Volume One, Chapter 20: The Year’s End Approaches!

Lying on the stiff wooden bed, Xu Mo stretched his arms, feeling an intense ache. To his surprise, the madwoman actually knew how to boil water. Watching her bustling about the yellow clay house, Xu Mo’s heart lifted—could this mean her mental illness was slowly improving?

The madwoman was merely a bit unhinged, not foolish. Otherwise, in his previous life, after losing her arm, she wouldn’t have gone door to door begging, allowing Xu Mo to survive until the following spring.

Seeing her approach the bedside with a white porcelain cup, Xu Mo propped himself up and reached out to take it, savoring a sip of the hot water. “Wife, don’t fuss about so much in this cold weather. Come crawl into bed with me,” he said with a smile.

Tilting her head thoughtfully, the madwoman ran to the doorway, lifted a beam from the floor to prop the door shut, then returned to the bed, slipped off her shoes, and crawled under the covers.

Xu Mo grasped her icy hands, slipped them inside his clothes, then pulled her close. “Wife, once spring comes next year and I’ve earned some money, I’ll take you to a big hospital to get better. Then, you’ll bear me a son and a daughter…”

“Hei Zi! Hei Zi!”

Just then, a shout rang from outside—Xu Datou calling. Xu Mo was too exhausted to deal with them and called back, “Big Brother Datou, I’m a bit tired tonight. Whatever you have to say, let’s talk tomorrow.”

“All right, then!” came the reply.

Outside, more than twenty young men from Shangye village stared eagerly at the closed door. Upon hearing Xu Datou’s tale of how Xu Mo had killed a snow wolf barehanded, they howled with excitement.

Xu Gang approached the snow wolf carcass, grabbed its forelimb, and hoisted it up with effort. Watching the wolf’s shaking head, he admired, “Hei Zi is damn incredible. This is a genuine snow wolf, and he killed it with his bare hands.”

“Brother, do you think Hei Zi was taken as a disciple by some hidden master?”

“Xu Mo must have definitely practiced qigong…”

…

All sixteen snow wolves that had entered the village were killed. This greatly eased the villagers’ food shortage.

These wolves were heavy; after skinning and deboning, each yielded thirty to forty pounds of meat. Divided among the households, each family received over ten pounds of wolf meat.

If rationed carefully, that could last more than ten days.

The snow continued to fall harder and harder, showing no signs of stopping. With enough food secured, Xu Mo no longer ventured into the mountains.

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The snow was now so deep that one misstep could cause a person to sink entirely.

To thank Xu Mo, the village chief led several villagers to bring eighty pounds of coarse grain—enough to sustain Xu Mo and the madwoman until next spring.

Xu Datou and the others gathered outside the yellow clay house every day. Seeing them with too much idle time, Xu Mo asked them to help build a fire pit inside the house. This way, when it snowed, Xu Mo and the madwoman could better withstand the cold.

But when spring came and the snow melted, the cold would be truly biting.

Mountain folk understood this well: the cold during snowfall was not the worst—it was the melting days that could freeze a person to death.

As payment, Xu Mo taught them some simple grappling and fighting techniques.

However, mastering these skills was far from easy.

After more than half a month, the year’s end approached.

More than a dozen young men gathered inside the modest yellow clay house.

The madwoman sat on the bed beside Xiao Cui, whose belly was swollen with child.

Xiao Cui looked on enviously at the young men sitting around the fire. She never imagined that in just over half a month, timid and cowardly Hei Zi would become the “leader” of Shangye village.

Each generation in the village had its “leading sheep.”

Previously, the youths had heeded the words of Ye Gou’er and Xu Datou.

But now Ye Gou’er was dead.

Xu Datou stuck close to Xu Mo all day…

“Hei Zi, when spring comes and the snow melts, do you want to come with us to work at the county’s canning factory? It’s a temporary job, but the pay isn’t bad—ten yuan a month,” said Er Tiezi, whose leg injury had just healed, warming his hands by the fire as he looked at Xu Mo.

Xu Mo shook his head. “I can’t do factory work.”

“Why not? It’s just a pair of eyes and hands. If others can do it, why can’t you?” Er Tiezi asked, a bit simple-minded.

Xu Mo smiled but said nothing.

Life in the village was simple.

Those with connections might get a temporary factory job, but converting it to permanent was nearly impossible.

Without connections, one just worked for credits.

Everyone present had no grand ambitions; their greatest wish was to eat their fill, have a wife and warm bed, and bear a son to carry on the family line.

Xu Gui was tall and thin, holding a white porcelain cup. Seeing the water boil, he pulled a handful of something from his pocket, dropped it into the cup, then stood to pour a cup of hot water.

“Gui Zi, you fool! You don’t even have a wife, yet you drink Polygonatum every day. Who are you trying to breed pigs for?” Xu Gang teased, watching Gui sip cautiously.

Gui pouted. “You don’t know anything. My father already asked the old blind man. Drinking more Polygonatum now means when I marry, I’ll surely have a son.”

“Did the old blind man really say that?”

“My dad told me. Why would he lie?”

Xu Mo chuckled watching his friends bicker.

Suddenly, his smile faltered, and a strange light flickered in his eyes.

Reborn, Xu Mo knew this era was rife with opportunity—gold was everywhere if one was bold and careful, like picking up money in sacks.

But the problem was, Xu Mo had served in the military for fourteen years in his past life… and he knew little about money-making schemes in this period.

Listening to Xu Gui and Xu Gang’s banter, a thought sparked in his mind.

In the mountains, herbs were not everywhere, but plentiful enough.

Every household kept some heat-clearing and fire-relieving herbs at home.

Xu Mo lifted his eyes and asked Xu Gui, “Gui Zi, do you have much Polygonatum at home?”

“Brother, want some? I can go get two pounds for you right now.”

“Wait!” Xu Mo called as Gui stood to leave. “I’m asking if you have a lot, not that I want some now!”

“About ten pounds, I guess. There will be plenty more after spring. But drying it is troublesome. It takes over a hundred pounds of fresh Polygonatum to dry down to ten pounds. A few years ago, when my uncle was injured, my parents spent months drying dozens of pounds…”

Xu Mo glanced at everyone. “What about you all?”

“I don’t drink that stuff. It tastes weird.”

“I have four or five pounds at home. My little brother was so hungry the other day, he even ate some.”

Xu Mo’s eyelids drooped as memories from his past life surfaced.

If he recalled correctly, after enlisting, a comrade in the new recruits once said his family had made their fortune selling Polygonatum, becoming the area’s first millionaire family.