Reborn in 1977

The people responsible for helping and doing odd jobs bustled back and forth in the courtyard, clearing away cups and plates, wiping the tables clean, and replacing them with stacks of fruit plates, as well as a cup of green tea in front of each person, only one-third full.

Chen Fan glanced at the plates, which contained melon seeds, peanuts, roasted soybeans, seasonal tangerines, dried red dates, and candies, while the green tea was made from locally produced tea leaves.

He wondered if it was bought from Team 9, or perhaps it was a gift.

The few tea trees next to the new house were also dug from Team 9 to Lujiawan by the old Team Leader Yang, but unfortunately, they didn't grow well, so he took them away.

He had already researched how to plant tea trees, and there should be a surprise next spring.

Chen Fan grabbed a handful of peanuts and placed them in front of him, shelling them and drinking tea, feeling very comfortable.

Yang Chuanfu didn't say anything when he saw that he didn't move.

Anyway, Teacher Chen was rich and had a good relationship with Company Commander Zhang, so it was fine for him to drink tea.

After a while, the two newlyweds, led by Zhang Wenliang's parents, introduced themselves to the people at each table one by one.

"This is great-grandfather and great-grandmother, second great-grandfather and second great-grandmother..., this is eldest uncle and eldest aunt..., this is Seventh Aunt, Eighth Aunt..."

Although Yang Xingxiu already knew everyone, Zhang Guangwen still introduced them all in a serious manner.

In addition to relatives, there were also friends like the various team leaders and Chen Fan.

After only seeing the beginning, Chen Fan understood what "eating tea" meant.

It was the bride serving tea to relatives and friends, and then the guests giving "改口费" (改口费 - 'change of address fee' which is a monetary gift given when one addresses someone with a new title, usually when a daughter-in-law addresses her in-laws) .

This was actually a wedding tradition in the Yunhu area, but Chen Fan had never attended any weddings, so he wasn't very clear about it, only knowing some conventional wedding procedures.

Soon, they turned to their table, and Zhang Guangwen introduced them in a serious manner, "In the future, you don't need to call me Team Leader in private, just call me Uncle..."

Before he could finish speaking, Chen Fan immediately waved his hand with a smile, "No need, no need, there's really no need to be so polite."

The table burst into laughter, and Zhang Wenliang pretended to glare at him fiercely, but his hands were quick, picking up Chen Fan's teacup, pouring a little water from the kettle, just right at the two-thirds mark, and then putting it back.

Yang Xingxiu was always smiling, "Little Fan, we must be closer in the future."

Chen Fan followed suit, picked up the teacup and took a sip, took out a yuan and placed it on the tray she was holding, nodding with a smile, "Hello, Sister-in-law."

Hearing this, Zhang Wenliang immediately beamed with joy, triumphantly turning to the next person.

After the tea was finished, the wedding was declared over, and the rest was the family's business, and the guests could leave.

At this time, Zhang Wenliang walked over with a pack of Mudan cigarettes and a red envelope and handed them to Chen Fan, "Xiao Fan, thank you for your hard work today, take this."

Chen Fan was not polite, tucked the cigarette under his arm, and put the red envelope in his pocket.

Then he grabbed his arm and said softly, "I advise you to be careful today."

Zhang Wenliang was a little confused, "What do you mean?"

Who would tell the groom to be careful at the wedding?

Chen Fan pretended to be mysterious and looked around, not far away, Team Leader Yang and others walked out with smiles, openly discussing with others what tricks Teacher Chen was playing again?

After they had walked a little further away, Chen Fan continued softly, "I saw you say the wrong thing several times today, be careful Xingxiu-jie won't let you on the bed tonight."

Zhang Wenliang's face turned red first, and then he pretended to kick him violently, "Get out."

Chen Fan ran out with a smile, and when he reached the car, he saw Team Leader Yang standing next to him, obviously waiting for him.

He waved his hand from a distance, "Team Leader, is something the matter?"

Yang Chuanfu "hmmphed" twice, "Well, all the team leaders rode in your car that day, except for me, so I'll ride in your car today to go back."

Chen Fan blinked, were they even competing for this?

But he didn't care, anyway, it was your daughter who would wash the car when they got back, so he could ride if he wanted.

He pulled the door open and got into the car, threw the cigarette on the center console, started the engine, and slowly drove forward, also asking, "Do you want to take the riverbank road?"

Yang Chuanfu didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and was almost choked by a puff of smoke, "Why take the riverbank road, is oil free? Just take the road below."

Chen Fan turned the steering wheel and laughed, "I wanted you to experience it a little more."

Yang Chuanfu, "You think this is a wedding procession."

After a pause, he looked at the houses slowly receding outside the window, and then looked at the cigarettes on the center console, "Company Commander Zhang is quite generous, using Mudan cigarettes as wedding cigarettes, even the county magistrate's family is probably at this level, I thought he would buy a Donghai at most, in the past, every household used economy cigarettes, economy cigarettes didn't need tickets. Hey, where did he get so many Class B cigarette tickets?"

