Reborn in the Great Northern Wilderness in 1982, I farmed and hunted to support my whole family.

Li Mu stared blankly at the stove pit in front of him, his eyelids drooping.

He fiddled with the stove hook, then couldn't resist adding a few more pieces of firewood to make the kang (heated brick bed) burn brighter. However, a lot of black smoke billowed out, almost knocking him over.

There's no way around it; it gets cold early in Northeast China. Just two days ago, the sun was shining brightly, but in the blink of an eye, the first snow of winter covered the entire Great Northern Wilderness.

The pile of firewood used for starting a fire had accumulated a lot of dampness in the corner.

Farmers who were used to starting fires were fine, but Li Mu, who later moved to the city, hadn't personally started a fire for forty-five years, so he was naturally a novice.

Li Mu turned his head and exhaled heavily, only to be met with a thick layer of frost flowers on the window frame.

The snowfall was exceptionally heavy at the beginning of winter; even in Li Mu's memory, such a massive snowfall was rare.

It was piled up on the ground, more than half a meter deep, almost level with the windowsill. It looked like a white expanse, and even in the dark, it shone with a white light.

Li Mu had no choice but to wrap his cotton-padded coat tighter and pull it down further.

The secondhand clothes he had just received from his older brother last year were clearly too short for the rapidly growing teenager. They were more than a head too short for him. As soon as Li Mu stepped out of the house, the biting wind blew in through the gaps, making him shiver several times.

Li Mu stamped his feet and quickly rummaged through the snow-covered haystacks before finding a few pieces of firewood to start a fire. He hurriedly hid inside the house.

As they entered the house, they didn't forget to reach out and swat away the icicles hanging from the eaves.

This thing is more than half a meter long, and it can hurt people if you're not careful. Li Mu remembers that he suffered a lot from this thing when he was a child, so this can be considered as eliminating the potential danger in advance.

Unexpectedly, as he rubbed his hands together and stepped into the house, 'smack!', his arm was slapped.

A middle-aged woman who was half-squatting on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) put down the half-spun ball of yarn she was working on, came out, and patted him on the shoulder.

"Are you even going to make ends meet? It's so difficult to even start a fire. There's only so much firewood, as long as the kang (heated brick bed) is warm enough, that's fine. Why are you so inconsiderate? We have to live frugally, and taking things slowly is the right way to live."

“You’re a grown man of seventeen or eighteen. You should be more sensible by now. Don’t be like your father, spending money recklessly and just getting by day by day.”

"You'll go to work in the team tomorrow. You're a grown man now, how long do you expect your mother to support you? With one more job for you, our family's life will be much easier."

The middle-aged woman, her eyes brimming with chatter, snatched the stove hook from Li Mu's hand and rummaged around in the stove pit a couple of times. As she spoke, she glared through the glass window above the stove pit at the old man sitting on the kang (a heated brick bed) puffing on his pipe.

Why are you talking about the child?

Hearing this, the old man took a puff of his pipe and muttered something without looking up.

"What, can't I talk about the baby I gave birth to?"

The woman immediately became unhappy.

He threw the stove hook in his hand down beside the stove with a clatter, stood up, and glared at her, saying, "Li Laosan, don't play peacemaker. I haven't even said anything to you yet. If it weren't for me managing this family, it would probably have fallen apart long ago. Do you really want Lao Er to be like you, spending money on every single thing?"

“The eldest brother’s matter is still not resolved. If we miss this opportunity, are you planning to let him remain a bachelor for the rest of his life? You, Li Laosan, agreed to the ‘three turns and one sound’ deal without any real knowledge. You agreed so readily, but don’t you know our family’s situation? In the end, won’t it be our eldest brother who loses face?”

Throughout history, people have generally perceived Northeastern women as shrewish and domineering.

Before the old man on the kang (heated brick bed) could finish muttering his words, the middle-aged woman wiped her hands, put her hands on her hips, glared at the old man, and gave him a shrewish roar.

Knowing he was in the wrong, the old man shrank back and didn't dare to say anything more.

Li Mu, watching from the side, grinned and thought to himself, "My mother is indeed as fierce as I remember, with a touch of petty shrewdness."

But yes.

Coal was very expensive back then; a tiny shovelful cost eighty cents, which was just enough for one work hour in the production team. If Li Mu remembered correctly, the work points only increased to thirteen cents in 1985, and even then, his mother never dared to release too much coal in the winter.

But Li Mu wisely refrained from arguing.

The middle-aged woman was named Liang Meifen, and the old man sitting on the kang (a heated brick bed) puffing on his pipe was named Li Guozhang; they were Li Mu's parents.

From a young age, Li Mu knew that he grew up amidst his parents' constant arguments.

This also shaped Li Mu's somewhat rebellious personality when he was young.

