Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

Zhou Rui watched as Zhao Youzhi suddenly appeared in front of the curtain, holding a large rusty tin megaphone, and shouted his name loudly, repeating it three times in a row.

Zhao Youzhi was pressed against the back of the screen, and the beam of light from the projector swept across his face at an angle, making it impossible to see his expression in the interplay of light and shadow.

The loudspeaker hanging in the tree was still blaring out classic lines from Zuo Shandiao and Yang Zirong: "Heavenly King covers the Earth Tiger, Pagoda suppresses the River Demon..."

Zhou Rui placed An'an on the bench and said in a low voice, "Qiuyue, I'm going to be gone for a while."

Lin Qiuyue suddenly grabbed Zhou Rui's sleeve, a hint of worry in her eyes: "Zhou Rui..."

"Don't worry, it's just in the village, what could possibly happen?" Zhou Rui smiled and patted the back of her hand, pushed An'an closer to her, and got up to walk into the shadows.

Several dark figures stood up sparsely on the threshing ground and quietly moved away from the threshing ground.

Zhao Youzhi was still standing there, shouting through a megaphone until his voice was hoarse: "Everyone should keep a close eye on their children and not let them run around. If you can't find someone, go directly to the militia team to report. The patrols outside are all out there, so don't all rush around aimlessly."

The people watching the movie below didn't react much, but Zhou Rui's heart skipped a beat.

This commotion means something big must have happened in the village.

He continued on his way to the brigade headquarters without stopping, when he bumped into Gu Dayong, Liu Jianguo, and a few others.

Zhao Youzhi didn't just call him; he summoned the militia, hunters, and all the grassroots cadres in the team.

The group filed into the brigade headquarters, where the brigade leader Zhang Aimin and the militia captain Zhao Changshan were already sitting inside, their cigarette butts piled up halfway up the vat.

Before anyone could speak, Zhang Aimin suddenly stood up: "Half an hour ago, a child went missing in the village. The adults in the family searched all the haystacks and field ridges but couldn't find him."

"Later, we found the village's militia patrol team."

"The patrol team searched for a while but couldn't find the child. Instead, they found a series of suspicious footprints in the field."

Zhang Aimin paused here, and Zhao Changshan continued.

"Zhao Xiaogang from our militia team followed the footprints and unexpectedly found himself at the village's grain depot."

"The grain depot... has been robbed." Zhao Changshan slammed his fist on the table, making a loud thud.

"How much grain was lost?"

"How did you lose it?"

"Isn't Master Zhou supposed to be in charge of the storeroom?"

The chaotic chatter instantly filled the small room, and everyone's faces turned pale.

The warehouse is stocked with reserve grain, livestock feed, and wheat seeds to be planted in the fields in the spring.

If all of this is gone, the whole village will have to tighten their belts for the next two or three years.

"Quiet down, everyone!" Zhang Aimin slammed his hand on the table, raising his voice.

"We can't afford to waste time; we need to find a way to intercept the people and retrieve the grain as soon as possible."

"Zhao Changshan, please continue with the details."

"Everyone else, don't just sit idly by, let's brainstorm and come up with a solution."

Zhao Changshan nodded and continued, "The granary was robbed from the back. A large hole was dug in the back wall, and Master Zhou didn't hear a sound at all while he was in the front."

"Zhao Xiaogang followed the footprints to the back of the grain depot, bumped into someone, and before he could even shout, he was hit on the back of the head with a blunt object."

"I don't know how much time had passed by the time he woke up from the cold and found me."

"The grain depot has not yet taken inventory, so we don't know how much grain and what types were lost, but the initial estimate is at least several thousand kilograms."

"The footprints led out of the village, but they were swept away after walking about half a mile. That's all we know for now."

There was a three-second silence at the brigade headquarters before Gu Dayong suddenly spoke up: "So you're saying this was a multi-person, organized, and premeditated theft?"

"Is the issue of missing children in the village related to them?"

After posing the two questions, Zhang Aimin and Zhao Changshan exchanged a glance.

Zhang Aimin gathered his thoughts before speaking: "Judging from the footprints Zhao Xiaogang saw, the experience of being ambushed, and the fact that someone cleaned up the traces afterward..."

"It must have been a multi-person, organized group crime?"

"We cannot yet confirm whether the child was lost or abducted, nor can we determine whether it was the same group of people who did it."

"Everyone, what should we do next?" Zhao Youzhi suddenly squeezed in from outside, walking with an uneven gait and a black mark on his knee, apparently having tripped and fallen on his way here.

Group leader Chen Weimin raised his hand: "Can we immediately have the militia surround the threshing ground? These people must still have spies among the moviegoers."

"You mean to have the militia verify the identities of outsiders one by one?" Zhang Aimin quickly understood what Chen Weimin meant.

Zhao Changshan was eager to try: "Then I'll immediately notify Chen Guocai, the deputy captain of the militia?"

Chen Guocai did not attend the meeting; he remained in the village maintaining order.

"No way," Zhou Rui interrupted.

"Why not?" Zhao Changshan glared at Zhou Rui as soon as he saw it was Zhou Rui, ready to argue with him.

He had always been at odds with Zhou Rui, and when Zhou Rui objected, he assumed that Zhou Rui was deliberately targeting him.

"Don't interrupt, let Ruiwa finish speaking." Zhao Youzhi waved his hand.

Of all the people in the room, Zhou Rui was the only one who wasn't even twenty yet and didn't even have a position in the team, but Zhang Aimin and Zhao Youzhi were both willing to listen to his ideas.

"The threshing ground was packed with nearly a thousand people, half of whom were from other villages who came to watch the movie." Zhou Rui's gaze swept over the faces of the people present.

"If the militia rushes into the area to check people, and someone deliberately stirs up trouble by shouting that Jiaolongxia is bullying people from other villages, it will cause an uproar on the spot. If thousands of people start to panic, none of us will be able to control them."

As soon as he said that, cold sweat broke out on the back of Zhang Aimin's neck.

He went to great lengths to apply to join the film projection team, hoping to accumulate some political achievements and win over the people.

If a mass riot really breaks out, and the food is gone and the child is not found, he will not only lose his position as the brigade leader, but his file will definitely be marked as incompetent, and he will never be able to recover for many years to come.

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Zhang Aimin suddenly felt his throat was extremely dry.

"Two things to do immediately? The children and the food." Zhou Rui bent two fingers and broke them down one by one.

"The village militia and able-bodied men were divided into two groups: one to look for the children and the other to look for food. There was no time to lose."

After Zhou Rui finished speaking, he looked at Gu Dayong. There were only two good dogs in the village that could track and follow tracks, so the two of them had to go their separate ways.

"Alright, I'll go home and get my dog ​​right away. My house is known for its fragrant air; let's see where those petty thieves can run with their meager skills."

Gu Dayong grinned, his sinister expression brimming with confidence.

"Then let's go back and bring the dogs. The village will arrange two teams, and we'll need them when we get back."

After Zhou Rui finished speaking, he turned to leave, but Zhao Youzhi stopped him: "Should we check the people from other villages?"

"We set up checkpoints outside the village. Actually, most of the villagers in the neighboring villages know each other, so it's easy to tell them apart."

"If someone really stirs up trouble, the militia's guns are nothing but firewood."

As soon as Zhou Rui finished speaking, he lifted the curtain and stepped out.

The flame of the kerosene lamp flickered three times in the night wind that brought in, casting long and short shadows of everyone in the room on the earthen wall.