Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 223 The Older Generation

Not every production team would have a cadre stationed there, mainly because the commune didn't have that many cadres to send. So usually, the poorest and most backward production team would be selected to be stationed there, so that the stationed assistance would have a meaningful purpose.

However, in practice, that's a different story.

Because everyone was the same in those days, and the resources of the same production team were roughly the same, so the poor were poor in one area and the rich were rich in another. It was unlikely that, decades later, a rich village would be next to a poor village.

Therefore, when the commune chose its base, it simply chose one that was close by, so that it could go home and visit more often when it wasn't so busy.

For the Lujiawan Production Brigade, of the 12 teams, teams 5 and 6 are the closest to each other. However, team 5 is the brigade headquarters, so the cadres stationed there naturally cannot get mixed up with the brigade leaders. Otherwise, what kind of stationing would that be?
Naturally, Team 6 became the fixed location for commune cadres to stay and work.

The cadre from An just arrived today. After he arrived, the brigade called Captain Yang, who then came to pick him up.

If he had arrived two days earlier, they could have used a donkey cart to pick him up, but today all the donkey carts were out hauling manure, and the only adult animal available in the entire brigade was Chen Fan's mare, so Captain Yang had to walk over.

The group of people stood together smoking and quickly became acquainted.

The cadre's surname is An, and his given name is "Anquan" (meaning "safety"). In his own words, "Safety is safety, whether it's safe or not, it's all safe."

He was fair-skinned, of medium build, and somewhat round from head to toe. He looked like a cadre. His workplace was the tax office. His position wasn't mentioned, but he was definitely an official, otherwise he wouldn't have been assigned to be stationed there.

Seeing that this person was easy to get along with, Chen Fan smiled and said, "Cadre An, everyone in the production team has been busy lately, except for me. If you have any questions, you can come to me anytime. If I don't know the answer, I can find the right person for you."

Upon hearing this, all three of them chuckled, leaving Chen Fan somewhat puzzled.

With a cigarette between his fingers, Anquan smiled like a Maitreya Buddha. "First of all, I want to thank Teacher Chen for his kindness. But when it comes to Lujiawan, I know it better than you do."

Captain Yang, with his left hand behind his back and a cigarette in his right, looked up and laughed from ear to ear, "Little Chen, the house you're sleeping in now was originally where Old An lived."

"what?"

Chen Fan looked at him in surprise, "Were you also a sent-down youth?"

Is this a veteran?!

Anquan nodded and smiled, "Not only was I an educated youth, but I was also among the first batch of educated youth sent to the countryside in an organized manner. I arrived here in early 69."

Chen Fan's heart skipped a beat, and he looked at him and asked, "Then you're not a local?"

The process of sending people to the countryside was gradual. In the beginning, it was high school graduates from big cities who had not yet been assigned jobs who were sent to the countryside. Later, it gradually spread to the county and township levels. However, this spread was quite rapid, almost all within the same year.

But if it's the first batch, then it must have come from big cities.

But when he speaks, it's clear he has a local accent.

Anquan smiled and nodded. "My hometown is Shanghai. At that time, there were eight cities in the country: Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, Chengdu, and Chongqing. People from these places were to be sent out, while people from other places were to be assigned to nearby places. I was one of those who were to be sent out, so I ended up here."

Chen Fan grinned and blinked, somewhat speechless. Coming from a big city to this small village and becoming a commune cadre essentially eliminated any possibility of returning to Shanghai.

Anquan could tell what Chen Fan was thinking just by looking at him, because he had seen that expression far too many times over the years.

But he seemed very happy, tilting his head back and laughing, "Haha, I'm lucky. Many people were assigned to Yunnan, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Heilongjiang. At least I'm still in the interior. Although I can't compare to those who were assigned to Chongming, this place is by the river. To go back to Shanghai, I can get there in three or four days by car and boat from here. That's much better than those people."

Chen Fan chuckled, thinking to himself that this guy was also an optimist.

