Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 297 The character cannot be destroyed

August 16th, the 29th day of the 3th lunar month.

Everything is auspicious, and there are no taboos.

Chen Fan rode his horse past the field, with two dogs chasing each other ahead. The foal played happily with them. A falcon flew overhead, startling a flock of sparrows, which scattered and fled in all directions.

The women were pulling weeds in the field when someone heard the noise, looked up, lifted their straw hat, and shouted, "Teacher Chen is going to work!"

Chen Fan waved with a smile, "It's been almost half a month since I last went to work. If I don't go back soon, I'm afraid I'll lose my job."

He's been busy building houses lately, and Zhang Cuie has been running the radio station. She does the work, but Chen Fan gets the work points. Even a hands-off manager isn't as comfortable as him.

No sooner had he finished speaking than a burst of laughter erupted from the surrounding area.

"Who would dare fire you?"

“It would be ridiculous if Xiao’e drove away the master before she had even finished her apprenticeship, and the young master couldn’t take over.”

"You think the young apprentice can't take over? If you want to kick Teacher Chen out, Xiao'e will be the first to object."

“It’s not just Xiao’e who wouldn’t agree; no girl in the family would agree. There are so many people who have their eyes on Teacher Chen.”

"Hey, Teacher Chen, which girl from Lujiawan have you taken a fancy to?"

As the teasing remarks came over, Chen Fan realized he shouldn't have made those jokes.

When it comes to divergent thinking, these aunties are natural geniuses!

Riding on his tall horse, Chen Fan decisively changed the subject, pointing to a rice paddy not far away, "The rice seedlings over there seem to be much taller, are they using different fertilizers?"

The place he was referring to was the educated youth field where Jiang Lili and the others were working.

Upon hearing Chen Fan's words, Jiang Lili and the others straightened up and looked up at him.

On the other side, someone replied to him, "That's the educated youth field. The rice seedlings there are much taller. They use the same fertilizer, but the rice variety is different; that's hybrid rice."

Someone immediately chimed in, "This hybrid rice looks different; the stalks are much taller."

"I didn't want to plant hybrid rice before, but now that I look at it, it's growing quite well."

"I just don't know how well it will produce ears of grain; I hope it won't be a hollow stalk."

"It'll be almost done. In a few more days, when the ears of rice sprout, we'll be able to tell how many empty husks there are. If there aren't many, planting this variety is much more cost-effective than planting the original rice variety."

Hearing the voice in his ear, Chen Fan couldn't help but smile slightly.

Of course he knew it was hybrid rice; he was just trying to change the subject.

However, seeing that the villagers are gradually accepting hybrid rice makes me very happy.

Hybrid rice is a watershed moment in my country's agriculture. Before that, even with favorable weather and a bumper harvest, it was only possible to barely guarantee "food and clothing security." With high-yield hybrid rice, not only has grain production increased, but animal husbandry has also developed tremendously, making it truly possible to "get rich through agriculture."

Chen Fan looked up at the educated youth field and saw Jiang Lili in the rice paddy also looking in his direction. He couldn't help but grin and was about to speak when he saw a row of carts turn around from behind a small earthen mound not far away.

Chen Fan looked around carefully, then spurred his horse forward. When he got closer, he reined in his horse and looked at the rapeseed piled up on the cart. He couldn't help but be surprised, "Are the rapeseed already ripe?"

He hasn't had enough of the rapeseed flowers yet.

Jiangnan Province is one of the key rapeseed oil producing areas in the country, and almost every production team in the province grows rapeseed.

Unlike the vast rapeseed fields of later generations, agricultural technology at this time was relatively backward. The conflict between rapeseed and rice crop rotation was not resolved, and the technology of "rice-rapeseed rotation" was naturally not developed.

To ensure a bumper harvest, under the policy of "grain priority", the best paddy fields are planned to be used for rice cultivation, while slightly less desirable flat dry land is used to grow a small amount of wheat and rapeseed, and even more barren land is used to grow miscellaneous grains.

Lujiawan has more paddy fields and less dry land, so naturally not much rapeseed is grown there.

If you were in the neighboring Qingshan Commune, you could see vast fields of rapeseed flowers. Every year, Qingshan Commune was responsible for most of the rapeseed production quota for Gufeng County, while other communes only needed to divide up the remaining quota.

Such a small task could be completed in just a few dozen acres of rapeseed fields. Any surplus was naturally distributed by the production team. Most of the rapeseed harvested from the "wasteland" that was not included in the statistics was distributed to the commune members.

Therefore, in this area, the rations of grain and oil for rural residents are higher than those for urban residents, and by several times.

If it weren't for the extremely low prices of grain and the excessively high prices of industrial products, the standard of living here could easily have risen two levels.

