Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

Gao Daya has been living too comfortably these days, so comfortably that she feels uneasy. She feels that it's not right for her to be eating and living at her cousin's house for free.

To alleviate this anxiety, she took on all the household chores she could.

Lin Qiuyue was cooking rice in the kitchen, and she stayed by her side, adding firewood and preparing vegetables. Zhou Rui had to go out on errands, so she volunteered to stay and look after Xiao Niangao.

When Zhou Ping came home from school, he frowned at the arithmetic problems. She moved a small stool next to him and helped him with the problems one by one.

She even remembers to refill the dogs' food bowls in the corner of the yard on time every day, and doesn't forget to change their bowls with clean, cool water.

She was observant and quick to act. Whether it was half a melon seed shell on the floor of the main room or some dust on the table, she would immediately turn around and sweep it clean as soon as she saw it.

Zhou Rui carried a deck chair and sat under a tree in the yard, fanning himself with a palm leaf fan as he watched her wander around the yard. His eyes started to glaze over, and he felt as if butterflies were constantly circling in front of him.

"Da Ya, sit down and rest for a while. Look how hot you are, you're covered in sweat."

"Brother Rui, I'm not tired." Daya's hands didn't stop moving, and she slowly swept along the base of the wall with the broom.

"I'll sweep this yard a bit smoother so that when Little Rice Cake runs around, she won't step on the broken tiles and hurt her feet."

She felt a warm glow inside; this chore was so much easier than what she would do at home.

She worked with great energy, and this life was more than ten times easier than at home.

They used to go to the fields before dawn to earn work points and wouldn't walk home until it was completely dark.

When I got back, I still had to wash clothes on a washboard, cook, and work until the wee hours of the morning. It was nothing like the easy life I have now.

Little Rice Cake was squatting by the threshold, holding a tiger-head shoe in her hand. Hearing the noise, she raised her round face to look at Daya, who was covered in sweat, and then tilted her head to look at Zhou Rui on the bamboo chair. Was he calling her?

Seeing that no one was looking in her direction, she lowered her head again, gripped the tiger head embroidered on the toe of the shoe, and pulled even harder.

Big Yellow lay in its kennel, pretending to be a carefree, good-for-nothing dog, living a life of bliss.

It had only been a few days since it arrived at the Zhou family's home, but it had already learned the rules of survival from the Mao Mao family in the yard.

When facing Little Rice Cake, if you can play dead, don't breathe; if you can stay far away, don't get close.

Its fur was already sparse, but Little Rice Cake kept reaching out to pluck it every day.

"Zhou Rui, is Zhou Rui home?"

A loud, clear voice suddenly rang out outside the courtyard gate. It was a woman's voice, but it was so loud that it could be heard clearly even across half a field ridge.

"I'm home. The door's unlocked. Come on in."

As soon as the door opened, Zhou Rui recognized the person who came in at a glance: Lin Fengying.

This aunt is in her early forties. She gave birth to her seventh child before the Lunar New Year. At that time, the family was poor and the baby couldn't even afford rice porridge.

He even considered taking the meat he had hunted in the mountains to Lin Fengying's house to exchange for some milk for Xiao Niangao.

Finally, thinking that Lin Fengying was too old and probably didn't have much breast milk, he turned to find Wang Xinghua.

"Aunt Lin, come in and cool off. What can I do for you?"

Zhou Rui looked at the bulging bamboo basket slung over her arm and felt a little puzzled.

His residence is far from the village, and he rarely interacts with the villagers.

I specifically chose this old house because I wanted peace and quiet, and I didn't want to get too involved with those shallow, gossipy people in the village.

Lin Fengying didn't beat around the bush. She put the basket on the stone table in the courtyard, reached out and lifted the coarse cloth covering the basket, revealing a small half-bag of not-so-finely ground sorghum rice underneath.

