Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 387 Wait for the wind to come

After leaving the police station by the same route, Chen Fan walked through the streets and alleys until he was far away from the area and sure no one had noticed him. Only then did he remove the mask from his face, put all his belongings into his cloth bag, and leave only a little change in his pocket for his bus fare and meal later.

At this point, he was no longer in a hurry. Looking at the sky gradually turning white in the east, he calmly walked back.

These days, there are only a few standard sizes for registration photos, the most common being the small one-inch headshot.

The kind with a wavy border is a headshot, while the kind without a headshot is called a bareheaded photo. Moreover, they are only available in black and white, with no color, and even the colors of the clothes are not obvious. The styles are all the same, and when the photos of the same person are placed side by side, it is almost impossible to tell whether they were taken recently or several years ago.

Both the document and the photos Chen Fan took were of this specification.

He also used the guesthouse's nail file to lightly smooth the surface, and then polished the wooden tabletop to fade the scratches, giving it a sense of time.

If a few months pass, and the photos are compressed by a pile of damp paper, even a detective wouldn't be able to tell whether they're genuinely old or artificially aged.

Besides, there aren't that many brilliant detectives. Which police station doesn't have dusty case files? Not to mention missing person files that aren't even considered cases, so there's no need to worry about being discovered.

As for information from other places, according to the information recorded in the table, there can only be one student record at the school.

However, these days, all the student records in Yunhu area are handwritten and do not have photos attached, so they can be completely ignored.

He silently reviewed everything in his mind, making sure nothing was missed, and his steps became even lighter.

Seeing the blank expressions on the faces of the early risers, Chen Fan quickly adjusted himself, walking among the crowd with a mix of annoyance, sleepiness, and agitation, without appearing out of place at all.

Before long, the early morning bus was already on its way, and he took the bus to the passenger terminal. He first had a delicious breakfast, and then sat down on the steps below the terminal.

After waiting for more than half an hour, several ferries that had docked in the early morning arrived and departed before the small boat from Lujiawan finally broke through the morning breeze on the river and slowly approached the shore.

Today, Secretary Yang and his team brought another six loads of gifts.

Actually, these things, which look like two full baskets, aren't worth much. The most expensive items are probably the big white goose and a few animal skins, along with some chickens and ducks, but all of them together cost less than 20 yuan.

Secretary Yang was reluctant to stay at the prefectural committee's guesthouse, which cost only two yuan a night, but he was very generous with the gifts he gave to the partner organizations. He gave six loads yesterday and six loads today, which amounted to 240 yuan. He just gave them away as he pleased.

Looking at all these things and recalling his experience from yesterday evening, Chen Fan felt a chill run down his spine. "Secretary, I'm afraid these things won't fit on the bus!"

Secretary Yang calmly waved his hand, "Don't worry, I've already made arrangements for today."

With a casual wave of his hand, five transport team members appeared before him; they were today's "porters."

As for the last porter, it was naturally Comrade Zhang Wenliang, the transport team leader!

With his hands on his hips, Secretary Yang commanded confidently, "Just tell them how to get on the bus and where to get off, and they'll carry their loads over. It's so early in the morning, how could they not squeeze onto the bus? They can wait there first, and we'll follow behind!"

Chen Fan chuckled dryly. If we're going by the latest possible date, then "later" probably means evening, right?

However, he had no other good ideas. He couldn't possibly carry the loads himself on the cart the whole time. Even if people could stand it, the chickens, ducks, and geese couldn't.

So he pointed out the route to each of them, and after they got on the bus, he set off with Secretary Yang and the last porter.

Accompanied by Chen Fan, they spent a day visiting all the hospitals directly under the Health Department and the only health school.

With Sister Zhou's help and Chen Fan's influence, everything went smoothly.

After visiting the last place, Secretary Yang let out a long sigh of relief and said to Chen Fan with emotion, "I'm already exhausted just from coming here to sign a contract today. You've worked so hard these past two days at the prefectural committee. You must be very tired."

Chen Fan chuckled twice and said, "This can't possibly be as hard as the double harvest?"

Upon hearing this, everyone exchanged glances and burst into laughter.

Once the laughter subsided, Secretary Yang waved his hand and said, "The matter is settled, we must celebrate! Xiao Chen, you're familiar with the prefectural committee, you'll handle the local arrangements!"

Chen Fan's eyes lit up. "Wow, the Party Secretary is being so generous today?"

Secretary Yang chuckled and said, "It's not that I'm stingy, it's just that every penny we earn belongs to the collective. We were elected by the members to do things, so of course we have to live up to their contributions."

