The 1960s: Everyone in the Brigade Gives Me One Point a Day

1960, Red Star Brigade. Chen Feng looks at his fiancée, who wants to break off their engagement over half a basket of coarse grain, and calmly nods. "Fine, but don't regret it afterward."

His fiancée sneers. "Regret it? Marrying a penniless peasant like you would mean starving to death. I'm going to the city, where I can get rationed food!"

She has no idea that Chen Feng has activated the Population Dividend System.

[Ding! Current population of Red Star Brigade: 300. Daily income: 300 points!]

[1 point = 5 jin of white flour; 5 points = 3 jin of fatty pork; 100 points = blueprints for a Phoenix-brand bicycle!]

In an era when everyone is on edge and food rations are measured by the ounce, Chen Feng gets to work building infrastructure like mad.

Refugees fleeing famine in the neighboring commune? Take them in! Register them in the brigade!

Educated youths sent from the city with no food to eat? Take them in! Register them in the brigade!

Disgraced eighth-grade lathe operators and leading researchers with nowhere else to go? They're all staying in the brigade!

By the time his ex-fiancée is begging everyone she knows in the city for a half-pound meat coupon, the aroma of meat from Red Star Brigade has already drifted ten miles. Provincial leaders are lining up to get Chen Feng's approval to borrow tractors...

Chen Feng has only one goal: to make everyone in the brigade a "point-generating machine" for him!