Reborn in 1982, the prodigal son returns

Lin Nuo and Qi Dawu walked side by side.

Qi Dawu seemed off the whole way, clearly preoccupied with something.

Lin Nuo had already figured it out and was just waiting for Qi Dawu to lose his temper.

When they reached the old locust tree at the village entrance, seeing that the fire was almost cooked, Lin Nuo stopped, turned around, and looked at Qi Dawu.

Qi Dawu also stopped walking.

"Da Wu, is something wrong?"

Lin Nuo looked at him with a smile.

Qi Dawu did not move.

A long silence followed. The wind blew through the treetops, swirling up snowflakes that sprinkled between the two of them, fine and white, like tiny pieces of broken silver.

"Brother Nuozi..."

Qi Dawu finally spoke, his voice so soft it was barely a whisper:

"I...I want to..."

"What are you thinking about?"

Qi Dawu took a deep breath and blurted out a sentence:

"I want to...I want to get married."

After saying that, his face turned red all the way to the roots of his neck.

Lin Nuo didn't laugh at him.

"Who have you taken a fancy to?" Lin Nuo asked knowingly.

Qi Dawu's lips trembled again. This time, the trembling was even more violent:

"Zhou... Zhou Xiaoyu."

He lowered his head after he finished speaking, as if he had made a big mistake, as if he shouldn't have taken a liking to her.

Lin Nuo was stunned for a moment.

He looked at Qi Dawu. In his previous life, Qi Dawu was given away to a cripple to marry into his family. If word got out that he was marrying into a family with poor eyesight in this life, he could forget about his reputation.

He needs to think about it.

Qi Dawu lowered his head and waited for a long time without Lin Nuo speaking. He thought Lin Nuo was going to laugh at him, and his face turned even redder.

Lin Nuo finally reached out and patted Qi Dawu on the shoulder, as this was currently the best way out for Qi Dawu.

"Great job, Da Wu, you have good taste."

"But...but would they even be interested in me?"

His voice was still trembling:

"I have nothing... I'm dirt poor... Would her father be willing to accept that?"

Lin Nuo thought about it.

Qi Dawu is indeed a suitable candidate.

"Tomorrow, let's go to town and sell the pheasant first. After we sell it, we'll buy some things, and then I'll take you to the Zhou family's house."

He looked down at Qi Dawu:

"You do your job well, and leave the rest to me."

Qi Dawu nodded vigorously.

"Okay, thanks bro."

By the time Lin Nuo got home, it was already completely dark.

There was food left for him in the kitchen; the bowl was upside down on the stove and covered with a plate to keep it warm. He lifted the plate and found a bowl of sweet potato porridge and half a dark-colored steamed bun. After he finished eating...

Lin Nuo then went into the east room.

Su Wanqing sat on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) reading a book.

Lin Nuo took off her cotton-padded coat and hung it behind the door, a smile still on her face that she couldn't suppress.

Su Wanqing glanced at him but didn't say anything.

Lin Nuo spoke up himself. He leaned back on the kang (a heated brick bed), put his hands behind his head, and looked at the ceiling.

"I took Dawu to the Zhou family today."

"Da Wu has taken a liking to someone's daughter."

Lin Nuo laughed as he spoke. He turned to look at Su Wanqing, but Su Wanqing didn't look at him.

"That kid held it in the whole way, only blurting it out when we got to the village entrance. His face was as red as a monkey's bottom, and the tips of his ears were practically steaming."

Su Wanqing didn't speak, but the corner of her mouth twitched slightly.

This means she is listening.

Lin Nuo lay down, put his hands behind his head, and looked at the ceiling.

"Da Wu is a very honest person."

He said the voice wasn't loud, as if he were talking to himself:

"If Zhou Laoshuan can marry his daughter to him, he won't lose out. Da Wu is kind-hearted, hardworking, and doesn't slack off or cheat. Zhou Xiaoyu won't suffer if she marries him."

After turning off the light and getting into bed.

Lin Nuo reached out and took her hand.

"Late Qing".

"Um."

"Do you think this plan with Da Wu will work out?"

A moment of silence.

"...I think so."

The sound was very soft, so soft it seemed to come from a great distance. But Lin Nuo heard it. He smiled and tightened his grip on her hand. His fingers intertwined with hers, their palms pressed together, their warmth mingling.

