Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

A commotion arose among the crowd. Then, the sound of dogs barking came from the mist, and several dogs darted out from behind the shadows, followed by a joyful cry.

"Ruiwa, I am your senior brother."

The figure drew closer, and its face gradually became clearer.

"So it's Brother Shaofeng."

"Shaofeng, you were so quiet, you gave me a fright."

"Shaofeng, you're not planning to scare us with your antics like you did when we were kids, are you?"

Before Zhou Rui could respond, Gu's relatives started chattering away.

They were all Gu Shaofeng's uncles and cousins; some had watched him grow up, while others had played with him in the mud as children. They joked about Gu Shaofeng quite naturally.

"Seventh Uncle, Eighteenth Uncle, Third Cousin, Shunzi... you're all here."

"I heard you did a great job, hunting so many animals you couldn't get them down the mountain. That's why the whole family came to help you."

Gu Shaoting picked up the conversation. This fifth brother seemed clever, but he wasn't very good at social skills. Unlike Gu Shaoting, who was much older and very eloquent.

Although I paid my relatives to come and help, I still feel indebted to them for coming all the way to this unfamiliar forest to do their work.

Although Gu Shaofeng didn't quite understand, he would still go along with his older brother's orders.

"Thank you to all my uncles and brothers for your help. I am young and not very capable, so I need the help of the elders of the Gu family and my brothers in many things."

There's not much in these mountains. When we get home, I'm going to treat everyone to a good drink; there'll be plenty of good wine.

"Not bad, not bad. Shaofeng has become more sensible, and his temperament has become much more stable."

"The fifth son of the sixteen families has really grown up. He not only learned a great skill from Wang Pao, but he's also quite formidable in this arena."

"Well done, Brother Shaofeng, you're so generous!"

Gu Shaofeng walked up to Gu Shaoting: "Big brother, what brings you here?"

Gu Shaoting patted Gu Shaofeng on the shoulder: "Your parents asked me to come and see how you're doing."

He leaned closer and whispered something.

"And also help Ruiwa maintain order."

Zhou Rui ignored Gu Shaofeng and the Gu family's pleasantries and focused on playing with Da Mao, Tie Tou, and the other dogs.

After a while, Gu Shaofeng led the group deeper into the mountains, without Zhou Rui in the group.

Since Gu Shaofeng was leading the way, Zhou Rui was no longer needed. So Zhou Rui stayed with Wang Jianping to wait there, so that it wouldn't be inappropriate for him to be alone.

Actually, Wang Jianping didn't need to wait here indefinitely; he could have gone back to the forest farm. But he didn't want to go back and preferred to stay in these mountains with Zhou Rui.

"So comfortable." Wang Jianping leaned against the edge of the hot spring pool, the hot water washing over his chest. He rested his hands on the edge of the pool, looking completely at ease.

"Brother Zhou, what are we having for lunch today?"

With his eyes closed, Zhou Rui answered casually, "This valley is quite large. Although there aren't any large ferocious beasts, there are still some small animals."

"Oh!" Wang Jianping lowered his hands and suddenly stood up. "Let's go, let's go hunting."

"Why the rush? Those prey aren't going anywhere. Soak a little longer, it'll help your muscles and improve blood circulation." Zhou Rui was a little speechless. He's a father now, how come he still loves to play around like this?

"I'm hungry." Wang Jianping didn't waste any words and shut Zhou Rui down with just one sentence.

Wang Jianping quickly got dressed and kept urging Zhou Rui, who was still slowly drying his hair, to hurry up.

"Zhou Rui, hurry up."

"Hey Wang, it's only warmer around the pool. Further out, it's just as cold as outside. If you don't dry your hair, it'll freeze solid the moment you step outside."

Unexpectedly, Wang Jianping didn't care at all. He casually smoothed his hair, put on his hat, and pulled Zhou Rui away.

Deep in the valley, Zhou Rui and his companion stood still.

"Brother Zhou Rui, which way do we go?"

"Let's go east. I already hunted in the west a few days ago, and there's much less game there; it's harder to find anything there."

With that, Zhou Rui led Wang Jianping toward the west side of the valley.

"Look, a pheasant. Brother Zhou, let me use your gun for a bit." Wang Jianping was very happy; even a small pheasant excited him.

"Are you crazy? My gun is 7.92mm caliber. This pheasant is so small, one shot and there won't be much meat left." Zhou Rui looked at Wang Jianping with disdain.

"Then what will we use to fight?"

"Here." Zhou Rui pulled out a slingshot and a bag of pellets from his lower back.

"This..." Wang Jianping said with a hint of disdain.

Zhou Rui turned his head and smiled: "What, you don't want it?"

"Of course I want it. Something is better than nothing, right?" Wang Jianping reluctantly took the slingshot.

He picked it up and tried it out, but he was a bit rusty. He hadn't played with this slingshot in over ten years, and he wondered if he still had some of the skill he had when he was young, although he wasn't particularly good at it back then.

Whoosh. The bullet flew over the heads of several pheasants, still quite a distance away. The pheasants didn't even react, still pecking at grass seeds on the ground.

Coo...coo.

"Hehe... I'm still a novice, I'm still a novice."

Wang Jianping chuckled and took another bullet from his bag, put it in his ammunition pouch, and aimed at it for a long time.

Whoosh, bang. The bullet struck the center of several pheasants, blasting open a snow crater, and the pheasants spread their wings and fled, half-flying and half-running away.

Wang Jianping was dumbfounded. His lunch had been stolen; how was he going to explain it?

Wang Jianping's eyes darted around, and he crossed his arms. "Hmm, these pheasants are too skinny; they probably won't taste very good. Let's go find some other prey."

Afterwards, Zhou Rui led him around a few times, and they saw a few pheasants and rabbits, but unfortunately Wang Jianping didn't keep a single hair.

Zhou Rui finally understood: Wang Jianping was the kind of person who was both incompetent and loved to play around. Perhaps he was born with the wrong talents; he could swing a steering wheel with incredible skill, but he couldn't even handle a small slingshot.

"Why don't you do it?" Wang Jianping handed the slingshot back to Zhou Rui, his stomach rumbling at the same time. He was really hungry this time.

Zhou Rui retrieved the slingshot, but instead of holding it in his hand, he tucked it back into his waistband.

"Let's go. While you were hunting rabbits, I already found a target." Zhou Rui casually brushed it off, but in reality, he had already locked onto a den of badgers through his sixth sense.

Zhou Rui walked to the side, found a tree trunk about the thickness of a goose egg, and swiftly chopped it down with a cleaver.

"Here, take it."

Wang Jianping, holding the wooden stick Zhou Rui had sharpened, looked surprised: "What are you going to do with this?"

"Come with me."

Zhou Rui led Wang Jianping back to a raised snowdrift. There had been pheasants foraging here just now, but Wang Jianping had startled them away.

Zhou Rui arrived at the small snowdrift and found three cave entrances after just one round. With no rocks nearby, Zhou Rui started rolling snowballs.

"What are you looking at? Hurry up and make a big snowball, just enough to block this hole."

"oh oh."

Wang Jianping didn't understand, but he still started rolling the snowball, and it got bigger and bigger.

"That's fine."

Zhou Rui picked up two snowballs, each about forty centimeters in diameter, and forcefully stuffed them into the hole. He then stomped on them twice to make them firm.

Next, Zhou Rui led Wang Jianping to the last hole, skillfully took out a firecracker from his bag, lit it, and stuffed it into the hole.

"Remember, fight whatever comes out."

As he spoke, he took two steps back from behind Wang Jianping to avoid being hit by the stick.

Boom... Boom!