Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 4: The person is at 77, do not disturb.

A moment later, the girl came over, placed the ceramic bowl that smelled strongly of Chinese medicine on the table, and said in a low voice with her head down, "This is your medicine."

Chen Fan looked at her, then at the medicine, and inexplicably had a feeling of "Brother, it's time to take your medicine."

Seeing that Chen Fan didn't move, the girl explained in a low voice, "This was prescribed for you by Dr. Zhang from the team. He said that you had cold in your body and you had to take the medicine. You had a high fever last night, and it was this medicine that brought the fever down."

Chen Fan realized what was happening and replied, "Oh, thank you."

He picked up the bowl and took a sip. The temperature was just right; it had obviously been cooled in the kitchen before being brought over. He was a thoughtful person.

He then closed his eyes and gulped it down in one go.

After drinking it, the expression on his face was completely unrecognizable, and a bitter feeling rose straight up from his stomach.

Seeing the girl pick up the bowl to leave, he quickly asked, "Hello, may I ask your name?"

The girl stopped and lowered her head, saying, "My name is Jiang Lili, the Jiang as in ginger. You can call me Xiao Jiang."

She looks like a pretty girl. Although she's a bit thin, she doesn't have to be looking down all the time, does she?

Chen Fan smiled, suppressing his bitterness, and put on a kind smile. Then, mimicking the tone of a character from a period drama, he asked, "Hello, Comrade Jiang Lili, I would like to ask if there is a calendar here? I would like to check the time and see if I can remember anything."

Jiang Lili glanced at him, then lowered her head again. "Yes, I'll go get it for you."

With that said, he walked out.

She returned less than two minutes later, handing him a calendar with a section torn off, her face flushed, and said, "The earlier ones have all been torn off; today's is the earliest one."

Chen Fan said "thank you," took it, and stared blankly at it.

January 20, 1977, the second day of the twelfth lunar month, the Great Cold.

So, I'm at 77?

What does 77 mean?
The lively sports meet has just ended, and a great era is about to begin. It is a critical period where the winds of change are shifting from east to west and from north to south.

However, the aftershocks of the Games were still lingering, the warm spring breeze had not yet arrived, and the general public's living habits and mindset were not much different from those of the previous ten years. Therefore, it was also an era in which people had to hunch their shoulders and try their best to survive.

In daily life, you need tickets to buy things, and even with tickets, you might not be able to buy anything. Going out requires a letter of introduction, but even with that, you can't go just anywhere; you can only go for the purposes specified in the letter…

Chen Fan sat blankly in the chair, his mind a complete mess, unaware that Jiang Lili had quietly left.

Even when he heard someone calling him, he only replied with one sentence.
Ignore me.

……

On the other side, Captain Yang relayed Officer Zhu's analysis to the other two leaders in the team, and also shared his own thoughts:

“My guess is pretty much the same as what Officer Zhu said. This kid is a bit tall, but he looks about 15 or 6 years old. He also looks gentle and kind, so he's probably not a bad person. It's fate that we met him. As the old saying goes, if you're going to help someone, help them all the way. So, let's arrange for him to stay at the educated youth station for now. His food rations will be paid from the team's account first. We'll make up the difference later when we find the person in charge. What do you think?”

Accountant Liu glanced at custodian Huang and said, "I have no objection."

The custodian, Huang, glared at him. "Why are you looking at me like that? It's a life at stake, how could I possibly have a problem with that?"

Accountant Liu scoffed, "With your penny-pinching nature, taking a single cent from you is like a death sentence to you normally. Now that there's an extra person's food ration, aren't you going to hang yourself?" The storekeeper, Huang, glared, "What do you mean 'a death sentence'? That's public money! Not a single penny can be wrong. Everyone trusts me to manage the accounts, so I have to be responsible to the end. But for expenses that are reasonable and agreed upon by everyone, have I ever shortchanged anyone by a single cent?!"

