Professor Gu's daily life in the countryside after his rebirth

A high-end hospital in Beijing, China.

A white-haired old man was lying on the bed in the ward, bidding his final farewell to his students in a weak voice.

Everyone standing around had a heavy and sad expression on their faces.

The old man glanced at the students he had taught over the years and said, "Don't be sad about my departure. I'm finally going to see your master's wife. She has been waiting for me for more than 40 years... cough cough cough."

As the life monitor began to beep, China's highest-ranking and most famous agricultural expert, Gu Zhan, passed away, and the Chinese people were all saddened and regretful.

……

"Bang, bang, bang!" The old woman's rough hands slapped the shaky wooden door rapidly. The wooden door was under too much force and made a heavy and broken sound.

The young man on the kang in the room was still sleeping, completely unaware of what was happening outside.

After a while, there was no movement from inside the door. The old woman outside the door lost her patience and started yelling at the person inside in a shrill voice.

"Gu Zhan, you're a motherless bastard. You've been lazy and slept all day, and you didn't even go to work today. Are you counting on me to support your family? I'm suing you. No way..."

Amidst one curse after another, Gu Zhan finally woke up in a daze. He struggled to get up and looked around blankly.

In the dim room, the first thing that catches the eye is an adobe wall that has changed color due to smoke. Moving the eyes downward, one can see some miscellaneous items such as farm tools neatly placed in the corner of the wall.

When I looked back, I found that I was actually sitting on a kang, and I could faintly smell the special smell of the earthen kang in the air.

Isn't this... the house where I lived in my hometown?

Gu Zhan pinched his thigh hard.

"Hiss..." The physical pain almost made him jump up.

Turning his head slightly, he saw a floral shirt placed on the head of the kang. He excitedly took it in his hands and looked at it again and again, confirming again and again that it was his wife Liu Xiaoxi's shirt. At the same time, his thin but young hands also came into view.

This……

A bold idea popped up in his mind. Could it be that he was reborn?

Gu Zhan excitedly jumped off the kang, ran to the door and unbolted the wooden door.

Unexpectedly, as soon as the wooden door opened, a broken broom flew in.

"You bastard, you still know how to get up?"

Whose familiar sarcastic voice was it, wasn't it Zhao Dani, the wife his grandfather married later, his stepmother?

His guess was confirmed, and a surge of ecstasy surged into Gu Zhan's heart.

It’s true, I’m really reborn.

Gu Zhan ignored Zhao Dani's shouting and turned around, walked to the only table in the room, and glanced at a calendar that had turned yellow from smoke and was stuck on the adobe wall.

May 10, 1976.

It was May 10, 1976. That’s great, there’s still time for everything.

Calculating the time, his wife had just been married to him for less than a year, and his daughter had not yet been born. He did not abandon his wife and daughter to go to college, and his wife did not jump into the river to commit suicide by holding their daughter.

In his previous life, after the resumption of the college entrance examination, he worked hard to get into university. However, he felt depressed and inferior in the Gu family, so he regarded this opportunity to go to university as a life-saving straw. After abandoning his wife and daughter, he resolutely went to university.

Who knew that after he left, his cousin Gu Jun secretly intercepted the living expenses he sent to his wife, resulting in his wife having no money to treat her daughter after she became seriously ill. In desperation, she chose to jump into the river and commit suicide with her daughter in her arms.

The joy of rebirth hit Gu Zhan's nerves. He had no time to be sad about his previous life. He just wanted to take a look at his wife Liu Xiaoxi.

Gu Zhan walked out of the room, ignoring Zhao Dani who was still nagging at him, and went straight to an even lower adobe house on the east side of the yard.

This house is the Gu family's kitchen. Due to its age, the exterior walls have been smoked black.

Based on her experience and memories from her previous life, my wife Liu Xiaoxi is probably cooking lunch for the whole family in the kitchen now.

