Reborn in 1977

Chapter 85: Starting Work (On the shelves tomorrow at noon, please subscribe!)

Just as Chen Fan was thinking about whether to have Jiang Lili wake him up in the morning, Team Leader Yang said softly, "Your household registration booklet is ready. Come with me to get it later."

Chen Fan's eyes lit up, and he nodded repeatedly, "Okay, okay, thank you, Team Leader."

As he spoke, he picked up his small wine cup, "I'll toast you."

Team Leader Yang chuckled, holding his large wine bowl, "I don't dare to clink glasses with you. I'm afraid I'll knock over your small cup."

Chen Fan then brought his cup closer, smiling as he said, "Then I'll clink with you."

He then touched the rim of the bowl below, took a sip of the wine.

This meal lasted a particularly long time.

Originally, men became talkative after drinking, not to mention that Team Leader Yang had just revealed two big pieces of news. Whether it was the launch of the loudspeaker or the need to dredge the dikes and clear the ditches, both became the focus of everyone's discussion.

Even the construction team's craftsmen, because the houses were basically completed, were no longer in a hurry to work. Their butts remained glued to the benches, chatting and joking with the commune members.

Some were discussing what the loudspeaker would broadcast, and some were discussing how many work points they could earn from this dike dredging and ditch clearing. The noise continued until two o'clock in the afternoon before the gathering dispersed.

Chen Fan didn't drink that much wine, and he basically kept quiet. He only responded a few times when the people next to him spoke to him. At other times, he was listening, trying to receive information.

However, with some key information missing, he could only understand about 70% or 80% of it.

During this time, he noticed that Jiang Lili had finished eating a long time ago and was sitting under the eaves, holding a teacup and spacing out. He took the opportunity to go over while pouring tea and told her to go back first.

He accompanied Team Leader Yang and the others until the gathering dispersed, as he still had to get his household registration booklet.

Only when the banquet was over did Chen Fan walk back with Team Leader Yang.

When they arrived at his house, Team Leader Yang walked into the room on the left and took out a thick book from the drawer, "This is the collective household register for our team."

Then, he directly flipped to the middle of the book, flipped back two pages, and pointed to the form above, saying, "Your information is written on a separate page. You are now the head of the household, but you will temporarily share a house with the educated youth spot."

Chen Fan looked at it. It was all basic personal information, such as name, alias, gender, date of birth, place of birth, origin, ethnicity, family background, marital status, education level, occupation, and so on.

Except for a few of the first columns that were registered, almost all the others were blank.

After reading it, Chen Fan curiously asked, "Are the people from the educated youth spot also registered on it?"

Hearing his words, Team Leader Yang directly flipped to the very back, "Those educated youths are also registered here, but their household registrations are with the Educated Youth Office. This only registers basic information and food relations. After all, people come and go, and changes are very frequent. It's not okay not to register, so we put them separately at the very back."

He pointed to the list above, "Look, we've had more than two hundred educated youths come here, and at most, there were more than twenty people at the same time. The four rooms couldn't fit them all, and the beds had to be placed sideways, with five or six people sleeping side by side. Now there are only six people left at the educated youth spot. After the new year, it's hard to say how many will be left."

Chen Fan's gaze swept across the list. In the rows of crossed-out names, he found Jiang Lili's name.

Many people behind her had already left, and only she was still ranked in the front. It was easy to miss if you didn't pay attention.

Chen Fan glanced at it, and his gaze stopped suddenly.

Her birthday is the seventeenth day of the twelfth lunar month? It's the same day she came here three years ago?

Just as Chen Fan was in a daze, Team Leader Yang slammed the household registration booklet shut, then took out a thin, small household registration booklet for him, "This is yours."

Chen Fan happily took it and looked at it carefully in his hand. It was a booklet of moderate size, with kraft paper for the cover and back cover. Opening the inner page, there was a personal information registration form, with his own information written on it, as well as the official seal of the Public Security Bureau.

Team Leader Yang looked at him and smiled, "From now on, you are a member of the collective. When you speak and do things, you must consider the honor of the collective more. You can't be rash, understand?"

