Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 698 I'm Not Going

Tuesday, May 12th.

The heavy snow that had been falling for several days finally stopped, but the sky had not yet cleared up. There were also many people shoveling snow on the streets, all of whom were residents organized by the neighborhood committee to shovel snow voluntarily.

Although Chen Fan was the homeowner, he had never been in contact with anyone from the neighborhood committee, but Jiang Tiantian and Jiang Lili knew them.

However, both sisters went to school today, and when the neighborhood committee staff came over, only Chen Fan received them, so they met today.

There was nothing else to do but mobilize the neighbors to clear the snow from the roads, dividing the responsibility into sections according to the houses, just like the saying goes, "everyone sweeps the snow in front of their own door."

After seeing off the elderly comrade who had come to inform them, Chen Fan first opened the courtyard gate, then turned around and went into the house, picked up the keys and went to drive the car.

Zhou Yali, wrapped in a fur coat, saw him about to get into the car and quickly called out, "Aren't you going to shovel snow? Are you going out now? I haven't changed my clothes yet."

Chen Fan got into the driver's seat and smiled slightly at her, "I'm going to shovel snow."

Then he slowly drove out, "The snow had been piled up for three days without being swept. Although cars had passed by, it was only in the middle section. There was also a layer of ice under the road on both sides. It would be difficult to shovel it if that layer of ice wasn't broken up."

Zhou Yali quickly changed her shoes and ran out to see what was going on.

On the street, people were already shoveling snow and throwing it onto the sidewalk. At first, they were all wrapped in thick cotton-padded coats, but after working for a while, they took them off and worked in just sweaters or cotton vests, their bodies steaming with heat.

Chen Fan drove the car onto the street, and amidst the astonished gazes of the crowd, he floored the accelerator and began drifting.

These days, there are no professional snow chains. Instead, the tires are tied with iron chains. The car tires run back and forth on the snow, immediately breaking up the thick snow and crushing the hard ice underneath. Sparks fly from the iron chains from time to time.

An old man nearby walked over curiously, took a shovel and shoveled at it, then exclaimed in surprise, "Wow, the ice is all broken, now it'll be easier to shovel!"

His eyes immediately lit up, and he shouted at Chen Fan, who had stopped, "Young comrade, I'll sweep this area for you, and you can help me roll up this patch of ice too, okay?"

Hearing the voice, Chen Fan turned his head, looked at the old man, whose face was quite amiable, and smiled, "Alright, please move aside, I'm coming."

He then floored the accelerator and drove past, performing another stationary drift.

Immediately, the others around him seemed to have discovered a treasure and all wanted to trade with Chen Fan.

The elderly neighborhood committee member, who hadn't gone far, looked on, seemingly wanting to say something but then hesitated. "Won't this kind of behavior damage the road?"
But seeing how excited everyone was, he turned his head and ran off to other places to make the announcements; I didn't see him.

These were all neighbors from the area. Living in such a small villa in the 70s didn't seem like an ordinary family at all. Since it was just a small favor, Chen Fan readily agreed.

He simply drove the car and ran over that short stretch of road several times.

The consequence was that I didn't shovel the snow myself, but I ruined a set of tires.

The neighbors were equally attentive, prioritizing the cleaning of the area in front of Chen Fan's house. By the time he greeted them and drove back into the yard, the area he was responsible for was already spotless.

After getting out of the car, Chen Fan stretched his body, "I'm still feeling a bit excited."

Zhou Yali stood by and watched the whole thing, "You didn't move at all."

Chen Fan: "Why didn't it move? Doesn't it take any effort to turn the steering wheel, press the accelerator, or brake?"

Zhou Yali exhaled a puff of white mist and said earnestly, "Brother, how did you manage to get a group of elderly people to sweep the streets for you?"

Chen Fan retorted, "I even helped them loosen the ice on the street."

Zhou Yali paused for two seconds, then said, "I suddenly understand what you meant by 'businessman' yesterday."

Chen Fan blinked. "Tell me your thoughts and experiences."

Zhou Yali raised her fist, clenched it tightly, and her eyes were full of determination. "We absolutely cannot have any shame!"

Chen Fan paused for two seconds, then gently patted her shoulder. "Not bad, you've passed."

Zhou Yali, "..."

Chen Fan didn't take it to heart. Back then, when Master Lin Yuanxiang went to Lujiawan to investigate him, he finally decided to take him as his successor. One of the most important reasons for this was that he wasn't a pushover.

