Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

Sniffing the wind, it sprang up, its mane standing straight up.

The remaining dogs all stood up, baring their teeth at the wooden door of the dugout, their low growls blending together.

Zhou Rui sat up abruptly. He was usually very alert when camping in the wild, and could immediately detect the slightest movement.

Zhou Rui almost instantly reached for the 98K beside him. The cool stock pressed against his palm, and the effects of the alcohol vanished instantly.

He raised his hand and pressed down on He Wu, who was about to get up, and made a shushing gesture with his fingertips to his lips.

Gu Shaofeng and Gu Jiacheng both looked up and, using the faint light from the last embers of the embers in the dugout, glanced toward the wooden door. Only Liu Qingguo was still fast asleep.

A very light, heavy breathing came from outside the door, mixed with the rustling sound of snowflakes rubbing against fur. The thing was less than three steps away from the wooden door.

That sound was definitely not from a wolf. A wolf's breathing is sharp and thin, while this sound was as deep as a drum muffled in thick snow. It was the sound of an adult black bear.

"Don't make a sound." Zhou Rui's voice was very low, and only a few people around him could hear it.

"It followed the smell of roasted game and didn't directly ram the door, which means it was also testing the waters."

Gu Jiacheng silently picked up the dagger at his feet; the blade gleamed coldly in the shadows.

He had followed his father through the mountains for several years and was very familiar with the fishy smell.

"Bang!"

With a muffled thud, the heavy wooden door was smashed by the bear's paw, sending wood chips flying everywhere, and half of the door, along with its frame, fell into the house.

The black bear, carrying the scent of wind and snow, smashed through the broken wooden planks, its massive body blocking the doorway, its scarlet eyes sweeping over the five people inside.

A deep, fresh wound on the left forepaw, exposing the bone, gleamed brightly in the afterglow of the embers.

Zhou Rui, Gu Shaofeng, and Gu Jiacheng could tell from the injury that this was probably a hunchback who had been driven out.

It had clearly set its sights on this warm dugout and was drawn by the aroma of roasted game. It squatted in the snow for more than half an hour, waiting for the people inside to fall asleep before striking.

The cramped dugout barely allowed any room to turn around. The black bear raised its snow-covered paw and slammed it down hard on Zhou Rui's head, who was closest to the door.

Zhou Rui had no time to think. Relying on his body's instincts, he hurriedly took two steps forward, his shoulder bracing against the bear's descending paw, and got stuck directly in the black bear's burrow.

The black bear's paw couldn't land, and it was about to get angry when its four or five hundred-foot-tall body was suddenly lifted into the air.

Bang! First, there was a sound of a bear's head hitting the roof beam, followed by a loud crash as its somewhat obese body was slammed to the ground.

He Wu stared wide-eyed. He clearly saw Zhou Rui charge forward, but the next second the black bear was somehow propelled to the ground by the momentum of the attack.

The black bear was thrown around in a daze. The dull pain from its head hitting the roof beam hadn't subsided when the fur on its back stood on end, and a roar that made people's eardrums ache came out of its throat.

Just as it was about to push itself up with its paws, Big Yellow, who was crouching in the corner, suddenly darted out and bit down hard on the fresh, still-bleeding wound on its left forepaw.

Sniffing the wind pounced from the side, precisely grabbing the soft skin on the back of the black bear's neck, pulling it back with all its might, and slamming its head, which it had just raised, down onto the frozen ground.

The remaining dogs swarmed forward, attacking the bear's body with their jaws.

They specifically targeted the bear's soft spots, such as the back of its legs and under its belly, pinning the bear's massive body firmly in place, leaving it no room to charge forward.

Gu Jiacheng seized the opportunity and, without hesitation, gripped the knife with both hands and lunged forward.

With a soft thud, his entire weight of over a hundred pounds pressed down on the tip of the knife, piercing straight through the black bear's belly.

Awooo...

