Chapter 1: A Precious Rebirth

In the Daxinganling mountain range under the jurisdiction of Heishan Province, there was a small mountain village called Tongtun.

In a three-room earthen house on the west side of Tongtun, Wang An woke up from his sleep. In a daze, he suddenly opened his eyes wide, staring in astonishment at the nine roof beams above. Above the beams were woven willow branch fences, with sparse spiderwebs hanging from them.

Looking left and right, this—this was the old house from his hometown in his memories!

Was today’s dream really this realistic??

He closed his eyes, opened them again, and pinched his thigh hard! "Ah... that really hurts like hell! Is this a rebirth??"

In his previous life, Wang An could not bear the bitter days of facing the yellow earth with his back to the sky every day, seeing no money from year's end to year's end! He listened to the coaxing of ginseng merchants from the south and resolutely headed south to seek gold.

In that crazy era, after moving bricks for two years without earning money, Wang An began to trade goods all over the country!

Utilizing the price differences between various regions, in just a few years, he made a fortune! He entered the ranks of millionaires!

If he had continued like that, Wang An would have been at least a multi-millionaire level successful businessman!

But people change. Debauchery, paper-drunk and gold-obsessed. In the end, he did whatever made money!

During a crackdown in the 90s, the Anquan Force discovered in a routine inspection that the goods transported by Wang An’s group were mixed with tiger skins and tiger bones, as well as a large number of various firearms, ammunition, and gunpowder. Wang An was detained on the spot by the Anquan Force!

After repeated investigations and questioning, the Anquan Force filed a public prosecution against Wang An for the crimes of trafficking in precious wild animals and reselling firearms and ammunition. The court soon issued a verdict: life imprisonment, deprivation of political rights for life, and confiscation of all property! [13] Wang An thus began his life in prison. By the time Wang An was 65, the long life in prison and heavy physical labor had made his body extremely poor!

Wang An thus began his life in prison, and by the time he was 65, the long years of incarceration and heavy manual labor had left his health in a wretched state!

On his deathbed, Wang An, who had regretted half his life, returned to that Tongtun and the old house in the village that haunted his dreams in the same dream!

How he wished to return to the past and live this shitty life of his all over again!

When he confirmed that he was truly reborn, Heaven had really given him a chance to be a new person!

Excited, Wang An jumped directly from the kang to the ground! He jumped a few times in place with excitement!

Seeing the calendar hanging on the wall, November 1, 1980, Saturday, the 24th day of the 9th lunar month! This year, Wang An was 19!

Tongtun was surrounded by continuous big mountains, and the mountains were covered with various trees and shrubs, as well as various wild vegetables, mountain treasures, medicinal materials, ginseng, etc. Of course, various animals also lived in these mountains and forests.

Tongtun was not big, with about seventy or eighty households. The folk customs were not very simple, but rather fierce! Surviving on this land meant fighting with Heaven, fighting with the earth, fighting with natural disasters, and most importantly, fighting with various jungle beasts!

In this geographical location, twelve months a year, seven months were spent in the cold. Even in the hot summer, the maximum temperature was only 31°C, while the minimum temperature at night in winter reached -45°C!

On this land, there was only one season of crops a year, mostly coarse grains such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, and sorghum.

This year, the Northeast region had not yet divided land to households. Wild vegetables and mountain treasures in the mountains were not yet valuable. The grain dug from the black soil was only enough for rations each year. Potatoes and sweet potatoes still occupied a large proportion of the staple food. The state had not yet fully opened up to individual business!

The supply and marketing cooperatives had already purchased a large amount of animal fur for export to earn foreign exchange. The government encouraged the hunting of wild animals such as black bears and wild boars, and firearms and ammunition could be bought and sold!

The broad masses of working people had not yet solved the problem of food and clothing! Yes, eating and dressing were very difficult things!

Soon calming down, Wang An carefully recalled and sorted out the major events that happened in his hometown near his 19th year and after his 19th year, to see if he could gain some advantage by relying on the advantage of rebirth. After all, the family's life at this time was really too difficult!

Having finally lived this life again, Wang An set a life tenet for himself: "Free and easy, happy until death"!

It must be admitted that a happy life requires money to change!

So, if you want to get money legally—in this era where more than half of the people in the country are idle and you have to rely on introduction letters to go out, there is only one way to go—mountain hunting!

Buying and selling for profit is absolutely something he will never touch again!

After thinking for a while, Wang An finally thought of a major event that could break the current predicament for him!

Because he wants to hunt now, but has no gun, and wants to buy one but can't afford it at all!! In his previous life, as a person who resold firearms and ammunition, Wang An was definitely most familiar with guns.

He couldn't remember the details of this matter clearly, only that it was in '85 when Wang An left his hometown for the south and took a train in the county seat, he heard someone discussing it!

There were four criminals who stole a large amount of gold from the JY County gold mine, escaped here in '79, and were captured by the Anquan Force. These four people all had guns, but before those four were captured, they buried guns and gold behind a ruined temple behind Yangshu Tun. A few days ago, it was discovered by a shepherd and two woodcutters at the same time.

Wang An decided to go to Yangshu Tun tomorrow to dig out the guns. After all, with Wang An's current family conditions, even buying bullets is difficult!

And even if he could afford it, he estimated that Wang An's parents would definitely not pay for it!

In the evening, Wang An's father Wang Dazhu and mother Liu Guilan came back from playing cards and chatting at the village grocery store. His younger brother Wang Yi also led his two younger sisters Wang Xiaomei and Wang Xiaoli back, chasing and fighting!

