Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

"Is this how you guys work? You've only done less than half, and you've cut it all up like a mess. Look at the other work groups around here; they've all finished, and their work is clean and neat."

Zhou Rui and the others walked outside the circle and saw Liu Jianguo holding the stick from that morning, pointing at Zhou Chen and the others and cursing loudly.

"Look at you all! You're all young men in your early twenties, and you can't even cut grass as well as women. You haven't finished your work, and you're hiding behind trees slacking off," Liu Jianguo scolded, then noticed Zhou Rui. "And look at Zhou Rui again. He's only fifteen, and he hasn't taken a break since. Pointskeeper, tell me, how many work points will Zhou Rui get today?"

"Zhou Rui, let me take a look." The scorekeeper opened his notebook: "Zhou Rui, don't let your young age fool you, you did a good job today, you can get eight work points."

Zhou Rui didn't work too hard today, holding back a bit, because he didn't want to stand out too much. If he got ten work points today, how many would he have to do when he came of age in a few years? If he overdid it, he'd be treated like a beast of burden in the future, and Zhou Rui still wanted to make a living with his brains.

"Look at you guys, you're not even as good as half-grown boys, what can you do? Are you expecting everyone to wait for you?" Liu Jianguo said, slapping the backs of the boys as he spoke, looking furious.

But when Zhou Rui and Liu Jianguo made eye contact, Zhou Rui clearly noticed Liu Jianguo wink at him. Good grief, Liu Jianguo was taking this opportunity to retaliate, and he did it so that no one watching could find a single fault. How insidious! But I like it, Zhou Rui thought to himself.

Zhou Chen and his friends were publicly insulted and even beaten with sticks by Liu Jianguo. They immediately developed a deep hatred for Zhou Rui, whom they had been used as a comparison, and glared fiercely at him.

Zhou Rui didn't react to the resentful glares from Zhou Chen and the others. They were enemies anyway, so it didn't matter. Did they think staring at someone would kill them? If it came to a fight, Zhou Rui could break their hands; they were all cowards who bullied the weak.

"Alright, I've made my decision. The rest of you who are finished can leave. These few will stay and finish cutting the grass before they go. They can't hold our third group back. Anyone have any objections?"

"Okay, no objections."

"Agreed, that's how it should be."

"Captain, you did a great job! That's how you should treat these parasites."

Liu Jianguo was so happy he almost couldn't contain himself. "Serves you right for messing with me! Serves you right for inciting everyone to oppose me! What is public opinion? This is public opinion! Public opinion tells me to teach you a lesson!"

"Alright, two militia members will stay with me to supervise them, and you'll get two extra work points. The rest of you have finished your tasks for today, so go home and rest early."

"Okay, we can finally go."

"Good job, team leader. This is how you deal with lazybones; you can't make us hardworking people suffer."

"I don't actually want to go back so early. How about I switch with the militia?" This person wanted to earn work points and also wanted to watch the excitement.

"I'd like to go home as soon as possible; I have things to do at home. But whoever stays behind, tell me tomorrow morning; I'm willing to listen."

So, Liu Jianguo selected two tall, burly militiamen, each carrying a stick, to stay behind and supervise Zhou Chen's group as they worked. The others packed up their tools, lined up, and headed back to the village, some glancing back every now and then, afraid of missing any excitement.

Back under the big tree at the village entrance, some people handed in their tools and went home. Others, having nothing to do at home and with someone to cook for them, stayed under the tree chatting. They waited for the first and second groups to return to exchange information and chat about what had happened that day. In those days of poor communication, this "information station" at the village entrance was the greatest source of amusement for rural people.

Zhou Rui didn't stay there; he put down his sickle and went home. Spending time with these grown men and gossipy married women was nothing compared to going home to his sister and niece.

When he got home, An'an pounced on him, ignoring the fact that he had worked all day and was covered in sweat.

"Second brother, you're back. Look, here's a piece of candy for you to try." An'an held a piece of candy in her hand; it was the most ordinary fruit candy.

Zhou Rui was a little confused. Where did the candy come from?

Zhou Ping was holding Xiao Niangao, with a piece of candy in his hand, which he was feeding to Xiao Niangao. When he saw Zhou Rui looking over, he quickly explained, "It was given to us by Sister Xinghua. We ran into Sister Xinghua at the village entrance when we were bringing lunch back this noon. She took us home, fed Xiao Niangao milk, and made sure he was full. She even gave us two pieces of candy before we left."