He waved his hand and said, "But today is different. You are all heroes, especially you, Xiao Chen. Without you, I would never have dared to dream of opening a shop in the prefectural committee, let alone so many shops. No doubt, we must reward you properly today."

Chen Fan immediately rubbed his hands together and said with a smile, "Then, Secretary, how about going to the Workers and Peasants Restaurant?"

"Gongnong Restaurant?"

Upon hearing this, Secretary Yang thought the name sounded good and suggested it was a place that was close to the people, so he smiled and nodded, "Okay, then let's go with the Gongnong Restaurant."

Upon hearing this, Chen Fan couldn't control his emotions any longer; his eyebrows and mouth twitched wildly, and his facial features looked like they were about to fall apart.

Seeing his appearance, Secretary Yang felt a little uneasy and asked timidly, "Wait, wait a minute, what kind of place is that Gongnong Restaurant?"

Before Chen Fan could speak, Zhang Wenliang suppressed a laugh and explained, "The Gongnong Restaurant is the former Wangjiang Tower!"

The last time Chen Fan treated someone to dinner, the two of them spent more than 6 yuan, which he still remembers vividly!

Secretary Yang nearly coughed up blood. His eyes widened in shock, and he exclaimed, "Wangjiang Tower?"

He's not some young man born after the founding of the People's Republic of China; his eldest daughter is already 24. How could she be young?
I've heard of the fame of Wangjiang Tower countless times before. Is that a place he can go?

Thinking of this, Secretary Yang glared at Chen Fan with annoyance, "Can't you be a little more sensible?"

Chen Fan couldn't help but laugh a few times. Seeing that Secretary Yang's face was getting darker and darker, he quickly said, "If we want to save money, there's only one place left."

Secretary Yang, "Where?"

Ye Shubao: "It's not some small noodle shop, is it?"

Anquan chuckled and said, "I can accept a noodle shop, or even a cafeteria."

Zhang Wenliang: "Where are you going to find a cafeteria now? Just now at school, the principal invited us to eat at the cafeteria, but you didn't go."

Secretary Yang turned around and glared at him. "We're the ones asking for favors now. How can we accept being treated to something by others?"

After saying that, he turned to look at Chen Fan and asked, "Where did you say it was?"

Then he quickly added, "I hope... we can forget about the Workers' and Peasants' Restaurant, and we don't want any places that are too expensive either."

Chen Fan chuckled and said, "It's not expensive, and it's delicious. It's just that if you want to go there, it's a bit far to go back and forth. Why don't we let the boat go back first and then come to pick you up tomorrow morning?"

Secretary Yang was slightly taken aback. "Delicious and inexpensive, where?"

Chen Fan: "The canteen at the Health Department's guesthouse."

Anquan and Zhang Wenliang clapped their hands in unison, "That's a great place!"

When they came to edit a book last time, they ate in the cafeteria several times, and the head chef's skills were indeed excellent.

Moreover, Chen Fan had taught them how to cook turtle dishes. If he were to bring people over, wouldn't the head chef bring out his best culinary skills to entertain them?!
Secretary Yang looked at them, then at Chen Fan, hesitated for two seconds, and said through gritted teeth, "Alright, we'll spend the night at the prefectural committee."

Before Zhang Wenliang and An Quan could cheer with joy, Secretary Yang pointed at them and said, "The five of us can take a triple room. We're all grown men, so it'll be warmer if we squeeze in."

Zhang Wenliang looked up at the sunset in the west and wondered to himself, "Does the weather even need to get warm?"
But he didn't dare to say it.

……

An hour later, in the health department's canteen, only Chen Fan and his group were at their table.

When they returned, the cafeteria was about to close, but Teacher Chen intervened, and even though the head chef hadn't finished get off work yet, he rushed back after work to prepare a delicious meal for them.

Today, Secretary Yang and his group were in particularly high spirits, not because the restaurant only charged a small fee for materials, but also because the sideline business in Lujiawan had achieved a great start.

Secretary Yang raised his glass and clinked it with Chen Fan's, grinning as he said, "We've only been open for three days, but we're already selling over 8000 yuan a day. Plus, we've delivered goods to more than a dozen units in the county and prefectural committees. Our team's savings have already exceeded 30,000 yuan."

He held up three fingers and waved them around in front of everyone, but the smile on his face gradually disappeared. "3 yuan, let alone holding it in my hand, I never even dared to dream of it before."

He then clinked glasses with Chen Fan, saying, "You brought all of this upon us, so I must toast you."

Chen Fan waved his hand and chuckled softly, "Please don't say that. I don't have that much ability myself."

