Reborn in 1977

Chapter 253: Shoeing a Horse

Walking downstairs and outside, Xiao Liewen was, as usual, already sitting in his office drinking tea.

Hearing footsteps, he immediately focused on the doorway, and when Chen Fan's figure appeared, he called out, "Little Chen."

Chen Fan turned and stepped into their office. "Captain Xiao, were you looking for me?"

Xiao Liewen pointed to the long bench against the wall, first tossing him a cigarette, then taking out his own pipe, lighting it, and exhaling a puff of smoke before saying, "I heard that when you renovated the toilet, you came up with some kind of squat toilet? And you even tiled your stove?"

Chen Fan chuckled. "Oh, you're talking about that."

He picked up the cigarette, took the match that Xiao Liewen offered, struck it, and lit the cigarette, but didn't smoke it. He continued, "It's not really tile, just pottery I fired myself, the quality is about the same as a bowl. If it gets dirty, you can just wipe it with a rag. And that squat toilet, I saw a report in the newspaper about apartment buildings, and then used knowledge from the book 'Construction Technology' to put it together myself. The toilet and sewer haven't dried yet, and I haven't tested if it works."

Xiao Liewen smacked his lips, puffing on his pipe, and said, "You're worried it won't work, but I heard that Old Yang and the others ordered a dozen squat toilets from you. If they weren't good, would they be willing to spend the money?"

Chen Fan chuckled. "Whether they pay or not is one thing, but the main thing is that it's been raining for the past few days, so I can't fire the kiln. The clay blanks I made overnight are still there, and they haven't dried in two or three days. To deliver the goods, I'll have to wait for the clay blanks to dry and the weather to clear up."

Xiao Liewen nodded and said, "Anyway, I don't care when you fire the kiln, count me in. Besides that squat toilet thing, I want the pottery for the stove too. How much money do you need? I'll calculate it all for you later."

Chen Fan naturally had nothing to say. Even if he didn't give money, just based on learning so much skill from him, giving him a set for free would be the right thing to do.

Speaking of which, should I formally become his disciple since I'm learning kung fu from him?

After the matter was settled, Xiao Liewen smiled contentedly, then asked, "I see you're carrying a bag. Where are you going?"

Chen Fan pointed in the direction of the commune. "Going to the commune to take care of some things."

Xiao Liewen didn't mind, he just asked casually, "What business do you have at the commune?"

Chen Fan smiled and said, "I wrote a novel a while ago and want to try submitting it to 'Jiangnan Literature'. I'm going to mail it today."

While saying this, Chen Fan felt a bit melancholic. He was still thinking about getting rich through writing, but the newspapers and magazines these days were pitifully scarce. Apart from the most authoritative "Two Newspapers and One Journal," which were the People's Daily, the Liberation Army Daily, and the Red Flag Magazine, there were basically only the local newspapers of various regions, and a very small number of magazines still around.

Many newspapers and magazines that were once brilliant more than a decade ago had been discontinued. Even if a few were revived, most had changed their names and only solicited contributions from specific local units. This was one of the reasons for the limited development of literature in the last decade.

It would probably be until the second half of this year that the "revival wave" of major newspapers and magazines would begin, and then reach its peak in the early 1980s, until the end of the 1990s, when this "literary trend" would quietly come to an end.

Right now, the options were indeed limited to just a few. "Jiangnan Literature" had only recently restored its name and was soliciting contributions from the public. Chen Fan saw the news in the newspaper and thought he would give it a try.

Otherwise, he could only submit to Yunhu Daily, and who knew if the local party committee newspaper would publish this type of novel.

Captain Xiao didn't know Chen Fan's feelings. He almost choked on a mouthful of smoke, staring blankly at Chen Fan. "Writing a novel?"

Although Chen Fan had written two news reports, writing a novel and writing a news report were two different things. One was writing facts, the other was writing fiction. He didn't expect Chen Fan to be able to write novels.

He then spread out his hands. "Where's the manuscript? Let me take a look."

Chen Fan didn't hesitate, taking a stack of manuscript paper from his cloth bag and handing it to him.

Captain Xiao spread out the manuscript paper, and frowned at first glance. "Why does it look like a girl's handwriting?"

Chen Fan coughed dryly. "Uh, because I'm usually busy, I asked Comrade Xiao Jiang to transcribe it."

Captain Xiao glanced at him, didn't say anything, and then carefully read the manuscript.

A story of more than 38,000 words was naturally not easy to finish reading. He only looked at two pages before returning the manuscript paper to Chen Fan, grinning. "Good, very good. You've written a story about squatting cadres, right?"

Chen Fan put away the manuscript paper, nodded and smiled. "Yes, I was inspired by Comrade An, and then I talked to Xiao Jiang, Xiao Yang, and them about some of the advanced deeds of the cadres who squatted in Lujiawan in the past, and then after artistic processing, I wrote it like this."

