In terms of cultivation, Gao Chang’s aptitude was quite ordinary. However, what he did have was an unyielding desire for longevity. He truly embodied the spirit of perseverance in the face of adversity, and finally, on the sixth night, he managed to enter a meditative state. Although it didn’t last long, only half an hour before he woke up, Gao Chang still saw a glimmer of hope.
After gradually getting on the right track, Gao Chang meditated every night. Sometimes it lasted two to three hours, sometimes just half an hour or 40 to 50 minutes. After practicing for a while, he noticed that his mental state had improved remarkably. It felt like there was a stream of energy in his body, constantly bringing him vitality.
This technique is so effective, he wondered if Grandma Gao could live a few more years if she practiced it too. In his memory, Grandma Gao passed away when he was seventeen, specifically, in the autumn of that year.
But Rhubarb said that even though he and Gao Chang had already completed the wedding ceremony and Gao Chang could now be considered a member of the dog clan, Gao Chang’s family—his Grandma Gao—wasn’t a member of the dog tribe and thus could not cultivate their techniques. Moreover, Grandma Gao was already elderly, so starting cultivation at this point would not significantly extend her life and might even burden her body instead.
This left Gao Chang feeling quite miserable. After spending many lonely years in the city, he understood better than anyone the value of family. All his other relatives had died long ago; now only his grandmother remained. And now, as he watched her nearing the end of her life, he felt powerless to change anything.
Grandma Gao was sitting by the ditch, washing clothes, when an old hen clucked loudly and ran over as if to show off. She knew immediately that the hen had laid an egg, so she got up and collected the egg from the coop. Gao Chang went inside, grabbed a handful of rice from the rice jar, and scattered it on the ground as a reward. Other roosters and hens came to snatch it, but he drove them away with a stick. That was their household rule—chickens that didn’t lay eggs didn’t get white rice.
“Grandma, I don’t want to go to college anymore.”Back then, getting their children into college was the dream of every adult in their village, and Grandma Gao was no exception. Although she might pass away soon and wouldn’t live to see whether Gao Chang went to college or not, he still felt he should tell her.
“Why, ah?”Grandma Gao stopped washing clothes, wiped the foam on her apron, turned around, and looked at Gao Chang.
“Grandma, I had a dream last night.”
“What kind of dream? You silly kid, you’re giving up university just because of a dream?” Grandma Gao squinted and laughed when she heard Gao Chang say this. Although the old lady was already very old, her eyes remained bright and clear.
“It really wasn’t a good dream, Grandma. I dreamed that I went to the city, but then a famine struck. I couldn’t find any food and had to gnaw on tree bark.” A fleeting dream—the events of a past life, wasn’t it just like a dream?
“Why would you dream of something like that?” Grandma started washing clothes again, muttering as she worked, “Maybe it’s a sign from the ancestors. Fine, if you don’t want to go to college, then don’t. Better to stay close to the land and have peace of mind…”
“I don’t want to study anymore. Can I stop going to high school, too?”After experiencing life and death, high school textbooks seemed completely useless to him. Sitting in the classroom every day felt like a waste of time, and Gao Chang was very irritated. Today, seeing his grandmother being so open-minded, he couldn’t help but blurt it out.
“That won’t do. You need to finish high school. Haven’t you heard? Nowadays, without a high school diploma, no one wants to hire you, even for labor jobs.”
“Alright then.” Knowing that continuing the conversation would lead nowhere, Gao Chang had no choice but to obediently keep quiet.
Every weekend, Gao Chang would visit the senior activity center to play Mahjong, through wind and rain[mfn](风雨无阻,fēng yǔ wú zǔ) literally means “unimpeded by wind and rain.”[/mfn]. He was already decent at card counting, and after practicing the cultivation technique given by Rhubarb, his memory had improved dramatically, and his mind worked faster. Basically, when playing against him, losing is almost guaranteed, and winning is nearly impossible. But to avoid attracting resentment, Gao Chang would occasionally let out some blood[mfn](往外放点血, wǎng wài fàng diǎn xuè) it’s a metaphor for taking a small financial loss voluntarily.[/mfn], after all, draining the pond to catch all the fish[mfn](竭泽而渔, jié zé ér yú). It describes short-sighted behavior, where someone pursues immediate gains without considering long-term consequences, ultimately leading to depletion or destruction.[/mfn] is never a wise strategy.
At the beginning, some people saw that he was an unfamiliar face, and he was just a naïve young boy, still smelling of milk[mfn](乳臭未干, rǔ chòu wèi gān) describes someone young and inexperienced[/mfn], so they naturally tried to take advantage of the newcomer a little. But who is Gao Chang? Since elementary school, he had been fighting wits and courage with the village shrews and hairy brats. If someone caused him trouble, he would always find a chance to retaliate. If someone called out his tiles[mfn](报牌,bào pái) in Mahjong means revealing another player’s tiles, which can influence the game unfairly.[/mfn], from then on, whenever he had the chance, he would keep a close eye on them. Hmph, if you’ve got the nerve[mfn](有种,yǒu zhǒng)is a colloquial phrase that roughly means “if you dare”. Here, it’s used as a challenge, implying that if someone is complaining too much, they might as well quit altogether.[/mfn], then don’t play! What? angry? No way, ba. How can you be so petty when we’re just here to have fun? You see, when I play cards, it happens to me too.
