Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

When Zhou Rui and his group arrived at the village entrance, most of the teenagers who participated in the competition had already returned. Besides the hundred or so people who had initially followed them, there were also some adults who were already chatting in the village. The hundreds of people gathered there looked like a village meeting.

The contestants stood in a row under the big tree, each with their catch on the ground in front of them. Zhou Rui followed suit, walking to the last position and standing there. Zhou Ping and the other two immediately put their sparrows in front of Zhou Rui. An An huffed and puffed as she walked at the very back, carrying the cormorant and the big carp, and finally placed them next to the pile of sparrows.

wow...

"What's going on? They put a fish there for the slingshot competition, that's going too far."

"Is that an osprey? Its white feathers are quite noticeable. Was it shot by Ruiwazi too?"

"No mistake, the osprey caught a fish and was about to fly away when Ruiwa shot it down. I saw it right then and there, so it counts as a catch."

"This kid is really fierce. Besides the osprey, he has far more sparrows than others."

"Yeah, look at Chen Feiyue, he's pretty good, but he's only half as good as Zhou Rui at that sparrow pile."

Chen Feiyue stood in the center of the group with a gloomy expression, his disgusted gaze shooting towards Zhou Rui through his bangs. Before Zhou Rui arrived, he was the focus of this grand event, receiving almost everyone's discussion and praise. But after Zhou Rui finally arrived, all eyes were on Zhou Rui, while Chen Feiyue became a peripheral topic in Zhou Rui's conversation, the kind that was trampled underfoot.

Zhou Rui sensed an unfriendly gaze. Looking up, he saw it was Chen Ye's son, a hunter from the village. He'd never had a conflict with him before, so why was he staring at him with such hostility? Was that envy? Jealousy? Hatred? Oh well, they weren't close anyway, and there was no future cooperation. He'd ignore him.

Clang... Clang... Clang... Chen Baoxi kept banging on the broken washbasin, drawing everyone's attention.

Chen Baoxi thoroughly enjoyed this feeling. Although he couldn't use a slingshot, he had at least hosted this competition, and he estimated that apart from the top three finishers, no one was as dazzling as him.

"Attention, attention. Everyone stop talking. Now we'll tally up each contestant's score, starting with the one on the far left. Liu Mo is on the far left."

Zhou Rui hadn't expected that his aunt's son from Changchun would also participate in the competition. At first, he thought he was just there to watch the fun. Of course, his results were atrocious; he only managed a handful of points, probably just lucky among a large group of sparrows.

"Three."

A burst of laughter rang out... Haha...

Liu Mo wasn't shy at all, and kept bowing with his hands clasped, saying, "It's all about participation, it's all about participation."

Chen Zhi, a junior high school student, stood on a stool and wrote Liu Mo's name and the number of sparrows with chalk. It was quite formal; he even brought the blackboard from the village meeting. The village chief didn't stop him, watching with amusement. It was a rare spectacle that the whole village enjoyed watching, and it also eliminated pests and protected the harvest; the village chief wished he could come every day.

The village chief stroked his chin, pondering how to recruit these twenty-odd lads. He planned to have them hunt sparrows every day before the autumn harvest, without giving them work points.

Those kids were still happily counting sparrows, completely unaware that an old man was plotting to make them work like cattle for free.

"Zhao Xuejun has fifty-four sparrows."

"Chen Bo, thirty-six."

"Chen Feiyue, one hundred and eighteen."

Wow... This sparked another round of discussion, since the number of people ahead of them hadn't even reached 100.

"Wow, that's amazing! No wonder you're a hunter, you've caught so many."

"Indeed, you see, you've immediately distanced yourself from others."

"That's still not as many as Zhou Rui's. Look how many more sparrows Zhou Rui has!"

"Did Ruiwa cheat?"

"No, there are so many people watching, where would I go to cheat?"

"Zhou Guocai, twenty-three sparrows." Chen Baoxi had to raise his voice, otherwise the host and referee would not be able to continue.

"Liu XX, 28 in total."

"Fifteen of them were from Chen XX."

"Zhou Rui..." Chen Baoxi called out in a hoarse voice, "Two hundred and twenty-one sparrows...one cormorant...one large carp."

"My God, there are so many!"

"One hundred more than Chen Feiyue."

"It seems we still have to rely on Zhou Rui."

Wait until the sound subsides.

"The champion of the first Genesis Dragon and Tiger Fight Slingshot God Competition in Jiaolong Gorge in 1972 was... Zhou Rui."

clap clap clap...

A bunch of kids kept chanting, "God of Bombs, God of Bombs, God of Bombs..."

Hearing everyone chanting slogans, Zhou Rui couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness.

As for the runner-up and third place, nobody cared at all.

Once the villagers had calmed down a bit, Zhao Youzhi was preparing to step forward and give them a summary, then bestow an honorary title upon these young men, elevate them to a high position, and then have them work for free every day. Zhao Youzhi chuckled to himself.

Suddenly, a commotion arose from the outer edge of the crowd. "...Where did you go?" "Nothing." "Why...aren't you guys here...?" "Something's up."

The crowd parted, clearing the road into the village and revealing four faces, some gloomy, some dejected, and some fearful.

Although the four had something on their minds, they were also curious about what was happening at the village entrance, that so many people had gathered there, so they looked around. Suddenly, they saw about twenty teenagers lined up under the blackboard, and Zhou Rui being pulled to stand in the most conspicuous position.

"Zhou Rui...! You little beast, how dare you harm my son! I'll fight you to the death!"

When Zhou Rui's aunt, Tian Xiuying, saw Zhou Rui, her eyes turned red instantly. She screamed and rushed over, her slightly plump body exuding an indomitable spirit.

This vicious woman was always cunning and deceitful. Even when her father was alive, she would often come to their door begging for food, and despite the family's poor conditions, she still managed to gain weight. After her father passed away, her uncle and cousin stole the family's grain. Zhou Rui would never forget that when he and Zhou Ping went to beg for a bowl of rice porridge, this aunt blocked their door with a broom and viciously shouted, "Why don't you just die?"

Zhou Rui calmly watched the woman rushing towards him, then suddenly exerted force with his foot and kicked out.

Bang... Tian Xiuying flew two meters backward, landing on her back and kicking up a cloud of dust. This was only because Zhou Rui held back; otherwise, with his ever-increasing strength, he could have broken several of Tian Xiuying's ribs.

The woman who had been following Tian Xiuying suddenly stopped, looked at Tian Xiuying lying on the ground, and then glanced at Zhou Rui with a look of horror.

That kid is ruthless. He could be so cruel to my aunt. If I had run up to him just now, things would have been even worse.

Zhou Dashan and another man rushed up when they saw this.

"Stop! What are you doing?" Zhao Youzhi quickly stepped forward. "What are you looking at? Stop them right now!" Zhao Youzhi then shouted to the onlookers.

"Wow... Zhou Rui, you heartless bastard! You ruined your brother Chen's life, and now you dare to hit me. Wow... You should die like your father. Stop causing trouble for others."

Zhao Youzhi looked at the crazy woman on the ground and the three people being dragged away by the villagers, and his forehead veins bulged with anger.

These idiots caused such a scene in front of me, showing absolutely no respect. And Zhou Rui, he went too far; he'll probably be causing trouble a lot in the future, so I need to keep a closer eye on him.

"Alright. Zhou Dashan, you tell me what happened?"

"Yesterday in town, my son Chenbao was playing there and got into a fight with Zhou Rui. Zhou Rui then released his dog..."

"No, there was no conflict. Zhou Rui deliberately released his dogs to bite people."

"Later, they even reported it to the police, and the community security team came to arrest them."