Back to ’81: I Said I’d Hunt, So How Did I Become a Carpenter?

[Reborn in 1981: I Only Wanted to Hunt, but Somehow Became a Carpenter]

In his previous life, restaurant tycoon Wang Youtian went bankrupt and killed himself. When he woke up, he had become Wang Qingshan, a simple-minded young man in the remote mountains of Bayu in 1981. His family had nothing and his stomach was empty, but fortunately, a woodworking knowledge database unlocked in his mind.

He only wanted to head into the mountains and hunt in peace, but fate pushed him onto the path of a master craftsman. With a broken woodcutter's knife, he carved his first slingshot; with rough bamboo strips, he wove baskets that sold like hotcakes. When he got his household registration certificate and a plot of land, and the first wisp of cooking smoke rose from Shisipo, he swore beneath the stars: In this life, I won't go into business or politics. With only the carving knife in my hand, I'll build a home among these green hills and clear waters, and carve out a legend.

From fool to master craftsman, this is a tale of putting down roots in another world, of running away and settling in, despair and new beginnings.

He had planned to stay far from the business world, live off the mountains, and spend this life hunting in peace. But somehow, a “woodworking knowledge database” appeared in his mind, containing everything from improved farm tools and Luban locks to lost mortise-and-tenon techniques, all at his fingertips.

He repaired the village's rickety old plow and made a name for himself overnight.

A dressing case he made on a whim left every girl in the village green with envy.

When a foreign merchant arrives with blueprints and begs him to recreate a priceless masterpiece, and his hunting rifle gathers dust as wood shavings fly, Wang Qingshan looks at the hands destined to hold a carving knife and sighs at the sky:

“I only wanted to be a hunter. How did I end up becoming a carpenter?!”

This is the story of a man forced to become a master craftsman, carving out a legendary life in the narrow spaces between the great tides of his era.