Reborn in 1977

Chapter 216: Adjusting the Plan

With everyone in the brigade busy with spring plowing, Chen Fan found himself idle.

Due to the agricultural rush, Station Chief Zhou of the veterinary station held their graduation exam ahead of schedule and issued "Rural Veterinarian Certificates." Chen Fan, Yang Zhijun, and Li Zhengqun officially became veterinary coordinators for the brigade.

Chen Fan happily received work points for both the broadcaster and veterinarian positions, a sweet deal.

Yang Zhijun and Li Zhengqun divided the work, one stationed and one going out, jointly managing the brigade's veterinary shed.

Each team also had its own qualified veterinarians, just without certificates. They only needed to get some common medicines and equipment from the brigade to handle general injuries and illnesses of livestock, without having to send them to the brigade.

So Chen Fan didn't need to worry about veterinary matters at all, getting a veterinarian's work points for nothing, which wasn't a waste considering how many people he had trained.

Of course, the brigade wasn't at a loss either. With so many more veterinarians, they could later argue with other brigades to see how to exchange benefits. And for the veterinary station, having three more qualified veterinarians in the commune not only meant easier work in the future but also a significant highlight in this year's work report.

Almost everyone benefited in every aspect. Chen Fan naturally took this work point with peace of mind, and no one was envious.

The study group temporarily disbanded, and even Zhang Cuie didn't have time to come to him.

He only needed to give some guidance to Jiang Lili's studies when he returned to the educated youth spot in the evening. As for Huang Ying and the other three, they were still following Jiang Lili to learn junior high school knowledge. By the time they started learning high school courses, Jiang Lili should have made some progress, ensuring a seamless transition.

However, Chen Fan mainly taught science, so they could only learn science with him, with no room to choose liberal arts.

As a result, Chen Fan had a lot of free time, so he decided to write something to practice his skills.

Regarding writing, at first, he thought about imitating the style of "Scar Literature," writing something pretentious, which would appeal to the educated youth and should sell well.

But after thinking it over and even trying to write a section during the New Year, he decisively threw the manuscript into the charcoal stove and gave up on this idea.

There was no way, personality was innate, and he really couldn't write such things.

If it was for making money, he might as well write Wuxia (martial arts) novels, which could also become popular, and the formula was simple.

Basically, it was all about "Starting with the extermination of the family, leaving only one person, who happens to be rescued by an expert (usually the number one, two, or three expert in the world), cultivates bitterly for ten years, and then goes out into the world to seek revenge. The revenge process is naturally not smooth, but it doesn't matter, there are adventures waiting ahead, either falling off a cliff and getting a martial arts secret manual, or meeting a dying expert who passes on their skills before death, or a Jianghu beauty sending both herself and treasures together. After getting all the benefits, finally avenging the great hatred, he retreats from the Jianghu with N beauties and countless gold and silver treasures."

Writing according to this formula would definitely sell better than Scar Literature.

Moreover, Scar Literature was only popular for those few years. After a few years, even those who had really been hurt were tired of it and turned to the embrace of "Reader," let alone those who hadn't been hurt.

In terms of vitality, it was far inferior to Wuxia novels.

So, the plan was adjusted, and Chen Fan immediately abandoned Scar Literature. But the best time to write Wuxia hadn't arrived yet, so he decided to write some "Native Soil Literature" first, to see if he could cultivate a pen name.

This way, when the Writers' Federation and Writers' Association were restored in a few years, he could legitimately break into them.

You should know that it's not just writers who can join the Writers' Association; anyone who has publicly published works can, so there are many big shots inside.

No matter which level of the Writers' Association, it can leverage countless resources. As long as he joins and builds good relationships with those people, these resources can be used by him. Then, changing his identity and switching to the "Popular Literature" market to make money would be smooth sailing.

Plan complete!

Now, there shouldn't be any need to adjust it again, right?!

With a plan, it had to be executed. Originally, he was still thinking about materials. Fortunately, the scene of distributing rice seeds a few days ago gave Chen Fan a lot of inspiration. Wasn't this a typical "Native Soil Article"?!

The state promotes new technologies, but the members of the grassroots production brigade don't understand or trust them. However, after heart-to-heart talks and persuasion from the brigade leaders, in order to complete the tasks assigned by the superior commune, they resolutely implement them. In the end, the new rice seeds achieve a great harvest, and the members' faces are filled with smiles, praising the wise leadership of the commune and superiors, perfectly demonstrating the "Learn from Dazhai" spirit.

