Back to 1984: Making a Living in the Xing'an Mountains

In his previous life, Zhou Yuan lived to be sixty and weathered every storm: he went lame, went bankrupt, lost the person he loved, and watched the family fortune he had built fall apart. In the end, all he had left was a forest ranger's cabin deep in the Greater Khingan Range and an old, ruined leg.

In 2026, a flash flood swept him back to the first snow of 1984.

When he opened his eyes, he was crouching in a snowy forest with his childhood friend Liu Xiaofeng, clutching a hunting knife. Before them stood a huge wild boar weighing three or four hundred pounds. In his previous life, the beast had ruined both their lives: Xiaofeng was disfigured, Zhou's leg was broken, and his childhood sweetheart, Liu Zhiyan, was married off to another man and died in childbirth.

But this time, Zhou Yuan smiled.

Forty-two years of hunting experience were crystal clear in his mind: the tracks in the snow, wild boar habits, the terrain of the narrow pass, and where to strike with the knife. He sent his friend up a tree, directed the hunting dogs around behind, and lured the charging boar into a rocky crevice, killing it with a single blow.

As he hauled the whole boar down the mountain, Zhou Yuan looked at the smoke rising from his chimney, at his living parents and young siblings, and at eighteen-year-old Liu Zhiyan in the neighboring courtyard, smiling at him as she held a bowl of pickled cabbage soup.

Suddenly, he felt that every hardship he had endured in his previous life had been worth it.

Starting with a squirrel pelt worth twelve yuan, he put his past life's experience and foresight to work on the black soil that had raised him. He hunted, bought up furs, stockpiled mountain produce, and built up trade routes, steadily improving life and giving both families a secure future.

This time, he's not going anywhere.

The entire Greater Khingan Range is his hunting ground.

Watch as reborn hunter Zhou Yuan builds a warm and prosperous life amid the forests and snowy plains of Northeast China in 1984.