Reborn: Back to the 1980s Chapter 5

By the time Zhao Shenggu and Guan Yuan got back to the Guan family home, it was almost lunchtime. To save firewood, Yang Xiucui had lit a brazier in the main room, and the whole family was gathered there. At first glance, it almost looked like a warm, harmonious scene.

Yang Xiucui had been put in her place by Zhao Shenggu the day before, so when she saw the two of them come in from outside, she didn't dare say much—just a half-hearted complaint: "Out roaming around first thing in the morning, not lifting a finger to help with the housework, and now you're bringing all that cold air in here!" She didn't dare repeat the "eating for free" remarks, though. 

Zhao Shenggu couldn't be bothered to argue with her. He acted as if he hadn't heard and took Guan Yuan straight back to their room. He felt the cuffs of Guan Yuan's pants and his shoes, and only relaxed when he found they weren't wet at all.

But Guan Yuan noticed that Zhao Shenggu's shoes were soaked through. "Brother, your shoes are wet. Why don't we go to the main room and dry them by the fire?"

Zhao Shenggu shook his head. "No need. Even if we go, we won't get a spot by the fire."

Guan Yuan was really worried, but he had no way of explaining how to take things out of his space to give to Zhao Shenggu.

"Then take your shoes off and wrap your feet in the quilt. I'll put your shoes by the stove to dry," Guan Yuan said.

Zhao Shenggu shook his head again. That would just stir up more trouble and noise. "Forget it. When I heat the kang tonight, I'll put my shoes next to it, and they'll be dry by morning."

Guan Yuan couldn't think of another way. "At least take your shoes off now. What if you get sick? What would I do then?"

He knew that after drinking the spiritual spring water, Zhao Shenggu's health had improved greatly and he wouldn't get sick easily, but wearing wet shoes was definitely uncomfortable.

"Alright, Xiao Yuan knows how to care for people now!" Zhao Shenggu said happily.

Guan Yuan thought for a moment, then had an idea. "Brother, I'm a little sleepy. Keep me company for a nap."

Zhao Shenggu didn't suspect anything. He warmed up the kang first, then tucked Guan Yuan under the quilt. "Okay, sleep now." He patted Guan Yuan's back and gently soothed him.

Guan Yuan tugged at Zhao Shenggu's arm. "Brother, you sleep too. Close your eyes."

Zhao Shenggu did as he was told. Guan Yuan reached out and brushed his hand over Zhao Shenggu's face, and Zhao Shenggu immediately fell into a deep sleep.

Once Zhao Shenggu was asleep under the calming effect, Guan Yuan took his shoes and went into the space. He found a pair of vintage snow boots in the space, then tore off the uppers of Zhao Shenggu's worn cloth shoes.

A hundred years in the future, technology had advanced greatly—even making clothes and shoes was fully automated. Guan Yuan set the machine to the right mode, and it began stitching automatically.

Guan Yuan looked at the finished shoes, which looked exactly like Zhao Shenggu's original pair on the outside, and nodded in satisfaction. He would need to find an opportunity to secretly bring Zhao Shenggu's clothes into the space as well. Once he had a sample to work from, the machine could replicate anything.

Under the calming effect, Zhao Shenggu slept for a little over two hours. By the time he woke up, the Guan family had already eaten lunch. No one had come to call the two children, and even the meal had been eaten in silence.

Zhao Shenggu went to the kitchen to check—everything was scraped clean. Seeing that he was about to lose his temper, Guan Yuan quickly grabbed his arm. "Brother, forget it. I'm not even hungry."

Zhao Shenggu hugged Guan Yuan, feeling dejected. "Xiao Yuan, I'm sorry. This is all my fault. I shouldn't have fallen asleep. You went hungry because of me."

Guan Yuan shook his head and whispered, "It's okay. I'm not hungry. Are you?"

"I'm not either. I still have some meat here. I'll heat it up secretly later and you can have some."

"We'll both have some," Guan Yuan corrected.

"Alright, both of us."

"Brother, are your shoes dry yet?" Guan Yuan asked on purpose.

Zhao Shenggu had been too angry to notice his shoes earlier, but now that Guan Yuan mentioned it, he realized something was off. "Hey, how did my shoes dry so fast? And they feel a lot warmer too!"

Guan Yuan smirked secretly but kept a straight face. "I don't know. Maybe the wind dried them."

Zhao Shenggu couldn't figure it out, so he joked, "Did a pea girl come by and do a good deed?"

[Pea Girl (豌豆姑娘, wāndòu gūniang): A kind and selfless helper who secretly provides aid to people in need, often appearing in Chinese folklore as a humble yet heroic figure who sacrifices herself to protect others from misfortune, embodying quiet goodness and hidden assistance.]

Guan Yuan thought, There's no pea girl, but there is a pea prince. So he said, "What pea girl? It's a pea prince!"

Zhao Shenggu teased him on purpose. "And who's this pea prince?"

"Me!" Guan Yuan puffed out his little chest, looking like he'd get upset if Zhao Shenggu disagreed.

Zhao Shenggu laughed and started tickling him. Guan Yuan was extremely ticklish—he squirmed around like a silkworm and burst out laughing.

The people in the main room heard the commotion. Yang Xiucui curled her lip. "Just like his mother—a bad luck charm who can't tell who's family and who's not."

Guan Mancang's marriage to Li Yuehua had been arranged by Guan Yuan's maternal grandfather. Yang Xiucui had wanted to marry her niece Yang Feifang to Guan Mancang, but Guan Mancang went to take a look at Li Yuehua himself and fell for her instead.

