My 1978 Hotel

"What about accommodation? How should we arrange it?"

These carpenters live several miles apart, so it would be difficult for them to make a round trip by noon. They could probably only go back in the evening. The ones who live much farther away have a mountain road of nearly twenty miles, so this guy definitely wouldn't be able to get back.

"Two rooms have been cleared out from the warehouse."

Gao said, "We'll move the bed over later. Just tidy it up and move in for now."

"That works too."

The warehouse has a shortage of grain this year, so there's actually some space available. As for beds, that's even simpler. Furniture factories can't do without them; a simple carpenter can make beds himself.

"Okay, let's give them the towels and stuff too."

As for food, Li Feng didn't care. Whether he cooked his own food or ate with everyone else was none of his business. The furniture factory didn't have a canteen, and providing meals was a luxury in those days.

Perhaps we can talk about setting up a canteen and providing meals when the furniture factory and steel mill have a solid foundation; at least we don't have the conditions for that now. "You should communicate more with everyone and try to build up production capacity as soon as possible."

"Don't worry, I plan to stay at the warehouse for the next couple of days."

"Okay, do you want me to pack some food for you?"

Li Feng joked, but Gao Jiu waved his hand dismissively. "That's not necessary."

"Enough with the nonsense."

Li Feng laughed and said, "We've made such a big commotion, how come the county furniture factory hasn't reacted at all? They can't possibly not know, right?"

"I also found it strange."

Gao said in a low voice, "How about we ask around? You can ask around the commune if there are any people working at the county furniture factory, or maybe some literature enthusiasts who came last time have relatives working at the county furniture factory?"

“I think it’s a good idea. We’ve always considered the county furniture factory our enemy, so maybe they don’t care at all. I’ll ask around later,” Li Feng said. “Now that we have a lot of manpower, you should train some staff, especially on the equipment. You must be strict with them to prevent any accidents.”

"This is an area we need to pay close attention to."

"Another issue is equipment," Gao said. "With so many additional staff, when will we be able to fill those gaps?"

"Come again next time."

Li Feng glanced around to make sure no one was around before saying, "I plan to bring more hens next time. The furniture factory's sales have been quite high lately, so buying a batch of equipment should be enough."

"Captain Han agreed?"

“Agreed, that’s good. Uncle Fuguo has no reason to disagree,” Li Feng said with a smile. “This time, we’ll have a lot of money in our hands. I’ll find an opportunity to visit some big cities later, like the capital or Shanghai.”

"You'll all come with me then."

Li Feng said excitedly, "I plan to go to the antique shop and buy some goods. I think it's worth it. Even if I can't take them back, I can keep them to exchange for money later."

“It’s definitely worth it. There are a lot of good things in antique shops. I heard that a Yongzheng blue and white porcelain bowl only costs five or six yuan these days.”

"The cheaper ones aren't expensive, but the good stuff isn't cheap either, some costing several hundred," Li Feng said with a smile. "But something this good would probably cost over a hundred million yuan to bring back."

"By the way, if you have the chance, get some jade items, jadeite is also a good choice."

Unfortunately, gold is too expensive right now, so it's not worth it. As for jadeite and Hetian jade, Li Feng isn't sure if they're easy to buy right now.

"I'll check the information when I get back."

Gao thought for a moment and said, "Let's ask around among these friends. These days, Yunnan and Guizhou still have quite a lot of connections with northern Myanmar, so it shouldn't be a big problem to do something like this."

"that would be great."

Jadeite and Hetian jade are quite valuable in later generations. The most important thing is that few people will ask where these things came from. They are easier to sell than gold, especially jade. You can just buy a few large rough stones, cut them out, and no one can argue with that.

"Let's not talk about that now. You can bring a solar-powered light over later."

There are still two solar lights at home that haven't been installed yet, so I thought I'd get one installed here too. With so many people living together, using kerosene lamps is really a safety hazard. "I'll ask Dong Qing to help install it later."

Have Dong Qing and the others come to help at the furniture factory in the last few days?

"this……."

Gao was a bit hard to say. Li Feng looked around and realized the boys had gone off to do something. "Luckily, Mingliang has been in class these past few days. Wait, he came back yesterday. Could he have gone into the mountains with this kid?"

That's quite possible. They bought the air guns; it would be strange if these guys didn't play with them. They've probably been out in the mountains quite a bit these past few days. Seriously, they're all incredibly daring. "Perhaps Wu Tong and the others haven't been to the furniture factory much?"

"Some things might happen in the next couple of days."

"You don't need to cover for them."

No wonder they're exchanging money; they're really planning something big, going hunting in the mountains. They probably won't even look at the small prey. "These guys, they just can't stand not causing some trouble."

