Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

"Just the two of us?" Zhou Rui understood Gu Shaofeng's words; he couldn't stand being in bed for two months either.

"Yes. Master's daughter gave birth in the city, and he went to see his grandson, so he's not home. Your second senior brother didn't want to come with me, and the third senior brother's house is too far away, so we didn't go to see him."

"Okay, let me eat a couple of bites. Come and hold my little darling, she's full." With that, she shoved the little rice cake into his arms.

When the two came out carrying large bags, Gu Shaofeng held up the slingshot Zhou Rui had given him and said, "Why did you give me this? I'm into using long guns."

As he spoke, he shrugged his shoulders, gesturing to the five or six pieces on his back to indicate that it wasn't a fire poker.

This slingshot was made by Zhou Rui for a few boys, including Zhou Ping and Shunli, but he hasn't given it to them yet.

"This mountain was ravaged by a pack of jackals last month and hasn't recovered yet. Today we can only hunt pheasants and rabbits to give you some exercise."

"What? A pack of jackals. How many are there? Have you killed them?"

"More than thirty horses, twenty-nine of them remained, and a few escaped."

Gu Shaofeng watched Zhou Rui calmly recount his story, then slapped his thigh hard, looking annoyed: "Oops, I'm late. It's all my leg's fault, it healed too slowly, I missed this good thing."

"What are you regretting? So what if you killed so many jackals? Their pelts are worthless, not even half the value of the bears we hunted." Zhou Rui was puzzled. He thought that it was a huge waste to go through all that trouble to kill so many jackals and only get some work points and a few worthless pelts.

"Am I talking about the money? I'm talking about the scale of the hunt. This is quite a large-scale hunt. What a great opportunity! If my Five-Six Half were here, I guarantee not a single jackal would escape."

"Tell me, tell me what happened."

So, on the way up the mountain, Zhou Rui told him again how he found out about the jackals, how he went back to the village to report the news, how he went up the mountain to search together, and how he rescued Chen Ye and his son.

Although Zhou Rui's eloquence was far inferior to Liu Qingguo's, the sheer size of the jackal pack and the twists and turns of the story still made Gu Shaofeng, who missed the event, feel regretful.

Whoosh! A bullet grazed the pheasant, startling it into the air. Whoosh! The pheasant fell from mid-air.

Zhou Rui put down the slingshot and glanced sideways at Gu Shaofeng. Is that all?

Gu Shaofeng laughed awkwardly, "It's been a long time since I've played with a slingshot, I'm rusty, rusty."

Fortunately, Gu Shaofeng's big hair brought the pheasant back, easing the awkward situation.

"Da Mao, well done! I'll give you something good to eat later." Gu Shaofeng stroked Da Mao's head.

Da Mao and the other three dogs were very excited. Because of Gu Shaofeng's injury, they had been idle at home for two months, and their hearts had long since flown to these mountains.

The bushes ahead were quite dense, and Zhou Rui knew there were a few rabbits hiding inside, but it was difficult to make a move.

"Da Mao, go." Zhou Rui called out to Da Mao, and Da Mao immediately led the three dogs out, howling. Gu Shaofeng's dogs had interacted with Zhou Rui several times before and were already quite familiar with him. They generally obeyed the simple commands Zhou Rui gave them.

Sure enough, the barking of the four dogs startled the three rabbits, which scattered in all directions. One of them, in its panic, ran straight towards Zhou Rui and Gu Shaofeng.

"I'll do it, I'll do it." Gu Shaofeng raised his slingshot and blocked Zhou Rui's path. He was determined to regain the face he had just lost.

Whoosh, crack. Gu Shaofeng's bullet struck a rock next to the rabbit, shattering into pieces with a crisp sound. The gray rabbit was so frightened that its eyes rolled back and it fainted.

Zhou Rui's face showed a strange expression: "You're using a slingshot to scare a rabbit? That's amazing. Teach me, so I won't bring mud pellets next time, to avoid wasting time making them."

Gu Shaofeng's face immediately turned bright red. He hadn't just lost face, he'd lost even more. However, Zhou Rui had underestimated the thickness of Gu Shaofeng's skin.

"Junior brother, you didn't waste the bullets you made, did you? Don't worry about how the rabbit died, just tell me, did I exchange a bullet for a rabbit?" Gu Shaofeng said confidently.

Zhou Rui looked up at the sky and rolled his eyes. Gu Shaofeng was indeed right, but he couldn't let Gu Shaofeng be so smug.

"Well, next time I see Uncle Wang, I'll ask him why he only taught you such a powerful move and not me," Zhou Rui said seriously.

"No, junior brother, I was wrong. Please don't tell anyone about this, especially not to the second or third brother, otherwise how can I be the senior brother?" Gu Shaofeng was quick to harden and quick to soften. In order to save face, he had no choice but to be shameless in front of Zhou Rui.

At this moment, all four dogs returned, and the remaining two rabbits couldn't escape either; they were surrounded and captured by the dogs. Although Zhou Rui had no intention of buying hunting dogs, he was still quite envious of the four dogs Gu Shaofeng had.

Two fast dogs, both excellent in speed and agility, are first-rate at chasing and harassing prey. Two heavy dogs, fierce and powerful, work seamlessly with the fast dogs. Except for the bear last time, that one wasn't even in the same league in terms of strength.

Zhou Rui and Gu Shaofeng quickly caught about ten pheasants and seven or eight rabbits, but after traversing so many forests and grasslands, they still hadn't found any larger animals.

Zhou Rui's sixth sense was constantly activated, and indeed, there was nothing there. It seemed that the roe deer and the like were frightened by the last jackal pack and wouldn't dare to come to the surrounding mountains for a while.

Gu Shaofeng was all smiles. Although he hadn't caught any large prey, the dozen or so pheasants and rabbits had given him a good thrashing and slightly relieved his inner itch.

"What's wrong? Is something on your mind?" Gu Shaofeng asked, noticing Zhou Rui's furrowed brows.

"My aunt's daughter, Liu Yue, is getting married next week, and she asked me to prepare some meat for the banquet to impress her in-laws. But there aren't any big catches in these mountains right now, so I can't just get a few pheasants and rabbits to make do, can I?"

"Don't worry, at worst we can go to the back mountain of Master's village. There are wild boars and gazelles there, enough for you to hunt. If you don't mind the distance, you can also go to Xigou Village in Hongxing Town, where your third senior brother lives. They even have moose there."

Xigou Village, isn't that the village where my uncle lives? This was the first time Zhou Rui had heard the specific address of his third senior brother's home. It turned out that it was the same village as his uncle's.

"Third Senior Brother and his family live too far away. They can't bring back the game without a vehicle. Let's go to Wangjiazhuang instead." Zhou Rui thought it over and decided to go somewhere closer. It would be difficult to transport the game if it was too far away. "But we need to go two days in advance, otherwise it will be difficult to arrange things at Aunt Changchun's house."

"Okay, you must come and call me then. My darling didn't fire a single bullet today." Gu Shaofeng put his arm around Zhou Rui's shoulder again.