Chen Fan drove the car onto the path leading out of the village, "I gave them to him."

He had many different kinds of tickets in his hand, and there were more than 20 packs of Mudan cigarette tickets, most of which were "稿费" (稿费 - author's remuneration) given by the Jiangnan Literature and Art Publishing House when royalties had not yet been restored, and a small part was given by Director Yang and Deputy Director Li of the Machinery Factory.

He couldn't use them all, he simply couldn't use them all.

Hearing his words, Yang Chuanfu was choked speechless, even the county magistrate's family couldn't take out so many tickets at once, unless it was the supply and marketing cooperative manager.

After a few seconds, he nodded, "Now only you have this ability, money is easy to earn, but tickets are hard to get."

As soon as he finished speaking, he was stunned for a moment.

When did he feel that money was easy to earn?

Oh, it was since this little guy came.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help turning his head to look at Chen Fan, secretly sighing in his heart, fortunately he took a few more glances that day and found someone lying on the river beach, he didn't expect to have picked up a golden boy.

At this time, Chen Fan turned his head and glanced at him, and said, "Team Leader, when will our team get the dividend?"

Yang Chuanfu came back to his senses, "Oh, it will be distributed tomorrow."

After a pause, he asked with some confusion, "Your work points are in the brigade, not in our team, even if you have a salary in the pottery factory, it is settled for you on time every month, the dividend has nothing to do with you."

Chen Fan was about to speak, but he heard Team Leader Yang say again, "Oh, you still have a 10 yuan bonus."

"Ah?"

Chen Fan was stunned, and couldn't help but look at him, "A 10 yuan bonus?"

What was that?

Seeing his confused face, Yang Chuanfu laughed, "This is the year-end bonus issued by the pottery factory to its employees, 10 yuan per person, and some New Year's welfare items."

Chen Fan was a little curious, "Is it 10 yuan for everyone?"

Yang Chuanfu nodded, "It's all 10 yuan."

He saw Chen Fan roll down the car window, and the smoke in the car quickly dissipated, so he also grabbed the rocker on his side of the car door, and with a little force, rolled down the car window.

A cool breeze blew through, and he immediately felt refreshed.

Then he stretched the cigarette out of the window, the ashes were quickly blown away, and then he took it back and took a puff, saying, "This 10 yuan bonus is available in every unit. At the end of the year, the unit will issue year-end benefits to employees, regardless of whether the conditions are good or bad, they will issue a part of the welfare items, and then give a 10 yuan year-end bonus.

This year-end bonus is actually just a token, not too much, less than half a month's salary, not too little either, some poor production teams don't even have that much dividend all year round.

What really depends on the strength of the unit is the welfare items."

As he spoke, he turned to look at Chen Fan, smiling and saying, "Ju'er told me you brought back the welfare goods from the machinery factory—a large bag of 50 jin of rice, a bucket of lard, and a lot of fruit and other things. Hehe, that's the strength of a big factory! It's the best in the entire Yunhu area!"

He punctuated his statement by raising his thumb.

Chen Fan chuckled, "That's because the leaders are looking after me. I reckon my share is a special case; ordinary employees probably don't get that much."

Yang Chuanfu nodded in realization, "That's what I thought. The machinery factory has tens of thousands of employees. If everyone got that standard, even if they weren't short of money, they wouldn't have anywhere to buy that much lard and fruit."

The car rattled forward, and soon it passed the main road, crossed a simple bridge made of prefabricated slabs, and entered the territory of Team 6.

Seeing the bridge, the smile on Chen Fan's face couldn't help but deepen. "Captain, when was this bridge replaced?"

Before, it was just a wooden bridge made of a few tree trunks, which could handle horse-drawn carts, but cars were a bit risky.

He had been thinking of taking the road next to the commune to return to the village, but he didn't expect that in just a few days, the bridge had been replaced with a bridge made of prefabricated reinforced concrete slabs.

This irrigation canal was about four or five meters wide, and the prefabricated slabs were naturally not that long, usually about two meters or so, so several piers were built in the middle of the riverbed. When the car drove over, there was no shaking at all; it was very stable.

When Yang Chuanfu heard Chen Fan ask about the bridge, he couldn't help but laugh. "It hasn't been long, just a few days ago when you went to the provincial capital. All ten teams inside got running water. When the water tower was being built, there was a little extra material, so Secretary Yang held a small meeting and decided to use these materials to replace all the wooden bridges over the irrigation canals. It was finished in a few days. You weren't here, so you wouldn't know, and this little thing wasn't specially told to you."

Chen Fan nodded. "That's good. The original wooden bridge would be washed away every few years. Replacing it with this kind of brick and concrete bridge should last at least twenty or thirty years."

Yang Chuanfu smiled and said, "That's right. When we were building the bridge, we were also saying that when we've saved enough money, we'll fix up that main road and make a cement road, which would be even more impressive than the commune's."

