Reborn in 1977

Returning to the educated youth center, it wasn't even 9:30. Chen Fan first parked the flatbed cart against the wall, let the little mare return to the stable on her own, and then strode into the kitchen.

No one here?

His eyes flickered, and he perked up his ears, hearing some movement in the backyard.

He then walked to the backyard, where he saw four girls tilling the vegetable garden. In just over two hours, they had turned over the entire garden with T-shaped hoes and were now using curved hoes to break up the large clods of soil, while carefully picking out the roots of weeds.

At this moment, the four girls looked almost the same, with a thin layer of sweat on their foreheads and rosy cheeks. They were only wearing single jackets, open at the front, with their sleeves rolled up, revealing their pale arms that had been kept covered all winter.

They waved their hoes, busily working and chatting, not noticing Chen Fan's arrival because they were facing away.

Huang Ying, watching her little mare return to the stable and even close the wooden gate, said with admiration, "Teacher Chen is amazing, even his horse is amazing. It can return to its nest on its own and close the gate."

Liu Dan stared blankly, her eyes full of confusion. "My uncle has raised livestock for most of his life and says he has never seen such a spiritual horse, and that bird too, it's really strange."

Yang Ju chuckled, "That's why the commune's veterinary station insisted that Teacher Chen study veterinary medicine. That's why people with ability are amazing."

Jiang Lili listened to their conversation, occasionally looking up and smiling, her eyes full of joy, as if they were praising her.

Chen Fan, with his hands behind his back, coughed lightly, "I didn't realize you guys were so good at talking."

The four of them turned around together, including Jiang Lili, who hadn't spoken earlier, and all blushed deeply.

Chen Fan chuckled, "Saying good things about people behind their backs is a good thing, why be embarrassed? But it would be even better to praise them face to face."

As a result, no one said a word.

Chen Fan walked over with his hands behind his back, "Oh dear, you must change this habit of praising people behind their backs but not saying anything to their faces. You have to learn from me, I usually praise people face to face.

For example, you've prepared this vegetable garden quite well. After turning over the soil, spread a layer of fermented compost, and then turn it over again to increase the fertility of the soil. Whatever you plant will grow well. Later, plant some spinach, cucumbers, peppers, and garland chrysanthemum, it would be great for hot pot."

Huang Ying was the first to react. While knocking on a clod of soil, she looked up at Chen Fan and asked with a smile, "Teacher Chen, what vegetables do you like to eat?"

Chen Fan stood there with his hands in his pockets, "If I had to say what I love to eat the most, it would be small potatoes in the spring, preferably the size of a thumb. Soak them in water to peel off the skin, then scrape them clean with a tile. Stew them with chicken, and the taste is so good that I can eat the potatoes without eating the chicken."

As he spoke, he swallowed.

Liu Dan, who was a bit straightforward, looked at him foolishly and asked in confusion, "Small potatoes the size of a thumb are just starting to grow. Wouldn't it be wasteful to dig them up at this time?"

Huang Ying's mind worked quickly, and she immediately said, "They'll grow back after we dig them up. It's rare that Teacher Chen likes to eat them. I happen to have planted small potatoes under the cucumber trellis at home, I'll go dig some up later."

Chen Fan grinned and laughed, "Just forget about digging them up from home. It's okay if you grow some yourselves."

Yang Ju immediately nodded and said, "Okay, we'll leave a row to plant potatoes."

Liu Dan realized that she had lost points, and quickly nodded and said, "Yes, yes, plant potatoes."

Chen Fan looked at the three of them, feeling that they were a bit strange, but he didn't think much of it, just assuming it was the natural disadvantage of students facing a teacher.

He looked at Jiang Lili, and seeing that she hadn't said anything, he couldn't help but smile slightly, then looked at everyone and said, "What vegetables do you all like to eat?"

But no one answered, and their faces seemed a little confused.

Chen Fan raised his eyebrows slightly, feeling a bit strange, "What's wrong? Don't you even know what vegetables you like to eat?"

Huang Ying was the first to speak, she shook her head gently, barely squeezing out a few smiles on her face, "We haven't thought about it, and no one has ever asked."

Yang Ju continued her words, "Except during the New Year, there's often oil in the dishes. At other times, we just casually make two green vegetables and eat them with pickled vegetables and kimchi. What we eat the most is pickled vegetables and green vegetable soup."

Chen Fan pursed his lips, understanding from her words that they couldn't even get a single green vegetable when they usually ate.

That's right, there were seven people in Captain Yang's family. Besides the couple, there were five children. Yang Ju was the eldest sister, and she used to be mainly responsible for cooking. By the time she brought the dishes to the table, the vegetables would definitely have been eaten up, and it would be good if there was any soup left.

Liu Dan also said, "Before coming here, we were all about the same. Every morning, we had to go cut pig grass before dawn. If we went late, others would have cut it all. We would be busy until late in the morning, then go back to tidy up the house, cook pig food, and cook meals. In the afternoon, we would work with the adults, and then come back to cook again in the evening.

When we had time, we would simply make one or two green vegetables. During busy farming seasons, we might not even have time to cook, so we would just cook more rice and eat it with pickled vegetables."

