Reborn in 1977

Chen Fan had seen his grandmother picking cotton when he was a child, but back then, they didn't pick it directly from the cotton fields. Instead, they picked the entire cotton boll that had just begun to open and brought it back home, then spread it out on the threshing ground to dry in the scorching sun.

After sunning it for a few days, most of the cotton bolls would dry up, and they could sit at home and pick out the cotton inside.

Chen Fan had even sat beside his grandmother and picked cotton back then.

But that was a long time ago.

The reason for adding an extra step compared to directly picking the cotton flowers in the field now was that after the land was distributed to individual households, everyone took care of their own business. In early autumn, rainfall began to increase. If something else delayed them for a few days and they couldn't spare enough labor to pick the cotton in time, the nearly ripe cotton bolls would get wet from the rain and might rot or become moldy, thus affecting the quality of the cotton.

So, to harvest more cotton, everyone would pick the unripe cotton bolls first and then arrange other farm work at their leisure.

In fact, the quality of cotton picked in that way was not as good as directly picking the fluffy cotton after it had fully matured. It was a last resort.

But the current collective era didn't have such concerns. The production team leader would allocate different people to do different things based on the workload and progress of the entire team.

Heavy physical labor was naturally assigned to men, while picking and weeding, which were relatively lighter tasks, were arranged for women.

Taking advantage of the sunny weather, all the women in the team were organized, from young girls of 13 or 14 to old women of 50 or 60, and even many over 70. As long as they were nimble, they all flocked into the cotton fields to pick cotton and earn work points.

This work required skill. If the technique wasn't proficient, even nimble young girls like Jiang Lili and the others might not be able to outperform the 70-year-old grandmothers.

Therefore, the amount of cotton picked was also an important reference indicator when calculating work points. An old woman could earn 10 work points for a day's work, which was only possible at this time.

With so many people working together, and the area planted with cotton not as large as it would be later, it only took two or three days to pick all the cotton and put it into storage.

They picked for two or three days, and Chen Fan… naturally wouldn't follow along the whole time.

After participating in half a day of labor and personally experiencing the hardship of picking cotton, he went back to his room to create.

He wrote two news articles, the content of which was naturally the "advanced deeds" of the production team's bumper cotton harvest and everyone working together to pick cotton.

Because he had personally experienced it for half a day, the articles he wrote were very close to life. After being published in Yunhu Daily, they were well received by the readers.

Then he received a pile of letters.

In the courtyard of the educated youth center, a frame was set up with benches and bamboo poles, and a bamboo curtain was laid on top. Yang Ju and the others carried several large bags of seed cotton to the bamboo curtain and spread them out to dry in the sun.

In the comprehensive office, Jiang Lili opened the letters one by one and said softly, "These letters are all from readers in the Yunhu area, and they are basically expressing their love for the articles you wrote. Some are also from unit leaders who want to invite you to give lectures."

To her right, Chen Fan leaned back in his chair, holding a small teapot in one hand and a cattail fan in the other, fanning himself occasionally, and asked in confusion, "Are authors so popular these days?"

In the past few months, he had received more than a thousand letters from Yunhu, the province, and other provinces. He now understood why the King of Fairy Tales wanted to buy 10 houses to store letters.

Because there were really a lot of letters!

Jiang Lili put the opened letters aside, opened another one, and said with a smile, "I don't know if other authors have as many, but even if they do, they definitely don't have as many as you.

You are a regular contributor to "Jiangnan Literature" magazine. Since the magazine resumed publication in May, you have had articles published every month, and they are serialized, which is no different from having a column. Naturally, ordinary people can't compare."

But Chen Fan frowned and sighed faintly, "But I don't get a penny of royalties. Every time, they just send me a pile of coupons. With only coupons and no money, how can I spend them?"

Hearing this, Jiang Lili couldn't help but wrinkle her nose and gave him a pretty, reproachful look.

If she had also come from later generations, she would definitely blurt out "Versailles" at this time.

But now, she could only smile helplessly and shake her head, continuing to open letters.

After drinking a few sips of tea, Chen Fan didn't idle around and began to write back to the letters.

In this era, it was normal for readers to send letters to their favorite authors, and it was also normal for authors to reply to readers. If there was a lot of communication, many people would even send gifts.

Unfortunately, Chen Fan had not received any gifts so far.

Not only did he not receive gifts, but he also had to pay for stationery and stamps to reply to the readers, which made him feel a little亏 (kuī, at a loss).

