Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

"Meatballs!"

Little Niangao wasn't shy with Zhou Rui at all. With a kick of her short legs, she snuggled into his arms, her chubby little fingers pointing straight into the steaming stew pot, drool dripping down her chin.

Before Zhou Rui could even pick up his chopsticks, An An had already picked up a piece of meat covered in dark brown sauce and tiptoed to offer it to Xiao Niangao's mouth.

"Wait a minute, the piece is too big." Zhou Rui smiled and took the piece of meat from her hand. With a few quick strokes of her chopsticks, she cut it into small pieces the size of a fingernail.

"Little rice cake has a small mouth, it's bound to choke on such a big piece."

Zhou Ping, standing nearby, didn't even bother to say a word; he was busy rummaging through the pot with his chopsticks.

It had been so long since I'd tasted such fresh wild bear meat. My cheeks were so full they looked like I was eating two walnuts, and I didn't even have time to wipe the oil dripping down my chin.

Lin Qiuyue turned around and brought out a large bowl of infused liquor from the stove. It wasn't bottled liquor she bought from the supply and marketing cooperative; it was liquor she had been infused with wild grapes and goji berries for more than half a year. The liquor was bright red and had a honey aroma.

"Hurry up and drink this to warm yourself up. After enduring the wind and rain in the mountains for several days, this sip will force all the cold out of your bones."

As soon as Zhou Rui took the wine bowl, the little rice cake in his arms was so tempted by the aroma of meat that it started to wriggle.

The little hand grabbed his wrist and shook it, her eyes fixed on the bits of meat on the edge of the bowl, even drooling onto the patches of his cotton-padded jacket.

An'an thoughtfully pushed her small bowl towards her, scooped up a little meat broth mixed with the aroma of meat with a spoon, blew on it to cool it down before handing it to Xiao Nian Gao's mouth.

The soft, warm steam, carrying a delicious aroma, made the little rice cake's eyes crinkle into crescent moons.

Zhou Ping chewed on his meat, looked up, and mumbled, "Second Brother, how come you always manage to catch a bear when you go up the mountain?"

Lin Qiuyue smiled and patted him on the back, then placed a plate of freshly steamed corn cakes on the table.

"Do you really think your second brother and the others had it easy? They stayed in the mountains for five or six days, crossing countless peaks."

She turned to look at Zhou Rui, her eyes filled with worry, and gently touched the fine line on his forehead with her fingertips.

"It's not like you can always run into someone like that." He took a bite of the cornbread, the sweet aroma of the tortilla mixed with the smell of meat spreading in his mouth.

"These bears were painstakingly developed by Uncle Gu over the years. Otherwise, why do you think he could take down three black bears at once?"

"It's just like your sister-in-law's schooling. She studied for many years before finally graduating from high school through an exam."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ping immediately lowered his head and refused to respond.

He hated studying the most, and every time Zhou Rui and Lin Qiuyue brought up the topic, he would bury his head and pretend to be a quail.

"Second brother, you eat too." An'an didn't even care about herself, after picking up food for Xiao Niangao, she also picked up food for Zhou Rui.

Zhou Rui's eyes narrowed as he looked at the meat in the bowl: "Our An'an has become so sensible!"

"Yes, the teacher taught us about Kong Rong sharing pears in class. We should know how to be humble, respect our elders, and care for the young."

An'an swayed her little braids, and after speaking, she got up and put a piece of stewed, soft bear meat into Lin Qiuyue's bowl as well.

"Second sister-in-law, eat some too, it'll help you get some nourishment. You're too thin, you're just lacking in oil and nutrients."

Lin Qiuyue felt a warmth in her heart, reached out and pulled An'an into her arms, rubbing her fingertips against An'an's rosy cheeks, her eyes welling up with tears.

"Our An'an is the most considerate, even better than your third brother, who only cares about eating himself."

Zhou Ping almost spat out the meat in his mouth and quickly waved his hands to protest, "Sister-in-law, you're talking nonsense. I didn't eat by myself. I had to finish eating before I could take care of Xiao Niangao."

The whole room burst into laughter, slapping the table. The little rice cake in my arms was startled by the laughter and looked up, almost dropping the meat chunks it was holding in its mouth.

She blinked in confusion and then clapped her little hands, making little noises.

The warmth of dinner hadn't yet dissipated when Zhou Ping led An'an upstairs to the second floor.

