Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

"Second brother, second brother, wake up."

Zhou Rui tilted his head and looked in the direction of the sound. All he could see was darkness, with only a few blurry heads moving in front of him.

What the hell? How dare they come to provoke me? Zhou Rui's eyes were still blurry, his mind not fully activated. He subconsciously clenched his thumb and forefinger and flicked them out.

"Ouch."

A cry of pain rang out.

"Second brother, what's wrong?"

An'an was woken up by the noise and immediately sat up. But she couldn't see anyone in front of her, so she could only grope her way to Zhou Rui.

The flashlight shone, a beam of light swept across, and then Liu Ping'an, Liu Shunli, Xiao Huaishu, and Zhou Ping, who was covering his forehead, stood in front of the kang (a heated brick bed).

"What are you doing?" Zhou Rui asked, glancing out the window. It was pitch black outside.

"It's not even dawn yet! You guys standing here like this are terrifying, you know?"

"Second brother, don't we have to get up early to go hunting in the mountains? I see you've always been this early."

When Zhou Ping opened his hands, his forehead was already red, showing how strong Zhou Rui's grip was.

"I hunt to support my family so I can get up the mountain and back as soon as possible. Today I'm just taking you guys out for some fun, nothing fancy."

"You all go to Pingwa's room, I want to sleep a little longer."

After saying that, Zhou Rui lay down and hugged An'an. Children need to sleep more, otherwise they won't grow tall.

After sleeping comfortably for another two hours, Zhou Rui woke up to find it was already dawn.

He lifted his arms with force, stretched, and immediately felt refreshed.

Zhou Rui got up and went to the kitchen, where he saw Zhou Ping and the other two sitting in front of the stove, with steam rising from the pot in front of them.

Upon seeing Zhou Rui enter, Liu Shunli quickly stood up and lifted the pot lid.

"Rui-ge, let's eat. There's cornbread made by my mom, steamed pancakes made by Sister Huaihua, and steamed buns made by Brother Ping in case there wasn't enough. Which one do you want?"

Zhou Rui peeked inside and, sure enough, there were three kinds of food in the steamer of the large pot.

The cornbread and flatbread were alright. But these steamed buns, although made of white flour, were all oddly shaped and varied in size—were they even steamed buns?

Zhou Rui glanced at it with disdain, guessing that the steamed buns were the handiwork of these little guys.

He casually picked up a pancake and took a bite. It had been a long time since he had eaten this kind of multigrain pancake. It was a bit rough on his throat, but it was better than eating that unverified steamed bun.

"Second brother, would you like another steamed bun? We made this together with the four of us."

Sure enough, the little locust tree revealed the secret in one sentence, but Zhou Rui still didn't eat it.

"Give me two more steamed buns, you can keep these for yourselves."

About half an hour later, everyone was dressed and ready to set off.

At this moment, Zhou Rui suddenly remembered that he had promised to take Liu Qingguo hunting in the mountains. Moreover, Liu Qingguo had mentioned this matter at the dinner table a few days ago when Xiao Niangao had her birthday.

"Pingwa, you're fast. Go find Brother Liu Jiaqing and tell him you're going hunting in the mountains."

"An'an, go to the educated youth compound and find Sister Qiuyue. Ask her to come to our house and help Xiaoniangao. Tell her that when we get home, we'll treat her to barbecue."

"Alright, second brother."

"I'll go and call Sister Qiuyue right now."

Zhou Ping turned and ran away, while An An happily raised her hands.

Before long, Lin Qiuyue and the other three women arrived. They now basically act together, and they always go out together for anything.

"Great, Comrade Xiao Rui. You just treated us to a big meal, and now you're having meat again?"

Yang Ping always speaks in a very blunt and unreserved manner, and she doesn't stand on ceremony with Zhou Rui.

"Hehe...Isn't this troubling you? You'd better take good care of my meals. After all, I'm not a miser, and even the emperor doesn't starve his soldiers."

"Comrade Zhou Rui, your awareness is truly remarkable."

Yang Ping slapped Zhou Rui on the shoulder twice, like a high-ranking leader.

Lin Qiuyue and the others didn't interrupt, and watched the two tease each other with smiles.

I feel that life in the countryside is not bad. At least I don't have to be as careful with my words as I am in the city, for fear of being caught doing something wrong.

Lin Qiuyue, in particular, has been living a very cautious life in Shanghai these past two years, like a rabbit hunting for food in the wild, retreating at the slightest disturbance.

"Come on, give me the small rice cake, you're about to go up the mountain, right?"

Zhou Rui handed the girl over, and Xiao Niangao immediately turned around and hugged Lin Qiuyue's neck without any resistance, seemingly enjoying Lin Qiuyue's scent.

"We'll have to wait a bit longer, there's still one person missing! But you might have a tiring day, this little one probably wants to learn to walk now, and doesn't want to be carried all the time."

"Wine, wine."

Seemingly having triggered some mechanism, Little Rice Cake twisted its body, trying to crawl down.

"Alcohol? You let Xiaoniangao drink alcohol?"

He Wei turned to Zhou Rui. Everyone says that girls from Northeast China can drink a lot, but surely they're not allowed to drink at such a young age?

"No, no," Zhou Rui quickly waved his hand, acting as the translator.

"She meant 'go,' the 'go' in 'walk,' not the 'go' in 'drink.'"

Yu Sitian stepped forward and gently pinched Xiao Niangao's cheek.

"How cute! They're learning to talk and walking at the same time."

Little Rice Cake slapped Yu Sitian's hand away. These adults are so annoying, they just love to pinch her.

A moment later, two figures came running from a distance.

"Ruiwa, you've finally agreed to take me up the mountain."

Liu Qingguo carried his old-fashioned Type 38 rifle, his face beaming with joy.

"I don't usually have time, but I took Pingwa up the mountain to practice today, and I thought I'd invite you along. But we don't have any specific goal today, maybe we'll just be able to hunt some pheasants or rabbits."

"Okay, okay, let's go then."

Liu Qingguo enjoys hunting, and when he gets into it, he's just as enthusiastic as Liu Ping'an and his group of teenagers.

Seeing that everyone was ready, Zhou Rui immediately left. He was afraid that if he stayed too long, Xiao Niangao would look for him and he wouldn't be able to leave.

Zhou Rui hadn't been to the mountains behind the village for a while, and he wondered if the ecology of the mountains had recovered after the jackals' rampage.

After walking through the canyon, An'an was too tired to walk any further. She stayed on Zhou Rui's back the whole time, and didn't even get off when they went up the mountain.

ji...

A gyrfalcon swiftly flew across the canyon, and all that could be seen when people looked up was its tail.

Zhou Rui nodded. Seeing the eagle flying low meant there was prey, which was good news.

On a snowy slope on the vast snowfield, a group of people lay prone in a line on the ground. About fifty meters away, opposite them, was a gray-white wild rabbit.

Liu Qingguo, Zhou Ping, and Liu Shunli each had a rifle and aimed it at the wild rabbit.

"Ruiwa, are you really going to make the three of us shoot? I feel like that's such a waste."

"Don't make a sound. You're all aimed at. This is for you to practice your shooting. What does this have to do with whether or not to waste your time?"

Zhou Rui lay prone to the side, holding a slingshot, ready to finish off the three. To ensure the kids had fun, Zhou Rui had even given up his own 98K, though without a scope.

Bang, bang, bang—three gunshots rang out simultaneously.