I am not Ximen Qing.

Dahe Forest Farm is a pearl in the snowy forests of Changbai Mountain, a place that truly captivates the heart. She kept her promise to Guo Baoshan; he was completely mesmerized by everything about Dahe Forest Farm. He vowed never to leave again. He was tired; nowhere else was as beautiful as Dahe Forest Farm. Everything Tana said was true, even more so than Tana described—a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand times better. He even regretted wasting those years at the bureau; here, he gained the confidence of a protagonist. Whenever he had the chance to visit the bureau, Guo Jiefang was moved to tears. Guo Jiefang and Guo Baoshan's family were now so close that Guo Jiefang's children eagerly awaited Guo Baoshan's arrival. The children didn't know about Santa Claus, but they knew there was a "God of Food" in the forest farm—or whatever you call him, Guo Baoshan the God of Food. In spring, they would bring several bags of frogs, toads, pine nuts, wild mushrooms, and hazelnuts and walnuts—gifts from the workers to the managers. The children were overjoyed! The children in the bureau were all malnourished, and the lard rice prepared by the administrator was the workers' favorite. Occasionally, people would go foraging for wild fruits and other mountain delicacies, such as roe deer and river fish, and they never forgot the administrator's kindness to them. Guo Jiefang had also helped Guo Baoshan a lot. Baoshan's bad temper was well-known throughout the bureau and the forestry farm, but thankfully, Baoshan worked in the food industry and could create the special imperial dishes that the leaders loved. Only someone without a temper could make dishes that tasted like those from the Forbidden City. Seeing Guo Jiefang almost moved to tears, Guo Baoshan also felt his own value; these were all just small favors for him. Even the factory director and secretary, when they wanted to get angry, treated him politely. No one dared to joke with his palate and stomach, and occasionally they would send Guo Jiefang a few buckets of pure black lard.

Dahe Forest Farm has two narrow-gauge railways, one leading to the Forestry Bureau outside the mountains, and the other leading to the logging area. Guo Baoshan was truly impressed; this forest farm captivated him. The existence of Dahe Forest Farm was as enchanting as Tana's eternally youthful, pearly-white body! Tana was also a complete perfectionist. The former site of Tana's father's mountain estate was where two great rivers converged. The true great rivers, one leading to the paradise of Dianguo, and the other to the red pine forest area, the largest logging area.

The Dahe Forest Farm is becoming increasingly vibrant, with more and more young people, full of energy. At least Guo Jinchai has completed her education from elementary to middle school. The bureau has done a great deal for the education of the workers' children; the newest brick-and-tile classrooms are better than the bureau's own schools, and many brick-and-tile dormitories have been built for the young men who come to work here. The canteen is also getting bigger and bigger. Now many people are envious of the canteen manager's job, but the workers' inability to resist the taste of pork lard rice keeps him firmly in his position. These workers all eat like spoiled princes, only concerned with food; they are all gluttons, bad habits cultivated by Guo Baoshan. The young men bow and scrape before Baoshan; there's no way around it, this grumpy old man is their god. For some reason, they all like to call Guo Baoshan "Grandpa." The factory director and secretary understand Guo Baoshan's canteen manager position; don't even think about it before he retires. If anyone has any ideas, they should try eating pork lard rice in the canteen, and a little education will teach them a lesson. Guo Baoshan was so content. At this age, it felt like he had accompanied the Manchu princess back to her hometown. This happiness was all thanks to his Tana; otherwise, he would have either starved or died of illness.

Guo Baoshan's children are the most upright and assertive in the forest farm. Jinshui and Jingou think their father is similar to a bureau chief in the city. In fact, the two brothers can walk sideways like crabs in the forest farm without any problem.

The unmarried, passionate young men of the forestry team knew that the canteen manager had five beautiful women—not azaleas, but the most beautiful rhododendrons. The young men living on the heated brick beds dreamed of wonderful things: the red pine forests, elm forests, linden forests, and the birch forests singing the Katyusha hymn. They fantasized about dating their beloved girls in the birch forests.

