Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 66 needs to be limited (please continue reading)

Chen Fan is a carefree person.

I was still feeling lingering fear, but as soon as I entered the restaurant of the Intermediate People's Court and smelled the aroma of the food, I immediately forgot all about it.

Anyway, Captain Yang said that it's no longer acceptable to label people, so if I'm just careful, nothing will happen. It's more practical to fill my stomach first.

When it came time to sit down, there was another round of polite refusals. In the end, Secretary Yang sat in the main seat, with Chen Fan and Technician Huang on either side of him, while the others sat according to the usual rules.

When the dishes were served, Chen Fan realized that today's dishes were unusual.

What's unusual isn't the braised turtle or the stewed turtle, but the loach and eel.

Braised loach and stir-fried loach with garlic sprouts and chili peppers are not unusual dishes, but what is unusual is that there is also a dish of deep-fried sand loach.

Chen Fan's mouth watered at the sight of the plate of mud loach.

When he was a child in the countryside, his grandfather would take a bamboo cage to the ditch to catch eels. He caught a few sand loaches. These things were fried until crispy and delicious, and they tasted much better than loaches when eaten hot.

That's when he learned that there was such a thing as a sand loach.

The scientific name for the sand loach is *Spinylodon sinensis*. It has a slender body, a particularly pointed mouth, and hard barbs on its back, making it similar to a shark. As a result, Chen Fan always thought it was called a shark loach. Later, he learned that it is a type of spiny loach. Because it likes to burrow into the mud and sand, it is called sand loach.

Moreover, this type of sand loach is particularly ferocious, especially fond of eating large pieces of meat, making it very difficult to catch.

But when you fry it in oil, the taste...

Wait, hold back, it's not time to pick up your chopsticks yet!
Besides loach, we also stir-fried three plates of eel.

A plate of stir-fried eel segments involves chopping large eels into small segments, or leaving small eels connected, and then stir-frying them with garlic sprouts and chili peppers.

A plate of stir-fried eel. The eel must be a small eel about the length of a chopstick. After being stir-fried, the eel is coiled into the shape of a mosquito coil. You pick it up one by one when you pick it up, and you eat it whole. The taste is the freshest and most tender, and it is very suitable to go with alcohol, but there is not much meat.

Therefore, Chen Fan still prefers the third dish the most: braised eel slices.

Grab a large eel weighing over a pound, slam it onto a rock with a thud, and kill it.

Then, before it completely dies, nail its head to a wooden board with a steel needle, make a cut in its throat without severing it, then cut open its belly and pull out its intestines. Then, use a knife to pull down along the large spines, and the whole eel meat will come out.

Wash and slice the eel meat, then stir-fry over high heat.

The saying goes, "Eat eel without spitting out the bones," and this is exactly what it means!

The last two dishes were twice-cooked pork, which Chen Fan had made here just two days ago, and they made a copy today. It must be because Technician Huang was coming to install equipment today, so he specially went to the commune food station to buy pork belly.

The last dish was a bowl of egg, tofu, and vegetable soup.

Nine dishes and a soup—today's meal is definitely high-class.

When they picked up their chopsticks, with Chen Fan's deliberate cooperation, he asked Technician Huang to take the first bite, so that Huang could feel the genuine kindness in the world.

Then Chen Fan used the shameless swagger he had when he was doing pre-sales, and flattered Secretary Yang and the others. Before he had even drunk two glasses of wine, Technician Huang was already calling him brother. The little grudge from before, which wasn't really a conflict, vanished in the blink of an eye.

That's why Chen Fan likes dealing with these kinds of young people; they're easy to please!

After a hearty meal and drinks, Chen Fan, having completed his mission, went home leaning on his dog-beating stick.

Let's not rush to bring up the household registration issue today. It's like sales; you can't rush things. Let's get these big shots on board first, and when the time is right, things will naturally fall into place.

……

On the other side, after watching Technician Huang and Chen Fan leave, the four leaders of the brigade exchanged glances and then turned into the reception room by the door. Some took out their pipes, while others started rolling cigarettes.

The peony cigarette I smoked during dinner was a very valuable item; I wouldn't even offer it to a distinguished guest. Even for regular guests, I only offer the 26-cent gold leaf.

These days, there's no awareness of trademarks and brands. People from cigarette factories go around everywhere, and if they see a cigarette that sells well, they bring it back to produce themselves. As a result, cigarettes with brands like Golden Leaf, Economy, Large Production, and Taihang Mountain are available in cigarette factories all over the country, and the key is that the prices are quite uniform.

Unfortunately, while the price is uniform, the quality is somewhat questionable.

After they lit their cigarettes, Zhang Wenliang and Yang Xingxiu came in and pulled up a chair to sit near the door.

