Chapter 1 Rebirth

“Our third son is just a blockheaded fool! He won’t even take the job the subdistrict office arranged for him. All he does is eat and sleep at home all day.”

“That kid, Dongzi, is so old now but still so thoughtless. Do you know how hard it is to find a job these days!”

“Isn’t that the truth? Other families are practically at each other’s throats over jobs, but Dongzi has one and won’t even go to work. I’m so worried for you, what are you going to do!”

Lying on the heated brick bed, Li Xiangdong heard the chirping voices from the courtyard and groggily opened his eyes.

He looked around. Although the furniture looked new, the style was very old-fashioned.

This overwhelming sense of familiarity made his head spin for a moment. Wasn’t this his home from decades ago?

The voice that had just called him a fool was all too familiar. Wasn’t that his old mother?

He could get reborn just by taking a nap?

As memories slowly flooded his mind, he wasn’t alarmed. Instead, he was filled with anticipation!

He grabbed the large shorts by the bed, put them on, and got off the bed. His size 43 feet slipped into the old cloth shoes on the floor, and he hurried to the calendar hanging on the wall.

July 10, 1979.

He then walked over to the mirror, which was decorated with revolutionary patterns, and looked at the young face reflected back at him.

The popular short, parted hair of the era, bright eyes, a handsome face, and a tall frame of 180 centimeters—anyone who saw him would call him a fine young man!

Hearing his mother still chatting enthusiastically with the neighbors in the courtyard, Li Xiangdong pushed open the door and stood in the doorway. He didn’t say a word, just stared at them intently.

“Oh, Dongzi’s awake?”

“My, it’s about time for dinner. Auntie Li, we’ll be heading back now.”

The two neighbor ladies felt their skin crawl under his gaze. They said their goodbyes and walked out of the courtyard.

Now, only a middle-aged woman with short, ear-length hair stood in the courtyard. She was Li Xiangdong’s mother.

Mother Li placed her hands on her hips, her eyes unfriendly as she looked at him. “What’s wrong? You don’t like hearing me say a few words about you? Then why don’t you wise up and go report to the subdistrict office!”

“You’ve been back in the city for over a month, and you won’t take the job the subdistrict office arranged. You just wander around all day.”

“So many educated youth are returning to the city now. You should be grateful to have a job to support a family. It’s not for you to be picky!”

In Li Xiangdong’s eyes, his mother transformed from a stooped, cane-wielding old woman into the figure before him, hands on her hips, jumping and scolding him.

He had been feeling a bit emotional, but his mother was too much of a nag. Her mouth ran on and on, making his head spin.

Recalling the job the subdistrict office had arranged, he retorted, “I’m not going to be a popcorn popper! That’s a job for someone my dad’s age.”

Having just been reborn, he didn’t want to argue with his mother over this matter. He turned, closed the door to his room, walked to the bed, and pulled a white tank top over his head.

This white tank top was an award from his father’s work unit. Printed on the front were the words: ‘Advanced Worker, Awarded by Jianguomen Subdistrict Coal Shop, Beijing’.

The Li family, it could be said, had been in the coal business for three generations.

Li Xiangdong’s grandfather, Old Man Li, had worked at the coal factory near the subdistrict office before the Liberation. Back then, most of the coal used by residents was coal powder. It was sent to the factory and processed into coal cakes, much like rolling sweet dumplings. Old Man Li was skilled at making fine coal briquettes.

Later, with the public-private partnership, the private coal factory became a state-owned coal shop. After the jurisdiction was divided, the coal shop was short-staffed, so Old Man Li found a way to get his son, Father Li, a job there. Father and son worked at the same coal shop.

After Old Man Li retired, Li Xiangdong’s eldest brother took over his position. Fortunately, honeycomb briquettes gradually became popular in Beijing, so there was no longer a need to roll coal briquettes by hand, and the work wasn’t as hard as before.

