Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

Early in the morning, just as dawn was breaking, Squad Leader Li led his soldiers out of bed on time. Although they didn't have to do morning exercises, the habit they had developed forced them to get up early.

The meal had already been prepared outside; it was hot rice porridge with an unknown amount of meat added by Zhang Shitou.

These are badgers that Zhou Rui and Zhang Shitou hunted before dawn. The bears they hunted were too frozen to cut after several days, otherwise they wouldn't have gone out hunting so hastily.

Despite his shoulder injury, Zhou Rui was still able to use his senses to find prey. Working together with Zhang Shitou, they quickly took down a den of hibernating badgers.

"Squad Leader Li, come and have breakfast."

"Comrade Zhou, Comrade Zhang, good morning. Why are you up so early?"

"I've seen you guys chasing those spies for so many days, you must not have been eating well. My third senior brother and I got up early to hunt some badgers for you to stew."

Zhang Shitou didn't speak, but nodded in agreement with Zhou Rui. In his mind, being a soldier was an honor, and someone he admired.

The other soldiers were also excited, each holding a mess kit and lining up to wait for Zhang Shitou to serve them porridge. But there were hardly any grains of rice in the porridge; it was mostly meat.

"Mmm, it smells so good." Squad Leader Li sat in the seat closest to Zhou Rui and the others and took a big gulp.

"By the way, do you two want to join the army? I can ask our company commander to recommend you for service on our farm."

Zhou Rui and Zhang Shitou exchanged a glance, surprised that Squad Leader Li would have such an idea.

"Squad Leader Li, I probably can't go. My parents are both deceased, and I'm the eldest in my family. I have younger siblings and a niece to care for, so I can't leave home."

After hearing this, Squad Leader Li understood perfectly. Zhou Rui was now the pillar of the family; if the pillar left the home, the house would collapse.

However, he still looked at Zhang Shitou with hope, hoping for an unexpected surprise. These two were his most promising candidates, and they had already been through real combat; with a little training, they would be excellent soldiers.

"Me too. My parents are getting old, and I'm their only son. I still want to get married and give my parents a big, healthy grandson."

Zhang Shitou was a little nervous when he spoke. He wasn't used to talking to people he didn't know well, especially since the other person was a soldier he admired the most.

However, that was the reality, and Zhang Shitou had no choice but to refuse this huge windfall.

"Sigh, what a pity." Squad Leader Li sighed, just like Lin Guoqiang had before.

Before long, everyone woke up, ate some hot rice and meat porridge, and then started to descend the mountain.

With so many more people, pulling their prey became much easier. Zhou Rui's breakfast wasn't for nothing; people had to work for him.

As they approached Hongqi Town, Lin Guoqiang and Squad Leader Li were about to say goodbye to Zhou Rui and the others, as they were going to take another route to the county town.

"Xiao Zhou Rui, I'll take the gun back with me for now. Don't wait too long, I'll come find you with the certificate and gun license."

Zhou Rui nodded. He had nothing to worry about. He believed that Lin Guoqiang was a man of his word and wouldn't lie to him.

However, before leaving, he still asked one question: he wanted to know how much he had contributed.

"Minister Lin, may I know why these spies came here?"

Lin Guoqiang paused for a moment, thinking that Zhou Rui was a determined farmer who had performed meritorious service twice, and there was nothing he couldn't say. After all, they hadn't been interrogated yet, and he didn't know much.

"Actually, we don't know much about it. We only know that Tong Jinjun, this old spy, secretly contacted the labor reformers on the farm through Lao Qin, the cook at the forest farm."

"A former convict? That man used to work for the government, passing intelligence to spies? But we didn't find any intelligence during our search."

"I'm not entirely sure. But that person was a physics professor, and I heard he used to work at some research institute. He was sent to a farm for reform through labor after being reported for feudalism, capitalism, and revisionism."

"A physics professor? A research institute?" Zhou Rui pondered for a moment, then suddenly looked up. "Do you think they might not be after the intelligence, but rather want to get rid of the person?"

"What did you think of?" Lin Guoqiang suddenly grabbed Zhou Rui's shoulders with both hands, very excited.

"Ouch!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I got too excited and forgot you still have a shoulder injury." Lin Guoqiang said apologetically.

"It's nothing." Zhou Rui shook his left shoulder slightly, feeling that there shouldn't be any problem. However, he still needed to remove the bullet as soon as they arrived at Xiangyang Forest Farm.

"I was thinking, what does a country's technological development rely on? Isn't it these top science professors?"

"Where did our giant mushroom come from? And where did their Type 56 semi-automatic rifles come from? Weren't they all made by these professors?"

Do you think the Russians know that professor is a very capable person, so they want to kidnap him and take him to Russia to do research and manufacturing for them?

Zhou Rui offered him a different perspective. After all, these were things he had seen online in later generations, and many countries had done similar things.

Moreover, he didn't want these capable professors to suffer on the farm. He gave Lin Guoqiang a suggestion, saying that perhaps the farm could bring about some different changes.

"Perhaps you could conduct a survey of the labor camp inmates on your farm and see what abilities they possess. Many of them might be quite capable and have been targeted by spies from other countries."

Since he'd already brought it up, Zhou Rui didn't mind saying a little more. Anyway, he was just a good kid with impeccable morals, so no one should bother him.

"Yes, yes, yes, that's a great idea. We always thought Tong Jinjun was just here to steal intelligence, we never imagined he could also steal people. I'll definitely interrogate him myself and give him a real shock, haha..."

Lin Guoqiang laughed heartily, seemingly pleased that he had grasped crucial information. He thought that if he used this approach to trick him during the interrogation, he might get unexpected results.

Everyone soon parted ways, and Lin Guoqiang was a little reluctant to leave. If it weren't for Zhou Rui's family circumstances, he really wanted to bring Zhou Rui back and have him serve as his soldier.

When Zhou Rui and his men were struggling to drag their prey to the entrance of the forest farm, Tao Guobing spotted them from afar.

Tao Guobing helped Zhou Rui and his group pull the prey to the door and even made a phone call to the canteen to ask someone to come and help. This was because of the goodwill Zhou Rui had built up over the past few days; otherwise, Tao Guobing might not have even paid attention to other people.

"What's wrong, brother? Are you injured?" Tao Guobing looked at Zhou Rui's bleeding shoulder and personally lit a cigarette for him.

"It's nothing, I fought a bunch of wanted criminals and got shot." Zhou Rui exhaled smoke rings, his expression revealing his true feelings. "But I didn't lose out either, they were all taken down and handed over to the government."