Autumn.
Around six in the morning, pale gray mist quietly enveloped the entire Huajiao Production Brigade. From above, mountains, fields, and trees beneath the fog appeared and vanished by turns, like something out of a fairyland.
"Cock-a-doodle-doo..."
A loud, ringing rooster's crow broke the mountain village's silence and woke Liu Qingsong, the black-clad youth sleeping in an old adobe-brick house at the foot of Wild Boar Ridge.
He sat up in bewilderment, rubbing his sleepy eyes as he looked toward the window. "Where's that rooster crowing from? Isn't the place I live in downtown?"
To confirm what was on his mind.
Liu Qingsong pushed open the half-closed window.
Outside, thick fog swirled around several chickens and ducks strolling and pecking for food in the Grain-Drying Yard. A child rode a large water buffalo past the Main Gate and vanished into the mist. Liu Qingsong stood stunned.
If his memory wasn't wrong.
He had only seen such a scene in childhood or in dreams.
"And now I'm seeing it — could it be I'm dreaming again?" Liu Qingsong muttered to himself, and unable to help it, reached out and pinched himself hard.
The pain left Liu Qingsong completely stunned.
Only then did he realize something seemed off.
"Could it be... I've been reborn? Reborn in my old hometown?" Uneasy and confused, Liu Qingsong looked at himself in the mirror.
His youthful face, thick hair, and thin frame stunned Liu Qingsong so much that he nearly cried out.
At the same time, his memories from before and after rebirth merged and flashed through his mind.
The sensation made Liu Qingsong grit his teeth as pain wracked him and cold sweat broke out. He staggered, lost his footing, and collapsed onto the bed.
When he woke again, half an hour had already passed.
Liu Qingsong, though not as shocked as before.
still couldn't calm his mood for a long while.
Because according to the merged memories in his mind.
he could confirm that he had truly been reborn.
Reborn on October 25th, 1978.
This much was clear from the calendar on the wall, yellowed and water-stained from rain.
And for him, 1978 was the hardest year his family had ever faced.
If he remembered correctly, his parents had been wrongly accused of stealing the Production Brigade's Oil Coupons in July. They had been arrested and sent to the Farm for Reform Through Labor.
Because of this, he'd also lost his chance to attend high school, and could only stay home to farm.
In 1978, the Huajiao Production Brigade had not yet implemented Household Land Allocation. It still operated under the collective production responsibility system.
In other words, like the other villagers, he could earn work points only by laboring in the Production Team. He exchanged them for daily necessities or allocated agricultural produce.
In theory, this system was fair enough—at least in a good harvest year, no one had to worry about food.
But after his parents were taken away, his family had no able-bodied workers left.
The work points earned by his second elder sister and him were nowhere near enough to support the family.
His two younger brothers were still in school, and their daily food and living expenses were another constant burden.
Without his second elder sister's careful budgeting and habit of spending money only where it mattered, the family would have fallen apart long ago.
Thinking of his second elder sister, Liu Qingsong came to his senses and looked toward the small room next door.
The small room stood open. His second elder sister had clearly gone to the kitchen to make breakfast; the smell of boiled Sweet Potatoes drifting through the window gave it away.
He was about to go help and see his "young" second elder sister.
His little sister Liu Hongxia, only five years old and barefoot, came trotting up to the doorway. "Third Brother, there's no firewood left in the kitchen. Second Sister told me to call you to go get a bundle from the rear courtyard."
"Okay! Okay!" Liu Qingsong rubbed his little sister's thin head, then turned toward the rear courtyard.
He had six siblings. His Eldest Sister, Liu Chunhua, was already married and had married into the neighboring Huangyu Production Brigade. Her husband's many siblings made her life difficult too.
His second elder sister, Liu Lijuan, was eighteen. She had been due to marry her Romantic Partner the following year, but their parents' Reform Through Labor ended those plans. She had endured countless rumors and shed countless tears over it.
He was the Third Brother. To make a living, he learned carpentry from Third Uncle and Mason skills from Eldest Uncle. After starting a family, he also learned cooking and worked in mechanical repair.
To sum it all up in one sentence.
He knew a little of everything.
But seemed to be a master of nothing.
The saying "jack of all trades, master of none" described him perfectly.
Fourth Sibling Liu Qingshi and Fifth Sibling Liu Qinglong both grew up poor and later married into their wives' families. Although the siblings stayed in contact, they rarely saw one another even once a year.