Su Wanqing didn't speak again. But her fingers moved slightly in Lin Nuo's palm, not by pulling back, but by gently and slowly, as if unintentionally, grasping his hand in return. Her fingers were slender, finding their place between his fingers and locking them together.

Lin Nuo's heart skipped a beat.

In the darkness, neither of them spoke again.

Lin Nuo got up just as dawn was breaking.

But Qi Dawu was already waiting at the gate of the courtyard.

He was wearing a clean cotton-padded jacket, though it was old, but you could tell he had tried his best to dress up.

Lin Nuo glanced at him, smiled slightly, said nothing, and went to the cubicle to put the live pheasant into a sack.

The pheasant had been kept in the basket for so long and was still in good spirits. It flapped its wings a couple of times before he grabbed the base of its wings and stuffed it into a burlap sack.

The two men carried sacks and walked towards the back of the mountain.

The trap set yesterday should be taken down today.

The first snare was placed next to a bush. Lin Nuo crouched down, brushed away the snow, and found that the snare's opening had been knocked askew by something. A tuft of grayish-brown hair, short and thin, hung from the wire, trembling slightly in the wind.

It was a wild rabbit, grayish in color, a grass rabbit. The snare was triggered, but it didn't hold; the rabbit kicked twice and broke free, leaving only a tuft of fur behind.

Lin Nuo straightened the cover, adjusted the tightness of the slipknot, and covered it with snow.

The second cover was also empty. The cover remained untouched.

Lin Nuo didn't say anything and continued walking. He walked at a moderate pace, his footsteps crunching on the snow.

He's not in a hurry. That's how it is with traps; nine out of ten traps fail.

The third snare was next to a bush in the woods. From a distance, you could see that the snare had fallen over, the branches that secured it were bent, and there were traces of flapping on the snow. The snow was messed up by the wings, and there were feather marks everywhere, some deep and some shallow, as if someone had fought on the ground.

Qi Dawu ran over. He ran fast, his feet leaving a trail of deep footprints in the snow, the hem of his cotton-padded coat swinging back and forth at the back of his knees.

I crouched down to take a closer look and saw it was a pheasant. A male, with glossy feathers, a pert crest on its head, and a white ring around its neck that shone in the morning light. But it was already stiff and frozen to death.

If you arrive late, you might freeze to death.

Qi Dawu untied the pheasant from the snare. He glanced at Lin Nuo, who said, "Take this first."

Qi Dawu put the pheasant into a burlap sack.

The fourth snare was at the bottom of the slope. It was also a pheasant, male, smaller, weighing a little over two pounds.

Qi Dawu also put this one into the sack.

After watching it.

"Brother Nuozi, just two?" His voice was muffled, filled with disappointment.

"Both are meat too."

Lin Nuo said.

The two men carried sacks down the mountain. As they passed the lake, Qi Dawu suddenly grabbed Lin Nuo's sleeve.

His fingers gripped Lin Nuo's sleeve tightly, his knuckles turning white.

"Brother Nuozi, don't walk on the ice."

His voice sounded a little hurried:

"My mother said there was an ice hole in the middle of the lake."

Lin Nuo stopped by the lake. He looked down at the ice, said nothing, and walked along the shore.

Most of the reeds by the lake have been cut down, leaving only a few withered stalks swaying in the wind.

Lin Nuo suddenly stopped beside the reeds by the lake.

His gaze fell on a dark mass beneath the ice. The mass was about a foot deep. They were huddled together, motionless, with grayish-brown backs, light-colored bellies, their legs and heads tucked in, as if they were trying to keep warm.

Forest frog.

Lin Nuo's mind went blank for a moment. He crouched down, brushed the snow off the ice, and peered closer. The ice was transparent, allowing him to see what was underneath. A dozen or so forest frogs were huddled together, some piled on top of others.

He recalled that in his previous life, when he was working in the south, a fellow worker from the northeast had said that frog oil was valuable, selling for tens of yuan per kilogram, and later rising to hundreds.

The coworker, surnamed Zhao, was an experienced mountain worker. He said that in Northeast China, some people specialize in catching frogs to extract oil, earning several thousand yuan a year. Frog oil is a medicinal material, used to nourish the kidneys and replenish essence, and city dwellers are eager to get their hands on it.

Lin Nuo remembers.

