Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

That direction is where Zhou Rui and his group buried the wild boar's offal with snow when they were dealing with it. Since it stayed there, it must have been a carnivorous animal.

Zhou Rui looked around at the surrounding environment. The moonlight was bright, and the snow reflected light. He could see up to 150 meters away, and beyond that, he could only see blurry black shadows.

"Let's go take a look."

Once his curiosity was piqued, Zhou Rui couldn't contain himself any longer and hurriedly ran back to the igloo. He checked the Mauser 98K; it was fully loaded. He opened the Browning High-Powered and found it was also completely loaded.

After donning his gear, Zhou Rui glanced at Gu Shaofeng and Zhang Shitou, who were still fast asleep, and then tiptoed out of the hole.

Zhou Rui cocked his rifle, held it with both hands, and walked with the agility of a cat. When he was about 300 meters away from burying the pig offal, Zhou Rui stopped.

The sound of my boots crunching on the snow was still too loud, swishing and swishing, especially clear in the quiet of the night.

Zhou Rui slung his gun over his shoulder, lay down, and could only crawl forward. Fortunately, he hadn't forgotten the battlefield skills from his previous life. From then on, Zhou Rui moved like a snake across the snow without making a sound.

Closer, closer, Zhou Rui could already vaguely see the shape of a small hill. Just another twenty meters or so, and Zhou Rui would be able to clearly see what kind of animal was stealing the pig offal they had buried.

The closer Zhou Rui got, the more cautious he became. It took him three minutes to climb the mere twenty meters.

Heaving... breathing... even Zhou Rui's breathing slowed down to the extreme.

Zhou Rui took the rifle off his shoulder and slowly placed it on the ground, each movement incredibly light.

It's a pity there's no optical sight. If there were, I wouldn't have had to work so hard, and I could at least shoot targets from hundreds of meters away.

Zhou Rui closed his left eye and looked through the sights and crosshairs at the small snowdrift. Hmm, there was nothing there, just a few shallow snow pits on the snowdrift.

Zhou Rui activated his senses. He found it; it was behind the snowdrift. His senses amplified his hearing, and he heard a rustling sound. It was the sound of sharp claws scraping against the frozen snow.

"Just wait, it won't fail to appear." Zhou Rui slowed his breathing and waited quietly, listening to the intermittent sounds of snow-scraping and munching coming from behind the snowdrift.

The sound stopped, and then Zhou Rui saw two pointed ears pop out, covered with long, downy fur, followed by a cat-like face, a slender body... it was a tiger cub.

The lynx climbed to the top of the snowdrift, cautiously looking around, then moved to the side, raised one front paw, and continued pawing. It seemed it hadn't eaten enough.

Bang... The loud sound echoed far and wide. The lynx's last meal was over; the bullet had pierced its small cheek, leaving a gaping hole.

A few minutes later, chaos erupted in the camp. It turned out that Zhang Shitou, who had been awakened by the gunfire, suddenly realized that Zhou Rui was missing from the snow hut and quickly shook the soundly sleeping Gu Shaofeng awake.

They then went to another snow hut, woke up Wang Shouye and Wang Zhen, and explained the situation. The group quickly loaded their guns, grabbed flashlights, and began searching and calling out around the camp.

Just then, a figure walked over from a distance and responded loudly.

"I'm here."

Four beams of light shone down, revealing a figure carrying a gun on his back, a sack-like object in his left hand, and his right hand shielding the beam of the flashlight from his eyes.

"Ruiwa, come here right now. What have you been doing?"

The group finally got a clear look at Zhou Rui, and quickly shone their flashlights on the ground, no longer shining them into his eyes. As the rustling footsteps drew closer, they slowly began to see what Zhou Rui was holding.

"My God, Ruiwa, what did you hit?"

"Old man, tiger cub. Is this the one that escaped yesterday?"

"Junior brother, you're really amazing."

Everyone gathered around and together they put the lynx in Zhou Rui's hand on the ground.

Looking at the bullet hole in the lynx's head, Wang Shouye was very pleased: "Ruiwa, your marksmanship is as accurate as ever."

"Ruiwa, how did you find this tiger cub? Why didn't you wake us?" Gu Shaofeng was a little annoyed. How could he have slept so soundly that he didn't even know Zhou Rui had gone out?

Zhou Rui certainly couldn't say that he discovered it through his own perception.

"I was woken up by the urge to pee, so I went out to relieve myself. This tiger cub darted past over there and headed towards where we sell pig offal, so I went over there with my gun."

"I was lucky; it was shoveling snow over there, so I just hit it."

Everyone knew, of course, that the process wasn't as simple as Zhou Rui had described. Lynxes are extremely wary; ordinary people can't even get close under normal circumstances, and visibility is poor at night. Zhou Rui must have put in an effort they couldn't even imagine.

Wang Zhen suddenly slapped Gu Shaofeng on the back: "How could I not have thought of that? We buried so many internal organs there, the smell must have been terrible."

More animals will surely come looking for me. Tomorrow I must go there and set more traps and snares.

"Hey, why did you take pictures of me?" Gu Shaofeng said angrily.

"Doesn't it hurt when I slap myself?" Wang Zhen said with an air of matter-of-fact.

Zhou Rui looked thoughtful. No wonder Gu Shaofeng nicknamed him "Blackie"—he's definitely cunning and ruthless.

"It's pretty good. The leather is top-notch for this time of year, and it only has one bullet hole on the head. Old Xing would have at least three of those." Wang Shouye has a good eye, and his price estimate won't be too far off.

After hearing this, Gu Shaofeng slapped Zhou Rui on the shoulder: "Rui, you've struck it rich."

Zhou Rui rolled his eyes. Gu Shaofeng was transferring the hurt he had suffered from his second senior brother onto him.

"Uncle Wang, go sell it to Old Man Xing and pay for it under the company account."

Zhang Shitou quickly interjected, "No way, Junior Brother, you did it yourself. We didn't do anything."

Although Zhang Shitou was envious, he still felt that he shouldn't have shared the money.

"We accepted the mission together, and we all came together. No matter who did the attack, it should all be counted together." Zhou Rui's words were sincere, not insincere.

Seeing that Zhang Shitou was about to speak, Wang Shouye quickly stopped him.

"Stone, listen to me, Shaofeng and Zhenzi, listen to me too."

"Your junior brother is right. Once the rules are set for us to go hunting in groups, they can't be changed. Everything we catch goes into the communal account, no matter who it is."

"I know you fellow disciples have a good relationship and know how to be considerate of each other, which I'm happy about. But you can't break the rules."

"Master, I'm not..."

Wang Shouye waved his hand, interrupting Zhang Shitou.

"Especially you, Stone. If you team up with other hunters for hunts in the future, what consequences will your words just now have?"

Wang Shouye's serious expression made everyone listen attentively.

"What you said will offend everyone except Ruiwa. Everyone goes into the mountains taking the same risks, but only one person makes money. What will happen in the end? The team will fall apart."

"Go back and think about what I said. Don't think that your master is old-fashioned and only sticks to outdated rules. The rules established by our ancestors are all reasonable."

Everyone seemed to be deep in thought, but only Zhou Rui understood this principle. For a team to be united, it naturally needs to share the benefits equally.

If you eat alone this time, your companions may not save you next time. The same principle applies to later generations; the rules have actually remained unchanged for thousands of years.