Reborn in 78, I made my fortune by working in the mountains, supporting three families on my own.

Zhao Lei plunged headfirst into the cool river water and felt completely refreshed.

The cool, gentle river water washed away all the stickiness and fatigue from his body.

The Qingshui River is a flowing river with incredibly clear water, so clear that you can almost see the riverbed.

In shallower areas, it's over a meter deep, and in slightly deeper areas, it's close to two meters deep.

For rural people, taking a bath is just right; it's much more refreshing than the stagnant water in a swimming pool.

After Zhao Lei plunged into the river, he casually stripped off all his clothes, including his underwear, and his clothes immediately floated to the surface of the river.

After swimming freely at the bottom of the river for a while, Zhao Lei finally couldn't hold his breath any longer and surfaced.

"Phew, that feels good!"

Zhao Lei let out a long breath and shouted, expressing his innermost feelings.

Just as he was about to go down the river to retrieve the clothes he had just taken off, a sudden exclamation came from the riverbank behind him.

"Who is it?"

Zhao Lei was startled and turned around abruptly. He saw several young women squatting on a washing stone, pounding clothes with wooden sticks. Some of them were angrily shouting at him.

"Holy crap, someone's here!"

Zhao Lei then realized that someone was doing laundry.

The river water was so clear that his face suddenly turned red. He didn't bother to reply and, naked, splashed on the surface of the river, desperately swimming downstream to where his clothes were floating.

A moment later, he grabbed the floating clothes, hurriedly put on his underwear in the river, and swam back to the Washing Stone section of the river.

Several young women looked closely and exclaimed, "Oh, it's Zhao Lei..."

They had only seen a white, fleshy bottom swaying on the water's surface and hadn't recognized the person at all.

Several older women nearby chatted quietly, saying that the young man had a really good physique.

The young women standing nearby blushed and scolded Zhao Lei harshly.

Zhao Lei rubbed his forehead and glanced around. There were five women doing laundry, all of whom were acquaintances from the production brigade.

Unexpectedly, Wang Zongbao's third sister, Wang Cuilan, and his fiancée, Qin Xiaocui, were also here.

The two men had different expressions.

Qin Xiaocui spoke first, calling out, "Is that Brother Lei?"

Zhao Lei responded, "Oh, Xiao Cui, so you're the ones washing clothes here."

"Oh, it's Brother Lei! You really are something, jumping into the water without even saying hello! Look, you've soaked all my clothes!" Qin Xiaocui said, shaking off her floral shirt.

Zhao Lei chuckled and casually tossed his clothes onto a pile of grass on the bank.

"Xiao Cui, since you're here, why don't you help your brother-in-law wash his clothes too?"

Qin Xiaocui pouted, "Oh, really, Brother Lei, why didn't you ask your wives to help with the washing?"

"It just so happens that I ran into my dear sister."

"I'm not washing. If you want to wash, go ask your sisters-in-law."

Wang Cuilan, who was standing nearby, offered Qin Xiaocui a few words of advice and asked her to help wash her cousin-in-law's clothes.

Qin Xiaocui was still angry because she had been splashed with water, but after hearing what others said, she felt relieved and angrily reached out to take Zhao Lei's dirty clothes.

The moment she touched it, she saw bright red blood dripping from the fabric. She was immediately shocked: "Brother Lei? Why is there blood on your clothes, and why does it smell so foul? What happened?"

Zhao Lei said with a smile, "We went hunting in the mountains today, and this is the blood of the prey, so I'll have to trouble my dear sister to take care of it."

After saying that, Zhao Lei turned around and plunged into the water, swimming happily.

Qin Xiaocui had no choice but to pout and wash his clothes.

She had just picked up the mallet and pounded the water twice when a huge wave burst open with a "bang," splashing water all over her face and soaking her hair.

The waves were so powerful that all five women washing clothes on the shore got wet.

Everyone burst into curses:

"Holy crap! Who is it? Can't you watch where you are?! We're doing laundry here!"

"Exactly! My clothes are completely soaked!"

A short while later, Qin Xiaocui's cousin, Qin Bowen, cheerfully popped his head out of the water, which immediately drew a barrage of scolding and cursing from the women.

But Qin Bowen, like his brother-in-law Zhao Lei, was thick-skinned and didn't take any criticism to heart.

Following Zhao Lei's instructions, he took off his clothes and threw them to Qin Xiaocui.

"Cousin, could you please wash my clothes while you're at it?"

Qin Xiaocui scolded him impatiently, "You brat!"

She wanted to say a few more curses, but when she turned around, the two brothers had already disappeared from the water.

Before long, more and more people came to the Qingshui River to bathe and wash their clothes.

In those days, no rural household had air conditioning, and people relied on rivers and streams to escape the heat during the sweltering summer.

When the weather is really hot and humid, many people simply move their straw mats into the courtyard, fan themselves with palm-leaf fans, and sleep outside under the moonlight.

Therefore, every evening, the banks of the Qingshui River are filled with villagers enjoying the cool air. Dozens of people arrive in a short time, making it very lively.

Such a scene would be rare to see in the 21st century, but in 1978 it was an ordinary daily occurrence.

When Zhao Lei occasionally thinks back on it, he always feels a deep sense of nostalgia.

On the riverbank, people chatted idly, gossiping about everyone's business; boys played in the river while women squatted on the bank washing clothes—a unique scene in the rural southwest of China back then.

After Zhao Lei and Qin Bowen had had their fill of swimming, they changed into the clean clothes they had brought and retrieved the clothes that Qin Xiaocui had washed.

The two men took turns praising Xiao Cui for being sensible, which made the little girl feel embarrassed.

Afterwards, the two said goodbye to a group of acquaintances on the shore and rode their old bicycles home.

The game hunted in the mountains is waiting to be processed; if left overnight in this high temperature, the meat will easily spoil.

Zhao Lei estimated the time; it was around six o'clock, almost seven.

Although it gets dark late in August and September, it was already close to dinner time, and I figured his three ex-wives should be home by now.

The two rode their old-fashioned bicycles one after the other, rushing back to Zhao Lei's old mud-brick house.

Before the housewarming party, they will temporarily stay in the old courtyard house, as the new house is not yet fully furnished.

It wasn't that people in that era were worried about formaldehyde; people back then didn't care about that at all.

Sure enough, as soon as the two arrived at the gate of the courtyard, they saw three children squatting under the pomelo tree playing.

Eight-year-old Peipei held four-year-old Yuanyuan's hand and played hopscotch by drawing squares on the ground with a twig.

Two-year-old Xiao Shitou is still clumsy with his hands and feet. He wobbles and follows behind his two older sisters, trying to jump, but he always steps on the lines, which makes his two older sisters scold him incessantly.

"Hey, little stone, stop messing around here. You don't know how to play at all."

"That's right, Little Stone, you go over there, my sister and I will play for a while."

"Sister, I want to play too..."

The older children didn't want to play with the little stone, so the little stone kept pestering his second sister, Yuanyuan.

Yuanyuan got annoyed and shoved Xiaoshitou to the ground: "Get away, Xiaoshitou, this is a game for girls."