You Called Off the Engagement, So Why Are You Crying Now That I'm Marrying an Educated Youth?

In his previous life, Huo Jianshan was a reckless ne'er-do-well who eventually froze to death on the Siberian tundra.

Reborn in 1977 at a forest farm in Changbai Mountain, he opens his eyes to find himself at the scene of a breakup: the brigade leader’s daughter, who cares only about money, has called off their engagement and hurled a ten-yuan bill at his face.

Huo Jianshan sneers and tears up the marriage contract on the spot. “You earn your own dignity. You don’t wait for someone to grant it!”

Then he turns to the corner, where Shen Qiuyue, a soft-spoken Shanghai educated youth with a bad class background, is being forced into marriage by the village bully as she cares for her frail younger brother.

Huo Jianshan strides over, breaks the bully’s nose with one punch, and drapes his army overcoat around the beauty’s shoulders. “Comrade Shen, come live with me. I’ll make sure you and your brother get meat at every meal!”

The whole village laughs at the idea of a vagrant taking up with a sickly girl. They say they can’t even afford to heat a kang, and that the pair will freeze to death in the snow sooner or later.

Until Huo Jianshan heads into the mountains...

He sets snares in the snow to catch pheasants, then drives off a raging black bear with a pot of steaming pheasant soup!

He slides through a blizzard, guts a wild boar, and kills the three-hundred-jin beast with its huge tusks using a single knife!

He digs up a century-old ginseng root and trades it for a fortune... The leaky earthen shack is filled every day with the irresistible aroma of meat stewing in an iron pot!

Later, his former fiancée catches the smell of meat from next door and sees the frozen, hard corn bun in her own bowl. She is so jealous she regrets it to her very core!

Meanwhile, the once aloof and wary Shanghai educated youth blushes as she slips into Huo Jianshan’s bed, tenderly covering his hands, rough with calluses and scars.

“Husband, the wind is strong outside. Come warm up in bed for a while...”