Siheyuan: Reborn on a Farm, Seeing Through the Whole Courtyard's Lies

In 1962, Li Weidong is reborn in a courtyard compound with a game farm. While everyone else is so hungry they're gnawing on steamed cornmeal buns, he can ripen pumpkins just by sunbathing, and his storeroom is packed with grain.

But not one person in this compound is easy to deal with. Qin Huairu smashes six of his eggs, then puts on a pitiful act and plays dumb, saying one thing while thinking another. Yi Zhonghai acts fair in public but secretly favors the Jia family, hoping to tear down the house of a martyr's family. Jia Zhangshi is even nastier, cursing people with claims that ghosts will possess them and spreading rumors that his sister is a jinx.

Li Weidong doesn't argue or make a fuss. He trades pumpkins for flour, eggs, and wheat, quietly growing a field in his farm. Qin Huairu pretends she's poor? He exposes the meat coupons she's hiding on the spot. Yi Zhonghai pretends to be a good man? He slaps the evidence of his embezzlement of public funds on the table.

Everyone in the compound thinks he's an unemployed country bumpkin who'll be easy to bully. That is, until Li Weidong brings out fine white flour, eggs, and pork, then steams a pot of pork buns in front of them all. Their aroma fills the courtyard, and all the lies and schemes of those people become a joke.

With a farm at his disposal, he can eat his fill and, along the way, teach these people what it means to be poor without losing your dignity!

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.