Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 333, let's wait until the end of the year.
The continuous plum rains seem endless.

It's not that it's going to rain continuously; if it did, not only would the ground be unable to bear it, but even God would be unable to bear it.

It would roughly be a cycle of rain, then a break, then rain for two, three, four, or five days in a row, then a short break of one or two days, continuing intermittently for about a month.

If the rainfall exceeds a month and is also excessive, the area is highly likely to experience severe flooding this year. If the rainfall is less than a month and is also insufficient, drought is possible.

It has lasted exactly one month since the first plum rain season began.

Taking advantage of this relatively free time, whenever the weather cleared up, Chen Fan did something he had wanted to do for a long time: brewing wine!
It's already late June, mid-May in the lunar calendar, and today is the 6th time we've boiled the pot.

In other words, it was sunny only 6 times this month.

In the open space in front of Chen Fanxin's house, two large pots were set up. One pot contained sorghum, and the other contained boiling water. After boiling, the water was ladled into a large water vat next to it to cool.

Of the miscellaneous grains we received from the brigade headquarters before, only this little bit of sorghum remains.

Chen Fan had thoroughly mastered the brewing process and techniques. Not only that, Huang Ying and the other three were also very familiar with the brewing process.

So he pulled up a chair and sat under the long covered walkway, crossed his legs, and looked at the large stove over there in the distance.

The main problem is that the weather is getting hot now, and it's uncomfortable to be too close to the stove.

Inside the covered corridors on either side of it, with the main gate at the center, there are six large vats, each one meter high, on each side, for a total of twelve.

Eleven of them were his previous brews, which were left to ferment, while the last empty vat was prepared for this pot of sorghum.

He was holding a small teapot, taking sips of water every now and then. At his feet, Duoduo and Qiuqiu were playing and frolicking. Not far in front of him, two little lambs were hopping and skipping, and a little pony was running around happily.

The foal has grown quite a bit taller, with a shoulder height of nearly 1.3 meters. It is estimated that its height will reach 1.65 meters when it grows up, making it quite tall.

The mare was resting in the stable. Without her mother by her side, the foal ran around freely and always liked to go near the stove. After looking at it for a while, she would run back, and then she couldn't help but go back again. She was even more mischievous than Duoduo and Qiuqiu.

The giant panda, Gun Gun, leaned back in the chair where Chen Fan was sitting, letting him stroke its head while constantly stroking bamboo, completely ignoring the two babies on the grass mat next to it who hadn't opened their eyes yet and were crying out with their mouths open.

The panda cub is 36 days old. You can see that its eyes have been punched. Its body has grown to more than 20 centimeters. Unfortunately, its fur is still relatively sparse, and you can clearly see its pink flesh.

The most outrageous thing is that, even though it's grown so big, more than a month has passed and it still hasn't opened its eyes.

Chen Fan has extensive experience in breeding and veterinary medicine, but he still doesn't know when these two little guys will be able to open their eyes and see the world. He can't help but wonder how long it will take for them to grow into their full size.
Huang Ying walked over with the scale rod, first pinching the baby's chubby cheek, "Eat, eat, eat, all you know is eating, you don't even care if the baby is hungry or not."

The little glutton remained motionless, eating its bamboo without a care in the world, its two little eyes fixed on her, wondering what this person was up to now.
Huang Ying scooped up the long piece and placed it on the scale, deftly adjusting the weight. "Hmm, two jin and four liang."

Chen Fan nodded slightly. 1.2 kilograms, not bad.

After placing Changchang back on the straw mat, Huang Ying picked up Shuishui again, saying, "This one is a bit heavier, two pounds and nine ounces."

Chen Fan looked at the chubby Shui Shui and couldn't help but grin. It was almost three pounds already, definitely a big fat boy.

After Huang Ying put Shui Shui down and took the scale into the house to make records, Jiang Lili came over again, picked up a panda cub and put it in Gun Gun's arms.

Gun Gun instantly understood, threw down the bamboo, rolled over and lay on the ground, letting Jiang Lili pick up the other baby and put it on her belly, letting them eat their buffet without moving.

Yang Ju and Liu Dan stood not far from the stove. Seeing that the fire in the makeshift earthen stove had shrunk a bit, Yang Ju turned to Chen Fan and asked, "Teacher Chen, should we add more firewood?"

Chen Fan smelled the aroma and said loudly, "No need, it should be fully cooked by now, but just to be safe, let it sit for a little while longer."

The two women breathed a sigh of relief, and then happy smiles appeared on their faces.

