Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 492 Building a House
January 28th, the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month, Saturday.

It seems like the days of the week have nothing to do with Chen Fan, since he doesn't go to work.

Although I'm not working, I'm not idle.

The earliest pottery kiln, located in the southwest corner of the small earthen slope, had not been used for firing pottery for a long time. Today, with a rare moment of leisure, Chen Fan cleaned up the kiln opening, made a batch of pottery, and waited by the side for the kiln to be opened.

At this moment, he was the only one in the huge farmhouse. He had forced Huang Ying and the other five girls to go on winter vacation.

The girls certainly wouldn't want to go back to their own homes. The food and lodging here are good. There's a radio, a phonograph, and a heated earthen bed to sleep on at night, which is much warmer than the cold beds at home.

Not to mention the charcoal stove for heating, Huang Ying and Yang Ju can make those themselves, but they use a lot of charcoal. There are four rooms in the house. Apart from the main room where the parents sleep, who decides which room to use the stove for heating and which not to?
So going home means nothing but sleeping in a cold bed and suffering.

However, it was not wrong for Teacher Chen to let them go home for the Chinese New Year. They could only come over every morning to do some housework, and at other times they stayed at home to help with various preparations for the New Year.

Then the problem is coming.

With so many people in the family, why do we need them to help out?
Of course it's because we don't have enough manpower!

Chen Fan sat on a homemade chair in the wasteland style... It was just a chair made of a few pieces of wood, stripped of bark, with a pile of straw on top, and it was all the same whether you sat on it or not.

The kiln was warm nearby, and even though the sky was gloomy and the north wind was howling, you couldn't feel much cold.

On the large earthen slope in front of the educated youth compound, rumbling sounds could be heard from the village from time to time.

That's a demolition!
Chen Fan pulled a pipe from his waist.

The cigarette holder was a piece of white jade, which he carved himself; the cigarette stem was a thin, oily yellow bamboo, which he had cut from the shovelful of grain. The bamboo was sturdy and well-proportioned, and after several months of maintenance, its original green color had faded, replaced by an oily yellow.

He made the pipe himself from a piece of copper, and the tobacco bag contained shredded Peony tobacco. This made filling the tobacco bag more complicated, but it also avoided the embarrassment of having tobacco all over your mouth when smoking.

perfect.

(It's this kind of cigarette holder)
He pinched a wad of tobacco into his pipe, took a couple of satisfying puffs, and just as he exhaled a plume of smoke, he saw Yang Ju jogging out from the corner of the educated youth compound wall.

Chen Fan leaned back in his chair without moving, watching her approach.

Yang Ju ran up to him, catching her breath, and said, "Teacher Chen, my dad wants you to come over for a moment."

Chen Fan slowly exhaled a puff of smoke before asking, "What's the problem?"

Yang Ju said with a bitter face, "There are a few parts of your drawing that the master chef doesn't understand."

Chen Fan wiped his face, stood up, pointed with his pipe, and said, "Lead the way."

Yang Ju's lips twitched slightly. These past two days, Teacher Chen had been listening to Peking Opera on the radio; he was probably a little addicted.

However, she dared not say that, and turned around and ran back.

Chen Fan held a pipe in one hand and put the other behind his back, imagining whether he was the divine constable Liu Jiyan or the Heavenly Mystery Elder. He definitely couldn't be Fan Liangji, mainly because their looks didn't match.

At the same time, he lightly tapped his feet, without his heels touching the ground, only using the balls of his feet to step, with a trembling and quivering motion that seemed slow but was actually fast. He followed the Eight-Step Cicada-Catching Step, and in just a few steps he caught up with Yang Ju, who was jogging, and quickly disappeared on the village road in her depressed gaze.

Yang's house is located on the hilltop of the village.

The original mud-brick houses have been leveled, and dozens of men, women, and children are helping to move the broken mud bricks. In a short time, a large area has been cleared.

Seeing Chen Fan approach, Yang Chuanfu, who was only wearing a thermal undershirt, quickly waved to him, "Come here, come here, how did you draw this structure?"

Chen Fan ignored him and walked directly to Wang Youhai, craning his neck to take a look. "Oh, this is how it is..."

After the explanation, Wang Youhai nodded, "I understand."

He then took out a cigarette and offered one to Chen Fan without saying much, before turning around and leading the two men to get to work.

Yang Chuanfu breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the problem was solved. He dusted off his hands, took out a cigarette, lit it on Chen Fan's pipe, and said with a strange look, "Why are you smoking a pipe too? You look like an old man."

Chen Fan took a sip and said, "Fun."

Yang Chuanfu was speechless and simply skipped the topic, saying, "Anyway, you have nothing to do at home, so you might as well come over and be my chief construction supervisor."

After finishing their official duties, the team members finally had time to think about their personal matters.

