Reborn in 1977

Chapter 247 A Unique Creation

Chen Fan stood at the bottom of the slope, watching everyone help him plant trees.

The ones brought over now were just the first batch. After planting the trees in the pits, two people stayed to fill the soil, while the others pulled the carts to continue fetching the remaining trees.

On the top of the slope, the little mare, the foal, and the two little sheep curiously watched the lively scene, reluctant to move away.

Seeing their expressions, Chen Fan couldn't help but twitch his lips. Only in Lujiawan would they stare at people like that. If they ran to other places and stared at people like this, they would probably end up in a pot as meat.

Thinking of meat, Chen Fan took out his small alarm clock to check the time. It was already past 10 a.m. In another hour, it would be lunchtime. He thought about going to the front to see if Liu Jujang had prepared the lunch ingredients.

For rural banquets, almost all the ingredients would be pre-processed. For example, meat and fish would be steamed or fried in advance. In addition, some semi-finished ingredients such as various meatballs, spring rolls, fish cakes, and meat cakes would be prepared. Then, several stoves would be fired up at the same time, and in just about an hour, more than a dozen tables of continuous feasts could be prepared.

Today, Chen Fan had hired 30 laborers to help. Although he didn't have to pay wages, he had to arrange the dishes well. He wanted to go ahead and see if Liu Jujang had processed the wild game meat.

Before he could even walk to the front yard, one of Huang Ying's brothers stood under the shed by the kitchen and shouted at Chen Fan, "Teacher Chen, the mud is mixed! We can start the stove!"

Chen Fan waved his hand, "Coming!"

Then, he trotted forward.

Arriving at the front yard, he first checked Liu Jujang's preparations. Not bad, the wild game was almost processed, just waiting to be stewed.

Yesterday, he taught Liu Jujang several methods for processing wild game. It could be roasted, stewed, or stir-fried in slices, each with its own style. These were dishes he had tried to make based on the 'Wild Game Cookbook'. The taste was not bad, but he didn't know how much of his skill Liu Jujang could reproduce.

It was just that he had a lot to do today, building a clay stove and a toilet, so he didn't have time to cook. Otherwise, he wouldn't have asked Liu Jujang.

Anyway, the team members didn't have high demands for taste, so it would be fine as long as it was passable. With Liu Jujang's experience, there shouldn't be any problems.

After checking around, he turned and entered the kitchen. The location of the original clay stove had been cleaned, waiting for Chen Fan to start work.

A person beside him bent down, propping his knees with his hands, curiously watching Chen Fan, "Teacher Chen, you didn't hire a master craftsman. Are you really planning to build the stove yourself?"

Chen Fan picked up a small adobe brick and tossed it twice in his hand, smiling at him, "Don't you trust my skills?"

That person grinned and chuckled twice, "When it comes to cultural knowledge, we certainly won't doubt you at all. But this bricklaying and carpentry are different from reading books. You have to do it yourself. Don't be offended by what I say, but this stove is okay. At most, you'll have one less meal if it's not done well. But that toilet, if you don't build the wall well, it will be a big problem."

If you're taking a dump and the wall suddenly collapses, wouldn't that be a big problem?!

Today, 30 of them came, but they were all laborers. Everyone thought Chen Fan had hired other master craftsmen, but they didn't expect that he would personally do it himself.

Wasn't that a joke?!

Faced with his advice, Chen Fan chuckled, picked up a trowel, and smeared a little mud mortar on the adobe brick, saying to him, "Then you can see if my skills are good enough to build a wall myself."

Then, under the gaze of the three people beside him, he worked non-stop and quickly built the base frame of the stove.

The three people on the side had a strange light flashing in their eyes, marveling in their hearts. They didn't expect that Teacher Chen even knew how to bricklay? In the commune's construction team, those who were about the same age as him, or even a few years older than him, were basically still apprentices.

As a result, Teacher Chen could start work himself. The key was that he had learned so many other skills. Having so many skills concentrated on one person, they didn't know how he learned them?

Chen Fan was busy for a while, and without raising his head, he said, "Masters, please help me."

As soon as he finished speaking, the three people immediately came back to their senses. Someone immediately asked, "What do you want us to do?"

Chen Fan, "Mix a little more mortar, and have someone help me pass the bricks."

A younger one immediately squatted down, picked up an adobe brick, and handed it to Chen Fan, while the other two went out to mix the mortar.