With a painful howl, the black bear unleashed boundless strength from its limbs and bones, hurling the nine dogs and Gu Jiacheng off the ground.

Gu Shaofeng was just about to follow Gu Jiacheng's lead and stab Black Bear in the back again when suddenly, something furry bumped into him and pushed him aside.

It turned out that the black bear had broken free of its hunting dogs and was flying out in all directions.

Only Zhou Rui was the most perceptive. He twisted his foot to dodge a dark shadow, and knelt down on one knee, his knee pressing directly onto a bear's paw.

With one hand clenched tightly, he slammed it down on the black bear's nose with a thud.

With a dull thud, the bear's head, which had just been raised, suddenly slammed back down, and the black bear cried out in pain, tears mixed with blood streaming down its face.

It shook its head wildly, spitting out hot, pungent saliva mixed with blood foam all over the ground. The tingling and numbness in its nose made the firelight in its eyes blur into double images.

The moment it twisted its waist, the wound on its abdomen burst open by half an inch, and scalding bear blood flowed down its black fur, turning the soil in the room a dark brown.

He Wu's hand, gripping the five-six-and-a-half, was so taut that the veins throbbed, but he dared not pull the trigger.

The dugout was too narrow, and the black bear and Zhou Rui were tangled together. If a bullet missed by even half a point, it would graz them.

Gu Shaofeng finally managed to free himself from the hunting dogs clinging to him, snatched the gun from He Wu's hand, and pressed the muzzle directly against the black bear's skull.

With a muffled thud, warm bear blood splattered out, spraying half of Zhou Rui's face.

The gunshots, which were right next to him, made Zhou Rui's ears ring.

He looked at Gu Shaofeng's opening and closing mouth, but couldn't hear a sound. He still waved his hand to indicate that he was fine.

The dugout fell silent instantly, save for the heavy breathing of the hunting dogs and the hissing sound of bear blood splattering onto the embers in the hearth.

He Wu stood there empty-handed, not coming to his senses for a long time.

Those few seconds of fierce fighting just now were as fast as a dream I hadn't woken up from.

Zhou Rui wiped the blood from his face, his fingertips brushing against a shallow scratch on his brow bone.

When the black bear shook its head, the tip of its claws grazed him, and beads of blood trickled down his brow bone, making half of his eye sting.

He shook his head, and the ringing in his ears slowly subsided, while the panting of the hunting dogs and the hissing of the charcoal fire gradually became clearer again.

Liu Qingguo then slowly got up from the haystack.

I was half asleep when I heard a bear banging on the door outside. I thought it was the strong liquor I drank before going into the mountains that was giving me nightmares.

It wasn't until Gu Shaofeng's gunshot shook the earth and caused debris to fall from the dugout that he suddenly woke up completely.

Seeing his dazed look as he just came to his senses, He Wu burst into laughter, slapping his thigh and laughing heartily.

At least he had gripped the gun and handed it over during that life-or-death moment. Compared to Liu Qingguo's state of just opening his eyes, his trip was at least worthwhile.

"Hehe...it seems we won't be empty-handed from the bear farm tomorrow." Gu Jiacheng looked at the black bear that had been knocked down, especially the wound on its paw.

"Why?" He Wu asked, his face still smiling, a mixture of excitement and bewilderment.

Gu Jiacheng said before going to bed that he might not be able to catch the black bear, but now he says he won't leave empty-handed. Isn't that a contradiction?

Gu Shaofeng also squatted down, raised his hand and turned the injured bear paw over, pointing to the jagged teeth marks around the wound.

"This wound doesn't look like a knife wound or a metal frame injury; it looks like it was torn open by bear fangs. What does that mean?"

Gu Shaofeng answered his own question: "This means that there were two bears fighting over territory in that bear enclosure, and this one lost and was driven out."

He Wu narrowed his eyes: "You mean... there's still a victorious black bear left inside?"

Gu Jiacheng nodded: "It might not be a black bear, it could be a bear, but it's definitely more ferocious than this one."