Reborn in 1977

Chapter 238: Worse Than a Sweatshop Laborer

Chen Fan had some guesses as to why An Quan wanted to teach him music.

The reason was nothing more than wanting to build a relationship with him, to get on better terms, in case he rose to prominence one day and could help him with something.

Anyway, teaching music was an easy and beneficial thing to do, and it could win over a young man with unlimited potential. Why not do it?

And Chen Fan himself happened to be interested in the accordion.

Which boy doesn't have a bit of an artistic dream? Whether it's slinging a guitar and singing "Nothing to My Name," or holding an accordion and playing "By the Baikal Lake," in An Quan's words, intellectuals with artistic cultivation are the most popular with girls.

Ahem, actually, Chen Fan simply liked music. Girls and popularity were all fleeting clouds.

Not worth mentioning!

...

Time passed day by day. Those who tilled the fields continued to till, and those who grew vegetables had already planted them.

Through his hard work, with the assistance of four female comrades, and after careful design and construction, Chen Fan finally succeeded in building a rabbit shed.

It had three layers, top, middle, and bottom, in a single-row design. The load-bearing walls were made of blue bricks mixed with local cement, and bamboo was used extensively in the middle. Under each bamboo cage, there was a grooved wooden board to collect the rabbits' droppings, and in front of the bamboo cage was a bamboo culm split in half to serve as a feeding trough.

The rabbits were kept in the bamboo cages, and they could stick their heads out through the small holes in the bamboo cages to eat the fodder in the feeding trough.

To shelter the rabbits from the wind and rain, Chen Fan thoughtfully built them a thatched shed, right next to the pigsty in the backyard of the educated youth compound, near the wall.

Thanks to the diligent work of the Eastern Marsh Harrier, the number of his rabbits had reached 106, forming a certain scale. It was almost enough to fill this rabbit shed.

Chen Fan didn't even have to show his face to catch these rabbits. He simply fenced off an area in the front yard with bamboo, covered it with straw. After the Eastern Marsh Harrier caught a rabbit, it would throw it directly inside, then go to the bamboo pole next to it to eat some meat and drink some water, and continue working tirelessly without taking a salary.

When Chen Fan came back from work, he could just put the rabbits into the rabbit cages, which didn't take any effort at all.

However, even after catching so many, he didn't let the Eastern Marsh Harrier stop. He just kept catching rabbits, stuffing a few more small rabbits into each cage, turning single-rabbit cages into multi-rabbit cages, until he built a larger rabbit shed.

In addition, spring was originally the season when animals frequently appeared, and it was also the peak breeding season for rabbits. The Eastern Marsh Harrier would specifically look for rabbit nests, and after Chen Fan got off work, it would inform him, and then he would run over to block the nest and wipe them out in one fell swoop.

It was this "two-pronged" strategy that allowed the number of rabbits to increase so much, with more than half of them being small rabbits that had not yet reached adulthood, and only one-third being slightly thin adult rabbits.

After a winter, most of the wild rabbits at this time didn't have much meat. Chen Fan planned to raise them for a while, on the one hand, to explore the practical experience of raising rabbits, and on the other hand, to fatten these adult rabbits so that they would be more delicious.

In addition, he also went to the commune's veterinary station to find Stationmaster Zhou and asked him to help find a batch of breeding books and related veterinary medicines from the county's animal husbandry bureau, making complete preparations.

The two major problems in breeding were feed and disease resistance. Chen Fan wouldn't make low-level mistakes and would naturally take preventive measures against diseases to strive for success in one go.

While he was working here like a diligent little bee, the brigade headquarters was not idle either.

Secretary Yang and the others repeatedly discussed with An Quan many times, taking all aspects of the situation into consideration, and finally formulated a "Lujiawan Production Brigade Breeding Plan," intending to make the breeding industry in Lujiawan show initial results in three years.

According to this plan, the first step they had to take was to clear several wastelands to plant pasture, and at the same time build a breeding farm near the brigade headquarters, waiting to receive the breeding rabbits cultivated by Chen Fan.

Chen Fan's transaction with the brigade headquarters was not a one-size-fits-all deal, but was divided into multiple times.

As long as he cultivated good breeding rabbits and could deliver them, the brigade headquarters would accept them, until the end of the year, or until Chen Fan delivered enough rabbits to meet the collective breeding of the entire brigade and the family breeding of the commune members, the transaction would end.

This kind of business within the production team, even if the people from the municipal supervision team were next to them, they wouldn't care when they saw it.

Because the brigade headquarters was qualified to issue special tasks to the commune members, and then reward the commune members according to the completion of the tasks, no one could say anything, and naturally no one would go looking for trouble.

This also conformed to Mr. Li's principle of collective labor and more work, more gain.

Chen Fan could rest assured and boldly do it.

If anyone was jealous, that was fine too.

The brigade headquarters' task was open. If you had the ability to cultivate breeding rabbits, just send them over, and the brigade headquarters would treat everyone equally and accept them without fail.

If you didn't have the ability, then don't talk nonsense!

...

During the Qingming season, it rains cats and dogs, and the souls of travelers on the road are broken.

Chen Fan sat at the door, watching the rain outside, and naturally fell into a daze.

Being able to daydream was a very happy thing, because it meant having plenty of time, without having to worry about livelihood, and without any other life pressures.

In short, it was just being idle.

He was very idle, but Jiang Lili was very busy, copying the manuscript on the table meticulously.

Without raising her head, she said, "Xiaofan, how many words have you written in this novel? My hands are sore from copying."