After they married, Yang Xiucui constantly badmouthed Li Yuehua to Guan Mancang. In the first few years, Li Yuehua didn't have any children, and once Guan Mancang's initial infatuation faded, he grew more and more annoyed with her.

Yang Feifang had always had feelings for Guan Mancang, but he married Li Yuehua instead. She hated Li Yuehua to the core. After she became a widow, she started openly and secretly tempting Guan Mancang. By the time Guan Yuan was one year old, they had gotten together.

Yang Xiucui still valued her grandsons—except for Guan Yuan. Because she despised Li Yuehua, she didn't care about him either. Later, after Yang Feifang married into the family, she kept stirring up trouble and poisoning Yang Xiucui's mind, until Yang Xiucui came to see Guan Yuan as nothing but an eyesore.

The whole family nodded along in agreement. Not a single person spoke up for Guan Yuan. In his previous life, if it hadn't been for Zhao Shenggu protecting him, Guan Yuan wouldn't have even been able to go to school—let alone grow up safely.

The next morning, Guan Yuan gave Zhao Shenggu another drink of spiritual spring water. 

After two days of nourishment from the spring water, Zhao Shenggu's appearance hadn't changed much, but internally he was much healthier. He was still just a child, and even if his body had been depleted over the years, it was easy to make up for it now.

The Guan family was busy today—they were slaughtering a pig. They had raised two pigs. One had to be handed over to the collective, and for the remaining one, half would be traded for work points and the other half kept for the family to eat.

After a hundred years, Guan Yuan saw his aunt Guan Manxing again. Her husband and two children had also come. His uncle was named Sun Jianguo and worked at the county supply and marketing cooperative. In those days, someone working at the cooperative was even more envied than the county magistrate.

[Supply and marketing cooperative: A government-run rural retail monopoly in China from the 1950s–1980s, serving as the only legal channel for farmers to buy daily necessities and farming supplies, with ration coupons required for scarce goods.]

Not only did they eat government grain, but many people also begged favors from them. Anyone connected to the cooperative was treated with extra respect wherever they went.

Sun Jianguo looked very refined, wearing a Zhongshan suit and a pair of glasses. Guan Manxing wore a cotton-padded jacket made of diqueliang fabric and stood beside Sun Jianguo, accepting the compliments from the villagers who had come to the Guan house for the pork feast.

Though she smiled modestly, the couple radiated an air of superiority from head to toe. In Guan Manxing's hands were her two children—Sun Zihao, age nine, and Sun Ziyu, age six. Both kids looked around the Guan family yard with obvious disdain.

Guan Yuan sneered inwardly. This couple looked down on everyone in the Guan family. A third of the family's grain supply had been given to them by Yang Xiucui, yet they still complained after benefiting. Even Guan Manxing herself looked down on her own family.

Guan Manxing was good at putting up a front, but her schemes were endless. In his previous life, when Guan Yuan got sick, she recommended a doctor who deliberately turned a minor illness into a major one, draining Zhao Shenggu's money completely. She even cheated her own younger sister—for 500 yuan, she set Guan Manyue up with a man from the city who had a mental illness. Whenever he had an episode, he'd beat her. During one attack, he broke Guan Manyue's legs. Later, Guan Manyue became disabled, and that family abandoned her. It was only because Yang Xiucui felt sorry for her daughter that she brought Guan Manyue back home to care for her.

Guan Yuan closed his eyes and stopped thinking about it. He had gotten his revenge on Guan Manxing in his previous life. In this life, as long as they didn't provoke him, they could all stay out of each other's way.

As soon as Yang Xiucui saw Guan Manxing and Sun Jianguo, her wrinkled face seemed to bloom like a flower. "Manxing, Jianguo, come sit on the kang in the main room. The yard is such a mess—don't let my precious grandsons catch a cold."

Yang Feifang and Li Yuezhi also put on bright smiles. What they were really thinking, only heaven knew. The Sun couple followed Yang Xiucui inside, and Guan Yuan saw Sun Jianguo wipe the spot where Yang Xiucui had touched his sleeve with a handkerchief, looking disgusted.

The Guan family's pork feast was for the villagers. Each family sent at most one man as a representative—of course, those who didn't have a pig of their own wouldn't come, since they'd have to return the favor later.

About thirty or so able-bodied men came to the Guan house that day for the feast. After all, not many families could afford to raise pigs in those days. If it weren't for the money Zhao Shenggu's grandfather had given them, the Guan family wouldn't have been able to raise pigs—or even have enough to eat.

Life was a little better for farmers now, but meat was still more tempting than anything else. When the smell of cooking meat drifted out of the kitchen, the men stopped talking and craned their necks toward the kitchen, one after another.

Hosting a pork feast in the village was a matter of great pride. Guan He's face was flushed with satisfaction—he felt superior to everyone else. But then a jarring voice cut through.

"Oh, Brother Guan sure is lucky! Not only did someone save his life, but all that money came right to him. With that much cash, you can eat whatever you want!"

Guan He's face turned red with anger. "Wang Er Mazi, what are you saying? We agreed that money was for raising Shenggu—given to us by Brother Zhao!"

[Wang Er Mazi (王二麻子): The Wang family's pockmarked second son]

The man sneered. "Bullshit! That much money—what could a little kid possibly spend it on? You said you'd treat him like your own grandson, but instead you've got the poor boy out earning work points at his age. You take his money and don't even take care of him. Aren't you afraid of karma?"