Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

The next day, before dawn, Zhou Rui woke up and gradually woke up Wang Shouye and the others.

Zhou Rui made a lot of noise, waking up Wang Xiaolong.

"What are you doing? Making such a racket so late at night."

Wang Xiaolong has a terrible temper when he wakes up; he already carried a huge bag of canned food yesterday. Then, his fellow disciple Xie Yongjiang, wanting to show off in front of Zhou Rui and the others, hunted a roe deer.

By the time they picked the vegetables and cooked them, it was more than an hour later than Zhou Rui and the others went to sleep. Now, they felt sore all over and could hardly get up.

Now that some of the hunters in Taiping Town had woken up, Zhou Rui became even more unceremonious and started shouting loudly.

"It's getting late, time to get up."

"Little brat, what are you yelling for? Whether we leave or not is not up to you," Xie Zhihua said in a muffled voice.

He and his brother Xie Zhijie are getting on in years; while they are experienced, their physical condition is not what it used to be. They don't get enough rest at night, and their strength hasn't fully recovered yet.

Wang Shouye strode over and blocked Zhou Rui's path.

"Thank you, Brother Xie. Our mission is to rescue people, not to play around. We've been entrusted with this task, so we can't slack off."

There are some things Zhou Rui can't say, but Wang Shouye can, and he can say them quite harshly.

"Brother Wang, my brother didn't say anything. You're being a bit harsh. Since we've accepted Director Qin's important task, we will naturally do our best. You can rest assured."

Xie Zhijie sat up, a deep glint in his eyes, and retorted without hesitation. Those words were too harsh; they couldn't accept them.

"Whether you've done your best or not isn't determined by words." Wang Shouye's lips curled into a cold smile.

We've always been competitors, and since yesterday they've been acting all high and mighty, which is really annoying.

"Hmph!" Xie Zhijie was a little embarrassed, thinking that Wang Shouye was taking advantage of his reputation and not giving his two brothers any face.

He kicked Luo Hao hard: "Get up, stop sleeping."

Luo Hao was asleep when he was suddenly kicked, instantly waking him up. Still bewildered, he felt a slap land on his head.

"All he does is eat, he never does anything productive all day."

Upon seeing this, Wang Xiaolong immediately moved away.

He knew that his master had just been angered by Wang Shouye and had vented his anger on his senior brother, so he couldn't let himself be affected as well.

He quickly woke Xie Yongjiang, thinking to himself, "My nephew is the best. Even if my master is angry, he won't hit him."

Zhou Rui and the others ate their breakfast in silence, ignoring the commotion on the other side.

Fortunately, the hunters in Taiping Town didn't cause any more trouble. After getting up, they ate some dry food and canned food to fill their stomachs and didn't touch the leftover roe deer meat from yesterday.

Two or three hours later, Hu Dongmu led his group to the foot of a cliff. The rocks here were steep and the terrain was complex, situated at the intersection of several small hills.

"Is this where we got lost?"

Wang Shouye, Xie Zhihua, and the others looked at this place with somewhat somber expressions. The area was filled with towering boulders, sparse trees, and a complex network of paths; one could almost disappear from sight after just a few steps.

"Why did you come here? And why did you get separated?" Xie Zhijie asked in a deep voice.

"Because these city folks wanted to catch gyrfalcons, and I knew there was a gyrfalcon nest up ahead."

"As for getting separated, it was because we heard the roar of the mountain lord. The sound was so loud that it almost deafened people."

The two girls were terrified and ran away as fast as they could, no matter how much we called out to them. He Wu and I chased after them, but they disappeared from sight.

As Zhou Rui surveyed the terrain, he listened to He Wudi's description, which seemed largely accurate. There might be slight discrepancies in the details, but the overall picture was not significantly different.

He had learned on his way here that He Wu was a herb gatherer who made a living in the mountains, unlike them who were hunters.

Moreover, he only had a homemade gun, so he probably wasn't very good at shooting.

It is true that they were frightened and scattered after hearing the tiger's roar.

The roar of a tiger is terrifying in itself, and in this valley, the sound is amplified, which could indeed frighten an ordinary person.

"Uncle, Second Uncle, what should we do?" Xie Yongjiang asked in a low voice from the side.

Xie Zhihua watched as his three hunting dogs and Wang Shouye's dog, the one with its head bowed, darted around within a radius of several dozen meters without reacting at all, and he knew that there was not a single clue.

"We'll have to split up and search. In this kind of terrain, it's easy to get lost even for experienced mountain hikers, let alone city kids. It seems like things aren't looking good."

Xie Zhijie nodded in agreement: "That's the only way. Whether they live or die depends on their luck."

After discussing it, the two split the five people into two teams, and Gouzi was also separated. They left without asking Wang Shouye and his group or Director Hu Dongmu for their opinions.

Wang Shouye and his group watched quietly, their expressions indifferent. They had long known that the two groups could not cooperate, so they were not at all surprised by Xie Zhihua's behavior.

They're too lazy to even say hello; they're still too petty.

"They're all gone, what should we do?"

After everyone had gone far away, Hu Dongmu asked in a low voice, categorizing himself as Zhou Rui's side.

Through his interactions with them yesterday, he already knew that Wang Xiaolong and his group looked down on him, and that if he went with them, he would be shunned.

"Sharpening the axe won't delay the work of chopping wood. Let's have a meeting first and analyze how to find the right people," Gu Dayong said, bringing out all the tactics he used in battle.

They have a method to fighting. The goal is to eliminate the enemy, but there must be a plan for how and when to fight. They can't just rush forward blindly.

Wang Shouye looked at Zhou Rui. This kid was quick-witted and always had some ingenious ideas.

Zhou Rui didn't immediately state his thoughts, but instead turned to look at Hu Dongmu. He had sensed it when he was standing there earlier; there was no one nearby, so it seemed they had run far away.

"Are you sure it was the two girls who ran away first?"

Zhou Rui wanted a definite answer because men and women think differently.

"Yes," Hu Dongmu nodded in affirmation.

"Which way did it run?"

"Go that way."

Hu Dongmu pointed to a road that looked open and somewhat flat. Of course, it wasn't really a road, but it looked easier to walk on.

Zhou Rui nodded; it made sense.

Those rich kids from the city were terrified and ran without any rhyme or reason. Subconsciously, they would probably run towards the easier places, but that might not be the case afterward.

"Then let's search that way first. When you first start running away, you'll instinctively take the easiest route."

After running until you're tired or lost, you'll try to find your way to higher ground, paying close attention to mountain paths and looking for places with footholds.

Zhou Rui was the first to express his thoughts.

"City kids can't tell directions and they're not physically strong enough to climb steep places, so we try to find places where it's easy to put our feet down."

"Also, are all five of them together? What if the girl gets separated from the group? Will she find a safe place to hide?"

Once the conversation started, everyone offered their opinions and engaged in a lively discussion.