Chen Fan nodded vigorously, his face full of seriousness, "Understood."

Team Leader Yang laughed and waved his hand, "Alright, go back."

……

Chen Fan returned to the educated youth spot happily, holding his household registration booklet.

Jiang Lili was busy in the yard. When she saw him coming back, she first smiled, and then her eyes lit up when she saw the thing in his hand, "Oh, your household registration is done?"

Chen Fan grinned and smiled, "That's right."

Then he clapped his hands, "Let's make something delicious tonight to celebrate."

Hearing this, Jiang Lili couldn't stop smiling.

These past two days, they said they would save money, but they could see meat every day. What would it be like to celebrate?

Chen Fan first went back to his room to put the household registration booklet in the cabinet, then took off his cotton-padded coat, put on the cotton vest that Jiang Lili had just made for him, put on a jacket on the outside, and then went next door to fetch a bucket of water and walked out, "I'll go to the ditch to see if I can catch some loach or eel."

Even the landlord's family has no surplus grain. There is only so much meat in total, and most of it has to be sold to the purchasing station for money. So, he has now learned to save money and try to use free materials to cook.

For example, these past two days, he has been eating fish caught from the river. Except for a little oil used when frying the fish, nothing else has been touched much.

Hearing Chen Fan's words and watching him walk out, Jiang Lili suddenly thought of something and quickly said, "If you want to catch loach or eel, go to the rice fields to find holes. Don't go to the ditches. There may be schistosomiasis in the ditches. You don't have long water boots. Going into the water in the ditches will be dangerous."

Chen Fan raised his head in astonishment, "Ah?"

Jiang Lili's face was very serious, "Especially in ditches with a large number of Oncomelania hupensis snails, many will have schistosomiasis. If you go into the water barefoot, the worms will enter the human body through the skin. If you accidentally get sewage splashed into your mouth, the possibility of infection is even higher, so you must be careful."

Chen Fan then remembered Team Leader Yang's words just now and asked, "So, the dredging and renovation of the ditches are to prevent and control schistosomiasis?"

Jiang Lili nodded, "Dredging is to dig out a layer of silt from the ditch and spread it on the nearby fields. When the silt dries up, the schistosomiasis will die. Renovation is even more direct, which is to re-dig a ditch next to the original ditch, and the dug soil will fill in the original ditch, which can kill a large number of schistosomiasis."

Seeing Chen Fan's blank face, she thought that Chen Fan didn't believe her words, so she quickly put down the tools in her hand and came over and said solemnly,

"Don't underestimate the harm of schistosomiasis. It is written on the schistosomiasis prevention manual. Before liberation, there was a large village of thousands of people in Jiangxi. It was originally prosperous, but because the whole village was infected with schistosomiasis, in the end, not one was left, all were gone. The harm of schistosomiasis is very serious, and we must pay attention to it."

Hearing this, Chen Fan shivered suddenly and quickly walked back, "I'd better go fishing."

……

The next day, just as it was getting light, Jiang Lili came over to knock on the door, "Chen Fan, get up, Chen Fan?"

Chen Fan opened his eyes, looked at the little bit of light in the crack of the door, closed his eyes and shouted, "Coming."

Then he yawned and quickly got up and put on his clothes.

When he came out, Jiang Lili was already busy in the kitchen.

He washed his face and brushed his teeth, and Jiang Lili came over with a bowl of boiled rice, "Eat a little to fill your stomach first. There will be nothing to eat over there later."

If they don't do heavy work, people here generally don't eat breakfast, but when they need to go to work, they will cook some porridge in the morning for breakfast.

Actually, it is just adding some water to the leftover rice from the day before and cooking it. It is similar to porridge, but the taste is harder and it is more convenient to make. It can be eaten as soon as the water boils.

Chen Fan was not polite. He picked up the bowl and ate it with a whoosh, wiped his mouth, and smiled, "I'm leaving."

Jiang Lili raised her right hand and clenched her fist, "Good luck!"

Chen Fan laughed and walked out of the yard, starting his first day of work.