Reborn in 1977

Having finally made it to the "Lujiawan CBD," and never having been here before, a little exploration was in order.

At the very least, I had to see what the unique purchasing stations and consignment shops of this era looked like.

The two of us came out of the cotton wadding workshop, and Chen Fan looked around. "Have you been here before?"

Jiang Lili nodded. "I came once, with some other educated youth. Some of them wanted to see what it was like here, so we all came together. But I never came again after that. If I want to buy something, the commune is closer."

Chen Fan chuckled twice, guessing that those young folks treated this place like a photo op.

Sure enough, the urge to watch the fun is the same in any era.

Actually, I like watching the fun too, otherwise I should be heading home right now.

Next door to the cotton wadding workshop was the purchasing station, and before he could even go inside, someone came out.

The man looked at them, and without bothering to see if he knew them, he said, "Here to fluff cotton?"

He had seen these two go into the cotton wadding workshop next door, so he was just making conversation. Managing two shops by himself was really too boring.

Chen Fan smiled and nodded, "Ah, yes."

Then he tilted his head and looked inside. "What kind of things do you buy here?"

The man smiled and said, "Judging by your appearance, you must be an educated youth."

Chen Fan raised his head and smiled. "I don't look like a farmer, right?"

The man waved his hand. "Far from it, there's a clear difference at a glance."

He even pointed at Jiang Lili, "This little girl looks more like a farmer than you do."

Jiang Lili stood to the side and awkwardly twitched her lips. She didn't know if that was a compliment or an insult.

In her three years here, she had initially tried hard to become a real farmer and gain the recognition of others, but no matter what she did, people wouldn't talk to her, and they wouldn't include her in anything except collective activities. Over time, she could only bury herself in work, to the point that she still hadn't shed her original student air.

Chen Fan laughed. "Your eye is really sharp, but I'm not an educated youth, I'm just temporarily staying at the educated youth center."

The man suddenly realized, "Oh, you must be Master Chen."

Chen Fan's lips twitched slightly. It seemed he had really become a celebrity in this Lujiawan, with everyone knowing him?

Seeing Chen Fan's expression, the man guessed what he was thinking, and immediately laughed and said, "You took the initiative to teach the commune members how to raise soft-shelled turtles, and you're also the announcer for Lujiawan. There probably isn't a single person who doesn't know you now. I work here every day, so of course I know you."

Since he was a celebrity, the attitude was different. He proactively answered Chen Fan's question from earlier, "Actually, this purchasing station basically doesn't get anything good. It's nothing more than chicken feathers, duck feathers, chicken eggs, duck eggs, and some handicrafts made by the farmers themselves. After selling them, they're all exchanged for oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea at the consignment shop next door."

As he spoke, he suddenly raised his hand and pointed across the street, "The main target of our purchasing station is actually the stuff from those two places over there."

Chen Fan turned his head to look. One was an oil pressing workshop, and the other was a mill, so they collected oil and flour, and tofu?

He could even smell the fragrance of tofu from over here. There must be someone making tofu inside that mill.

Should he buy a piece of tofu to take back later?

But he would have to borrow money from Jiang Lili.

Just as Chen Fan was calculating Jiang Lili's wallet, the man said, "The oilseed cakes left over from oil pressing, the bran and rice husks left over from grinding flour and grain, and the bean dregs left over from making tofu, those are all top-notch stuff. They can be used as fertilizer and as feed."

"These things are collected, processed a little, and then sent to the prefectural committee's farm, where they can be sold for a high price, and they'll take as much as you can give them, so there's no fear of not being able to sell them."

"If it weren't for these two workshops, our supply and marketing cooperative wouldn't have opened a purchasing station and consignment shop here."

Chen Fan suddenly understood, so that's what was going on.

But were these scraps really that valuable?

There was naturally no need to discuss such commercial issues in depth.

Afterwards, at the invitation of this salesperson and purchasing agent, Chen Fan took a turn around both shops.

As he said, the purchasing station really didn't have anything good. A little chicken feather, duck feather, a dozen or so chicken eggs, and then a few wooden basins, bamboo chairs, and that was it.

The consignment shop next door also only had a few dozen kinds of goods.

Oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, tea, a few sickles, hoes, shovels, and other agricultural tools, plus a little kerosene and a few pieces of "Cuban sugar" in a jar.

Cuban sugar was cane sugar, a special Cuban product imported with precious foreign exchange in order to support international friends.

The quality of this stuff was really hard to describe, but no matter what, it was still a sugar cube. City people looked down on it, so it became a rare "luxury" for rural people, because Cuban sugar didn't require sugar coupons, and it was cheap, so it was very popular with rural children.

Um, Jiang Lili quietly told him all of this after they left the consignment shop.

When Chen Fan first heard about this kind of sugar, he thought it was some amazing candy, but it turned out to be this?!

After browsing this side, they went to browse the other side.

The oil pressing workshop was dark, with oil stains everywhere. Chen Fan only admired the "advanced" mechanical oil press at the door, and then turned to the mill next door.

Coincidentally, the mill's master was making tofu.

As Master Chen, who was famous in Lujiawan and selflessly passed on his skills, wanted to observe something as small as making tofu, the tofu master agreed without even thinking about it.

He even explained while doing it, how to soak the beans, how long to soak them, then how to grind them, to what degree to grind them, then how to make soy milk, how to make tofu pudding, and finally how to make tofu, tofu skin, dried tofu sheets, dried bean curd sticks, ......

In his opinion, it was just an explanation. Without a master teaching hand-in-hand, it was basically impossible to learn.

But Chen Fan silently stood to the side, watching the cooking skill experience points rise steadily, and soon reached Cooking LV5 (10/500), while the process and craftsmanship of making soy products were thoroughly memorized.

Then he thought that it took 200 experience points to go from level 4 to level 5, and 500 to go from level 5 to level 6? How much would it take to reach level 6?

Seeing that it was one thirty, and he still had to go to work in the afternoon, Chen Fan reluctantly got up to leave.

He still wanted to see how to make fermented bean dregs. Without seeing the master operate it with his own eyes, only hearing him talk about the process, he didn't know if he could reproduce it.

Fermented bean dregs were a good dish, especially when sliced and added to a fish hot pot, the bean dregs fully absorbed the fish's broth, the taste was really something else.

He just hoped he could experiment successfully.

When leaving, Chen Fan also borrowed money from Jiang Lili to buy a few pieces of tofu.

Um, he first borrowed 1 dime and bought three pieces of tofu, 15 centimeters square and about 5 centimeters thick, the portion wasn't small, and he even got 1 cent back.

Chen Fan simply bought a portion of fermented bean dregs as well.

For this piece of fermented bean dregs, Chen Fan borrowed another cent from Jiang Lili.

Now the total debt was 6 yuan, 1 jiao, and 1 fen.

Now the problem came again. Plastic bags became popular in the mid-1980s and later. Now people buy vegetables either carrying a bamboo basket "naked," that is, putting the things directly into the vegetable basket after buying them.

Or, they use straw rope or paper to wrap them. For example, when buying meat, they tear off a piece of pre-cut straw rope to tie it up. It's the same when buying fish, threading it through the fish gills, out of the fish's mouth, and then tying the straw rope tightly, so they can carry it away.

But this can only tie things that don't easily fall apart. Straw rope can't tie tofu, and paper can't wrap tofu. People usually bring their own bowls to hold this kind of thing.

What if Chen Fan didn't have a bowl?

It didn't matter, he had his face!

He flashed his face, told people he would come back on Thursday to pick up the cotton quilt, and the tofu master knew he was "Master Chen," so he agreed to lend him two bowls.

And then he carried them home like that.