His tone was very straightforward: "It's nothing important, it's just that my two boys at home are craving meat so much that they don't even want to eat. I was thinking of coming here to exchange some meat with you so they can have some to satisfy their cravings."

As soon as Lin Fengying finished speaking, Gao Daya paused in her broom and quietly looked up to sized up this energetic aunt.

Having seen many people in her hometown come to borrow things and take advantage of others, she was worried for Zhou Rui.

Zhou Rui's hand, which was fanning himself with a palm leaf fan, didn't stop; his knuckles tapped lightly twice on the bamboo handle.

He thought differently from Gao Daya, and he had a good impression of the straightforward Lin Fengying. Moreover, she had no intention of taking advantage of him; she was genuinely offering to exchange grain for something.

He smiled and stepped forward to weigh it in his hand; it was about ten pounds.

"Sure, I happen to have some in stock. Your sorghum looks quite substantial. According to the old custom in the village, I'll exchange it for two pounds of cured meat, enough for your boys to have a meal."

"Alright, Zhou Rui, you're a generous kid. Thank you, Auntie." Lin Fengying clapped her hands and immediately agreed.

Coarse grains are worthless; she knew that ten pounds of sorghum could only be exchanged for a little over one pound of meat at most. Zhou Rui giving her two pounds directly was incredibly generous.

"Then Auntie, wait here, I'll go cut the meat for you right away."

Zhou Rui turned and went into the kitchen, took a cleaver and cut off a piece of meat with alternating layers of fat and lean meat, wrapped it in oil paper and handed it over.

Lin Fengying's palms were covered with calluses from years of hard labor. The moment she took the meat, her knuckles felt a slight weight. Based on her decades of experience handling rice, flour, oil, and salt, she immediately determined that the meat weighed at least two pounds.

She couldn't help but sigh inwardly, thinking how straightforward and honest this child was, not at all like the ingrate Tian Xiuying had described.

As he stuffed the meat into the basket, his peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of the tall, beautiful girl sweeping the floor, and he unconsciously lowered his voice.

"Who is this little girl?"

"My cousin from my aunt's side had a fight with her family, so she came to stay with me for a few days to help me take care of the kids."

Zhou Rui made it up on the spot, but he couldn't let the Zhou family know that he had helped them find the forestry job, otherwise it would cause trouble.

"Oh, so you're Xiaolan's maid. I knew it; she looks just like her."

Lin Fengying was about to ask some more questions when Zhou Rui didn't give her the chance. He turned around, picked up the little rice cake from the ground, and walked into the house.

He knew all too well what kind of people the women in the village were like; they loved to ask around and then spread the rumors everywhere, making the stories more and more outlandish.

The best approach is to minimize contact with these individuals, ensuring they have no way of knowing anything about you, which will naturally reduce gossip.

Daya was a shy person. When she saw Lin Fengying's gaze sweeping over her, she quickly leaned the broom against the wall and tiptoed back into the house behind Zhou Rui.

Lin Fengying sighed regretfully, feeling that she had missed out on some of the fun of gossiping. But when she turned her head and saw the cured meat in the basket, she immediately beamed with joy again.

When I received the meat just now, my fingertip pierced through the oil paper, and I could actually feel the oily skin of the meat.

However, the Zhou family still couldn't escape the gossip.

Lin Fengying held onto Zhou Rui's casual reply, "I had a fight with my family," and sat on her doorstep pondering for half the night, eventually weaving a whole dramatic story into it.

It is said that Daya absolutely refused to acknowledge the arranged marriage that her family had set for her, slamming her fist on the table in opposition to the arranged marriage, determined to find a partner and have a free love relationship.

The story spread for three days along the well and the threshing ground. When Zhou Rui returned from buying tofu from Liu Fugui's house, he heard the full version of the story.

Standing in the crowd for a long time, I was completely stunned. My expression was a mix of laughter and tears. I never expected that a casual, polite remark could turn into such an absurd version.