Everyone in the family is a laborer. They go out to work together in the morning and his wife Liu Xiaoxi cooks when they come back from work at noon. Everyone else waits like an old man for Liu Xiaoxi to bring the meal to the table, and no one ever helps.

These are things that Gu Zhan did not notice at this time in his previous life.

At that time, he had just turned twenty years old, had been farming at home for more than a year after graduating from high school, and had been married for less than a year.

During that period, he was immersed in the inferiority and sensitivity that others had intentionally or unintentionally instilled in him. He treated his wife coldly every day and had no intention of caring about how she was doing in this family or how others treated his wife.

He realized this only after his wife committed suicide by jumping into the river with their daughter. During the decades of loneliness, he recalled his wife's figure in every scene over and over in his mind.

He regretted it so much. If only he hadn't been so sensitive and self-deprecating at the time, and had realized earlier that he had fallen in love with his wife.

Such regret accompanied him for forty years after his wife passed away.

Now that he was about to see his living wife, Gu Zhan stopped two or three meters away from the kitchen door, and a feeling of homesickness arose spontaneously.

The person he had missed for decades was right next to him, but he didn't dare to walk through the door.

While she was hesitating, Zhao Dani's hoarse voice started again.

"What are you doing? Why don't you go fetch some water? Oh, Gu Dali, look at your good grandson. He doesn't do any work all day. He's so lazy..."

The old man called Gu Dali, Gu Zhan's grandfather, hung his head and smoked his pipe. He ignored Zhao Dani's words and didn't look at Gu Zhan who was standing in the yard.

Seeing this, Zhao Dani glared at the old man sideways, walked past Gu Zhan and went straight to the kitchen.

"You're so slow. You can't even finish lunch properly. The Gu family is really unlucky to marry you."

"Grandma, I'll do it as soon as possible, but it just rained and the firewood is all wet."

Liu Xiaoxi defended herself timidly, not daring to raise her voice. If Gu Zhan heard it, he would definitely be unhappy again. He always disliked making his family angry.

With an almost imperceptible sigh, Liu Xiaoxi quickened his movements, grabbed a handful of wet branches, stuffed them into the stove, and blew hard into it.

Thick smoke came out of the stove, choking Liu Xiaoxi and making her cough. Zhao Dani was afraid that the smoke would smoke her, so she cursed a few words and went out.

Gu Zhan stood there, listening to Liu Xiaoxi's coughs, clenching his fists and then unclenching them. Finally, he made up his mind and strode into the kitchen.

The kitchen was filled with green smoke. Gu Zhan looked at the woman who was sitting on a wooden block hidden in the thick smoke and kept adding firewood to the stove. Tears could not be controlled and flowed from his eyes, one drop, two drops... until his vision blurred.

Liu Xiaoxi was anxious about when lunch would be ready. She was so busy adding firewood to the stove that she didn't notice Gu Zhan coming in and standing behind her.

Gu Zhan looked at the woman in front of him who was busy with her work with her head down, and felt extremely bitter in his heart. He wondered how much of a bastard he had been to let her suffer in this cannibalistic family.

If she had married anyone other than him, she wouldn't have to suffer so much, this silly girl.

It seemed as if thousands of words rushed to Gu Zhan's mouth all at once.

But when the words came to his lips, the only words that came out were: "Get up, I'll light the fire."

Liu Xiaoxi was startled by the sudden sound. She turned around and saw her husband standing behind her, staring at her without blinking.

She felt nervous inside, wondering if she had done something wrong to make him angry.

Seeing his wife standing there in a daze and a little nervous, Gu Zhan didn't say much. He walked forward a few steps, walked beside Liu Xiaoxi, stretched out his hands to hold her arms, and led her away from the spot.

"You do the other things, and I'll light the fire. It'll be faster this way."

"Ah? Oh, okay." Liu Xiaoxi reacted quickly and agreed. She walked to the other side of the kitchen and started cutting the washed wild vegetables.

I wondered why Gu Zhan was acting so strangely today, actually caring about me.