household determined the corresponding grain ration. Each month, you would take your grain ration book to the grain store to buy rice. The store clerk would record the amount in the ration book, and that's how you bought grain without needing grain coupons. Grain coupons were only used when eating at restaurants or buying staple foods at state-run restaurants.

In other words, you don't need food coupons if you don't go out, but you must bring food coupons whenever you go out.

Chen Fan has never left Nanhu Commune. The first reason is, of course, that he has no holidays and has to work every day. He is only free between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., but given the transportation conditions of that era, he can't go very far in those few hours.

Take a bus, but there are only two buses to the county, one at 7 a.m. and one at 2 p.m. If the timing doesn't work out, you can't go.

Besides, another reason was that he didn't have food coupons. Unless he brought his own food, he would go hungry if he went out.

Now things are much better. One of the two problems has been solved. If he uses them sparingly, 10 jin of grain coupons will be enough for him for a week. As long as he can sort out the issue of working hours, he can go out for a stroll and see "the outside world".

The three stayed at the veterinary station until 3:30 p.m. before rushing back to the brigade headquarters.

At this time, the other 10 students in the veterinary class would also return, but instead of attending classes in the classroom, they would go to a newly built thatched shed outside the brigade headquarters to treat the livestock together.

Lujiawan has a total of more than 80 mules, horses, donkeys and cattle as "regular livestock". In addition, many families raise pigs and dogs.

Later generations raised pigs and they could be ready for market in a few months. Even improved native pigs could be ready for market in a year at the latest. But nowadays, it is common for native pigs to be raised for two or three years or even longer. Therefore, the sale and purchase of pigs is not only available at the end of the year. It's just that the end of the year is considered a peak season and is relatively concentrated.

At other times, the production team also had at least two hundred pigs in stock.

With the addition of some chickens, ducks, geese, dogs, and a small number of sheep, the production brigade today has no shortage of poultry and livestock.

Given the large number of livestock, it's only natural that there are some issues.

In addition, the nearby Ganjiacun Brigade and Bailanghu Brigade are not too far away. If their livestock get sick, they will bring them over to be treated by the veterinarians in Lujiawan.

Because there's a "Dr. Chen" here who even the head of the veterinary station, Zhou, admires, they naturally choose a better place to send him.

Thus, Lujiawan became the new "veterinary station" of Nanhu Commune.

It just so happened that the veterinary students needed sick poultry and livestock to practice on, so it was a perfect match.

So after returning from the commune's veterinary station, Yang Zhijun and Li Zhengqun began to play the roles of Dr. Wang and his colleagues, instructing the other students on how to treat animals. At this time, the girls from the cram school would also gather around to learn together.

They would only ask Chen Fan to come down when they encountered a disease they had never seen before.

Chen Fan would instruct Yang Zhijun and Li Zhengqun to treat simple cases, while he would handle complex ones himself.

So far, however, there have been no complicated cases.

That's true. There are only so many common diseases in livestock; where do all these rare and complicated diseases come from?

Chen Fan would stay busy until he finished get off work and then go home.

As for the poultry and livestock that weren't completely treated, they were left for the students to practice on. Otherwise, why would he train so many people?!
Back home, they would first go to the earthen slope behind the house to continue tidying up their homestead, or fire a kiln of bricks, working until dark before stopping.

After dinner and washing up, I taught Jiang Lili a few more high school lessons. By around 10 p.m., the day was over.

Such days lasted for half a month.

In the blink of an eye, the first month of the lunar calendar has passed, and the earth has once again donned its green attire, marking the arrival of spring.

At this time, the production team also began to get busy, preparing for spring plowing.

The girls' tutoring class that Chen Fan had high hopes for gradually dwindled in number until everyone went to work, and the brigade headquarters, which had been bustling all winter, fell silent.

(End of this chapter)