With their help, Chen Fan's efficiency immediately increased a lot, and a stove was formed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

At this time, the light at the door dimmed. Chen Fan instinctively raised his head and glanced at it. He saw An Quan walking in with his hands in his pockets. His eyes fell on the stove, and he marveled, "Not bad, you even know how to build walls. When I build a new house, you have to work for me."

Chen Fan immediately chuckled, "You build a new house? Your money went to buy an accordion, and later the money you saved was used to buy drawing paper, brushes, and paints for your sister-in-law. Where do you get the money to build a new house?"

An Quan's face collapsed, and he glared at him unhappily, "Go, go, go, what do you know? If I can't afford a new house, can't I buy a piece of land to build it myself? If I can't afford it in town, can't I buy it in the village?"

Before Chen Fan could speak, the person who was passing bricks to Chen Fan laughed, "Brother An, if you want to buy in the village, I'm afraid you can only marry into the family, because the village's homestead is only given to people in this village. People from other teams don't count, let alone those in town. I'm afraid you won't have a chance."

An Quan pointed at him, "You're just like Old Yang, you can't even listen to a joke. No wonder you're all from the Yang family."

Then, he was too lazy to talk to him. He put his hands behind his back and spun around in front of the stove, "I see that you have several piles of green bricks stacked in your backyard. Why don't you use green bricks to build the stove, and use this kind of adobe brick instead?"

Chen Fan put another brick on it, raised his head and looked at him, smiling, "I definitely have to keep those green bricks to build a new house. If I used green bricks for the stove at the educated youth center, wouldn't that be contributing to the later educated youth?"

He patted the stove that was almost finished, and said, "Besides, this stove is not bad, right? It's guaranteed to be the only one in the entire production team, and maybe even the entire commune. It doesn't matter whether you use green bricks or not."

An Quan pointed at him, his face full of disdain, "Brag, you just brag. It's just an adobe brick stove, you talk about it like it's a rare treasure in the sky and not found on the ground. It's the only one in the entire commune,…"

He also patted the adobe stove, "This kind of adobe brick will be blackened in less than three months. What's so great about it?"

At this moment, a person came in carrying a bucket of mixed mortar, and said to Chen Fan, "Teacher Chen, your stove is almost finished, what should we do with so much mortar?"

Chen Fan turned around and glanced at it, smiling, "This bucket may not be enough. Please help me mix another bucket."

Everyone looked at him strangely, especially An Quan, his eyes full of puzzlement, "What are you doing with so much mortar? You can't use this kind of mortar to coat the inner stove. It's too thin, you have to use that kind of mud ball."

Chen Fan smiled, got up and walked to the corner of the kitchen wall, lifted a straw mat, and smiled, "Look at what this is."

An Quan quickly walked over, picked up a square piece of pottery and looked at it carefully, his brow furrowed slightly. He thought for two seconds, then suddenly raised his head, looked at Chen Fan and asked, "You wouldn't be thinking of using this as a tile and sticking it on the stove, would you?"

Chen Fan laughed and gave him a thumbs up, "Brother An is Brother An, you have good eyes."

Then, he asked with a smile, "How about it, after these pottery pieces are pasted on, can my stove be considered the only one in the entire commune?"

An Quan had already laughed out loud, "Not only in the entire commune, I'm afraid there is no stove like yours in the entire Gufeng County."

At this point, the three people who were helping also understood Chen Fan's intention.

These pottery pieces looked like they were made of the same material as the pottery used at home, and the surface also had a greenish glaze layer. Sticking this pottery piece on the stove would almost eliminate the worry of the stove being blackened. After each meal, just wipe it with a rag to maintain the cleanliness of the stove surface.

This was much better than a loess stove!

Understanding Chen Fan's intention, including An Quan, several people unconsciously sped up, hoping to see what the stove would look like after it was built.

Chen Fan didn't let them down either. He first coated the inner stove with loess mud balls, then smeared a layer of soil cement on the surface of the stove, and then pasted the pottery pieces one by one, trying to reduce the gaps.

He also made a passivation treatment at the corners.

If Jiang Lili and Yang Ju were here, they would find that the strangely shaped pottery pieces Chen Fan had made before fit snugly on the surface of the stove, almost seamlessly, without the need for additional processing.

Obviously, the dimensions of these pottery pieces had been carefully calculated by Chen Fan before they could be so smoothly assembled into the surface of the stove.

After pasting the last piece of pottery, Chen Fan looked at the "two stoves and four pots", the brand-new stove shining with luster, and couldn't help but laugh, "Success!"