The original owner’s experiences had brought him to a moment when he could take advantage of the wolf’s weakness and finish it off. After hitting the ground, the wolf hadn’t yet managed to struggle back to its feet.
Li Xiangdong didn’t stop moving for a second. He lunged forward and thrust the wooden stick straight into the wolf’s neck, severing its windpipe and piercing right through.
The wolf was already gasping, able only to breathe out and not in, as it writhed on the ground.
The other wolf, which Li Xiangdong had knocked senseless, saw what was happening and didn’t dare attack him again. Tail between its legs, it bolted into the woods nearby and disappeared.
Li Xiangdong glanced back. Only after seeing the wolf flee did he turn around and look at the dying one, a smile appearing on his face.
'Great, now I’ll have a gift to bring when I visit Aunt’s family.'
When the other wolf had vanished from sight, the one on the ground finally breathed its last.
Only then did Li Xiangdong stand up and let out a long breath.
Then he turned his head and saw the tear in the shoulder of his overcoat. His face filled with heartache.
The military overcoat had been brand-new when the border development office in the County Seat issued it to him before he left. If it hadn’t been so bitterly cold here, Li Xiangdong really wouldn’t have wanted to wear it.
But now, after wearing it for only a day or two, before he’d even gotten over the excitement of having it, he’d gone and torn it.
Fuming, Li Xiangdong kicked the dead wolf on the ground several times.
But no matter how much he kicked it or how frustrated he felt, there was nothing he could do. His new coat had already become a torn one.
After venting his frustration, Li Xiangdong looked around. Apart from the small patch of light around the fire, everything else was pitch-black.
It didn’t feel safe. He’d better leave this place as soon as possible.
Who knew what else might be in these woods? If the smell of blood attracted other animals, he’d really be in trouble.
So Li Xiangdong kicked some snow over the fire, which was about to go out, then dragged the dead wolf by its tail back to the dirt road.
He picked up his bedding roll and canvas bag and slung them over his shoulders. The wolf continued to drag along the ground. Since it was covered in snow, dragging it wasn’t all that difficult.
He kept walking like this for more than an hour, until at last he reached the outskirts of a small village.
From a distance, he could see that all the lights in the village had gone out. The whole place was silent, without a sound to be heard.
He looked up at the moon and guessed it was past ten at night.
When he reached the edge of the village, he saw the three characters “Shuangjing Village” written on a wooden frame at the entrance.
Only then did Li Xiangdong confirm that this was the place he’d been looking for.
His Aunt Li Guihua lived in this village.
The problem was, he didn’t know exactly which house was hers. He wanted to find someone to ask, but there wasn’t a soul around. He could only find somewhere to spend the night and ask the villagers for directions after daybreak.
Once he’d made up his mind, Li Xiangdong walked into the village with his luggage on his back. At last, he found a dilapidated house at the northern end.
It was a thatched hut built from adobe bricks, with a thatched roof. The door was gone, and only the window frames remained; the paper covering them was torn into pieces.
Once inside the adobe house, he could see the stars through holes in the thatched roof.
Still, even a ramshackle house was a house, and it could keep out the cold wind.
Fortunately, there was a pile of straw in a corner of the dilapidated hut. Li Xiangdong tidied the place up a little and tossed his bundle onto the straw.
He went outside and gathered some branches and twigs.
Back inside, he lit a fire.
He still had some dry rations with him, so he put them beside the fire to warm up. Then he filled his battered tin mug with snow and set it over the fire to boil.
The food was warm, and the water had boiled.
He made do with the hot water and ate his dinner.
After eating and drinking his fill, Li Xiangdong sat on his bedding roll, warming himself by the fire as he thought back over his experiences.
Li Xiangdong wasn’t a native of Northeast China. In fact, he wasn’t even from this era. His soul had traveled from a later generation straight into the year 1967.
In his previous life, he’d been an ordinary office worker, trapped in the grueling 996 work schedule every day. His body had long since been crushed by the heavy workload. He’d only meant to take a nap with his head on his desk.
But when he woke up, he was already sitting on a train.
According to the original owner’s memories, his hometown was Qingzhou, Shandong. He’d lived in a village at the foot of the mountains.
There were eight people in his family: his elderly grandmother, his parents, an older brother and sister, and two younger siblings, a brother and a sister.
The original owner was the middle child. You could say he was the least noticed and least favored in the family.
He also had another problem: ever since he was little, he’d eaten more than children his age. He could eat as much as two or three people.
Their village lay where the mountains met the plains, and there was little farmland. Every year, the family received only a set amount of ration grain.
As far back as he could remember, he’d never once eaten his fill.
As he grew older, his appetite increased, and so did his strength. He could lift the heavy stone roller used to level the village threshing ground with one arm.
He was a good worker and could do the work of several people, especially when it came to heavy labor. But the more work he did, the more he ate.
The family’s annual grain allotment was barely enough to feed everyone under normal circumstances. With Li Xiangdong’s enormous appetite, they simply couldn’t keep him fed.
Later, the village production team leader offered the family a suggestion. Since people were being encouraged to head to the Great Northern Wilderness to develop the frontier, why not send Li Xiangdong to Northeast China to stay with his aunt, who had married and moved far away?
He said that although life in the Great Northern Wilderness was tough, there was plenty of land there and grain yields were high. That was far better than constantly going hungry back home.
So, after discussing it, the family decided to take the production team leader’s advice and send Li Xiangdong to Northeast China to join his paternal aunt, Li Guihua.
Aunt Li Guihua and her husband, Sun Qingfeng, had been betrothed as children. Later, Sun Qingfeng went to Northeast China with his family and settled there.
Aunt Li only married him after they were both grown.
Now they lived in Shuangjing Village, Beiluo County, Hegang City, in the Tongjiang region of the Great Northern Wilderness. They also had two children.
Li Xiangdong didn’t know what Shuangjing Village was actually like.
For now, he had only one goal: to settle in Shuangjing Village under the relevant policy and have enough to eat. That would be enough for the time being. Going hungry was simply too miserable.
Once they’d made their decision, they had their village production team leader submit the application while also writing to Li Guihua right away to ask her family to help with the paperwork. To relocate to the frontier and register there, he needed the approval of the production team leader on the other end.
After the reply arrived, Li Xiangdong’s paperwork was processed very smoothly.