Little Niangao yawned twice in Lin Qiuyue's arms, her little head, still smelling of meat, tilted to the side, and soon fell into a deep sleep.

Lin Qiuyue gently placed the child into the quilt while holding him, then turned around and picked up Zhou Rui's dirty cotton-padded coat that he had thrown on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed).

As soon as his fingertips reached into the inner pocket, he pulled out a thick stack of bills, which amounted to more than two thousand yuan.

In the past two years, Zhou Rui has been going into the mountains to hunt and carry wild ginseng, and he has received a considerable amount of money each time.

When she first married into the family, she would have been flustered to see so much money, but now she's used to it.

On the contrary, if Zhou Rui came in empty-handed one day, she would start to wonder if something had gone wrong in the mountains.

"Where should we put this money? Should we store it in the cellar in the backyard?" She neatly arranged the money and looked up to ask Zhou Rui, who was cleaning his hunting rifle.

"No need to run to the cellar anymore." Zhou Rui put the oilcloth he was using to clean the gun aside.

"Let's just use the bottom of the cupboard in our room. The New Year is coming soon, and we need to buy New Year's goods and new cotton-padded coats for the children. It will be convenient to keep some cash on hand."

"Why do we need so much cash to buy New Year's goods?" Lin Qiuyue muttered to herself as she lifted the large wooden cabinet beside the kang (a heated brick bed).

The mountain wind was howling outside at night, and she was too lazy to move the ladder and sneak into the cellar in the dark.

Just as he was stuffing the stack of money into the pile of cotton wool at the bottom of the cabinet, his elbow knocked over an inconspicuous little wooden box as he pulled his hand back.

With a thud, it hit the kang mat, and two rusty little things rolled out.

"Zhou Rui, what is this...?"

She picked up two items: one was an old pipe broken in half, the mouthpiece worn shiny, and the remaining stem still bearing old cracks.

The other was a rusty, dark iron ring with two faint engravings visible on its edge.

Zhou Rui reached out and took it, his fingertips slowly stroking the two engraved marks, his knuckles brushing against the rough edge of the broken pipe, the sound even softer than the sound of snow drifting in from outside the window.

"These are things left by my parents."

"This half-smoked pipe was what my father used to use when he was alive."

Last year, when the forest farm had an accident, he was hit by a falling log, and his pipe broke in two.

He pointed to the iron ring again: "This is my mother's bracelet."

"In my early years, my family was so poor that we couldn't afford even a single piece of silver jewelry."

"My maternal grandfather was the village blacksmith, so he found a piece of wrought iron and made this bracelet for her. He also carved two small fish on the side because my mother's name contains the character for fish."

Lin Qiuyue looked at the tenderness in his eyes and gently leaned against his shoulder, her stray hairs brushing against the collar of his cotton-padded jacket.

"We've been together for so long, how come I've never heard you mention your grandmother's house?"

"My mother passed away early, and many years have passed in the blink of an eye." Zhou Rui sighed and clenched the iron ring in his hand.

"Last year, my father and eldest brother ran into trouble again. There were a lot of messy debts at the old house that were hard to sort out and they couldn't get away from them."

"Later I was busy hunting in the mountains, and I didn't have time to calm down and think about these old things, so I didn't tell you in detail."

He took Lin Qiuyue's hand in his own. These hands, which he used every day to cook, sew, and farm, had calluses on their fingertips, but they were still as soft as they were on the day he first married her.

"Then your mother doesn't have any relatives left? Where were they originally?" Lin Qiuyue asked softly.

Zhou Rui slowly shook his head, his gaze falling on the flickering lamplight on the window paper: "I can't say for sure either."

"My mother fled here before the founding of the People's Republic of China. Not long after she entered the Northeast, she got separated from my maternal grandparents in the chaotic crowd."

"Back then, my uncle was leading her to flee to Heilongjiang Province. They were separated by soldiers as soon as they got off the train, and we never found her again. There hasn't been a single trace of her all these years."

Just as Zhou Rui locked the gate, hundreds of miles away in an old apartment building in the city, an elderly couple with gray hair sat by a coal stove, facing a middle-aged man in a Zhongshan suit. The atmosphere in the room was somewhat somber.

The old woman's voice trembled slightly as she stared out the window: "The New Year is almost here again, and there's still no news from your sister?"