Chapter 41: Dog-Beating Stick
After boiling water, washing his face, and wiping his body, much of the alcohol had dissipated.
It was just a pity that he was still wearing that set of pajamas, with a cotton-padded coat wrapped around him. He didn't know when the new clothes Captain Yang had promised would materialize. Until then, he could only keep wearing this outfit.
Everything else was fine, but not changing his underwear for a day always made him feel unclean and uncomfortable everywhere.
But there was nothing he could do but wait.
After a simple tidying up, Chen Fan prepared to go out.
Jiang Lili came over. "Don't you want to rest for a while?"
Chen Fan shook his head and smiled. "I went to bed early last night, and I'm not sleepy at all now. I might as well go early and come back early."
He didn't dare to light the kerosene lamp anymore. He had to wash up and go to bed before dark. Otherwise, after dark, if it was cloudy again with no stars or moon, it would be so dark that he couldn't see his fingers, and he couldn't do anything.
It had actually forced him to overcome his habit of staying up late before he transmigrated.
Seeing Chen Fan say this, Jiang Lili didn't say anything more. She turned and walked to the pile of firewood outside the kitchen, pulled out a wooden stick, walked back, and handed it to Chen Fan. "Take this with you."
Chen Fan was stunned. This wooden stick was about as thick as an egg, more than a meter long, and still had bark on it. It seemed to have been trimmed directly from a tree branch and looked like Chinese date wood.
He immediately reacted and couldn't help but chuckle. "A dog-beating stick, huh?"
But Jiang Lili didn't laugh. She looked at him very seriously. "Many families here raise dogs, and the guard dogs are very fierce. Once they bite, they won't let go. This stick is for you just in case. If you see a dog on the road, it's best to avoid it. Don't walk in front of people's houses. When you get there, be sure to find a local to lead the way. Otherwise, it will be dangerous because there are so many dogs in the production brigade."
Chen Fan thought to himself that he knew a foreign language and could chat with good dogs, but he might not be able to communicate with bad dogs and reach an agreement.
For example, so many people in the country know English and Japanese, but they still haven't been able to reach an agreement with America and Japan.
When mad dogs want to bite people, people can't just let them bite, so necessary precautions still had to be taken.
Chen Fan took the wooden stick in his hand and gestured with it on the ground. It came just up to his chest, and he couldn't help but smile. "I heard that reaching the chest is a staff, and reaching the eyebrows is a stick. This should be considered a dog-beating stick."
It was a pity that he didn't know the Dog-Beating Staff Technique; otherwise, he could have played the role of the Beggar Clan leader.
He didn't have anything else to take with him. He was about to go out with the dog-beating stick when he suddenly thought of something and turned back. "By the way, how do I get to Team 5?"
After all this time, Captain Yang hadn't given him the address yet.
Jiang Lili pursed her lips and smiled, led him out of the courtyard door, pointed to the small road leading directly to the west, and said, "If you follow this road, you'll soon see a ditch more than three meters wide. After crossing the ditch, continue walking, and you'll see a large ditch six or seven meters wide with fir trees planted on both sides. After crossing the bridge over the large ditch, you'll be on the main road of the Lujiawan Production Brigade.
If you want to go to the commune, walk south along the main road, and you can get there in half an hour. If you want to go to Team 5, you have to cross a bridge. There's a sloping road, about the same width as this one, with a small ditch on the side of the road. As long as you follow that road, you can get to Team 5."
Then she looked at Chen Fan and smiled. "That's where the brigade headquarters is. I've only been there twice, but the road is easy to walk. You can get there as long as you follow the road."
After a pause, she asked, "By the way, did Captain Yang give you a letter of introduction?"
Chen Fan was imagining the route she described when he heard this sentence and was immediately stunned. "Do you need a letter of introduction even within the production team?"
He always thought that letters of introduction were for outsiders. People within the production team were all from the same production brigade. It was like a unit. Did they need a letter of introduction for this too?