The time for replying to letters was not fixed. He would write whenever he remembered, but it would be more often at night. At that time, Jiang Lili and the others were studying hard, and he would be writing furiously beside them at a speed comparable to a typewriter, writing a letter in a few minutes, putting it in an envelope, writing the address, and then taking it to the post office to mail.

Of course, he didn't have to reply to every letter. Those that only expressed admiration generally didn't need to be answered. He only needed to mention a few names at the end of each issue of the article to express his gratitude.

Or he could randomly select a few to reply to.

He also didn't have to deal with those who invited him to give lectures, but could express his attitude in the newspaper or magazine.

However, some people would ask questions in their letters, such as how to write, or even include a copy of their own writing and ask him for guidance, or some people had life troubles and wanted to seek advice from Chen Fan.

He needed to reply to these letters one by one.

This matter was not easy to be lazy and not reply.

Because this was the foundation of the masses. If he replied to one person, he might become a loyal supporter of the writer, and then influence the people around him.

Moreover, this was a common habit of writers at the time. Many well-known writers would insist on replying to readers' letters for a long time. Even if the number of readers' letters increased later and they were exhausted, they would select some to reply to, which spread all kinds of beautiful stories throughout the country.

Now Jiang Lili was selecting the letters that needed to be replied to for him. Those that were not needed were piled aside along with the envelopes, and those that needed to be replied to were placed next to Chen Fan.

After writing several letters in a row, Huang Ying and the other three also spread out the cotton and walked in one after another.

Chen Fan turned his head and glanced at them, then lowered his head to continue writing, "How many more days will the cotton need to be dried?"

Huang Ying sat opposite him and said, "It should be ready tomorrow."

Chen Fan, "The next key task should be the autumn harvest, right?"

Yang Ju and Liu Dan sat together on the last bench. Hearing Chen Fan's words, Yang Ju shook her head, "It's not over yet. The dried cotton has to be transported to Team 10 to use the cotton gin to gin the seed cotton into lint. The cotton production in Lujiawan is not high, so the commune has not given us too many tasks, so we only collect lint, not seed cotton."

Jiang Lili raised her head, and unsurprisingly saw Chen Fan blinking his eyes with some confusion, so she smiled and said softly, "The state has strict regulations for purchasing cotton. The first is to reserve enough cotton seeds, so the first batch of cotton only collects lint, and the cotton seeds are selected and reserved by the production team.

If the production team does not have a cotton gin, the supply and marketing cooperative can undertake the cotton ginning task, and the production team will send people to supervise.

Unless a commune does not even have a cotton gin, or the number of cotton gins is seriously insufficient, the cotton purchasing station will open up the purchase of seed cotton, and after it is transported to other places to be ginned, the cotton seeds will be sent back to the production team as seeds.

Lujiawan has a cotton gin allocated by the commune, so it must be implemented in accordance with normal regulations. Only after meeting the cotton seeds for the production team's own use, will the seed cotton be purchased without limit.

However, the cotton production in Lujiawan is not high, the task is not heavy, and there is a special cotton gin, so the cotton purchasing station only collects lint from us, not seed cotton."

Yang Ju and the others had lived here for more than half a year, and they had long known that Chen Fan did not understand many of the production team's situations. Every time, Jiang Lili would answer his questions, and they had become accustomed to it, and sometimes they would take the initiative to join in the explanation.

After Jiang Lili finished speaking, Yang Ju rushed to say, "Nanhugongshe (South Lake Commune) is mainly based on rice cultivation. Except for our Lujiawan, the situation of the other 4 production teams is similar. The neighboring Qingshan Commune is the main task bearer of cotton and rapeseed oil.

They spend a lot of time every year planting cotton and harvesting cotton, which is more laborious than our rice planting. It is as tiring to hand in cotton as it is to hand in public grain."

Liu Dan next to him was not to be outdone, "And rapeseed, when the rapeseed flowers bloom, the mountains and plains are full of rapeseed flowers, so many, so beautiful."

Chen Fan's eyes lit up, "Are there many rapeseed flowers in Qingshan Commune?"

Liu Dan nodded repeatedly, "Many, many."

At this time, Huang Ying said with a smile, "The southwest bank of the Liuhua River is Qingshan Commune. When the rapeseed flowers bloom, you can see them by boat."

Chen Fan chuckled, "Then I have to go and see it next year."

Liu Dan immediately said, "Let's go together."

Hearing this, Chen Fan couldn't help but smile, "Okay, everyone who is free can go."

