Reborn in 1977

Chapter 111: Departure

February 6th, the 19th day of the twelfth lunar month, Sunday.

The weather was overcast, 5 to 11 degrees Celsius, with a northerly wind of force 2 to 3.

While Chen Fan was still broadcasting, the members of the 5th team had already set off for the market in twos and threes.

Secretary Yang and the others were not loyal enough to wait; by the time Chen Fan came out of the broadcast room, they had all left, leaving only Luo Guitian, the brigade's storekeeper, holding the fort.

He wasn't specifically waiting for Chen Fan, but had to stay behind on duty. No matter how big the event, someone had to stay on duty; that was the rule of the brigade headquarters.

Chen Fan packed his things and hurried home.

By this time, Jiang Lili had prepared everything and was waiting for him to return before setting off.

Chen Fan handed her the water bottle, "Fill this up for me."

He then asked, "Has everyone from the team left?"

Jiang Lili shook her head blankly, "I haven't been outside. Around 7:30, I heard many people talking in front, so they should have already left."

There was a broadcast time announcement at 7:30, so she remembered it clearly.

Chen Fan said "Oh," and then, "Okay, I'll go borrow a mule cart."

With that, he turned and ran.

What a ghost! Last time, Team Leader Yang said he would lend him a flatbed cart, and yesterday he specifically went to find Master Liu, who was in charge of the carts. Could it be that they didn't wait for him and all ran off?

He ran towards the village, first checking Team Leader Yang's house. Sure enough, there was a lock on the door; it seemed his entire family of seven had gone to the market.

The other families were similar. Even those who hadn't gone were mostly elderly grandmothers and grandfathers. The young people, children, and even immobile babies were all gone. Besides going to the market, there was no other possibility.

Thinking back to what Team Leader Yang and the others had said that day, Chen Fan felt a little scalp tingling. Accountant Liu and the others had seriously underestimated the enthusiasm of the people for going to the market. If other places were like this, the number of people going to the market today would probably far exceed 20,000!

Running all the way to the livestock shed, Chen Fan's heart immediately returned to his stomach when he saw it.

The mules and horses and two large water buffalo were all there, and the five flatbed carts were all in the tool room.

Chen Fan shouted loudly, "Master Liu, Master Liu?"

The old man Liu shouted, "Coming!"

As he spoke, he pushed the door open and came out, followed by an old woman who stood at the door and smiled at him.

Chen Fan guessed that she should be Old Man Liu's wife, so he smiled and nodded as a greeting.

Then, looking at Master Liu, just as he was about to speak, he heard him say.

"The others have all gone to the market. They only had a few small things that they could carry themselves, so no one needed a flatbed cart. If you didn't need a flatbed cart, I would have gone with them."

Chen Fan quickly smiled and said, "Thank you, Master Liu. I'll treat you to soft-shelled turtle meat later."

Master Liu raised his head and laughed loudly, "If you were to treat me to something else, I wouldn't want it. But if you say you'll treat me to soft-shelled turtle meat, then I won't be polite. The soft-shelled turtle that others make is just not as good as yours."

As he spoke, he walked to the tool room and pulled out two flatbed carts one after the other, muttering, "They didn't need even one flatbed cart, but you alone need two. I'd like to see what you're bringing."

Chen Fan chuckled, "You'll know later."

Master Liu then led out the mule and donkey, put them in the harness, turned around and smiled, "Alright, I'll go with you and take a look."

Then, he drove the mule cart himself, letting Chen Fan lead the donkey, and they slowly left the livestock shed.

Chen Fan pulled on the reins behind him, smiling and asking, "Master Liu, last time you said you would teach me how to drive a cart, are you still willing to teach me?"

Master Liu sat on the cart board, looked back at him, and laughed, "You really want to learn how to drive a big cart? Alright, if you want to learn, I'll teach you, it just depends on whether you have the talent."

After a pause, he continued, "Driving a cart can't be done haphazardly. It has a set of secrets. Flicking the whip, driving the cart, and controlling the livestock all have a lot of attention to detail. If you don't understand the secrets, you either can't get it moving, or you can't control the livestock properly, and you might even hurt yourself.

