Chapter 1: Reborn, Not a Saint

Northern Xinjiang, December, 1981.

Snow nearly half a meter deep covered the fields tightly.

Outside the kitchen, the temperature difference between the cold air and the heat from the house caused the snow on the eaves to melt, creating icicles nearly a meter long that looked quite dangerous.

Li Long, who had come out to relieve himself, looked up, searched around, picked up a shovel from the base of the wall, and knocked all the icicles down.

He vaguely remembered that in this year, his niece Li Juan had her head injured by an icicle, and it took a long time to heal. Even after it healed, a scar remained on her face. She had been mocked for this scar, which caused Li Juan to develop a serious inferiority complex.

Having been reborn, there was no way he would let that tragedy happen again.

Li Long wasn't sure how he had been reborn; he only remembered dying, and then, in a daze, he arrived at this moment in time.

In his previous life, Li Long lived to be sixty-seven without any major illnesses or disasters. He died on the spot from a cerebral hemorrhage while jumping to swat a fly in his own house; he didn't suffer much.

But in that life, his brother Li Jianguo, who loved him dearly, had died early after a fall, and his sister-in-law, nephew, and niece had treated him like an enemy ever since. Although they lived in the same village, Li Long lived like a loner. Even when he later lived with others, the lack of family made him feel like he was just an extra.

Since heaven had given him a second chance, he would never let those things happen again.

However, the immediate problems to solve were firewood and rations.

The weather in Northern Xinjiang was too cold. Before winter, the production team issued two hundred kilograms of coal to each household for heating.

This amount of coal was definitely not enough. Li Long remembered that in the future, every family would store seven or eight tons of coal, as it had to last for half a year.

Since there wasn't enough coal now, before winter set in, every household would go to the sandy hollows in the north to dig up tamarisk roots and saxaul wood—actions that would be considered highly destructive to the environment in the future, but right now, it was a matter of survival.

Originally, the Li family's coal plus the firewood they dug up would have been enough to last the winter.

But Li Long had returned.

Before winter, Li Jianguo had spent money to send Li Long to the August 1st Food Factory in Wucheng to work as a laborer. In this day and age, being a factory worker was a very glorious thing—of course, what made people even more envious was that workers had wages. Having dozens of yuan in cash in one's hand every month to spend however one pleased was incredibly satisfying!

After all, when working in the team, before the household contract responsibility system, one worked all year round and only received grain and a little money at the final settlement.

Of course, many farming households even had to pay money back; after all, the work points were calculated strictly, and if one didn't work well, or if the team's harvest was poor, there was nothing to distribute.

Therefore, Li Long was once the object of envy among the young people in the team, and in his second month there, the prettiest girl in the team, Wu Shufen, had taken the initiative to start a relationship with him.

But now, Li Long had been fired from the food factory, and he knew that in two days, once the team's big-mouth, Gu Ermao, spread the news of his firing, Wu Shufen would come to break up with him.

In his previous life, this incident had been a huge blow to Li Long, even influencing his behavior and serving as an indirect cause of Li Jianguo's fatal fall.

But this was a small matter now. Li Long was back, and as for a vain woman like Wu Shufen, he felt that breaking up was for the best. Even if Wu Shufen didn't bring it up, he would initiate the breakup himself.

However, he couldn't squeeze onto the same kang as his eldest brother Li Jianguo's family. So, when he returned at noon, Li Jianguo had spent the afternoon clearing out the east room where he used to live, setting up a stove, and lighting the kang to get it ready for him. But with this, the Li family's coal and firewood would definitely not be enough; let alone lasting until spring in March, it would be hard to even make it to the New Year.

When Li Long was twelve, his father, Li Qingxia, had sent him from their hometown and placed him in the hands of his eldest brother, Li Jianguo. Li Long remembered clearly that his father had said to his brother and sister-in-law at the time

"The hometown can no longer afford to feed us. As long as you take good care of Little Long, I can rest easy for the rest of my life. You don't need to worry about my old age or my funeral; just taking good care of Little Long is enough to fulfill your filial duty."

Back home, Li Jianguo still had a younger brother and a younger sister. Li Long was the youngest and the most pampered by their parents, but the hometown had little land and life was harder there, which was why Li Long was sent away.

And Li Jianguo had indeed taken care of Li Long as Li Qingxia had requested. The grain distributed to the family was eighty percent coarse grain and twenty percent fine grain. Li Jianguo and his wife, Liang Yuemei, only ate the coarse grain, giving all the fine grain to Li Long, his niece Li Juan, and his nephew Li Qiang.

A growing boy eats his father out of house and home; Li Long was in the middle of a growth spurt and had a bigger appetite than Li Jianguo. Li Jianguo could only rack his brains to find good things for him, sometimes even at the expense of his own children.

For this reason, Liang Yuemei had argued with him many times.

But Li Jianguo took the saying "the eldest brother is like a father" too much to heart, even losing his life because of it.

In this life, Li Long would absolutely never let such a thing happen again!

