Chapter 1: Looking back on the past
"Farewell hero, Zhang Yunqi, rest in peace!"

When citizens spontaneously mourned the greasy uncle who died gloriously while bravely doing good deeds, Zhang Yunqi had already been a native of Yunxi Village for more than half a month in 1992.

Everyone has their own misfortunes. Zhang Yunqi's greatest misfortune is that he married a virtuous wife and gave birth to a pair of well-behaved and sensible children. After half a lifetime of wandering around, it is still a long way to go to get rich, but at least he has escaped poverty. Hey! Half a month ago, he encountered an accident on the way to pick up his daughter from school. At that time, an out-of-control Foton M3 hit a little girl crossing the road head-on. He got hot-headed and rushed up to push the girl away. Then the truck ran over him. When he woke up, he found that he had returned to 1992.

1992 was a year of great prosperity, with the tide of reform sweeping across the country. However, these national affairs had nothing to do with Zhang Yunqi. What did have nothing to do with him were the endless farm work and the hungry stomach.

Under the scorching sun, Zhang Yunqi sat on the ridge of the tobacco field and felt a little suffocated. Accustomed to the comfortable middle-aged life, it was difficult for him to adapt to the old era.

"Second brother, I've finished pulling out the grass for the pigs, and now I'm here to pick some tobacco leaves for you." At this time, a little girl came running over from the ridge of the field in her big shoes. This was Zhang Chunlan, the fourth child in the family. She was fifteen years old and in the second grade of junior high school.

There are five children in his family, three girls and two boys, typical over-birth guerrillas in the 1990s.

At the beginning of this year, my father Zhang Liushun was imprisoned for stealing cables from a power station. The eldest son in the family is Zhang Yunfeng, 23 years old this year. Because his family is too poor and he has a family to support, he still hasn't found a wife. In the 90s when people married and had children early, he was a true leftover fighter. The second son, Zhang Qiulan, is already married and has just given birth to a baby and is currently in confinement. A few days ago, my mother Liu Yufeng brought the fifth son to take care of her.

As a result, there is not enough labor in the family.

It is now July, the busy farming season. All the Akita fields on his family's mountain need to be weeded, and the two acres of tobacco leaves need to be harvested in time. At the same time, the fields need to be plowed and rice seedlings need to be planted, harvested, weaved, loaded onto the kang, baked... Each process is hard work. There were originally few laborers in the family, and after their mother left, all the farm work fell on Zhang Yunqi and his eldest brother. The two brothers were busy from dawn to dusk, often too tired to eat, and groaned in their dreams when they lay in bed at night.

Today is even worse.

The eldest brother went to the town to do some work. It was a scorching hot August day and Zhang Yunqi was alone in the fields harvesting fresh tobacco leaves under the scorching sun. The fresh tobacco leaves were oily and stuck to his body when exposed to the sun, just like fried live loaches.

Now his elder sister Zhang Chunlan came to help him, and the two of them talked and worked at the same time, which made things a lot easier.

"By the way, second brother, why is our eldest brother going to the town?" Chunlan is thin and small, and her head is almost invisible among the tobacco leaves that are as tall as an adult. However, she looks very much like her mother Liu Yufeng. She has a straightforward and strong personality, and she is quick and efficient in doing things. When harvesting tobacco leaves, she can do the work of three Zhang Yunqis.

"Let's find a tractor and go to the county town to sell flue-cured tobacco tomorrow."

While Chunlan was harvesting tobacco leaves, Zhang Yunqi put them into a dustpan and then carried them to a cart with a shoulder pole. By the time the sun was setting, the brother and sister had harvested a cart of tobacco leaves. Chunlan was panting with exhaustion but did not complain. This girl did not understand the hardships of life, but she knew how difficult the family situation was. Tobacco was her family's only source of income. If she did not work hard in the fields, let alone study, even eating would be a serious problem!

It was about four miles of mountain road from the field to the tobacco curing room. Zhang Yunqi tied a rope to the shaft of the cart and buckled it around his shoulder blades to pull the cart, while Chunlan pushed from behind. They walked on the dusty dirt road. On flat roads, he usually did not let Chunlan push, and pulled the cart by himself. Once they went uphill, he used all his strength to pull the cart desperately, trying his best to reduce the burden on Chunlan who was pushing the cart from behind.

There was a big slope from the tobacco field to the village entrance, as steep as the Egyptian pyramids. He had to struggle to pull the cart, and his hands were almost touching the ground; Chunlan and he were sweating profusely, their eyes were blurry, and they were panting like two bellows, especially his shoulder blades, which were tightened by the rope and were burning with pain. At this time, he couldn't help but think of the trackers crawling on the stone path on the bank of the Yellow River with their hands and feet.