"Keep dreaming, keep dreaming. You're dating the cafeteria manager's daughters? I'm not kidding, they're all fiery red peppers, scorching hot!"

Honglin had grown accustomed to the collective life at the forest farm, a lively and bustling place with ample food and drink. After get off work, they would gather to drink grain-based liquor, and there was never a shortage of chicken, duck, fish, or meat. One advantage of being in the mountains was the opportunity to gather rare mountain produce in their spare time, like catching a few white-scaled fish from the river—a type of pufferfish, just a metaphor, but delicious. Being unmarried had its advantages, and being single had its own charm. The workers in the mountains were all the happiest single men in the world. The leaders of the bureau and the forest farm understood that to keep them here, their single status had to be resolved; although they weren't soldiers, soldiers had military marriages. Our Dahe Forest Farm, without a doubt, boasted the most comprehensive infrastructure and the richest forest resources among all the forest farms under the forestry bureau. As the workers in the forest farm's work teams said, they looked down on coniferous forests; the logging areas of Dahe Forest Farm were almost entirely composed of red pine forests and birch forests. The secretaries and factory directors understood that Dahe Forestry Farm was well-known in the surrounding rural areas. Intermarriage between workers and villagers was almost nonexistent because workers had red household registration certificates (representing urban residents), while villagers had green ones (representing rural residents). Workers' household registrations were different from rural ones; workers received retirement pensions, while farmers did not. Furthermore, the workers' children looked down on rural men. Sometimes, the workers from Dahe Forestry Farm would travel ten kilometers to Huitougou to buy millet and eggs, much to the envy of the rural girls who envied these young men who received wages.

Becoming a worker is very difficult, and Jin Yu desperately wanted to become a worker at the Dahe Forestry Farm. Think about it, Guo Baoshan is the canteen manager, right? With a little effort, getting Jin Yu a worker shouldn't be too difficult, but such connections are always closed off, as difficult as changing a rural household registration to an urban one. The Dahe Forestry Farm has hundreds of households, each with a dozen or so members; if everyone became workers, the forestry bureau and the farm couldn't handle it. But there are large collectives, small collectives, and if that doesn't work, working in the production team is an option. She could look for opportunities, or rather, wait for them. Jin Yu was capable; she worked in the production team, then in a small collective, then in a large collective, but nothing seemed to go her way. Some people finally got their chance to be hired, but Jin Yu just couldn't become a formal worker. Jin Yu had a very strong sense of self-respect, and she understood what would happen to her future if she couldn't become a worker. She didn't want to stay at home, wasting her time and money. In fact, Guo Jinyu's prowess was renowned throughout Lin Yang. Some young men had wanted to pursue her, but they all backed down because Guo Jinyu was a formidable girl, nicknamed the "thorny wild rose," or perhaps a "thorny plum." The passionate young men in the forest all said that Guo Jinyu was a thorny red rose.

Pearl often sulked over Guo Jinyu's fierce temper and violent nature. What use was beauty like Xi Shi or the Twelve Beauties of Jinyu if Guo Jinyu had such a bad temper?

Pearl thought Guo Jinyu's personality was problematic, and that it would scare away any eligible bachelors. Her mother wasn't thinking about anything else; her daughter had to find a good man now that she was grown up—a conservative, old-fashioned idea. Besides, Guo Baoshan's large canteen had already hosted wedding banquets for sixty or seventy young couples. Pearl was anxious; she had selfish thoughts. With her father still the canteen manager at the forest farm, it would be much easier for Jinyu to get married. Actually, Pearl's worries were a bit unnecessary. Except for the youngest, the fifth daughter, who was still a little girl, Guo Baoshan's daughters were definitely a hot topic among the young men at the forest farm before they went to sleep on the kang (heated brick bed): Guo Jinyu, Guo Jinxia, ​​Guo Jinque, and Guo Jinlan. They were overthinking it. Except for the eldest two, the rest were in junior high school, and the youngest, the fifth sister, was still in her mother's arms.