The girls all laughed happily. When the rapeseed flowers bloomed, the spring plowing would be over, and they would definitely have time then.

Chen Fan was thinking that if you weren't in college at that time, you would all be getting your hands slapped.

Still want to see rapeseed flowers?

Dream on!

...

The days passed by, and after harvesting the cotton and handing in the task at the cotton purchasing station, the team had another income from selling cotton.

In the past, every household would definitely be quietly calculating how much cotton and money they could get this year.

But this year, no one took it too seriously. Only a few people would mention it during casual chats, and then it would quickly be replaced by new topics.

"How many chickens do you have left at home?"

"There are no chickens left. There are only eggs. The chickens have almost all been caught. Only 5 hens were left to hatch eggs, and they can hatch up to 12 at a time. I don't know how many chicks will hatch out."

"Oh, mine is about the same. The ducks and geese have all been caught, leaving only a few chickens to hatch eggs. I don't really want to raise ducks anymore. Ducks are too cheap and can't be sold for a good price."

"Although ducks are worthless, they don't eat feed. Just drive them into the fish pond, and they will find food themselves."

"Then you might as well become a duck herder. Just raise chickens at home."

"I would like to, but the team has to agree."

Amidst a burst of laughter, someone asked, "Since the opening of the 10 stores of the District Committee, they need hundreds or thousands of chickens a day. Our team's chickens are almost caught, and the supply hasn't kept up. What should we do?"

Immediately, someone said, "You don't have to worry about this. Our team's chickens, ducks, and geese are almost caught, but other teams still have them. When the seedlings were distributed, they were distributed in batches, so the collection will definitely be done in batches.

Besides, after our brigade sells out, there are still the four brigades of Gan Family Village. We can collect and raise them at the same time, slowly."

"Everyone knows to take it slowly, but I don't know if we will run out of stock if we take it slowly. I heard that the 10 stores of the District Committee can make two or thirty thousand a day. How much money would we lose if we don't have anything to sell? It hurts to even think about it!"

……

Inside the brigade office, in the cadre's office.

Chen Fan pushed open the window, moved the electric fan to the window, and blew it outwards. The smoke in the room was immediately sucked in and blown out.

Speaking of this electric fan, he specially wrote an article for "Jiangnan Literature and Art" in exchange for a few electric fan tickets to buy it because he saw that Jiang Lili and the others were too hot to sleep during the double抢 (busy farming season).

At that time, he was in a hurry to buy an electric fan, so he "borrowed" a ticket from Zhang Wenliang. Later, he found out that it was actually a ticket given to him by the county motor factory.

Zhang Wenliang told the truth when he returned the ticket, but the Jiangnan Literature and Art Publishing House sent him 4 tickets. How could he use so many?

So he kept two for himself and distributed two to the brigade. Anyway, he was too lazy to argue about whether to return them or not. It was enough for him to use.

After finally waiting for the smoke to clear, An Quan suddenly said, "Hey, I found that blowing the electric fan outwards seems to be a little cooler?"

Chen Fan turned around and said, "Putting the electric fan at the window and blowing it outwards is equivalent to sucking the heat out of the room and blowing it out, reducing the temperature..."

Halfway through his words, he glared unhappily, "Let's talk about serious business, stop talking about useless things."

The closer the news of the resumption of the college entrance examination was announced, the more arrogant he became.

People like An Quan are definitely 100% going to take the college entrance examination. The review materials are in his hands, and currently, all of his students have the most solid foundation of knowledge in the entire Nanhuan Commune.

Anyone who wants to review and take the college entrance examination, who would dare to provoke him?

Unfortunately, An Quan didn't know. He glanced at Chen Fan and muttered, "You're getting a little cocky lately! I originally wrote to a classmate to ask him to help me look for a cheap accordion in the old goods store in Shanghai. He just sent a telegram back yesterday saying there was one. It seems you don't want it."

Chen Fan pondered for two seconds, "If it's too expensive, it's better to buy a new one."

An Quan glanced at him, "An Italian imported Pigini accordion, only 250 yuan. If I didn't have no money, I would have kept it for myself."

Chen Fan immediately coughed lightly. When he looked up, his face was already full of smiles, "Brother An, I admit that my voice was a little loud just now. Actually, I respect you very much."

Pfft...

Pfft...

Haha...

The room burst into laughter. Xiao Lie Wen was choked by a mouthful of smoke and stood up coughing non-stop.

