Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

Zhou Rui woke up early in the morning and looked at An'an, Xiao Niangao, and Zhou Ping lined up on the kang (a heated brick bed), his heart filled with happiness. Last night, Zhou Ping had slept with An'an and Xiao Niangao while they went to the black market. It was already late when they returned, so Zhou Rui didn't wake Zhou Ping but lay down next to An'an. Waking up to find his family, whom he had lost in his previous life, all by his side, Zhou Rui no longer felt lost, but only had boundless motivation.

Zhou Rui silently watched the little figures, gently stroking An'an's face, afraid that if he used too much force, he would wake up and find that it was all a dream.

Zhou Rui was busy in the yard that morning when a commotion arose outside. He went out and saw Uncle Liu directing about a dozen villagers to clear a site about thirty meters from his house. Zhou Rui inquired and learned that the village chief and Uncle Liu had inspected the site a couple of days prior; the old houses were no longer usable. Ultimately, the brigade leadership decided to demolish several old houses and build a new courtyard as collective dormitories for the educated youth sent to the countryside.

So early this morning, Uncle Liu led a group of young men to demolish the old house, collect some usable materials, and clear a large enough flat area as a foundation.

Zhou Rui simply offered Liu Wuye and the others a cigarette, chatted casually for a bit, and then returned home. After all, his family hadn't had breakfast yet, so there was no time for idle chatter.

After breakfast, Zhou Rui carried Xiao Niangao on his back and led An'an and Zhou Ping to their family's private plot of land. The vegetables and fruits they had planted had already sprouted. Since it was their own land, they naturally had to be more diligent, weeding and watering frequently to ensure they grew quickly.

Land is scarce in Jiaolongxi, with each household receiving about three-tenths of an acre of private land. Zhou Rui's family's plot had poor soil and was far from the village and water source, so village chief Zhao Youzhi allocated them five-tenths of an acre. Zhou Rui didn't plan to cultivate that much, only planting about two-tenths of an acre. He planned to ask Director Zhang of the forest farm later to see if he could get some fruit trees to plant.

Zhou Rui carried water to the field and asked Zhou Ping to take An'an to water the plants, while he took a hoe and pulled weeds. When he got to the loofah patch, Zhou Rui looked at the loofah seedlings that had grown seven or eight leaves and thought that they should be trellised, otherwise the loofah vines would lie flat on the ground. Then he went to check on the cucumber seedlings, which looked about the same size, and estimated how many wooden stakes he would need to support both the loofah and cucumber trellises.

"Pingwa, you stay here and work with An'an. If you get tired, play around for a while, but don't go too far. Second brother, go to that little hill over there and chop some wood. We'll build a trellis for the cucumbers and loofahs later," Zhou Rui called out to Zhou Ping.

"Okay, second brother. Do you want me to carry the little rice cake on my back? There are no wild beasts on that hillside, but there are a lot of mosquitoes and small insects."

Zhou Rui thought for a moment and realized Zhou Ping was right. They couldn't let such a small baby get hurt by insects. He quickly took Xiao Niangao off his back and tied her to Zhou Ping's back.

"An'an, be a good girl, help your third brother with the work and take good care of Xiao Niangao, but don't overwork yourself." Zhou Rui said, gently patting An'an's shoulder. "If Xiao Niangao is thirsty, give her some boiled water; the water bottle is full."

An'an was very happy about the important task assigned to her by Zhou Rui. She puffed out her chest and said loudly, "Don't worry, Second Brother. I'm great at both work and taking care of Xiao Niangao. I won't get tired."

Then he tried to pat Zhou Rui on the back, but couldn't reach him, so he patted Zhou Rui's butt instead: "Go ahead, be careful, don't worry us."

Zhou Rui watched An An earnestly explaining things to him and couldn't help but want to laugh, but he quickly held it in so that An An wouldn't think he was laughing at her.

