Reborn in 1977

Chapter 683: Exchanging Gifts

December 17th, Sunday, the eighteenth day of the winter month.

Chen Fan woke up in his warm house, lay in bed for a while, then got up and stretched, considering it his morning exercise.

After washing up in the bathroom, he had just walked out when Liu Juan called from downstairs, "Brother Chen, the phone company people are here to install the phone."

Huh?

Chen Fan looked over the railing, but didn't see anyone, so he asked, "Where are they?"

Liu Juan pointed outside, "They're stringing the wires."

Chen Fan asked, "Did they say who sent them?"

He asked the question, but he already had the answer in his mind.

It couldn't be the three masters. It wasn't that they were unwilling to do such a small favor, but rather that they didn't have the awareness to do so unless Chen Fan specifically asked, which he hadn't.

Aside from the three of them, the only other possibilities were Deputy Factory Director Li and Zhou Zhengdong.

Relatively speaking, Zhou Zhengdong was more likely, mainly because Deputy Factory Director Li's abilities were slightly lacking. He didn't have that much influence in Beijing, not even as much as Chen Fan himself.

And Zhou Zhengdong was still staying at the Beijing Hotel. The results of yesterday's negotiations had already been released, so it would be no problem to make a small request at this time.

It's just that the people installing the phone had already arrived at the house, so why hadn't they come out yet?

Liu Juan looked up at Chen Fan standing on the second floor and gently shook her head, "I asked, but they only said that the leader issued a work order, and they didn't know who arranged it.

They arrived quite early, first checking the lines in the house, and then going outside to connect the wires. Ma Lan is outside watching."

Just then, the door was pushed open, and several people walked in, led by Ma Lan.

An old technician was still talking, "This house is good, too good. It's not only big, but everything is convenient. The wire troughs were left when the house was built, and there are wires inside, with joints left at both ends. It doesn't take much effort at all, just connect the joints. I've never installed such an easy phone line."

As soon as Chen Fan saw them, he quickly turned around and went downstairs.

As a result, by the time he got closer, the old technician had already finished the installation and was ready to leave.

Like the small western-style houses in Shanghai, the telephone and television lines had already been buried, and there were dedicated wire troughs for easy maintenance in the future.

The installation technician had just gone out to connect the outside telephone line, and now he only needed to connect the telephone to use it directly.

The old technician installed the phone, picked up the receiver, dialed a number, chatted for a couple of sentences, and confirmed that the signal was normal before hanging up.

Chen Fan took out a few cigarettes and offered them, saying repeatedly, "Thank you, thank you."

The old technician took the cigarette, took out a small notebook, and took out a piece of paper to hand to him, "This is your home phone number, please keep it safe."

Chen Fan took it and looked at it. It said "86-7890", a royal flush, really good numbers.

The old technician lit the cigarette and explained with a smile, "86 is the telephone bureau, 7890 is the phone number. Just dial this number to make local calls. If you want to make long-distance calls, you have to dial the long-distance area code."

The 86 Telephone Bureau was the earliest telephone bureau in Beijing to upgrade its numbers to 6 digits. The phone used by CCTV was from their bureau, and then other telephone bureaus followed suit.

As for upgrading from 6 digits to 7 digits, that would be on July 8, 1994, but then, just two years later, on May 8, 1996, it was upgraded to 8 digits. It can be seen that telephones entering private homes was a matter of the 1990s.

Beijing's telephone numbers are all distinguished according to the telephone bureau's code, and there is no direct relationship with administrative regions.

For example, the Dongdan Telephone Bureau is 65, the Andingmen Telephone Bureau is 64, and 84 and 85 were opened later to make up for the shortage of numbers starting with 64 and 65. In addition, 4 numbers are in Dongcheng, 5 numbers are in Chaoyang, 6 is in Xicheng, 7 is the Guangqumen Telephone Bureau, Xuanwu District starts with 3, Haidian starts with 2, and later 0 was given to Tongzhou.

But the largest telephone bureau is the 86 Telephone Bureau. Many public telephones are from the 86 Telephone Bureau. Their equipment is also the most advanced, and they also have their own dedicated international long-distance lines, without having to go through the long-distance telephone bureau for transit, which gives them an advantage when making domestic and international long-distance calls.

The old technician gave a brief introduction and then made a gesture.

A young man following him immediately took out two small notebooks from his bag and offered them, "Comrade, this is a directory of some telephone numbers in the Beijing area. Please keep it for future use."

Chen Fan took it and flipped through it. One was mainly for units, and the other, in addition to units, also had the phone numbers of some private homes.

(1978 Beijing map and telephone number manual of relevant units, the cover is wrapped up.)

(The inside is like this. Tip: Pay attention to the police telephone number, which was originally 00, using the Republic of China's police telephone number. In the late 1970s, in order to distinguish the international area code, it was changed to 110, and other service numbers also changed accordingly, and then it was not until 1986 that the promotion of the 110 alarm platform began.)