But now is not the time to catch them. Winter has long since arrived, and the forest frogs have gone into hibernation, but they have almost used up all the oil on their bodies. To catch them, you have to wait until autumn, before winter, when the forest frogs have the thickest layer of oil.

They can't sell for much now.

Lin Nuo stood up and patted the snow off his knees.

"Let's go," he said.

We arrived in town.

Liu Jun was standing behind the counter, holding a feather duster and dusting the shelves. When he saw Lin Nuo come in, his eyes lit up and he threw the feather duster onto the counter.

"Hey, Noko, got any in stock?"

Lin Nuo placed the burlap sack on the counter and untied the rope. Liu Jun leaned over and peeked inside. A live pheasant fluttered about inside the sack, its wings flapping against the sack cloth with a slapping sound. Two frozen pheasants lay curled up at the bottom, stiff and lifeless.

He reached out and picked up the live pheasant. The pheasant flapped its wings in his hand, its claws kicking at the back of his hand. He gripped its wings tightly and weighed it in his hand.

"Male, three and a half pounds or more. Live ones, five yuan."

He set the live pheasant aside and picked up the two that had frozen to death. The frozen pheasants were as hard as rocks; when he lifted them by their legs, their bodies remained straight and unbent. He examined their condition, turned them over to look at their feathers, and pinched the flesh of their breasts.

"They froze to death, three yuan each. Two for six yuan. Eleven yuan in total."

Lin Nuo shook his head. He leaned against the counter, his hands resting on the surface, unhurried.

"Brother Liu, five yuan for a live one is no problem. For those frozen to death, three yuan and fifty cents each, seven yuan for two. Twelve in total. Frozen to death are still pheasants, the meat is the same, it's just frozen. You sell them to restaurants, they take them back to make soup, what's the difference between live and dead? It's not like you're buying them to raise."

Liu Jun clicked his tongue, tapped his fingers twice on the counter, tap-tap:

"You little rascal, you're as clever as a monkey. Fine, fine, twelve it is."

He counted out twelve dollars from the drawer.

Lin Nuo took the money, counted out six yuan, and handed it to Qi Dawu.

Qi Dawu didn't take it. He stood beside the counter, his hands hanging at his sides, his fingers slightly curled. He looked at the six yuan in Lin Nuo's hand, and his lips moved slightly.

"Brother Nuozi, the ones alive were the ones you caught before, and the ones that froze to death were also the ones you set traps for. I..."

Lin Nuo stuffed the money into his hand. As the money was placed in his palm, his fingers instinctively clenched and gripped it. Lin Nuo pressed his hand against his, then released it.

"We agreed to split it 50/50. Here you go."

Qi Dawu clutched the six yuan note, his knuckles white. He looked down at the money in his hand: six yuan, a five-yuan note, and a one-yuan note.

"……Why."

He carefully folded the money, stuffed it into the inner pocket of his cotton-padded coat, and patted it to make sure it wouldn't fall out.

Lin Nuo then took out a one-yuan note from his six yuan:

"Brother Liu, weigh out two jin of 'zhaozigao' (a type of rice cake), wrap it in paper. Also, get two bottles of liquor, bulk is fine, use glass bottles to fill them."

Liu Jun responded and turned to get it. He walked faster than before, his feet thumping on the ground. He took two bottles of wine from the shelf and a bag of steamed rice cakes from under the counter. The rice cakes were fresh from yesterday and still soft, wrapped in straw paper and tied with hemp rope. The two bottles of wine were in a net bag made of red plastic rope, which was tied around the bottles. When he lifted them, the bottles jingled together.

Qi Dawu paused for a moment, looking at the rice cakes and wine on the counter, then at Lin Nuo.

"Brother Nuozi, why are you buying all this?"

"We can't go to the Zhou family empty-handed."

Qi Dawu's face turned red again, and he couldn't say a word.

They paid to hire a donkey cart.

In the car, Qi Dawu's lips kept moving, as if he was practicing what to say.

Lin Nuo glanced at him: "Don't be nervous. Just do what you normally would."

Qi Dawu nodded.

The donkey cart stopped at the entrance of Xiahe Village. The old man driving the cart stuck his whip in the shaft and shouted, "We've arrived!" Lin Nuo jumped off the cart, and Qi Dawu followed. His legs were a little weak, and he stumbled when he landed, almost dropping the wine bottle. He quickly steadied himself.