After learning pottery making and cooking, I've now learned winemaking. That's wonderful!
Staying close to Teacher Chen is like staying close to a great treasure; you never know what treasure you might find.

This is brewing wine!
The commune only has so many people. People can buy pottery and use it forever, but who knows when they might not be able to sell it anymore. Learning cooking skills doesn't necessarily mean they can make money, unless they can get a job in a state-run restaurant, or become a traveling potter like Liu Jujiang. But who would hire a few young women like them?

But alcohol is different. As long as people drink, there's no fear of it not selling. As long as the alcohol tastes good, no one will care who brewed it.

Old Tang from Team 7 became a well-known "rich household" because he knew how to brew wine. Every year, he earned more money from brewing wine than he earned work points from working.

He doesn't take on apprentices. Whenever he brews wine, he locks himself in his backyard and at most lets his two sons help. He values ​​his craft more than anything else.

Through a month of learning, they have all mastered the basics of brewing, and even several different kinds of wine. As long as the final product is good, they are much better than Lao Tang.

This one gain alone makes staying at the educated youth settlement worthwhile.

Thinking of this, the two of them looked at Chen Fan simultaneously, silently thinking, "If we could win over Teacher Chen, that would be..."

Then the two looked at each other again, and simultaneously forced fake smiles on their faces.

She silently thought to herself: How fake! Teacher Chen definitely doesn't like her!

After a while, Chen Fan put down the teapot, got up and went to the stove to begin the next step of his work.

Spread the sorghum out to cool, then mix in the yeast and put it into a vat...

After going through the entire process, the four girls were already drenched in sweat.

Chen Fan?

Since they wanted to learn how to brew wine, they definitely had to do it themselves. Watching ten times is not as good as doing it once. Chen Fan guided them from the side and let them learn to their heart's content. He was giving them a chance.

After putting the lid on the last water vat, Huang Ying let out a long breath, wiped the sweat from her brow with her sleeve, turned to Chen Fan, and asked, "Teacher Chen, when can we drink this wine?"

Chen Fan hummed twice and laughed, "The yellow wine will be ready to be made next month, but it's best to let it age in the cellar for a while. The white wine is still a long way off. The white wine needs to ferment for more than three months, and then it needs to be stored in jars. If you want to drink these wines, wait until the end of the year."

Some baijiu only needs a few days of fermentation before it can be distilled, but the recipe in Chen Fan's hand requires fermentation for more than 3 months.

The final distillation, however, will only take a few hours; let's just wait and see.

Hearing this, the four girls couldn't help but feel disappointed. Yang Ju let out a weak "Ah," leaned against a pillar, and groaned, "We have to wait until the end of the year?!"

Huang Ying's eyes darted around slightly. "Wouldn't it be a huge loss if we brewed wine and sold it?"

"What losses?"

Chen Fan pointed to the row of 12 large vats, "If it weren't for the rain, this much wine could be brewed in a week. After the final distillation is completed in more than three months, the yellow wine won't even need distillation and can be sold to the public. How long can one vat of wine last? Half a month or a month? Isn't that enough time for you to be idle?"

Yang Ju suddenly realized, "That makes sense. Brewing wine doesn't take much time, and it can be done at night. No wonder they said that Master Tang from Team 7 almost never misses a day of work; he's basically making a fortune."

The other three nodded slightly.

They also discovered that brewing wine had an advantage over making pottery. Making pottery required making clay blanks, which could delay work, but brewing wine did not.

Chen Fan smiled, stretched, and waved to them, "There's still some unused boiled water in the water tank, go and get some water to wash up."

The four girls glanced at each other's disheveled appearance, their pretty faces immediately turning red, and they quickly ran away laughing.

Just as Chen Fan was about to go inside, a voice suddenly called out from afar, "Is Teacher Chen home?"

Upon hearing the sound, he immediately strode out.

The continuous rain had already soaked the soil, especially since this was newly excavated soil, making it muddy and difficult to walk on.

Chen Fan walked steadily, but when he reached the bottom of the slope, he saw Master Wang and the others wearing rain boots and wooden clogs, their feet covered in mud as they climbed up.

Behind them were several mule carts.

This is furniture being delivered to Chen Fan.

A month ago, Master Wang was tasked with making furniture for him. Now, a month later, thanks to the joint efforts of several carpenters from Team 4, all the furniture has been completed.

Several batches have been delivered before; today's is the last batch.

Chen Fan greeted everyone first, then quickly went over to help push the carts. After pulling several carts up the hill, he took out a cigarette and offered it to everyone. Then he said to Master Wang, "Why did you come here today when the weather just cleared up? You could have come a few days later when the road was dry."