Yang Chuanfu laughed and said, "What's the use of three or four days? You haven't replied even once."

"Huh."

An Quan smiled without fading, shook his head and said, “We don’t have any money. The fare is only a dozen yuan, but every step from here to the county town, and from the county town to the prefectural committee, costs money. Back then, we were still in debt for food rations. The first time we celebrated the New Year, your father took pity on us and sent us a pound of meat, which was shared among twenty people. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have had any oil or meat at all.”

Ye Shubao was smoking when he suddenly choked on his cigarette. He coughed and pointed at him, then laughed and scolded after a while, "You still have the nerve to say you don't have any meat? Stealing dogs from Team 6 is one thing, but stealing from Team 7 is another. I've only had that dog for a year, and you guys still have the nerve to do it."

Anquan immediately winked and said, "This is a huge injustice! This has nothing to do with me. Look at me, I'm lucky if I don't get bitten by a dog, how could I possibly steal one?"

Yang Chuanfu nodded in agreement, “Yeah, you don’t steal dogs, but you eat dog meat, and the smell of dog meat on your breath hasn’t dissipated for three days.”

Even with her usually thick skin, she couldn't help but blush slightly. "Oh dear, you all knew?"

Ye Shubao, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, glanced at him and said, “What else? Although there are quite a few people in Lujiawan, not a single needle was lost before you came. But after you arrived, seven or eight dogs have silently disappeared in just one year. The dogs even avoid you when they see you.”

Anquan grinned and chuckled, "This really has nothing to do with me. I didn't eat any dog ​​meat. I just used the leftover broth to cook some vegetable noodles and tasted a bit of it."

Chen Fan listened in astonishment. There were so many talented people in the educated youth settlement. It was no easy task to steal the dog away silently.

Captain Yang chuckled twice and exhaled a puff of smoke. "They're all teenagers. Many of them probably hadn't even washed their socks when they left home. They're suddenly here, lacking food and clothing, and have to do heavy farm work. What can they do?"

Anquan's smile faded a bit. He silently took two puffs of his cigarette, exhaled a long plume of smoke, and then suddenly smiled and said, "Our batch was considered lucky. We only stayed for a year before the city had a big recruitment drive, and we all gradually returned to the city. The later ones were the ones who were pitiful; many of them stayed for the full three years before leaving."

He turned to Chen Fan and laughed, "We had a lot of openings that year, enough to fill all the vacancies for graduates, and people were leaving in droves. I thought to myself, with so many openings, surely I'll get one, but..." He suddenly slapped his thigh, almost laughing to tears, "Guess what? After the recruitment was over, I got a telegram from home with just two words: 'Full!'"
There was nothing we could do; this batch was full, so we had to wait for the next one. Not long after, various units in the county also began to expand their recruitment, this time prioritizing those with higher education. Those of us who, like me, hadn't been recruited simply went to work in county units, which was a way of "washing our feet and getting ashore," meaning we no longer had to farm.

At the time, I thought, there are so many factories in the city, surely they can't only recruit once? I still wanted to go back to Shanghai, so I didn't go with them and continued to wait.

Another year passed. Because of the large-scale recruitment drive, all the graduates had already secured jobs, and no new educated youth were coming down. For a while, I was the only one guarding the educated youth settlement. I kept guarding it until the educated youth from 72 arrived, but I still didn't get to see the large-scale recruitment drive.

Later, through correspondence with classmates in Shanghai, I learned that since that large-scale recruitment drive, the school had resumed its teaching order, and the factories were no longer short of workers. Vocational school and university graduates were guaranteed job placement, while junior high and high school graduates were not. Although they were given priority in recruitment, there were too many of them, so some had to find their own way, and those who could not find a job had to go to the countryside.

In order to avoid going to the countryside and scrambling for those few newly available spots, so many people were practically fighting tooth and nail, and I gave up on the idea of ​​going back to the city.

