Traveling back to 1977

You'll understand by Chapter 340, right?
After he was ready, he heard hurried footsteps outside the courtyard wall.

Chen Fan hurried to the gate and saw people coming up from the fields on the country road. They looked like they had just come from the battlefield, their feet covered in mud, taking one step at a time, and their faces and bodies showing visible fatigue.

After most of the group had left, he finally saw Jiang Lili and the other three.

Instead of greeting him, he turned and went into the courtyard.

As Jiang Lili and the other three entered the courtyard, Chen Fan brought over two buckets of warm water. "Come on, wash your hands and feet first, then you can eat. I've boiled some hot water for you. After you finish eating, wash up, change your clothes, and then get a good night's sleep."

The four girls looked at the dining table set with food in the yard and the hot water in front of them, and couldn't help but exchange glances, feeling that most of their fatigue had disappeared instantly.

After washing their faces, hands, and feet, the four girls quickly cleaned themselves up.

But it's only clean on the surface. If you look closely, you can see scattered mud spots in their hair, under their fingernails, and on their clothes.

They weren't wearing shoes either; they came in barefoot to sit and eat.

Chen Fan first ladled a bowl of porridge for each of them, saying, "Moisten your throats first, otherwise you won't be able to eat."

Jiang Lili picked up her chopsticks, held the large rice bowl, looked up at him, smiled, and said, "Thank you."

Chen Fan sat down as well, chuckling, "You guys cook for me every day, and I haven't even said thank you. Now you're the heroes of this labor, what's a meal for me?"

The four girls looked at each other again before picking up their bowls to eat, though they all had smiles on their faces as they ate.

Chef Chen's cooking today was indeed very appetizing. At first, they didn't have much of an appetite, but after drinking a bowl of warm porridge and eating a few bites of small fish with pepper paste, their appetites were immediately whetted. Each of them ate two large bowls of rice, and they finished off all of Chen Fan's dishes, as well as most of a steamer of rice.

Chen Fan could only eat two bowls of rice with the vegetable soup, secretly calling them heroines!
After finishing her meal, Jiang Lili stood up to clear the dishes.

Chen Fan immediately shouted, "Put it down!"

Jiang Lili, who had already moved, and Huang Ying, who was about to move, all stared intently at him.

What's wrong? You won't let me work?
Chen Fan pointed to each of them, "You don't need to do any cooking or washing dishes these next few days."

Then he pointed to the kitchen and said, “Go, there are two big pots of hot water in the pot. Go and take a bath, and then get a good night’s sleep. Otherwise you won’t be able to handle it this afternoon.”

Seeing that they didn't move, Chen Fan's face hardened and his eyes widened. "What, does my word no longer carry weight?!"

Jiang Lili looked at him, then at the others, pursed her lips, and gently put down the bowl.

Huang Ying coughed lightly, stood up and walked towards the kitchen, "Then I'll go wash first."

Chen Fan pointed behind him, "Don't worry about who goes first or last. You can take two showers in the toilet and two showers in the room. Don't delay anyone."

The four girls blushed and carried buckets to fetch water.

After washing up and changing into clean clothes, they finally looked somewhat clean.

The sunburn on my hands and face won't go back to normal anytime soon.

Not only can you not go back, but the color from sunburn will also get darker and darker until it scars over, peels, and new skin grows.

Jiang Lili used to have the fairest skin, but after just one morning, her face turned red from the sun. The other three, needless to say, were turning from wheat-colored to dark brown, showing just how scorching the sun was.

Inside the house, the straw and cotton quilts that were used for winter on the bamboo bed had long been removed, leaving only a mosquito net covering the bamboo bed.

At this moment, the mosquito net was rolled up to the top for ventilation. They disregarded Chen Fan and opened all four windows and doors in the room to allow the air to circulate as much as possible.

Despite this, the four sleeping people still had a layer of fine sweat on their foreheads and kept turning over, looking for a cooler place on the narrow bamboo bed.

Chen Fan was helpless about this. He wanted to buy an electric fan, but he hadn't expected this to happen at the prefectural committee's health department last time. Among the tickets Yan Liyuan gave him, there were tickets for the three turns and one radio, but not for an electric fan. He could only sigh in vain.

Actually, no one cares about anything at this time. When they come back, there are ready-made meals to eat, warm water to wash up, and bamboo beds to sleep on.

Most ordinary commune members' families, regardless of age or gender, would simply find a piece of plastic sheet or a straw mat, lay it on the ground, and sleep relying on the cool air from the ground.