Look, what good material… I mean, subject matter!

Although there hasn't been a harvest yet, it doesn't prevent Chen Fan from firmly believing that there will be a harvest and writing the article first.

Anyway, with a month of seedling cultivation and two or three months of growth, at the latest by the end of May in the lunar calendar, the scene of the harvest can be seen.

Using three or four months to write a novella of tens of thousands of words, neither rushed nor slow, is just right.

…

This afternoon, after the morning broadcast ended, and without having to teach or go to the commune veterinary station, Chen Fan packed up his novel outline and rode his horse home.

Even though he was still wearing a cotton vest inside his coat, the warm spring breeze blowing on his face made him feel very comfortable, just as the poem says, "Riding on horseback in the spring breeze, feeling proud and elated."

During the busy farming season, there were few people in the village, only a group of children laughing and playing. The slightly older ones were helping their families with work.

Not only limited to housework like washing clothes and cooking, but also cutting pig grass, cooking pig feed, preparing lunch for adults, feeding pigs, digging wild vegetables, chopping firewood, herding chickens and ducks, etc. These were the most common laboring lives of rural "older children" in this era.

Chen Fan rode his horse slowly past the children of all sizes and left the woods on the edge of Team 5.

Once on the "village road," he didn't urge his horse to gallop wildly but instead surveyed the distant fields.

Irregular rice paddies were distributed on the land. Somehow, the dry rice fields in winter had accumulated a thick layer of water, which was quite magical.

In the distant rice fields, villagers held plows, waved bamboo whips, and drove cattle to plow the land, large chunks of black soil being turned over and over again into mud.

"Plowing deeper by an inch is equal to a layer of manure." The silt deep in these rice fields has more abundant nutrients than the surface layer, which is conducive to the growth of rice, so the members will tirelessly plow it over and over again.

In the well-plowed rice fields, female members carefully carried baskets filled with rice seeds and scattered them into the already plowed paddy fields.

Paddy fields are different from ordinary rice fields. They are made by fertilizing and leveling the rice fields, piling up and flattening the field mud to form small squares or straight strips. The surface of the soil has only a thin layer of shallow water to provide moisture for the rice seeds. These small squares are "seedbeds."

After scattering the seeds on the seedbeds, a thick layer of rice husks is spread on top. This is to prevent the temperature from dropping at night or during a cold snap, to keep the seeds warm, and to slowly provide a little nutrition.

It is said that on the black soil plains of Northeast China, plastic film insulation has been popularized. After scattering the seeds, you only need to pull a film to cover them, and you can wait for the seeds to germinate without the trouble of spreading rice husks.

But now plastic film is still a scarce product, and the price is not cheap, so the thrifty production team did not buy that kind of thing and still uses the traditional seedling cultivation method.

The working people saw Chen Fan riding his horse from afar and waved to him with smiles.

"Teacher Chen is off work."

Chen Fan also responded with a smile, "Off work. How much did you sow today?"

"We've sown most of it, and we'll be able to finish in two more days."

"We prepared the paddy fields long ago, just waiting for the seeds to come. As soon as the seeds arrive, we can sow them."

"The rice fields can be slowly prepared, but the paddy fields can't be delayed."

"Seedlings are cultivated for a month, and the rice fields are slowly plowed. After Grain Rain, the seedlings will grow almost enough, and then we can transplant them."

There are several ways to sow rice: direct sowing, transplanting, and throwing seedlings. Nanhua Commune generally uses the transplanting method. First, seedlings are cultivated in paddy fields. When the seedlings grow to about a foot, they are pulled out and transplanted into the rice fields at a certain spacing. This transplanting process is what is commonly called transplanting.

The "direct sowing method" is to directly scatter the rice seeds in the rice fields and wait until the rice matures to harvest. "Throwing seedlings" is a bit similar to transplanting, but it is not planted by people one by one, but by throwing the seedlings into the rice fields. It is more suitable for places with few people and a lot of land, and the rice fields cannot be too large.

Speaking one after another, not knowing who was speaking or who it was being said to, Chen Fan rode his horse slowly through the middle of the rice fields with a smile on his face, responding from time to time, and soon arrived at the educated youth spot.