Chapter 1: The Precious Rebirth

In a small mountain village within the Xiaoxinganling mountain range, under the jurisdiction of Heilongjiang Province, there was a place called Kaoshan Village.

In a three-room earthen house on the west side of Kaoshan Village, Wang An woke from his sleep. In his daze, Wang An's eyes suddenly widened. He looked in astonishment at the nine roof beams above; above the beams were fences woven from willow branches, 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... it hurt like hell! Was this a rebirth??

In his past life, Wang An was unwilling to endure the bitter days of facing the yellow earth with his back to the sky every day, seeing no money from one end of the year to the other! He listened to the coaxing of ginseng merchants who came from the south and resolutely headed south to seek gold.

In that crazy era, Wang An, who had moved bricks for two years without earning money, began to tinker with goods across the country!

Utilizing the price differences between various regions, within 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 do change. Debauchery, paper-drunk gold-intoxicated life. In the end, he did whatever made money!

During a "Strike Hard" campaign in the 90s, the police discovered during a routine inspection that the goods transported by Wang An's gang were mixed with tiger skin and tiger bone, as well as a large number of various firearms, ammunition, and gunpowder. Wang An was detained on the spot by the police!

After repeated investigations and interrogations, the police prosecuted 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!

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 Wang An's body extremely poor!

On his deathbed, Wang An, who had lived half a life of regret, returned to that Kaoshan Village and the old house in the village that haunted his dreams in the same dreamscape!

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

When he confirmed that he had truly been reborn, Heaven had really given him a chance to start over!

An excited Wang An jumped directly from the kang to the ground! He jumped a few times on the spot in 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 years old!

Kaoshan Village was surrounded by rolling mountains, and the mountains were covered with various trees and shrubs, as well as all kinds of wild vegetables, mountain treasures, medicinal materials, ginseng, etc. Of course, various animals also lived among these forests.

Kaoshan Village 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 highest temperature was only 31°C, while the lowest 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 the land to households. Wild vegetables and mountain treasures in the mountains were not yet valuable. The grain dug from the black earth was only enough for rations when distributed 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 vast 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 in his 19th year and after his 19th year, wondering if he could gain an advantage by relying on the advantage of rebirth. After all, the life of his family 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!

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

He would absolutely never touch reselling again!

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

Because he wanted to hunt now, but had no gun, and wanted to buy one but couldn't afford it at all!! In his past life, Wang An, as a person who resold firearms and ammunition, was certainly 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 to go 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 a gold mine in JY County. They fled here in '79 and were captured by the police. These four people all had guns, but before those four people were captured, they buried guns and gold behind a ruined temple on the back mountain of 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 was difficult!

And even if they could afford it, Wang An estimated that his parents would resolutely refuse to pay!

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

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

In an era without electricity, everyone's daily routine was very regular, sleeping early and rising early. If you ask what they do if they can't sleep? Just look at the many children in every household and you will know what they do.

Looking at these closest and dearest people, Wang An's eyes were filled with tears, guilt, remorse, self-blame, and regret!

Thinking of his past life in prison, his family, who were already poor, his parents and younger siblings lived frugally, coming to visit him every two or three months, and bringing him clothes and food!

And when Wang An was glorious, his family had never benefited from him, and he had never given 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 gave a puzzled "Ah," and Wang Yi and the two younger sisters also stopped playing. The whole family looked at Wang An in confusion!!

Wang Dazhu broke the silence: "What's wrong? Is there something you need?" 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 hurriedly smiled: "Hi, there's nothing wrong, just greeting you all."

Wang Dazhu rolled his eyes at Wang An: "Making trouble every day!"

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

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 glanced at Liu Guilan. Noticing the children's gazes, 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 continue to ask.

Looking at his parents, both with sunken eyes, his two younger sisters with thin bodies due to malnutrition, their sallow faces and yellowish hair, and his younger brother's body like a bamboo pole.

Wang An urgently wanted to do something...

The next day, just as dawn was breaking, Wang An, who hadn't slept well all night, got up and dressed, intending to go dig for 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 fast asleep.

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

Yangshu Village was not far from Kaoshan Village, about ten miles away, and it was also the only way to the county seat.

In about forty minutes, Wang An walked to the back mountain of Yangshu Tun. The ruined temple was also easy to find. The temples in the countryside were all small houses of about three or four square meters. But digging for guns was difficult. The snow, more than 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 "Clang," "Clang," "Clang"... could be heard incessantly. Fortunately, at this time, the villagers were all sleeping.

The ruined temple was also far from the village, otherwise Wang An's fate probably wouldn't have been good.

Half an hour later, Wang An finally cut a pit about ten centimeters deep in the black earth, and then used the axe to gently cut into the pit at an angle.

Burying the guns was to make it convenient to take them out when needed, so they certainly weren't buried deep. This time, in less than 5 minutes, Wang An discovered a sack buried in the soil. His spirit was immediately lifted, as if the effort of cutting the ground just now hadn't been spent 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, and it was about 20 jin. 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 no one usually came to this place, because of his past life experience, being careful was never a mistake!!

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, the supply and marketing cooperative would not accept!

One was new, and the gun oil on it hadn't been wiped off. Wang An wrapped it up again with oil paper. The other was 80% new.

In addition, there was a small oil paper package. Opening it, inside were three magazine slots and 6 boxes of bullets. Each magazine slot was stuck with 10 bullets. Each box of bullets was a standard 25 rounds. There was also a small piece of gold nugget, which could weigh 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 past 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 and recommend. Santu thanks you!!

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