Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 489 Dividends
The people responsible for helping with odd jobs moved back and forth in the courtyard, removing cups and plates, wiping the tables clean, replacing them with several stacks of fruit platters, and providing each person with a cup of green tea, only one-third full.

Chen Fan glanced at the plate and saw that it contained sunflower seeds, peanuts, roasted soybeans, seasonal tangerines, dried red dates, candies, and locally produced green tea.

He suspected it might have been bought from Team 9, or maybe it was a gift.

The tea trees next to the new house were dug up by Captain Yang from Team 9 and brought to Lujiawan back then, but unfortunately they didn't grow well and he took them away.

He has already studied how to grow tea trees, and there should be a pleasant surprise next spring.

Chen Fan grabbed a handful of peanuts, placed them in front of him, peeled them, and drank tea, thoroughly enjoying himself.

Seeing that he didn't move, Yang Chuanfu didn't say anything more.

Anyway, Teacher Chen is rich and has a good relationship with Company Commander Zhang, so let's just have tea.

Before long, the newlyweds, led by Zhang Wenliang's parents, introduced themselves to the people at each table.

"This is my great-grandfather and great-grandmother, my second great-grandfather and great-grandmother... this is my eldest uncle and eldest aunt... this is my seventh aunt and eighth aunt..."

Although Yang Xingxiu already knew them all, Zhang Guangwen still introduced them all in a serious manner.

Besides relatives, there are also friends like the various squad leaders and Chen Fan.

After reading only the beginning, Chen Fan understood what "drinking tea" meant.

It's basically the bride serving tea to relatives and friends, and then the guests give her a "change of address fee".

This is actually a wedding tradition in the Yunhu area, but Chen Fan has never attended any weddings and is not very clear about it, only knowing some routine wedding procedures.

A short while later, they were moved to their table. Zhang Guangwen solemnly introduced, "From now on, you don't need to call me 'Captain' or anything like that in private. Just call me 'Uncle'..."

Before he could finish speaking, Chen Fan immediately waved his hand with a smile, "No need, no need to be so polite."

A burst of laughter erupted at the table. Zhang Wenliang pretended to glare at him fiercely, but his hands were quick. He picked up the teacup in front of Chen Fan, poured some water from the thermos to about two-thirds full, and then put it back.

Yang Xingxiu kept smiling and said, "Brother Xiao Fan, we should get closer in the future."

Chen Fan followed suit, picked up his teacup, took a sip, took out a dollar and put it in the tray she was holding, and nodded with a smile, "Hello, sister-in-law."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Wenliang immediately beamed with joy and smugly moved on to the next person.

After the tea ceremony, the wedding was officially concluded. The rest was a family matter, and the guests were free to leave.

At this moment, Zhang Wenliang walked over with a pack of Peony cigarettes and a red envelope and handed them to Chen Fan, saying, "Xiao Fan, you've worked hard today, take this."

Chen Fan didn't stand on ceremony; he tucked a cigarette under his arm and stuffed the red envelope into his pocket.

Then she grabbed his arm and whispered, "I advise you to be careful today."

Zhang Wenliang was somewhat confused. "What do you mean?"

Who tells the groom to be careful at their wedding?

Chen Fan looked around mysteriously. Not far away, Captain Yang and his group walked out with smiles on their faces, openly discussing with the others what kind of antics Teacher Chen was up to this time.

Once they were all a little further away, Chen Fan continued in a low voice, "I noticed you said the wrong thing several times today. Be careful, Xingxiu might not let you sleep in her bed tonight."

Zhang Wenliang blushed slightly at first, then feigned anger and kicked out, "Get lost."

Chen Fan ran outside laughing and joking. When he got to the car, he saw Captain Yang standing next to him, obviously waiting for him.

He waved from afar, "Captain, what's up?"

Yang Chuanfu hummed twice, "Yeah, all the team leaders rode in your car that day, except me. I'll ride in your car back today."

Chen Fan blinked. They're going to fight over this?

But he didn't care. Anyway, it's your daughter who'll be wiping the car when we get back, so let her sit if she wants.

He opened the car door, got in, tossed his cigarette onto the center console, started the engine, and slowly drove forward, asking, "Should we take the riverbank?"

Yang Chuanfu was both amused and exasperated, almost choking on a puff of smoke. "Why walk along the riverbank? Does oil come free? Just walk down below."

Chen Fan chuckled as he turned the steering wheel, "I just wanted you to experience it a little longer."

Yang Chuanfu: "You think this is a wedding procession, right?"

He paused, looking out the window at the houses slowly receding, then at the cigarettes on the console. "Company Commander Zhang is quite generous, using Peony cigarettes for a wedding. This is about the same level as the county magistrate's family. I thought he'd be lucky to buy Donghai cigarettes. Back then, everyone used economy cigarettes, which didn't require coupons. Where did he get so many Class B cigarette coupons?"