After a pause, she smiled again, "But if we weren't so busy, we would also go to the fields to catch loach and eels, and the adults would also go fishing. At that time, we could eat good food."

Hearing this, Huang Ying nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, when the weather gets warmer, loach and eels will come out of their holes. It will be very easy to catch them then. And when the rice ripens in May and June (lunar calendar), there will be many frogs. We can go out at night with a kerosene lamp and use a frog spear to catch frogs. We can catch a lot in one or two hours."

A frog spear is a bamboo pole with a row of steel needles tied to it, a tool specifically for catching frogs. It's simple to make and easy to use. The steel needles aren't really steel needles, just a section of steel wire or thin steel bar that's broken off and sharpened.

Yang Ju quickly continued, "Frog meat is plentiful and delicious when stir-fried with chili peppers. Teacher Chen, you came in the winter, there were no frogs. I'll catch you frogs to eat in a few months."

Chen Fan smiled and nodded, "Okay."

Textbooks teach that frogs are beneficial insects and should be protected, but which rural child hadn't caught frogs before?

Every summer, people would carry a bamboo basket, or a snakeskin bag, and hold a kerosene lamp, or a flashlight. When the light shone on a frog, it would lie still, and then they would use the frog spear that Huang Ying mentioned to stab the frog.

In addition to this bamboo stick "frog spear," there was also a "frog fork" made of a long bamboo pole, with a row of steel needles inserted at the front, allowing for a longer attack range, so they could stand on the ridge of the field and stab the frogs in the field.

Even though the villagers caught frogs year after year, the sound of frogs hadn't diminished.

But a dozen years later, due to the overuse of pesticides and fertilizers, the number of frogs decreased at a rate visible to the naked eye, which is why frogs later became protected animals.

So Chen Fan didn't feel any aversion to their talk of catching frogs, but rather a bit of anticipation.

Decades later, the "Magui" from Funan was sold all over the country, but he always felt that this tiger-striped frog lacked a bit of the flavor of the frogs from back then. The taste of frogs these days should be very pure, right?!

After a couple of seconds of being stunned, Chen Fan came back to his senses and looked at the last one, "Xiao Jiang, what about you?"

Jiang Lili looked up, turned her back to the three people next to her, and wrinkled her nose at him obscurely, as if blaming him for making her speak. Then she pursed her lips and said, "I'm okay with anything, there's nothing I particularly like to eat."

Chen Fan pursed his lips and smiled, hehe, you clearly love to eat fish the most.

Huang Ying put down her hoe and smiled at Jiang Lili, "Then you're the same as us."

Jiang Lili turned her head and smiled, "Yeah."

Chen Fan put his hands in his pockets and said, "It's the same, I've noticed, you all don't like to eat green vegetables, you just like to eat meat."

The four girls all blushed, and Huang Ying laughed with her head raised, "No way."

Chen Fan counted on his fingers, "Frogs, loach, eels, fish, aren't those all meat?"

Huang Ying and the others were immediately flushed with embarrassment, laughing and unable to speak.

Chen Fan looked at the vegetable garden and sighed softly, "Unfortunately, you can't plant meat in the ground. Otherwise, it would be great if planting a pound of meat would grow ten pigs."

This time, even Jiang Lili couldn't help but laugh, and they all held onto their hoes and giggled non-stop.

After their laughter subsided, Chen Fan asked, "What do you plan to plant?"

Yang Ju smiled, "Teacher Chen, besides small potatoes, what else do you like to eat?"

Huang Ying quickly nodded and said, "Whatever you like to eat, we'll plant."

Chen Fan smiled, "Although I knew long ago that you respect your teacher and value the Way, I didn't expect you to consider this aspect as well."

This sentence made them blush again.

Chen Fan looked at the sky, feeling that it wasn't hot today, so why were their faces always flushed?

Then he looked at them and said, "Okay, let's not just have me choose. Besides scallions, ginger, and garlic, each of you choose one more thing."

Seeing them looking at each other, not saying anything, Chen Fan directly named someone, "Huang Ying, you usually talk the most, you go first."

Huang Ying chuckled dryly, thought for a while, and said, "How about planting some tomatoes?"

Yang Ju immediately widened her eyes and nodded repeatedly, "Tomatoes are good, tomatoes can be eaten as fruit, and you can also make cold tomato salad, I eat a lot every year."

Liu Dan raised her hand in agreement, "I'll plant tomatoes too."

Jiang Lili glanced at the three of them, suddenly her eyes flickered, and she also nodded and said, "I'll plant tomatoes too."

Chen Fan smacked his lips, looked at them, "You don't want to eat vegetables, you want to eat fruit, right?"

Hearing this, the four girls were immediately embarrassed and chuckled foolishly.

It would have been better if they hadn't laughed, but this laugh turned into a ball, laughing uncontrollably.

Chen Fan put his hands on his hips, pointed at them and laughed, "This is a vegetable garden, not an orchard. If you want to eat fruit, there's plenty of space in my backyard to plant fruit trees. You can work hard and provide for yourselves. Go plant fruit trees in my place later. Now, think about what vegetables to plant."

Huang Ying laughed unconvinced, "No way, tomatoes are also fruit."

Yang Ju also laughed, "Yes, yes, and cucumbers too."