Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 81 Effort Makes People Happy
After cutting the entire piece of cloth, Jiang Lili put down her scissors, picked up a rope, and said, "The first step in learning tailoring is to take measurements."

Chen Fan stared at the rope in her hand. "How do you measure this?"

This is a rope, not a ruler; they're completely different.

Jiang Lili blushed slightly and murmured with her head down, "I don't have a ruler, so I can only use a rope."

Chen Fan asked curiously, "So how did you get the measurements? Did you just use a rope to measure?"

Although you can use a rope to compare, there's so much data, how do you record it?
Jiang Lili looked up, smiled, moved aside, and pointed to the edge of the table, saying, "Look here."

Chen Fan looked at where she was pointing, but there was nothing special about it.
and many more.

He seemed to have discovered something, so he quickly bent down and leaned closer, and was immediately amazed.

The edge of the table was marked with neat and precise lines, each one clearly marking a mark. This edge of the table was like an immovable ruler.

Although the precision is only 0.5 centimeters, it is sufficient for sewing clothes.

Jiang Lili explained softly, “I originally had a tape measure, but it was broken into several pieces by an educated youth. So I used the broken tape measure to carve marks on the table, and then found a rope to use as a ruler. After measuring, I compared it here to know how long it was.”

Chen Fan gave her a thumbs up and said, "One word: I'm impressed."

Jiang Lili blushed and smiled, "Let me teach you how to take measurements first."

When she picked up the rope, she realized that there were only the two of them there. If Chen Fan wanted to practice measuring, he would have to measure on her body. The thought of this made her blush with embarrassment.

Chen Fan was a little confused. What was there to be ashamed of about taking measurements?

He immediately took the rope from her hand, wrapped it around himself, looked down at it, and asked, "What's my bust size?"

Jiang Lili's face grew increasingly hot as she murmured, "That's not how you measure it. You're wearing a cotton coat, so it needs to be tightened up a bit, and the position is wrong too."

Chen Fan then handed her the rope, then stood with his feet apart and arms outstretched, saying, "Come on."

Jiang Lili, "..."

Under Jiang Lili's trembling guidance, Chen Fan practiced on himself first, then on Jiang Lili, and learned how to draw and cut, finally successfully activating his tailoring skills.

……

The lesson lasted for more than an hour. Jiang Lili cut the fabric, carefully laid out the cotton, covered it with a lining, and then put it in a basket to sew the next day.

Together with Chen Fan, they moved the table into the house and prepared to cook.

Now, as long as Chen Fan doesn't go out, she cooks for two people. Chen Fan didn't take the bag of rice he took out yesterday back with him; he gave it to Jiang Lili to keep, and she didn't refuse. From now on, the two of them will be living together.

While Jiang Lili was busy, Chen Fan suddenly asked, "If I want to dig some silt from the pond, who do I need to report to?"

As Jiang Lili washed the vegetables, she looked at him and asked, "Why are you digging in the mud?"

Chen Fan pointed to the kitchen, "This stove is too small, and there's a big pot next to a small pot, it's not symmetrical at all, it looks awkward to me. I want to get some silt to make adobe bricks and build a new stove."

Jiang Lili looked surprised. "You can even cook?"

He can cook, speaks Mandarin, and repair radios. Now he says he can cook stoves. How many other things can he do?
Chen Fan chuckled and said, "So you can make clothes too."

Jiang Lili smiled, lowered her head and continued washing vegetables, not responding to the topic, but instead said, "The silt in the team's fishpond and ditch can't be dug up casually; it's all useful."

If you need soil to build a house, you can dig it behind the educated youth settlement. There's a small mound of earth about a hundred meters behind the courtyard, and next to it is a mud pit. Uncle Huang's adobe bricks were made from the silt dug from there, and the earthwork was also taken from there.” She looked up again and pointed to the riverbank, “Or you can wait a few more days, the water level in the river might drop further, then you can dig in the river, but you can only dig in the middle of the river, not the mud near the riverbank.”

Chen Fan looked behind him, then to the east, and hesitated for two seconds. "Then I'll go dig in the mud pit. It won't take much anyway."

……

For the next two days, Chen Fan was extremely busy.

While Jiang Lili was making clothes, he watched her intently and asked her for advice. From taking measurements to drawing patterns and then cutting and sewing, his sewing skills improved to LV2 without him even realizing it.

Besides listening to Jiang Lili, he would also draw on the ground with a stone and pick up a bunch of poplar leaves to learn how to cut them. For him, they didn't need to be too realistic, as long as he could gain experience.

Using the straw paper from the outhouse would have been better than using tree leaves, but Jiang Lili had bought that paper, and he was already borrowing it; it would be inappropriate to use it for cutting.

Only Jiang Lili looked puzzled. What could you sew with a leaf the size of a palm?
However, considering that there are no suitable conditions at the moment, this is the only option for now.

While Jiang Lili was busy with other things, Chen Fan ran to the dried-up pond behind the educated youth settlement to dig out the silt.

The bricklayer said that clay can be used to make mud bricks, but silt is the best.

The silt is dug out, mixed with straw stalks and other plant roots, vigorously stirred and pounded, placed in a mold, pressed firmly, and then poured out to dry. Once dried, it becomes an adobe brick.

If others don't give him a chance to do it, then he'll create one himself, and the stove in the kitchen became his first target.

Speaking of that stove, no one knows who built it in the first place. It was neither regular nor symmetrical, with a large pot next to a small pot. It had no aesthetic appeal whatsoever. Who wouldn't be confused by it?

Once the mud bricks are finished, we'll dismantle that stove and rebuild it to burn the new one for the New Year!
The educated youth settlement naturally didn't have molds for making adobe bricks, but they had small saws, hammers, chisels, and other tools. They weren't as good as a carpenter's set, but they were enough, so they made their own boxes for making adobe bricks.

After working for two days, I made a hundred mud bricks, and only stopped when I thought that would be enough.

However, the adobe bricks he made were much smaller than the adobe bricks used for building houses, only slightly larger than red bricks; any smaller and they would easily fall apart.

Once these adobe bricks have dried in the shade, we can start modifying the stove.

……

After two busy days, Chen Fan's physique and strength improved significantly, and the experience points of the carpenter and bricklayer also increased.

Indeed, hard work makes people happy!

It was January 29th. Early in the morning, Chen Fan got up, dressed in clean clothes, his face solemn, ready to go.

Today is the day for Huang Laosi's family to raise the roof beam and install doors and windows in their new house. Chen Fan is going to go and learn diligently. Counting the experience he's gained over the past two days, he should be able to upgrade his carpentry and bricklaying skills to level three.

Reaching this stage is essentially equivalent to becoming a fully-fledged professional who has completed their apprenticeship.

Taking a deep breath, Chen Fan prepared to leave. He had just taken a step when he suddenly turned ninety degrees and walked to the door of Jiang Lili's room. "Uncle Huang's family is having a house-building feast. Aren't you going?"

Jiang Lili quickly came out, took out four mao (0.4 yuan) and handed it to him, "I won't go, you go. This is a favor, I'll give you two mao, you probably don't have any money, the other two mao is a loan to you."

Chen Fan didn't stand on ceremony and took the money from her hand, but only two bills. He smiled and said, "If we're going, we'll go together. It's not right to do someone a favor and then not show up."

Jiang Lili looked troubled. "I really won't go. I don't know what I'd do if I went."

Chen Fan was taken aback. "You've been here for three years, and you've never been to a banquet before?"

(End of this chapter)