Secretary Yang spoke first, "You all saw it just now, that little guy Chen Fan is something else. The post office technician couldn't handle the broadcasting machine, but he took it apart and solved it in no time. Also, the commune requires that rural broadcasting stations be standardized, and it would be best to find people who can speak Mandarin to be broadcasters. Right now, it seems he's the only one in the whole brigade who can." He exhaled a puff of smoke, "So, what are your thoughts?"

Zhang Wenliang looked left and right, his mouth twitched a few times, but he ultimately remained silent.

Ye Shubao took a puff of his cigarette and said with his head down, "If he were one of our brigade members, we would have really struck gold."

Zhang Changjiang glanced at him and said, "Nonsense, do you even need to tell me that?"

Xiao Liewen clicked his tongue and said with a furrowed brow, "The problem now is that his origins are unknown!"

Ye Shubao exhaled and looked at him with a smile, "That's exactly what I meant. Even if he fled from somewhere else, we can send a telegram to the other side to verify that such a person exists and hasn't committed any major crimes. Then we can immediately register him and hire him as a broadcaster. But since he's of unknown origin, no matter how capable he is, who would dare to hire him?"

Zhang Changjiang said irritably, "If we could find out their background, would you even have a chance to get this kind of person? The commune would have snatched them up long ago, giving them an urban household registration and a formal employee position. What are you going to use to take them away?"

These days, skilled workers are extremely scarce. Sometimes, even the top official in a county will mobilize to compete for a retired driver.

Chen Fan not only speaks Mandarin, but more importantly, he knows how to repair electrical appliances. Such a talent is hard to retain, let alone the production team or even the commune. He will most likely be snatched up by the county town.

It will take another three or four years after the resumption of the college entrance examination, when a large number of vocational school and college students are assigned to jobs, to alleviate the "talent shortage".

Perhaps it was something Zhang Changjiang said that touched Secretary Yang, because he slowly raised his head and said seriously, "I have an idea. This person can be used and even given important responsibilities. As long as we are careful, there shouldn't be any major problems."

He turned and looked around at everyone, finally fixing his gaze on Xiao Liewen's face. "Do you remember, back in the old days when we were fighting the Japanese, the main force not only used defected puppet troops, but also the Japanese themselves?"

Then he looked at Zhang Changjiang and said, "This Chen Fan is just of unknown origin, not someone with conclusive evidence or who is guilty of a heinous crime. He dared to take responsibility and open the cover to repair the radio just now. We don't even have that kind of courage?"

Zhang Changjiang nodded slowly, "Then we'll use him."

He then asked, "How can we guard against it?"

Secretary Yang smoked a cigarette, his eyes narrowed into slits. "Hire him to be a broadcaster and technician. He can come for two hours in the morning and one hour in the afternoon. He'll get 10 work points a day, and the settlement will be made in one lump sum at the end of the year."

This is considered a skilled job, so if the work points are higher, the other workers won't complain.

However, since his origins are unknown, firstly, we cannot hand over the keys; we cannot give him the keys to the brigade headquarters. Secondly, we cannot let him live here; the warehouse is downstairs from the broadcasting station, and if something goes wrong, no one can bear the responsibility.

Anyway, he's in Team 6, which isn't far from here, so we'll let him continue living at the educated youth settlement.

As for his household registration, we can give him a guarantee first, set a three-month probationary period. After three months, if he works diligently and does not cause any problems, we can ask Officer Zhu to come and witness the process and write a statement of the situation before we can register his household registration in Team 6.

However, this household registration has restrictions; it cannot be equated with that of other commune members. There are two main points: first, no land will be allocated, otherwise the commune members of Team 6 will definitely object; second, no political vetting certificate will be provided.

Xiao Liewen blinked. "You won't give me any proof?"

Secretary Yang sighed, "We can't issue vetting certificates for those who need it, but we can treat everyone else the same."

He tilted his head to look at Xiao Liewen, "What if, I mean what if, his background really has problems, and you issue him a political vetting certificate, who will take responsibility for that?"

Xiao Liewen then fell silent.

Zhang Changjiang looked at the two of them and said with a smile, "At present, Secretary Yang's suggestion is the most pertinent. It takes all aspects into consideration, and I agree."

Everyone else raised their hands, saying, "I agree."

Secretary Yang smiled and said, "If we could find out his background, I would recommend him to be a cadre in the commune, let alone issue a certificate or allocate land. But there's nothing we can do about it now."

He then turned to Zhang Wenliang and said, "Sanhu, go find him tomorrow, explain the terms to him, and ask him what he thinks."

Zhang Wenliang immediately nodded, "Okay."

They said they were asking for his opinion, but given Chen Fan's current situation, would he refuse?

At this point, Secretary Yang added, "Let's keep things separate. When he was repairing the radio, he wasn't a technician yet, so we can't skimp on this reward."

Everyone else turned to look at him.

What are you going to give me this time?
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The newspaper from the previous chapter has been removed.
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(End of this chapter)