Zhou Rui slung his machete over his shoulder and headed to the opposite hillside. The hillside was covered with bushes and quite a few large trees. Zhou Rui found a relatively large tree, climbed up its branches, and specifically sought out branches about the thickness of a thumb to cut down.

After climbing four or five trees and working for more than an hour, Zhou Rui calculated that he should have done enough, so he quickly climbed down the tree. Then he trimmed all the branches and leaves, cut them into sticks about two meters long, and tied them into a large bundle with vines.

When Zhou Rui returned to the field carrying a large bundle of wooden sticks, the two had already thoroughly watered the vegetable garden. Zhou Ping was loosening the soil with a hoe, while An An was pulling weeds by hand.

Zhou Rui put down the wooden stick, walked over to An An, and wiped the sweat from An An's forehead.

"Why aren't you resting? Aren't you tired?"

"I'm not tired." An'an gave Zhou Rui a big smile: "Second Brother, look!"

Zhou Rui looked in the direction An An was pointing and saw five people cutting grass and hoeing the ground next to Zhou Rui's private plot.

Aren't these the five new educated youth? Why are they working next to their own private plots? Zhou Rui quickly realized that the village must have arranged for the educated youth's private plots to be next to their homes. Zhou Rui looked and noticed the white lines drawn with lime; this must be the boundary of the educated youth's private plots.

Zhou Rui merely glanced at the working postures of a few educated youths and couldn't help but curl his lip; this was the contempt of peasants. He saw five educated youths—three men and two women—wielding sickles like large knives, but hoeing the ground with barely any strength; each stroke only left a small dent, they weren't even as strong as ten-year-old children. Working under that blazing sun without straw hats, they deserved to be sunburned.

No wonder so many educated youth sent to the countryside made fools of themselves; it would be strange if they didn't. I heard that last year in Wangjiazhuang, a newly arrived educated youth injured his foot while hoeing the fields. He ended up in the clinic a few days later, providing a year's worth of amusement for the surrounding villages.

Zhou Rui only glanced at it a few times and then paid no more attention. As long as it didn't bother him, he could do whatever he wanted.

Zhou Rui walked to the water bottle, opened it, and took a sip. Seeing that Xiao Niangao was awake, he took her from him and hung a strip of cloth around her neck so that the baby could see more of the outside world, even though a baby can't see very clearly.

Zhou Rui then put on his straw hat and carried the prepared wooden sticks to the side of the loofah field. Picking up a stick, with the sharpened end pointing downwards, he planted it diagonally next to the loofah seedlings without even digging a hole. Zhou Rui shook the stick; surprisingly, with great force, it was firmly planted. He continued planting, one stick after another, one seedling at a time. After finishing one row, he turned back to plant another, the sticks angled relative to each other, meeting in mid-air to form a V-shape.

Seeing how fun it was, An'an quickly ran over and followed behind Zhou Rui to watch. She couldn't be of much help, but she could still pass Zhou Rui some wooden sticks. And so, with An'an's help, the four rows of ten-meter-long wooden sticks, interlaced to form two rows of A-frame frames, were finally installed.

Zhou Rui quickly called Zhou Ping over and asked him to help twist some straw rope to stabilize the frame. After the straw rope was twisted, Zhou Rui took a wooden stick, had Zhou Ping hold one end while Zhou Rui held the other, and lifted it to the middle of the stick, tying the straw rope tightly one by one. The middle sections of each row were connected with sticks, and then the intersections of the herringbone rows were connected with sticks in the same way.

Zhou Rui wiped the sweat from his face with his sleeve and said with a smile, "Alright, mission accomplished, let's call it a day."

Zhou Ping grinned from the side, while An An clapped her hands and imitated Zhou Rui's words, "Mission accomplished! Mission accomplished!" The cheers carried far.

Zhou Rui hurriedly told his younger siblings to pack up their tools and prepare to go home. A shout came from the other educated youth: "Hey you little brat over there, come here for a second."