Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

Nothing happened that night. Xiao Yan'er was very comfortable sleeping at Zhou Rui's house and didn't make a fuss at all. She slept soundly until dawn.

After breakfast, Zhou Ping went out, but An An didn't go with him. When Zhou Rui came home, she wanted to stay close to him.

Zhou Rui felt relaxed, the tension from the mountain was gone, and he felt lazy and didn't want to do anything.

I looked up at the sky; the sun was shining brightly, perfect for sunbathing in the yard.

Zhou Rui lay half-reclined on the chair, shifted his position, feeling a little uncomfortable. He decided to ask a carpenter to make him a rocking chair next time.

Zhou Rui, holding the doll, watched as An'an became restless in the yard. Without her playmates, she started tormenting the family dogs, scaring Maoqiu, Maotuan, and Maodou away.

The two children were also quiet this time, their four eyes constantly following An An's figure, filled with curiosity.

Time passed slowly, and Zhou Rui felt a strong struggle on his left side. A little one seemed to be unable to contain his restlessness.

"Ruiwa, Ruiwa..." Someone shouted loudly when the person was still more than ten meters away from the yard.

"Brother Dazhu, the door's open, come in."

Zhao Dazhu pushed the door open and came in, only to find Zhou Rui holding his daughter, leisurely basking in the sun.

"Ruiwa, come with me quickly. The people you mentioned have come to our door. They split into two groups and went to Zhou Chen's and Chen Dabiao's houses respectively." Zhao Dazhu urged anxiously before he could even hug his daughter.

"Two companies?" Zhou Rui muttered.

He remembered Chen Datou telling him that Qian Fulai had also borrowed fifty yuan.

Zhou Rui understood after a moment's thought: since Qian Fulai had asked his parents to testify for him, he must have explained everything to his family.

Although his family is poor, they will probably sell everything they own and borrow money from friends to pay off their precious son's debts.

Zhou Rui got up, took out the straps, and tied Yan'er and Xiao Niangao to his body.

Zhao Dazhu was about to reach out and take the baby from Zhou Rui when he was a little confused by Zhou Rui's actions.

"No, Ruiwa. I only let you take care of Yan'er for one night. Are you trying to keep my Yan'er and never give her back?"

Zhou Rui was still slowly tying the strap: "What do you mean 'your family' and 'my family'? We're brothers, why are we arguing about this? Tell me, aren't Yan'er and Xiao Niangao sisters? Aren't I Yan'er's uncle? Isn't it right for her to live in my house?"

Zhou Rui uttered words rapidly, too fast to think, and simply nodded mechanically. He wondered to himself, "Is this really it?"

Zhou Rui took a while to tie the bandages, and Zhao Dazhu, who had been confused by the rhetoric, seemed to be coming to his senses.

Seeing this, Zhou Rui quickly pulled Zhao Dazhu: "Brother Dazhu, let's go, or we'll miss the show."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Dazhu immediately forgot about what Zhou Rui had just mentioned about Yan'er.

"Let's go, let's go, hurry up!"

"An'an, take the puppy, let's go out and play. Mao Mao will stay home and watch the house." Zhou Rui was being pulled outside, so he had no choice but to turn his head back and give the order.

"Hey, second brother, you're here."

An An responded, threw the fluffy ball on the ground, and followed Zhou Rui. Although An An had played with the puppies quite a bit, they still ran after their little master after seeing him leave.

"Which restaurant?" Zhao Dazhu asked, walking side by side with Zhou Rui.

"Of course I'm going to my uncle's house. I want to see his true colors now, and how he'll deal with those people." Zhou Rui didn't pretend at all in front of Zhao Dazhu, telling him bluntly that he just wanted to gloat over his family's misfortune.

"You're right, I would do the same," Zhao Dazhu echoed, clearly in sync with Zhou Rui.

As soon as they entered the village, An'an ran away. Clearly, the children weren't interested in the adults' excitement; they only liked simple games.

Zhou Rui was very familiar with this road to his uncle's house. After all, he had lived here for many years when he was young, until his father built a new house.

Zhou Rui looked at the road and composed himself. He was here today to see his uncle's family make a fool of themselves; he had no time to dwell on the past.

Before they even reached their destination, a cacophony of noise drifted over from afar, clearly nothing could dampen the villagers' enthusiasm for watching the spectacle; they arrived much faster than Zhou Rui.

"My wife's over there, I'm going over there first." Zhao Dazhu didn't care about his daughter at all at this moment; he just wanted to run to his wife's side as quickly as possible to get the latest and most complete news.

Zhou Rui walked at a leisurely pace. They had arrived at their destination, and he would soon learn about the previous situation from others. Nothing could change the fact that his uncle's family had begun to decline.

In this era, the concept of independent debt didn't exist in later generations. Basically, if one person was in debt, the whole family had to pay it off—a value system inherited from thousands of years ago. It was essentially the same as the ancient system of collective punishment, where if one person committed a crime, the whole family was implicated.

"Pay back the money now, or we'll take the house as collateral!" a deep, booming voice shouted.

This remark struck Zhou Rui like a chord, causing him to quicken his pace. He realized he hadn't truly let go as he appeared; the scene of his uncle forcing him to use the house to pay off debts was still vivid in his mind.

"What do you mean, 'pay back'? This is money Zhou Chen owes. Why should we pay it back? Go find Zhou Chen yourselves."

Before Zhou Rui even saw the person, he recognized the voice as that of his second cousin, Zhou Ji. Zhou Ji was selfish and cold-hearted, just like Zhou Dashu, but in reality, he was more like his third uncle. Zhou Dashu had shown up briefly when their father passed away, but Zhou Ji hadn't returned at all.

"You little brat, I'm talking to your father, what right do you have to interrupt? You dare to talk back to me like that? Get out of my way."

As soon as Zhou Rui reached the edge of the crowd, he saw Zhou Ji being slapped to the ground by a 1.9-meter-tall bald man.

"Speak up, why did you hit my son?" Tian Xiuying rushed out and stood in front of Zhou Ji.

"Let me tell you, you'll have to pay compensation for injuring my son."

Seeing his wife's raging display, Zhou Dashan didn't stand by and help her as usual. Instead, he kept pulling Tian Xiuying's arm back.

It's not that Zhou Dashan was cowardly or afraid to stand up for others than Tian Xiuying. In fact, their personalities were quite similar; both were the type to bully the weak and fear the strong.

Zhou Dashan, however, was more perceptive and understood the difference between thugs and ordinary villagers. He could act tough and shameless with the villagers, but doing so with those thugs would only earn him a beating.

"What, you don't want to pay back the money?"

After the bald, burly man finished speaking, he and the three men, each over 1.8 meters tall, began to slowly walk forward. The oppressive force emanating from the four strong men was something that most people could not withstand.

These are all common tactics used by casinos; they specifically employ a group of burly men like these. They may not be able to fight, but their intimidation is undeniable.

These people usually keep order at the casino and are responsible for collecting debts when it's time to settle accounts.

"No, no, I just want to know how my Zhou Chen got into debt, and how much he owes in total?" Zhou Dashan fawned as he approached, pulling out a pack of eight-cent economy cigarettes and offering them to the burly men one by one.