If you want to learn how to drive a cart and become a carter, the first step is to learn how to recognize the harness and horse equipment, and also learn how to feed the horses, how to harness the cart, and how to tie up the goods. This set of work looks simple, but it's very difficult to do. I followed my master for three years before I finished my apprenticeship…"

Chen Fan followed behind him, listening carefully to his bragging, but he didn't say anything about the actual content of how to drive the cart and control the horses.

However, he wasn't in a hurry. There was plenty of time on the way from here to the 5th team of Ganjia Village, so he could talk about it slowly then.

Moreover, listening to these things could also deepen his impression.

Before long, they arrived at the educated youth spot. After pulling the two carts into the yard, Master Liu couldn't help but be stunned when he saw the pile of things next to Jiang Lili.

He turned his head to look at Chen Fan, "Are you planning to move?"

Six quilts, four wooden buckets, two bamboo baskets, and one wooden basin, that was already quite a lot.

Next to them was also a large iron pot and a "clay stove"?

Even when moving, no one would bring a stove, would they?!

As for that large pile of things wrapped in cotton cloth, with protruding corners, he didn't know what they were.

So many things, no wonder he needed two carts.

Perhaps even two carts would be a bit of a stretch.

Chen Fan chuckled, "I slaughtered ten soft-shelled turtles yesterday, cooked them, and wanted to try selling them at the market."

"Sell soft-shelled turtle meat?"

Master Liu widened his eyes, "Can you even sell that stuff? What if no one buys it?"

Chen Fan wasn't surprised by his words, and laughed, "If no one buys it, I'll treat you to meat, until you're full."

Master Liu was immediately happy when he heard that, "Your words make me wonder whether I should hope you sell it, or hope you don't sell it?"

While joking, the three of them began to move things onto the cart.

This time, Master Liu was in command and the main force, Chen Fan was responsible for moving the heavier things, and Jiang Lili helped on the side.

The two bamboo baskets containing cured meat and cured fish were placed at the rear of the cart, covered with a piece of homespun cloth, and then the six quilts were moved on top, which took up one cart.

The disposable clay stove, about fifty centimeters in diameter, covered with yellow mud on the outside and bamboo slats on the inside, was also placed at the rear of the other cart, with the large iron pot moved out of the pig house on top, and the cotton cloth package placed in the pot.

The four wooden buckets were placed in the middle of the cart, two of which were full of soft-shelled turtle meat, covered with homespun cloth to prevent dust from blowing in. The other two buckets contained "bamboo bowls."

Including the large package placed in the pot, they were all bamboo bowls.

In the past few days, Chen Fan had been racking his brains, thinking about how to solve the problem of tableware, and even had the idea of bringing the bowls from the educated youth spot, but he later rejected it himself.

Although bowls weren't considered very valuable these days, even the cheapest pottery bowl cost one or two mao, and porcelain bowls were even more expensive. Bringing so many bowls out, if he accidentally dropped them, he would really be ruined.

Thinking about it, when Chen Fan saw the kerosene bamboo tube under the bed that had soaked the alarm clock parts, he couldn't help but curse himself for being a pig brain.

There was a small bamboo forest to the east of the village, and the thick moso bamboo was clearly the best material for bowls.

Just right, when he went out to teach how to slaughter soft-shelled turtles, the team credited Chen Fan with 50 work points, so he went to find Team Leader Yang and bought 5 moso bamboo stalks at the price of 10 work points per stalk.

Accountant Liu's ledger showed Chen Fan's name returning to zero again.

Chen Fan dragged the moso bamboo back, each long moso bamboo stalk had 18 to 20 bamboo joints, just enough to saw into 96 bowls, and he also made more than 100 bamboo sticks from the bamboo branches.

The conditions were simple, so forget about chopsticks. Everyone could just use a bamboo stick to eat.

…

After moving all the things onto the cart, the two pulled the cart out of the yard, Jiang Lili locked the yard door, and they walked together towards the direction of the commune.