I had originally prepared myself to settle down in Lujiawan and live here for the rest of my life. But as the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining. Unexpectedly, the commune was recruiting workers. Although there were only a few positions available, I was the most senior and had the highest level of education, so I was recommended to the commune, and I've been working there ever since.

Ye Shubao and Yang Chuanfu both knew about these things; he was telling Chen Fan this.

It's nothing special, just chatting, gossiping, and reminiscing about the past.

After chatting for a while, they finished their cigarettes, and Chen Fan refilled them.

Anquan took the cigarette, then turned his head and saw the easel. "What is Teacher Chen painting?"

He then walked over.

Chen Fan and the others then moved along and walked to the easel.

An Quan looked at the sketch on the drawing board and nodded repeatedly. He turned to Chen Fan in surprise and said, "Wow, that's amazing! Such a realistic sketch, and every detail is so clear. It's not easy to draw like that."

Chen Fan was somewhat curious, "Does Cadre An also know how to paint?"

Anquan waved his hand and said, "Don't call me Cadre An. That's what Lao Ye and Lao Yang are teasing me about. If you respect me, just call me Brother Quan or Lao An, it's fine either way."

He then laughed and said, "I don't know anything about painting, but my wife does. Her family lives near the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, and she used to learn painting from the school's teachers. If the academy hadn't closed for two years, she probably would have been able to get in. Since she couldn't go to university, she had to come here to work in the countryside like me, and she never had the chance to go back to the city."

However, she was sent to work in the Hongxing Brigade, and later she also got a job in a commune unit, so we ended up working together. She often painted at home, and I would watch her paint some of it.

Chen Fan suddenly realized that he was from Shanghai and his wife was from Hangzhou, and it was fate that they met in Nanhu Commune, thousands of miles away.

At this moment, Anquan bent down to dust off his cigarette ash and suddenly noticed the two little rabbits in the basket. He couldn't help but ask curiously, "Why did you bring two rabbits? These two are too small, there's no meat on them."

Chen Fan laughed and said, "This isn't for eating. I plan to find a few pairs of rabbits to try raising. If it's successful, it will add a side business to the production team."

"Raising rabbits?"

Anquan nodded thoughtfully. "That's a good idea. Anyway, there's no shortage of veterinarians in Lujiawan. They should be able to solve the problem of rabbits getting sick easily."

Then she looked at him and asked, "But baby rabbits aren't easy to buy. Where did you get your little rabbit from?"

Chen Fan smiled and said, "I didn't buy this little rabbit..."

Before he could finish speaking, Captain Yang suddenly stopped him, "Wait."

Then, pointing to the safety, he laughed and said, "Let's make a bet. If you can guess the origin of the rabbit, I'll give you a meal with wine and food, guaranteed to have chicken and meat. If you lose, I don't want anything more, just a pack of Donghai cigarettes."

Security is also a fun-loving person; he immediately slapped his thigh and said, "Let's bet."

Then his eyes darted around, he tilted his head and thought for a long time, then looked at Chen Fan again, only to see him smiling without saying a word, so he tentatively asked, "Did some commune member catch a rabbit burrow and you bought it?"

Chen Fan smiled and shook his head. "No."

Anquan thought for a moment, then clapped his hands. "I know, you have a good relationship with the veterinary station, so you asked them to help you get it?"

Chen Fan shook his head again, "No, not exactly."

Anquan suddenly felt a bit numb, and tried several more guesses, but still got them wrong.

Finally, with no other option, he shrugged and said helplessly, "I can't guess."

Captain Yang immediately laughed triumphantly, "Hahaha, this is a bird that Xiao Chen keeps that he caught!"

Anquan's eyes widened instantly. "You caught a bird?"

Just then, a chirping sound came from the sky, "Chirp chirp."

Chen Fan immediately looked up, pointed at the dark shadow in the sky, and laughed, "Look, another rabbit has arrived."

(End of this chapter)