Chapter Sixteen: Isn’t It Obvious Enough That We’re Broke, Bro? (Please Bookmark and Follow)

Folding his hands behind his back, Qin Jun leisurely stood up. It must have been around nine or ten in the morning.

People from the commune were only just arriving at this hour? If he had been a bit more diligent, the kiln should have been emptied by now, right?

“What’s the hold-up? Opening the kiln? Do I have to teach you how to do that too?”

Approaching the kiln’s mouth, Qin Jun felt helpless.

The villagers at this time were truly stubborn—either all moving together or not moving at all!

“Liberating one’s thinking” wasn’t just an easy phrase; if it were that simple, anyone could become prosperous and live a comfortable life!

“Should we just tear off the kiln’s top?” Qin Zhihe whispered.

“Exactly. We’ll seal it again after the next firing. Isn’t that obvious?” Qin Jun replied.

“The kiln’s opening now, the kiln’s opening!”

Soon, all the onlookers who had been watching from nearby gathered around.

“Qin Zheng, you scoundrel! Because of your village’s lime kiln, how many times has Old Feng been beaten up? When will this end?”

As Qin Zheng approached, Qin Jun heard the man behind him complaining nonstop.

He glanced over and didn’t recognize him. But just from that pale face, it was clear he wasn’t a villager or a farmer.

Farmers nowadays were hard to recognize.

The young looked like skinny bones come to life; the elderly resembled withered trees swaying in the wind.

Rural folks in this era all looked the same, especially the elders, their faces lined like old tree bark.

Dark-skinned and gaunt, that was the farmer’s face—just like their hands, marked with wrinkles or cracks!

But the man pulling Qin Zheng was absolutely different.

“So this is Qin Jun. Not a bad lad! Tell me, how did you learn to make lime? You didn’t just pick it up by watching, did you?”

The pale-faced man looked to be barely in his twenties, but his demeanor bore the maturity of a man in his thirties.

He must be about Qin Zheng’s age, both over thirty.

The man approached and immediately started questioning Qin Jun.

Judging by this, he wasn’t shy at all.

“You just need to glance at it to learn? How else would you learn?” Qin Jun, no longer a child, showed no reaction despite the man’s enthusiasm.

If he were to go out to work next year, he’d probably meet plenty of socially adept types far more impressive than this guy.

“You really learned just by watching? How exactly did you watch? Feng and his uncle guard the kiln like thieves whenever they fire it; how did they let you see the process?” Yu Aiguo looked at Qin Jun with curiosity, trying to guess how he’d learned.

Feng, the accountant, and his uncle had monopolized the lime kilns for over a decade.

Without his uncle firing the kiln, how could Feng have been so arrogant?

An accountant controlling the lime kilns for so long—there was certainly a lot of profit in that.

Qin Jun didn’t care what Yu Aiguo thought; he was also very curious about the results of the first firing.

But once the kiln top was removed and Qin Jun glimpsed the limestone inside, he relaxed.

The limestone at the top had turned slightly yellow—a natural crust of quicklime.

Originally bluish-gray, now it was pale yellowish-white.

“Grab a few pieces and pour water on them!”

Some cautiously pulled out a few chunks and found they were no longer hot. Then everyone pitched in.

With many hands, they quickly extracted several hundred pounds of quicklime.

Limestone is calcium carbonate. After firing, it becomes calcium oxide—quicklime.

Pour water on it, and it reacts to form calcium hydroxide, something Qin Jun had seen in his nephews’ middle school chemistry books.

Firing lime was just a few chemical reactions; it wasn’t difficult at all.

Since they were making coal cakes, water was not scarce here.

Soon, fist-sized chunks of quicklime were doused with water.

Immediately, the quicklime reacted, emitting white smoke and turning into a white powder.

When all the quicklime turned into lime powder, everyone knew the firing had been successful.

Qin Jun, closest to the kiln, smelled the pungent odor and felt the heat radiating from the quicklime.

He remembered as a child, whenever someone was building a house, mischievous kids would secretly take an egg and roast it in the quicklime.

