Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 283 You decide for yourself

return gift?

Jiang Lili was slightly taken aback, her expression clearly showing reluctance, but she still handed the bag back, saying, "I can't accept it."

She looked at Chen Fan, pouted, and said, "I helped you not for anything. When I was injured, you helped me apply medicine every day, and I didn't give you any gifts."

Chen Fan looked at her, pondered for two seconds, and smiled, "That's not a return gift, it's a present for you."

Jiang Lili pouted and said with her head down, "Why give me a gift for no reason?"

Chen Fan put his hands on his hips and refused to take it. "Didn't Brother An ask me to exchange two belts? I made two extra when I was making them, but I didn't expect them to be too narrow. Belts this narrow can only be used by girls, but I don't have any other female friends, so I might as well give them to you."

He pointed to the bag and said, "If you don't believe me, look for yourself. Isn't it a woman's bag?"

Jiang Lili lowered her head, her eyes darting around twice.

Did you make two extra? Or did you make them too narrow?
Your tailoring skills are better than mine now, and you even measure with a ruler when cutting leather, and you can make it narrow?
I'd be a fool to believe you!

She blinked, but still opened the bag to take a look. "Oh, is it really a woman's bag?"

Chen Fan coughed lightly, "That's right. Actually, I didn't pay attention at the time. I was only focused on checking the length of the leather and didn't realize that the width of the leather was not enough. I only found out that it was too narrow after it was finished. It's less than two fingers wide. If a man used this, he would be laughed to death."

To appear genuine, he deliberately pursed his lips and shook his head, "Anyway, I don't need such thin straps. Brother An already has one, but it's for his lover, so he doesn't need this many. But we can't waste them, such fine crocodile skin, it's hard to alter, so I was thinking of just giving it to you."

Jiang Lili pursed her lips, her face beaming with barely suppressed laughter, and quickly lowered her head. "Oh, I see."

Chen Fan nodded vigorously, his face full of sincerity, "Yes, that's it."

Jiang Lili looked up, pursed her lips, and smiled slightly. "Well then, thank you."

Chen Fan coughed lightly, "Yes, you're welcome."

He clasped his hands together and chuckled, "It's alright, it's just a way to reuse waste anyway. If I make anything bad in the future, I'll give it all to you."

Then he pointed outside and said, "There's not much. If we give one to them, it won't be enough, so we can only give it to you. Be careful to keep it a secret."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Lili wrinkled her nose slightly and then laughed, "But I can't use up two of them."

Chen Fan shrugged, "That's still better than conflicts caused by unequal distribution."

Then he said, "Anyway, I've given you the things. You can do with them as you see fit. Use them if you can, and give the rest to others if you can't."

Jiang Lili's eyes darted around slightly. "Then can I give one to my sister?"

Chen Fan laughed and said, "I already told you, you can handle it yourself. You can send it to your sister or your mother."

Jiang Lili held up the bag and shook it, her face beaming, "Thank you."

Chen Fan waved his hand with a smile, "It's nothing, it's nothing, we're friends."

Jiang Lili smiled, turned around and went out. After taking two steps forward, she clutched the small cloth bag to her chest and happily ran back to her room.

Chen Fan walked to the door, peeked inside, scratched his head, then put his hands behind his back and walked around the room twice before sitting down in a chair, picking up his teacup, and humming a little tune.

A moment later, a loud shout came from outside the courtyard wall, "Xiao Chen, are you home?"

Chen Fan raised his head and called out, "I'm here."

At the same time, he got up and walked outside.

When he reached the door, Anquan greeted him and invited him inside.

Anquan wiped his sweat and said, panting, "Oh dear, you've exhausted me. I thought you went to the market."

As he spoke, he turned his head and looked around, "Hey, aren't you going to sell your pottery today?"

Chen Fan took out a cigarette and handed it to him, laughing, "I won't go today. Anyway, there's nothing I need to buy. Yang Ju and the other two are going, and Master Liu is driving the mule cart with them. It's all my own team members there, so nothing will happen."

"Oh,"

Anquan had a cigarette in his mouth when he saw Jiang Lili come out of the room and greet him.

He waved and said, "Hello, hello."

Then she whispered, "She didn't go?"

Chen Fan glanced at Jiang Lili and whispered, "Didn't she injure her foot? The wound just healed, but it's still a bit sore, so she stayed to recover."

The two talked as they entered the central control room.

Without any hesitation, Anquan picked up the kettle, poured himself a large gulp of water, and said, "No wonder you asked me to come and pick up the belt today, but didn't give me a specific time. I thought you forgot. Turns out you didn't go out."