Li’s second brother was a boiler operator, working at the bathhouse under the subdistrict’s jurisdiction, responsible for firing the boilers.

Li Xiangdong finished dressing and came out of the west wing room, just in time to see his two sisters-in-law pulling a reluctant Mother Li into the main house.

He walked quickly to the gatehouse. It was closest to the alley’s main water and sewage pipes. To save money when the pipes were laid, the water basin had been built there.

He turned on the tap, gave his face a quick rinse, and grabbed a worn towel hanging nearby to dry off.

He glanced around at his family’s courtyard house. It was just as he remembered.

This single-entry courtyard house covered over 300 square meters. The main gate was in the southeast corner. Passing through the gate, one faced the gable wall of the east wing room. Below the wall was a spirit screen with a bas-relief carving of the character for ‘Fortune’.

A few steps to the left led into the main courtyard, paved with bluestone bricks. There was a tree on each side of the courtyard, one jujube and one pomegranate.

In the northeast corner was a well with non-potable water, covered by a bluestone slab. With many children in the family, they were afraid one might accidentally fall in.

“The old man was really something else!” Li Xiangdong muttered to himself.

The Li family were not native Beijingers. They were able to settle down in Beijing and obtain urban household registration all thanks to his grandfather, Old Man Li.

At the end of 1948, before the peaceful liberation of Beijing, Old Man Li, along with Grandma Li and the newly adult Father Li, followed the army to the city.

Unlike those fleeing the city, Old Man Li directly used the money from selling their land and house back home to buy the main house of their current courtyard, along with the adjoining east and west ear rooms, at a low price during the chaos of war.

After the peaceful liberation, other neighbors moved in one after another. Some bought their own private property, while others were assigned housing by the subdistrict office or their work units.

As housing in Beijing became increasingly tight, the east and west wing rooms were each divided into two, housing four families. The gatehouse was also arranged for two families. Counting the Li family, this single-entry courtyard housed a total of seven households.

Over more than twenty years, through private sales and the housing allocated from the jobs of Father Li and Li Xiangdong’s two older brothers, Old Man Li managed to trade with neighbors in the courtyard who wanted to move, constantly shuffling properties at the ‘Housing Exchange Fair’.

By now, only the Li family remained in this courtyard house.

The main house and the east and west ear rooms were re-partitioned into three rooms. The middle one was the living room, where the whole family ate.

Old Man Li and Grandma Li lived in the east room, while Father and Mother Li lived in the west room.

Li Xiangdong’s two older brothers each had a room in the east wing.

He lived in the west wing, and the remaining west wing room was occupied by his two young nieces, the daughters of his eldest and second brothers.

The gatehouse had poor lighting. Old Man Li had torn down the illegally built coal sheds and storage rooms that the previous neighbors had put up. Now, their family’s honeycomb briquettes and miscellaneous items were stored in the gatehouse.

In his previous life, after the Southern Tour Speech, the winds of reform blew across the land. Coupled with the craze for going abroad, the price of courtyard houses began to rise sharply.

The Li family also faced a problem: when a tree grows large, its branches spread.

With the money he received from selling the courtyard house, Li Xiangdong only bought a commercial apartment of just over 100 square meters.

As for the rest of the money, he grew envious of others making a fortune in business. He followed suit, and within two years, he had squandered it all.

While others went public, he went off the deep end…

“What are you standing there for like a fool? I’ve called you several times and you haven’t said a word. Hurry up and eat!”

Just as Li Xiangdong was lost in his thoughts, his mother had appeared by his side again.

Mother Li’s voice grew louder, her temper flaring as she spoke.

Smack! Smack!

She slapped Li Xiangdong hard on the back twice.

“Hiss… Mom, you hit too hard, don’t you? I’m your own son!”

Li Xiangdong jumped up and down in pain.

“It’s my own son I’m hitting!”

Seeing his mother’s hand raised to strike again, Li Xiangdong turned and ran.

“You guys eat first, I’m going to the toilet.”