A kind-hearted person who likes to meddle in other people's business is prone to attracting trouble, and such a person is not suitable for martial arts.

Chen Fan, however, considers himself to have never been a good person.

What's so great about a good person? For example, if he offered to help today, volunteering to clear ice for his neighbors without expecting anything in return, everyone around him would consider him a great person.

So if something happens again, he definitely won't be left out. Even if he's not here, it doesn't matter, there are still the two sisters, right? He can just leave the "task" to them.

What follows will be endless trouble.

Even if someone were to target the two sisters during these frequent interactions and something were to happen to them, they would have nowhere to turn to for help.

Don't forget, the next few years won't be peaceful.

Men are one thing, but two pretty girls who are always showing their faces in public are practically natural targets.

He won't let that happen.

It's fine as it is now. He's helped out, and others have reciprocated. On the surface, no one owes anyone anything, and if something happens again, no one will think of him first.

As for the fact that a set of tires was ruined, there's no need to mention it; that would seem like being too petty.

Just leave a good impression on the neighbors on both sides.

Chen Fan stomped his feet to knock off some of the fine snow and ice, then prepared to go inside.

Just then, a bicycle bell rang, followed by a man's voice, "There's a telegram from Chen Fan."

The visitor was, of course, the postman.

The postman stopped at the door, got off his bicycle, propped it up on the stand, and pulled out a telegram and a parcel slip from his mailbag. He looked them over and handed them to Chen Fan, who was walking over, and said with a smile, "You cleaned the doorway pretty quickly. Other places are still shoveling snow, but this place is already spotless."

Chen Fan took the order, handed over a cigarette, and laughed, "It's all thanks to the support of the neighbors."

The postman blinked, somewhat confused by his words.

What's wrong? They're not sweeping their own section, but sweeping yours first? But he was busy delivering the mail, so he didn't say much, just waved his cigarette and said, "Unity is strength, I'm off."

After saying that, he rode away on his bicycle.

Chen Fan closed the courtyard gate and then picked up the telegram to take a look.

Before I could even see the contents clearly, a head popped up beside me. "What is this? Who sent it to you?"

Chen Fan could only step aside and look at the order again. "It was sent from Lujiawan. They said that the equipment for the garment factory has arrived, and the first batch of raw materials provided by Yunhu Cotton Mill has also arrived. The factory has produced a batch of down jackets, but there were some problems with the first batch. They are trying to find a way to improve it."

After reading it aloud, he couldn't help but frown slightly. Is making a down jacket really that difficult?

Down jackets from that era certainly couldn't compare to those of later generations. Basically, as long as there were no obvious issues with feathers falling out, they were considered up to standard.

Otherwise, how could the founder of Bosideng, with just a dozen people and using household sewing machines, dare to make down jackets?
Now Lujiawan has all kinds of equipment, even ironing machines, which is a hundred times better than their village-run workshop.
Moreover, Chen Fan had already reviewed the production process of down jackets. Theoretically speaking, as long as Liu Lu followed the process, even if there were some minor problems, she could succeed after a few more tries.

How could it not work?

Hearing his words, Zhou Yali frowned and thought for a moment before saying, "Should I send a telegram to Mom and ask her to find an engineer who knows about down jackets to come and give us some guidance?"

Chen Fan looked at her, pondered for two seconds, and then gently shook his head. "No need. If we ask for outside help every time there's a problem, they'll develop a dependency mentality and will never be able to grow much."

He then smiled and looked at her, saying, "We should learn from our revolutionary predecessors. If we don't have something, we should make it ourselves. If we can't make it, we should find a way. Only in this way can we form our own technological system from scratch and from something to excellence, instead of relying on others."

He waved her over, gesturing for her to come inside, and continued, "Mountains may crumble, and rivers may flow away. I've already paved the way for them and prepared the equipment. If they can't even solve this problem, then cutting their losses is the right thing to do."

From now on, they should just focus on raising livestock and selling cooked food. They should quickly abandon any thoughts of large-scale industrial development to avoid future unpleasantness for everyone.

Zhou Yali was still a little confused. She followed him into the house, changed into cotton slippers, closed the door, and asked curiously, "Why did things turn out so unpleasant? Even if it didn't work out, you could just give up on that part. Do you think they would blame you?"

Chen Fan turned to look at her, smiled meaningfully, and said, "Hmph, a little kindness is appreciated, but too much kindness breeds resentment. Some things are really hard to say."

