Qi Niannian's Happy Life

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When Qi Niannian was five, his dreams were simple:

When he grew up, he wanted to earn a hundred yuan a day and eat good steamed buns made without sorghum flour every day.

He wanted Mom to turn the oil ladle a couple more times when she cooked, preferably tipping the whole thing in by accident.

He wanted his big brother to wear through the seat of those army-green pants already. Then they could be patched up and handed down to him.

He wanted a weasel to hurry up and steal all the chickens, so he wouldn't have to watch the house anymore.

By the time he grew up, the city folk had come recruiting, so he went to find Fu Anlan. He wanted Fu Anlan to see that he'd grown even taller than him, and that he looked handsome in clothes without patches. He could run fast, throw a sickle a long way, hit his mark with a slingshot, climb trees more nimbly than a monkey, catch loaches like a pro, and do well in school, too. Whenever he wrote a character, his teacher drew lots of red circles around it.

He also wanted Fu Anlan to see how clean he was now. He brushed his teeth every day, washed his feet every three days in winter, and washed his hair once a week. He could even recite foreign names now: Nikolai Ostrovsky, Pavel Korchagin, Tonya Tumanova, Zoya, Shura, Alyosha, Helen, Jane Eyre, Rochester... So many, many names.

Year after year passed, and at last Qi Niannian grew up...

Reading Guide:

1. This is a slow-paced story full of everyday family chatter. If that's not for you, feel free to click away before you waste your time.

2. The author isn't good at writing romance, so readers who prefer beautiful love stories may want to steer clear.

3. As long as I'm still breathing, I won't abandon this story or give it a rushed ending. If it sounds like your kind of thing, dive right in.

4. If you decide to drop the story, just click away. There's no need to tell the author. Thank you!

4. Please don't promote your stories in other authors' comment sections. Seriously!

5. The author writes part-time, and writing isn't easy. No reposting or pirated copies, please.

My completed works: A Dusty Road, The City in Ruins, The Wind Returns to the Farm

Theme: When there's sunshine in your heart, the world will shine, too.