Rebirth in a Courtyard: I Am a Little Hunter

Wei Chen was awakened by the sound of a rooster crowing.

He opened his eyes abruptly, and what came into view was a thick roof beam, with strings of dried chili peppers and corn hanging from the dark wood, swaying gently in the morning light. Beneath him was not the soft latex mattress of his memory, but a hard earthen bed covered with a thin layer of straw.

A scent mixed with the smells of firewood, earth, and faint smoke filled his nostrils, vaguely reminding him of his childhood days at his grandmother's house in the countryside.

"Where am I?" Wei Chen subconsciously reached for his phone, but instead touched a rough, coarse cloth quilt.

A sudden, intense headache struck, as if someone had pried open the top of his head with a chisel. Countless fragments of unfamiliar memories exploded in his mind, and he curled up in agony, his fingers digging deep into the straw of the kang mat.

"48 years...father sacrificed...martyr...mother...sister..."

Fragmented images flashed by like a revolving lantern: a tall, thin boy chasing a wild rabbit through the mountains; a haggard-looking woman mending clothes under an oil lamp; a little girl standing on tiptoe helping to serve food at the stove...

Ten minutes passed before the headache gradually subsided. Wei Chen was drenched in cold sweat, panting heavily, his eyes gradually clearing from a dazed state.

"I... I was reborn?"

He raised his hand, and what he saw was not his own slightly pale hands from years of typing, but a pair of calloused palms with distinct knuckles and obvious bowstring marks at the base of the thumb. Using the dim light filtering through the paper windowpane, he examined his thin but muscular arms, which bore several scabbed wounds—scratches inflicted by tree branches while chasing a roe deer last week.

"1958...Baoyuquan Village...17 years old..."

Wei Chen muttered to himself, slowly digesting the memories of the original owner of this body. He was originally an ordinary urban white-collar worker in 2025, a lowly corporate slave in modern society.

During his university years, Wei Chen's parents passed away unexpectedly. He used the compensation money to buy a house and three storefronts near the university. He used the remaining money to finish his university studies. Then he found an ordinary job, working nine to five.

Without parental constraints, I drifted aimlessly into my thirties. I never got married, and besides work, I spent my days eating, drinking, having fun, traveling, and playing games with friends—basically a semi-homebody.

There was no car accident or cliff jump. He simply took a nap. Unexpectedly, when he woke up, he had transmigrated to a rural area near Beijing in the early days of the People's Republic of China, and become another person, also named Wei Chen.

Organizing my memories—

Wei Chen was born in Baoyuquan Village at the foot of the Yanshan Mountains, a small village surrounded by mountains. The people here have farmed and hunted for generations, living a simple and resilient life. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, they were oppressed by the Japanese invaders and the White Army, but because it was close to the capital, it was much better off than other places.

Wei Chen is seventeen years old this year, but he has experienced many changes in these short seventeen years.

His father, Wei Mancang, left when he was very young. It was 1948, before the flames of the Liberation War had died down. He sacrificed his life on a mountain road while covering the retreat of a People's Liberation Army unit. It wasn't until after the founding of the People's Republic of China that the government posthumously recognized him as a martyr, and the family finally received the certificate stamped with the red seal. His mother carefully stored it, along with his father's old military cap, at the bottom of a wooden box, only occasionally wiping it gently in the quiet of the night.

Unlike in novels, there were no jobs or similar benefits for the families of martyrs. In the early days of the People's Republic of China, there were too many such people, and the government provided some compensation and took care of them when allocating land.

Only his mother, younger sister, and Wei Chen remained in the family, relying on each other for survival. His younger sister, Wei Ran, was born in 49, the same year as the founding of the People's Republic of China, and just turned nine this year.

The mother raised two children alone, and life was very difficult, but fortunately, she had the help of her grandparents, Wei Shoutian and Wei Wangshi. Although the two elderly people were nearly sixty years old, they were still healthy and could still work in the fields.

Wei Changsheng, the eldest uncle, was the production team leader in the village, and Wei Laishun, the third uncle, was a key member of the militia. They often helped Wei Chen's family by sending them grain and firewood, and would also send them meat and eggs during festivals.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, with the support of his grandfather and uncle, Wei Chen also attended primary and junior high school. Baoyuquan Village is located at the foot of the Yanshan Mountains, adjacent to the Yanshan mountain range. After graduating from junior high school, sixteen-year-old Wei Chen learned hunting skills from the village's old hunter. Despite his young age, Wei Chen was a well-known hunter in the village, skilled in using a bow and arrow.

Days passed by, and Wei Chen and his sister grew up. Until today, Wei Chen transmigrated. He couldn't even figure out whether he had transmigrated and usurped the place or been reincarnated. He awakened today.

In short, from today onwards, Wei Chen is the Wei Chen of this world.

"Xiao Chen, get up and eat!" A woman's voice with a heavy accent came from the outer room, interrupting Wei Chen's thoughts.

It was the voice of "Mother" Wang Xiulan. Wei Chen's heart skipped a beat; the title was both strange and familiar to him. In modern society, he hadn't called out the word "Mom" for over ten years.

"Oh, Mom, I'm up," he replied instinctively, his voice a little hoarse.