Zhou Yali raised an eyebrow, and after a moment, sighed softly, "No wonder my dad always tells me to learn more from you, little brother. You're younger than me, but you know more than me. This makes things difficult for me."

Chen Fan said with a long face, "Where did you learn that from? You say it's difficult? If it's difficult, then don't do it."

He tossed the telegram onto the coffee table, then looked at the parcel slip. The moment his backside touched the sofa, he jumped up abruptly. "Wow, this is efficient!"

Zhou Yali skipped over a few steps, leaned close to him, and craned her neck to look. "What is that?"

Chen Fan handed him the parcel slip and turned to change his clothes. "These mountain goods were sent from Northeast China. I thought they would arrive a few days later, but they arrived so quickly. I'm going to pick them up now. Do you want to come?"

Zhou Yali rolled her eyes slightly, raised her head, grinned and chuckled, "Go to the post office to pick up your package, there will definitely be a lot of people there, I won't cause any trouble."

Just kidding! You said you were sending mountain produce, so there must be a lot of big packages. I don't have the strength to carry them all, so I'm counting on you, bro!

She said she wasn't going, and Chen Fan didn't mind. He put on his cotton-padded coat and went outside. "Perfect timing. I just received some mountain produce. Pick out a couple of things to take to Old Man Ba, so you won't have to go out to buy gifts."

After saying that, he went out the door.

Zhou Yali ran to the door, just about to call out, when she saw the minivan suddenly speed away. She could only mutter, "Tires."

bang...

Chen Fan drove onto the road, but before he had gone far, one of his tires blew out.

The old men who were sweeping snow and talking loudly suddenly froze. They first looked at the minivan lying in the middle of the road, then looked at each other, and all of them shrank their necks and quickly got back to work.

Chen Fan couldn't help but click his tongue. He had no choice but to get out of the car and change the tire.

I took out the jack and, without needing anyone's help, changed the flat tire and removed the snow chains before carefully setting off... to the Writers' Association office.

The nearest repair shop should have been the nearby bus depot. Besides, given the connections the Jiang sisters had with the traffic bureau chief when they were learning to drive, changing a tire would be a piece of cake.

Unfortunately, the tires for this kind of van are probably only available to the Writers' Association in Shanghai. Only Chen Fan had the connections to get them. When he bought the van, in addition to the standard free accessories, Director Yang gave him a lot of extra accessories, including 10 tires.

Otherwise, we'd have to get the goods from the factory again; it's terrible.

He arrived at the Writers' Association shortly afterward, went to the motorcade to change a tire, and while he was at it, he turned around and went to the office building.

We greeted each other along the way and went straight to Mr. Ba's office.

Peeking through the doorway, I saw that only Mr. Ba was in the office, hunched over his desk writing something.

Chen Fan knocked on the door, and when Ba Jin looked up, he grinned and entered, "Are you writing a new book, sir?"

Upon seeing him, Ba Jin put down his pen, took off his glasses, and said with a smile, "So it's you, you little monkey. You've come to Shanghai to see your little wife again?"

Chen Fan closed the door behind him, picked up a teacup to pour himself some tea, then pulled out a chair and sat down opposite him, chuckling, "Can't I just come over to visit you?"

"Hmph, don't try to fool me."

Old Ba looked him up and down. "You came to see me empty-handed?"

Chen Fan held the teacup with both hands, his face serious. "What are you saying? With the relationship between us, why would we need to bring anything?"

Old Ba laughed and pointed at him, "You kid, you're still as shameless as ever."

He then took out a cigarette and threw it on the table, saying, "Take it yourself."

He picked up his teacup, leaned back in his chair, took a sip of water, and looked at Chen Fan, saying, "I've heard about the collaboration between the Jiangnan Provincial Writers Association and Takahashi Publishing House. The association has finalized the cooperation plan and has held multiple consultations with Takahashi Company to clarify the details."

First, we need to organize two cultural exchange events. Your book is selling quite well at the bookstore, it's been reprinted twice, so you're considered a somewhat well-known author.

In addition, several authors from the Jiangnan region also published novels there and tried their luck, and the results were quite good.

I spoke with the headquarters today and we tentatively finalized the list of the first group to go for the exchange. You'll be the key candidates. Make sure you do a good job with the preparations.

Chen Fan was lighting a cigarette when he heard this and was taken aback. "An international exchange program? I'm in it?"

He frowned slightly. "Forget it, I'm not going."

(End of this chapter)