As she spoke, she pulled up a chair and sat down, turning to look at Chen Fan. "So you're not going to work at the brigade headquarters either?"

Chen Fan rolled up his sleeves, lit a cigarette for himself, and laughed, "The rice planting is finished, and there's nothing else important to do. Zhang Cuie is covering for the broadcasting room, so I don't need to go. I'll just stay home and do something."

After saying that, he got up and walked out, saying, "I'll go get you your belt."

Less than a minute later, he turned back, holding two crocodile leather belts in his hand, placed them directly on the table, and then sat down to the side.

Just as Anquan was about to reach for it, his eyes widened in surprise. "Hey, why are the two different?"

Chen Fan turned to look at him, "You want two belts, shouldn't it be one for you and one for your sister-in-law?"

Anquan's expression stiffened slightly, then he quickly laughed and said, "Right, right, I forgot to tell you. I didn't expect you to remember. Hahaha, it's just one for each of us."

He then picked up the women's dress, pulled it open, and examined it carefully. He nodded repeatedly, "Hmm, not bad, not bad. It's about an inch wide, just the right size for women."

Looking at the belt buckle again, I was surprised. "Wow, this belt buckle is pretty nice. It even has a pattern, and it looks like it's made of copper. Where did you buy it?"

Chen Fan snorted twice and said arrogantly, "Bought? Go buy one outside and show it to me. I made this myself." He then pointed at him, "Just a sheepskin, but I swapped it for two leather belts with copper buckles. You should be happy about that."

Anquan looked at him in surprise, "You can even make copperware?"

Chen Fan's ability to make belts was already surprising enough, but he never expected him to be able to forge copper items. Where did this kid learn so many skills?
Seeing the look of surprise on Anquan's face, Chen Fan chuckled and said, "I'm a meticulous person and I don't like to make half-finished products. Since I promised to give you two belts, they must be complete. I can't just say that two belts are enough. But the supply and marketing cooperative doesn't have this kind of buckle. I thought this kind of buckle wasn't complicated, so I went to the scrap metal recycling station, bought some scrap copper, brought it back, melted it down, and hammered it. I didn't expect to actually make it."

With deep emotion, Anquan gave him a thumbs up, saying, "Just one word: I'm impressed!"

Chen Fan laughed and waved his hand, saying, "Actually, it's nothing. Copper is relatively soft, making it easy to forge or engrave. However, its disadvantage is also obvious: it is prone to deformation after prolonged use."

With a wave of his hand and a cigarette dangling from his lips, he said, "It's fine. It's easy to deform but also easy to bend back. If you give me an iron one, it'll be impossible to get it back to its original shape."

Chen Fan smiled, then looked at the leather again, a hint of regret in his eyes. "It's a pity there's no suitable dye. This leather is all in its original color. It would look even better if it were dyed black or red."

Safety chuckled, placed the belt on the table, and said with a smile, "It's good enough to have one, why are you thinking so much? That's called being greedy."

Chen Fan chuckled twice but didn't say anything.

Who cares if it looks good on you? The main thing is that it's the first time I've given a girl a gift, and I ended up giving her something unrefined. It just doesn't feel quite right.

Anquan, unaware of Chen Fan's ulterior motives, took a drag of his cigarette and looked at him, asking, "Is your saddle ready too?"

Chen Fan said, "That's about it. If you hadn't come by now, I would have been working on the final steps of making the saddle."

Anquan chuckled, "You're making it sound like I came to the wrong place."

He then put the two leather belts into his satchel, stood up and said, "Come on, show me your saddle."

Chen Fan didn't hesitate and got up to walk out. "It's not ready yet, so it's just sitting in the stable."

Anquan followed him to the backyard and said irritably, "That's a saddle, after all. You put it in the stable, right next to the pigsty!"

Chen Fan grunted twice, "If we don't put the saddle in the stable, where are we going to put it?"

He paused for a moment, then added, "However, that stable is still a bit small. It was originally a pigsty, so it's not very suitable for horses."

He pointed to the row of rabbit cages in the backyard and said, "Once I get rid of these rabbits, I'll renovate this place and build a bigger stable. I'll leave the original spot for two lambs."

After surveying the backyard, I noticed a row of livestock sheds to the north, rabbit cages to the east, two toilets to the west, and a vegetable garden in the middle.

He chuckled softly, “Suddenly I feel that you are living a better life than most people. You have so many livestock to raise, vegetable gardens to grow, and two jobs to manage. Even I, a cadre, am not living as carefree a life as you.”