Everyone knows that sleeping on the ground and getting chilled can make them sick, but there's no other way. If they didn't do it this way, many of them would be too hot to sleep.

The morning was mainly for harvesting and bundling, but in the afternoon, sorting the rice was the real "main event"!
The heavy ears of grain weighed down on his shoulders, much heavier than a bucket of water. While carrying water only required a few loads to fill the water vat, carrying ears of grain was an endless task that continued until nightfall.

Carrying the ears of grain from the field to the threshing ground and stacking them into haystacks is both physically demanding and technically challenging. If you don't get a good rest at noon, you won't have the energy in the afternoon, which will affect the progress of the double harvest and would be disastrous.

……

At 2 p.m., the loudspeaker blared again ahead of time, and the faint sound of gongs could be heard from the village ahead of the team, signaling the start of the afternoon's event.

Jiang Lili woke up with a start, propped herself up on the bed and sat up, feeling a wave of soreness all over her body.

Huang Ying and the others were not much different; they got up at almost the same time.

Their reactions weren't much better than Jiang Lili's.

Even people who are used to doing farm work find it difficult to adapt when they suddenly participate in the double harvest season.

But you have to adapt, even if you can't. And this kind of heavy physical labor will last for more than half a month. It only takes three to five days. No matter what kind of person you are, you can adapt to this kind of labor!
Just as they were getting ready to go out to work, Yang Ju suddenly exclaimed, "Oh dear, I forgot to sharpen the sickle!"

The other three looked at each other in bewilderment.

During the double harvest season, the sickle suffers a lot of wear and tear, and it usually needs to be sharpened twice a day, once in the morning and once at noon.

Or you could grind it the night before and then grind it again the next day at noon.

Only by sharpening the sickle can harvesting be more convenient and faster; otherwise, the sickle will not be able to cut the straw, resulting in lower efficiency and sometimes even injury.

The harder it is to cut, the more force you use. If you use too much force, it becomes difficult to control the sickle. If the straw is suddenly cut, the sickle will cut you.

Everywhere, during the double harvest season each year, there are people who get cut by sickles, without exception!

Jiang Lili let out a breath, rubbed her face, and got up to walk outside. "Go and grind it a few times now."

Huang Ying nodded and stood up. "Yes, yes, Teacher Chen said that even last-minute sharpening can be better than no sharpening at all."

After they ran out in a panic, they saw Chen Fan coming over carrying four sickles, then handing them to them upside down, saying, "Here, the sickles are all sharpened. Be careful when you use them." Huh?

The four people carefully took the sickle. Yang Ju held it up to her eyes and looked at it with surprise. "The blade is so sharp!"

Huang Ying couldn't help but nod, "It looks very fast."

Liu Dan's eyes were filled with amazement, "Even better than my dad's!"

Jiang Lili looked at Chen Fan and asked, "How come you're so good at sharpening knives?"

Chen Fan shrugged, looking completely nonchalant. "I can even forge a knife, so sharpening it is nothing!"

The four then remembered that he had even made two knives himself and knew how to do blacksmithing, so sharpening knives seemed insignificant.

Having obtained the "treasured sword" sharpened by Chen Fan, the four hurriedly headed to the fields.

The afternoon double rush begins!
Chen Fan had been painting all morning, so he didn't think about going over there.

He first went to the panda enclosure, opened the gate, and carried in the bamboo piled up at the entrance—a gift from some unknown team. Then, he kicked two dogs aside and pointed at them, yelling, "I told you not to come! Why did you still come? If you come, the foals will come too; if the foals come, the sheep will come too. Is this still a panda enclosure? It might as well become a zoo! Get out here and squat outside right now!"

Duoduo and Qiuqiu could only obediently run to the middle of the field and sit there, their tails wagging and their ears drooping down, showing that they were in a very bad mood.

Chen Fan ignored them and dragged all the bamboo into the panda enclosure. He pushed away the panda that pounced on him and said, "Alright, alright, I know you've been hungry all morning. I was just busy. It's okay if you go hungry for half a day. It will also make you remember to cherish food more. Be careful. From now on, the meal delivery time will be changed from morning to noon. Remember to save some food for yourself."

Then, amidst the rolling, mournful gazes, they went out and locked the courtyard gate.

Chen Fan strode towards the new house, glancing at the two dogs as he passed by. "Alright, stop drooping your ears, come in."

Duo Duo and Qiu Qiu immediately followed behind him, wagging their tails.

After busying himself in the house, Chen Fan returned to the educated youth compound, put his backpack on, put the fruits of his labor from the morning in the bag, and rode his little mare to the brigade headquarters.

