Chapter 1: Reborn, Not a Saint

Northern Frontier, the twelfth lunar month, '81.

Snow nearly half a meter deep covered the fields completely.

Outside the kitchen, due to the alternating cold and heat, the snow on the roof had melted, and icicles nearly a meter long hung from the eaves, looking quite dangerous.

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

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

Reborn once, no matter what, he could not let that tragedy happen again.

How he was reborn, Li Long was not clear; he only remembered that he had died, and then, in a daze, he had arrived at this current time.

In his previous life, Li Long had lived to sixty-seven without illness or disaster, but while jumping to swat a fly in his own house, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died on the spot, without suffering much.

But in his previous life, his brother Li Jianguo, who loved him dearly, had died from a fall early on, and his sister-in-law and niece and nephew had become like enemies to him because of it. Although they were in the same village, Li Long lived like a loner. Even though he later lived with others, having no kin made him feel like he was just an extra.

Heaven let him live again, and he would never let these things happen again.

However, what needed to be solved right now were the problems of firewood and rations.

The Northern Frontier was too cold, and before winter, the production team issued two hundred kilograms of coal to each household for heating.

This bit of coal was definitely not enough; Li Long remembered that in later generations, every family would store seven or eight tons of coal, after all, it had to be burned for half a year.

Now that coal was insufficient, before winter, every household would go to the sand hollows in the north to dig up red willow roots and saxaul wood—these behaviors were seen as a great destruction of the environment in later generations, but right now, it was solving the problem of survival for the living.

Originally, the Li family's coal plus the firewood dug up would have been enough to burn for the whole winter.

But Li Long had returned.

Before winter, Li Jianguo had spent money to send Li Long to the Urumqi August First Food Factory to be a worker. In this day and age, being a worker was a very glorious thing—of course, what made people even more envious was that workers had wages, holding dozens of yuan in cash every month, spending it however they wanted, how satisfying that was!

After all, working in the team, before the household responsibility system, working all year round, only at the time of settlement could one be allocated grain and a little money.

Of course, many farming households even had to pay money back, after all, the work points calculated for labor were solid, and if one didn't work well, or the team's harvest wasn't good, then there was nothing to be allocated.

So Li Long was once the object of envy for the young people in the team, and in the second month he went, the prettiest girl in the team, Wu Shufen, took the initiative to be with Li Long.

But now Li Long had been fired by the food factory, and he knew that in just two days, after 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 was a huge blow to Li Long, even affecting some of his styles of conduct, and was also an indirect reason for Li Jianguo's fatal fall.

But this matter was just a small thing now; Li Long had returned, and for a woman like Wu Shufen who admired vanity, he felt that breaking up was for the best. Even if Wu Shufen didn't bring it up, he would take the initiative to break up.

But he also couldn't squeeze onto the same kang as his eldest brother Li Jianguo's family. So he returned at noon, and in the afternoon, Li Jianguo tidied up the east room where he originally lived, set up a stove, lit the kang, and arranged for him to stay there. But this way, the Li family's coal and firewood would definitely not be enough, let alone burning until the spring in March, even lasting until the New Year would be difficult.

When Li Long was twelve, his father Li Qing Xia sent him from his hometown and handed him over to his eldest brother Li Jianguo. Li Long remembered very clearly that his father, who had sent him, said to his eldest brother and sister-in-law at that time:

"The hometown can no longer afford to eat. As long as you take good care of Xiao Long, I will be at peace for the rest of my life. You don't need to worry about my old age or my funeral; just taking good care of Xiao Long is fulfilling your filial piety."

In his hometown, Li Jianguo still had a younger brother and a younger sister. Li Long was the youngest and the most pampered by his parents, but the hometown had little land, and life was not as good as here, so Li Long was sent over.

And Li Jianguo indeed took care of Li Long as Li Qing Xia had requested. The grain allocated to the family was eighty percent coarse grain and twenty percent fine grain. Li Jianguo and his wife Liang Wenyu only ate coarse grain, and all the twenty percent fine grain was given to Li Long and his niece Li Juan and nephew Li Qiang.

A growing boy eats the father poor; Li Long was at the age of growing, and his appetite was even bigger than Li Jianguo's. Li Jianguo could only think of ways to trade for good things for him, even wronging his own children because of it.

For this reason, Liang Wenyu quarreled with him many times.

But Li Jianguo remembered the saying "the eldest brother is like a father" too firmly, even losing his life because of it.

