Reborn in 1977

Unfortunately, Chen Fan wasn't beside them and couldn't hear their conversation.

With the radio broadcasting, there wasn't anything for him to do. Moreover, he wasn't particularly interested in the news being broadcasted, so he wandered around the room.

Feeling utterly bored, he went to the doorway and looked outside.

The corridor was empty, and looking down, the courtyard was also deserted.

Chen Fan's eyes darted slightly, and he cautiously walked out, looking left and right again.

The door to the left, near the corridor, was locked, but the room on the right wasn't.

He peeked through the window, and it turned out to be a library?

Looking back once more, the courtyard was still empty. Chen Fan turned back and gently pushed the door. It opened?

He quietly slipped inside and closed the door behind him, carefully observing the room.

The furnishings inside were simple, with only two shelves. One shelf was entirely filled with newspapers. The other was a bookcase with glass doors, making the books inside clearly visible.

The first row, needless to say, was entirely composed of Mr. Li's works.

The second row also contained various theoretical documents.

From the third row downwards, there was no further categorization. Chen Fan pressed his head against the glass, seeing a "Barefoot Doctor's Manual," a "Militia Military Training Manual," and a complete set of twenty-one volumes of worker-peasant-soldier publications titled "100,000 Whys"?

Looking at those words on the book, Chen Fan was a little confused. "100,000 Whys" was a worker-peasant-soldier publication?

Could there be something wrong?

Oh well, that's not important.

What the heck was a "Carpentry" book doing next to it?

There's even a book specifically introducing carpentry?

Continuing to look, "Basic Art Knowledge" was next to "Atlas of Stored Grain Pests," followed by "Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric."

Amidst this jumble of books, there was also a "How to Manage a Rural Library"?

It almost drove Chen Fan, an obsessive-compulsive, to the brink of collapse.

The books below were more normal, such as "The Collected Works of Lu Xun," "Ode to Forest Cultivation," "Mass Singing," and so on.

As for the other book from the legendary Three Great Divine Books, "Talent Friend for Military and Civilian Use," it wasn't to be seen, and he didn't know if it hadn't been published yet.

The possibility of it not being bought was unlikely. The Three Great Divine Books—"Barefoot Doctor's Manual," "Militia Military Training Manual," and "Talent Friend for Military and Civilian Use"—were called divine books not only because their contents were all-encompassing and extremely practical but also because of their high degree of popularity. Even rural libraries would generally collect them.

Its absence here probably meant it simply hadn't been published yet.

Furthermore, the fourth set outside of the Three Great Divine Books, the "Five Small Industries Technical Series," was also missing.

That's right, this was, after all, a production team, mainly focused on agricultural production, and wouldn't have a set of industrial books here.

But why buy "Basic Art Knowledge" and "Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric"?

Chen Fan looked at this large pile of messy books and couldn't help but intervene.

He immediately pulled open the cabinet door and began organizing from the first row.

Mr. Li's books were rearranged according to their publication order from earliest to latest. The ones below were arranged first by author, then by time, and then by category.

Practical books were grouped together, tool books were grouped together, literary books were grouped together, and other books were grouped together.

They were also arranged according to book size.

Fifteen minutes later, Chen Fan looked at the newly refreshed bookcase and revealed a gratified smile.

At this moment, a voice came from the doorway, "What are you doing?"

Chen Fan turned his head and saw Zhang Wenliang standing in the doorway, looking at him with a surprised expression, his gaze constantly darting towards the bookcase.

"Organizing the bookcase," Chen Fan said frankly. "I don't know who arranged it before, but it was too messy. Except for Mr. Li's books and other theoretical books being relatively neat, the other books were randomly placed. Art books were placed with pest control books, and there were even a few comic books next to them, so I organized them a bit."

"Oh."

Zhang Wenliang walked in with his mouth open, looked at him, and then looked at the bookcase. "It looks almost the same."

Almost the same?

Chen Fan's gaze flickered, and he asked softly, "Could it be that you were the one who organized it?"

Zhang Wenliang immediately coughed dryly and said with confidence, "How could it be? I'm in charge of the militia, how would I organize this stuff? It wasn't me, definitely not me!"

Seeing the suspicious look in Chen Fan's eyes, Zhang Wenliang raised the box he was carrying. "Well, Captain Xiao asked me to bring you the toolbox from the communications squad. Here you go."

Chen Fan quickly took the box and opened it. There were dividers inside. He put the box on the ground and took out the dividers, which had three layers, neatly arranged with many items.

Lineman's pliers, needle-nose pliers, various sizes of flat-head screwdrivers, Phillips screwdrivers, light bulb testers, and several soldering irons that didn't need electricity, the kind that could be used after being heated on a fire.

Hmm, they looked a bit like torture irons.

There was also an alcohol lamp for heating the soldering irons, but there was no alcohol inside.

The most valuable thing was the bulky multimeter at the bottom, more than twenty centimeters high and more than ten centimeters wide, with a black plastic shell. This thing should be considered high-tech.

In addition to these tools, there were also some simple electronic components in the box.

Only…

Chen Fan inspected everything and looked up at Zhang Wenliang, asking curiously, "Brother Sanhu, these things all seem to be new?"

Zhang Wenliang nodded. "Yes, new. Since they were issued, they haven't been used."

Chen Fan blinked. "Why weren't they used?"

Zhang Wenliang said plausibly, "No one knew how to use them, so they weren't used."

Chen Fan was speechless.

After a pause, he asked again, "Then what about the communications squad's equipment?"

Zhang Wenliang said, "Oh, just a walkie-talkie. It was only used once a few years ago when the county militia held a county-wide competition. Usually, it's locked in a cabinet."

Chen Fan turned his head a few times, trying hard to scrape together the vocabulary in his brain. Finally, he blurted out two words, "Great."

Zhang Wenliang squatted down and said softly, "It's not that we're reluctant to use it. It's mainly because of the situation in the past few years. If you accidentally broke it, you might be labeled with a political accusation, so we simply locked it in the cabinet. The less you do, the fewer mistakes you make, don't you think?"

Chen Fan suddenly understood, nodded, and smiled, "Indeed."

Zhang Wenliang chuckled, then looked up at the bookcase again. "I see you're quite knowledgeable about these books. How about also being a librarian?"

Chen Fan's eyes lit up. "Raise my work… points?"

Zhang Wenliang patted him on the shoulder, stood up, and smiled. "This is adding responsibility to you, so don't mention work points. Work hard, and I'm optimistic about you."

As he spoke, he walked out, but suddenly turned back at the doorway. "Oh, right, you can take your time using this toolbox, no rush. Also, morning exercises start at 6:00 AM sharp tomorrow. Don't be late."

Then, without waiting for Chen Fan's reaction, he ran off as if his butt was on fire.

Chen Fan looked at the toolbox in his hand and then at the bookshelves on both sides, unable to help but chuckle twice.

Just as he had finished organizing the toolbox, Captain Zhang ran up again. He first went to the broadcasting room and saw that no one was there?

He immediately shouted, "Little Chen? Little Chen?"

Chen Fan quickly walked out. "I'm here."

Captain Zhang quickly turned around, almost bumping into him.

But he didn't mind at all, with an excited look on his face, he said to Chen Fan, "Broadcast this. Next Sunday, December 19th, there's a big market in the No. 5 production team of the Gan Family Village Production Brigade, next to the commune. Members who need to can go to the market."

Chen Fan blinked. "A market?"

Just as he was thinking of operas, acrobats, snack stalls, and merchandise stalls, Captain Zhang nodded vigorously and said with emotion, "Yes, a market. The rural market that was stopped for ten years is going to be restored!"