Fortunately, it wasn't far from the Tianshan Mountains. Besides an endless supply of wind-felled timber, the mountains were full of treasures: red deer, brown bears, wild boars, Mongolian gazelles, and the silly marmots that would become internet sensations in the future.

As long as he was diligent and quick-witted before the wildlife protection laws took effect, he could easily become a "ten-thousand-yuan household" within two or three years!

Oh, but first, he had to deal with his bladder!

He quickly walked along the path trodden into the snow to the reed-thatched latrine outside the courtyard, unzipped his pants, and let loose onto the snow.

The snow was immediately stained with a yellow mark, forming a strange shape—like an 'S', or perhaps an '8'.

After finishing, he shivered, quickly fastened his cotton-padded trousers, and turned to run back. At over thirty degrees below zero, a person could be frozen through in no time.

When he reached the door, before he could even enter, he heard the voices of his eldest brother, Li Jianguo, and his sister-in-law, Liang Yuemei, in the west room.

"Didn't you say Little Long wouldn't come back? Now that he's back, what are we going to do about the coal? It's the dead of winter; we can't even dig up tamarisk roots!"

"Don't you worry about it, I have a way," Li Jianguo's voice was low.

"You have a fart of a way! Are you going to borrow from the team? If you borrow, you'll need at least five hundred kilograms of coal! How will we pay it back? The money we earn in a year won't be enough to cover it!"

"I told you not to worry about it, I'll find a way. We can't just let Little Long freeze!"

"And he was doing so well, why did he come back? And fired... what kind of decent person gets fired from a factory? Did you even ask why? We spent fifty yuan back then; can we get that money back?"

"The money is already spent, how can we get it back?"

"Then ask Little Long, how much is his salary from these past few months? If there's any left, we can use it to buy some..."

"Why ask that? If he had money, wouldn't he have taken it out? He was all alone in Wucheng, in a strange place, how could he not spend money? Don't ask. I told you, I'll find a way!"

"Fine, fine, go ahead and be the hero! Anyway, I don't care, we can't let Xiao Juan and Qiangqiang freeze again..."

"Mom, I want to eat meat..." his nephew Li Qiang's voice rang out, and the voices of his brother and sister-in-law stopped.

Li Long sighed and pushed the door open to enter his east room.

The west room was the main room; the entrance was a hallway that doubled as a kitchen, and two or three dark rooms served as bedrooms and storage. The bedroom also functioned as a living room. The east room was originally a storeroom, consisting of only one room, but it had a stove, a heated wall, and a kang.

Feeling the temperature in the room, Li Long knew he had to plan his next steps carefully.

In his previous life, he had enjoyed his brother and sister-in-law's sacrifices with peace of mind, never once thinking about how much they had scrimped and saved for his sake.

Li Long's personality was somewhat vain and overly enthusiastic—what people today might call a "bleeding heart"—often taking things from his brother's house to help others.

As a result, he had been a sucker many times over.

In this life, Li Long would never do that again.

However, while that was what he thought, others wouldn't see it that way.

Just as Li Long was starting to form a plan, hurried footsteps sounded in the courtyard, followed by someone knocking on the door next door.

Li Jianguo opened the door and saw it was Gu Ermao, a youth from the team, and asked

"Ermao, what is it?"

"Brother Jianguo, I heard Li Long is back. Where is he?"

"Over there. What do you want?" Li Jianguo didn't trust Gu Ermao; the man was a hoodlum in the village, and he wanted to know exactly what he was after.

In Li Jianguo's eyes, Li Long was still a child, unreliable in his dealings, and he had to keep an eye on things.

Hearing the voices, Li Long opened his door, and the cold wind rushed in.

"Ermao, what is it?"

"You're really back?" Gu Ermao, wrapped in a tattered cotton coat, saw Li Long and his eyes lit up. He sniffed loudly and pushed him into the east room with one hand

"Come on, let's go inside and talk!"

Li Jianguo had wanted to follow them in, but Gu Ermao pulled the door shut as soon as he entered.

Behind him, Liang Yuemei complained

"Why don't you close the door? All the heat is escaping!"

Li Jianguo closed the door.

Inside the east room, Gu Ermao said to Li Long

"Li Long, brother is in trouble now, I need your help."

"What's the matter? Tell me first so I can hear it, though I might not be able to help," Li Long said with a smile, though he was already on guard. Although Gu Ermao acted like a hoodlum, he was sweet-talked, often flattering Li Long until he was overjoyed, thinking the other person truly admired him.

Only later did he realize that this Ermao just wanted to sponge off his money.

"How much money do you have on you? I'm going to the Third Team tomorrow to meet a potential match, and I don't have any money to buy gifts. Lend me some."

He said it as if it were a matter of course, as if Li Long lending him money was only right and proper.

In his previous life, Li Long, wanting to appear generous, had lent all ten-plus yuan he had on him to Gu Ermao. As a result, the family had no money to buy coal, and Li Jianguo had to borrow coal from the team, a debt that took three years to pay off.

And the money Gu Ermao borrowed was never returned, not even until the day Li Long died.

In this life, would he lend it again?

Impossible.

Stop the urge to play the savior; respect the fate of others.

(End of chapter)