"Brother, let's take a break."

After pulling the cart up the steep slope, Zhang Chunlan took out a water bottle and handed it to Zhang Yunqi, then she sat down on the ground.

Zhang Yunqi glanced at Chunlan, who was wearing tattered clothes. Her beautiful face was tanned by the sun, her hair was disheveled, and there was not a trace of youthful girl in her. He suddenly felt a little uncomfortable and felt that he was carrying a heavy burden on his shoulders.

Perhaps it was because of the fear of poverty. In his previous life, he studied hard, and later went to a technical secondary school. Then he integrated into the big city without looking back, got married and had children, and lived a mediocre life. Before his rebirth, he still owed a mortgage of 400,000 yuan, and did not help his brothers and sisters living in the countryside. So Zhang Yunqi always felt that he was useless and he did not fulfill any family responsibilities. He spent so much money on so many books, but it was all in vain. He couldn't live in such a muddle in this life. He had to find a way to make money, change the family conditions, and let his sister study hard, instead of digging in the fields in such a high temperature of 37 or 38 degrees at such a blooming age!
The brother and sister rested for ten minutes, then continued to pull the cart. After entering the village, the dirt road was much smoother. When it was completely dark, they finally pulled the fresh tobacco leaves to the tobacco curing room. Zhang Yunqi pulled a wooden bench and began to weave the tobacco leaves. The fresh tobacco leaves needed to be woven with hanging rods before baking. This was a delicate job, and he hadn't touched it for more than 20 years, so his hands were unfamiliar.

Chunlan went home to take care of the livestock, wash dishes and clothes, and then cook and send them to the tobacco curing room. Then the brother and sister squatted in the dark wilderness and ate their dinner with relish by the firelight on the earthen stove in the tobacco curing room. Dinner was usually sweet potato and corn rice and jar peppers.

In this world, how many people can imagine the hard life that ordinary people lead in such places? Even in 92, there were no longer a few families who could eat and wear warm clothes. Of course, Zhang Yunqi had no complaints. This is an era with great prospects. As long as you work hard, you can live a good life even if you just dig on the land! What's more, no matter what, we are the second generation of human beings. Are we afraid that we can't make a name for ourselves?
Today, Chunlan came later than usual. She arrived at around eight o'clock with a basket of vegetables. Zhang Yunqi had been busy all day and was already starving. He said to his sister, "Why are you so late today?"

Chunlan said: "That can't be helped. Besides feeding you, I also have to feed the pigs."

"In your eyes, I am just like a pig?"

"Don't abuse the pigs. They are easier to feed than you!"

Chunlan smiled as she placed the basket on the stone slab and opened the lid. Zhang Yunqi smelled a strong aroma and couldn't help asking his sister, "What are you cooking?"

Chunlan said: "I bought a pound of fat meat from Liang Zhuguan and a bag of alkaline noodles. We will have potatoes stewed with meat and noodles tonight."

The food was seriously over the limit and totally out of proportion to the Zhang family's current financial situation. Zhang Yunqi asked curiously, "Where did you get the money?"

"I saved three and a half dollars from picking up trash when I was in school..."

"You don't even have money to buy paper and pens, why are you wasting money making delicious food for me? I don't care what I eat."

"Did you forget? Today is your birthday!"

Zhang Yunqi suddenly looked up at his sister and was speechless for a long time.

Since he was reborn and returned to the present, endless work has become the main theme of his life. His mind is in a mess. He thinks about getting rich, how to improve his life, and the future path. He thinks about all kinds of things, but he didn't expect that today is his sixteenth birthday. Maybe he didn't realize in his heart that celebrating a birthday is a big deal. Children from poor families can't afford to be particular. What surprised and touched him was that his sister still remembered it.

"Brother, eat the noodles, or they will become mushy."

Chunlan served a large bowl of stewed potatoes with fat and placed it on the stove, and brought him a bowl of clear alkaline noodles, which could be considered as longevity noodles for his birthday. However, Zhang Yunqi's throat was blocked and he could hardly swallow. He silently looked at Chunlan and her tattered clothes. In the light of the fire from the earthen stove, the hands that were serving the noodles were covered with calluses, and the joints of the hands were black and thick, with thick, blood-clearing black scabs in some places.

For a moment, Zhang Yunqi's eyes felt sore and swollen.

He said to his sister, "Don't waste your money. Use it to buy paper and pens. Trust me, it won't be long before our family will have a better life!"

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(End of this chapter)