Time Travel: Volume 1! Starting from a Small Mountain Village

The seven people followed the route they had scouted and arrived at a house. The door was closed, and they didn't know if it was Wang the carpenter's house.

Under a large tree nearby, several little boys were playing an unknown game around it!

Long Lifan took out a few candies from her clothes bag (actually, she had them in her spatial storage) and waved to the children: "Little friends, I'll ask you some questions. If you answer correctly, you'll get candy!"

Hearing about the candy, the children's eyes lit up instantly: "Sister, ask away!"

"Is this Wang the carpenter's house?"

"Yes!" The children nodded in unison.

"Do you know where he went? I don't think he's home right now."

"Wang Xiaohu, do you know where your grandpa went?" one of the taller boys said. "Sister, Wang Xiaohu's grandpa is Carpenter Wang, he must know."

It turned out that the skinny little boy was Wang the carpenter's grandson. Long Lifan kept her promise and gave each child a piece of candy. The children, holding the candy, excitedly scattered!

"Do you know where your grandpa is? We want to find him to get some things. If you help us find your grandpa, all this candy is yours!"

"Okay!" The little boy nodded, then ran towards the back of the village!

The group stood idly at the entrance of the courtyard, waiting.

"You're new educated youth, right? You're here to buy things, aren't you?" After about ten minutes, a loud male voice rang out, and a man who looked to be about 56 years old appeared in front of them!

"Come in, come in and sit down!" Carpenter Wang said warmly as he opened the door, inviting the group inside. However, he seemed to have some difficulty walking, and he walked with a limp.

"A few days ago, I heard the brigade leader say that he was going to pick up the educated youth, so I thought I would make some preparations in advance. But today I heard that seven people have come, and I thought that would definitely not be enough, so I went to the mountain to find wood again!"

"Look at these, they're all common wooden basins, small stools and the like!"

"A wooden basin costs 1.5 yuan, and a small stool costs 1 yuan!" The group exchanged glances and felt that the price was fair, so they each paid to buy one!

"Uncle Wang, I'm also planning to have a wardrobe made, but I don't know how much it will cost!" Long Lifan thought about the package her family had mailed to her that should have arrived, and she would need to find a place to put her things.

"A wardrobe! This is a large item, and it's quite complicated to make. It will cost about 15 yuan, and it will take at least 3 days to make!" Carpenter Wang pondered for a moment, gesturing with his hands.

"Okay!" Long Lifan felt that the price was within her budget, so she readily agreed!

"I want to build a wardrobe too!"

"I also want!"

Hu Lili and Jiang Nian'an were both well-off, so they spoke up as well.

"Okay, no problem. There are a few other people in the village who also know some carpentry, but they're not as skilled as me. I'll find them all and try to get you started as soon as possible!"

"Thank you so much, Uncle Wang!" Long Lifan was genuinely worried that if she made a few wardrobes, she wouldn't be able to use them for ten days or half a month!

"By the way, do we need to pay a deposit or anything?"

"We villagers don't care about these things, you're not going to run away!"

"Come here," Long Lifan gestured for Wang the carpenter's grandson to come over. "Your name is Wang Xiaohu, right? This is for you!" she said, taking out three pieces of candy from her bag.

"No, no, no, you've already helped us by buying these things, how could we accept your candy!"

"It's nothing!" Long Lifan chuckled softly. "This is what I just agreed on with Xiaohu. A person should keep their word, and you wouldn't want me to be a person who doesn't keep their promises, would you?"

"You..." Carpenter Wang was bad at talking and couldn't win against Long Lifan, so he turned to Xiao Hu beside him and said, "Hurry up and thank this sister!"

"Thank you, sister!" Wang Xiaohu held the candy in his hand, a simple smile on his face, and quickly thanked his grandfather upon hearing his words!

"I see you seem to have other things to do. I'll deliver all the things you bought to the educated youth settlement later!" The grandson had accepted the candy from the educated youth, and the carpenter Wang wanted to reciprocate in kind!

