Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

Zhou Rui had long been familiar with the path in the snow. He walked at the front, clearing the way with a thick wooden stick in his hand, poking the snow twice before each step.

He Wu followed behind, carrying a gun and a bulging backpack, panting heavily. His cotton hat was covered in frost, and he kept looking around and muttering to himself.

"The last time I came to these mountains, the snow had only just covered the ground, and the wind wasn't this cold on my ears. Now the snow is up to my thighs."

Zhou Rui turned around and saw Lin Qiuyue holding An'an, her feet stuck in the snow and unable to get out for a long time, unable to move even half a foot.

He quickly stepped back, took An'an from her arms, and carried her steadily on his back.

Seeing Zhou Rui carrying the two children with ease, Yang Ping grabbed Lin Qiuyue's shoulder and laughed, "With that sturdy build, you'll be secretly thrilled when you get home tonight."

Lin Qiuyue's ears turned bright red instantly, and she gently patted her arm: "You only stayed in the workers' compound in the city for a few days, how come you've become so talkative?"

"This isn't poverty; all the women in the compound talk like this when they get together."

Yang Ping felt no embarrassment whatsoever, and turned to pull He Wei beside her: "Weiwei, don't you think that makes sense?"

"Me? I've never heard of any of this." He Wei quickly buried her face in her hands, her voice soft.

He Wu and Zhou Rui were just a few steps ahead, and Zhou Ping, a boy in his late teens, was following behind. She didn't want to say such things in front of outsiders.

He Wu, carrying his bag, walked ahead and didn't quite hear their whispers. He only saw Zhou Rui suddenly quicken his pace and distance himself from the women behind him.

He didn't say anything, but just kept thinking to himself, "Everyone says that married women can talk endlessly, but apart from his wife, the others here don't even have boyfriends yet, so how come they're chatting so freely?"

Once they reached the open snowfield, Lin Qiuyue and her companions finally witnessed just how well Dahuang and Dabai worked together.

Big Yellow barked wildly and darted into the woods, startling all the pheasants and rabbits hiding in the bushes, which then swooped down from the sky like big white arrows.

They caught a pheasant in mid-air and landed with their claws pressing down on a darting rabbit. The two worked together so smoothly that several young women watched with excited shouts and clapping.

Zhou Ping, however, was a little unconvinced. He spotted a gray wild rabbit crouching under the snow, grabbed Big Yellow who was about to rush forward, took two steps back, and quietly raised his rifle.

"Hey, how's your brother's marksmanship? Tell me, how about I be the second one and finish him off?"

He Wu suddenly became interested, feeling that Zhou Ping's spirit was just like his own when he was young.

Back then, I had just gotten my hands on the gun at home, and I would chase after the guys in the compound every day to compete in marksmanship, always wanting to be the best at everything.

Zhou Rui glanced sideways at Zhou Ping, who was holding his breath and raising his gun, and a faint smile appeared on his lips.

"I practiced with a target a hundred meters away this summer, and I can hit the target steadily." He lowered his voice, afraid of startling the small animals hiding under the snow.

"He's just impatient, and his accuracy is still a bit lacking."

He Wu's eyes lit up immediately. He adjusted the gun on his shoulder and placed his finger on the trigger guard.

"Not bad, kid. You're better than I was back then. When I fired my first shot, the bullet went straight into the woods without me even hearing a sound."

He quietly took a small step back, clearing a direct shooting path for Zhou Ping. "Don't be afraid, I'll be there to cover for you."

Zhou Ping turned around and glanced at He Wu, then grinned.

Zhou Rui looked at the two of them without saying a word, but simply tucked the small rice cake he was carrying into his cotton-padded jacket and gently warmed her cold ears with his palm.

The gray hare under the snow was clearly unaware of the movement above it, still digging through the snow and munching on the dry grass buried underneath, its short tail occasionally twitching.

Zhou Ping's knuckles were on the trigger, his fingertips red from the cold but he didn't shiver. His eyes followed the sights and were firmly locked on the soft fur on the back of the rabbit's neck.

Bang, bang, two gunshots, one second apart, rang out on the snowfield.

Both bullets struck the snow in front of the hare, kicking up a spray of snow half a foot high.

The rabbit was so frightened that it jumped three feet high and darted into the woods, disappearing in just a few seconds.

Yang Ping and the others were initially clenching their fists and staring intently, but when they saw the two shots miss, they laughed so hard they bent over, their pants legs covered in snow foam.

"Sister Yang Ping, Sister Si Tian, ​​please stop laughing. My fingers were just numb from the cold, and I couldn't stop pulling the trigger."

Zhou Ping's ears turned red with anxiety, and he quickly tried to explain.

He Wu didn't say anything, but looked up at the sky, trying to make everyone think that he hadn't been involved in those two shots.

"Uncle Wu, where's Rabbit?"

Little Rice Cake didn't let him off easy; she blinked her big eyes and asked a question that made him blush.

"Shh, stop talking. If you keep saying that, Brother He Wu will lose face." An'an on Zhou Rui's back added insult to injury.

The interaction between the two children made Lin Qiuyue and Yang Ping extremely happy, and their giggling couldn't stop.

He Wu's face flushed red after being rebuked by Xiao Niangao's words, and he raised his hand to point in the direction of the air.

Not wanting to argue with the two little kids, I could only manage to say, "What's the rush? Big White has already flown out and will definitely bring the rabbit back for us."

However, things were different in the forest. Zhou Ping started to use his slingshot, and after a few mud pellets, he finally shot down two squirrels, saving him some face.

"Pingwa, not bad, your marksmanship is much better than yours." Yang Ping, acting like the eldest daughter in the family, took the squirrel and patted Zhou Ping on the shoulder.

"Sister Yang Ping, can you please stop mentioning the gun?" Zhou Ping pouted, somewhat displeased that Yang Ping kept teasing him about missing the gun earlier.

Yu Sitian quickly stepped forward to change the subject: "Zhou Rui, didn't you say you were taking us to collect pine nuts? How are we going to do it?"

Zhou Rui lifted An'an up on his back and pointed to a thick red pine tree not far away, with a dark hole embedded in its three-meter-high trunk.

"See that tree hole? Most of the pine nuts and walnuts that squirrels collect in the fall are hidden in these sheltered tree holes."

"It's so high?" He Wei looked up and frowned.

She wasn't very good at climbing trees, and with such a tall pine tree and no branches to stand on, she couldn't possibly climb it.

"You wait."

As Zhou Rui spoke, he stuffed Xiao Niangao and An Anquan into Lin Qiuyue's hands, and then took the axe out of his bag.

He told everyone to move away, picked up his axe, and started chopping away with trembling hands.

The axe blade bit into the frozen red pine trunk, and sawdust mixed with ice shards fell down, leaving a 30-centimeter-deep notch in the trunk in just a few strokes.

Zhou Rui tucked the axe behind his waist, planted one foot on the ground, and kicked out with the other.

With a creak and a crash, the tall red pine tree fell forward.

The snow collapsed from the treetops with a roar, raising a snow mist half a person's height.

The little rice cake in Lin Qiuyue's arms shrank back into her neck in fright.

An'an's eyes widened, and she clapped her hands, shouting, "It's falling! It's falling!"

Yang Ping was the first to react, grabbing Yu Sitian's arm and running forward: "Sweetie, the tree fell down, come with me to collect pine nuts!"