Chapter 1: Reborn in Liujiacun

Above the loess hills, under the blue sky and white clouds, in the nooks and crannies of the mountains, the smoke from cooking fires rose from a small mountain village. Several children were playing and bickering as they walked in a group along the mountain path. The style of their coarse cloth garments was clearly that of adults, altered to fit the children. Patches were everywhere, but that did not diminish the overflowing innocence of childhood.

A thin, sallow-faced boy sat in front of a dirt mound at the entrance of a house. Looking at this simple, unadorned rural scenery, the corners of his mouth could not help but turn bitter: "Just like that, a sudden rebirth? But this is even worse than not being born at all..."

Cheng Feng, who had been drinking at a bar and enjoying the glitz and glamour just a few days ago, had woken up with a splitting headache after blacking out, only to fall into a weak, deep sleep shortly after.

When he woke up again, the headache had eased significantly, but he was startled by the information in his mind: he had been reborn into the body of a child who had died of a serious illness.

Perhaps it was fate, but this child was also named Cheng Feng.

From the modern environment of high-rise buildings and bustling traffic to this ancient environment of crisscrossing mountains and narrow, winding paths—cell phones, the internet, games, and a comfortable life had all drifted away. These arduous conditions left Cheng Feng truly speechless.

Seeing that it was almost time for the family to eat, he patted his old, patched clothes that were clearly ill-fitting, and slowly pushed open the wooden fence.

A woman with a sallow complexion placed a bowl of green vegetable soup and half a piece of grass cake on the dilapidated table: "Er Gou, come over and eat. Clean up after yourself when you're done. I'm going to deliver food to your father and your eldest brother. Lao San's food is in the pot; you watch the house."

After saying this, she hurriedly shouldered her basket and set off. Cheng Feng responded with practiced familiarity and watched his mother leave.

Cheng Feng knew that the family's fields were in a remote area, and she had to hurry to deliver the midday meal, otherwise his father and eldest brother would definitely not be able to finish their afternoon work.

Looking at the vegetable soup in front of him, Cheng Feng had to bite the bullet and drink it, no matter how hard it was to swallow. He had been living like this for the past few days; if he didn't eat, there was nothing else, and he feared that acting too abnormally would make the original body's parents notice something amiss.

During these few days of recuperating his body, Cheng Feng had also been carefully observing everything around him, trying to restrain and change his habits as quickly as possible. After all, he had lived a modern life for over twenty years, raised under the red flag and born in the spring breeze; even at his worst, he wasn't so foolish as to recklessly draw attention to himself in an unfamiliar setting.

However, after these few days, Cheng Feng had recovered quite well, not just in body, but also in his mindset—a mindset of familiarizing himself with and adapting to the environment.

Being an adult, he knew that complaining was not only useless but could also lead to bad consequences. He knew that he had no other path forward and could only continue like this and start over. Otherwise, with no strength to truss a chicken and no specialized skills, he might just die if he went out.

Especially after learning that the outside world during this period was not very good—hearing that there were constant natural disasters and refugees everywhere—why seek death when one could live?

With the modern knowledge from his past life that was hundreds of years ahead of this ancient era, his future shouldn't be too bad.

Drinking the saltless vegetable soup, Cheng Feng silently set his own small goal: first, he had to eat meat. The poverty of ancient life had made his mouth feel completely bland.

It was one thing that he couldn't help the lack of cell phones and the internet—that was an infrastructure issue—but it would truly be unacceptable to be away from the delicious dishes of the Great Celestial Empire for his whole life.

The family's savings and grain were running out; he had heard his parents talking about this while lying awake in the middle of the night, and he had also learned the currency units.

Ten small coins equaled one large coin, ten large coins equaled one tael of silver, and ten taels of silver equaled one tael of gold.

But unfortunately, Lao Cheng had never seen what gold looked like in his entire life; he only knew it was golden and shiny.

Cheng Feng roughly estimated that in modern terms, a small coin was 10 yuan, a large coin was 100 yuan, one tael of silver was 1,000 yuan, and one tael of gold was 10,000 yuan.

And 5 jin of mixed grain cost one large coin, while 2 jin of white flour cost one large coin. It was simply outrageous, but thinking about the low productivity of the ancient era, Cheng Feng felt very helpless.

Life is not easy, Cheng Feng sighed.

This was too far from the life Cheng Feng envisioned.

The Lao Cheng family had 5 people. The eldest brother, Cheng Shu, had already gone to work in the fields with his father. He himself was the second child, with no real prospects, usually helping out with odd jobs. There was also a 14-year-old younger brother named Cheng Lei, who, aside from not being able to do heavy labor, did everything from sowing seeds to digging for birds, living along with the family.

In the countryside, people reached adulthood early; generally, at sixteen or seventeen, one could marry and have children. Some were even earlier, at 14, or even younger in cases like child brides or marriages for luck. If one paid some silver to the government, no one would care. The legal oversight was shockingly low.

The village where the boy Cheng Feng lived was called Liujiacun. The foundations near the center of the village were all held by the Liu Family. The Lao Cheng family had been passed down since his grandfather's generation when they fled from famine. Over the past hundred years, many people from other villages had also taken root here during that time.

Neighbors were separated by a certain distance, maintaining both distance and neighborly relations.

Before long, Lao San returned. Cheng Feng, sitting at the doorway, saw him among the group of children of various sizes in the distance. He went back into the house, called out "Second Brother," and then went on his own to get the food from the pot.

In a mountain village without entertainment, survival was the only main theme. Those with ability or connections had all run out of the mountains to see the new world outside.

Watching Lao San wolf down his food, Cheng Feng asked curiously, "Shitou, where did you go to play today?"

"Hou Shan, of course, to see if I could snag a rabbit in the traps." Shitou was Lao San's nickname; using a nickname at home felt intimate and casual.

In their spare time, the children of the past would chase rabbits and dig for birds in Hou Shan, and there was a river after crossing two mountains. The farming villagers would sometimes entrust the task of fetching water to the children, and this group of kids would call to each other to go together, catching fish and shrimp along the way.

Leaving at noon and returning before dusk was fine. Countryside children weren't that precious; the adults were all busy with farm work. Those with money sent their children to private schools to study, those without money pulled strings to send them to craftsmen to see if they could learn a trade, and those who had nothing at all just farmed honestly, relying on two mu of thin fields, just enough to eat and survive.

The Lao Cheng family was one of those honest households—no connections, no influence, no money. After all, they were refugees; they lived as long as they could, who could think about the future?

Cheng Feng was also thinking about his own advantages. The current situation was truly bad to the extreme.

In his past life, he was just an Ordinary person—good attitude, average skills. This era didn't need a PowerPoint expert.

He couldn't catch rabbits, he was afraid of falling while digging for bird nests, and he was afraid of drowning while catching fish and shrimp—after all, the old saying went that those who drown are the ones who know how to swim.

His past life experiences were truly useless in this era. He had often watched short videos with little bits of knowledge, but when it came to actually doing it, he didn't even know where to start with the tools. Knowing the principles was useless! Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon—he could recite them, but so what!!!!

The most important thing now was to earn money and eat, and he couldn't stand the hardship or do the work. His only advantage was the knowledge from his past life.

Sigh, useless knowledge has increased again.