After the phone was installed and the phone book was given, the old technician asked Chen Fan to sign the work order, and then packed up and left.

They didn't mention money. The technicians were only responsible for installation, working according to the work order and not collecting money.

On the other hand, they happily accepted the pack of filtered Zhonghua cigarettes that Chen Fan gave them, and left a phone number, saying that if there were any problems in the future, they could call this number directly, which would be faster than finding the telephone bureau.

He asked Ma Lan to see the technicians out, and then asked Liu Juan to move a chair over. Chen Fan sat down next to the phone and slowly dialed a number.

The phone was quickly connected, and Zhou Yali's voice rang out, "Hello, who are you looking for?"

Chen Fan said, "Looking for you."

Zhou Yali said, "Oh, you haven't called for days. Did you finally remember your old sister today?"

After a pause, a thought suddenly flashed in her mind, "Wait, wait, did someone go to your house to install a phone?"

Chen Fan chuckled and said, "I guessed it was you guys who did it. You didn't even give me a heads-up. I was caught off guard."

Zhou Yali said, "You don't have a phone there, and it's not convenient for us to go out. How can we give you a heads-up? Humph, if we don't look for you, you won't call us, will you?"

Chen Fan said, "How would I know if you're free or not? Besides, I know you're doing something important, so why would I call you for no reason? Wouldn't that distract you?"

Zhou Yali said, "... Forget it, forget it, I'll let you off this time."

Then she changed the subject, "We're almost done here, probably just one or two more days. Once the negotiations are over, we'll come find you right away. Hey, make sure the room is ready. Staying in a hotel is too awkward, it's more comfortable at home."

The corners of Chen Fan's mouth twitched slightly. He really wanted to say this is my house, not your house!

But he still said very tactfully, "Don't worry, the room has already been prepared. Old Uncle is staying on the first floor, and yours is on the second floor. We're always waiting for your arrival."

After a pause, he added, "Write down the number. Give me a call when you're done with work, and I'll pick you up."

Zhou Yali said, "Okay."

After giving her the phone number and waiting for her to write it down, Chen Fan hung up.

Then he went down to the basement, picked out a small set of scattered 7501 porcelain, padded it with cotton cloth, found a sandalwood box to pack it, and then told Liu Juan a few words, telling her to keep an eye on the little monkey and not let it be bullied by Gouzi and the gyrfalcon, and then he carried the box out the door.

He drove to Dashilar, and as soon as he walked to the entrance of the courtyard, he heard laughter inside.

Chen Fan walked in and saw that Mr. Huo had arrived again.

The four old gentlemen were sitting in the living room, drinking tea and chatting happily, still discussing the same topics as yesterday. How much more could they possibly have to say?

Seeing Chen Fan enter, Lin Yuanxiang immediately waved and said, "If you hadn't come, I would have sent someone to look for you."

Chen Fan placed the box on the table, sat down next to Master Zhang, and said helplessly, "Sent someone to find me? Don't tell me you want me to cook again?"

"That's not it."

Zhang Xuansong chuckled, "We're not eating at home today. We're taking Brother Huo out for hot pot. Your car can carry a lot of people, so take us there."

Chen Fan took a deep breath and forced a smile, "It would be my honor!"

This made the old gentlemen laugh.

Chen Fan ignored his three masters, picked up the box, opened it, pushed it in front of Mr. Huo, and said with a smile, "I didn't have anything prepared when we met yesterday, so I specially prepared a small gift today to express my feelings."

Mr. Huo immediately tried to decline, "I couldn't possibly…"

Before he could finish speaking, Chen Fan waved his hand and said with a smile, "This isn't expensive. It adds up to only a few hundred yuan, but it's very meaningful."

Mr. Huo was slightly taken aback, "Oh?"

He turned his head to look at the contents of the box, carefully picked up a porcelain bowl, and frowned slightly, "As thin as paper, as white as jade,"

Then he gently tapped the porcelain bowl and immediately heard a crisp sound. He was shocked, "The sound is like a chime, as bright as a mirror. Fine porcelain!"

He then turned to look at Chen Fan, "This is probably worth more than a few hundred yuan, right?"

Chen Fan smiled and said, "These things average 10 yuan apiece. They're really not expensive."

After a pause, he explained, "However, regardless of the price, you can't find these things anywhere else except the original factory."

He picked up a teapot from the box, "This kind of porcelain is called 7501 porcelain. It was made by the Jingdezhen Ceramic Factory in 1975 specifically for Mr. Li, and there's only this batch. It's very meaningful."

Hearing this, Mr. Huo was immediately shocked. He quickly put the porcelain bowl back, his eyes full of surprise, "So that's how it is. That's truly a priceless treasure!"

