Reborn in 1977

Chapter 610 Installing Air Conditioning

August 10th, Thursday, Qixi Festival.

Zhou Yali dragged her suitcase out of the airport and immediately spotted Chen Fan and the others not far away. She sprinted over, dropping her luggage as she ran, and flung her arms open. "Bro, I missed you so much!"

Chen Fan remained calm in the face of danger. He grabbed her arm with one hand and held the back of her head with the other, turning and pushing her into the open door of the van behind him. "Off you go."

Then he gestured, and Jiang Tiantian and Jiang Lili each smiled as they got into the car, pulling the door shut behind them.

Chen Fan first dragged the suitcase to the back and put it in the trunk, then walked around to the driver's side, opened the door, got in, fastened his seat belt, and drove off.

Zhou Yali sat in the chair, looking around curiously. "What kind of car is this? It looks a bit like Volkswagen's T2 minibus, but smaller. Hmm… it's more like a compact utility vehicle."

Jiang Lili, sitting with her in the middle row, smiled and explained, "This is a minibus. Xiaofan said it's a transliteration of 'minibus', and it looks like a loaf of bread, so he named it that."

Zhou Yali's eyes darted slightly. "He named it?"

Jiang Lili nodded and smiled. "Yes, he designed this car."

Hearing this, Zhou Yali's eyes widened instantly. She grabbed the back of the front seat and leaned forward. "Bro, you can design cars?"

Chen Fan didn't even turn his head, lightly slapping her forehead. "I'm driving, sit down."

Zhou Yali immediately rubbed her head, then turned and grabbed Jiang Lili's arm again. "You must know, tell me quickly."

Jiang Lili took her hand and happily told her about the origins of the car. "It was more than half a year ago when the leaders of the machinery factory approached Xiaofan…"

Jiang Tiantian sat in the back row, listening to her sister's introduction to Zhou Yali, and couldn't help but smile. Cousin was asking the right person, or rather, asking the right question. She wouldn't be so enthusiastic about other things, but when it came to Xiaofan, she loved introducing Xiaofan's achievements to others the most.

I guess they'll have plenty to talk about on the way.

After more than half an hour, the car drove to the front of the house, and Jiang Lili had barely finished telling half of Comrade Chen Fan's glorious deeds.

Chen Fan glanced at the rearview mirror. Well, none of the three female comrades seemed to have any intention of getting out of the car, so he consciously got out to open the courtyard door, then came back to drive the car in.

Opening the car door, the three filed out.

Zhou Yali couldn't be bothered to get her luggage. She grabbed Chen Fan, who had just gotten out of the car, and looked at him as if he were an alien. "Come clean, tell me, which planet are you from?"

The Jiang sisters stood together, their eyes full of confusion as they looked at her.

Chen Fan dragged someone back and forth, first closing the courtyard door, then taking the luggage from the trunk, and then walking towards the house, while explaining to the two sisters, "In 1947, someone in Roswell, America, claimed to have discovered a flying saucer, said to be an alien aircraft, later named UFO, which means unidentified flying object.

Since then, the UFO craze has continued unabated, and speculation about aliens has never ceased."

Hearing this, the two sisters understood what Zhou Yali meant and laughed at her.

Zhou Yali didn't care, simply letting go of his hand and saying with emotion, "I thought you were good enough already, but I didn't expect you to know how to design cars."

She suddenly smiled happily. "Now I officially declare that you are an abnormal human, so I don't have to be inferior!"

Chen Fan turned to look at her, asking curiously, "You've ever been inferior? That's rare."

Zhou Yali made a face, too lazy to pay attention to him, and dragged her luggage into the guest room on the first floor, while shouting, "I'll stay here, no need to climb the stairs."

Then she walked out and looked around, her brow furrowing slightly. "Bro, are there air conditioners for sale in China now?"

Chen Fan and the two sisters exchanged glances, raising his eyebrows triumphantly, then said, "Well, air conditioners are not that difficult to make, how could there not be any for sale? Do you want to buy an air conditioner?"

Zhou Yali nodded repeatedly. "I can't sleep without air conditioning at home."

Chen Fan snapped his fingers. "Follow me."

Before they even had a chance to sit down, the group was back in the car, bouncing along the road.

When they returned, there was a light truck following behind, along with several installation workers.

Watching the installation workers split into two groups, busy at work, Chen Fan stood in the shade of a tree, feeling quite indignant. "US dollars are so appealing. If you take out a check, you can get as many air conditioners as you want, and if it's not enough, we can produce them immediately. Even the installation is faster than others. They didn't even go to the unit they had scheduled, and came here to install them first, and with two groups."

