Chapter 1 It Feels So Good to Have a Dad
"His mother, don't stop me. I'm going to the Village Department to borrow a carriage and go to the Forest Farm to get justice for our Xiao Feng! This is the Communist Party's world, and they've gone against it! How dare they take Xiao Feng's job and hit our child!"
"Husband! Your leg isn't fully healed yet. If our child lost his job, we can think of other ways. What if something else happens? How will our family live then!"
...
Yue Feng felt like he had a very, very long dream. In the dream, it was his old home from when he was young. He was lying on the kang in the west room. His father, whose right leg was fractured and not yet fully healed, was arguing furiously with his mother. If it weren't for the splint still on his leg, he would have rushed out of the room.
The sound of his parents' argument quieted down considerably, slowly fading into peace.
Next, various sounds intermittently echoed near his head. Yue Feng vaguely heard what sounded like neighbors and relatives from the village coming to visit him.
After an unknown amount of time, Yue Feng struggled to open his eyes.
What met his eyes was a mud-plastered earthen wall connected to a ceiling made of yellowed newspaper.
The old house was low and cramped, and the entire room was dimly lit, with only a small, square window allowing a faint glimmer of light.
The scenes from his memory slowly overlapped with reality, and a large amount of long-sealed information in his memory was reactivated, flooding Yue Feng's mind.
Yue Feng looked around and his gaze landed on the calendar behind the door.
September 12, 1980, Gengshen Year, August Fourth of the lunar calendar.
Could it be, rebirth?
Yue Feng went from initial confusion, looking around, to the slow activation of dormant memories. His entire being shifted from initial daze to surprise, to shock, and finally, an uncontrollable surge of wild joy at the corner of his mouth!
In his previous life, Yue Feng didn't fare well at all. To use a fashionable phrase, he played a good hand terribly.
Objectively speaking, Yue Feng's family's conditions in the village weren't too bad when he was young.
His eldest brother took over their second grandfather's shift and became a worker at the city's coal mine. He also found a wife and settled in the city, becoming an urbanite who ate commercial grain.
His father was good at driving large carts and was considered a prominent figure in the village's production team.
Yue Feng was the second child in the family, with a younger sister twelve years his junior.
The critical turning point in the family's decline was with Yue Feng.
The family emptied their savings and found someone to get Yue Feng a temporary job at the Forest Farm on the mountain, sorting timber. But he hadn't been there for a few days when he was knocked unconscious and sent back. His father, with an injured leg, was furious. He hobbled to the Village Department, borrowed a carriage, and was determined to go up the mountain himself to get justice for his son.
As a result, his father, Yue Lei, who already had difficulty walking, was unexpectedly attacked by a wild boar on the way up the mountain and died.
With the pillar of the family collapsing, the entire family never recovered. Yue Feng became the family's labor force, but working tirelessly in the production team for a year, he still didn't earn much money; the family could barely eat their fill.
Fortunately, the Changbai Mountain had abundant wildlife resources, and at that time, guns and hunting were not prohibited. Yue Feng's family had been hunters for generations, and from a young age, he had gone hunting in the mountains with his father during agricultural slack seasons. He also inherited a skill in Falconry from his grandfather.
Relying on the supplement of these mountain goods, the whole family finally got through those difficult years.
Later, when Yue Feng was twenty-five, under the persuasion of a matchmaker named Wang Tiezui, he married a woman from out of town. After several years of marriage, they couldn't have children, and only then did he realize he had been deceived; this wife had a problem.
After learning the truth, Yue Feng's temperament changed drastically. His life became increasingly worse, he indulged in alcoholism, and he learned to gamble. From then on, he lived aimlessly until he passed away at sixty after a night of heavy drinking.
Thinking of this, Yue Feng rushed out of the room and went straight to the east room where his parents rested.
Thankfully, his father was still lying on the kang and hadn't gone up the mountain yet.
"Dad!!" Seeing his father's dark, sun-tanned face from years of labor, Yue Feng's heart sank, and his voice was already tinged with a cry.
"Xiao Feng is awake! How do you feel? Are you dizzy?" His father, Yue Lei, struggled to sit up from the edge of the kang and responded.
"Yes, I'm awake! How's your leg feeling?" Yue Feng walked to the edge of the kang and held his father's large hand, which felt like a steel rod.
His father looked his son up and down, then touched the bump on Yue Feng's forehead, saying indignantly, "Damn it, tomorrow I'm going to the brigade to borrow a cart and go up the mountain. Then I'll call your Uncle Li, and we'll get justice for you!"
"Forget it! I'm fine, aren't I? Where's Mom?"
Yue Feng, uncharacteristically, didn't fan the flames; instead, he was very rational in trying to calm things down.
In his previous life, his father Yue Lei's accident was, strictly speaking, directly related to Yue Feng fanning the flames.
A 19-year-old boy, at an age where he cared about his reputation, was beaten and lost his job. This made Yue Feng feel like he couldn't hold his head high in the village, which led him to say a few inflammatory words during dinner, ultimately resulting in his father losing his life.
The reborn Yue Feng, at this moment, had the soul of someone who had lived for over sixty years, and his mind was extremely mature.
"Your mother went to the village entrance to meet your brother! The Village Department called and said your brother and sister-in-law are coming back today. Your mother fed the pigs and then took Jingjing to wait at the village entrance!" His father, Yue Lei, said.
"Oh!"
Yue Feng thought of the expressions of his eldest brother and sister-in-law from his memory when they returned home this time, and he responded calmly.
"That guy named Zhou took our money. Your work at the Forest Farm and getting beaten, we can't just let that go!"
Leaning against the wall, Yue Lei took out a pipe from the box on the edge of the kang, then took out tobacco from a cloth pouch on the pipe stem and carefully filled and packed it.
Yue Feng's heart stirred when he heard this. After two seconds of thought, he said, "Sorting timber isn't a good job anyway. They say there's hope of getting a permanent position at the Forest Farm, but that's just a deceptive trick. The entire Lenge Factory is outsourced, only the timber measurers are Forest Farm staff!
Everyone there is hired by the contracting bosses, and many are vagrants from other places. Several of the people who hit me that day were vagrants; it's hard to say if we'd even find them again if we went back.
The Lenge Factory is outsourced, it doesn't even count as a public unit, so we can't reason with them much!
Your leg isn't fully healed yet, and my head is also injured. What can we do if we go there in this condition?
Let's put it aside for now. Once we've both recovered from our injuries, we'll find an opportunity to get back at them! The Lenge Factory is still there; the monk may run away, but the temple won't!"
Hearing his son's words, Yue Lei was slightly stunned.
The Yue Feng he remembered was a powder keg, easily ignited and with a volatile temper. But today, he had changed his nature. Hearing his words about seeking revenge, he not only didn't fan the flames but became rational and calm.
His analysis was well-reasoned and logical, leaving no room for rebuttal.
"Then... let's wait until your elder brother comes back and hear what he says!"
As he spoke, Yue Lei had finished filling his pipe. Yue Feng, with good foresight, took out a match and lit it for his father. His father took two puffs from the mouthpiece, the red glow lit up in the pipe's burning chamber, and the room was quickly filled with the aroma of tobacco.
In his previous life, Yue Feng's memory of his father's image had gradually blurred with the passage of time, but at this moment, his father, just 46 years old, still appeared as a young middle-aged man.
It feels so good to have a dad!
Yue Feng sat quietly on the edge of the kang, his heart filled with emotion.