1982: My Hunting Days in the Xing’an Mountains

In the winter of 1982, after the first snowfall in the Greater Khingan Mountains.

On a blizzard-filled night, 62-year-old forest ranger Jiang Yan drank himself into a stupor and wept bitterly. When he was eighteen, his first hunting trip left his childhood friend badly injured, driving a wedge between their families. His childhood sweetheart, Li Xiaolu, traded her marriage to save her younger brother and died in childbirth. After that, Jiang Yan drifted through life, made a fortune and lost it all, until at last he was left with nothing but his old life, keeping watch over these mountains.

When he awoke, he was reborn in the snowy forest of 1982.

Before him was a familiar scene: his eighteen-year-old childhood friend, Li Nanhua, stared tensely ahead. Thirty meters away, a young wild boar lowered its head to sniff the tracks in the snow. In his previous life, this was the boar that left Li Nanhua disabled, forced Li Xiaolu into a marriage bargain, and filled Jiang Yan with lifelong regret.

This time, Jiang Yan would not let the tragedy happen again.

A hunting knife, two hounds, and forty-four years of hunting experience. With a single strike, he killed the boar and changed everyone’s fate.

From then on, Jiang Yan and his childhood friend Li Nanhua ranged across the vast Greater Khingan Mountains. They hunted squirrels, snared rabbits, trapped sable, hunted black bears, chased sika deer, and fought wild boar herds. One pelt after another turned into cash, and each dangerous venture brought them home with a full haul.

Some were jealous, some schemed, and some secretly tried to trip him up. Jiang Yan didn’t care. He only wanted to protect both families and the girl he had failed to win in his previous life.

“Xiaolu, this time, I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

As Lu Dabiao’s reckless pursuit of credit got his leg gored by a wild boar, as Zhang Laosi joined forces with outsiders to pry for information, and as the villagers watched the Jiang family grow more prosperous by the day, this mountain hunter returned from the dead and began writing his own legend in 1982.

Snow falls over the Greater Khingan Mountains, and his hunting rifle is loaded. From now on, these mountains are his hunting ground.