At this time of year, except for hunters who go into the mountains to hunt, every household stays at home or visits neighbors during the day!

In an era without electricity, everyone's work and rest were very regular, going to bed early and getting up early. If you ask what they do if they can't sleep? Just look at how many children every household has and you will know what they do.

Looking at these closest and dearest people, Wang An was tearful, guilty, remorseful, self-blaming, and regretful!

Thinking of his time in prison, his already poor family, his parents and younger siblings lived frugally, coming to visit him every two or three months, and sending him clothes and food!

And when Wang An was glorious, his family never benefited from him at all, and he never gave his family even a penny!

Fortunately, Heaven gave him a chance to make up for it with this life!

"Dad, Mom, little brother, big sister, little sister, you're back!" Wang An greeted solemnly.

Wang Dazhu glanced at Wang An, Liu Guilan asked "Ah" in confusion, and Wang Yi and the two younger sisters also stopped fighting. The whole family looked at Wang An in confusion!!

Wang Dazhu broke the silence: "What's wrong? Is there something wrong with you?" The other four were also still looking at Wang An, waiting for Wang An's answer.

At this time, Wang An also discovered his abnormality. His family didn't know he had been reborn!

He quickly smiled: "Hi, there's nothing wrong, just greeting you all."

Wang Dazhu rolled his eyes at Wang An: "Always making trouble!"

Liu Guilan smiled and went to cook, and Wang Yi and the two younger sisters continued to fight.

Before long, Liu Guilan had finished cooking, boiled sweet potatoes and cornmeal porridge, and the dish was a bowl of pickled radish strips.

In the Northeast at this time, basically every household had this food for every meal.

"Mom, Gou Dan said his family ate meat at noon, it was so fragrant!" 5-year-old little sister Wang Xiaoli said in a milky voice.

After Wang Xiaoli finished speaking, 13-year-old Wang Yi and 6-year-old Wang Xiaomei looked up and secretly looked at Liu Guilan. Noticing the children's gaze, Liu Guilan sighed. Yes, it had been a long time since they had seen meat!

After a while, Liu Guilan squeezed out a smile and said: "When the production team kills pigs and distributes meat at the end of the year, we will eat it too!"

The three little ones sensibly didn't ask any further.

Looking at his parents whose eyes were sunken into their sockets from being thin, his two younger sisters whose bodies were thin and small due to malnutrition, their sallow faces and the yellowish hair on their heads, and his younger brother whose body was like a bamboo pole.

Wang An urgently wanted to do something...

The next day, just as the sky was getting light, Wang An, who hadn't slept well all night, got up and dressed, intending to go dig up the guns. At this time, his younger brother, who was sleeping in the west room, was still having a beautiful dream, and his parents and younger sisters, who were sleeping in the east room, were also sleeping soundly.

Wang An used hemp rope to tie his trouser legs (to prevent wind and snow from getting in), also tied a hemp rope around his waist, tucked an axe and a hunting knife, hung a bundle of hemp rope, put on a cotton hat, put his hand warmers over his neck, and quietly set off.

Yangshu Tun was not far from Tongtun, about ten miles away, and it was also a must-pass place to the county seat.

In about forty minutes, Wang An walked to the mountain behind Yangshu Tun. The ruined temple was also easy to find. The temple in the countryside was a small house of about three or four square meters. But digging for guns was difficult. The snow, thirty centimeters thick, was frozen very hard. The soil under the snow was probably frozen even harder!

Wang An took a deep breath and swung the axe. Only the sound of "clank", "clank", "clank"... was endless. Fortunately, at this time, the villagers were all sleeping.

The ruined temple was also far from the village, otherwise Wang An's fate would probably not be good.

Half an hour later, Wang An finally cut a pit about ten centimeters deep in the black soil, and then gently cut into the pit diagonally with the axe.

Burying the guns was to make it convenient to take them out when he wanted to use them, so they definitely wouldn't be buried deep. This time, in less than 5 minutes, Wang An discovered a sack buried in the soil. His spirit was immediately boosted, as if the cutting of the ground just now hadn't taken any effort at all!

After a short while, a long object wrapped in a sack was pulled out of the ground by Wang An. He weighed it, it was about 20 pounds, it should be two guns!

Wang An laboriously filled the soil and snow back, and used the axe to cut the places he hadn't cut just now, trying his best to cover the traces. Although this place was generally not visited by anyone, because of his experience in his previous life, being careful was never wrong!!

Without even looking at what was in the sack, Wang An carried the sack and turned to walk into the deep mountains.

After walking about six or seven miles, Wang An could no longer suppress the curiosity in his heart. He found a leeward, sunny mountain hollow, opened the sack, and opened the yellow oil paper.

Two Type 56 semi-automatic rifles! The serial numbers on the guns had all been filed off. Such guns would not be accepted by the supply and marketing cooperative!

One was new, the gun oil on it hadn't been wiped off yet. Wang An wrapped it up again with oil paper. The other was eighty percent new.

In addition, there was a small oil paper package. When he opened it, he saw three magazine clips and 6 boxes of bullets inside. Each magazine clip was loaded with 10 bullets. Each box of bullets was a standard 25 rounds. There was also a small piece of gold nugget, weighing about 2 taels!

Looking at everything in front of him, Wang An felt like he had taken a stimulant. In this era, what a huge fortune this must be!!

Although Wang An didn't take the right path in his previous life, now Wang An felt that everything in front of him was a gift from Heaven for his rebirth!

If you like it, please collect, recommend, Santu thanks you!!

(End of chapter)