Jiang Lili had told him before that many educated youth families didn't buy meat and fish for the New Year; they just relied on the cured meat and fish distributed by the production team to the educated youth, and they were still able to have a good New Year.

Perhaps this is why the people who have lived here for generations have not been very ambitious, and things have remained largely unchanged for more than a decade after the reform and opening up. It wasn't until the 90s, when they saw others making money by working away from home, and their original mud-brick houses being replaced by brick and tile houses and old bungalows being replaced by apartment buildings, that a "migrant worker boom" suddenly began.

Back then, this "land of fish and rice" was only supported by a few elderly people, but even so, they were able to ensure that they could complete the annual grain delivery task, which shows how prosperous this land was.

Chen Fan shook his head, pulled himself out of his thoughts, and looked at the rapeseed again. Each seed was plump and firm, clearly top-quality rapeseed.

The first vehicle was pulled by Captain Yang. When he saw Chen Fan, he pulled the cart to the side of the road to let the vehicles behind pass first. Then he took off his straw hat to fan himself and said loudly, "This is winter rapeseed. It was planted in winter and will be harvested around this time. This batch matured earlier than others. There will be several more batches later. It is estimated that all the rapeseed will be harvested before the double harvest."

Chen Fan had already dismounted, took out a cigarette and offered it to him, lighting it for him. Then, looking puzzled, he said, "I feel like the rapeseed has only just begun to bloom, why are we harvesting it already?"

Upon hearing this, Captain Yang laughed and coughed several times. Pointing at him, he laughed and said, "You're just like those educated youth who just came to the countryside. You don't know the timing of the seasons and live your life in a daze. You only realize you've harvested rapeseed when you finally get to eat oil."

Chen Fan coughed twice. "I call this focusing on the big picture and letting go of the small details. I only need to focus on the main issues, such as when to breed, transplant, and harvest the rice. Everything else is unimportant."

"unimportant?"

Captain Yang glanced at him sideways, "It's not important, so you don't eat oily food?!"

Chen Fan chuckled dryly, "It's not important, it's not like I don't want it."

He then threw the cigarette butt into the ditch, hopped on his horse, and said, "You go about your business, I'm going to work."

After saying that, he spurred his horse and rode off, leaving Captain Yang shaking his head and laughing.

Riding his horse, kicking up dust as he arrived at Team 5, some elderly people who hadn't gone to work immediately came out of their homes and shouted to Chen Fan, "Teacher Chen, you're here for work!"

Chen Fan was exasperated. "I skipped work for half a month, is there really any need to publicize that?" Fortunately, not everyone seemed to care whether he went to work or not. Just then, an older woman humbly asked, "Mr. Chen, how much did it cost to build your house?"

finally come!

Chen Fan immediately drew his sword and stood on his horse. The mare reared up, kicked out with her two front legs, and let out a neigh.

He had been considering this question for ten days and was ready to give what he considered the most appropriate answer.

He rode on his horse, with a flower-shaped pistol he had won from Zhang Wenliang on his right hip and a PPK he had bought himself on his left. Hanging on the saddle was a hundred-refined horizontal sword that he had made himself, with the hilt and scabbard made from a single piece of wood, which looked like a wooden stick from a distance.

The mare landed on the ground, and Chen Fan struck his coolest pose while uttering his most pathetic words, "Sigh..."

Before he could finish speaking, he let out a long sigh, "You have no idea, I've lost a lot of money building this house!"

Before he finished speaking, a dozen or so women and elderly people had already gathered around, looking at him curiously.

The older woman immediately pressed on, "A huge loss? What do you mean?"

Surrounded by so many people, Chen Fan couldn't stay on his horse any longer, so he dismounted and immediately began to exaggerate, "Putting everything else aside, just the blue bricks alone have used up all the bricks I've saved up over the past few months, totaling more than 4 bricks. And these bricks were made by me slowly firing them myself. If I had bought them from a brickyard, they would have cost more than 1200 yuan each! And that's based on the price of red bricks. I wonder how much a single blue brick costs."

These words immediately sparked a flurry of discussion among those around them.

"Wow, more than 1200? That's enough to build three large brick houses."

"That's right. A brick house with a main hall and four wings only costs about 1000 yuan, even including labor costs and banquets. That's more than that."

"Not only that, we can also add a set of top-quality furniture, with 48 legs!"

A piece of furniture usually has 4 legs. If there are 48 legs, that's 12 pieces of furniture. That's for a wealthy family!

Hearing the aunties' chatter, Chen Fan's lips curled up slightly, then quickly turned down, and he continued with a bitter face, "That's right, and you can't build a house with just bricks. I bought 20 bags of cement and several bundles of steel bars for building precast slabs. I only got this because of a favor from An cadre."