Gao didn't say anything. Well, his boss usually caused a lot of trouble. The eldest brother doesn't talk about the second brother.

"You're busy, I'll ask later."

Li Feng planned to go back and ask Xiao Ge about it; apart from Xiao Ge, he really didn't trust any of these people. Even though Wu Tong and Qin Yue were in their mid-twenties, when they got rowdy, they were less mature than teenagers.

"How about we send them to check out the dredging site?"

Li Feng was actually quite worried about how Liu Wei and his chubby friends would fare at the river dredging project. These guys had never done any manual labor before. After just a few days of training, they were sent to the dredging site. They were going straight into heavy work. Although it might be good for weight loss, the worst thing was that these chubby guys would be driven to the brink of collapse.

Li Feng was ultimately a soft-hearted person. He could tolerate physical torment, but it was better to avoid emotional torment. "I need to find some time to go and take a look. Sigh, we still need to prepare for the steel mill cooperation. Dong Qing and the others were urging us about it last night."

They were quite comfortable, hunting during the day and making a ruckus at night, designing iron legs and folding tables and chairs, keeping themselves busy.

"We'll have Dong Qing and a few others write the cooperation proposal later."

This shouldn't be too difficult for college students, right? As for Li Feng, he's not very good at this stuff and hasn't written much about it. "I don't want to think about it anymore. I'm going home to cook. Da Ya and Er Ya are waiting for me."

Are you all at home?

When Li Feng got home, he was somewhat surprised to see Dong Qing and the others in the yard.

"Boss Li, come and see, we hunted some wild pheasants."

Tian Hao was beaming with excitement. "This is a rooster, isn't it beautiful? We went through a lot of trouble to hunt it down."

"Pheasant, that's good."

Li Feng weighed it in his hand; a little over a pound, which was quite good. This year, the pheasants hadn't eaten much, so even in autumn they hadn't gained much weight. "Should we stew them?"

"Start stewing it."

"Okay, leave it to me."

Li Feng called out into the house, "Da Ya, Er Ya, start the fire, Dad will stew some pheasant for you."

"Hey, Mr. Li, how about getting some mushrooms?"

"Chicken stew with mushrooms?"

Li Feng chuckled. This guy even brought Northeastern cuisine! Well, whatever. He brought some mushrooms he hadn't tried yet. He'd soak some and stew them later; they sounded delicious. "Where did you hunt this pheasant?"

"Houshanling".

"You guys didn't run that far from the back mountain ridge."

Li Feng sized them up, thought for a moment, and then understood. "Was it Han Mingliang who took you there?" "No, we figured it out ourselves."

Nobody would believe Tian Hao's words, and Li Feng was speechless. This Han Mingliang was trying to hide something from him. "How much? The guide fee?"

"50 cents..."

Hua Ziyan exclaimed, "Oh no, we've been exposed!" Tian Hao looked at Hua Ziyan speechlessly, "You're really something. Now even Han Mingliang might dare to lead the way for them."

"It really was that kid."

"They're really brave," Li Feng thought, at a loss for words. "Even adults wouldn't dare to go this far alone. Although they've hunted a batch of wild boars in the mountains, who can guarantee there won't be any left? There's very little food left in the mountains these days."

Encountering a wild boar is really dangerous. Wild boars are no joke; they eat anything. If they're really starving, who can guarantee they won't eat meat? "You guys are really brave. What do you do when you encounter a wild boar? Rely on a few air rifles."

As Li Feng plucked the feathers from the pheasant, he said, "Let me know when you go into the mountains. At least bring a rifle. If something happens, you'll have something handy."

"Oh, cousin, aren't you going to criticize us?"

Tian Hao and the others looked at Li Feng with surprise. Li Feng smiled, put down the pheasant in his hand, wiped his hands, and said, "What's the use of criticizing you? You just won't go into the mountains anymore. I don't have that much time to keep an eye on you."

"Go ahead and hunt if you want, but be careful."

Li Feng continued plucking the pheasants. "Brother, you have time to stay with them. I'm worried they might wander too far and get lost. There are no paved roads in the mountains now, so if they wander too far, they'll have a hard time finding us."

"I will follow."

"That's good, I feel relieved."

The pheasant was quickly prepared; it needed to be stewed over a large fire for a while. Li Feng also chopped some large chunks of potatoes, along with mushrooms, to be cooked later. As for the staple food, mixed grain rice, although there was still plenty of rice and wheat flour, they couldn't eat it every day.

Furthermore, Li Feng thought the mixed grain rice tasted pretty good, and the others thought so too, so they decided to cook more mixed grain rice meals. "Don't stay out too late tonight. I heard some noises when I got up in the middle of the night last night."

