Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

After weighing, it weighed 563.7 jin, which is 564 jin. At 1.8 yuan per jin, the total is 1015.2 yuan.

Holding the note handwritten by Deng Xiangrong, the two men came out arm in arm, calling each other "brother" as if they were family.

"Brother Deng, tell me what you like to eat. I can't guarantee anything else, but as long as it's available in these mountains, I'll definitely get it for you."

"If that's what you mean, Brother Zhou, then I won't stand on ceremony. I really love antelope meat. I had some at the state-run restaurant in the county last time, and the meat was incredibly tender. Our canteen has never had any of it, and I've been craving it for ages."

"Okay, I got it. Did you see that? That's my master, a famous artilleryman in town. He knows where all the wild animals in these mountains are."

"Then I'll listen to your good news."

"Wait here, it won't be long. I'm going to see my Uncle Zhang first, so he won't complain that I came and didn't visit him."

"Alright then, come again next time."

Zhou Rui walked to the cart, waved the bill in his hand, and said to Wang Shouye, "Uncle, let's go settle the bill."

Upon arriving at the cashier's office, the scene became somewhat awkward. The woman settling Zhou Rui's bill was a stern-faced woman in her forties, silent and unsmiling. Zhou Rui only had a pack of cigarettes in his pocket, and it wouldn't be appropriate to say, "Hey, could I have a cigarette?" Fortunately, although the woman's expression was unpleasant, she didn't give Zhou Rui any trouble and followed procedures. She issued a receipt, had Zhou Rui sign it, and then settled the payment.

Outside the finance office, when Zhou Rui handed the money to Wang Shouye, Wang Shouye was overjoyed, counting the large sums of money in his hand repeatedly. It wasn't that Wang Shouye had never seen so much money before. As the "King of the Hill" in Hongqi Town, Wang Shouye had once exchanged a few bear gallbladders and bear skins at the supply and marketing cooperative's purchasing point for over two thousand yuan.

It was because the price offered by the forest farm canteen was higher, several hundred yuan more than the black market price, making it feel like free money.

"Uncle, put the money away first. Not many people come and go in this finance office, but it's not good if someone sees it," Zhou Rui reminded him from the side.

"Okay, okay." Upon hearing this, Wang Shouye immediately stuffed the money into his pocket and looked around for a while, thankfully no one was there.

"Let's go to the logistics department and sell the rest of the stuff." With that, she pulled Wang Shouye away.

Just as they reached the door of Zhang Zhenbei's office, Zhou Rui, carrying a pheasant and a large turtle, shouted loudly, "Uncle, Uncle Zhang, I've come to see you!"

Actually, Zhou Rui just wanted to solidify his nephew's identity and let everyone know. And with this identity, he wouldn't have to sneak around giving gifts to Zhang Zhenbei anymore. A nephew giving gifts to his uncle would be perfectly legitimate.

Sure enough, before Zhang Zhenbei came out, someone from the next office emerged, their eyes lighting up at the sight of the pheasant and turtle Zhou Rui was carrying. Although working in the forest farm meant they weren't short of meat, nothing was as fresh as what they found in the mountains.

"Hey, is this Director Zhang's nephew? These pheasants and turtles are quite fresh. Director Zhang doesn't usually go without them. How about you sell them to me? I'll pay fifteen yuan." This man looked about the same age as Zhang Zhenbei, but his hair was much thinner on top. He had a sleazy look on his face and walked over to grab them.

Just then, Zhang Zhenbei came out and quickly stopped him, saying, "Hey Lao Zheng, you can't do this. My nephew went to all this trouble to bring me things, and you're trying to snatch them away? That's not fair."

He quickly took the item from Zhou Rui's hand and looked at it: "And this pheasant costs at least eight yuan each, not to mention this turtle. A turtle this big wouldn't be worth less than twenty or thirty yuan; you think you can just take it for fifteen yuan?"

Zhang Zhenbei looked at Zheng Jin with disdain. No wonder everyone called him "Economical Zheng"—he was really good at scheming. With his stingy ways, it's no wonder he's still a clerk at 45.

"Where, where are there so many? Pork is only 80 cents a pound." Seeing more and more people coming out of the offices to watch, Zheng Jingji felt a little embarrassed and walked back while saying this.

Zhang Zhenbei did not pursue the matter relentlessly. As a leader, one should be magnanimous and not offend people to the point of no return.

