Reborn in 1981: The Entire Xing'an Range Is My Hunting Ground

Chu Tianyu died on New Year's Day in 2026.

In a blizzard in the Greater Khingan Range, the sixty-two-year-old forest ranger clutched half a bottle of cheap liquor. He thought of the girl he'd loved at eighteen and the wretched, ridiculous life he'd lived, and wept bitterly.

When he opened his eyes again, he was back in 1981.

In the forest after the first heavy snowfall, a young wild boar charged at him with its head down. In his previous life, this was the fight in which his childhood friend Guo Ziming was gravely injured and left disabled. The two families grew estranged, Guo Lixia, the woman he'd cherished in his heart, was forced into a marriage swap and died in childbirth, and he himself drifted through the next forty-five years in a daze.

This time, with forty-five years of hunting experience behind him, he won't let that tragedy happen again.

One stroke, and the boar is dead. He pays his respects to the mountain god and divides up the meat. When he gets home, his mother, Lin Yueying, brings down her fire poker. It hurts, but warms his heart. The cup of liquor his father pours for him, making an exception, burns his throat and sets his soul alight. His childhood friend is still the same honest, goofy guy, and his little brother Feifei is still a greedy little rascal trying to steal the meat. And Guo Lixia, the woman he'd kept in his heart for a lifetime in his previous life, is standing right in front of him, alive and well, smiling as she calls him “Brother Tianyu.”

Wild boar, roe deer, squirrel pelts, the supply and marketing cooperative's purchasing station, the everyday squabbles in the village, and more everyday squabbles around the warm brick bed... Chu Tianyu and his childhood friend take it one step at a time, bringing warmth into their harsh, bitter lives.

The Greater Khingan Range is still the same, and the snow is still the same. But this time, he's a mountain hunter returned with forty-five years of memories. The entire forest is his hunting ground, and the game he's after isn't just wild animals. He wants to build a good life for his whole family.

In the forest region of Northeast China in the 1980s, two boys, two hunting dogs, and a warm, lively journey of rebirth.