Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

After the surgery, everyone sat in the yard waiting to see if the mule would wake up. Each person had a Daqianmen cigarette, filling the yard with smoke.

Zhou Rui looked at the large bag of meat in front of him, which he had just cut from the mule. The meat was stuffed with large and small grayish-white spheres.

"Uncle Changhai, you mean this is a horse rooster?" Zhou Rui asked in surprise, looking at the plain gray-white sphere.

"Why isn't it a horse's bezoar? Mules are born from horses and donkeys, and both horses and donkeys produce horse's bezoars, so it's not unreasonable for mules to produce them too. Besides, I've seen real horse's bezoars, and they look exactly like this one." Zhao Changhai was very unhappy with Zhou Rui's questioning. Wasn't this questioning his expertise?

"How much is that worth?"

"Bezoar is about the same price as gold, while horse bezoar is half the price, worth a little over a dollar per gram."

"Changhai, you mean one gram, right?" Zhou Shumin was an accountant and was most sensitive to numbers.

"Yes, I meant one gram."

"That bag of Ruiwa must weigh two or three pounds, and one pound is 500 grams, so three pounds is 1,500 grams. Doesn't that mean it's worth at least 1,500 yuan?" Zhou Shumin's accounting instincts allowed him to quickly arrive at the figures.

"More or less. The exact number depends on how scarce the pharmacies in the city are right now. I think Ruiwa can take this bag of maternal supplements to the city to check when she can."

"My goodness! So, Ruiwa not only didn't lose money this time, but actually made a fortune?"

Zhao Youzhi couldn't hold back when he heard the number. He had thought Zhou Rui, that blockhead, had been scammed, but it turned out he was lucky enough to get the horse treasure, not only avoiding a loss but also making several hundred yuan.

Just then, neigh... The mule shook its head and stood up. Although it wasn't very steady and was still a bit unsteady, it had finally come back to life.

"It's alive! It's really alive?" Zhao Changhai jumped up excitedly. Although he was just a mediocre veterinarian who had only given the mule an anti-inflammatory injection, the treatment method was something he had found in a book, wasn't it?

"Hey, it actually came back to life."

"We've struck it rich! We just got a baby horse, and now we've got a mule. The cow cost us 3,200 yuan, and this mule must be worth at least 2,000. Ruiwa's made several thousand yuan in total!"

As a professional habit, Zhou Shumin is accustomed to quantifying everything in terms of money.

"Uncle Changhai, could you please check the book to see if there's anything you should pay attention to after performing surgery on a mule?"

"Yes, yes, Changhai, take a look quickly, lest you kill it again and all our efforts are wasted." Zhao Youzhi was more anxious than anyone else this time. If the mule is alright, next year during the busy farming season, there will be another strong laborer in the fields, and at worst, Ruiwa can get work points from it.

The village chief gave the order, and Zhao Changhai immediately opened the book and flipped through it. "No food for two or three days after the surgery, then feed with liquids, and you can resume a normal diet after a week."

"What do you mean?" The village chief asked in a literary tone, not understanding.

"That means you can't drink water or eat for two or three days after surgery. After three days, you can cook some very soft food to eat, and after a week you can eat fodder normally."

"No, no." Zhao Youzhi paced back and forth with his hands behind his back.

"Grandpa, what's wrong? That's how it's written in the book." Zhao Changhai didn't understand.

"If it doesn't eat or drink for a few days, this mule will die. Before, when the mule was sick and couldn't eat, we still gave it water. Now you're not even giving it water; it'll die of thirst."

"Let me take another look." Zhao Changhai continued scrolling down.

"Here, here. They say they give it a nutritional injection when it can't eat or drink."

What is a nutritional injection?

"I know that. It's like giving a mule an IV drip. The medicine bottle contains glucose and saline solution, which is then injected into the mule's body," Zhou Rui interjected.

"Changhai, do you have these things in your clinic?"

"No," Zhao Changhai shook his head.

"What should we do?" Zhao Youzhi was anxious. This was a big mule, a huge laborer.

"Why don't we skip the first step? Since things are already like this, and the mule was lucky to survive, let's just feed it some liquid food. If it survives, we'll be lucky; if it doesn't, we won't lose anything."

Zhou Shumin had been preoccupied with calculating the mule's value, so he hadn't paid much attention to whether the mule lived or died. Instead, he offered a crucial suggestion.

"Ruiwa, what do you think?"

The mule belonged to Zhou Rui, and only Zhou Rui could make that decision, so Zhao Youzhi had no choice but to ask Zhou Rui.

"Okay, this is a last resort. I'll cook some soybeans and eggs for it." Zhou Rui never hesitates when he does things; if he has a solution, he'll do it. If he doesn't try, he'll never have a chance.

"Cook less, don't cook too much," Zhao Changhai interjected.

Zhao Youzhi was displeased. "What, afraid of wasting food? The most important thing now is to save the mule, don't worry about that little bit of food."

"No, sir. This mule just had surgery on its belly. If it eats too much, the wound won't heal properly. That's why the books say to fast it, it's for healing." Zhao Changhai quickly explained, otherwise the responsibility would all be his.

Zhao Youzhi listened to the advice and thought it made sense. "Then cook less for Ruiwa, just enough to keep him from starving."

Zhou Rui filled a large bowl with soybeans and put it in the pot, then cracked in ten eggs and added a bucket of water.

"There's too much. Quickly scoop some out."

"Uncle Changhai, don't worry. I'm cooking a lot at once, and I'll just feed it a spoonful each time."

"Ruiwa, you are the most reliable among the younger generation of the Zhou family. I trust you to handle things." Zhou Shumin patted Zhou Rui on the shoulder.

In Zhou Shumin's eyes, Zhou Rui had transformed from a simpleton back into the Zhou family's prodigy. The change was so rapid; Zhou Shumin never adhered to formalities.

Watching Zhou Rui feed the mule a spoonful of food, it ate happily without any other obvious changes, only whimpering, as if it was still not full.

"Let's leave it at that for now. We don't have time to stay here all the time. Let's feed Ruiwa like this for a couple of days, and then we'll come back to check on her in a few days."

"Alright, let's go then. But don't tell anyone that Ruiwa got a baby today. Your Zhao Changshan is such a chatterbox. I just reminded him yesterday, and by tonight the whole village knows."

Zhou Shumin got angry whenever he mentioned this. What, does he think he's not qualified to speak as the brigade accountant? I just finished giving instructions, and you've already leaked them to me.

Zhao Youzhi remained silent, his face dark. He knew about the feud between Zhao Changshan and Zhou Rui. It all stemmed from a quarrel over hunting during the autumn harvest. Zhou Rui hadn't pursued the matter, so why was Zhao Changshan, who had done wrong, holding a grudge?

It was wrong of his Zhao family to do this, and even though Accountant Zhou was a generation younger than him, he couldn't refute it.

After the village chief and the others left, Zhou Rui looked at the bag of steroids in his hand, thinking to himself: This is a bomb in my hands, but it's also a trump card. If I wait for the right opportunity and have someone spread the word, maybe it will have some effect.

This is something I need to think about carefully.