My Years as an Educated Youth in Inner Mongolia

Zhao Tianyang opened his eyes, his head throbbing painfully. Around him, people were talking noisily, with a few words of Mongolian he couldn't understand mixed in. June 1969. Hulunbuir Grassland, Huanghua Commune, Right Banner of New Barag. He had become a young sent-down urbanite, just dumped there after being sent away from the capital. His mother had died young, his father had never cared for him, and his stepmother didn't love him. As soon as his placement came through, the family shoved him onto a northbound train without even packing all his things. His body had been weak, and he had fainted as soon as he arrived at the commune. When he woke up, the soul inside him had been replaced by one from the twenty-first century. “Maybe this is for the best,” Zhao Tianyang thought. He was alone wherever he went, anyway. Just then, a massive supermarket appeared out of nowhere in his mind. Its shelves were piled high with rice, flour, cooking oil, and all manner of daily necessities. There was even baby formula, canned food, and lighters. A cold notification sounded: Beginner's gift pack delivered: physical strength enhanced to the human limit. Zhao Tianyang pushed open the door and gazed out at the boundless grassland. Behind him stood a drafty earthen house and a dozen young faces, bewildered and lost. Winter was still a long way off, but he knew that Hulunbuir's winter could devour people. But this time, he had an entire supermarket's worth of supplies. While others worried about their next mouthful of food, he had quietly buried his first pot of gold in the depths of the grassland. His era would begin on this vast, sky-like land.