Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

There were 23 teenagers participating. They set some simple rules, agreed on the scope, start and end times, and then prepared to begin.

No one objected, and no more detailed rules or regulations were established, such as what would happen if someone cheated or tried to take shortcuts. Everyone cares about their reputation and wouldn't do anything shameful in front of so many people.

Zhou Rui carefully tied the little rice cake to Zhou Ping's back, then checked the slingshot and the number of pellets in the bag. Everything was ready, and Zhou Rui silently waited for the gong to sound to start the match. Suddenly, the sound gradually faded. Looking up, he saw Chen Baoxi, who had secured the referee's position, holding up a broken enamel basin.

The teenagers stopped talking, and the toddlers, though unaware of what was happening, also fell silent.

A broken wooden stick slammed against the washbasin, making a jarring sound. Clang...

Immediately, many teenagers started running, and the children joined in the excitement, with four or five people following behind each contestant. Another group chose a higher slope and didn't move, but just kept their eyes following the various teams.

"Brother, hurry up, walk faster. Look, everyone else has already gone ahead." Zhou Ping, carrying Xiao Niangao on his back, kept urging Zhou Rui on the back as he saw him walking slowly.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" An'an joined in the commotion.

The two brothers, Liu Ping'an and Liu Shunli, followed behind without making a sound. They had been getting along well with Zhou Ping recently. They were also fatherless, but at least they had their mother with them.

"Don't rush, we agreed on an hour and a half, there's still plenty of time. Now is not the time to make a move. Chasing after a few sparrows may be enthusiastic, but it's a clumsy method." Zhou Rui did not change his strategy because of Zhou Ping's urging. He continued to stroll along the ridge of the field, looking around.

"We need to find the area with the most sparrows first to be more efficient. Do you know which area has the most sparrows?"

"Over there," Zhou Ping pointed in a direction, "there are lots of reeds over there, and many sparrows hide there."

However, several groups of people had already gone there, startling a large flock of sparrows. Some people had already had a successful start, while others had failed.

Zhou Ping was extremely anxious. He had already boasted that his second brother would definitely be in the top three. If he didn't, he would lose face terribly and might not be able to hold his head up in the village for a long time.

Liu Ping'an, the eldest of the Liu brothers, had a different opinion: "Brother Rui, I think there are the most sparrows in the cornfield on the hillside. The corn is almost ripe and very sweet. The village has arranged for us to guard the cornfield all the time, chasing it around every day."

During the harvest season, chasing sparrows is one of the ways the village children earn work points, and it seems that several of them have taken on this job.

Zhou Rui turned to look at Liu Ping'an. This kid, who was about the same age as Zhou Ping, was really good. His conclusions were clear and logical, and he had witnessed the results firsthand.

"Alright, let's go to the cornfield. You two lead the way."

Seeing that Zhou Rui trusted them, the Liu brothers quickly bypassed him and led the way. Seeing them quicken their pace, Zhou Rui had no choice but to hold An'an's hand to prevent the little one from tripping and falling while running too fast.

The group quickly arrived at the cornfield, and even before getting close, they could hear a cacophony of chirping sounds—there were indeed many sparrows. As one of the four pests of this era, sparrows were no less harmful than wild boars. Crops targeted by sparrows would often suffer losses of several percent; otherwise, the various production brigades wouldn't have specifically allocated work points to have people drive away the sparrows.

Zhou Rui tested the rubber band, then took out three dried mud balls from the cloth bag, put one into the slingshot, and held the other two in his palm.

Zhou Rui found a sparrow that was isolated at the edge of the cornfield. He didn't even need to aim carefully; the sparrow landed right there, about ten meters away. The other sparrows around didn't react; they were still pecking at the corn.

Zhou Ping saw the fallen sparrows and was about to pick them up when Zhou Rui quickly stopped him and whispered, "Wait, if you go now, it will be too loud and disturb them. We'll pick them up together later."

Zhou Rui attacked from the outside inwards, and when he hit the fourth sparrow, he finally disturbed the flock, and dozens of sparrows took flight at once. With two swoosh sounds, two more landed. Watching the sparrows fly away from the area, Zhou Rui then told his men to clean up the battlefield.

Several people emerged from the cornfield, each having caught something. One, two... six.

