Survival at a Northeast Forestry Camp in the 1950S

Modern special forces soldier Zhang Lei has an accident during a mission. When he opens his eyes, he finds himself in a drafty earthen house in Yushugou Village, Northeast China, in the 1950s. He has become a poor farmer named Zhang Lei, with nothing but bare walls to his name and a sick mother, Zhang Guilan, and frail younger sister, Zhang Xiulian, to support. Clutching his only half-sack of moldy cornmeal, he grits his teeth and shoulders the burden of keeping the family afloat. Using his wilderness survival skills, he sets traps for hares and braves the cold mountains to gather herbs. He makes a name for himself by subduing a wild boar, and gets to know Wang Chunxing, a local girl who knows her herbs and isn’t afraid of hard work. From temporary forest ranger to deputy manager of the forestry farm, he protects the woods, fights poachers, and gets through food shortages, putting down roots amid the tides of a changing era. Wang Chunxing stays by his side through snowy winters, raises their children, and helps safeguard their home. Together, they use their own hands to turn their earthen house into a brick one. The smoke rising from their warm hearth in the snowy forest warms nineteen years of life, and makes a home of a place far from where he came from.