And right now, the biggest personal matter is undoubtedly building a house.

Today, apart from the five teams left behind by the Lu family, almost all the other teams in Lujiawan Brigade are mud-walled houses.

The reason I say "almost" is because Teacher Chen's two-story house is a "pseudo-mud-walled house." From the outside, it looks like just a two-story mud-walled house, but inside it is made of blue bricks that are even stronger than red bricks, and it also uses a lot of reinforced concrete. The floor slabs are also self-made precast slabs, which are very sturdy.

Because so many people were involved in the construction of this house, it naturally became the envy of every household in the entire brigade.

Of course, no one would do what Teacher Chen did: paint the exterior walls of a perfectly good brick house with mud and put on a thatched roof; that would be just crazy.

If we're going to build one, let's build a beautiful brick house, even more beautiful than the brigade headquarters!
More than a month ago, Chen Fan heard at the brigade headquarters that the villagers all wanted to build brick houses, so he spent several days drawing up many design plans for the village.

There is a layout map of all the houses in the village, as well as several house construction structure diagrams.

Now that all the official business at the brigade headquarters has been completed, and all the teams have finished distributing their dividends in the past two days, with money in their pockets and free time, they naturally want to hurry up and build new houses.

Some people are even thinking that if they can get one of the first batches, they might even have the chance to spend the Lunar New Year in their new house!

However, ideals are often grand, while reality is often harsh.

First of all, brick houses, especially multi-story buildings, cannot be built by just gathering a few people.

Secondly, even if there are enough people and everything goes smoothly, it will take at least a month, which is completely different from a mud-walled house.

If you build a house now, don't expect to spend the Lunar New Year in your new house.

Moreover, manpower is still a major problem.

Even though almost every able-bodied laborer in rural areas has participated in building new houses now, the houses built before were mostly mud-walled, which are very different from brick and tile houses. Not to mention that even when building mud-walled houses in the past, master craftsmen had to be hired from the commune's construction team.

Therefore, it is only natural that people who want to build houses have to wait in line.

The method for queuing is very simple: draw lots.

After the dividends were distributed that day, Accountant Liu made the wood chips, and Warehouse Keeper Huang was in charge of shaking them apart. All the wood chips were put into a cardboard box, and the homeowners who wanted to build houses were blindfolded and reached out to touch them. Captain Yang, as expected of a captain, immediately picked number 2.

If it weren't for Accountant Liu, who personally made the wood chips, drawing number 30, and Warehouse Keeper Huang, who drew number 28, the commune members would definitely have thought they were engaging in shady dealings.

Of course not now.

Then everyone watched with bated breath as Huang Laowu's family (number 1) and Captain Yang's family (number 2) built their new houses.

Besides Team 6, the other 11 teams also need to build new houses. For example, Zhang Wenliang, who just got married, had already made an appointment with the construction team and invited two master craftsmen, Wang Youtian and Wang Youhai, to come and oversee the project.

However, given the limited supply, he couldn't monopolize both of the leading master craftsmen. After discussions between Secretary Yang of the brigade headquarters and the construction team, they decided to adopt a multi-level configuration of "high, medium, and low" resources.

Wang Youhai took a few people to Team 6, while Wang Youtian took a few people to stay behind in Team 5. The commune construction team sent a few more master craftsmen to mobilize all personnel and try to meet the needs of the other teams.

If we really can't accommodate everyone, there's nothing we can do but wait in line.

After Wang Youhai arrived at Team 6, Team 6 was required to send out several of its renovation team members to work with the construction team at other teams' sites.

The master craftsman is at the first level, responsible for overall quality control and technical guidance. The renovation team and construction team are at the second level, performing technical work such as carpentry and tiling.

The last level consisted of the strong laborers in each squad, who took on the hard work without hesitation, dismantling walls, removing tiles, carrying bricks, and mixing cement.

In this way, efficiency is instantly improved.

In just two days, the houses of Huang Laowu and Captain Yang, who drew the first two numbers, were demolished one after the other.

The house of Captain Yang has been almost completely cleared, while the foundation of Huang Laowu's house has been laid.

At the current pace, they will definitely be able to move into their new homes before spring planting.

Upon hearing Captain Yang's invitation, Chen Fan glanced at the construction site and said without turning his head, "No time, busy."

He then pointed to Wang Youhai, who was busy at work, and said, "With Master Wang here, what are you afraid of?"

Yang Chuanfu took a puff of his cigarette, looked at Master Wang, and said, "Isn't it because I'm worried that Master Wang sometimes won't understand the blueprints?"

He then turned to look at Chen Fan and muttered under his breath, "Others may not know, but I do. What are you so busy with?"