Otherwise, people would always say that the influence of one's family of origin on a child is profound, and that's not just hearsay. But having lived a second life, Li Mu was able to discern different meanings.

Let's not talk about the saying, "When poverty knocks at the door, everything is miserable for a couple."

It's true that every family has its own problems.

Li Guozhang, the old man, was not a very capable person. The elderly couple, who worked in the production team, could barely make ends meet.

But the old man had a loose tongue; if it weren't for his mother, Liang Meifen, a shrew, keeping him in check, he might have caused all sorts of trouble within three days.

There's always something that can subdue something else.

Li Mu chuckled and shrank back a few steps towards the wall.

To be honest, even Li Mu himself didn't understand how he had returned to the miserable year of 82 when he opened his eyes after only a short nap. But fortunately, Li Mu, who had lived most of his life, had seen it all, so apart from feeling a little awkward, he didn't really have anything to regret. After all, being able to see his two elderly parents, who had long since passed away, still alive and kicking, made it all worthwhile.

"Where to go?"

Seeing his parents arguing more and more fiercely, Li Mu shrank back and prepared to slip out through the crack in the door.

Unexpectedly, his mother, Liang Meifen, was very observant and had heard everything. Before Li Mu's foot had even crossed the threshold, Liang Meifen grabbed his ear.

"Mom, I'm just going out to pee."

Li Mu quickly gave a fawning smile. At this critical juncture, he dared not go against Liang Meifen. Having been mother and son for decades, Li Mu knew the principle of being implicated by innocent bystanders.

Upon hearing this, Liang Meifen waved her hand impatiently.

"Go, go, go, hurry up and go! You lazy donkeys are always wasting their time. How did I end up with a bunch of troublesome people like you?"

"The old are a worry, and the young and old are just adding to the chaos. How are we supposed to live like this?"

Li Mu didn't dare to respond and hurriedly walked out.

Li Mu was perfectly aware of his mother's anger and knew exactly where the problem stemmed from.

The Li family has two brothers. Besides Li Mu, the second son, there is an older brother, Li Qianjin, who is two years older than him and is of marriageable age.

Sure enough, in the first two months, the eldest son, Li Xiangqian, was arranged to marry someone from the next village.

The Li family was getting married, which should have been a good thing, but who would have thought that a big drinking session a couple of days before would spoil the occasion? After drinking a couple of cups of horse urine, the father, Li Guozhang, started bragging loudly and boasted that he was going to give Li Xiangqian a big meal in front of the whole village.

Even the betrothal gifts for marriage must be given to the most elite members of the family, including a three-ring watch and a radio.

These days, "three turns" refers to a bicycle, a sewing machine, and a watch, while "one sound" refers to a radio. In the future, probably no one would care about this, but in the impoverished year of 82, it was a truly high-class item.

My mother, Liang Meifen, is a thrifty person. There are four people in the Li family, three of whom earn work points in the production team, but they still have two young men to support.

What's that old saying again?

"A half-grown boy can eat his father to death." Li Mu and his brother were in their early twenties, the age when they could eat and drink to their heart's content.

Let alone a family of three earning work points, even doubling the amount wouldn't be enough.

How much are work points worth?

Li Mu remembers it clearly: back in 1982, the previous job's work points were 8 cents, and it seemed that it wasn't until three years later that they rose to 13 cents. The family's monthly income was only about 20 yuan at most.

Although Liang Meifen is good at managing money, even a skilled cook can't cook without rice, right?

These three things—turning a bicycle, turning a dial, turning a radio, and turning a dial—would cost several hundred yuan, not to mention that these days you don't even need bicycle tickets or sewing machine tickets. It's one thing for Li Guozhang to boast, but the real money involved would be enough to make the Li family suffer. Countless people in the village were waiting to see this family make a fool of themselves.

If I remember correctly, this matter later became quite tense.

The Li family, who never produced the "three turns and one ring" (a traditional Chinese stringed instrument), boasted to the whole village but failed to deliver. For several years, they couldn't hold their heads high, and even the eldest son, Li Xiangqian, had his marriage called off, almost becoming a bachelor.

"Given a second chance at life, we must never let this tragedy happen again."

Li Mu pondered for a moment.

It wasn't for his parents' sake, but mainly because Li Mu felt sorry for Li Xiangqian, the eldest son.

To be honest, Li Xiangqian, as his older brother, has been really good to him.

Although they were only two years apart in age, Li Xiangqian, the older brother, raised Li Mu, who was always following him around, because of the busy work in the production team.

Because of this, Li Xiangqian's marriage was called off, and he only managed to find a second wife when he was over forty. Although Li Mu didn't have any negative feelings towards his sister-in-law, who was a bit snobbish later on.

But if we do nothing and just watch our eldest brother remain single, wouldn't that be a waste of this rebirth?

"We have to do something."