"Wow, Director Zhang, your nephew is really generous! He brought you such nice things to visit you. I've never heard you mention this before," someone chimed in.

"Distant nephew. He was too young to come out at home before. But he's grown up and become more ambitious. You'll have to take good care of him in the future. Come to my house for dinner after work, and I'll let you try this pheasant stewed with turtle." It was clear that the man behind him was of similar status to Zhang Zhenbei, and Zhang Zhenbei's attitude towards him was completely different from that of the man surnamed Zheng.

"Okay, I'll definitely bring a bottle of good wine tonight, otherwise it wouldn't be worthy of such good food." With that, he returned to his office.

"Come in. And who is this?" After finishing his conversation, Zhang Zhenbei looked at Zhou Rui and Wang Shouye beside him.

"Oh, this is my master, Wang Shouye, a famous hunter in our town. He just took me to hunt a few sika deer, and they were just delivered to the canteen."

"Got another deer?" Zhang Zhenbei's eyes lit up. Zhou Rui's deer antlers and hearts had been a huge help to him last time. This time, his promotion was practically confirmed; he was slated to become deputy director of the forest farm and head of the logistics department. Although the main power would still lie in the logistics department, becoming deputy director was no easy feat. He could then easily be promoted to forest farm director, or transferred to the city at the same level.

"Come in, come in quickly." Zhang Zhenbei immediately became much more enthusiastic; Zhou Rui was his lucky star. Zhang Zhenbei brought over two cups, took a can of tea from the shelf, and carefully picked out some. This was a gift from Director Zhang's superior, a newly arrived fine tea from Jiangnan.

Holding his steaming teacup, Wang Shouye wondered, "Is this forestry director really this approachable? His attitude is much better than that of the leaders in the commune."

Zhang Zhenbei poured the tea and urged Zhou Rui to take out the items for inspection. Zhou Rui didn't rush to show everything at once, but instead took out the kettle first.

"Uncle Zhang, here, I brought this especially for you, deer heart blood. It's a pity there's only one military water bottle, my master doesn't have one, otherwise we could have filled another one." Zhou Rui said with a regretful expression.

Zhang Zhenbei happily took it, opened the lid to look inside, and muttered, "Take a couple more with you when you leave. I don't have much else, but I have plenty of kettles."

Zhou Rui then took out the items wrapped in oil paper one by one, filling half of Zhang Zhenbei's desk.

Zhang Zhenbei rubbed his hands together excitedly: "So many! How many deer did you actually hunt?"

"Four. Three male deer and one female deer," Zhou Rui said, placing his empty backpack aside.

The oil paper was unfolded one by one, revealing three pairs of deer antlers, four sets of deer hearts and livers, a pile of deer tendons, and three deer penises.

"The price of deer antlers remains the same, one hundred and sixty yuan a pair. I'll add ten yuan to the price of deer heart, liver, and tendons since you didn't give me enough last time. Deer penis is a good thing, so you can't refuse to pay this time. I'll pay one hundred for these three."

"Hehe... I won't refuse since it's from my uncle. But isn't the price a bit too high? You're not losing money, are you?"

"Most of my items are given away as gifts, and some are from people who come to me looking for them. Those people aren't short of money, they just don't have the connections, so I can still make a little profit in the process," Zhang Zhenbei said to Zhou Rui as he packed up the items one by one.

"It's good to make some money, it's good to make some money. As long as you don't lose money, Uncle Zhang, I'd feel bad taking so much money from you."

Zhang Zhenbei counted out seventy-eight ten-yuan bills from the table: "What do you have to feel bad about? This is money you earned through your own hard work. Just remember your uncle when you have something good."

"Uncle, just tell me what you need. I may not have that much skill, but my master does. My master has been wandering around these mountains for decades, and he knows exactly what kind of goods are in which places."

"Can you get some old ginseng?" Zhang Zhenbei asked the two men.

"We're primarily hunters, not professional hunters, so this kind of thing depends on luck," Wang Shouye said, holding his cup with a serious expression. "However, if Director Zhang really needs it, I can put in a word with someone I know to reserve it for you if they get one."

"That's good, okay, that's settled then. If you get any, you have to save some for me." Zhang Zhenbei was very happy; these were the kinds of connections he lacked. If he could get some old ginseng in the future, he could increase his network of contacts.