Chen Fan smacked his lips, put the cigarette holder in his mouth and took another puff, but there was no more cigarette left.
He could only knock the ash out of the pipe and refill it with tobacco, saying, "It's just that you chose a different design. If you had chosen the same one as Huang Laowu's family, would you have needed to ask me?"

He paused for a moment, then said, “Why can’t I be busy? Don’t forget, I’m still a member of the Writers’ Association. Last time I went to the provincial capital, I received a task from the chairman of the Writers’ Association. I have to submit a 300,000-word novel manuscript in February. Time is of the essence.”

Upon hearing this, Yang Chuanfu dared not utter a word. No matter how big his own house construction was, he dared not compare it to Teacher Chen's article writing. He was well aware of this.

Chen Fan continued, "Today I opened another kiln to fire some things. I also have some recently harvested medicinal herbs to process, and I need to prepare for the New Year and write couplets. If it weren't for the banquets I have to attend every night, I wouldn't want to go out at all."

Yang Chuanfu coughed twice, "Well, alright then. Since you're busy, then go ahead and do your thing. But let me make this clear first, if Master Wang has any questions later, you can't ignore them."

Chen Fan lit his pipe, nodded, and said, "Of course."

As he said this, he sighed inwardly, realizing that the squad leader was indeed a bit inferior to the brigade leader.

Look at Secretary Yang, Captain Zhang, Captain Xiao, and Captain Ye; they never mentioned being offered the role of technical advisor from the very beginning.

It's not a big deal, why would I be so bored as to go and help?
Impossible!

Yang Chuanfu was unaware that someone was secretly criticizing him. He took a puff of his cigarette, stood on the village road, and looked around in both directions, quite spirited. "Every household received a large sum of money this year, and everyone wants to live in a brick house or a small villa."

Especially for families with many members who didn't have the means to separate before, now that they're building houses, it's a good opportunity to do so. Currently, Lujiawan has 48 households, but by this time next year, it might not even reach 68.

Chen Fan pursed his lips, thought for a moment, and said, "Not necessarily, I think it can at least double."

Captain Yang was somewhat unconvinced, "I admit you're capable, but you certainly don't understand these kinds of things as well as I do. For example, Huang Laowu's family definitely won't split up, and some families still have elders who haven't reached retirement age, so they won't agree to their sons splitting up. That means there are more than a dozen families missing."

Chen Fan shrugged. "I don't know much about the individual households, but I do know about the village's homesteads."

Upon hearing this, Captain Yang was speechless.

He looked around again, his brows furrowed, pondering how to make the most of the available space on this small hill, according to the village planning map drawn by Chen Fan, while ensuring that the distance between each household was not too crowded.

The final plan identified 112 residential plots, meaning that without developing new residential areas, this area can accommodate a maximum of 112 households.

This is because the distance between each household used to be too wide. Now, all the old houses have been demolished and rebuilt, and the space has been replanned to accommodate so many houses.

Otherwise, if we follow the old ways, with a field in front and a vegetable garden in the back, let alone 112 households, I'm afraid even 60 households would be in trouble.

So here's the question: with a limited number of homestead plots, will each household try to occupy more than they can?
Is there even a question? The answer is definitely yes!
Thinking of this, Captain Yang couldn't help but click his tongue. He didn't even care about his own house anymore and waved to Chen Fan, "Go ahead and do your thing, I have something to do."

Before he could finish speaking, he had already run to the courtyard next door and was running into the house.

That was his father, Captain Yang's, home. Needless to say, he was definitely discussing with his own family how to seize the opportunity and acquire more plots of land.

Chen Fan grinned and chuckled, glanced around the construction site, and then leisurely walked back.

Anyway, the Yang, Liu, and Huang families of Team 6 have always been like this, a love-hate relationship for nearly a century. At some point, one family might gain a small advantage, but they can never gain a big advantage.

Otherwise, the other two companies would definitely not agree.

There are only so many plots of land available now. No matter how much they fight for it, the objective conditions are what they are. Even if Captain Yang gets the first move, he can only take one or two more plots at most. Moreover, once Accountant Liu and Warehouse Keeper Huang come to their senses and see that so many members of the Yang family want to divide the property, they will definitely understand their intentions. At that time, another fierce battle is inevitable.

As a "reclusive master," Teacher Chen naturally sat back and watched the show.

But the main show hasn't started yet, let's go check out the pottery I made first.

Returning to the kiln, Chen Fan checked the temperature and, finding it to be about right, broke open the kiln opening.

I rummaged around inside and found a few pieces of pottery.

Several ocarinas, ocarinas, and ceramic flutes... are all musical instruments.

Finding a round earthenware ocarina and testing its sound, Chen Fan nodded in satisfaction. He then sat down on a rustic chair in front of the kiln, brought the ocarina to his lips, and a melodious tune began to play…

(End of this chapter)