Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 238 Not as Good as a Bonded Laborer

Chen Fan had some guesses about why An Quan wanted to teach him music.

The reason is simply that he wants to curry favor with me and improve our relationship, so that maybe one day I can help him when I rise to prominence.

It's just teaching music, a cheap and easy thing, and it can bring together a promising young person with unlimited potential. Why not do it?

Chen Fan himself happens to be interested in the accordion.

Which boy doesn't have an artistic dream? Whether it's carrying a guitar and singing "Nothing to My Name" or playing "By the Lake Baikal" on an accordion, to put it simply, intellectuals with artistic tastes are most popular with girls.

Well, actually, Chen Fan simply loves music. Girls and admirers are all irrelevant to him.

Not worth mentioning!
……

Time passed day by day. Those who tilled the fields continued tilling, while those who planted vegetables had already finished planting.

Through his hard work and with the assistance of four female colleagues, Chen Fan successfully built a rabbit hutch after careful design and construction.

The cage has three levels, arranged in a single row. The load-bearing walls are made of blue bricks mixed with cement, while the middle section uses a lot of bamboo. Under each bamboo cage, there is a grooved wooden board to collect the rabbit's droppings. In front of the bamboo cage is a feeding trough made of a bamboo pole split in half.

Rabbits are kept in bamboo cages and can stick their heads out through small holes in the cages to eat the hay from the feeding troughs.

To shelter the rabbits from the wind and rain, Chen Fan thoughtfully built them a thatched shed next to the east wall of the livestock shed in the backyard of the educated youth.

Thanks to the hard work of the Eurasian Hobby, his rabbit population has now reached 106, forming a considerable scale that almost fills the rabbit hutch.

Chen Fan didn't even need to get involved in catching these rabbits. He simply fenced off an area in the front yard with bamboo, lined it with straw, and after the falcon caught a rabbit, he would throw it inside. Then, the falcon would eat some meat and drink some water on a nearby bamboo pole before continuing to work, without taking any wages, and he seemed to enjoy it immensely.

When Chen Fan comes home from get off work, he can simply put the rabbit back into the cage; it's really no trouble at all.

However, even after catching so many, he didn't stop the Eurasian Hobby. He just kept catching rabbits, stuffing more rabbits into the cages and converting single rabbit houses into multi-rabbit houses, until he built a larger rabbit hutch.

In addition, spring is the season when animals frequently appear, and it is also the peak breeding season for rabbits. The Eurasian Hobby specifically targets rabbit burrows. After Chen Fan gets off work, it will inform him, and then he will run over to block the burrow and wipe them out in one fell swoop.

It is this "two-pronged" strategy that has led to such a large increase in the number of rabbits, with the majority being young rabbits that are not yet adults, and only a third being older, somewhat thin rabbits.

After a winter, most wild rabbits are not very meaty at this time of year. Chen Fan plans to raise them for a while, partly to gain practical experience in raising rabbits, and partly to fatten them up so they will taste better.

In addition, he went to the commune veterinary station to find Director Zhou and asked him for help. He obtained a batch of books on animal husbandry and related veterinary drugs from the county's animal husbandry bureau, making full preparations.

There are two major challenges in aquaculture: feed and disease resistance. Chen Fan is not going to make any basic mistakes, so he naturally has to prioritize disease prevention in order to succeed on the first try.

He was like a busy little bee here, and the brigade headquarters was not idle either.

Secretary Yang and his team discussed the matter with Anquan many times, taking all aspects into consideration, and finally formulated a "Lujiawan Production Brigade Aquaculture Plan". They planned to make the aquaculture business in Lujiawan begin to show results within three years.

According to this plan, their first step was to clear several wastelands to plant pasture, and at the same time build a breeding farm near the brigade headquarters to receive the breeding rabbits that Chen Fan had bred.

Chen Fan's deal with the brigade headquarters was not a one-size-fits-all transaction, but rather divided into multiple parts.

As long as he has bred enough breeding rabbits and can deliver them, the brigade headquarters will accept them. The transaction will continue until the end of the year, or until Chen Fan delivers enough rabbits to meet the collective breeding needs of the entire brigade and the family breeding needs of the members.

Even if the market supervision team were right next to them and saw the business being conducted within the production team, they wouldn't interfere.

Because the brigade headquarters has the authority to issue special tasks to members and then reward them according to the completion of the tasks, no one can say anything when someone comes, so naturally no one would cause trouble.

This also aligns with Mr. Li's principle of collective labor and the principle of more pay for more work.

Chen Fan could then proceed with his work with peace of mind.

Anyone who's jealous can have that too.

The brigade headquarters has opened up new tasks. If you have the ability to breed breeding rabbits, just send them over. The brigade headquarters will accept them all without exception.

If you don't have the ability, then shut up!

……

The rain falls in torrents during the Qingming Festival; travelers on the road are heartbroken.

Chen Fan sat at the doorway, staring blankly at the rain outside.

Being able to daydream is a wonderful thing, because it means having plenty of time, not having to worry about making a living, and not having any other life pressures.

In short, it's because I'm bored.

He was very free, but Jiang Lili was very busy, meticulously copying the manuscript while hunched over the table.

Without looking up, she said, "Xiao Fan, how many words did you write in this novel? My hand is sore from copying it." Chen Fan yawned and said quietly, "Originally, I only wanted to write a short story of 5,000 words, but as I wrote, it grew to 38,000 words and became a novella."