Chen Fan drove the car onto the path leading out of the village. "I gave it to you."

He had a lot of various kinds of coupons, including more than 20 cartons of Peony cigarette coupons. Most of them were "manuscript fees" given by Jiangnan Literature and Art Magazine before the restoration of manuscript fees, and a small part were given by Director Yang and Deputy Director Li of the Machinery Factory.

It's more than enough, it's simply not enough.

Upon hearing his words, Yang Chuanfu was speechless. Even the county magistrate's family couldn't produce that many votes all at once, unless it was the manager of the supply and marketing cooperative.

After several seconds, he nodded. "Only you have this ability now. Money is easy to make, but tickets are hard to come by."

He was stunned for a moment as soon as he finished speaking.

When do you feel like money is easy to make?

Oh, it's been since this little guy came.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but turn to look at Chen Fan, secretly sighing that he was lucky to have taken a closer look that day and found someone lying on the riverbank. He never expected to pull up a golden baby.

At this moment, Chen Fan turned to look at him and said, "Captain, when will our team receive its share of the profits?"

Yang Chuanfu snapped out of his daze and said, "Oh, we'll split it up tomorrow."

He paused for a moment, then asked with some confusion, "Your work points are in the brigade, not our team. Even if you get a salary at the pottery factory, it's settled with you on time every month. Profit sharing has nothing to do with you."

Just as Chen Fan was about to speak, he heard Captain Yang say, "Oh, you also have a 10 yuan bonus."

"what?"

Chen Fan was stunned for a moment, and couldn't help but look at him, "A 10 yuan bonus?"

what is that?
Seeing his confused expression, Yang Chuanfu laughed and said, "This is the year-end bonus that the pottery factory gives to its employees. It's 10 yuan per person, plus some New Year's gifts."

Chen Fan asked curiously, "Is it 10 yuan per person?"

Yang Chuanfu nodded, "It's 10 yuan each." He saw Chen Fan roll down the car window, and the smoke inside the car quickly dissipated. So he grabbed the crank handle on his own car door, applied a little force, and rolled down the window as well.

A cool breeze blew by, and I felt refreshed instantly.

He then stuck the cigarette out the window, quickly blew away the ash, pulled it back in, took a puff, and said, "This 10 yuan bonus is something every company gives. At the end of the year, companies give employees year-end benefits, regardless of whether the situation is good or bad, they will give some welfare items and a 10 yuan year-end bonus."

This year-end bonus is really just a formality; it's not much, less than half a month's salary, but it's not a small amount either. In some poor areas, production teams don't even receive this much in dividends throughout the year.

What truly reflects an organization's strength is its employee benefits.

As he spoke, he turned to look at Chen Fan and laughed, "Ju'er told me that you brought back the welfare goods from the machinery factory. A big bag of 50-jin rice, a barrel of lard, and lots of fruit and other things. Hehe, that's the strength of a big factory. This is something that can be seen in the entire Yunhu area!"

This is his thumbs up.

Chen Fan chuckled. "That's because the leaders are being kind to me. I reckon my share is special treatment; ordinary employees wouldn't get this much."

Yang Chuanfu nodded in realization, "I knew it. There are tens of thousands of employees in the machinery factory. If everyone were to meet this standard, even if they were not short of money, they wouldn't have anywhere to buy so much lard and fruit."

The car swayed forward and soon crossed the main road, passed a simple bridge made of precast concrete slabs, and entered the territory of Team 6.

Upon seeing the bridge, Chen Fan's smile widened even more. "Captain, when was this bridge replaced?"

Previously, this was just a wooden bridge made up of a few tree trunks, which could accommodate horse-drawn carriages, but was a bit precarious for cars.

He had just been thinking of taking the detour along the road next to the commune back to the village, but he never expected that after only a few days, the bridge would be replaced by a bridge made of precast reinforced concrete slabs.

The irrigation canal is about four or five meters wide, and the precast concrete slabs are naturally not that long, usually around two meters long. So, several bridge piers were built in the middle of the canal, and when cars drive over it, there is no swaying at all, it is very stable.

When Chen Fan asked about the bridge, Yang Chuanfu chuckled and said, "It wasn't long ago. Just a few days ago when you went to the provincial capital, all ten teams had running water. When we built the water tower, we had some leftover materials. Secretary Yang held a small meeting and decided to use these materials to replace all the wooden bridges on the irrigation canal. It was done in just a few days. You weren't there, so you didn't know. And I didn't even tell you about this little thing."

Chen Fan nodded. "It's good. The old wooden bridge would be washed away every few years. This brick-concrete bridge will last at least twenty or thirty years."

Yang Chuanfu laughed and said, "That's right. When we were building the bridge, we were saying that once we saved up enough money, we would repair the main road and make it a cement road, which would be even more impressive than the one in the commune."