Captain Yang tapped the table with his pipe, acting as peacemaker for the nth time, "Alright, alright, you two always argue whenever you meet, what's the point of arguing?"

He paused for a moment, then said, "Since you all agree, let's settle it like this for now. Okay, you can express your opinions later."

Accountant Liu and warehouse keeper Huang looked at him together, "What does this mean?"

Captain Yang took out another wad of tobacco to fill the gap, sighed and said, "This kid only has three pieces of clothing on him, one of which is shorts, and he's still wearing Yang Jihong's jacket. The quilt on the bed is also one I brought from home. It was refurbished two months ago, and the quilt cover and bottom are made of new cloth, so I gave it to him. I'll find him a new pair of shoes later."

He then looked up at the two who were pretending to be dead with their heads down, and asked, "What, don't you understand what I'm saying?"

There was a reason why he asked these two to contribute together: the production team leader would receive 300 work points annually, the accountant and storekeeper would each receive 280 work points, and the work recorder would receive 200 work points.

Although this year's harvest was bountiful and everyone's life has improved a lot, these things should not be paid for by the people. As the team's cadres, we should show our style and do our part when it is necessary.

Besides, if we can find the person, maybe they can even get some money back!
Accountant Liu glanced at Warehouse Keeper Huang, straightened up and coughed lightly, "Well, he's almost 1.8 meters tall, and I don't have any clothes that fit his size at home."

The warehouse keeper gritted his teeth, raised his head and said, "There are still more than two pounds of cotton left from the summer distribution. I'll take out half of it, and take apart two old clothes to make him a new cotton-padded jacket, cotton-padded trousers and a pair of cotton-padded shoes."

Accountant Liu looked at him in surprise, "Wow, even an iron tree can bloom?!"

The custodian rolled his eyes. "I've said it eight hundred times. I'm being careful with money, not stingy."

Now that both giants have gone all out, Accountant Liu felt like he was being roasted over a fire. After hesitating for two seconds, he gritted his teeth and said, "Fine, I'll get him a couple of sets of clothes no matter what."

The custodian, Mr. Huang, looked at him with a half-smile, "Don't just patch things up one after another."

Accountant Liu glared at him resentfully. "I'll go to the commune to buy cloth and have my wife make him new clothes!"

If this miser hadn't suddenly plucked his feathers, he wouldn't have had to suffer such a huge loss. He could have just found some old clothes to make do, instead of making it seem like he was giving his daughter a dowry. What a rip-off!

Captain Yang continued to smooth things over, "Ahem, there's no need to buy new cloth. Just see if you have any suitable old clothes at home, take them apart, boil them, and piece them together; that should be usable."

Hearing him say that, Accountant Liu's expression softened slightly, and she said, "Then let's make one set and alter another, and have an exchange."

He then smiled at Captain Yang and said, "It's all thanks to your effective leadership this year that the team has had a bumper harvest. Each work is worth 6 cents, which is enough to make us have some extra money. If it were like Ganjiacun, where each work is only worth 5 cents, we wouldn't even be able to earn enough to buy cloth or food."

Captain Yang, however, showed no smugness. He waved his hand and said, "Ganjia Village was also flooded, and a lot of land was submerged. Otherwise, we could still earn three or four cents per workday. Let's keep this to ourselves behind closed doors and not mention it outside."

Accountant Liu nodded repeatedly and said with a smile, "Of course I know that, I'm not stupid."

The warehouse keeper, Huang, smiled mysteriously across from me. "Aren't you stupid? You're going to buy fabric just because I provoked you? Who's stupid if not you?"
Captain Yang stood up and waved his hand, "That's settled then. Let's go talk to that kid."

The three of them went to Chen Fan's room. When they entered, they saw that the child looked like he had lost his soul. He couldn't even see them come in and just sat there in a daze.

Captain Yang looked around, then leaned closer to Chen Fan and whispered, "Chen... Chen Fan?"

Chen Fan's eyes were unfocused, and he didn't even look at him. He simply said, "Ignore me."

(End of this chapter)