Back to 1982: A Guilty Hunter Is Reborn in the Xing'an Mountains

On the winter solstice of 1982, Wang Dongcheng, a seventy-three-year-old forest ranger in the Xing'an Mountains, died consumed by regret. He had favored sons over daughters his entire life. To adopt his nephew, he drove away his wife and daughters, only to end up alone and helpless, freezing to death in the mountains.

When he opened his eyes again, he had returned to the day his wife gave birth to their seventh daughter. Looking at his frail wife on the kang and his seven gaunt daughters, and hearing his mother outside the door berating him to adopt his nephew, Wang Dongcheng clenched his fists.

This time, he would make something of himself!

Starting out by shooting pheasants with a slingshot, then trapping wild boars and hunting sable deep in the mountains, Wang Dongcheng used the hunting experience he'd accumulated in his previous life to carve out a path in the Xing'an Mountains of the 1980s. He gave his seven daughters elegant names inspired by poetry and books, and sent them to school; he built a spacious five-room house so his wife and daughters could live in warmth and comfort; and time and again, he dealt face-slapping blows to his biased parents, his vicious sister-in-law, and his jealous relatives, becoming the most respected hunter in the village.

But danger was never far away: Zhao Laohen, a hunter from a neighboring village, kept closing in; the thug Liu Sanpao plotted revenge in secret; the Forestry Bureau cracked down on the hunting of protected animals; and Wang Zixuan, the nephew who had taken all his possessions in his previous life, was slowly growing up…

This is a story of atonement, a father's promise to make amends for his failings for the rest of his life, and a hunter's legend of protecting his family amid changing times. See how Wang Dongcheng rises from regret and hunts himself a brilliant new life in the vast forests of the Xing'an Mountains!

A vivid and authentic portrayal of hunting life in Northeast China in the 1980s

A heartwarming coming-of-age story in which all seven daughters make something of themselves

A marriage that overcomes one twist and turn after another to reunite

Satisfying battles against terrible relatives and mountain bandits

A sweeping portrait of life in an era steeped in the flavor of Northeast China