C35 Returning to the 1960s: Starting with Digging for Fo-ti

The reputation as a prodigal son is not something that can be shed in a moment.

Du Jianguo felt helpless. He knew that convincing his parents to truly believe in his repentance would be a long road ahead.

“Don’t worry about your sister-in-law,” Du Daqiang said, tapping his pipe against the table edge to shake off the ash. His tone suggested he understood her intentions perfectly. “That girl knows exactly what she is up to. My wife and I can see through her act. If the jade pendant doesn’t reach her hands and she cannot get any benefit, she will try to swindle some cash from us.”

Du Jianguo immediately followed his father’s lead. He smiled and said, “Father, you are right. I think my sister-in-law has a terrible personality. She is always thinking about how to swindle money from you two.”

At those words, the old woman in the room, Du Daqiang, and Liu Xiuyun all looked at him in shock.

How dare he speak like that about others?

Du Jianguo quickly added with an awkward tone, “I am not the same person as before. I have repented and will strive to be a good youth of the era. Swindling money will never happen again in my life.”

“I think your mind is still not right.”

Du Daqiang glared at him. He took some tobacco out of his pocket and slowly stuffed it into his pipe. After lighting it and taking a puff, his tone softened. “However, you have indeed shown some desire to start a family lately. You should come with me to the old village head’s house later. I will speak on your behalf to lift the ban on picking up potatoes.”

“I probably cannot go there.”

“Why not?”

Du Jianguo coughed. He spoke with some concern, “As you know, although the ban was nominally decided by the old village head, the real decision maker is the new cadre stationed in our village. This young man has a grudge against me and targeted me on purpose. The old village head had no choice but to enforce the ban.”

“If we go there this time, the old village head will likely bite the bullet to lift the ban because of our debt of gratitude for saving Liu Chun’an. However, doing so would make him enemies with the stationed cadre for the future, which would not be good for him.”

“Besides, I truly do not want to rely on picking up potatoes anymore. As you know, I have developed a gambling habit over the years. I have squandered much of the family property and accumulated a lot of debt.”

“Picking up potatoes might help us get by through this winter, but it will never allow me to become rich. It cannot help me turn things around. To truly change our family’s poor situation, I must rely on hunting in the mountains. Now is the best time, and I must seize this opportunity.”

“Nonsense!” Du Daqiang slapped his thigh hard. His voice suddenly turned cold. “Do you really think you are cut out for hunting? I know you have been lucky lately and managed to kill a bear, but our family has been farmers for generations. None of our ancestors were hunters. Farmers should stick to farming and not think about these crooked paths.”

Du Daqiang was a conscientious farmer who strictly followed ancestral traditions. He had diligently managed his fields for many years.

Under his care, no one in the Du family had starved. Even during the worst famine years, the family had at least one meal a day. Therefore, he firmly believed that the only way for farmers was to grow crops.

However, Du Jianguo knew the direction of the times better. While being honest and hardworking was correct, natural disasters could not always be weathered by diligence alone. During the three years of disaster that had just passed, countless people across the country had starved to death. With only two acres of thin land, the Du family would face an extremely difficult period.

Memories from his past life surfaced in his mind. Winter was coming soon. The grain in the entire district was already insufficient, and a large portion of the village’s grain tax had been taken away. Each household was left with only a few ounces.

That was the winter when the village head of Xiao An Village saw its first ever death by starvation. The Du family had to tighten their belts that winter as well. The old mother fell ill due to that famine and passed away a few years later. This remained an eternal pain in Du Jianguo’s heart.

He had to rely on his hunting skills to give the Du family a slim chance of survival.

Thinking of this, Du Jianguo gritted his teeth. He spoke with unprecedented determination, “Father, I simply cannot go back to picking up potatoes. Hunting is my only way out.”

“You ungrateful son, try to speak to me like that again!” Du Daqiang’s face turned green with anger. He grabbed a shoe horn from the side of the kang and raised it to hit Du Jianguo on the head.

Du Jianguo knew he could not stay there. He was well aware of his father’s temper when he was angry. The old man was capable of anything in that state. He hurriedly turned and ran toward the door.

Liu Xiuyun wanted to chase after Du Jianguo to pull him back, but Du Daqiang called out to stop her. “Second Daughter-in-law, stay behind and eat. Do not worry about him. This boy is simply too unreasonable.”

Liu Xiuyun had to stop. She looked at Du Daqiang’s angry face and could not help but advise, “Father, do not be so stubborn about Du Jianguo hunting. Although we did not get along before, I have seen his talent for hunting. Besides the Fo-ti and the black bear, he has brought back quite a few wild animals recently.”

She paused and lowered her voice. “They say there are 360 trades, and every trade produces a master. Perhaps Du Jianguo was simply never meant to be a farmer.”

Lunch was obviously impossible at the old couple’s house.

Du Jianguo returned home alone. He had no energy to cook, so he simply turned and went to Old Sun Tou’s house to borrow a donkey cart.

He loaded his hunting dog, Da Huang, his bow, and arrows onto the cart. He drove the donkey toward the back mountain. He intended to see if there were any game in the mountains. The animals had been active for some time, and the difficulty of catching them would rise greatly once winter arrived.

[Tl: Da Huang = Great/Big Yellow]

Upon arriving at the back mountain, Du Jianguo parked the donkey cart on a grassy patch. He let the donkey graze while he went to check the traps he had set a few days ago.

“Normally, after a few days, twenty or thirty traps should have caught something. It is impossible to catch nothing,” he muttered to himself as he moved through the forest.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up. He saw a gray rabbit, barely alive, tightly bound by a rope trap. When it saw someone approach, the rabbit gasped for air. Its round eyes were wide open, and its whole body trembled slightly.

“As I thought, there is something here!” Du Jianguo was pleased in his heart. He quickly walked up, untied the gray rabbit from the trap, and stuffed it into a cloth bag he carried. He then continued to check the other traps.

His luck was decent that day. Out of the first sixteen traps, three had caught wild rabbits.

In fact, two traps had even caught rats. These were not field mice but true house rats.

Du Jianguo dared not eat this meat, nor did he dare sell it to other villagers. He planned to chop it up and feed it to his hunting dog, Da Huang, as a treat.

He proceeded to check the seventeenth trap with a happy mind, but his expression suddenly froze. He saw that the trap held only a rabbit head. The body was missing, leaving only dry, black bloodstains.