Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

"Ruiwa, Ruiwa, are you home?" Zhao Youzhi shouted loudly as he walked to the gate of Zhou Rui's house.

A head popped out from behind another old house: "Here comes Grandpa Zhao."

Zhao Youzhi walked over and saw that it was Zhou Rui's family planting vegetables. The land was a two-acre plot of land left over from the collapse of several old houses. No one used it anymore, and Zhou Rui had taken some materials from it when he was building his house. Zhou Rui had cultivated a portion of it as his own private plot.

"Are you planting vegetables?"

"Yes. I asked Aunt Changchun for some cabbage, radish, and cucumber seeds before. Now, since there's no work in the village, I'm quickly planting them, otherwise we'll never have any vegetables to eat," Zhou Rui said as he dug holes with a hoe, carrying Xiao Niangao on his back.

Zhou Rui dug a hole, An An sprinkled some seeds, and Zhou Ping carried a bucket to water the plants. The whole family worked together.

"Good, not bad. You've learned to plan ahead now that you're in charge." Zhao Youzhi was very pleased. It seemed that Rui had really grown up and could support a family. "But you still need to be careful. The commune stipulates that each family has two fen of private land. Although you live a bit far from the village and not many people come over, you can't go too far and make it too big."

"Grandpa Zhao, I understand. I didn't plan to make such a big vegetable garden. There are only a few of us, and we can't eat that much on a daily basis. At most, it will be just a little bit more."

"Okay, that's good. How much longer will it take you to finish?"

"Is there anything I can help you with? I'll be in a little while."

At this moment, Zhou Ping interjected, "Second Brother, if Grandpa Zhao wants to see you, just go. There's only a little work to do, An'an and I can handle it."

An'an nodded frantically beside her, "Yes, yes, Third Brother and I will probably do it. Second Brother, you go ahead and do your thing, we promise to complete the mission."

Seeing this, Zhao Youzhi felt a mixture of relief and pity. These children, who had no parents, were sensible early. While other children spent their days playing around in the village, these two children were already helping their older brother with chores.

"Wow, An'an and Pingwa are so amazing! My grandson isn't even that capable."

"Hehe..." An An laughed shyly.

Zhou Ping just smiled and didn't say anything. Ever since his father and older brother's accident, and having become accustomed to the indifference of his grandparents and uncle, Zhou Ping had become increasingly introverted.

Zhou Rui didn't refute, but simply handed the hoe to Zhou Ping and patted him hard on the shoulder.

"Okay, I'll leave it to you. I know you can do it." Zhou Rui also wanted to restore Zhou Ping's confidence, but sometimes too many words are not as effective as simple trust.

Zhou Rui turned around: "Grandpa Zhao, come inside and have some water. We can talk about it slowly."

Zhao Youzhi followed Zhou Rui home and carefully inspected the house, from the yard to the interior. The furniture, mostly old items moved from their old house, was neatly arranged, and the house was clean. He had initially thought that a grown man with several young children would make the house a mess, but the opposite was true. Zhao Youzhi thought to himself, "Even though Zhou Rui's family isn't well-off now, their future won't be bad. In fact, as their younger siblings grow up, things will get better."

After entering the room, Zhou Rui poured Zhao Youzhi a bowl of water, then took the little rice cake off his arm, held it in his arms, fed it two mouthfuls of boiled water, and then drank the rest of the water in the bowl in one gulp.

Zhao Youzhi silently observed everything Zhou Rui did. Seeing that he took such good care of the six-month-old baby, and that the baby looked much better than when his uncle caused trouble, all his worries were relieved.

"Ruiwa, it's like this. Didn't I tell you about it a while ago? Director Zhang from the forest farm wants to buy your family's job quota. Director Zhang wants you to go to Xiangyang Forest Farm tomorrow to discuss it in person."

"Oh, finally some news?" Zhou Rui's eyes lit up.

"Director Zhang was getting a little anxious, saying he almost came to the village to find you himself. There was something going on in the village recently, and I didn't have time to go to town, so I didn't have time to tell Director Zhang about your agreement. After you finished your land reclamation work, I went to the commune to report, and that's when I notified him. As soon as he heard, he told me to quickly inform you and ask you to come over tomorrow morning." Xiangyang Forest Farm is right next to Hongqi Town, and Jiaolong Gorge is quite far from the town, more than twenty li away. The village doesn't have a telephone, so information exchange is severely delayed.

"Alright, I'll make a trip tomorrow and sell the job openings as soon as possible to get it over with, so that people won't keep eyeing them," Zhou Rui said sarcastically.

"How about I go with you tomorrow?" Zhao Youzhi was worried that Zhou Rui was too young and would be fooled.

Zhou Rui understood Zhao Youzhi's concerns, but still refused. "No need, Grandpa Zhao, you have too many things to do. Anyway, the agreed price won't change. I'll just exchange it for something that's hard to get outside, it'll be fine."

"Alright, since you've made up your mind, I won't say anything more. Come to my house tomorrow morning, I'll lend you my bicycle and give you a letter of introduction, just in case anything goes wrong on the way. You know how to ride that bike, right?"

"Yes, I've secretly ridden the village committee's bicycle before. Hehe..." Zhou Rui chuckled to himself.

Zhao Youzhi didn't care. Lots of kids in the village would sneak off and ride the village committee's bicycles; as long as they didn't break them, it was fine. "When you get to Xiangyang Forest Farm, don't say anything else. Just say you're Director Zhang's cousin from his hometown, and that you need to pass on a message to him if something happens at home."

"Okay, I understand," Zhou Rui nodded.

The next morning, Zhou Rui and his family went out after breakfast, carrying a large, live carp. Zhou Rui planned to take Zhou Ping and the others to Sister Xinghua's for a day. Actually, it would have been better to go to Aunt Changchun's house, but Aunt Changchun didn't have any rice cakes to eat, so they had to go to Sister Xinghua's.

After settling his younger siblings in, Zhou Rui went to the village chief's house, took the letter of introduction prepared by the chief, and rode off on his bicycle. He rode for two hours to reach the town. Zhou Rui felt the road was terrible; if it were better, he believed he could have arrived in an hour.

Xiangyang Forest Farm is easy to find; Zhou Rui had passed by its gate before when he and his father went to the market in town. Xiangyang Forest Farm is quite large, with over four hundred full-time employees and more than a thousand families living there. When work is heavy, there are seven or eight hundred temporary workers at the farm. A large part of the reason Hongqi Town is so bustling is because of Xiangyang Forest Farm.

Zhou Rui rode his bicycle to the forest farm and pushed it towards the gate.

"What are you doing here?" A young man in his twenties from the forest farm's security department blocked his way.

"Brother, my name is Zhou Rui. I'm the cousin of Zhang Zhenbei, the logistics director of the forest farm. There's something going on at home, and they asked me to pass on a message to my uncle," Zhou Rui said calmly.

Seeing Zhou Rui's calm demeanor, the man assumed he wasn't lying, but he still had to fulfill his duty.

"Wait a minute, I'll make a call and ask."

Zhou Rui didn't say anything, but after agreeing, he pushed the car aside and waited quietly.

After a short while, the young man came out and said, "Go inside. Once inside, walk north along this road until you reach the building with the big chimney. That's the forest farm's canteen, and the logistics department is to the west of the canteen."

"Okay, thanks, bro."