Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

On the snow-covered plains of the mountains, a figure was flying at breakneck speed. There were no obstacles, no speed limit signs; Zhou Rui could fly as fast as he wanted.

Zhou Rui listened to the whistling wind in his ears and felt a surge of exhilaration. It had been a long time since he had felt so carefree. Zhou Rui recalled the feeling of speeding along the highway on a motorcycle in his past life.

The moonlight was bright enough for Zhou Rui's eyesight, which was above average.

"Alas……"

Zhou Rui let out a strange cry and rushed onto a small snowdrift.

"Holy crap..."

Joy turned to sorrow. Zhou Rui was briefly suspended in the air before discovering that what lay below was not a flat snowfield, but a patch of withered shrubs covering an area of ​​about twenty or thirty square meters.

With his body suspended in mid-air, Zhou Rui had no way to change direction, so he could only cover his head with his hands and curl up as much as possible.

Bang, splash... swish...

After Zhou Rui landed, he crashed into the bushes, breaking off all the dead branches and carving out a snow ditch five or six meters long.

"Ugh, what bad luck." Zhou Rui sat up and spat out a small amount of snow foam to the side.

He never expected that this little snowball would turn out like this. He moved his leg slightly; the plank was a bit loose, but thankfully it wasn't broken, otherwise he would have had to walk out of the mountains.

Ding-dong...

Oh no! Zhou Rui quickly took off his backpack and opened it to take a look.

Sure enough, the two bottles of baijiu collided and shattered. Zhou Rui emptied his bag, along with the glass shards, and then he saw two baijiu bottles that looked like hand grenades.

Zhou Rui picked one up, took a bite, and decided not to waste it. It was crunchy and had a wine aroma; perfect for warming up.

Zhou Rui took a few bites, stuffed the frozen liquor and other items into his bag, leaving only shards of glass on the floor. Since it couldn't melt anyway, the bottle didn't matter.

Zhou Rui tightened his skis again, then activated his sixth sense to scan the area. There were no large, predatory animals nearby; it was relatively safe.

Zhou Rui stood up and found the wooden stick he used as a ski pole among a pile of dry branches. He held it in his hand and twirled it in the air a few times; thankfully, it wasn't broken.

Zhou Rui stopped causing trouble after that, fearing that being too high-profile would provoke divine retribution.

Finally arriving at the hot spring pool, Zhou Rui's head and face were covered in frost. Even though he was physically strong and unharmed, he still looked extremely disheveled.

Zhou Rui couldn't wait to take off his clothes and jumped in with a splash. The hot water reached up to his waist, wiping away his fatigue.

After soaking for about ten minutes, Zhou Rui felt completely relaxed. He picked up a towel and dried himself off.

Under the moonlight, Zhou Rui's body resembled a leopard, slender yet powerful. Zhou Rui touched his left shoulder; the gunshot wound had completely healed, and even the scar had faded to almost invisible.

It seems our ancestors' methods were quite amazing. With the body modified like this, wouldn't it be possible to slice it up?

Zhou Rui silently thought to himself, "It seems I shouldn't show off my abilities too much in front of others in the future, lest they notice something unusual about me."

Zhou Rui dressed neatly and stayed in the cave for half an hour to rest and recover his strength and energy.

Just as dawn was breaking, Zhou Rui arrived at Gujiatun. When he got to Gu Shaofeng's house, some people were already up, and wisps of smoke were rising from the chimney.

"Brother Gu." Zhou Rui called out to Gu Shaoting, who was sweeping snow in the yard.

"Hey. Xiao Rui?"

Gu Shaoting put down the broom, walked over and opened the courtyard gate. As he walked, a look of worry gradually appeared on his face.

"Xiao Rui, is something wrong?"

Gu Shaoting's eyebrows furrowed. That's how hunters are; they're afraid of bad news unless they see their family members immediately.

"It's nothing, it's nothing. We just hunted a bit too much prey and came to ask for your help." Zhou Rui quickly explained to avoid any misunderstanding and to prevent Gu Shaoting's family from worrying.

"Oh, that's good."

When Gu Shaoting heard that nothing had happened, his expression immediately relaxed, and he didn't even hear the last sentence clearly.

"Come on, let's go inside and talk."

Gu Shaoting ushered Zhou Rui into the house. Seeing Zhou Rui's face and body covered in ice crystals, he knew that Zhou Rui had traveled late at night to get here.

Zhou Rui walked into the inner room, where Gu Yunshen and Aunt Gu were already up. Aunt Gu was tidying up the household items, while Uncle Gu sat on the kang (a heated brick bed) smoking a pipe.

Mr. Gu and his wife are getting old and don't sleep much, so they wake up very early.

"Uncle Gu, Aunt Gu, I'm here."

Zhou Rui greeted them with a smile; if he had kept a stern face, the old couple would have been terrified.

"Ruiwa, you're here. Please have a seat. Shaoting, go get Ruiwa some water."

"Ruiwa, have you eaten? It's cooking in the pot right now. Wait a moment, I'll bring it up right away."

"If you get hungry, have some biscuits first. These were bought by your senior brother. Our teeth aren't very good, so we've left them here."

The elderly couple were very hospitable, greeting Zhou Rui warmly as soon as he entered the house.

"Oh, thank you, ma'am." Zhou Rui didn't stand on ceremony; the more polite she was, the more forcefully she pulled him. He didn't want to suffer that pain.

"Sir, I've come to ask you for help. It's like this, about yesterday..."

Zhou Rui described the hunting trip to Hongxing Town to Gu Yunshen.

Gu Yun Shen didn't interrupt and listened quietly. But at some point, a pair of small ears appeared by the kang (heated brick bed), listening intently.

"I might need you to find some people to come with me into the mountains later. I'll borrow a big truck from Xiangyang Forest Farm to pick them up."

"Uncle Rui, did you really hunt that many blue sheep? And also wolves and leopards?"

Upon hearing the voice, Zhou Rui turned around and saw that it was Gu Shaoting's son, Gu Yubao. This kid loved thrills and was always pestering Gu Shaofeng to let him shoot guns. He also loved listening to his uncle tell stories about the mountains.

"Mhm." Zhou Rui nodded.

"Hey kid, we're talking about serious business, don't interrupt," Gu Yun Shen said softly.

"Ruiwa, how many people do you need? I need to think about it."

"We'll need about twenty people. There are over ten thousand catties of meat in total, but the road is relatively easy to travel. We just need to pull the sleds; we don't need to carry it by hand. Twenty people should be enough."

However, it takes a long time, about two or three days round trip. My master said that each person would be paid two yuan per day, plus five jin of meat.

Ideally, these people should all be family relatives. After all, if there's too much meat, outsiders will be envious.

"Two yuan a day per person, plus five jin of meat for free, that's too much. This is unacceptable, unacceptable."

Just then, Aunt Gu came in, carrying a bowl of cornmeal porridge and a lot of sticky rice cakes.

"Aunt Gu, this isn't much. In this freezing weather, they walk dozens of miles back and forth in the mountains, and then they have to sleep there at night. Even if they're relatives, you can't expect them to do things for free, can you?"

"Old woman, Ruiwa is right. You don't need to worry about this anymore."

"Ruiwa, I'll have the boss go door-to-door to call people. Don't worry, they'll all be our own people and won't gossip about it."

Gu Yunshen tapped his pipe on the table, settling the matter. He was a sensible man; this job concerned his own Xiao Wu's interests, so he had to handle it well.

"Uncle Rui, I want to go too." Gu Yubao looked at Zhou Rui, her eyes pleading.