Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 6: Maintain Distance
After a moment of reflection, Accountant Liu took out a small notebook from her pocket and made a record for Chen Fan.

"Chen Fan, born on the first day of the twelfth lunar month in 1960,"

Then he looked up and asked, "Where are you from?"

As the accountant, he not only had to calculate money and goods, but also people. He compiled and reported the population data of the team.

Chen Fan looked at him speechlessly. Why did he turn back again?

Seeing Chen Fan's look, Accountant Liu immediately realized what was going on and chuckled, "Haha, let's fill this in for now."

He then read and wrote, “Temporary residence: Sixth Production Team, Lujiawan Production Brigade, Nanhu Commune, Gufeng County, Yunhu District, Jiangnan Province.”

At the same time, he muttered to himself that he was almost scared out of his wits by that damned Chen Ergou, and had forgotten that the kid didn't remember anything from before.

Upon hearing the address, Chen Fan finally understood where he was.

He was from Yunhu City in Jiangnan Province in his previous life. After his parents passed away, he entered the Yunhu Orphanage and was quite familiar with the local customs and culture.

The later Yunhu City is now the Yunhu Region. In those days, there were no prefecture-level cities; most were referred to as regions. The place where the regional administrative office was located was called the "Prefectural Committee," which later became a prefecture-level city.

As for Jiangnan, it doesn't refer to the Suzhou and Hangzhou area.

In a narrow sense, Jiangnan refers to the Yangtze River Delta region, centered on Taihu Lake, extending from Yangzhou in the north to Hangzhou in the south, from Shanghai in the east to Nanjing in the west.

In a broader sense, Jiangnan originally referred to the area north and south of Dongting Lake during the pre-Qin period, which is now Hunan and Hubei. Later, it gradually expanded. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Jiangnan Dao and during the Song Dynasty, Jiangnan Lu encompassed a vast area of ​​six provinces and one municipality: present-day Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai.

Ahem, let's add "Jiangnan Province" here and squeeze it in.

This is the "Greater Jiangnan".

Without the Yangtze River floods, the climate in this region would be ideal for crop growth, with two rice harvests a year. The land is fertile and the produce is plentiful. Even in the most difficult period of the early 60s, there were very few cases of people starving to death.

There's an old saying here: "Even in a famine, people living by the water won't starve." Wherever there's water, you can just pluck a handful of water plants to make soup and live for a few days, not to mention you can catch fish and shrimp.

Especially in Yunhu City, Jiangnan Province, a traditional land of fish and rice, in normal years, if the production team leader is capable enough, some production team members' families live no worse than ordinary families in small towns, and may even be slightly better off.

So, having transmigrated to this place, I shouldn't have to worry about survival; what I need to consider is how to live a better life.

Just as Chen Fan was deep in thought, Accountant Liu had finished registering the basic information and looked up at Captain Yang.

Captain Yang immediately coughed and pulled out his pipe to fill it with tobacco.

Chen Fan reacted quickly, picking up a match from the table and lighting it for him.

Captain Yang looked at Chen Fan, a smile appearing on his lips. This kid is pretty clever.

He took a drag of his cigarette before saying, "Here's the situation. I've already reported your matter to Officer Zhu. Officer Zhu is the police officer assigned by the Nanhu Commune Police Station to be in charge of our area. He'll ask around in the surrounding communes and production teams to see if anyone has lost someone. We should be able to find your family soon."

Chen Fan quickly nodded to indicate that he understood.

He was secretly groaning inwardly, thinking that finding the person was a miracle.

I'm in the body, not in the soul. It's not like any random family will just randomly find a son for free, right? How much food does a person this big have to eat!

So he was being particularly obedient at this moment, preparing to stay in the future. Captain Yang continued, "Until we find your family, you'll stay here at the educated youth settlement for now. We'll take some food rations from the team for you to eat for now. Once we find your family, we'll pay back the team to settle the accounts. Is that alright?"

Chen Fan nodded immediately, "Of course!"