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

Fortunately, it was not very far from the Tianshan Mountains here. In the mountains, besides endless wind-fallen wood, there were red deer and brown bears full of treasures, as well as wild boars, yellow sheep, and the silly marmots, also known as groundhogs, that became internet celebrities in later generations.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Wildlife Protection Law had not yet risen, as long as one was diligent and flexible, one could become a ten-thousand-yuan household within two or three years!

Oh, let's solve the urination problem first!

Quickly walking along the small path stepped out in the snow to the toilet made of reeds outside the courtyard, Li Long unzipped his pants and let out a chaotic stream towards the snow.

The snow was immediately stained with a yellow mark, forming a strange shape, like an 's', and like an '8'.

After finishing, he shivered, quickly fastened his cotton pants, and turned to run back. At over thirty degrees below zero, one could be frozen through very quickly.

Arriving at the entrance, before he even entered the room, he heard the voices of his eldest brother Li Jianguo and sister-in-law Liang Wenyu in the west room.

"Didn't you say Xiao Long wouldn't come back? Now that he's back, what are we going to do if our family's coal isn't enough? In the middle of winter, you can't even dig up red willow roots?"

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

"You have a fart of a way! Are you going to borrow from the team? Borrowing this much will be at least five hundred kilograms of coal! How will you pay it back then? The money earned in a year won't be enough to pay it back!" "I told you not to worry about it, I'll think of a way. We can't let Xiao Long freeze!"

"Then he was working well, why did he come back? And fired... what kind of good person gets fired by a factory? You didn't even ask why he was fired? You spent fifty yuan at the time, can that money be gotten back?"

"The money is already spent, how can it be gotten back?"

"Then ask Xiao Long, how much are his wages for these few months? If there's any left, buying it with money is fine..."

"Ask that for what? If he had money, wouldn't he have taken it out? He was the only one in Urumqi, unfamiliar with the place, could he not spend money? Don't ask. I told you, I'll think of a way!"

"Fine, fine, fine, you just be the big shot! Anyway, I don't care, you can't let Li Juan and Li Qiang freeze again..."

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

Li Long sighed, pushed the door, and walked into his east room.

The west room was the main room, the entrance was a corridor and kitchen, the two or three dark rooms were the bedroom and kitchen, and a spare room for sundries. The bedroom also functioned as a living room. And the east room was originally a storeroom, only one room, but it had a stove, a fire wall, and a kang.

Feeling the temperature in the room, Li Long knew he had to plan well how to proceed.

In his previous life, he had enjoyed the efforts of his eldest brother and sister-in-law with peace of mind, never thinking about how his eldest brother had scrimped and saved for him.

!.

And Li Long's personality was a bit vain and warm-hearted, in today's words, he was a bit of a saint, often taking things from his eldest brother and sister-in-law's house to help others.

As a result, he was a sucker many times.

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

However, he thought so, but others would not think so.

Just as Li Long had a clue, hurried footsteps came from the courtyard, and then someone knocked on the door next door.

Li Jianguo opened the door, saw it was the team's youth Gu Ermao, and asked:

"Ermao, what's the matter?"

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

"Over there. What's the matter?" Li Jianguo was not at ease with Gu Ermao; this person was a hooligan in the village, and he wanted to ask about the specific matter.

In Li Jianguo's eyes, Li Long was still a child, doing things unreliably, and he had to keep an eye on him.

Li Long heard the voice and opened the door, and the cold wind blew in all at once.

"Ermao, what's the matter?"

"You're really back?" Gu Ermao, wrapped in a tattered cotton-padded jacket, saw Li Long, his eyes lit up, he sniffed his nose hard, and pushed him into the east room with one hand:

"Let's go, let's talk inside!"

Li Jianguo originally wanted to follow in, but Gu Ermao closed the door after entering the room.

Liang Wenyu behind him complained:

"Why don't you close the door? All the heat has run out!"

Li Jianguo closed the door.

In the east room, Gu Ermao said to Li Long:

"Li Long, brother, I'm in trouble now, I need to ask you for help."

"What's the matter, you tell me first and I'll listen, but I might not be able to help." Li Long said with a smile, his heart already alert. Although Gu Ermao was like a hooligan, he had a sweet mouth, often coaxing Li Long until he was overjoyed, thinking the other party really admired him.

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

"How much money do you have on you now? I'm going to the third team tomorrow to meet a girl, I don't have money to buy things now, lend me some money."

His words were said very naturally, as if it were only right and proper for Li Long to lend him money.

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

And the money Gu Ermao borrowed was never paid back until Li Long died.

In this life, would he still lend it?

Impossible.

Put away the helping-others plot, respect the fate of others.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 2 =====