When he used to write online novels, he didn't learn the good stuff, but he learned to pad out the content. Every time a character appeared, there had to be a character description, every time he arrived at a place, there had to be an environmental description, psychological descriptions were a must, and there couldn't be any lack of explanatory notes. And it wasn't just a few sentences; he wrote as much as he could.

Even now, when I type with a pen, I haven't been able to shake this bad habit. So, without realizing it, a 300-word outline and a 5000-word main text have turned into 38,000 words.

After he finished writing, he realized that having so many words was also a hassle when he needed to copy them.

After thinking it over, he handed the draft to Jiang Lili and asked her to make a copy so he could send it to the newspaper for submission.

After all, you can't send the draft to others. First, you need to keep a copy in case it gets rejected. Second, "presentation score" is also very important. Which editor wants to see a draft that has been scribbled all over?

Jiang Lili was quite happy. Even though she couldn't write the novel herself, helping Chen Fan copy it gave her a sense of participation.

Today happens to be Qingming Festival. It has been drizzling since yesterday. The tilling work has been almost finished. The seeds that were sown have sprouted lush green shoots, and the vegetable seedlings in the garden have also started to sprout and grow strong little by little.

So the production team announced that today would be a day off, both to avoid the rain and to allow everyone to go home to pay respects to their ancestors. Even Anquan went back to his home in town and would come back tomorrow.

Yang Ju, Huang Ying, and Liu Dan also went home to pay respects to their ancestors.

These days, ancestor worship in rural areas is not so simple. Unlike in the future, when you could just go to the graves of your own family members up to three generations back to worship, now you would go to any grave that exists.

In addition, the family must bring out the ancestral tablets, which are then worshipped by the oldest member of the same clan within the village.

Ten years ago, none of these things were missed, but they were not held in a grand manner; everything was kept simple.

Now that there are no more restrictions, the families in the team discussed it and decided to hold a grand celebration to comfort the spirits of their ancestors in heaven.

Only Chen Fan and Jiang Lili, the two "outsiders," didn't have to go to the ancestral graves to pay their respects, so they stayed at home and idled away their time.

Upon hearing Chen Fan say that the stack of manuscripts contained 3 words, Jiang Lili couldn't help but stick out her tongue. She turned to look at him, her eyes full of admiration. "You're so amazing! You can write so much. I struggle to even write a 8-word essay, but you can write so much."

Hearing her words, Chen Fan turned around and laughed, "That's because you haven't found the right method. Do you know what the eight-legged essay is?"

Jiang Lili rolled her eyes and looked at him, saying, "You're not going to say that writing essays is the same as writing formulaic essays, are you?"

Before Chen Fan could speak, she added with a smile, "Eight-legged essays are subject to criticism, you know. Mr. Li himself said not to write eight-legged essays."

Chen Fan laughed and said, "When Mr. Li said not to write in the eight-legged essay style, he meant that we should not learn from the rigid, formulaic, and empty style of the eight-legged essay style. Whether it is writing or doing things, we should be flexible and adaptable and have our own rules."

In the words of the old folks, "When shooting an arrow, you must consider the target; when playing the piano, you must consider the audience; when writing an article or giving a speech, you must consider the readers." This means that you should have something to say and not just talk empty words.

However, the eight-legged essay itself is the simplest writing formula. If you can understand the template, writing will be very easy for you.

Hearing this, Jiang Lili stopped copying, turned to face him, and asked curiously, "What do you mean?"

Chen Fan pointed to the manuscript on the table, "Don't stop, keep copying, consider it tuition."

Jiang Lili wrinkled her nose at him, "Even Accountant Liu isn't as calculating as you."

He chuckled again as he spoke, then lay down and continued copying the manuscript.

Chen Fan chuckled, not minding her comparing him to Accountant Liu, and said with a smile, "The format of the eight-legged essay consists of eight parts: breaking the topic, developing the topic, beginning the discussion, entering the topic, the first argument, the middle argument, the last argument, and the conclusion. As long as you break free from the constraints of the 'Four Books and Five Classics,' you'll find that this format can be applied to essay writing..."

Since he had nothing better to do, Chen Fan sat by the door, watching the heavy rain outside while explaining essay writing methods to Jiang Lili.

As they talked, the conversation drifted to other topics, and they ended up having a Chinese language lesson.

His memory is exceptionally good now, and he has been tutoring Jiang Lili in her high school courses recently. He can easily recall the texts and explain them in a wonderful way.

Before she knew it, Jiang Lili had forgotten to copy the text again, staring intently at him as if listening to a storyteller. When she heard something exciting, she couldn't help but beam with delight.

After Chen Fan finished speaking at length, he noticed that she hadn't turned the page yet, and he immediately came to his senses. "Talking to you about this at a time like this is just wasting my time. Well then, this manuscript won't be sent out tomorrow."

Jiang Lili blushed slightly and giggled, "I heard my dad say that before liberation, textile factory owners in Shanghai exploited bonded laborers in this way. Now it seems that you are exactly the same as them."

Chen Fan shook his head seriously, "It's different, so different."

Jiang Lili raised her head. "They're both urging people to work. What's the difference?"

Chen Fan said in a serious tone, "Although you don't receive a salary like the bonded laborers, at least the bonded laborers received a bondage fee. You don't even receive a bondage fee, so how can you compare to the bonded laborers?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Lili chuckled and said, "So it turns out I'm not even as good as a bonded laborer."

(End of this chapter)