Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 62 Household Registration Issues
Hearing Chen Fan's words, Jiang Lili glanced outside again, and seeing that no one had come in, she turned back to him and whispered,
“If you settle down here, you will be allocated a plot of land for home construction and a plot of land for your private use. You will also be given work points for participating in labor. The more work points you get, the less the other people in the production team will get, so of course they are not happy.”

"what?"

Chen Fan stared at her blankly. "Is that so?"

Jiang Lili nodded, then lowered her head again. "I heard that when the first batch of educated youth came here, the commune members were also very unwilling. It was only after the leaders did a lot of work, forcibly allocating a piece of land for the educated youth, and giving the production team a lot of compensation, that the deal was finalized."

Hearing this, Chen Fan finally understood where the conflict lay. Land was the lifeblood of farmers. Although the land was now collectively owned, grain distribution still had to come from this land. If one more person received a share, the farmers would receive one less, so of course they were unhappy.

Therefore, in order to resolve one's own household registration issue, one must not infringe upon the interests of others.

Even though they called him "Little Master Chen" and various teams sent him gifts in return, he wouldn't accept a share of land or work with them!
After a pause, Chen Fan asked again, "What about unregistered residents? Why did Officer Zhu say there are many unregistered residents in the commune?"

"Oh, I know that."

Jiang Lili raised her head and said softly, "Some units in the commune are collective households, such as the water transport company, substation, post office, and power supply station. If the employees are not locals and come here to work and live in the houses allocated by the unit, their household registration is usually in the collective household."

If someone registered under a collective household marries a girl from the countryside, the village will cancel the married-out woman's household registration. However, there are quotas for changing the rural household registration to urban registration for collective households, which are generally only given to employees and cadres' family members. In this way, the rural woman who marries out will lose her original household registration, and she will not be able to register a new one, so she will naturally become an unregistered resident.

Furthermore, if they had children later, the children would be registered under the mother's household registration. If the mother didn't have a household registration, the children would become unregistered residents. This was basically how unregistered residents in the commune came to be.

Chen Fan was surprised, "Doesn't having unregistered residency affect their lives?"

"Of course it has an impact."

Jiang Lili explained, "The neighborhood committee only issues food ration books and non-staple food ration books to people with household registration."

At this point, she looked at Chen Fan strangely, "You don't even know this?"

Chen Fan chuckled, "I know that. To buy rice, flour, steamed buns, noodles, and other grains, you need a grain ration book. To buy meat, oil, sugar, salt, soy sauce, and other things, you need a non-staple food ration book."

Just kidding, I didn't read those novels about the era before time travel for nothing!

Seeing that Chen Fan knew, Jiang Lili said, "Without a household registration, there's no food ration book. If the family doesn't have enough food, they'll have to spend money to buy expensive grain. Do you think that's a big deal?!"

Chen Fan nodded in agreement, "That is indeed quite big."

The difference between supplied grain and high-priced grain can be substantial, sometimes as much as half, and sometimes several times higher. Although grain coupons are not required, the cost is still much higher.

He then lowered his head, frowned, and pondered what he should do.
While settling down in a rural area is simple, it often involves allocating land, which people will definitely object to. And if you don't want the land, how will you make a living?
This is no small problem.

Jiang Lili looked at him and whispered to comfort him, "Don't be too anxious. There's always a way out. With so much stuff, we can definitely last a long time. Besides, being an unregistered person has its advantages."

Chen Fan suddenly looked up, his face full of surprise. "There are benefits to being an unregistered resident?"

Jiang Lili nodded, as if afraid of being overheard, and whispered, "No one cares about unregistered residents. There's no production team or work unit above them, so nobody can control them."

When the floods come next spring, the commune's dock will often need porters. You can go there to do odd jobs and earn money, or you can find temporary work in the county. Even if the temporary job pays less, it will still be more than you earn in the production team.

Chen Fan blinked. "No letter of introduction needed?" One of his impressions of this era was that without a letter of introduction, one could hardly move an inch. Didn't he see that even when he went to kill turtles in the brigade, he needed a handwritten letter of introduction from Captain Yang?

Jiang Lili smiled and said, "Not everything requires a letter of introduction. You need it for buying long-distance bus tickets, but not for short-distance ones; you need it for hotel stays, but not for meals. As long as you don't leave the Yunhu area, you basically won't need a letter of introduction."

As for dealing with inspections by the police and patrolling militia, all you need to do is ask Officer Zhu for a certificate; no letter of introduction is required.

If you really need to handle something important, it's not difficult to get a letter of introduction from the brigade headquarters, but you can't use it for any other purpose.

Chen Fan was speechless. "So, you're saying that as long as you have a way to make money, your household registration isn't that important?"

"Of course not."

Jiang Lili said seriously, "Being unregistered doesn't affect your basic life, but if you want to study, join the army, or get a formal job, you must have a household registration. You can't do it without one."

Chen Fan understood. It wouldn't affect his daily life, but it would affect his future.

Who doesn't want a future?
Even if it opens up in the future, and you go to the south to work, you'll still need a border pass and a temporary residence permit there. Without a household registration, you can't get any permits.

Chen Fan scratched his head and suddenly laughed, "If I don't want the land and don't want to earn work points, will Captain Yang agree to let me settle here?"

Jiang Lili pursed her lips and looked at him. "I guess so."

He paused for a moment, then asked with concern, "But what will you do if you don't earn work points? You can't keep relying on odd jobs. Besides, the docks won't need temporary workers after the high-water season."

Chen Fan laughed and said, "You forgot, I can also cook. At worst, I can team up with Liu Jujiang and cook village banquets for people."

Jiang Lili burst out laughing, "So from now on I'll have to call you Chen Jujiang?"

Chen Fan laughed and said, "Master Chen sounds better. From now on, you'll have to call me Master Chen."

Jiang Lili wrinkled her nose and suddenly realized that her mood wasn't so heavy anymore.

Chen Fan stood up and said, "That's about it. I'll wait for Zhu Gong'an's letter. It would be best if we could find them. If we really can't, then we'll do this: I'll go and talk to Captain Yang. We don't need the land or work points. We can just settle down here at the educated youth settlement. From now on, we'll be one family."

Jiang Lili laughed and said, "We're not family, and my household registration isn't here."

"what?"

Chen Fan was stunned. "Weren't the educated youth registered in the production team when they went to the countryside?"

As far as he knew, all educated youth had to cancel their household registration in their original place of residence before going to the countryside, and then report to the local area to register their household registration. Their grain rations were also transferred to the rural area. How could they not be here?

Jiang Lili laughed and said, "Our household registration as educated youth was all under the collective household registration office of the commune, and our grain ration was under the production brigade. All the educated youth's household registration was managed separately, unless someone got married and had children in the production team, then their household registration would be completely transferred to the production team, and only then would they officially become farmers. I heard that this was done so that when the educated youth returned to the city, they would not occupy the quota for changing from agricultural to non-agricultural status. As long as all the educated youth could find a unit to accept them, it would be very easy to transfer their household registration back to the city."

Chen Fan was stunned. He had no idea that it could be done this way.
(End of this chapter)