Within two months, everyone who frequented the senior activity center in town knew Gao Chang. It was just a small place to begin with, and every family was connected by ties of kinship. A casual inquiry would reveal what kind of person Gao Chang was. From then on, no one dared mess with him again. “It is better to offend a gentleman than a villain”[mfn](宁得罪君子勿得罪小人, Níng dézuì jūnzǐ wù dézuì xiǎo rén) This proverb warns that a noble and principled person might forgive you, but a petty and vindictive person will hold a grudge and seek revenge.[/mfn], an age-old saying that profoundly reflects the Chinese people’s tendency to bully the weak and fear the strong. As a result, Gao Chang lived quite a carefree life.
After all, everyone came here just to play mahjong and have some fun. Gao Chang played fair, never cheated, and never refused to settle his losses—what more could they ask for?
As for Rhubarb, after being force-fed a few doses of antipyretic medicine, its health gradually improved. Coupled with the improvement in their family’s diet, which often included meat and spare ribs, the once-skinny puppy gradually started to gain some flesh on its body.
Once Rhubarb recovered, it no longer snuggled in Gao Chang’s arms all day, but instead, it lay on his shoulder watching him play mahjong, and soon became addicted. One evening, it begged Gao Chang to buy a Mahjong set for it to play at home. However, Gao Chang didn’t have much spare money at the moment. A set of mahjong costs dozens, sometimes hundreds, of yuan. Most of the winnings he earned from playing mahjong were spent on buying meat. Only when he was completely stuffed would he think of buying a Mahjong set just for collection.
If he had the extra money, Gao Chang would rather stock up on daily necessities first. After all, while there were still ten years until the apocalypse, any stored food would expire and spoil by then, but essential supplies could be prepared in advance.
In his past life, Gao Chang had lived in the city. When things started to get chaotic, many people fled to the countryside, and some supplies were left behind. As a result, daily necessities weren’t entirely scarce. However, when factories shut down and markets collapsed, modern conveniences disappeared, turning life into something more like the Stone Age—no electricity, no running water, no readily available daily necessities. Even just finding a bottle of shampoo meant venturing into the dark, abandoned shopping malls. There was no light inside, and they couldn’t be sure whether dangerous creatures lurked within, ready to strike. One careless move could easily cost them their lives.
This time, however, things were different. Since he planned to live in the village, he had to accept both gains and losses. He didn’t need to worry much about food, but industrial products would become scarce. By then, even if he risked his life searching like he did in the city, there was no guarantee he’d find any daily necessities.
However, Gao Chang had only survived in the apocalypse for a few months in his past life. Except for that small area in their city, they had no contact with the outside world. Perhaps in some important political and economic places, productivity gradually recovered, perhaps not.
However, it is also possible that, over time, survival would only get harder and harder. After all, those mutated animals were manic and ferocious, with extremely strong attack power. Without weapons, ordinary people were no match for them at all. With weapons, they had slightly better odds, but these creatures were cunning and elusive, appearing and disappearing unpredictably. Wiping them out completely was nearly impossible.
Moreover, the blue sunlight shines across the land. Whether it was a companion, a rat in the ground, or a bird in the sky, any of them could undergo mutation at any moment. Some would perish during the process, while others survived and became monsters. As long as the blue sunlight does not fade, humanity can never truly find peace. In other words, the days ahead will not be easy.
While their future was so grim, Rhubarb wanted him to buy a Mahjong set. What a joke. Buying a few packs of laundry detergent to store away would be far more useful than mahjong. Can you even imagine a life without detergent, soap, or shampoo? Still, he couldn’t tell anyone about all this, because it’s really hard to explain his life experiences. If people thought he was crazy, that would be a problem.
Besides, can you really expect a little dog to understand how difficult the future will be and that it should start planning ahead instead of buying Mahjong? It wasn’t that Gao Chang doubted Rhubarb’s intelligence, but that guy simply didn’t look very reliable. So Gao Chang told him: “If you can bring out the money, I’ll help you buy it.”
Where would Rhubarb get the money? It scratched its head and ears, but it couldn’t come up with a way to make money. Although it had recovered and was now agile enough to climb walls better than a cat, theft was beneath the dignity of the dog clan. Especially since Rhubarb is a descendant of the Inugami, its memory is likely to be passed down. In any case, it couldn’t allow itself to tarnish its lineage.
The money issue really stumped Rhubarb, and it indeed stayed quiet for a few days. Just when Gao Chang thought it had given up on the idea of buying mahjong, Rhubarb suddenly declared that it had the money.
“Money? Where did the money come from?” This guy wouldn’t really go and climb over the wall to steal, would he?
“Well, it doesn’t really count as my money. Um…Do ancient coins count?” Rhubarb asked cautiously, slightly lowering its body, its eyes locked onto Gao Chang, for fear that he would shake his head.
“Well, that depends—we’d have to take a look first. Ancient coins that have lasted until today usually only hold collector’s value, making it hard to sell.”
Gao Chang frowned, Ancient coins? This kid isn’t seriously thinking about digging up graves, is it? But as it turned out, the money was indeed buried underground—but not in a grave. Instead, it was buried in a spot in the bamboo forest. Rhubarb said it was money that people from ancient times buried in their own land, not burial goods.
Half-believing, half-doubting, Gao Chang grabbed a hoe and followed it into the bamboo grove. This patch of moso bamboo forest is the collective property of their village and has been passed down from their ancestors through generations. The villagers had all dug for bamboo shoots here before. Some people once came here looking for treasure, digging up random spots, but apart from broken bowls and pottery jars, they found nothing else. The villagers joked that their ancestors had been simply too poor to leave anything behind. Digging was a waste of time.