Jinshui and Jingou, these two brothers, constantly annoyed Guo Baoshan. Logically, Guo Baoshan was quite devoted to his two sons, but what did they do? They took pleasure in their father's verbal abuse and anger. However, Jinshui and Jingou were very attached to their eldest sister, Guo Jinyu; they were her two henchmen and protectors. Guo Baoshan's large house was spacious and airy. His daughters each had a large kang (heated brick bed), his two sons had another, and he and Zhenzhu shared a third. On either side of the house were vats of his most prized possession: lard. According to Guo Baoshan's theory, the purest lard could last ten or twenty years without any problems. There was also a room for ingredients used in preparing a Manchu-Han Imperial Feast.

Guo Baoshan knew he was a failure when it came to educating his children. Expecting his fiery offspring to amount to nothing was possible; none of them were cut out for studying or becoming officials. His two sons, arrogant and proud, completely disregarded their father, who could cook imperial dishes. "Canteen manager," they said, "is just a foreman in charge of cooking"—that's how Jinshui and Jingou described their father. Guo Baoshan couldn't understand where the problem lay. What did these brats have to complain about? They lived in a spacious brick house, a large villa in the forest farm, surrounded by acres of sunflowers and corn stretching as far as the eye could see. Guo Baoshan didn't know that sunflowers represented the sun god, and that one could lose oneself in a sunflower field. The cornfields contained the sweetest corn stalks from the Dahe Forest Farm—sweet stalks—which were Jinshui and Jingou's obsessions. Of course, Jinshui and Jingou couldn't comprehend the sun god Apollo. Because no one read to them the epic poems of the hippopotamus, the Iliad and the Odyssey, about the life-and-death journey of a person for love and family.

Jinshui and Jingou begin their mischievous antics, adding a touch of magical realism. If the Dahe Forest Farm didn't have this magical realism, wouldn't Pearl's vision of her hometown be a deception of Guo Baoshan? Jinshui and Jingou first make scarecrows to scare away the crows, because the opposite bank of the river is the production team's fruit and vegetable base. There's a legend that the old hunter guarding the garden has a homemade cannon and a man-eating dog, and they play the same game with the scarecrows and crows to get food. The crows don't care and continue eating the sunflower seeds. The cucumber patch in the production team is everyone's favorite in the forest farm. For some reason, the cucumbers taste so pure. Problem arises: Jinshui and Jingou make the sunflowers lose their sense of nature, crossing the river branch and entering the cucumber patch. They beat up the legendary old hunter and let the guard dog escape. Then tragedy strikes: Guo Baoshan chases Jinshui and Jingou for a day and a night. Jinshui falls off a cliff, and Jingou is terrified. Pearl summoned a shaman, and only then did Jin Gou regain his spirit. This can only be seen as evidence of magical realism, not an excuse for superstition. Jin Shui was discharged from the hospital, but he had forever lost his cheetah-like running ability; he became a cripple in every sense of the word—a tragedy.

The pearl seemed trapped in a curse of the Golden Sea, unable to escape—it was all fate! Guo Baoshan knew he had made an irreversible mistake, and the pearl had also fallen into a state of confusion. So, Guo Baoshan also began to indulge in shamanistic fervor. Only shamanism and rituals could bring Tana back to normal; if Tana had problems, the family was doomed. Guo Baoshan also began to feel afraid. To cheer Tana up, he made a decision: why not let Jin Yu work in the cafeteria? The cafeteria was full of passionate, idealistic, and knowledgeable young men. Crucially, they were all young and single. Even if Jin Yu had a bad temper, working as a waitress in the cafeteria, she, Guo Jin Yu, would be a true queen, a beauty, a goddess, a Venus. They would fight over her. If Guo Jin Yu found love, found a man, got married, and had children, Tana's illness would be cured.