Then he raised his head and said seriously, "Captain, do you see any jobs suitable for me? I can work and earn work points."

If we can't find the person, how can we balance the accounts?

So he still has to rely on himself. He just hopes that the farm work won't be too heavy, because he's afraid he won't be able to handle it.

Captain Yang laughed heartily, "What work could there be in the dead of winter? The crops have been harvested, the fishponds have been drained, the lotus roots have been dug up, everything that needed to be done has been done. All that's left is a small plot of land for each family, so we don't need you there."

Accountant Liu also raised his head and laughed, "Or we can wait for the commune to issue a notice asking each production team to send people to work on the dike. At that time, we can earn work points."

Then he asked, "Hey, do you know what dam breaking is?"

Seeing that the child was fair-skinned and clean, and didn't look like he had ever been to the countryside, Accountant Liu was really worried that he didn't know what dike-breaking was.

Unexpectedly, Chen Fan nodded, "I know, it's about reinforcing the river embankment in winter."

Before the 1990s, almost every winter during the off-season for farming, the local government would organize members of various production teams to carry soil from the riverbanks of the Yangtze River or inland rivers to reinforce the dikes in order to prevent floods the following year. This kind of work was called "carrying soil from the dikes" by the local people.

Because all the earthwork for reinforcing the dikes was carried up the dikes by the local people using carrying poles and bamboo baskets, going back and forth repeatedly. Without strength and skill, it would take less than an hour to exhaust a strong laborer.

So Chen Fan was a little apprehensive. Was this a move to start on hard mode right from the beginning?!
Fortunately, Captain Yang spoke up at this time, "What's the point of earning work points? It won't make a difference if you stay here for a few days. You just fell into the water yesterday, so just rest well for the next few days. Zhu Gong'an will take care of finding people, so relax and just stay put. Don't think too much."

After he finished speaking, he prepared to get up and leave, but suddenly remembered something and winked at the custodian, Huang, "Go and check the door."

The custodian, Huang, rolled his eyes slightly, got up, stood at the door, turned around and shook his head at the inside, indicating that no one was there.

Captain Yang coughed lightly and said to Chen Fan in a low voice, "There's something I need to remind you of."

Chen Fan nodded respectfully, "Please speak."

Captain Yang pointed to the next room, "Originally there were seven or eight people at this educated youth settlement, but the rest of them all lived in the local Nanhu Commune. Now that it's winter and they're not working, they've all gone home."

Chen Fan blinked, feeling a little strange. Could educated youth really be this free? Could they just go home when they had nothing to do? In his past life, he read period novels where people were sent to the countryside in Northeast China and could only go back once every few years. Compared to that, the difference was quite significant, wasn't it?
Captain Yang continued, "Now there's only one girl left at the educated youth settlement, the one you met before, named Jiang Lili. She's from the prefectural committee, more than 200 miles away from here, and it's inconvenient for her to go home, so she didn't go back."

Chen Fan immediately understood and nodded knowingly, "I understand. You're worried that it might have a bad influence if a man and a woman are alone together, right? I promise I won't do anything inappropriate and I'll keep my distance from her."

Captain Yang grinned, tapped his fingers on the table, and said softly, "A man and a woman alone is one thing, but the main reason is that her family isn't well-off. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been sent to such a far place to work in the countryside. The prefectural committee could have arranged a place for her nearby. Sending her so far away is also for deliberate training. The educated youth in the past generally wouldn't talk to her except when necessary. You should also pay attention to the influence of this."

Chen Fan finally understood. It was because of that... that her friends stopped playing with her. Got it!

After saying that, Captain Yang thought for a moment and added, "Of course, just keep a proper distance, don't do anything else, do you understand?"

He's afraid he might be deliberately targeting the young girl.

Chen Fan nodded repeatedly and laughed, "Given my condition, what else can I do?"

Captain Yang chuckled upon hearing this, then waved his hand and said, "Alright, let's leave it at that."

(End of this chapter)