The commune has two roads. One is Shengli Street, which runs north-south and was built with stone slabs during the Qing Dynasty. Fortunately, the bluestone slabs are sturdy, so although they are full of potholes, they are still relatively smooth. The other is Jianshe Road, which runs east-west. Only the section at the "town center" intersection is paved with cement. Further out, it becomes a road filled with stones and cinders.

If Lujiawan had the resources to build a cement road, it would definitely surpass all the communes.

However, cement is an important strategic material, and this is such a long road, almost longer than Shengli Street and Jianshe Road combined. Not to mention whether the commune would approve the application of Lujiawan Production Brigade, even if it did approve it, the county would definitely block it.

Are you kidding me? The conditions at the commune level haven't even improved yet, and your production team below you wants to catch up? What, trying to show off?
Soon they arrived at the village entrance on the back slope of Team 6. Chen Fan looked at Yang Chuanfu and said, "Captain, would you like to sit with me for a while?"

Yang Chuanfu waved his hand, "No, no, I drank a bit too much just now, I'm going back to get some sleep."

"That's fine."

Chen Fan didn't try to persuade him further and parked the car steadily at the intersection not far from the gate of the educated youth settlement.

Yang Chuanfu got out of the car and stood at the door, saying, "The profit distribution will still be at the same place tomorrow, the open space at the village entrance. If you want to watch the excitement, go ahead. Anyway, you won't get any of the profit distribution. All the fish, meat, and vegetables that are supposed to be distributed have already been given to you. You can only watch the excitement if you go."

Chen Fan picked up the pack of Peony cigarettes on the center console, opened it, took out two packs, and handed them over, smiling, "Captain, did Jiang Lili get any bonuses?"

Yang Chuanfu was taken aback for a moment, then immediately understood why he had asked that question. He had originally intended to be polite, but now he didn't bother with formalities and waved his hand without hesitation, "Give me another pack. Old Liu will do the accounting, Old Huang will keep the money, and I'll be responsible for dividing the profits. What's the point of only giving me two packs?"

Chen Fan laughed and immediately understood that Jiang Lili must have a share, so he decisively took out four more packs and handed them over, "We can't be stingy, those two packs are for you, and they each get two packs."

Yang Chuanfu put the cigarette in his pocket, closed the car door, waved, and turned to leave.

He sighed inwardly, thinking, "They've already accepted the dividends on my behalf, so there's no doubt they're in a committed relationship."

This is similar to the rule of collecting wages on behalf of others; apart from parents or spouses, there is no rule about collecting wages on behalf of others.

I never imagined that the six girls I arranged would be no match for Xiao Jiang. If I had known this would happen, I shouldn't have placed Xiao Chen at the educated youth settlement in the first place; I should have just taken her home!

Oh right, it seems there's no place for him to stay at home, so let's put him in the livestock shed so he can keep company with the cattle and horses.

They can't possibly lose to even oxen and horses, can they?

……

Early the next morning, at the village entrance, an eight-immortal table was set up in the cleaned livestock shed. Yang Chuanfu sat upright on a bench, with Huang, the storekeeper, and Liu, the accountant, on his left and right.

On the table were several bundles of banknotes. Both the custodian Huang and the accountant Liu had their ledgers in front of them, holding pens in their hands, with abacuses beside them, each standing at attention.

In front of the livestock shed, ten militiamen stood with rifles in hand, loaded and muzzles pointing skyward, ready to fire at any moment.

Behind Captain Yang, there were two militiamen carrying submachine guns, ready to fire at any time.

Ahem, don't get me wrong, the team's profit sharing wasn't like this before. It's just that we have more money this year!

(In 80, a production team distributed dividends, and the money was put into bags.)
Almost the entire team, young and old, men and women, were present on the huge field.

The old and the young alike couldn't help but drool as they looked at the banknotes on the table.

"That's a lot of money!"

"In the past, when dividends were distributed, custodian Huang would just put all the money into a paper bag, but this year he's stacking the Great Wall on the table! That's incredible!"

"I think besides the brigade headquarters, our Team 6 has the most money this year. Hey, have the other teams received theirs yet? How's the situation?"

"I haven't heard about it yet. Our team, Team 6, should be the first to receive the dividends."

"It's only natural that we have a lot of money. Other teams don't have our pottery factory and renovation team."

"Haha, these two teams really do make money. Although no one in my family works in the factory, we still get a share of the profits!"

"You're the ones who are making money. You have more than 10 people in your family. It's like a windfall."

……

Hearing the noise outside, Yang Chuanfu checked the time but remained seated.

Only when a commotion arose from the back of the crowd and he faintly heard someone calling for Teacher Chen did he cough and stand up.

The person standing in front saw his actions and immediately shut up, looking at him with hopeful eyes.

The noise from the front affected those behind, and the once bustling square quickly fell silent in just a few seconds.

Yang Chuanfu calmly picked up his teacup, took a sip of water, coughed twice, and shouted loudly, "Start distributing dividends now."

(End of this chapter)