Reborn to Strive

 Guan Baiyu’s family hamlet was near Anshan Town, but Xiaqiu Township was in the opposite direction.

    Shi Zhen wasn’t familiar with Xiaqiu Township. So, using the local dialect, he asked the way, and then headed toward the school.

    In the ‘90s, the majority of people in J City spoke the local dialect. When he’d first arrived in J City, he wasn’t able to speak the dialect so wasn’t able to communicate well, and the people here didn’t have much trust in him as an outsider. In order to do well in business, he exerted a lot of effort to learn the dialect, and nowadays he spoke Changxi District’s dialect. The difference between his speech and a native of Changxi District was minimal, and it made it more convenient to get things done.

    “A-Zhen, where are we going? I’m hungry,” the previously silent Shi Xinghuo asked Shi Zhen.

    Shi Zhen answered him: “We’re headed to the township. When we get there, I’ll buy you shaobing to eat.” 

    After walking along the road all morning, Shi Xinghuo had grown listless, but immediately perked up and asked: “What are shaobing?”

    “They’re delicious to eat.” Shi Zhen wasn’t in the mood to elaborate, so he answered casually.

    Shi Xinghuo swallowed his saliva in anticipation, and meekly followed Shi Zhen.

    However, before Shi Zhen even reached the township, he caught sight of Guan Baiyu. This youth gave a completely different impression from the Guan Baiyu he had previously known.

    The first time Shi Zhen saw him in his previous life, Guan Baiyu was already 19 years old. He was tall, had long legs, and his face was extremely fine featured. But the Guan Baiyu right in front of him was very different. 

    This youth was fifteen years old, but looked more like he was only twelve or thirteen because he was so small and thin.

    His clothes were too short, and had been washed to the point they had faded to white. His face was gaunt and his cheeks sunk inward while his hair was a malnourished yellow. Though his face was small, his eyes were large, and his emaciated appearance was extremely pitiful. In the township these days, bright and colorful new clothing wasn’t common, but Guan Baiyu’s ill-fitting clothing was a rare sight, and he looked like he went hungry all the time.

    Shi Zhen’s heart clenched and he was nearly overcome by sudden and painful empathy.

    He knew Guan Baiyu’s youth was unpleasant, but he had never realized the extent of it. Afterall, his own youth was equally difficult. Their village never was able to raise much to eat – when his family ate a meal, they wouldn’t let even the intestines go to waste, and pork was something they only ate a few times a year. Therefore, he had raised rabbits so that he could eat meat frequently.

    He always thought that living in the J City fertile region, even if Guan Baiyu’s life wasn’t great, wouldn’t be too bad. But this emaciated Guan Baiyu . . . did he even get enough to eat regularly?

    But, the most important thing right now was not that. Rather . . . Guan Baiyu was still alive. His beloved still lived.

    After his rebirth, Shi Zhen had continually felt a sense of unreality, but at this very moment it finally evaporated, and his heart was now unburdened.

    He now knew exactly what he needed to do.

    Shi Zhen restrained himself from watching Guan Baiyu for too long, fearing Guan Baiyu would notice him. He didn’t have a mirror, but he had a vague idea of his own appearance, and knew it was pretty rough.

    Although he’d already seen Guan Baiyu and didn’t need to continue to the township, he’d promised to buy Shi Xinghuo some shaobing, so they kept on walking.

    In the township, you could buy baozi, miantiao, and shaobing to eat. Shaobing were lumps of dough mixed with lard and scallion, rolled very thin into the shape of a cake, and stuck to the oven wall to bake. Inevitably, in the past, someone had begun to wrap up a bit of meat or salted cabbage inside the shaobing, and created the Jinyang County style of shaobing that became famous in later generations.

    The shaobing stall also sold youtiao. Everything smelled extremely enticing.

    Shi Zhen spent ¥2 to buy two youtiao and two shaobing, and ate alongside Shi Xinghuo.

    At this time, food was weighed out to ensure fairness. ¥0.50 would buy enough shaobing to eat one’s fill, and ¥0.30 of youtiao was an especially large portion. He bought the ¥0.50 shaobing and the ¥0.30 youtiao together, so it was plenty to completely resolve their hunger.

    After eating, he said to Shi Xinghuo, “Let’s go, we still have a lot left to do. First we’ll rent a place to stay, and then we’ll find work.”

    During his youth, this unfamiliar world had made him uneasy and he was unwilling to spend money on nonessentials. But the present him didn’t need to be so stingy.

    He and Shi Xinghuo had previously only had rough trims, and their hair was now a mess. Getting a buzz cut would make them look youthful and energetic, and would improve their ability to find a place to live as well as a job. A haircut cost ¥3 per person. After their makeover, Shi Zhen returned to Guan Baiyu’s hamlet with Shi Xinghuo.

    He planned to rent a place near Guan Baiyu.

    Guan Baiyu’s house only had two rooms within. It was small, cramped, and made of rammed earth. He couldn’t possibly rent it.

    About 100 meters from Guan Baiyu’s house, Shi Zhen found a house to inquire about renting a room.

    Guan Baiyu’s clan uncle [not his father’s brother, but in the same generation as his adoptive father] lived here. The guy was decent, according to Guan Baiyu, and looked out for him. In his previous life, when he returned with Guan Baiyu, they had dinner with this relative. He also remembered the location of this house, because outside the entrance grew two peach trees.