We arrived at the brigade headquarters shortly after. I glanced inside and saw no one in the office.
After thinking for a moment, he went to the central courtyard office, which he had hardly ever been to before. It was where Zhang Wenliang, the security director, and Yang Xingxiu, the women's director, worked. The accountant and the custodian also occupied a room there, but they rarely came over. They would only come over to work when someone called them, and they rarely went into the office. They would just handle things directly.

However, there was no one here.

It's normal that Zhang Wenliang and Zhang Juemin are still out giving "lectures" and not here, so Yang Xingxiu has also gone to the fields today?

Chen Fan scratched his head, then turned and walked towards the backyard.

Despite being drenched in sweat from the heat, Zhang Cuie diligently and meticulously read the news reports from the radio station on the second floor of the backyard.

Note: She wrote this herself!

Chen Fan stood at the door and waited for her to finish reading a manuscript before gently knocking on the door.

Zhang Cuie turned her head, and when she saw it was him, she was overjoyed and wanted to call out to him.

Chen Fan quickly made a shushing gesture, and Zhang Cuie immediately covered her mouth. She looked at the still-on microphone and broke out in a cold sweat.

That was close! It almost caused a broadcasting accident!
Blushing, she turned off the microphone and then turned on the gramophone, playing the stirring "New Battlefield Song".

Then she stood up and ran to Chen Fan, saying, "Teacher, you're here!"

Chen Fan smiled and nodded, then asked, "Do you know where Secretary Yang and the others went?"

Zhang Cuie nodded first, then shook her head. "Everyone from the brigade headquarters has gone to the fields. I'm the only one who has to stay in the broadcasting room to do the broadcasting work. As for which squad I went to, I don't know."

Hearing this answer, Chen Fan was not surprised and immediately nodded, "Okay, you continue to hold on. I will write an article and give it to Secretary Yang later so that he can contact the commune and mail an official letter in the name of the production team to 'Jiangnan Literature'."

Zhang Cuie's eyes lit up. "You're going to write an article? Is it about the double harvest season?"

Chen Fan walked in with a smile, pulled out a chair and sat down. He first put his bag aside, then took out paper and pen from the drawer and said with a smile, "You'll know when I'm done writing."

He paused for a moment, then turned to look at Zhang Cuie and said with a smile, "Or, you can watch me write it."

Zhang Cuie naturally chose to watch, immediately nodding repeatedly and obediently standing aside, even unconsciously softening her breathing.

Chen Fan had already prepared a draft in his mind, and then he picked up his pen and began to write.

Zhang Cuie stood aside watching. At first, she just thought the teacher wrote well, but before she knew it, she was completely absorbed. When she came to her senses, her eyes widened in surprise.

The teacher writes way too fast!
And doesn't he need to think about it?

Writing an article requires a lot of hard work, including deep thought and research, and it takes a lot of effort to finally squeeze out a few hundred words.

Then look at the teacher, oh my god!
With beautiful cursive script, she could write two lines in no time, and then a whole page in a few more strokes.

In just over half an hour, he wrote seven or eight pages?
Was it seven or eight pages again?

Chen Fan wrote the last sentence on the manuscript paper: "When the bugle sounded in the afternoon, our 'female warriors' woke up from their sleep. Without even wiping the sweat from their foreheads, they picked up their sharpened sickles and charged back to the 'battlefield'."

This year... no, every year's harvest, every grain of rice, bears the sweat they shed.

They are building our motherland with their hard work, and the prosperity and strength of our motherland will surely remember their sweat.

After finishing writing, Chen Fan folded the manuscript paper, turned around and handed it to Zhang Cuie, saying seriously, "When Secretary Yang returns, give it to him as soon as possible. Remember, deliver it as soon as possible."

Zhang Cuie took it with both hands and nodded vigorously, "Yes, yes, I will definitely remember."

She paused for a moment, then asked curiously, "Why send it in the name of the production team? Wouldn't it be the same if you sent it yourself?"

Chen Fan put away the paper and pen, and said, "Because sending official letters is faster. If I send them myself, the magazine won't reply until the end of the month, by which time the harvest season will be almost over, so what's the point?"

Zhang Cuie was taken aback and asked in a low voice, "Teacher, what are you going to do?"

Chen Fan smiled slightly, "Nothing much, just wanted to get a few electric fan tickets."

As he said this, he was inwardly apprehensive. "I've written it so directly in my novel. Surely the leaders of the Jiangnan Literature and Art Editorial Department don't misunderstand?"
(End of this chapter)