Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

After breakfast, Zhou Rui, Gu Shaofeng, and their group of four did not rest but immediately grabbed their rifles and plunged into the open fields of the farm.

As the last group to get up, they had plenty of energy and naturally took on the patrol mission.

The core of this job was never wolf hunting, but rather to reassure the more than two thousand people working in the fields.

As long as you see a figure with a gun slung around nearby, even the most panicked person can calm down and get back to work.

The vast farm operates on a semi-mechanized basis. Harvesters roar as they sweep across the wheat fields. More than two thousand people are scattered across the fields, making it even more spacious than a village of a hundred or so households. The harvesting efficiency is more than ten times that of manual labor.

"Ruiwa, look at that woman. She works so efficiently, just like the women in our village who work in the fields all year round."

"And that female educated youth who drove the harvester, that big iron machine was so obedient in her hands, it was really impressive."

"I think the most impressive one is that guy. He can throw a half-person-high bundle of straw onto the tractor with one fork. He's stronger than any of us men."

Gu Shaofeng and the others had their eyes glued to the field, their mouths never stopping, chattering until Zhou Rui's head was throbbing.

"Are you three ever going to stop? This is patrol duty, what kind of talk is it to keep glancing at the women?"

Zhou Rui interrupted urgently, his gaze finally settling on Gu Shaofeng: "Especially you, Senior Brother, you have a family, so you need to be even more careful."

"I really didn't look randomly." Gu Jiacheng panicked instantly: "I was just surprised that a woman could handle such a metal thing so skillfully. I've never even touched a tractor before."

Gu Shaofeng immediately shifted the blame: "It's not my fault. Liu Qingguo wants to find a partner, and we're just helping him see if they're suitable."

Zhou Rui turned to look at Liu Qingguo. At twenty-one, he was already considered an old man in the countryside. In the village, young men his age already had children old enough to run errands.

Before he could ask any further questions, Liu Qingguo scratched his head and chuckled, admitting, "Ruiwa, do you think I could find a girl here on the farm?"

The smile on Zhou Rui's face slowly faded, and after a few seconds of silence, he uttered three words: "It's difficult."

Fearing the others might not have heard clearly, he added, "It is extremely difficult."

"How is that possible? Ruiwa, didn't you marry a young woman from the city who was sent to the countryside? There are young men in several villages in our town who have married young women who were sent to the countryside."

Liu Qingguo's eyes widened in disbelief, and his mouth gaped open wide enough to fit an egg. Gu Shaofeng and Gu Jiacheng next to him also turned their heads in unison, their faces full of disbelief.

"Shh... Keep your voice down!" Zhou Rui grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back, urgently reminding him in a low voice.

The educated youth were working just a few dozen meters away. If this were to get around, it would just cause a lot of gossip.

He gripped his rifle and walked away until he had led the group out of sight of the educated youth, then he breathed a sigh of relief.

"If you really want me to explain things clearly, the educated youth on the farm and those who went down to the village are completely different things."

"Why is it different?"

"Does it have three heads and six arms?"

The three immediately caught up, leaving even the hunting dogs following at their feet behind, their eyes full of curiosity.

"The educated youth in this village received a fixed grain subsidy during their first year of being sent down to the countryside. Once they got through the first year, they were no different from us ordinary villagers."

Zhou Rui tapped the ground with his fingertip: "We work in the fields every day to earn work points, but the little money we get at the end of the year isn't even enough for a train ticket back to the city."

Those who were less diligent didn't even receive enough grain to last until the following autumn harvest, and had to rely on their parents in the city to send money and food coupons to survive.

"That's why many educated youth were willing to find partners and settle down in the village, both men and women."

"But farms are different. Whether it's a military-affiliated farm or a state-run farm, they are legitimate government entities."

"It's no different from the machine factories in the city and the surrounding forest farms."

"The educated youth here receive a monthly salary, the lowest being 24 yuan. They eat in the communal canteen, live in red brick dormitories, receive work clothes all year round, and can take leave to visit their families on certain days."

"Tell me, with such a secure job, who would want to marry into a village and toil in the fields every day just to earn work points?"

After those few words, all three of them fell silent.

They never imagined the gap between the two sides would be so huge. Just considering the monthly cash payment of twenty-four yuan, apart from people like Zhou Rui and Gu Jiacheng who go into the mountains to hunt all year round, no one in the village can earn more than three hundred yuan a year.

Those few who could make up the numbers still had to find time to work as temporary laborers at the forest farm, enduring hardship to make ends meet.

Zhou Rui ignored their dejected appearance; the facts were there, and there was no need to coax them.

Moreover, Liu Qingguo was the only one who wanted to marry a former educated youth; Gu Jiacheng never had that intention in the first place.

He got up and walked along the ridge of the field, but suddenly stopped.

Something's not right. After the wheat was harvested yesterday, the straw was transported to the team headquarters on the same day with the grain truck. Why is it all scattered in the field today, piled up here and there?

There's a haystack here, a pile there, and it all looks like a deliberately staged display.

Zhou Rui immediately realized that this had been arranged in advance.

The group strolled around on patrol until lunchtime, when the militia appeared at the other end of the field ridge before turning back to the canteen.

The farm's kitchen was kept burning all day, with hot meals reserved for the militiamen and hunters who came to help. The group wolfed down their food, then collapsed into bed and slept soundly until it was completely dark.

Night fell over the entire farm, confirming Zhou Rui's suspicions from the daytime.

These scattered haystacks were all pre-arranged ambush points, where two hunters would silently lurk in pairs.

On the surface, the militiamen patrolled with flashlights as a cover, while the real hunters lay prone in the haystacks, not even breathing.

Several of the most skilled veteran hunters even extended their ambush traps right to the edge of the woods outside the farm.

He and Gu Shaofeng were guarding a haystack on the outermost edge.

The aroma of wheat from the haystacks mingled with the heat from being out in the sun all day, making the back of one's neck feel damp.

Zhou Rui propped up his rifle in the grass and lay there for an hour and a half without moving.

Gu Shaofeng was a bit restless, even more so than the dogs around him. He would scratch here and grab there, which made Zhou Rui so angry that he kicked him.

"Don't move, or you'll scare the wolves away."

Gu Shaofeng felt somewhat aggrieved; as the senior brother, he couldn't stand up to Zhou Rui, the junior brother, at all.

"This freshly cut straw is a bit prickly; it's making me itchy."

"Bear with it," Zhou Rui whispered sternly.

Gu Shaofeng was really bored, so he turned over and looked at the full moon overhead.

"Is it the fifteenth already? Why does the moon seem a bit fuzzy?"

Zhou Rui listened to Gu Shaofeng's mutterings and felt a real itch to get his feet moving. He wished he had asked Gu Jiacheng to switch with him.

If Liu Qingguo weren't somewhat incompetent, he would be easier to manage than Gu Shaofeng.

"Silence, I'm coming." Zhou Rui's voice grew even lower, completely muffled by the haystack.

Gu Shaofeng immediately rolled over and nocked his gun, looking in the direction Zhou Rui was staring at. It was quite far away, but under the moonlight, several pairs of green eyes were visible.

Zhou Rui was somewhat surprised, not expecting the wolf to arrive so early tonight. This wolf had practically read through all of humanity's military strategies.

"Senior brother, stick close to me. When I shoot, you follow up with a follow-up shot; when I move, you charge in. Don't fall behind even a step."

"Tonight, I'll take you to wipe out this wolf's den!"