Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 217: Covering one’s ears and stealing the bell

Upon entering the courtyard, only Jiang Lili was present today.

Chen Fan's mood brightened even more. He immediately dismounted and asked with a smile, "Have they all gone to work?"

Two puppies immediately came running over and circled around his feet. The chicks, on the other hand, were busy looking for food and ignored him completely; they deserved to be eaten later.

Jiang Lili was worried that the two puppies would be trampled by the horse, so she squatted down and picked them up, nodding with a smile, "It's my turn to cook today, so I came back first."

Although it was the busy farming season, unless they were students or had jobs like Chen Fan, all other laborers over the age of 16 had to obey the arrangements to go to work. Those who did not go without a valid reason would not only not receive work points, but would also be penalized by having points deducted. The four girls at the educated youth settlement were no exception.

However, Ms. Chen's quality of life did not decline.

The four girls agreed that one of them would take turns coming back early each day to cook, so as not to delay Teacher Chen's meals.

All they lost was two fewer work points on their shift.

As long as you follow Teacher Chen to fire a kiln once, you can make back dozens of times the profit when you sell the kiln at the market. Naturally, you should serve Teacher Chen well.

So compared to before, the only difference is that we don't have as much time to clear the small mound behind it; otherwise, there's no impact.

However, by the end of January, the small mound had been almost completely cleared. Within the two acres of "sphere of influence" designated by Chen Fan, almost nothing grew and nothing was left, leaving only a bare, uneven, pitted mound.

All the grass was dug up by the roots and carried down the slope to dry before being used to make charcoal.

Those short, thin, and crooked miscellaneous trees cannot be used as timber; they can only be used as firewood, thus becoming fuel for kilns or being made into charcoal.

Once Chen Fan completes his "villa" design and gathers enough materials, he can begin construction on his own home.

Chen Fan led the horse towards the backyard, asking, "How's the hybrid rice planting going? Has it all been planted?"

Hearing this, Jiang Lili followed him inside and said softly, "It seems that the commune members are not very willing to plant that. A few days ago, Captain Yang brought back the seeds and later came to me, saying that he wanted to use the 'educated youth field' as an experimental field and plant hybrid rice on it."

Chen Fan's lips twitched slightly. He turned to look at her and smiled, "Now that the educated youth fields should have been taken back by the team and accounted for together, right?"

Jiang Lili smiled and said, "It's 'temporarily' taken back. They said they'll give some back to the educated youth when there are more of them, so they can grow it themselves."

Chen Fan suddenly realized, "So they felt that the land wasn't theirs, and using the educated youth's land to grow hybrid rice wasn't a loss, at most they wouldn't make a profit, right?"

Jiang Lili smiled and said, "I think so."

Chen Fan was speechless. Wasn't this just deceiving himself?

Am I taking advantage of myself?
When the educated youth settlements were first established, there were many conflicts between the educated youth and the commune members. Later, in order to reduce conflicts, the brigade headquarters and the commune held a meeting and decided to allocate "responsibility fields" to the educated youth separately.

Compared to the household responsibility system, which was popularized a few years later, we are still in the "team responsibility system" stage. Each team calculates independently and separates the "educated youth fields". This means that these educated youths are classified as a separate team, but the 6th team manages them. The 6th team's grain delivery task is reduced accordingly as compensation. The reduced portion is then attributed to the educated youths.

If the output of the farmland used by the educated youth was insufficient to cover their food rations after the public grain quota was paid, the brigade headquarters would lend the educated youth the difference in grain.

In reality, the commune was still providing the grain, but it was being concealed through the brigade headquarters, so that the educated youth would not always rely on the commune for financial support.

Moreover, nominally, this grain had to be returned. In the beginning, things were indeed alright. The educated youth cultivated their own "responsibility fields," and their motivations were different. Although their output was not as good as that of the production team, they could still barely make ends meet. Apart from borrowing grain in the first two years, they gradually returned it. If someone left midway, they would make up for their debt, so others would not suffer any loss.

However, this system was discontinued after only four or five years.

Because the earliest group of educated youth sent to the countryside were caught up with the city's "mass recruitment" in the second year or at the latest the third year, that is, the early 70s, they basically returned to the city, except for a very few special personnel. Therefore, they did not have the opportunity to use the educated youth land.

After a brief period of unemployment, during the next four or five years of rural relocation, the average time spent in the countryside by educated youth was about three years. Twenty or thirty people working together could maintain the existence of the "educated youth fields".

But starting last year, someone started doing something different, and everyone followed suit, making the time much shorter. (The trick is gone -_-||)

The files of the educated youth were all in the educated youth office. The production team didn't have much control over them. And the commune was only so big. The people in the educated youth office knew the families of those educated youth, so... that was about it.

As a result, the number of people in the educated youth settlement decreased significantly, usually only five or six, and the fewest people there are now, with only Jiang Lili present.

The five or six people at the educated youth settlement couldn't possibly cultivate such a large area of ​​land on their own. So, after discussing it with the brigade headquarters, Captain Yang decided to temporarily take back the educated youth's land and have the educated youth work alongside the commune members.

Anyway, the commune members all knew that the local educated youth wouldn't stay long, so they didn't bother with them. Instead, they were smug about being able to occupy the educated youth's land, feeling that they had gotten a good deal, completely forgetting that the land originally belonged to them.

Now that the commune has assigned new tasks, Captain Yang remembered the educated youth field.

Psychologically speaking, the commune members believed that the team was only temporarily managing the land, and that if the number of educated youth in the educated youth settlement increased again, it would have to be returned. Therefore, they were not so resistant to using that land to grow hybrid rice.

Chen Fan shook his head and chuckled, "Hey, tell me, if there's a bumper harvest of hybrid rice, who gets all the rice from the educated youth's fields?"

Jiang Lili's eyes darted around slightly. "Theirs."

Chen Fan said, "That's right. Whether it's a good harvest or a bad harvest, all the members of the team bear the consequences. What does it matter if it's a educated youth field or not?"

Jiang Lili smiled, glanced back, and then whispered, "It's like burying your head in the sand."

Chen Fan turned to look at her and said, "Heh, you've even started making fun of people."

Jiang Lili wrinkled her nose, her cheeks flushed, and then raised the two dogs in her hands to cover her face.

Chen Fan laughed loudly, "It's like burying your head in the sand."

Jiang Lili bit her lip and glared at him reproachfully, "I'm ignoring you, I'm going to cook."

After saying that, she picked up the two puppies and ran away.

Chen Fan led the mare to the stable, and the foal immediately jumped up and down to come over. He added some hay to the trough before walking out.

Upon arriving at the front yard, he first put his things away, locked the small pistol he carried in the cabinet, and then took out a set of woodworking tools from another cabinet behind him that contained a radio and a grandfather clock.

This set of woodworking tools was naturally obtained for him by Zhang Wenliang, and now it will come in handy.

I never expected that the first thing I would make after getting the tools would be a drawing board.

(End of this chapter)