Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 247 One of a Kind

Chen Fan stood at the bottom of the slope, watching everyone help him plant trees.

The trees that have been brought in are only the first batch. After planting the trees in the pits, two people will fill in the soil while the others pull the carts to continue bringing in the remaining trees.

At the top of the hill, the mare, the foal, and two lambs watched the lively scene with curiosity, reluctant to leave.

Seeing their appearance, Chen Fan couldn't help but twitch his lips. It was only in Lujiawan that they were worthy of this; if they went anywhere else and stared at people like that, they would probably end up as a pot of meat.

Thinking of the meat, Chen Fan took out his small alarm clock to check the time. It was already past 10 a.m. In another hour, it would be lunchtime. He thought he would go to the front to see if Liu Jujiang had prepared the lunch ingredients.

When preparing a large rural feast, almost all the ingredients are processed in advance. For example, meat and fish are steamed or fried beforehand. In addition, semi-finished ingredients such as various meatballs, spring rolls, fish cakes, and meat cakes are also prepared. Then, several stoves are lit at the same time, and a dozen tables of continuous feast can be prepared in just about an hour.

Today, Chen Fan hired 30 laborers to help out. Although he didn't need to pay them, he still needed to make sure the dishes were prepared properly. He needed to go check beforehand to see if Liu Jujiang had prepared the wild game meat.

Before they even reached the front yard, a man, whose identity was unknown, stood under the shed next to the kitchen and shouted at Chen Fan, "Teacher Chen, the mud is all mixed, you can start cooking now."

Chen Fan waved, "You're here."

Then he jogged forward.

Upon arriving at the front yard, we first checked Liu Jujiang's preparations. They were alright; the wild game was almost ready and just waiting to be cooked.

Yesterday, he taught Liu Jujiang several ways to prepare wild game, such as roasting, stewing, or stir-frying sliced ​​meat. Each method has its own style. These were all dishes that he tried to make by referring to the "Wild Game Recipes". They tasted pretty good. I wonder how much of his skills Liu Jujiang can replicate.

In other words, he had a lot to do today, building an earthen stove and a toilet, so he didn't have time to cook. Otherwise, he wouldn't have gone to find Liu Jujiang.

Anyway, the team members aren't too picky about taste; they're fine with anything. Based on Liu Jujiang's experience, there shouldn't be any problem.

After inspecting the area, he turned and went into the kitchen. The spot where the earthen stove had been was already cleaned up, just waiting for Chen Fan to start the work.

A man next to him bent down, resting his hands on his knees, and looked at Chen Fan curiously. "Teacher Chen, are you really planning to lay the bricks yourself instead of hiring a professional?"

Chen Fan picked up a small adobe brick, tossed it a couple of times in his hand, and smiled at him, "Don't you believe in my craftsmanship?"

The man grinned and chuckled dryly. “As for cultural knowledge, we certainly have no doubt about it. But bricklaying and carpentry are different from reading books; they require hands-on work. Don’t take offense, but this stove is alright; if it’s not done well, at most you’ll miss a meal. But that toilet—if the walls aren’t built properly, it will cause big problems.”

If you're taking a dump and the wall suddenly collapses, wouldn't that be a huge problem?!
Today, 30 people came, but they were all laborers. Everyone thought that Chen Fan had hired other skilled workers, but unexpectedly, he himself took on the task.

That's no joke!
Faced with his advice, Chen Fan chuckled, picked up a trowel, scooped up some soil and cement, spread it on the adobe bricks, and said to him, "Then you can see if my skills are good enough to build a wall yourself."

Then, with three people watching nearby, he worked tirelessly and quickly built the base frame of the stove.

The three people standing to the side all had a strange look in their eyes, marveling inwardly. They never expected that Teacher Chen would even know how to be a bricklayer? In the commune's construction team, those who were about his age, or even a few years older than him, were basically still apprentices.

As a result, Teacher Chen was able to start working on his own. The key point is that he also learned so many other skills. With so many skills concentrated in one person, I don't know how he learned them.
After busying himself for a while, Chen Fan said without looking up, "Masters, could you lend me a hand?"

As soon as the words were spoken, the three of them snapped out of their daze, and one of them immediately asked, "What are you going to do?"

Chen Fan: "Make more mud, and send someone else to help pass the bricks."

One of the younger ones immediately squatted down, picked up a mud brick, and handed it to Chen Fan, while the other two went out to mix the mud.

With their help, Chen Fan's efficiency increased significantly, and a stove took shape at a visible speed.