Wei Chen put on the coarse cloth clothes that were placed on the kang (a heated brick bed). Although they were patched, they were very clean. He noticed a well-preserved bow and a quiver of arrows hanging in the corner, with several tanned rabbit skins drying next to them—it seemed that the original owner of this body was indeed a good hunter.

Stepping out of the inner room, Wei Chen's breath caught in his throat at the sight outside. The mud-brick house, though simple, was impeccably organized. On a worn-out eight-immortal table sat three sets of bowls and chopsticks, with a bowl of steaming corn porridge and a dish of pickled vegetables in the center. Beside the stove, a small, thin figure was busily working.

Wang Xiulan—the mother of this world—looked much older than her actual age of thirty-six. The wrinkles on her face were as if carved by a knife, deeply etched on her forehead and at the corners of her eyes. Years of hard work had made her back slightly hunched, but her eyes were bright and spirited, immediately filling with tenderness when she saw Wei Chen.

"Hurry up and wash your face and eat. We need to finish hoeing that plot of land on the east side today." Wang Xiulan wiped her hands with her apron, ladled a bowl of thick corn porridge from the pot, and took out a golden cornbread. "I made soup from the pheasant you hunted yesterday, and I saved you a chicken leg."

Wei Chen felt a lump in his throat. In his memory, his mother always did this, saving the best for him and his sister. He took the bowl, his fingertips touching his mother's rough palms, the touch sending a shiver down his spine.

"Where's my sister?" Wei Chen looked around but didn't see the nine-year-old girl.

"I went to your uncle's house to borrow a millstone, I'll be back in a bit," Wang Xiulan said, then put another piece of pickled vegetables into Wei Chen's bowl. "Eat quickly, it'll upset your stomach if it gets cold."

Wei Chen lowered his head and took a sip of the porridge, the sweet corn flavor filling his mouth. Although the cornbread was coarse, it was clearly made from pure grains, without too many other grains mixed in. This was much better than the rural meals he had imagined in 1958.

Come to think of it, the real difficulty was that after the "iron rice bowl" system of 1958, we encountered three years of natural disasters.

Just as he was wondering to himself, a little girl with pigtails skipped in, carrying a small stone mill in her arms.

"Brother! Look what I borrowed!" Wei Ran—his younger sister—sang with a smug grin on her rosy cheeks. "Auntie said we can use it for three days!"

The little girl put down the stone mill, took two red dates from her pocket, and gave them to Wei Chen: "These were picked from the tree at Uncle's house; they're so sweet!"

Wang Xiulan smiled and patted her daughter's head: "Ran is such a thoughtful girl, she knows to bring her brother treats."

Wei Chen looked at the two shriveled red dates in his palm, his throat tightening. In modern society, no one would pick up these fruits if they fell on the ground, but here they were a rare treat.

"Brother, why aren't you eating?" Wei Ran tilted her head and looked at him, her eyes full of expectation.

Wei Chen quickly put the red date in his mouth, the sweet and slightly astringent taste spreading throughout his mouth. According to his memory, it was May 1958. In a few months, Baoyuquan Village would enter the era of collective farming, followed by the three-year-long natural disaster...

"Mom, how much grain do we have left in the grain jar?" Wei Chen suddenly asked.

Wang Xiulan paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "Don't worry, there's enough to last until the autumn harvest. You've exchanged a lot of game for grain this year, and you've also earned a lot of work points by participating in the hunting team activities. Plus, with the help of your uncles, life is much better than in previous years."

Wei Chen then remembered that after graduating from junior high school, the original owner started learning to hunt from the village's old hunters. With his talent and diligence, he quickly became able to hunt independently. In addition to eating the game themselves, the wild game could be exchanged for grain and daily necessities at the commune, which improved the family's life. Going hunting with the village hunting team was safe and secure. The game belonged to the collective, but the participants were paid work points.

After dinner, Wei Chen followed his mother to work in the fields. It was collective work; the Three Great Transformations had been completed in five or six years, and the farmers had joined the People's Commune.

The May sun was already scorching, making one's scalp burn. He swung the hoe as he remembered, and soon he was drenched in sweat. The calluses on his palms ached from the rubbing, but he gritted his teeth and persevered.

"Xiao Chen worked really hard today," Wang Xiulan said with satisfaction, wiping the sweat from her forehead.

Wei Chen forced a smile. In modern society, he even had to order bottled water delivered to his door; he had never done this kind of physical labor before. But at this moment, he had to adapt to this identity and this era as quickly as possible.

During his midday break, Wei Chen sat on the edge of the field, gazing absently at the distant, rolling Yanshan Mountains. Baoyuquan Village nestled against the Yanshan Mountains, its forests rich in resources. The original owner of this body had relied on his excellent archery skills to frequently hunt wild rabbits, pheasants, and occasionally even larger prey like roe deer.

"I need to find a way to stockpile more food..." Wei Chen thought to himself. Suddenly, he remembered that the protagonists in those rebirth novels all had cheat codes, and he couldn't help but laugh self-deprecatingly: "If only I could have a system or something."

The thought had barely formed when a flash of blue light appeared before Wei Chen's eyes. He blinked in surprise, seemingly seeing some blurry icons and words, but they vanished in an instant.

"Am I seeing things?" Wei Chen rubbed his eyes, but didn't see anything unusual. He decided to investigate further when he got home that night.