The commune's two roads, Victory Street, running north-south, was a stone slab road built during the late Qing Dynasty. Fortunately, the bluestone slabs were solid, and although they were already pitted and uneven, they were still considered flat. The other road, Construction Road, running east-west, only had a cement surface at the "town center" intersection. Extending outwards, it became a cinder road filled with stones and coal slag.

If Lujiawan could afford to build a cement road, it would definitely surpass the commune in one fell swoop.

However, cement was an important strategic material, and besides, this section of road was so long, almost longer than Victory Street and Construction Road combined. Not to mention whether the commune would approve the Lujiawan Production Team's application, even if it did, the county would definitely put up obstacles.

It was a joke. The conditions at the commune level hadn't even improved yet, and your production team below wanted to surpass them? What, trying to show off?

Soon they arrived at the entrance of the village behind Team 6. Chen Fan looked at Yang Chuanfu. "Captain, want to sit for a while at my place?"

Yang Chuanfu waved his hand. "No, no, I drank a little too much just now. I'm going back to take a nap."

"Okay."

Chen Fan didn't try to persuade him further, and steadily parked the car on the road not far from the gate of the Educated Youth Point.

Yang Chuanfu pushed the door open and got out of the car, standing at the door and saying, "The dividend distribution tomorrow is still at the old place, the threshing ground at the village entrance. If you want to watch the fun, go ahead, but you won't get a share. The fish, meat, vegetables, and other things that can be divided have all been distributed to you. If you go, you can only watch the fun."

Chen Fan picked up the Peony cigarettes on the center console, opened them, took out two packs and handed them over, smiling and saying, "Captain, does Jiang Lili get a dividend?"

Yang Chuanfu was stunned for a moment, and immediately understood why he asked this. He originally wanted to be polite, but now he wasn't being polite anymore, and waved his hand unceremoniously, "Take another pack. Old Liu does the accounting, Old Huang is in charge of storage, and I'm responsible for distributing the money. What's the point of giving only two packs?"

Chen Fan laughed and immediately understood that Jiang Lili definitely had a share, so he decisively took out four more packs and handed them over. "Definitely can't be stingy. Those two packs are yours, and they each get two packs too."

Yang Chuanfu put the cigarettes in his pocket, closed the car door, waved his hand, and turned to leave.

In his heart, he was secretly sighing. He's already collecting dividends on her behalf, no need to say more, they've definitely confirmed their relationship.

This is the same as collecting wages on someone's behalf. Except for parents or spouses, there's no rule for letting others collect them.

He didn't expect that the six girls he arranged still couldn't compare to a Little Jiang. If he had known this, he shouldn't have placed Little Chen at the Educated Youth Point in the first place, and just brought him home!

That's right, it seems like there's no place at home for him to live. Then arrange him in the livestock shed, and let him be with the cattle and horses?

They can't possibly be inferior to even cattle and horses, right?

… …

The next day, early in the morning, on the threshing ground at the village entrance, an Eight Immortals table was placed inside the cleaned-up livestock shed. Yang Chuanfu sat upright on a bench, with Huang the storekeeper and Liu the accountant on his left and right sides respectively.

On the table, there were several bundles of banknotes piled up. Huang the storekeeper and Liu the accountant each had account books in front of them, holding pens in their hands. Next to them were abacuses, and they were each waiting solemnly.

In front of the livestock shed, ten militiamen stood holding rifles, with bullets loaded and muzzles pointed towards the sky, ready to fire at any time.

Behind Captain Yang, there were also two militiamen holding submachine guns, who could also fire at any time.

Ahem, don't misunderstand. The team didn't have this kind of posture when distributing dividends before. Who told them there was so much money this year!

(In the 1980s, a certain production team distributed dividends, using bags to hold the money)

On the large threshing ground, almost all the men, women, old, and young of the team had come.

Old and young, everyone looked at the banknotes on the table and couldn't help but drool.

"So much money!"

"In the past, when distributing dividends, Huang the storekeeper would take a paper bag and put all the money in it. This year, they're stacking Great Walls on the table. Unbelievable!"

"I think, apart from the brigade headquarters, Team 6 has the most money this year. Hey, have the other teams distributed yet? What's the situation?"

"Haven't heard yet. Our Team 6 should be the first to distribute dividends."

"It's right that there's a lot of money. The other teams don't have our pottery factory and decoration team."

"Haha, you're the ones who are making money. There are a dozen people in your family, it's like a pie falling from the sky."

… …

Listening to the clamor outside, Yang Chuanfu looked at the time, but still sat motionless.

It wasn't until a commotion came from the back of the crowd, and he faintly heard someone calling Teacher Chen's name, that he coughed dryly and stood up.

The people standing in front saw his movements and immediately shut up, just looking at him with hopeful eyes.

The front influenced the back, and in just a few seconds, the threshing ground, which had just been noisy, quickly quieted down.

Yang Chuanfu slowly picked up his teacup, took a sip of water, then coughed twice and shouted loudly, "Now, let the dividend distribution begin."