He was also decisive. After considering for two seconds, he said to Chen Fan, "Since it's something so meaningful, then I'll shamelessly accept it!"

Zhang Xuansong had been watching from the side. Seeing him accept it, he couldn't help but laugh, "You should accept it. You're a real man, why be so coy?"

Mr. Huo smiled and was about to speak when Lin Yuanxiang looked around, "Well, should we take out our things too?"

Li Shangde immediately stood up, "I'll go get them."

After a while, he came out of the room with a small bag in his hand.

He returned to the table and sat down, grabbed the bottom of the bag, and turned it upside down, dropping several small items onto the table.

Chen Fan looked at them. There was a Zippo lighter, a Parker gold pen, and a compass, but they were all old.

Zhang Xuansong said with a smile, "Brother Huo, we don't have anything good to give you. These three things are war trophies we collected from the northern battlefield.

You're doing business peacefully now, so it's not good to give you anything else. We don't understand the rules in Hong Kong either, so we chose these three things that can be used anywhere. Don't dislike them."

Hearing the words "war trophies," Mr. Huo's eyes began to shine. After Zhang Xuansong finished speaking, he immediately laughed and said, "These are priceless treasures. I've been longing for them. How could I dislike them?"

He then grabbed the three small items in his hand and played with them non-stop.

Li Shangde said with a chuckle, "The pen can be used for writing, the lighter can be used for fire and warmth, and this compass... we hope you won't forget your original intentions. Take it out and look at it when you have time. When you see the north, you'll know where home is."

Hearing this, Mr. Huo's face was solemn. He held the compass in his hands, stood up, and bowed slightly, "Thank you, old brother, for the gift. This gift is very meaningful. I will definitely carry it with me and never forget it."

He carefully put away the three gifts and closed the box containing the porcelain. Then he took out a few small boxes from his pocket, placed them on the table, and said with a wry smile, "I've also prepared a small gift, but compared to what you've given me, it's not worth mentioning."

Lin Yuanxiang immediately waved his hand, "Gifts are about the thought, not the value. As the old saying goes, 'A goose feather sent from a thousand miles away is a small gift with deep meaning.' As long as the thought is there, it's enough."

Chen Fan looked around and continued what Master Lin had said, "You guys are being too polite. I won't be polite."

He grabbed a small box, opened it, and was immediately shocked, "Wow, Mr. Huo, this isn't a small gift, but a grand gesture!"

Zhang Xuansong took the box from his hand, "This foreign watch, it's very expensive, right?"

Chen Fan clicked his tongue, "A Patek Philippe gold watch, definitely expensive."

Mr. Huo smiled and waved his hand, "It can't compare to your gifts. It's just a vulgar thing."

Chen Fan smiled and said, "I like vulgar things."

He picked up a long box that was obviously for a pen, opened it, and sure enough, it was a Montblanc gold pen. Looking at his two masters', they were also watches, and all three masters' were the same.

So this pen was for him.

He didn't stand on ceremony and directly stuffed it into his pocket.

Then he said to Zhang Xuansong, "Third Master, it's still early. Are your raw materials ready?"

Zhang Xuansong came back to his senses and forgot to ask how much the watch was worth. He immediately said, "They're ready. I even found you a few assistants. They all repair paint in the Forbidden City. Anyway, I heard they're very good at it, oh, they're very good at mixing paint. They definitely can't compare to you when it comes to painting."

Chen Fan pursed his lips and blinked, wondering what the ancient building restoration experts of the Forbidden City would think if they heard this?!

Mr. Huo was curious when he heard their words, "Mr. Chen is going to paint?"

Chen Fan turned his face and smiled, "Mr. Huo, don't call me Mr. Chen. Just call me Chen Fan, or call me Xiao Fan like my master."

Mr. Huo laughed, "Then don't call me Mr. Huo either. I'll be a little shameless and take advantage of you. You can call me Uncle Huo."

Chen Fan smiled and nodded, "You and my master are like brothers, so you deserve to be called Uncle Huo."

After a pause, he explained, "My Third Master used to be a Taoist priest. He left the temple during the war, and now he's all alone. His greatest wish is to rebuild the Taoist temple.

Now that the Taoist temple has been initially built, it's still lacking murals and statues. We've been preparing for a few days and gathered the materials. Well, since the weather is good these days, I want to paint the murals, so we don't have to postpone it any longer if it rains or snows."

Mr. Huo suddenly nodded, then looked at Zhang Xuansong, "Old brother, can I go take a look?"

Zhang Xuansong smiled, "Of course, what's wrong with that?"

Li Shangde directly decided, "Anyway, it's still very early to eat. Let's just go together and see how Xiao Fan paints."

The group said and got up, "Let's all go, let's all go."

Then they filed out and got into the car to go to the Taoist temple.