Traveling back to 1977

Is it you in Chapter 318?

Unable to refuse such hospitality, Jiang Tiantian had no choice but to accept the two ceramic vases.

The two then each took a sip of water from their water bottles and sat down on the pile of books to rest.

Chen Fan looked at her and smiled, "You came here specifically to help me move my books?"

Jiang Tiantian smiled and shook her head, saying softly, "I'm here to return your handkerchief."

Even though she was usually very poised and confident, she couldn't help but blush at this moment. This handkerchief was the one Chen Fan had used to wipe her tears when she had cried her eyes out yesterday, and bringing it up now naturally made her feel a little embarrassed.

She was about to take a handkerchief out of her bag when she suddenly remembered that her hands were covered in dust, and she felt embarrassed again.

The clean handkerchief is going to get dirty again?
Chen Fan glanced at her and saw that she had her hands raised. He immediately guessed why she had stopped and smiled, "It's okay, put it in your bag first, we'll talk about it later."

Jiang Tiantian blushed, but smiled calmly and said, "I'll wash my hands and give it to you later."

She paused, looked around, then looked at Chen Fan and asked in a low voice, "Yesterday, there were rats attacking people in the cotton mill dormitory area. Was it you?"

Chen Fan's eyes widened immediately. "Wow, I was working at Red Star Hospital back then, how could it be me?!"

His eyes were wide open, but his voice was very soft.

Jiang Tiantian smiled, pursing her lips, and looked at him intently. She said softly, "Lili mentioned in her letter that you keep a lot of animals, and they all listen to you."

Chen Fan still firmly denied it, "No, I only raised two horses, two sheep, two dogs, and one bird. The other two pigs and a flock of chickens were raised by Lili and the others. I didn't take care of them. Besides, I hate rats the most, so it's impossible for me to raise them."

Jiang Tiantian laughed, "There are also a lot of rabbits and a snake."

Chen Fan frowned. "Does it have to be written so clearly?"
Jiang Tiantian smiled, but stopped talking about the topic.

She had already gotten the answer from Chen Fan's expression. Although she didn't understand how he did it, there were countless strange people and events in the world. It was just about controlling animals, which wasn't too outrageous.

She took a deep breath and then said happily, "Yesterday afternoon, Sister Liu went to Old Li's house, and suddenly dozens of rats jumped out and scratched and bit them all over their bodies. I heard there were dozens of wounds."

If it were just a few wounds, we could just go to the factory clinic and apply some iodine to disinfect them. But there were too many wounds, so the clinic refused to admit them and told them to go to Hongxing Hospital.

Unexpectedly, Hongxing Hospital had strict management regulations. Seeing that they had been bitten and scratched by rats, and in such a serious condition, they immediately activated the infectious disease prevention and control procedures.

Chen Fan pursed his lips and nodded with a sigh, "I didn't expect that either!"

Then he coughed lightly, looked at her, and asked, "What happened to them afterward?"

Jiang Tiantian suddenly couldn't help but laugh out loud, "Hehehe, you just said you work at Hongxing Hospital, so you must have seen them, right?"

Chen Fan coughed again. "As a doctor, of course I have to strictly abide by the health and epidemic prevention regulations, so I evacuated immediately. I don't know what happened after that."

Jiang Tiantian stared at him intently and smiled, "Later, a lot happened. Besides the two of them, all the people who took them to the hospital were also quarantined by the hospital. In addition, people from the health and epidemic prevention center went to disinfect the dormitory area, and they also went to that room to check the cause."

The cause of the theft is still under investigation, but during the search of the house, several high-quality steel parts that had been stolen from the cotton mill some time ago were found in Lao Li's house. These parts were all steel and of high value. The theft had been reported to the police, so the police went to the hospital to question Lao Li that same day. Lao Li confessed without hesitation, admitting that he had stolen them to sell for money.

Moreover, he was running a high fever and was somewhat delirious at the time, answering almost any question he was asked. Under police questioning, he confessed to the crime of accidentally killing his wife after they argued following his theft.

At this point, Jiang Tiantian slowly exhaled a long breath, her gaze unfocused as she looked ahead, and murmured, "This morning, the hospital sent word that no plague virus has been detected yet. Once that person is cured, he will be transferred to the district public security bureau. Theft plus manslaughter—even if his father is the deputy director of the cotton mill, he won't be able to get out for several years."

Chen Fan was a little confused. Good heavens, he really only released the rats and did nothing else. How did this lead to so much trouble?
After a two-second pause, he asked curiously, "Since his father is the deputy director, why would he do something like this?"

Jiang Tiantian gave a cold laugh and said, "His father wasn't the deputy director before; he was just a team leader on a production line. He rose to his position overnight. He has a bad upbringing and has always been a petty thief since he was a child. He's universally hated in the cotton mill."

If it weren't for his father, he probably wouldn't have been able to find a wife. Later, after he got married, he moved to his old house in the staff dormitory area, whether because he got tired of being lectured or because his father kicked him out.