Just then, the light in the doorway dimmed slightly. Chen Fan instinctively looked up and saw An Quan walk in, hands in his pockets. His gaze fell on the stove, and he clicked his tongue in amazement, "Wow, you're pretty good. You can even do bricklaying. When I build my new house, you'll have to come and help me." Chen Fan chuckled, "Build a new house? You spent all your money on an accordion, and then you used the money you saved to buy your sister-in-law drawing paper, brushes, and paints. Where are you going to get the money to build a new house?"

Anquan's face fell, and she glared at him angrily. "Go away, what do you know? If I can't afford a new house, can't I buy a piece of land and build it myself? If I can't afford one in town, can't I buy one in the village?"

Before Chen Fan could speak, the man handing him the bricks laughed and said, "Brother An, if you want to buy a house in the village, you'll probably have to marry into the family, because the village's residential land is only for villagers. People from other teams don't count, let alone those from the town. I'm afraid you won't have a chance."

Anquan pointed at him and said, "You're just like Old Yang, you can't even listen to a joke. No wonder you're both from the Yang family."

She then stopped talking to him, put her hands behind her back, and paced around in front of the stove. "I see you have several large piles of blue bricks in your backyard. Why don't you use blue bricks to build the stove? Why are you using these adobe bricks?"

Chen Fan placed another brick on top, looked up at him, and laughed, "I'm definitely going to keep those blue bricks to build the new house. If we use blue bricks for the stove in the educated youth area, wouldn't that be contributing to the later educated youth?"

He patted the stove that was almost finished and said, "Besides, this stove isn't bad either. It's guaranteed to be the only one of its kind in the entire production team, or even the entire commune. Whether it's made of blue bricks or not doesn't matter."

Anquan pointed at him, his face full of disdain, "Keep bragging. It's just a mud-brick stove, and you talk about it like it's a rare treasure, the only one of its kind in the whole commune..."

He patted the earthen stove and said, "These mud bricks will be blackened with soot in less than three months. What's so special about them?"

Just then, a man came in carrying a bucket of mixed mud and said to Chen Fan, "Teacher Chen, you've almost finished building this stove, what are you going to do with all this mud?"

Chen Fan turned around and glanced at it, then smiled and said, "This bucket might not be enough. Could you please bring me another one?"

Everyone looked at him strangely, especially Anquan, whose eyes were full of confusion. "Why are you making so much mud? You can't use this kind of mud to coat the inside of the stove. It's too thin. You have to use the kind of mud lump."

Chen Fan smiled, got up and walked to the corner of the kitchen wall, lifted a straw mat and said with a smile, "Let's see what this is."

Anquan quickly walked over, picked up a square piece of pottery, examined it carefully, and frowned slightly. After thinking for two seconds, he suddenly looked up at Chen Fan and asked, "You're not thinking of using this as a tile to stick on the stove, are you?"

Chen Fan laughed and gave him a thumbs up, "Brother An is indeed Brother An, you have a good eye."

He then asked with a grin, "So, once these pottery shards are pasted on, will my stove be the only one of its kind in the whole commune?"

Anquan chuckled, "Not just the whole commune, but probably the entire Gufeng County doesn't have a stove like yours."

Once they arrived, the three people who had helped understood Chen Fan's meaning.

These pottery shards look like they're made of the same material as the pottery we use at home, with a greenish-blue glaze on the surface. If you stick these shards on the stove, you hardly have to worry about the stove getting blackened. After each meal, you just need to wipe it with a cloth to keep the stove surface clean.

This is much better than a clay stove!
Having figured out Chen Fan's intentions, and considering safety as well, the group unconsciously sped up their pace, hoping to see what the stove would look like after it was built.

Chen Fan did not disappoint them. He first used yellow clay to coat the inner stove, then applied a layer of cement to the surface of the stove, and then attached the ceramic shards one by one, trying to minimize the gaps.

He also applied a passivation treatment to the corner.

If Jiang Lili and Yang Ju were here, they would find that the oddly shaped pottery that Chen Fan had made earlier was stuck to the surface of the stove perfectly, almost without any gaps, and no further treatment was needed.

It is obvious that the dimensions of these pottery shards were carefully calculated by Chen Fan to ensure that they could be assembled so smoothly onto the surface of the stove.

After finishing attaching the last ceramic tile, Chen Fan looked at the brand-new stove with its "two stoves and four pots," which gleamed with shine, and couldn't help but laugh out loud, "Mission accomplished!"

(End of this chapter)