Zhou Yali drank mung bean soup beside him, her eyes full of confusion as she looked at him. "I paid extra, ah. Five air conditioners, $100 extra for each, and another $100 extra for expedited installation. And this is your home."

Chen Fan was silent. He was still too excited, too simple-minded, and needed to change.

After a while, an old master worker walked over, and Chen Fan immediately took out a cigarette to greet him. "Master, is there something wrong?"

The old master worker took the cigarette, looked at it, and, ha, it turned out to be a Zhonghua with a filter tip, which was rare.

He immediately held Chen Fan's outstretched hand with both hands, leaned over to the lighter to light it, and grinned. "It's nothing else, it's just that your house is installing five air conditioners at once, so the wiring definitely needs to be changed."

Chen Fan frowned slightly. "Then I won't have time to call the power supply station now. Or you could…"

Before he could finish speaking, the old master worker waved his hand to interrupt him. "You don't need to find them. We have experience. We've already contacted them before we came. Someone should be here later.

It's just changing a line, it won't take much effort. What I mean is, your family's conditions are so good, you should have a refrigerator, right?"

Chen Fan immediately understood, nodding repeatedly. "Got it, the refrigerator needs to be unplugged, and things that melt easily need to be taken care of in time."

The old master worker nodded with a chuckle. "Yes, that's what I mean."

Chen Fan turned to Zhou Yali and said, "Tell Lili to bring out all the mung bean soup to cool down the masters."

"Okay."

Zhou Yali ran out without saying a word.

The old master worker slowly waved his hand. "Hey, hey, no need, no need, really no need."

Chen Fan's mouth twitched slightly. You already walked away, what are you pulling for?

After a few polite words, the old master worker saw that Chen Fan seemed to be quite easy to talk to, and asked in a low voice, "That girl, is she a relative from overseas?"

Chen Fan smiled and nodded. "How did you know she came from overseas?"

The old master worker smiled. "The clothes she wears are different from ours, and the way she speaks and acts is also different. Isn't that obvious enough to see?"

After a pause, he said again, "We've seen quite a few overseas Chinese in our line of work. Many of them come back to visit relatives, and many of them buy a lot. Televisions and washing machines are not uncommon, and many also buy refrigerators and air conditioners."

Hehe laughed, "There are also many people who, like your relative, don't want to wait for the time, so they pay extra to pick up the goods and pay extra for installation. That's how we got this experience."

Chen Fan nodded, pretending to understand. "So that's how it is. You guys are well-informed. I didn't know any of this."

The old master seemed quite pleased, holding his head high, puffing out his chest and belly, one hand on his hip, the other holding his cigarette high, "Actually, it's nothing much, mainly due to the nature of the industry. You wouldn't find it strange if you worked in a foreign goods store."

At this moment, the three female comrades came out, each carrying a tray with large, crude porcelain bowls filled with mung bean soup. The masters were very polite upon seeing this and quickly expressed their gratitude.

Gratitude was expressed, but there wasn't any of that overwhelmed, flattered look. They were still the elder worker brothers, with pride in their hearts.

Chen Fan also gave each of them a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes with filter tips. The old master immediately patted his chest, guaranteeing quality and quantity, and that everything would be fine.

Before long, people from the power supply bureau arrived as expected.

Two electrician masters busily replaced some of the wiring.

Once they were finished, Chen Fan quickly brought out the remaining mung bean soup, and again, a pack of cigarettes for each.

The two masters were originally preparing to leave, but seeing the host being so polite, they readily stayed to take a breather.

The older master finished the mung bean soup in one gulp, comfortably belched, then accepted the cigarette Chen Fan offered, thanking him with a smile, "Actually, I worked on the wiring for this building with my apprentice last year. I didn't expect it to be sold to you later, and now we're back to rewire it. What a coincidence."

Chen Fan laughed, "Fate, it's all fate."

The old master nodded, "That's right, that's right."

After a pause, he looked at the small Western-style building and said, "Comrade, I think you're a good person, so I'll give you a reminder. Although you've installed five air conditioners at once, it's best not to turn them all on at the same time. At most, turn on one or two during the day, and maybe one or two more in the evening, that should be enough. If you turn them all on, I'm afraid even with the new wiring, it still won't be able to handle it, and the circuit breaker will trip."

Chen Fan nodded repeatedly, "I understand, I understand. I guarantee not to turn them all on at the same time."

Zhou Yali's room definitely needs one, and my room needs one during the day. The two sisters don't need them. In the evening, I'll just have them sleep together, so we'll only need to turn on a maximum of three air conditioners at the same time.

It's just that Zhou Yali has too much money to burn. Chen Fan didn't care, so he let her buy five air conditioners at once: one for the first-floor room, one for each of the three rooms on the second floor, and finally, the large study and music room on the third floor, so she could enjoy the cold air while reading.