"Thank you, Uncle Wang. We really do have something to do; we need to go to the brigade headquarters to collect our rations!"

Carpenter Wang discussed the details of the wardrobe with several people, which made the Yang sisters very interested, so they also decided to spend money to buy one!

Dongwan Brigade, Brigade Headquarters!

At this moment, there were seven men in a room; they were the brigade cadres of the Dongwan Brigade!

They are Miao Dashan, the brigade secretary; Lin Guodong, the brigade leader; and Zhou Yuhao, the brigade secretary!

The Dongwan Brigade had over a thousand people, who were divided into four production teams. The other four people were the team leaders for each of these production teams!

Team Leader: Lin Guohao

Second Captain: Lin Guowei

Third Captain: Chen Datong

Fourth Captain: Zhou Ning

This brings us to the specifics of the Dongwan Brigade. The Lin family is the most common surname in Dongwan Brigade, followed by the Zhou family. The brigade has a total population of approximately 1200, with the Lin family making up about 600 people and the Zhou family about 400.

This is why all the brigade cadres are surnamed Lin or Zhou!

“Hey, Captain, how could you make such a blunder this time!” Zhou Ning, the captain of the fourth team, complained. “What kind of farm work do those educated youths from the city know? And yet you took on seven of them at once, all of them female educated youths.”

Listening to his complaints, Lin Guodong couldn't help but glance at the others. Although the Party Secretary didn't say anything, it was clear he also harbored resentment! As for the two team leaders from the Lin family, while they didn't entirely agree with the brigade leader's actions, they were family and certainly wouldn't show it!

"What can I do?" Lin Guodong roared. "This is a task assigned by the commune cadres. Can I refuse?"

“In the past, when I went to pick up people, I always tried to keep the number to a minimum. Now, there are no more than 10 educated youth in our educated youth settlement, but what about the other brigades!”

“You are not unaware of the situation. Now other brigades are expressing their opinions, and the commune cadres have no choice but to make this arrangement.”

"If you have the ability to personally go to the commune to report this and get these educated youths out, then I'll let you be the brigade leader!"

"Alright, stop talking. We should trust the brigade leader. He wouldn't do anything to harm the collective interest!" Brigade Party Secretary Miao Dashan stepped forward to mediate!

Actually, everyone is just complaining verbally! As village officials, they will of course unconditionally comply with the policies from above!

"Captain, are you there? We've come to collect our rations." Long Lifan's voice rang out from the doorway. Lin Guodong dismissed the other captains, leaving only the three of them.

"come in!"

The accountant welcomed them in, saying, "Perfect timing, we were just discussing that too!"

"You've probably heard about this from the other educated youth, so I won't go into details! You can temporarily receive three months' worth of rations, which are 10 jin of refined grains and 40 jin of coarse grains!"

"Got it? If you understand, come over and register to collect your grain!"

Long Lifan was reminded once again of the poverty of that era that she could only receive 50 jin of grain every three months, and it was mostly coarse grains.

The other four people started signing to receive their food rations, but the three of them remained standing still!

"Can we just eat refined grains instead of coarse grains?" Hu Lili thought about lunch today and couldn't accept it.

"You two think the same way!" Accountant Zhou Yuhao glanced at Jiang Nian'an and Long Lifan, who were still standing motionless to the side, and asked in a low voice.

"May I!"

"That's possible," the accountant nodded. "But it definitely won't be 50 jin. If you choose to have all refined grains, then we can only give you a maximum of 25 jin!"

It's equivalent to losing three pounds of coarse grains for every pound of refined grain. That's just how it was in those days; grain was precious, and refined grains were even rarer.

In rural areas, people only eat refined grains during festivals and holidays; otherwise, they eat coarse grains. Being able to eat their fill is the most important thing!

"Okay!" The group nodded.

"You can decide for now, but I'm telling you in advance that this is your food ration for three months. If you run out, we won't lend you any more, and you'll have to figure out how to make a living on your own!"