The cadre from An said that this was the only time he'd used up all his face, and he had no more to spare, so I shouldn't contact him again.

These words immediately dispelled the idea of ​​some people wanting to ask Chen Fan to help them buy steel bars and cement.

As for asking Chen Fan to burn bricks?

Who the hell has such an idea?!
Teacher Chen is making bricks for his own house construction, not for his own use. Do you really think of him as a bricklayer?

Have you ever seen anyone sell a single brick?

In short, firing bricks was just a last resort for Teacher Chen to build the house. If you have money, you can buy bricks from the brick factory yourself. If you don't have money, you can find a way to fire them yourself. Firing bricks is not like firing pottery. As long as you don't fire them into black bricks that crumble when you squeeze them, you can fire red bricks after a few tries.

Even if red bricks are not as durable as blue bricks, how could you possibly bother Teacher Chen?
The older women were already feeling disheartened, while Teacher Chen continued to pour cold water on their hopes.

"If you hire a master craftsman from a construction team to build a house, the labor cost for a small brick house starts at 80. If you want to build a three-bedroom, two-living room house, or a four-bedroom, one-living room house, the minimum cost is 100."

Then there's the cost of meals, and we can't skimp on cigarettes and alcohol. We've invited our fellow villagers to help with the work, how could we mistreat them? Anyway, I spent over 1000 yuan on meals over those ten days.

Of course, my standards were a bit high, but the construction team's master craftsmen came to help for free, so how could I treat them unfairly? I simply used the labor costs for their meals. Even without that, and shortening the time by a few days, I figured it would still be at least two or three hundred yuan.

Then there's the lime plaster for the walls, the cement or fermented soil for the exterior walls, the rammed earth and floor tiles for the floor, the glass for the windows, the furniture inside and out, and then there's the kitchen and toilet, which are separate items..."

After some calculations, Chen Fan roughly estimated, "If it's based on the standard of my house, it should cost at least 4000 yuan."

4000?

Men and women, young and old, a dozen people stared at Chen Fan with wide eyes.

Are you sure you meant 4000?

Chen Fan immediately coughed and gave a final summary speech, "So, without the help of the villagers, the assistance of the cadres, and the generous help of the construction team members of Team 4, I definitely wouldn't have been able to build this house."

Even so, I've spent all the money I painstakingly saved, and I even owe the team and the brigade a lot of work points. I hope the work points will be worth a little more this year, so I can pay off my debts by the end of the year, otherwise…”

Chen Fan raised his head, his face contorted with sorrow and his phoenix eyes brimming with tears, "It'll be owed until next year!"

So miserable!

Amidst the sympathetic gazes of the villagers, Chen Fan led his horse, dejected, towards the brigade headquarters.

Only a few scattered rumors remain, and it's unknown how many days it will take to spread to the whole team or the commune.
……

"You really have no money?"

Ye Shubao and An Quan stared at him with wide eyes. How could Teacher Chen, who was known as the most adept at side businesses in Lujiawan, also have times when he was broke?
Chen Fan shifted into a more comfortable position, repeated what he had just said, then picked up his teacup, blew on it a few times to warm it, took a sip of tea, and then looked up with a bitter expression, saying, "Isn't that right? After building such a big house, how can we possibly have any money left over?"

As he spoke, he turned to look at Anquan, raised his chin, and said, "Brother An, you've seen the world. Tell me, how much will it cost to build my house?"

Safety isn't the one building the house, how would he know the inside story?

Let alone him, even the experienced construction workers wouldn't be able to estimate an accurate number without overseeing the entire process from start to finish.

However, the approximate range could still be calculated. After a safety assessment, he felt that Chen Fan's calculations were probably correct. He then looked completely at ease and said with a sigh, "Since ancient times, building houses has always been difficult for ordinary people..."

She looked up, her expression one of utter disappointment, and said, "You're all alone. Even if you get married and have kids, you won't need such a big house. Look, we've gone over budget! Why did you build such a big house in the first place?!"

The way he said that made it sound like he didn't know Chen Fan was going to build a large building.

Chen Fan raised his head, his face full of regret, "I was still too young and didn't think things through. I thought that with such a large plot of land, I should build such a big house. I miscalculated!"

Ye Shubao glanced at Chen Fan, then at Anquan, then back at Chen Fan, hesitated for a moment, and said, "How about we pay you in cash first for the rabbits you sold to the brigade?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Fan immediately waved his hand righteously and refused, "No need. We can't break the rules just because of one person. Everything should be done the same way. The whole brigade settles accounts at the end of the year. How can we make an exception for me?!"

Are you kidding me? I've worked so hard to build up my debt persona, and now you're going to give me a few hundred dollars in cash? That persona will just crumble!

That absolutely won't work.

(End of this chapter)