Chen Fan yawned and said faintly, "Originally, I only wanted to write a short story of 5,000 words, but as I wrote, it reached 38,000 words and became a novella."

When he used to write web novels, he didn't learn anything good, only how to pad the word count. When a character appeared, there would definitely be a character description; when arriving at a place, there must be an environmental description; psychological descriptions were a must-have, and asides were also indispensable, and not just a few sentences, but as much as he could write.

Now, writing with a pen, he still couldn't get rid of this bad habit. So, unconsciously, a 300-word outline, originally planned for a 5,000-word main text, had grown to 38,000 words.

After he finished writing, he realized how troublesome it was to transcribe it when the word count was so high.

After thinking it over, he gave the draft to Jiang Lili, asking her to help transcribe a copy and send it to the newspaper for submission.

After all, he couldn't send the draft to others. First, he needed to keep a copy for himself in case it was rejected, and second, 'presentation' was also very important. Which editor would want to read a messy, scribbled-over manuscript?

Jiang Lili was very happy. She couldn't write novels herself, but helping Chen Fan transcribe gave her a sense of participation.

It just so happened that today was Qingming Festival. It had been drizzling since yesterday, and the plowing work was almost done. The seeds sown earlier had sprouted green shoots, and the vegetable seedlings in the garden had also begun to sprout, growing stronger little by little.

So, the production team announced a day off today, both to avoid the rain and to allow everyone to go home to pay respects to their ancestors. Even An Quan went back to his home in town and would come back tomorrow.

Yang Ju, Huang Ying, and Liu Dan also went home to follow their families in ancestor worship.

In the countryside these days, ancestor worship wasn't that simple. Unlike later, when you only needed to worship at the graves of your ancestors up to three generations back, now you would go to every grave that existed.

In addition to this, families also had to bring out the ancestral tablets and have the oldest family in the same clan in the team perform the worship.

Ten years ago, none of these things had been neglected, but they just weren't done too grandly, everything was simplified.

Now that there were no restrictions, the families in the team discussed it and decided to hold a grand celebration to comfort the spirits of their ancestors in heaven.

Only Chen Fan and Jiang Lili, these two 'outsiders,' didn't have to go to the graves to worship, so they stayed at home to relax.

Hearing Chen Fan say that this stack of manuscripts had 38,000 words, Jiang Lili couldn't help but stick out her tongue. She turned to look at him, her eyes full of admiration, "You're so amazing, you can write so much. I can't even write a six-hundred-word composition without racking my brains, but you can write so much."

Hearing her words, Chen Fan turned around and smiled, "That's because you haven't found the method. Do you know what 'eight-legged essay' is?"

Jiang Lili's eyes flickered slightly as she looked at him and said, "You're not going to say that writing a composition is the same as writing an eight-legged essay, are you?"

Before Chen Fan could speak, she laughed again, "The eight-legged essay is an object of criticism, Mr. Li has said not to write eight-legged essays."

Chen Fan laughed and said, "Mr. Li said not to write eight-legged essays, meaning don't learn from the eight-legged essay's rigidity, rote learning, and emptiness. Whether it's writing or doing things, you should be flexible and have your own methods.

In the old man's words, it's 'Shooting arrows depends on the target, playing the piano depends on the audience, and writing articles and giving speeches depends even more on the readers,' meaning that there should be substance, not empty talk.

But as for the eight-legged essay itself, it is the simplest writing routine. If you can figure out the template of the eight-legged essay, writing will be very simple for you."

Hearing this, Jiang Lili stopped transcribing and turned to face him, asking curiously, "How so?"

Chen Fan pointed to the manuscript on the table, "Don't stop, keep transcribing, just treat it as tuition."

Jiang Lili wrinkled her nose at him, "Even Accountant Liu isn't as calculating as you."

Saying that, she smiled again and continued to transcribe the manuscript.

Chen Fan laughed and didn't mind her comparing him to Accountant Liu. He smiled and said, "The format of the eight-legged essay consists of eight parts: breaking the topic, inheriting the topic, starting the lecture, entering the topic, starting the stock, middle stock, back stock, and binding the stock. As long as you abandon the shackles of the 'Four Books and Five Classics,' you will find that you can apply this format to composition, … …"

Anyway, since he was idle, Chen Fan sat at the door, watching the rain outside while explaining the writing method of composition to Jiang Lili.

As he talked, he talked about other things, directly starting a language class.

His memory was particularly good now. He had been tutoring Jiang Lili's high school courses during this time, and he could easily recall the contents of the texts, explaining them wonderfully.

Unconsciously, Jiang Lili forgot to transcribe again, staring at him intently, as if listening to a story, her eyebrows dancing with joy when she heard something wonderful.

After Chen Fan finished speaking a long passage, he saw that she hadn't turned the page yet, and suddenly came back to his senses, "Explaining this to you at this time is just delaying my work. Alright, this manuscript won't be sent out tomorrow."

Jiang Lili's pretty face flushed slightly, and she giggled, "I heard my dad say that the textile factory owners in Shanghai before liberation squeezed the bonded laborers like this. Now it seems that you are exactly the same as them."

Chen Fan shook his head very seriously, "It's different, too different."

Jiang Lili raised her head, "You're both urging people to work, where is it different?"

Chen Fan said solemnly, "Although you and the bonded laborers are the same, without wages, but at least the bonded laborers get a lump sum of the bond fee, you don't even have a bond fee, how can you compare with the bonded laborers."

When Jiang Lili heard this, she immediately laughed and giggled, "After all this, it turns out that I am not as good as a bonded laborer."