"Under normal circumstances, of course not."
Jiang Lili looked at him with her eyes unblinking and asked, "But do you know anyone in the production brigade?"
Chen Fan shook his head. "I don't."
Jiang Lili asked again, "Do they know you?"
Chen Fan thought for a moment and continued to shake his head. "They probably don't know me either."
This era wasn't like later generations, where they could have video calls. Now, even taking a photo required going to the commune, and some communes didn't even have photo studios, so you had to go to the county seat. You even had to bathe and change clothes the day before taking the photo, making it a solemn occasion.
Without photos, who in the production brigade would know him?
Jiang Lili, "So, without a letter of introduction, how do you prove that you are Chen Fan?"
After a pause, she said, "And you're an unregistered person now. If you run into the patrol team, they won't know you, and you can't produce proof, they'll definitely take you straight to the small dark room. Although the team captain can vouch for you, you'll still have to suffer."
Chen Fan was shocked again. "There's even a patrol team?"
Jiang Lili nodded very seriously. "Yes, there is. It's the people from the militia company. Lujiawan has a militia company, divided into three platoons, each platoon has four squads, and each small team has one squad of militia. The 12 squads take turns patrolling. In winter, they even have concentrated drills. They have the right to shoot bad elements directly."
Chen Fan raised his hands in fright. "Okay, I'll go find the team captain to get a letter of introduction!"
Watching Chen Fan run to the top of the slope, Jiang Lili couldn't help but cover her mouth and laugh, but after laughing for a while, she quickly suppressed it, carefully looked around, and then looked at Chen Fan, until his figure disappeared from sight, before turning and entering the courtyard.
Chen Fan ran to Captain Yang's house, successfully obtained a letter of introduction, and then strode towards the direction of the production brigade.
...
With a stick in hand, Chen Fan's heart was suddenly filled with heroic spirit. He didn't take the road in front of the Educated Youth Spot. Instead, he took a small road in front of a villager's house and walked down the slope.
Then he encountered several graves and three local dogs.
Before the local dogs howled, Chen Fan took the initiative to greet them. "Guarding the house? Watch carefully and don't let bad people in. See you later."
The three local dogs were immediately stunned in place, staring blankly as he walked through that bare cemetery, followed the ridge to the road, and walked away.
Who is this person? He can actually speak dog language?
The three dogs met and all felt that this rare thing had to be shared with their good brothers, so they immediately dispersed and ran away.
Soon, a chorus of dog barks rang out in the village.
Chen Fan walked on the road, heard the barking, looked back, and couldn't help but wipe away cold sweat.
Jiang Lili really didn't lie to him. There were really a lot of dogs raised here.
What a pity. These past two days, he had been staying obediently in the house and not running around, and he only went to Captain Yang's house. Otherwise, if he had chatted with so many dogs, his Beast Language would have risen to level 2!
Following the small road forward, he soon saw the small ditch that Jiang Lili had mentioned. At this time, the ditch had long since dried up, and only a pool of silt remained at the bottom of the ditch. He didn't know if there were any soft-shelled turtles hidden inside.
After walking across a "wooden bridge" made of three intertwined tree trunks and walking forward for a while, he arrived at the "main road" of Lujiawan.
It was actually a dirt road 5 or 6 meters wide, with two ruts on the road, extending into the distance along the dirt road.
After admiring the scenery for two minutes, Chen Fan continued on his way.
After crossing another wooden bridge and walking along a small road extending in the northwest direction, when he turned around again and looked back from a dirt slope, he could only see a little outline of the small dirt slope of Team 6, and that was only because there was a long embankment as a reference. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to see the place at all.
Just then, several local dogs suddenly ran out of the woods in front and stood there looking at him from a distance.
Chen Fan took a breath. Seeing these dogs, he knew he had arrived at Team 5.
(End of Chapter)
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