"Tana, let Jinyu work in the cafeteria."

"Baoshan, really? That's great!"

It seems that Tana still loves Jin Yu. In any case, following the advice of the shaman, the pearl regained its rationality.

"Dad, I want to go to the cafeteria too."

"Silly girl Jinque, what are you doing in the canteen? You're going to take over your father's job as a factory worker. Your sister's going on a blind date, understand? Don't tell your sister." Jinque was too difficult to deal with, so he could only brush her off like this. Guo Baoshan felt something was wrong; he and his pearl had been drained dry by these relentless children.

The third daughter, Jinxia, ​​was practically a madwoman. She threw stones at the single young men in the forest farm who were peeping at her sisters bathing in the river. The banks of the river were where the girls displayed their beauty. It was a mistake to think that springtime was always hidden under clothes; the river water added charm and a magical quality to the girls' bodies. The girls had the right to wash clothes and bathe, and the young men in the forest farm had the same right to swim in the river. Nowhere else was there as many fish and shrimp as in the river in the forest farm. Lying in the water, schools of fish would surround you; big fish, small fish, and shrimp would all join in the fun. The fish and shrimp in the river weren't afraid of humans at all, because the river was truly overflowing with them! Unless the white-scaled fish still hid in the deep, stable waters. These large, intelligent fish needed to be caught with nets and hooks, but none of this aroused Honglin's interest, because the white-scaled fish in the river were like tiny specks compared to the fish of the Yalu River.

For Honglin, who had no interest in the big fish, the allure of love had appeared. Was this destined, damned love? Exciting beauty unfolded before her eyes. In the forest farm's canteen, the omnipresent, glamorous figure of the Ghost Story, along with her fiery sisters, were everywhere. Sometimes even the wailing Guo Jinchai would come to the canteen in her sisters' arms, adding a little drama to the scene. It seemed that families with daughters were all vying to show off their charm in the canteen.

Where there are single young men, there are also young women. Wouldn't it be wonderful for the girls in the forest to marry a forest worker? Is that love? There are no words, no communication, only glances and memories. Honglin suddenly realizes that the woman serving her food is a vision of romantic love. Honglin's portions of steamed buns, rice, and vegetables are doubled—what does this mean?

The workers in the construction team all gave Honglin face, lining up at Jinyu's food window, hoping for double portions. They were met only with the stern-faced canteen manager. Guo Jinyu hadn't shown any kindness to any man yet, because Zhang Honglin was the artist in her eyes. Zhang Honglin would say on the kang (heated brick bed) that it was just friendship between classmates, and he could only suppress their jeers in that way.

However, the consequence of his philandering was that Honglin could no longer suppress his desire to paint. Women can always evoke the beauty of desire in a man's heart, and Honglin began to like the world in the forest farm, isolated from the bureau, a world both inside and outside the mountains.

What about Uncle? He had nowhere to go. Luckily, the canteen manager put in a good word and pleaded with the Party Secretary, which saved Honglin face. Uncle was allowed to work as a scarecrow in the production team; as long as he had a place to stay, food, and liquor, that was enough. Uncle was still a womanizer at heart, though, due to health issues, he kept getting involved with widows. Honglin was still worried about Uncle, so it was better to be careful. Uncle was also grateful for his nephew's kindness; he couldn't become a rogue like Ximen Qing, because in the new society, being a rogue could get you executed. Uncle decided that in the production team, as long as there was liquor to drink, he could return to his Ximen Qing fantasy, reminiscing about his past actresses, prostitutes, and lovers from the brothels—that would be enough for his twilight years, living one day at a time. There was no famine in the forest farm, and none of the problems his second sister's family had with not even enough lard. Now, Honglin has become the object of their longing. Every time Honglin comes out of the mountains, he brings mountain produce, river delicacies, and all sorts of other food and drinks, such as roe deer meat, wild boar meat, venison, frogs, and frogs. They look forward to it even more than the New Year!