"I played Werewolf for a while and lost track of time."

Well, without cell phones, these night owls are still night owls. "Why don't you go back to the warehouse dormitory? The second brother is sleeping there tonight. You guys like hunting, right? Those two carpenters from Zhangjiazhuang might be good hunters too."

"Really?"

"Then let's go play for a while."

"Dong Qing, have you installed the solar lights yet?"

"Don't worry, it's already installed."

Dong Qing picked up a piece of chicken; it was delicious. "I tried it, and there's still electricity inside. It should be enough for tonight."

"That's fine."

"Tell me, Dong Qing, when are you going to get something better, like a bathtub? It's such a hassle to take a hot shower these days," Tian Hao said. "Cousin, why didn't you bring a water heater?"

"There's no electricity here, so what's the point of bringing it over?"

Li Feng was speechless. He had no idea what was going on here. Was he kidding? "Unless it's a solar water heater, Dong Qing, why don't you try getting one?"

"We don't have the materials."

Dong Qing muttered to himself, "Solar water heaters aren't actually that hard to make, but I don't have the materials on hand right now."

"Can you do something simple?"

"It can't be done."

Dong Qing was very clear. "It's already autumn. The simple method might work in the summer, but it definitely won't work in autumn. We need some materials. By now, we should have the technology. Bringing over the simplified version shouldn't be a problem."

"you sure?"

That's an idea. Li Feng is actually quite annoyed by the bathing problem here. "How about this, we build a few houses later. It's the off-season for farming right now, and there are plenty of idle people in other villages."

"Get a bathroom."

Li Feng said with a smile, "We'll get a big wooden tub then, so we can take a bath in the winter."

"A wooden barrel, that's good. Otherwise, we can have them make one."

"That's easy, we'll take care of it." Gao nodded. Wooden barrels were something they'd made before; as long as the seal was good, it wouldn't be a problem.

"The water heater is for Dong Qing, and the wooden tub is for you two, Lao Er."

Li Feng put down his chopsticks. "Write down what materials you need and I'll buy them and bring them over."

"Ah."

After dinner, Wu Tong and the others helped Da Ya clean up the dishes, while Dong Qing and the others started thinking about furniture again. "Take it easy, I really don't have many manuscripts left, if you mess things up any more, I'll have none left."

"Understood, Mr. Li, we'll use it sparingly."

These days, manuscripts are precious things, and ordinary people can't even get their hands on them. Li Feng is considered a great writer, and the county sent him quite a few, but who knew that Dong Qing and the others wouldn't know how to use them properly.

"Don't design anything too futuristic."

Design isn't about being as modern as possible. Don't assume that people today will buy everything from later generations. No, every era has its own aesthetic. If something is too avant-garde, it's considered out of place and nobody wants it.

It's like writing articles; now that scars are popular, if you don't write about them and write about other things, not many people will read them. There's a demand for something every now and then, whether it's material or spiritual.

"understood."

Dong Qing had actually designed some very futuristic and sci-fi-inspired tables and chairs, but after listening to Li Feng's explanation, he realized that these designs were unlikely to be produced. "Simple and practical is better."

"clear."

"It would be great if we could get some information, having something to refer to would make the design process relatively simpler." As soon as Wu Yu mentioned it, Li Feng remembered. "I have some photos here, some old furniture."

"Take a look."

"Similar in style, but slightly simpler."

Li Feng handed the photos to Dong Qing. "Nowadays, furniture is all about practicality and saving on materials. With the relative scarcity of various materials, whether it's furniture or home appliances, practicality is the priority, and aesthetics are secondary."

After listening, Dong Qing quickly calculated in his mind that most of his designs would probably have to be redone. "Alright, you guys take your time, I need to go to the brigade."

Upon arriving in Hanfu Country, Han Futian and Han Fuqiang were already there.

"Regarding the road construction, Secretary Gao and Secretary Wu had An Jun come over this afternoon to inquire. Fengzi, when do you think this project should begin?"

Han Fuguo looked at Li Feng, who thought for a moment. "In terms of timing, it would definitely be best to finish the river work. There were more people available then, unlike now, where not only are there few people, but most of the strong laborers are already working on the river work."

"That's true."

"However, from what An Jun said, Secretary Gao and Secretary Wu are quite anxious and want to get this matter settled as soon as possible," Han Fuguo said, taking a few puffs of his pipe.

"I see. Didn't Secretary Gao and Secretary Wu mention providing any support?"

Li Feng took out a cigarette, lit it, and took a drag. "It can't be good if we're hiring people and providing subsidies, and building roads, and the commune doesn't offer any support, can it?"

"I'll ask about it later." (End of Chapter)