He looked at Ye Shubao and An Quan, then turned back to them, saying, “Take this seedling for example. I couldn’t handle it. If it weren’t for Captain Ye and Brother An’s help, it would have taken at least half a year longer to develop the current scale of breeding. And the veterinarians of each team worked hard to prevent and treat diseases. Every member of the breeding team also worked from dawn till dusk. This is a collective achievement, and it can’t be attributed to me alone.”

As Secretary Yang listened to his words, he pursed his lips, raised his hand to pat his shoulder, and said with a smile, "Your Uncle Yang is uneducated and doesn't know how to speak, but he is as clear-headed as a mirror. The credit definitely belongs to the collective, but without your advice and the way you used your personal connections to pave the way for the collective, our collective strength would not have been able to be brought into play. This glass of wine must be toasted to you."

He drank it all in one gulp as soon as he finished speaking.

Chen Fan smiled helplessly and could only raise his glass, "Together, together."

Everyone raised their glasses in a toast before quieting down.

After taking a couple of bites of food, Chen Fan looked at Ye Shubao and asked, "Captain Ye, how's the seedling procurement going for expanding the breeding scale?"

Upon hearing this, Ye Shubao suddenly lost his appetite and shook his head with a wry smile, saying, "It's tough. Now, several brigades in Ganjiacun are also starting to raise livestock and are looking for seedlings everywhere, but we can't get any."

"We're doing the hatching ourselves. The chickens, ducks, and geese we raised have only just started laying eggs, and not all of them will hatch. From selecting the eggs to the final hatching, it'll probably take at least a month."

He paused for a moment, then laughed and said, "However, with the supplies raised by their four brigades, and with our own considerable stock, there shouldn't be any problem ensuring a reliable supply."

Furthermore, raising fewer livestock means less feed is needed. In short, let's take it slow. What we've earned so far is something we never even dared to dream of before.

The others looked at each other and chuckled.

Chen Fan lowered his head and thought for a moment before saying, "Raising livestock is indeed very profitable, and selling cooked food is even more profitable, but the technical requirements are still too low."

He raised his head and smiled, looking at the crowd that had turned their attention to him, and said, "Look, this year four production teams are going to start raising livestock. Next year, people from Qingshan Commune, Yangshan Commune, and even other counties like Shuanghe County will probably rush to join in."

After all, there are no barriers to entry in animal husbandry. The biggest constraint in the past was feed. Now, many people have heard about our practice of raising earthworms to feed chickens. As long as you are willing to ask around or consult the animal husbandry bureau, it is not difficult to understand the ins and outs.

"By then, there will be more and more farmers, even if they don't raise as many as we do, just double or triple the number compared to before. You should understand what the consequences will be, right?"

While the others were still exchanging bewildered glances, Anquan blurted out, "Lower the price!"

Chen Fan nodded and said, "Although the price is set by the higher-level unit, the higher-level unit also adjusts the price according to the market supply and demand relationship."

Back when pork was at its peak, it cost 50 or 60 cents a pound, and at its most scarce, it reached 1.5 or 1.6 yuan. Nothing is absolute. If we only focus on making thousands of yuan a day…

At this point, he turned to look at Secretary Yang and smiled, "These few thousand yuan haven't even factored in the costs, have they?"

Secretary Yang's expression darkened slightly, and he shook his head. "It hasn't been calculated yet."

Chen Fan smiled. "This is it."

He looked at everyone and continued, "If we don't make any further plans, once the price of meat drops, the price of cooked food will have to follow suit. At that time, our income will plummet. Even if the shipment volume remains the same, it's hard to say whether our sales revenue will be half of what it is now."

Not to mention that people are prone to getting tired of the same old thing and will get bored with eating the same thing too often. Also, not everyone has the money to buy things every day. Unless we can expand our sales channels, our sales volume will definitely decrease.

Even if we can stabilize our shipments by opening up new channels, we are still actually losing money.

Because the investment in labor and feed remains the same, but the unit price has decreased. Now, a chicken can earn 3 or 5 yuan, but in the future, it may only earn 2 yuan or even less.

For example, raising 10 chickens now requires this much cost and can earn 50 yuan. But raising 10 chickens in the future will only earn 30 yuan. If you want to earn 50 yuan, you need to raise more chickens, which will increase the input cost.

So, while it may appear that profits haven't decreased, the actual loss is.

After he finished speaking, everyone fell silent again.

After a long while, Secretary Yang said, "To use an old saying, we can't rest on our laurels and get complacent, otherwise we'll fall behind sooner or later."

Chen Fan nodded. "More or less."

Secretary Yang looked at him and said, "I think I understand what you're saying. I just want to ask if you have any solutions?"

Chen Fan: "There are solutions, of course, but they require certain conditions and the right timing."