Master Wang waved his hand and laughed, "I'm not waiting anymore. The rainy season is probably over soon. Once it's over, it will be the busiest time for our construction team. Let's finish your work here first so that I can focus on my work at the company."

What could Chen Fan say? He could only clasp his hands in thanks and say, "Thank you for your hard work."

Since they were all old acquaintances, Master Wang didn't stand on ceremony with him anymore. He waved his hand and said, "Hurry up and move everything. After you're done, you can have dinner with Teacher Chen tonight."

Chen Fan immediately burst into laughter, "This isn't freeloading. We have to treat you. It's just that the food isn't very good, so please don't mind."

An old craftsman, with his hands behind his back, carried a large sofa inside, a cigarette dangling from his mouth. As he stepped onto the covered walkway, he swung off his muddy wooden clogs and walked barefoot up the steps, laughing as he said, "If the food in your house isn't good, then there's no good food in the whole of Lujiawan."

Chen Fan looked helpless. "Why didn't you just take off your shoes and walk in? You can just sweep later."

As a result, no one paid attention to him.

It wasn't that people were giving him special treatment; it was just that when people here went to someone's house on a rainy day, they had to scrape the mud off the soles of their shoes before entering, so as not to bring mud into the house.

His place looked clean and tidy, and since he was carrying heavy furniture, he simply kicked off his shoes and went inside.

After a few people made two trips, all the furniture was carried in, and then the final assembly was completed, and all the furniture upstairs and downstairs was in place.

These furniture pieces are made of camphor and cedar wood, the most common woods in Lujiawan. Although the workmanship is not too fancy, they are all made of solid materials, each one heavier than the last. The entire piece is constructed using mortise and tenon joints, without a single nail.

After finishing, first sand it smooth so that there are no burrs on the surface of the wood. Then brush two layers of homemade pure tung oil to make the surface of the furniture shiny and bright, which looks very comfortable.

If it is a mixture of tung oil, it will have a very strong pungent odor, and the chemical components in it will also be slightly toxic. Pure boiled tung oil, on the other hand, will not. Unless you have a particularly sensitive sense of smell, you will be able to smell a slight odor, but it is not pungent and is not harmful.

Master Wang had previously mentioned that he used a mixture of boiled tung oil for furniture made for outsiders because it was slightly cheaper, and the effect was the same once the smell dissipated. However, for the furniture he made for Chen Fan, he used pure boiled tung oil, which had almost no smell.

With the last chair assembled, Master Wang put away his tools, pointed to the various pieces of furniture in the living room, and smiled at Chen Fan, "Take a look, does it meet the requirements?"

Without saying a word, Chen Fan gave a thumbs up, "Absolutely no doubt about it."

Master Wang immediately threw his head back and laughed heartily, and the other masters also had smiles on their faces, seemingly very happy to have gained Chen Fan's approval.

Chen Fan pointed to the sofa and smiled at everyone, "Masters, don't stand, sit down, I'll go ask them to pour tea."

As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Lili came in carrying a teapot, followed by Liu Dan carrying a stack of teacups, Huang Ying carrying two boxes filled with melon seeds, peanuts and candies, and Yang Ju walking at the back carrying a large plate containing washed tomatoes and cucumbers.

Many hands make light work, and in no time the tea was poured and the fruit platter was set out.

Master Wang gave Chen Fan a thumbs up, "These girls have learned to be polite and well-mannered from you. They'll definitely have no trouble finding husbands in the future."

Upon hearing this, Huang Ying and the other three blushed slightly and ran out with light steps.

Chen Fan sat on the sofa, looked at their backs, and said, "Don't be shy, help yourselves."

He paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "I don't have any fruit here, but I happen to have some fresh vegetables, so I'll use these two instead."

One person immediately laughed and said, "These two things are considered fruit in our rural area."

He picked up a tomato, brought it to his mouth, and took a bite.

Chen Fan laughed twice, then turned to Master Wang and said with a smile, "Huang Zhihao and Wang Chunling in your team are also very good; they've made rapid progress in their studies."

Upon hearing this, Master Wang burst into laughter, "Isn't that what I learned from you?"

Huang Zhihao was the veterinarian of Team 4, but unfortunately he couldn't beat Yang Zhijun and the others in the exam, so he could only be the veterinarian of a small team. Wang Chunling was a girl in the cram school and was now learning junior high school math and science from Chen Fan. Moreover, she was Master Wang's niece, so he was naturally happy to hear that.

Wishing everyone a Happy Chinese New Year, good health, peace, and all the best! May the Year of the Dragon bring you great fortune!!!
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(End of this chapter)