"I told you my second brother is really good with a slingshot, he can shoot six at once, much better than Tie Niu," Zhou Ping boasted to the Liu brothers. The Liu brothers nodded repeatedly; they knew Zhou Ping was honest and wouldn't stoop to lying.

"My brother is awesome, the most awesome." An'an jumped up and down beside her, repeating it over and over, but she couldn't quite get the words out of her tongue.

"Come on, let's go over there. The sparrows all flew that way just now."

Zhou Rui led the way, and Zhou Ping and the others quickly found some tough grass, rubbed it together, and strung the sparrows together. An'an insisted on carrying them, and Zhou Ping and the others couldn't persuade her otherwise.

Zhou Rui walked to the place where the sparrows had migrated, but this time the sparrows flew a bit too far. If Zhou Rui walked into the cornfield, the dense corn stalks would hinder his movements, and the corn stalks taller than him would block his view.

Zhou Rui observed for a moment, then looked at Liu Ping'an.

"Anzi, can you climb trees?"

"Brother Rui, I can do it." "Me too, me too!" The Liu brothers vied with each other.

"I can, I can climb trees. Second brother, let me climb. Look..." An'an said, grabbing Zhou Rui's leg and starting to climb.

"No, don't pull down my pants! Let go, they're about to fall down!" Zhou Rui hurriedly pulled up his pants, which almost fell down.

What a blunder! I bought so much stuff but forgot to buy a belt. Belts are a luxury item, but it's not like Zhou Rui can't afford one. It's better than having his pants almost ripped off by An An.

"Haha..." "Hehe."

"Hehe..." An An was a little embarrassed, he almost made his beloved second brother look bad.

Zhou Rui's face flushed slightly, and he quickly urged Liu Ping'an, "Anzi, hurry up. Grab some pebbles and clods of dirt and put them in your pocket. Climb that tree over there as fast as you can."

Liu Ping'an had no choice but to stop smiling and do as Zhou Rui instructed.

"Brother Rui, how was it? I'm fast at climbing trees, right?" Liu Ping'an grabbed the tree trunk and shouted down.

Zhou Rui gave a thumbs up, then pointed to the area where the sparrows were densely packed.

"Throw clods of dirt at them to scare them out."

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. Three bullets were fired in quick succession, and three sparrows fell simultaneously. The Liu brothers were as if they had witnessed a divine being; this was truly a case of every bullet hitting its mark.

"Come on, Liu Ping'an, you stand there; Liu Shunli, you stand there. You two, throw it over there together."

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh... Three more sparrows.

As time went by, the four men following Zhou Rui each had a large flock of sparrows in their hands. Zhou Rui didn't change his strategy; he simply repeated the same action: find a spot, scare the birds with a stone, and then shoot them down. The sparrows in this cornfield dwindled in number. Not because they were all shot away, but because so many had perished in this area that the sparrows dared not land there anymore.

Clang... Clang... Clang... The village bell rang, signaling the end of the workday. It was the agreed-upon sound of the competition ending. After all, with that broken washbasin from the start, you couldn't hear it if you were even a little far away.

"It's over, let's go." Zhou Rui casually tucked the slingshot into his waistband.

With An'an strapped to his chest, Zhou Rui led the four people back. A crowd continued to gather, and many groups gasped in surprise at the large number of sparrows carried by Zhou Rui and his companions. Even some self-important slingshot users couldn't help but admire Zhou Rui's achievement.

Zhou Rui was leading An An across the stream by stepping on the stones when suddenly a cormorant swooped down from the sky like an arrow, its white feathers quite conspicuous. The moment it entered the water, it splashed a large amount of water, and a moment later it leaped out of the water, grabbing a fish weighing two or three pounds between its two claws.

While everyone was still exclaiming in surprise, Zhou Rui, who was holding An An's hand, had already raised his slingshot, and a bullet that was faster than usual had already torn through the air.

The osprey, along with the large fish in its talons, had only flown a few meters before it crashed onto the riverbank. The osprey remained motionless, leaving only the large fish, having broken free of its talons, hopping about on the sand and gravel.

"Wow..." "Wow." "Amazing!" "Zhou Rui is just like that."

Everyone looked at Zhou Rui, who was still holding the slingshot, and praises poured in. The children were especially excited, immediately hailing Zhou Rui as a god. They no longer cared about their own brothers; Zhou Rui was the only god, the slingshot god.