As for turning on five at once, that's generally not possible anyway.

Seeing that Chen Fan was so reasonable, the old master said, "It's rare to meet someone as understanding as you."

He flicked the ash from his cigarette, looked at the air conditioner installers working on the exterior wall, and said softly, "Shanghai is a big city, and ever since I started working as an electrician, there's always been a shortage of electricity. When the country was first founded, the requirement given to us by the higher-ups was to let the people 'have electricity to use.' Later, when electricity was finally popularized, a new requirement was put forward, called 'enough electricity to use.'"

He took a puff of his cigarette, and郁闷吐出 a puff of smoke, "But how can there ever be enough? We're just the ones who deliver the electricity. If the power plants don't send electricity, where are we going to find electricity for the residents to use?

So, from the beginning until now, there's never been enough electricity. Moreover, electricity for production must be guaranteed first. What can we do when there's a power shortage? We can only cut off power and limit electricity, with this area having a power outage today, and that area having a power outage tomorrow. Everyone takes turns, making do."

Being able to guarantee electricity at night is only because most factories stop their machines at night, and the extra electricity can then be supplied to the residents.

Even so, we can't avoid being scolded every time there's a power outage."

Chen Fan was very curious and asked, "Scolded in person?"

The old master raised his neck, his face full of pride, and said, "Who dares?!"

Chen Fan shrank his neck, "That's true."

If it were him, he wouldn't dare either.

The old master sighed, flicked the ash from his cigarette, "Although no one dares to scold us in person, we know about the letters written to the newspapers and the letters written to the power bureau. It's difficult."

Chen Fan was helpless about this. In order to solve the electricity shortage, Lujiawan went to cooperate with the Qingshan Commune to build a small hydropower station, and almost caused a big problem. What could he do to solve the electricity problem for such a big city as Shanghai?

He'd better wait for the masters to install the air conditioners and then hide at home to calm down.

Window air conditioners are relatively simple to install. You just need to make a hole in the window and embed the air conditioner in it. There's no outdoor unit.

But at the same time, the windows have to be modified.

The air conditioner installation masters of this era naturally understood this process, so they also brought a carpenter who could modify windows.

(Window air conditioners still have a large market in Hong Kong today because they don't take up space and don't require external mounting. The disadvantages are that they consume a lot of electricity and are noisy.)

After working busily for most of the day, the air conditioners were finally installed. After testing each one and confirming that there were no problems, the masters prepared to leave.

Chen Fan politely offered them a meal, but the masters tactfully declined. After going through the whole process, he sent them out the door. Closing the courtyard door, Chen Fan put his hands on his hips, looked at the big butts protruding from the windows, and nodded in satisfaction.

Then, with a wave of his hand, "Let's go, let's go enjoy the air conditioning."

Zhou Yali took the lead and ran into the house, while the two sisters followed behind Chen Fan, their eyes full of anticipation.

They had seen the air conditioners in Chen Fan's Yunhu residence, but they hadn't used them, and they were really curious.

When they walked into the first-floor guest room, Zhou Yali had already turned on the air conditioner.

Amidst the buzzing noise, a sharp gust of cold air blew out after a while, and the heat in the room quickly dissipated.

The four of them moved chairs in and sat down. Jiang Lili felt the cool air conditioning wind, her eyes full of amazement, "So it can be so cool in summer."

Jiang Tiantian didn't speak, but she was already thinking in her heart about how to write an article about her first time using air conditioning.

Regardless of whether it can be published, this kind of thing that can stir people's minds must be recorded.

Well, this is what Chen Mouren taught.

Chen Fan leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs, and thought silently in his heart that now that he had computers and air conditioning, he basically had the conditions for a宅男 to avoid the summer heat, except for one thing: the internet.

By the way, when was the internet born?

It seems that the founders of Cisco created a multi-protocol router with his wife and built the world's first small local area network, which led to the creation of Cisco and the internet.

What were their names?

Chen Fan scratched his head. He had used Cisco products before crossing over, but he hadn't really paid attention to their founders.

Forget it, never mind. I'll talk to my uncle later, and after the Chinese input method is developed, I'll have him go to Stanford University to see if he can get this thing out ahead of schedule.

Even if he can't keep the company in the future, he can at least make a fortune and keep some shares in his hand. Before that, he can also promote technical cooperation with domestic universities. Why not take advantage of such a good deal?

Just as he turned his head to talk to Zhou Yali about this, Zhou Yali also turned her head at the same time and said to him, "Old brother, I don't think the quality of this air conditioner is very good. It's too noisy, and there's no temperature control system. It's already so cold, but it's still blowing cold air. It's not smart at all.

What do you think about opening an office in the mainland and importing American electrical appliances? Is there any potential in that?"