Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

"Lin Qiuyue, Yang Ping, Liu Yue, the daughter of Uncle Kangri, is getting married. I need to go up the mountain to get some meat beforehand. I'll have to trouble you two to look after my family."

"Don't worry. With our friendship, you can trust us to handle things." Yang Ping was as generous as ever. If she weren't a woman, she would definitely want to become sworn sisters with Zhou Rui.

"Don't worry, Zhou Rui, we'll definitely take good care of your younger brother, sister and niece, and make sure they don't get cold or hungry."

In fact, Zhou Ping was already capable of taking care of a family, but Zhou Rui felt that boys might not be as attentive, and it would be better if there were two female educated youths to take care of them.

"And that mule, cook more soybeans and eggs for it."

After feeding the mule for two days, it seemed to be doing well and was even looking much better. Zhou Rui quickly exchanged it for a lot of eggs in the village, all in the hope that the mule would recover.

"Okay, okay. Why are you so long-winded, just like a woman? Hurry up and go." Yang Ping was tired of hearing it.

Zhou Rui wasn't angry. He smiled slightly and said, "An'an, your second brother has gone out. What do you want to say to him?"

These past two days, An'an has finally climbed onto Mao Mao's back. Thanks to Zhou Rui's care, Mao Mao now has shiny fur and weighs over 140 pounds, so carrying An'an is no effort at all.

"Go, Second Brother! Make sure you get plenty of good meat, so Sister Liu Yue can have some face."

"You little rascal, you're so young and you already know how to care about face."

"Hehe..." An'an rode on Mao Mao's back, laughing happily.

Finally, Zhou Rui straddled his bicycle, nodded to Zhou Ping, and left. The men of the Zhou family didn't need words; a single glance was enough for them to understand each other.

Zhou Rui was riding his bicycle to meet up with Gu Shaofeng; the bicycle was borrowed from the old village chief. Uncle Kangri's family was having a happy occasion, and he'd definitely need to inform many relatives, so the bicycle wouldn't be free.

Just outside the village, I saw Chen Datou lying on the grass, sunbathing. I don't know what's wrong with him; he doesn't like to lie down at home, he just likes to lie outside, not even afraid of getting cold.

Zhou Rui stopped the car and threw a pack of unopened cigarettes at him.

"Ruiwa, are you going out?"

"Okay, go get some meat for Uncle Anti-Japanese. How are Zhou Chen and the others doing lately?"

"Lately, they've gotten really cocky. Smoking Daqianmen cigarettes and drinking Fenjiu, they're acting like they own the place." Chen Datou thought resentfully, "Damn it, such good liquor, and I can't even smell it."

"Float? Float is good, how can you fall if you don't float high? Don't worry, when I come back from hunting, I'll bring you a bottle of good wine, so you can float too."

Zhou Rui is good at making empty promises and prescribing the right solutions.

"Hehe... Well, thanks a lot, Ruiwa. But I won't be like them, so eager to show off. I'll make sure they don't even see the bottles."

"Alright, I'm leaving. You can enjoy your sunbathing now."

As Chen Datou watched Zhou Rui's retreating figure, he couldn't help but sigh inwardly, realizing how vastly different the families of the eldest and second sons of the Zhou family were.

Although Zhou Dashi is gone this week, Zhou Rui has made a fortune. From now on, Zhou Lao Er's family will never have to worry about food and clothing. On the other hand, with Zhou Chen, that brainless good-for-nothing, on the Zhou Dashan family, he'll drag the whole family down with him sooner or later.

"Junior Brother, you've finally arrived?"

When Gu Shaofeng saw Zhou Rui arrive at his door fully equipped, he knew they were going hunting in the mountains. He had been waiting at home for several days for this, and if Zhou Rui didn't come soon, he would have gone to Zhou Rui's house on his own initiative.

This time, Zhou Rui didn't break the rules when he visited. Last time, he came empty-handed but ended up leaving with a cartload of gifts, which made him feel a little ashamed.

Zhou Rui pulled out two bottles of Wuliangye liquor, two cans of malted milk powder, a pack of White Rabbit milk candy, a carton of cigarettes, a box of tea he'd swiped from Zhang Zhenbei, and about ten candied hawthorns he'd brought for the kid. Zhou Rui's backpack instantly deflated.

There weren't many items, but they were all very valuable. Things like the Wuliangye liquor and the box of fine tea—you couldn't get them without status. The elderly Gu couple kept declining, saying Zhou Rui was being too polite and the gifts were too expensive.

Fifth Sister-in-law Li Yumei stood by, smiling silently. Her husband's junior apprentice was truly generous, giving her, the head of the household, a great deal of face. The other two junior apprentices were also very good, but not as generous.

The kids didn't care about any of that; each had a candied hawthorn stick in their hand and were overjoyed, constantly calling out "Uncle Rui, Uncle Rui!" "You'd better eat quickly, can't you see there's still some left in the oil paper? If you eat fast, you can get a second one."

At this moment, Gu Shaofeng finished tidying up his equipment and came out of the inner room.

"Dad, Mom, please put these things away. Just accept the things my junior brother gave us; we're brothers, there's no need for formalities."

Upon hearing this, Li Yumei couldn't help but pinch Gu Shaofeng's waist. Her husband was good in every way, except that he was too careless and lacked manners, often making him a laughingstock.

But she didn't know that Zhou Rui liked this kind of transparent person who didn't have much of a mind.

"Grandpa, Grandma, just listen to your senior brother and keep it safe. I have other things to do, so my senior brother and I will be leaving now."

As the two left, Li Yumei called out from the doorway, "Junior brother, your senior brother isn't very reliable, keep an eye on him. Husband, come home early after you're done, I'm waiting for you."

Gu Shaofeng swerved the handlebars, startling the dog beside the wheel: "Hey woman, what are you yelling about at the gate? What did I do wrong?"

"Come on, your sister-in-law is a good person. She just wants you to get home safely." Zhou Rui thought to himself, wondering when someone would be able to see him off at his doorstep and welcome him home.

"By the way, senior brother, where are you planning to take me hunting?"

"I heard from the guys in town that the loggers at Xiangyang Forest Farm spotted a herd of sika deer and even set traps, but they didn't catch a single one."

"These laymen think they can hunt deer just by setting traps. Do they really think there's no skill involved in hunting? This time, we'll wipe out the entire herd and put an end to their hopes."

Zhou Rui nodded, agreeing with Gu Shaofeng. Whether in his past life or now, there are always some people who see others making money easily and assume they can do it too, without ever considering the reasons behind it.

"Is it far from Xiangyang Forest Farm? Should we leave our bicycles there?"

"We can't put it there, it's a bit far, more than ten miles from the forest farm. The forest farm workers all go to work in trucks that carry timber."

The location was easy to find; following the tire tracks of the large trucks, we quickly found the logging site. Before we even reached the edge, we could hear the creaking sound of sawing wood coming from the mountain.

Gu Shaofeng stopped the car and glanced around: "Let's go, let's go around. With such a commotion during the day, the sika deer couldn't possibly be around here."

"Besides, the place where the workers found the deer herd must have lost its scent and traces after being trampled by so many people. We'll go inside to search; as long as they're still in these mountains, we're not afraid of not finding them."

Zhou Rui nodded in agreement. Anyway, he had a sense that as long as the deer herd was still in this mountain area, they couldn't escape his gun.

Moreover, since his hand-to-hand combat with the black bear, Zhou Rui had tested his perception and found it had increased by about 200 meters, reaching 1200 meters. This gave him even more confidence.

Come on, let my sixth sense take a good look at this mountain.