“Not bad! You got it right the first time?” Yu Aiguo asked again.

Qin Jun gave no reply; the evidence was before their eyes.

“Xiao Jun, this is Comrade Yu Aiguo, deputy director of the commune,” Qin Zheng introduced solemnly.

Qin Jun looked at Yu Aiguo in surprise—deputy director of the commune?

This was the first time in two lifetimes he had met such a high-ranking official!

The deputy director of the commune was equivalent to a vice-town mayor in later times.

“Ha ha, we’re all servants of the people! Maybe I’m flattering myself a bit? The real leaders are the servants of the people; we’re just ordinary folks.”

Though in his thirties, Yu Aiguo still had the heart of a child.

This made Qin Jun feel a kinship; after all, he was just a boy with a mental age under sixty. A man remains a youth until death!

“I really taught myself. I think I saw a detailed guide in a book. It was very thorough, with clear diagrams. Anyone who glanced at it could learn.”

Hearing Qin Jun speak so earnestly, everyone exchanged glances.

Qin Zheng was incredulous. “Is there really such a book? Where is it?”

“There is. I thought it was very useful, so I looked at it a few more times,” Qin Jun said seriously.

“Just a few times?” Qin Zhihe couldn’t help asking.

“I only skimmed a few pages; the Xinhua Bookstore people wouldn’t let me read more!” Qin Jun smiled.

“Ah? At the Xinhua Bookstore? Why didn’t you buy such a good book?” Yu Aiguo asked in surprise.

Qin Jun was speechless. To borrow a phrase from a great man of later times: “Bro, aren’t you poor enough yet?”

If you didn’t know, just look at his clothes—his pockets were probably cleaner than his face!

“I couldn’t afford it! That book was just published this year. It’s called ‘One Hundred Thousand Whys,’ a set of fourteen volumes!”

The more Qin Jun spoke, the clearer his memory became. He realized that whenever he wanted, memories from his past life would play vividly in his mind, like a movie.

Even things he had unintentionally seen before would pop up quickly, as if triggered by keyword searches.

This was remarkable. At this moment, Qin Jun could even see the publication date of that book in his mind.

He had been asked many times how he learned to make lime.

Originally, he didn’t want to answer, but after so many questions, he thought of “One Hundred Thousand Whys,” a divine book full of practical knowledge.

Of course, ordinary scientific knowledge was useless for most people.

Now he understood the timing was perfect because that book was published in 1979.

It was the third edition, the version for workers, peasants, and soldiers.

This edition was the most straightforward and down-to-earth of all versions.

The set included fourteen volumes detailing every piece of scientific knowledge one might encounter or need in daily life.

For example, how to give a haircut and how to make the tools for it.

Since it even taught haircuts, naturally it included how to make lime and how to fire bricks and tiles.

That wasn’t the most astonishing part. It even had diagrams showing how to use rifles and anti-aircraft machine guns to shoot down planes!

The authors must have worried readers wouldn’t understand, so they drew pictures explaining how to make rifles, arrange troops, and how to strike planes in the sky.

This book was incredible. It even had step-by-step instructions on how to cultivate mushrooms.

“You’re sure you saw it at the Xinhua Bookstore?” Qin Zheng asked.

“Absolutely. I only looked at a few pages. You don’t believe me? Go check for yourselves. I doubt anyone buys that whole set—fourteen volumes! Not cheap!”

Hearing Qin Jun’s confident words, everyone believed him.

Still, it was a bit hard to swallow.

You just read a book, only a few pages, and now you’re bluffing us into making lime?

And the most unbelievable part—they succeeded on the first try? How was that fair?

Qin Jun didn’t care what they thought. He had explained how he learned to make lime, and he planned to make bricks and tiles too.

If anyone asked how he learned, he’d credit “One Hundred Thousand Whys.”

He wasn’t lying because the book truly contained such knowledge.

If not, it must have been a censored version—after all, there were several editions!

Breaking through the crowd, Qin Jun saw his eldest brother still working.

His brother and sister-in-law were honest folk, like old oxen—heads down, working silently, never looking up.