Xiao Liewen nodded slowly. "Good, Mr. Li has a saying, what was it? That's right, 'Art comes from life and is higher than life, art serves the people.' Although your article is a bit exaggerated, it hasn't deviated from reality, and it can be considered a practice of Mr. Li's guidance."

Then he waved his hand. "Go ahead, hurry up and mail the letter. The sooner you mail it, the sooner it'll be published."

Chen Fan felt a little ashamed. "Not necessarily, if the review doesn't pass, the magazine will reject it."

Xiao Liewen was stunned. "Oh, they also reject manuscripts?"

However, his confidence seemed to be even greater than Chen Fan's own. He raised his head and smiled. "It's okay, you've already published two articles in the local party committee newspaper. Is this magazine more advanced than the local party committee newspaper? I'd say there's definitely no problem."

Chen Fan laughed awkwardly, not explaining much.

How should he put it? Although this "Jiangnan Literature" was not well-known, in terms of level, it was really a little higher than the local party committee newspaper. Because this magazine was not from Yunhu, but from the provincial capital, and was directly managed by the Provincial Writers Association. It could even be said to be the internal publication of the Jiangnan Provincial Writers Association. If you could publish a few articles in it, becoming a member of the Writers Association would be almost a certainty.

Because of this, he chose to submit to this magazine first.

Even if it was really rejected, he could take a step back and submit to Yunhu Daily, and the newspaper office wouldn't feel like they were picking up scraps and losing face.

Who knew, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper office might be one of the editors of "Jiangnan Literature", so how could they dislike the manuscripts they didn't want?

After coming out of the brigade headquarters, Chen Fan rode his horse towards the commune.

Soon he arrived at the post and telecommunications office, first buying an envelope and stamps, writing the recipient's address on the envelope, stuffing the manuscript paper in, smearing the public paste on the table to seal the envelope, and then dabbing a little on the stamp, carefully sticking it on the upper right corner of the envelope.

Since it was being sent to the provincial capital, which was considered a long distance, it cost 8 cents. He bought two 4-cent stamps and stuck them on.

If it was within the local area, the price would only be 4 cents. Usually when Jiang Lili and Jiang Tiantian corresponded, they only needed one 4-cent stamp.

Thinking of Jiang Tiantian, Chen Fan's eyes flickered slightly, and he had an idea in his heart.

Jiang Tiantian was in the city, so the Xinhua Bookstore there should have more books than the county town, right? When he helped Jiang Lili mail the letter later, he could write a letter to her at the same time, asking her to help him see if there were any books he needed.

Hmm, that's a good idea.

He walked out of the post and telecommunications office, threw the letter into the mailbox at the door, then untied the reins tied to the tree, jumped on the horse, and prepared to leave.

At this time, the little mare snorted and said softly, "My feet hurt."

Feet hurt?

Chen Fan was stunned for a moment, then jumped off the horse again, squatted down, and asked, "Which foot hurts?"

The little mare raised its left front leg. "This one."

Chen Fan held the hoof and checked it, gently patted his head, and muttered in his heart, he should get horseshoes for the little mare.

The horses here were basically used as packhorses or draught horses, and there were very few riding horses. Most horse breeders didn't have the habit of shoeing horses, so he had overlooked this point.

He didn't expect that riding the horse every day during this period of time had caused some damage to the hooves.

Then he stopped riding and led the horse towards the repair shop. He forgot whether it was Secretary Yang or Team Leader Zhang who said that the blacksmith at the repair shop had shoed warhorses for the army before, so finding him should solve the problem.

The post and telecommunications office and the repair shop were on the same street, just one at the east end and one at the west end. Walking east along the road, he soon arrived at the repair shop.

Chen Fan stood at the door and greeted with a smile, "Master, can you shoe a horse?"

The blacksmith immediately got up, walked out, looked around the little mare, and then lifted each hoof to check.

The little mare was held by Chen Fan's reins and seemed particularly docile.

After the blacksmith finished checking, he got up, patted the horse's back, and said with a smile, "This is a good horse."

Then he said to Chen Fan, "You're using it for riding, right?"

Chen Fan nodded. "Yes, but I haven't ridden it for long. I bought it at the market last time."

The blacksmith nodded suddenly. "I remember, you bought someone else's foal first, then bought the mare, is it this one?"

Chen Fan, "Yes, it's this one."

After a pause, he asked again, "How is it, can you shoe it?"

The blacksmith smiled. "Of course."

He added, "This horse used to be used as a packhorse and has never been shoed, so the hooves have a lot of damage. If you had come later, the horse would have suffered a lot more."

Then he went inside to pick up his tools and measured the hoof.

Soon the measurement was over, and without saying much, he directly picked up a few pieces of iron and threw them into the stove, saying without looking up, "If you're not in a hurry, it'll be ready in half an hour."