Chen Fan turned a blind eye to everything around him and said with a smile, "But I don't think 250 is a good number. Please add one yuan to the store when you send a telegram back to your classmate. Of course, the postage and telegram fees are all on me. I won't let you suffer!"

Bargaining is impossible. If you don't want 250, you can only increase the price.

An Quan covered his face and couldn't bear to look. After a long while, he shook his head and sighed, "People, how can they be like this?!"

Yang Xingxiu was laughing so hard that tears came out. She leaned on the table, raised her head and wanted to speak, but when she saw Chen Fan, she couldn't help but laugh again.

At this time, Ye Shubao barely suppressed his laughter, knocked on the table and said, "Let's talk about serious business."

Then he coughed lightly, looked at the gradually calming crowd, "No one expected that the business of the District Committee's stores would be so good. Not only the District Committee, but it's been more than half a month, and the sales of the three stores in the county haven't declined significantly, especially the main store at the dock. The turnover is still increasing, although it's not increasing much, but it's still increasing!"

The turnover of that store is still related to the spread of the news. In the past, most of the people who bought it were people taking long-distance passenger ships, but now even passengers on short-distance small ships come to patronize it, so sales will naturally increase.

He looked around again and said softly, "Xiao An and I have done calculations. According to the current situation, even if we take over all the live poultry from the four teams of Gan Family Village, we won't be able to close this gap in at most one month. This is the situation now. Everyone, talk about what to do?"

They had discussed this matter before, but there was nothing they could do if they didn't have it. So they could only call Chen Fan over to discuss it together, and now they naturally all looked at him.

But Chen Fan stared straight at An Quan and said seriously, "It's very easy to solve. If Nanhuan Commune doesn't have enough, go to Qingshan Commune, Yangshan Commune, and the neighboring Shuanghe County. You can send people to collect it.

It's the same to sell it to anyone. We offer the same price for door-to-door acquisition. Do they have to walk dozens of miles to sell it to the purchasing station?!"

Ye Shubao was stunned, "Competing with the supply and marketing cooperative for business?"

The long-standing fixed mindset made them believe that going to the countryside to collect goods was the power of the supply and marketing cooperative, so none of them thought about it.

Chen Fan still looked at An Quan, "What is this competing for business? This year, even the poultry tickets have been cancelled, which shows that there is no shortage of chickens, ducks, and geese at all. Therefore, the supply and marketing cooperative should not have a mandatory task of acquiring chickens, ducks, and geese. As long as we don't grab their task quota, they would be happy for us to take more and save them some trouble."

After a pause, he added, "Also, it's time for the rabbits to be sold. Get dozens of rabbits every day and distribute them to the stores. If more people buy rabbits, fewer people will buy chickens, ducks, and geese, so that can also close some loopholes.

If there aren't enough rabbits, add more vegetarian dishes. Add potatoes and lotus roots. If that doesn't work, slaughter a pig every other day and use pork to top it off. Anyway, there are many ways, why bother with chickens, ducks, and geese."

Before Ye Shubao could speak, An Quan raised his hands in surrender, "Don't look at me, okay? I'll send a telegram to my classmate in a moment and tell him to buy that accordion no matter what."

Chen Fan suddenly smiled, "Brother An, please ask him if he has any other musical instruments, such as violins, pianos, saxophones, erhus, suonas, etc."

An Quan stared blankly at him, "Are you playing a little too much?"

Chen Fan chuckled, "There's no way, being versatile is a bit expensive."

An Quan was speechless. Is that what I meant?

Ye Shubao patted his head, turned to look at Secretary Yang, "I have no problem here."

Sometimes it's like this, as long as you open your mind, solving the problem is very simple. Just ask the supply and marketing cooperative if they have a mandatory live poultry acquisition quota this year, or how much the quota is. If it exceeds the quota, they can let go and acquire it.

Didn't some people in the team just buy bicycles? They don't do serious business every day and run around everywhere. It's better to ride their bikes to collect chickens!

Hang two larger cages next to the car, or even four. Chickens are relatively small, and one cage can squeeze up to 15, and 4 is 60. Ten cars is 600. See, doesn't that solve most of the problem!

Secretary Yang nodded, then coughed lightly. When everyone looked at him, he said, "Well, I went to the commune today. Secretary Qian said that this year is the first year of bidding farewell to the old and ushering in the new. The National Day is coming soon, and everyone is preparing to celebrate. Each of our production teams must also find a way to prepare some programs. Do you have any good ideas?"