    Shi Zhen walked forward, and saw a granny sitting at the entrance, sewing the soles of shoes. Next to her were two children around the age of four or five, using bits of broken brick like chalk to draw pictures on the cement patio.

    The pair of children drew simple circles.

    “Granny, I wanted to ask if you know of any rooms for rent in this area?” Shi Zhen smiled and used the local dialect to speak, “My brother and I are looking for a place to stay.”

    The elderly woman was startled, “You want to rent a room?”

    Twenty years from now, people wouldn’t think that renting a room was anything unusual, but at this moment, the villagers  had yet to encounter anyone looking to rent.

    “Wait just a moment,” The granny set the shoe soles down, turned to face the house, and shouted, “Jianguo, there are people who want to rent a room!”

    Guan Baiyu’s clan uncle was named Guan Jianguo and was a little over 30 years old. Although he wasn’t tall, he looked to be around a meter and a half tall, with wide shoulders and a broad back, and his arms were covered in muscle. With one glance, you could tell he was strong. His job was to load tractors, and he earned his living moving bricks, mortar, etc. for people. 

    It was physical work, but earned a decent amount — around 20-30 RMB a day. On a busy day, he could even earn 50-60 RMB, but he wasn’t guaranteed work every day.

    When he heard that Shi Zhen wanted to rent a room, he immediately asked if his own family’s home would do. His family had the standard two story house, with two rooms in front and two in back on the bottom floor, and the identical layout on the top floor. On the upper floor, two rooms were bedrooms, while the other two were for storage. The bottom floor had some unused space. Guan Jianguo showed them that on the south side of the house, there was a room that could have a lock installed and offered to rent it to Shi Zhen for ¥30 a month.

    Shi Zhen agreed.

    Shi Zhen spoke the local dialect, and was young, so Guan Jianguo felt reassured. After Shi Zhen handed him the ¥30 for rent, he immediately set about arranging the room, and installed a few bolts on the door leading to the outside.

    Not only that, but seeing that the two youths had no bed, Guan Jianguo found two old doors and a couple benches, and placed them together to make a plank bed for Shi Zhen and his cousin to sleep on.

    Once this was all put in order, the afternoon had already passed by.

    Guan Jianguo’s house had a poured cement floor, and whitewashed walls. Although the interior was empty, from Shi Xinghuo’s perspective, this was already the nicest place he’d ever lived.

    “A-Zhen, there’s a cement floor!”

    “This room is so big!”

    “We can really live here?”

    During their time outside, Shi Xinghuo had remained mostly silent, but when there were no outsiders around, he occasionally liked to chatter on endlessly.

    Originally, Shi Zhen had felt that Shi Xinghuo was annoying, but now he answered his questions one by one.

    In his previous life, Shi Xinghuo had accompanied Shi Zhen to work on the construction site. They worked themselves to the bone every day, shared a room with a dozen or more people to sleep, and ate only the most basic vegetable and tofu dishes, with the occasional bit of meat. And then, he died.

    He had died too young, without having the chance to enjoy life by eating good food and wearing good clothes. He had never encountered a day like today, where he was able to eat both meat baozi and shaobing.

    And then there was Guan Baiyu. At a young age he had to begin providing for himself, wanting to study but unable to attend school . . . 

    However, that was all in the past.

    “A-Zhen, I’m hungry.” Shi Xinghuo looked to Shi Zhen.

    Shi Zhen told him, “Dinner should be soon.” He had previously discussed the matter of dinner with Guan Jianguo, who said that extra rice could be added when the family cooked their meals, and they could eat at the same time.

    Not a moment later, Guan Jianguo appeared with two big bowls of rice, and a large bowl of garlic greens and tofu.

    Neither Shi Zhen nore Shi Xinghuo were picky about food. They sat at the entrance of the house and ate their meal.

    The two little girls were no longer playing at the entrance, drawing circles to represent flowers and plants. Or perhap . . . those were actually dishes.

    The sky gradually darkened, and Shi Zhen took Shi Xinghuo inside the house to lie down on the door panel bed.

    The first day of his rebirth was truly busy, but Shi Zhen’s mood was exceptionally good.

    In the latter part of his previous life, he was indifferent about many things, instead he focused on making money by relying on his earlier savings to make some reasonable investments. After Guan Baiyu’s death, he never went back to work on a construction site, but continually invested in real estate, buying who knows how many sites to build four story shops. His belief that J City commercial property values would continuously rise was rewarded, filling his coffers to overflowing with cash, and he used the wealth for charity.

    While alive, a person should work to improve the world. 

    He was satisfied with having done just that.

    To have a second chance at life, perhaps the Heavens were rewarding him.

Chapter Notes:

This chapter didn’t require notes, but if you want to see someone sewing traditional Chinese cloth shoes, here’s a Li Ziqi video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccy5luBmnSY

Also, if you want to be hungry, look up the food mentioned in this chapter. I always think of churros when I see youtiao, and it makes me sad that in order to eat them, I have to cook them myself. I want to be lazy and just buy them fresh. I don’t mind making shaobing or baozi though mine aren’t very pretty.