Old Zhou stood at the gate of the courtyard, glanced at the two of them, and seemed to understand something.

"Come in."

He said.

Inside the house, Zhou Laoshuan's wife sat on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), sewing shoe soles. Seeing people arrive, she stood up and smiled.

Zhou Xiaoyu came out from the inner room. She was still wearing that blue cotton-padded jacket.

She stood there, neither looking up nor speaking.

Qi Dawu stood in the middle of the main room, unsure of what to do with his hands. He was still holding a bowl of rice cakes and wine in his arms, like he was holding a child.

Lin Nuo nudged him with his elbow.

Qi Dawu realized what was happening and handed over what he was holding. He did it awkwardly, holding it with both hands as if it were a very hot dish, his arms outstretched and his body leaning back.

It's so awkward.

"Uncle..."

He shoved the things into Zhou Laoshuan's hands, and then fell silent. His mouth was open, and he made two "hoarse" sounds in his throat, but couldn't utter a single word.

Zhou Laoshuan looked at him without saying a word. His gaze was fixed on Qi Dawu's face.

Lin Nuo couldn't stand it anymore and spoke up:

"Uncle Zhou, this is my brother, Qi Dawu. He's from Liujiagou. He's an honest man and a hard worker. I brought him here today so you could see him."

Zhou Laoshuan turned his gaze away from Qi Dawu and onto Lin Nuo's face.

"What about Sun Defu from last time?"

"He went back to think about it, but hasn't made up his mind yet."

Lin Nuo said truthfully:

"But my brother is truly sincere. He saw your daughter yesterday and didn't sleep a wink all night; he insisted on coming today."

Qi Dawu nodded frantically beside him, like a chicken pecking at rice.

Zhou Laoshuan glanced at Qi Dawu again, looking him up and down.

Qi Dawu stood ramrod straight, like a wooden stake.

Lin Nuo suppressed a laugh.

Zhou Laoshuan's wife leaned over and whispered something in his ear. Zhou Laoshuan shook his head and asked Qi Dawu himself:

How old are you?

"Two...twenty-five."

Qi Dawu's voice tightened:

Who else is in the family?

"I only have one brother. He's married, so I live with them."

"What can it do?"

"Farming, chopping wood, building walls, weaving baskets, anything goes."

Qi Dawu's voice rose a little, and when he said "Anything is fine," his voice carried a hint of confidence as he added:

"I can also make snares and set them to catch pheasants..."

Old Zhou asked again, his voice lower than before, but firm:

"You...don't mind that my daughter has poor eyesight?"

Qi Dawu suddenly raised his head and said anxiously:

"I don't mind! I...I think...she's great."

After he finished speaking, he lowered his head again, his ears so red they looked like they could bleed.

Old Zhou didn't ask any more questions. He looked at Qi Dawu for a long time—five seconds, ten seconds, maybe longer. Then he turned to look at Lin Nuo. Lin Nuo nodded at him.

Old Zhou's wife secretly wiped the corner of her eye.

Zhou Laoshuan took the rice cake and wine that Qi Dawu handed over and placed them on the table.

"Stay for dinner."

He said.

Qi Dawu grinned.

After finishing the meal.

The two went out.

It was already getting dark.

Qi Dawu walked beside Lin Nuo, his steps much lighter than when he arrived, crunching on the snow as if he were stepping on springs. But he still kept turning back to look in the direction of the Zhou family.

I really don't want to leave.

When he reached the village entrance, Qi Dawu suddenly stopped.

"Brother Nuozi".

"Um?"

"Did she...did she just smile?"

Lin Nuo glanced at him. Qi Dawu's face was not very clear in the twilight, but his eyes shone as brightly as if they were lit.

"It seems so," Lin Nuo said.

Qi Dawu chuckled twice.

"Brother Nuozi".

"What's wrong now?"

"Can I still come tomorrow?"

Lin Nuo looked at him and couldn't help but laugh.

"You should marry that girl first, then you can come over every day."

Qi Dawu's face turned red again.

Lin Nuo walked ahead, with Qi Dawu following behind. Suddenly, Qi Dawu spoke again. His voice was very soft, so soft it seemed he was speaking to himself, as if afraid of disturbing something:

"Brother Nuozi... if I can really marry Xiaoyu, my life will be worth it."