Thinking of this.
Liu Qingsong couldn't help but sigh.
Liu Qingsong silently swore that, now reborn, he would first rescue his wrongly accused parents. He would give his family members a peaceful, prosperous life and ensure they never again worried about daily meals or necessities.
Before he knew it, he'd arrived at the gate of the rear courtyard. Liu Qingsong pulled himself from his thoughts and reached out to push open the heavy, worn wooden door.
A creaking sound.
The wooden door swung open with a slow creak.
Liu Qingsong stared in shock. Beyond the door lay not the familiar rear courtyard, but a boundless garbage dump.
The garbage dump held countless heaps of trash, some towering so high they seemed to pierce the clouds.
Standing at the courtyard gate, he felt as small as an ant compared to them.
"This... what's going on?" Liu Qingsong thought his eyes were deceiving him and rubbed them.
He focused on the rear courtyard again, but the garbage dump remained. Rolling thunder echoed overhead, joined by the sound of countless objects falling onto the garbage heaps.
The sight frightened Liu Qingsong. Even as a Reborn Person, he turned and ran.
After running some distance, he looked back. The garbage dump had vanished, replaced by the familiar rear courtyard.
"What's going on?" Liu Qingsong stopped in his tracks, standing frozen in place.
Just as he was about to return and look again, his little sister came running over on her Short Little Legs. "Third Brother, why are you dawdling over one bundle of firewood? Second Sister's already losing her temper in the kitchen!"
"Oh! Oh!" Liu Qingsong laughed awkwardly. After hesitating, he hurried into the rear courtyard, picked up a bundle of dry firewood from the corner, and carried it to the kitchen.
His heart remained tense, but nothing unusual happened. He finally let out a long breath of relief.
In the kitchen, his thin, gaunt second elder sister, Liu Lijuan, crouched before the firewood stove and fed it the firewood she had gathered.
Because the firewood hadn't fully dried, she'd been smoked into a soot-smeared face by the billowing smoke, and tears had been drawn out from the corners of her eyes.
At the kitchen doorway, Liu Qingsong froze at the sight, then asked with concern, "Second Sister, what's wrong? Why are you crying? Did someone bully you?"
His little sister, trailing behind him, also tilted her small head to look at their second elder sister.
Their second elder sister used to always hide away to cry in secret.
This time, she wasn't hiding at all.
That seemed strange to her.
"What nonsense are you talking? I wasn't bullied at all!" Liu Lijuan shot Liu Qingsong a glare at his words, then reached up and wiped the tears from her face. "Didn't you see I got smoked into tears by the wet firewood?"
"Oh, I see!" Liu Qingsong laughed awkwardly and set the bundle of dry firewood beside his second elder sister.
He was about to untie the Rice Straw Rope around the dry firewood when a middle-aged woman in patched clothes poked her head into the kitchen doorway. "Xiaoli, you know your Eldest Uncle's sixtieth birthday celebration is on the eighth of next month, right?"
"I know, Auntie Wang," Liu Lijuan replied, looking up.
Auntie Wang was both their neighbor and a member of the Liu Family, so asking about Eldest Uncle's sixtieth birthday celebration was perfectly natural.
"So how much gift money is your family planning to give?" the middle-aged woman — Auntie Wang — asked again.
"Why are you asking that?" Liu Lijuan looked a little puzzled.
After all, the gift money had always been five yuan — no secret to anyone in the whole Production Brigade.
"I... I..." Auntie Wang trailed off, hesitant to say more.
Liu Qingsong understood why Auntie Wang had come. After hesitating, he said, "Auntie Wang, are you asking when we'll repay the fifteen yuan our family owes?"
His second elder sister had borrowed that fifteen yuan when their parents were arrested, and she had borrowed from several relatives. Altogether, the debt exceeded a hundred yuan.
They'd thought that borrowing so much money would let them get their parents out.
But in the end, the money was spent.
and their parents were still sent away.
Looking back, it had been paying money to suffer for nothing.
"That's right." Seeing that Liu Qingsong had actually guessed her purpose, Auntie Wang gave an awkward laugh and stopped beating around the bush. "I came over to collect what you owe. But it's really because I have no other choice — my family's run into some trouble, and there's a banquet to attend next month too. Otherwise I wouldn't have come knocking so early in the morning."
……