Zhou Rui nodded, then looked down at An'an and asked, "Did you thank Sister-in-law Xinghua?"

"Thanks. Second brother, have some." An'an had already peeled off the candy wrapper and put it to Zhou Rui's mouth.

Zhou Rui had no choice but to take a lick. "It's really sweet! An'an, you can eat it yourself. Second brother's teeth have been hurting these past few days, so he can't eat anything too sweet."

After hearing this, An'an had no choice but to put the candy in her mouth herself, and even used her hands to pry open Zhou Rui's mouth: "Let me see, let me see where it hurts, I'll blow on it for you."

Seeing this, Zhou Rui pressed down on An'an's hand. "You can't see it. It's just a toothache caused by internal heat. It'll be fine in a few days." It seems the ancients were right; one lie needs another to cover it up. It seems I can't just lie to An'an anymore. "Alright, you sit here and eat slowly. I'll go cook."

When Zhou Rui arrived in the kitchen, he saw a large pot of pheasant in the pot. Looking at the large amount of chicken meat and a small amount of wild vegetables left, he knew that his younger siblings had given most of the pheasant to him and had only eaten some wild vegetables themselves.

Zhou Rui lit the fire, added some ginger slices and dried mushrooms to the pot, and also added some salt. Before, his father lived in the house, and later his older brother married his sister-in-law. In fact, neither Zhou Rui nor Zhou Ping had cooked much. If Zhou Rui hadn't been reborn, his cooking skills would be just like Zhou Ping's.

After the meal was prepared, An'an and Pingwa were called in to wash their hands and come in to eat.

"Wow, second brother, you made rice! Third brother said we can't be so wasteful, we have to eat sparingly, and we have to eat sweet potatoes and potatoes first." An'an opened her eyes wide, looking like a little adult.

"It's okay, just eat. Once I'm done with these few days, I'll go up the mountain to gather herbs. Then I'll go to town to exchange them for money and buy you some rice, okay? Don't worry so much about children, or they won't grow up properly." As he spoke, Zhou Rui filled a large bowl with rice for An and scooped a generous spoonful of chicken on top.

"You eat too, don't be stingy. You didn't eat much chicken for lunch, did you?" Zhou Rui said to Zhou Ping. "There are plenty of wild pheasants on this mountain. Your brother here is good at shooting with a slingshot. We know things that others can't get. Just don't let the villagers or Uncle find out."

"Mm." Zhou Ping nodded heavily and stuffed a mouthful of rice drenched in broth into his mouth.

Zhou Rui got up early as usual. He had no choice; he hadn't done anything the night before, so he went to bed early and woke up naturally after a good night's sleep. With nothing to do after waking up, Zhou Rui got up and hoeed his family's small plot of land. He was thinking of going to someone's house to exchange for some radish and cabbage seeds, otherwise he wouldn't have any vegetables to eat in the winter.

After finishing his work, Zhou Rui packed a few roasted potatoes and set off. They had agreed last night before bed that Zhou Ping wouldn't need to deliver food today. Today was for burning stubble; although they had set up firebreaks and had a team of fifty or sixty people watching over the area, they were still worried about the danger. Besides, the fire would get incredibly hot, and it wouldn't be suitable for children to go.

A group of people stood beside the patch of wasteland, with baskets filled with soil and buckets full of water placed around them. This was something they had agreed upon with Liu Jianguo yesterday; even with so many people watching, necessary precautions still needed to be taken.

"Let me tell you, I really dealt with those lazybones yesterday. I forced them to work, and if they stopped even for a second, I'd whack them with a stick. It felt so good."

"You hit them, and they don't fight back?"

"They dare? The team leader is watching. Ask Qingguo if he participated too."

"Yes, those wretches deserve to be taught a lesson. Even if you chased them away with a stick, they still got the work done, albeit a bit late."

How late?

"It was past eight o'clock when we finished work."

"So late, aren't you two keeping watch here on an empty stomach?"

"What's wrong with going hungry? I'd be happy to go hungry if it meant taking care of those guys. Look, they haven't come yet, have they? I bet they can't even get out of bed."

"I'd be happy to do it too, plus I get two work points for free. I wonder when this will be needed again; when that happens, I'll be the first to apply for supervision."