Reborn in 1977

Chapter 217: Burying One's Head in the Sand

Entering the courtyard, only Jiang Lili was present today.

Chen Fan's mood lifted a little, and he dismounted immediately, asking with a smile, "Have they all gone to work?"

The two puppies immediately came running, circling around his feet. The chicks, on the other hand, were busy looking for food everywhere, ignoring him completely, serving them right for being eaten later.

Jiang Lili, worried that the two puppies would be trampled by the horse, squatted down to pick them up, nodding with a smile, "It's my turn to cook today, so I came back early."

Although it was the busy farming season, unless they were students or someone like Chen Fan with his own job, all laborers over the age of 16 had to follow arrangements to work. Those who didn't go without a valid reason would not only not receive work points but would also be penalized. The four girls at the educated youth spot were no exception.

However, Teacher Chen's quality of life hadn't declined.

The four girls had agreed that one of them would take turns returning early each day to cook, so as not to delay Teacher Chen's meals.

And the only loss they suffered was the two fewer work points recorded on the day of their turn.

As long as they helped Teacher Chen fire the kiln once, they could sell the goods at the market and make up for it dozens of times over, so naturally, they had to serve Teacher Chen well.

So, compared to before, the only difference was that they didn't have as much time to clear the small hill behind, but otherwise, there was no impact.

However, throughout the entire first month of the lunar year, that small hill had been almost completely cleared. Within Chen Fan's demarcated two-mu "sphere of influence," almost not a single blade of grass or tree remained, only a bare, bumpy, uneven small hill.

All the grass was dug up by the roots and carried to the bottom of the slope, where it would be used for charcoal after it dried.

Those short, thin, and crooked miscellaneous trees couldn't be used for lumber and could only be used as firewood, becoming fuel for the kiln or being made into charcoal.

Chen Fan only needed to complete his "villa" design and accumulate enough materials before he could start building his own nest.

Chen Fan led the horse towards the backyard, asking at the same time, "How is the hybrid rice doing? Has it all been planted?"

Hearing this, Jiang Lili followed him inside, saying softly, "The commune members don't seem too willing to plant it. A few days ago, Captain Yang brought the seeds back, and later he came to me, saying that he wanted to use the 'educated youth field' as an experimental field, planting all hybrid rice."

Chen Fan's lips twitched slightly, and he looked back at her, smiling, "Now the educated youth field should also have been taken back by the team and accounted for together, right?"

Jiang Lili pursed her lips and smiled, saying, "It's 'temporarily' taken back, saying that when there are more educated youths, it will be returned to the educated youth spot for them to plant themselves."

Chen Fan suddenly understood, "So they feel that the land isn't theirs, and using the educated youth field to plant hybrid rice doesn't count as a loss, at most it's not a profit, is that right?"

Jiang Lili smiled, "That should be it."

Chen Fan was speechless, wasn't this just deceiving themselves?

Am I taking advantage of myself?

When the educated youth spot was first established, there were many conflicts between the educated youths and the commune members. Later, in order to reduce conflicts, after discussions between the brigade headquarters and the commune, it was decided to allocate "responsibility fields" to the educated youths separately.

Compared to the household responsibility system that was popularized a few years later, they were still in the "contract to the team" stage, which meant that each small team independently accounted for their profits and losses. Dividing out the "educated youth field" was equivalent to classifying these educated youths as a separate small team, only managed by Team 6, and Team 6's task of delivering public grain was correspondingly reduced as compensation. The reduced portion was counted towards the educated youths.

If the output of the educated youth field, after delivering the public grain, wasn't enough to cover the educated youths' rations, the brigade headquarters would come forward and lend grain to the educated youths.

In fact, this grain was still provided by the commune, only using the brigade headquarters as a front to deceive people, so that the educated youths wouldn't always rely on the commune for support.

And nominally, this grain had to be repaid.

In the beginning, it was indeed okay. The educated youths cultivated their own "responsibility fields" with different motivations. Although the output still couldn't compare to the production team, they could barely make a living. Except for borrowing grain in the first two years, they slowly repaid it later. If someone left midway, they would make up for their share, and others wouldn't suffer a loss.

But this system only lasted for four or five years before it ended.

Because the first batch of educated youths who went to the countryside almost all caught up with the city's "mass recruitment" in the second year, or at the latest the third year, that is, in the early 1970s. Except for a very small number of special personnel, they basically returned to the city, and this group of people didn't use the educated youth field.

After a brief window of opportunity, in the next four or five years of the down-to-the-countryside movement, the average time that educated youths spent in the countryside was about 3 years. Twenty or thirty people working together could maintain the existence of the "educated youth field."

But starting last year, someone took the lead and started playing tricks, so everyone followed suit, and the time was shortened many times. (The tricks are gone -_- ||)

The educated youths' files were all at the Educated Youth Office, and the production team didn't have much control over them. And the commune was so big, the people in the Educated Youth Office knew the people in those educated youth families, so… …like that.

So there were much fewer people at the educated youth spot, usually only five or six, and the fewest was now, with only Jiang Lili.

Relying on the five or six people at the educated youth spot, they certainly couldn't plant such a large piece of land. So after Captain Yang discussed it with the brigade headquarters, they simply temporarily took back the educated youth field and let the educated youths work with the commune members.

Anyway, the commune members all knew that those local educated youths wouldn't stay for long, so they didn't bother with them, but instead gloated over being able to occupy the educated youth field, feeling that they had taken advantage, completely forgetting that the land was originally theirs.

Now that the commune had assigned a new task, Captain Yang thought of that educated youth field.

Psychologically speaking, the commune members all believed that the team was only temporarily managing it, and if there were more educated youths at the educated youth spot one day, it would still be returned. So, using that land to plant hybrid rice, their resistance wasn't as strong.

Chen Fan shook his head and chuckled, "Hey, tell me, if the hybrid rice has a bumper harvest, who will the rice in the educated youth field belong to?"

Jiang Lili's eyes rolled slightly, "Theirs, of course."

Chen Fan said, "That's right, whether it's a bumper harvest or a poor harvest, the good and the bad are all borne by all the commune members of the small team. Is it the educated youth field or not, what difference does it make?"

Jiang Lili pursed her lips and smiled, glanced back, and then said softly, "Burying one's head in the sand."

Chen Fan turned to look at her, "Oh, you're making fun of people now."

Jiang Lili wrinkled her nose, her cheeks flushed, and then she raised the two puppies in her hands to cover her face.

Chen Fan laughed loudly, "Burying one's head in the sand."

Jiang Lili bit her lip and glared at him reproachfully, "I'm not going to talk to you, I'm going to cook."

After saying that, she ran away with the two puppies in her arms.

Chen Fan led the mare to the stable, and the foal immediately jumped over excitedly. He added some fodder to the trough before walking out.

When he arrived in the front yard, he first put away his things, locking the handgun he carried with him into the cabinet. Then, from another cabinet behind him containing a radio and a clock, he took out a set of woodworking tools.

This set of woodworking tools was naturally obtained for him by Zhang Wenliang, and now it would come in handy.

He didn't expect that the first thing he would make after getting the tools would be an easel.