Chen Fan snorted twice and laughed, "That's because I have more help. If you send Yang Ju and the other two back, I'll go crazy with all the work in this yard. Once Jiang Lili returns to the city, I guarantee you, there will be at most two dogs, two chickens, and two horses in this yard. Nothing else."

Anquan followed him to the stables, and looking at the glossy coats of the mare and foal, asked curiously, "Did you brush their coats?"

Chen Fan, holding the horse's head, said without turning his head, "No, the four of them have arranged their own shifts. Every morning, two of them come to shovel horse manure and brush its coat."

Anquan was speechless for a moment, then choked for several seconds before finally saying, "You're such a big shot!"

Chen Fan shrugged. "I wouldn't dare call myself a master; I'm more like a young master."

He then went into the stable, picked up the foal’s outstretched head, pointed to the saddle on the two double-bar wooden stakes by the wall and said, “It’s been five days of work, a little bit each day. We also need to adjust it according to the horse’s size. In a little while, we’ll sew up a few more parts and it will be finished.”

Anquan approached and took a closer look, and couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "Your saddle is really exquisite, with a girth and stirrups, it's much more complicated than a common saddle."

Chen Fan chuckled and said, "This was designed based on the saddle of the battalion's warhorse, so how could it not be complicated?"

Safety curled his lip. "No wonder there are rings and hooks on it; those are for hanging sabers, right?"

Chen Fan coughed lightly, "It's mainly for hanging bags. What era are we living in? Who still uses a saber?"

Anquan smiled and was about to say "that's true" when he noticed a curved knife in the corner. He pointed at it and asked, "Then what's this?"

Chen Fan glanced at it and said casually, "Oh, I've been learning weaponry from Uncle Lin these past few days. I originally wanted to use bamboo and wooden swords, but bamboo and wood are not durable and break easily, so I thought I'd make a sword out of scrap iron. This one isn't finished yet."

Upon closer inspection, he saw that the blade was covered in hammer marks and was speechless. "I think you're not trying to make a practice knife, but rather a hundred-times-forged steel knife."

Chen Fan remained unfazed. "I'm a perfectionist. Since I've chosen to forge my own knives, I naturally want to make one that I'm satisfied with."

As he spoke, he turned to look at the security guard, "For example, if I wanted to put a buckle on your belt, it would be perfectly reasonable, wouldn't it?!"

Safety is beyond words.

Can this be the same?
He put down the heavy, unfinished saber, turned to look at Chen Fan, and said, "Some time ago, Captain Ye and a few people ordered a lot of chicks, ducklings, goslings, and livestock seedlings from the other four production teams. Some of them were delivered before the rice planting season, but then everyone was busy planting rice a few days ago and no one delivered any more. I estimate that after the market ends today, a large batch of chicks, ducklings, and goslings will be delivered starting tomorrow."

From rice transplanting to the double harvest, there are still about two months. We need to seize these two months of 'downtime' to ensure a smooth delivery of these seedlings. You and your veterinary students have a heavy responsibility.”

After he finished speaking, Chen Fan nodded without hesitation and said, "Don't worry about that. I've been summarizing the precautions for raising chickens, ducks and geese these past few days. In addition to the content in the book, I also have my own experience of raising chickens over the past two months. After I finish summarizing, I will gather all the veterinarians in the brigade and give them a lecture."

He paused for a moment, then continued, "And Yang Ju and the others have already taught everyone in Team 6 how to raise earthworms. You and Captain Yang can discuss having each of the three of them lead a team to teach earthworm farming techniques to the various teams. After that, check on them every few days to see if they've gone astray and correct them promptly. In this way, it won't take more than half a month to spread their experience in raising chickens, ducks, and geese."

Anquan nodded. "Okay, it's good that you have an idea."

Then, looking at Chen Fan thoughtfully, she asked, "Only the three of them know how?"

Chen Fan smiled and said, "Of course, Jiang Lili can do it too, but..."

He pointed to the front yard and said, "We have more than 20 chickens in our own yard, so we need someone to take care of them. Besides, she's just an educated youth; she wouldn't be willing to lead a team and share her experience."

Anquan curled his lip and glanced at Chen Fan disdainfully. "Hmph, there are some things I don't need to say, but you know them yourself."

Chen Fan's eyes widened. "Just say what you have to say. I hate people who only say half of what they mean."

Anquan tossed his cigarette butt aside and said, "I'm not telling you, figure it out yourself."

(End of this chapter)