He was always extravagant, and everyone assumed the money came from his father, but little did they know, a leopard can't change its spots.

Upon hearing this, Chen Fan suddenly understood.

People like that have always existed, and they exist almost everywhere, so there's nothing strange about it. He was just unlucky to run into the line of fire.

After saying this, Jiang Tiantian turned to look at Chen Fan, pursed her lips, and said, "Thank you!"

Chen Fan chuckled dryly twice, but didn't say anything.

Jiang Tiantian didn't care whether he spoke or not. She turned to look at the piles of books and frowned slightly. "How are we going to move so many books?" Chen Fan stood up, stretched, and laughed. "Of course, we'll use a car to haul them away."

As the most sought-after employee in the health department, even with their dedicated tricycle, they still couldn't borrow a vehicle?!
He started walking out as he spoke, and Jiang Tiantian quickly grabbed her bag and followed behind.

When they arrived at the factory gate, Old Yang immediately walked over to him. "Comrade Chen, how's it going? Have you made your choice yet?"

Chen Fan smiled and said, "Master Yang, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. I've made my selections, they're all piled up over there."

Old Yang nodded, "Okay, I'll go take a look."

After a short while, Old Yang returned to the corner, looked at the three neatly stacked piles of books, silently made a rough calculation in his mind, then coughed and said, "These books are of varying quality, and many are almost rotten, so I can't really set a price for them."

Chen Fan quickly said, "It's alright, it's alright. Since I chose it, it will definitely be priced according to the price of used books."

Old Yang muttered to himself, "One cent a pound? That's not the price of used books!"
He coughed lightly and said, "Okay, I'll have someone pack these books into boxes for you first, and then we'll weigh them to see how heavy they are."

Chen Fan immediately nodded, "No problem."

There are nearly two thousand books in total. Textbooks for various majors in vocational schools and universities make up a small portion of them. If you include textbooks for primary and secondary schools, that's about half, or around 1000 books.

The remaining half consists of various professional materials and all sorts of "miscellaneous books" on literature, philosophy, history, geography, art, fairy tales, and so on. If you drag all these books back, you could actually build a small library.

Old Yang arranged for people to pack and weigh the books, then pulled Chen Fan aside and whispered, "Comrade Chen, I can tell you really love books. There's another batch of books in the warehouse, do you want them?"

Chen Fan was stunned for a moment, "Where?"

Old Yang waved to him, "Come with me."

Then she led him inside.

Jiang Tiantian stood to the side, thought for a moment, and then remained where she was.

Chen Fan followed Lao Yang into a small, windowless room at the far end of the warehouse. Only after Lao Yang turned on the light could he see the interior.

The room was about 30 square meters, filled with some miscellaneous items. Old Yang went straight to the back, moved a few chairs aside, and there were four large wooden crates at the bottom.

The box wasn't locked, so Lao Yang simply lifted the lid, revealing rows of books inside.

Chen Fan immediately took two steps forward, looked at the books in the box, and his eyes froze.

The two boxes contained ancient thread-bound books. With the little skill he had learned from Master Lu, he could tell at a glance that the top few books were Ming Dynasty woodblock prints.

This is good stuff!
Looking at the other two boxes, they were full of foreign language books.
At this moment, Old Yang walked to his side and said softly, "These books were salvaged bit by bit from countless piles of waste paper by my old leader. He himself was illiterate, but he greatly admired scholars. After saving these books, he kept them here, saying that he would wait until the storm passed and meet someone who truly loved books, and then he would give them to him, whether he sold them or gave them away."

Chen Fan blinked and asked, "From the time of the old customs?"

Old Yang nodded. "Yes, that's when it was."

He sighed and said, "So what if the old customs are broken? Why smash perfectly good things? Oh well, we don't know much about them anyway, but we'll do what we can."

Chen Fan pursed his lips and said to him, "Master Yang, since you brought me in, do you intend for me to take over these books?"

Old Yang grunted in agreement, bent down to pick up a book, and casually flipped through it. "Look," he said, "the riverside is very humid. Even with boxes stored there, quite a few have deteriorated over the years. If we keep leaving them there, they'll probably all spoil in no time."

He looked up at Chen Fan and smiled, "Over the years, there have been many people who come here to hunt for books, but they only take a few useful ones and leave the rest. It's rare for you to come and pick out thousands of books. I guess you're going to take them back and open a library?"

Chen Fan chuckled. "Pretty much."

"That's it."

Old Yang laughed and said, "I can see that you are also a book lover. We get along quite well, so I thought I'd give all these books to you."

He paused for a moment, then added, "Of course, it depends on whether you want it or not."

Chen Fan laughed heartily, "Yes, of course I want it!"

But in my heart I was thinking, thank goodness they gave me a pack of filtered magnolias, otherwise I would have missed out on these books.

(End of this chapter)