He turned to look at everyone and said with a smile, "Actually, our side business has only just begun. It will be at least six months before the poultry and livestock of those four brigades are put on the market in large numbers. And if we wait for the production teams in other places to take action, it will probably be the end of next year."

Furthermore, not all production teams have the courage to develop sideline businesses, or they may only follow the trend on a small scale. Therefore, the possibility of price reductions in the short term is unlikely.

He paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "The reason I'm saying this is to remind you not to invest too much in breeding, to the point of putting all your capital into it."

The best approach is to prepare for both possibilities: on one hand, maintain the current scale and expand appropriately; on the other hand, explore other avenues for development, see what else we can do besides farming, and then how to do it.

He turned to look at Secretary Yang, "This is the solution I was talking about."

Of course there are solutions. The simplest one is to develop light industrial factories that produce food and other agricultural products. This would not only increase the added value of agricultural products but also allow them to be sold nationwide or even exported.

But we can't say yet; we have to wait until the wind picks up.

Secretary Yang pondered for a few seconds, then turned to Ye Shubao and said softly, "Old Ye, let's both think this over carefully. When we get back, let's call Old Zhang and Old Xiao together for a meeting to discuss it properly."

Ye Shubao naturally agreed without hesitation, saying, "Okay."

He paused for two seconds, looked at Chen Fan, and smiled, "Your method is too vague. Do you have a more specific one?"

Chen Fan grinned. "Yes, there is. You see, more and more people are raising chickens in the future. Could we set up a hatchery? And feed, we could also set up a feed mill."

Back then, with more livestock being raised, the demand for feed also increased. We didn't have the money to buy it before, but there's no such thing as raising livestock without investment. It's just that we didn't spend money on our costs, while they didn't, so they had to spend money to buy it.

Besides this, you can also increase the types of animals you raise.

For example, raising quail or Angora rabbits. Actually, the rabbit breeds we're raising now aren't very good, and they're difficult to raise. Later, when we have more savings, we can buy high-quality rabbit breeds from other places, and the same goes for other breeds.

He picked up his wine glass, swirled it, and laughed, "Anyway, it all boils down to one thing: as long as you don't lose your mind, there's always a way out. The worst thing is to rest on your laurels and keep going down a dead-end road."

In this environment, the only option left is to experiment with different farming methods.

Secretary Yang nodded. "Yes, I understand."

He raised his glass and clinked it with Chen Fan's again, saying, "Now that you've used up all the connections you have, you've opened up a new situation for the production team, and we can finally rest assured."

I can't trouble you with anything else, so please rest and observe.

He pointed at Zhang Wenliang and said, "We've discussed it. We'll have him take a few eloquent people to other counties and other units to do business. Regardless of the results, we have to learn to walk on our own. We can't rely on you for everything. Otherwise, what kind of people are we?"

Chen Fan looked at Zhang Wenliang and chuckled, "Brother Sanhu, feeling the pressure?"

Since he already has a base of support, he would naturally be eager to extricate himself if he could.

Zhang Wenliang shook his head and grinned, "Speaking of pressure, there is definitely pressure. Every trip you take costs money. Since we're spending public funds, how can we not achieve something?"
However, I wouldn't say I'm under a lot of pressure, because I never intended to compare myself to you. If I did, I'd have to throw myself into the fire.

As soon as he said that, the room burst into laughter.

After the laughter subsided, Zhang Wenliang continued, "Anyway, that's how it is. Although I'm not sure, someone has to do it. Besides, I've been with you and Brother An a few times, so I'm not unfamiliar with how to talk to people or deal with them. I guess I'm the only one in the whole production team who can do it. I'm just the best of a bad bunch, so I'll just have to bite the bullet and do it."

Chen Fan raised his glass and stood up. "Then I wish you great success!"

Perfect timing. After this trip, he didn't want to continue running around doing business. He had been exhausted for several days and it was time to go back and rest.

At this point, Secretary Yang said to him, "Is everything here finished? Will you come back with us tomorrow morning?"

Chen Fan shook his head. "It's not working yet."

He then smiled helplessly, "To open a shop, we need to go through the procedures with the district food company and the commerce bureau. Without their approval, our shop can't open."

Upon hearing this, Secretary Yang's expression changed slightly. "Oh, I had forgotten about that."

He quickly asked, "This shouldn't be too difficult, right?"

Chen Fan smiled and said, "With the example of Gufeng County and the influence of the Health Department, there shouldn't be any problem."

It's not uncommon for production teams to open shops, but most are concentrated in the commune, and they rarely even go to the county. Lujiawan is probably the first place to open a shop in the prefectural committee.

However, with the health department's influence, he felt that the problem shouldn't be too serious.

(End of this chapter)