Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

Zhou Rui walked at the front under the blazing sun, constantly observing the areas where the wild boar had passed. Sometimes a piece of bark was scraped against a tree, sometimes a rock had overturned. Zhou Rui kept adjusting his route based on the wild boar's tracks, but his pace was not slow.

His sharp eyesight allowed him to spot the tracks left by wild boars from a distance, without having to go close to examine them closely.

Liu Qingguo walked briskly today, feeling no fatigue from his meal. It was great being with Ruiwa; every meal included meat. Last night they had roasted rabbit, and this morning they had stewed pheasant. Liu Qingguo wished this could happen every day.

Only Chen Xueqin lingered at the back, holding a hard piece of bread in his hand, his eyes fixed on Liu Qingguo's back, occasionally taking a big bite.

Suddenly, Zhou Rui paused, then slowed down, shaking his head occasionally. Liu Qingguo, who was following closely behind, was caught off guard by Zhou Rui's sudden slowdown and almost bumped into him.

"Ruiwa, what's wrong?"

"Shh... keep your voice down." Zhou Rui turned his head and raised his right index finger. "Everyone, try to be as quiet as possible. We're getting close to the wild boar herd, don't disturb them."

"You mean..." Liu Qingguo gestured with his hands to his mouth, making a fang-like shape.

Zhou Rui nodded.

Even Zhao Changshan and Chen Xueqin showed joyful smiles at this moment.

"Move gently from now on, slowly adjust your breathing, and recover your strength. Follow me and don't fall behind," Zhou Rui deliberately instructed, especially Chen Xueqin, whom Zhou Rui stared at for a moment.

The three nodded. They had come this far, and they couldn't afford to ruin everything because of a mistake; only a fool would do that.

He walked through a grove of trees and came to the middle of a valley. Although he hadn't seen the wild boar yet, Zhou Rui's intuition told him that it was about two hundred meters ahead. There was a cliff face with protruding rocks, and it should be below there, where it was well-ventilated and shady.

Zhou Rui raised his hand to signal the people behind him to stop, and then the group gathered together.

"See that over there? That protruding rock." Zhou Rui pointed to a large rock on the cliff face. "The wild boar is right below that cliff."

"We'll split into two teams, each on opposite sides of the valley, at this altitude, and then we'll fire together..."

Before Zhou Rui could finish speaking, Chen Xueqin interrupted him, "Can't we go around to the top of the valley and attack from there? That would be more convenient from a higher vantage point."

Zhou Rui gave him a very disdainful look. This idiot was not only clueless but also stupid, but he couldn't not explain, lest the idiot refuse to cooperate and waste this opportunity.

"The wind blows downhill in this valley, so we can't go upwind. Wild boars have a keen sense of smell, even more so than dogs; they'll spot us immediately if we show up there. Also, shooting from above is risky; wild boars are fast, and with your gun, you won't be able to fire more than two bullets before they're out of range. How are you going to shoot them?"

"We'll shoot from these two positions. Once the wild boars are startled, they'll run up the mountain. They're slow, so we can fire more shots."

Chen Xueqin was about to speak when Zhao Changshan glared at him.

"Listen to Ruiwa, Xueqin and I will be on the other side, you guys go this way."

"Okay, once we get to the designated location, don't move. Watch my hand signal before you fire." Zhou Rui didn't dawdle. It didn't matter which way we went, as long as we didn't have a fly around with us.

Having finalized their plan, the four quickly split up, forming pairs and climbing the slopes on either side of the valley. The slopes were quite steep, but the bushes were dense, providing plenty of branches for leverage.

After climbing to a position about the same height as the wild boar, there was a relatively flat area, but there were more loose rocks, so we had to be more careful.

Zhou Rui looked up and saw that the other side seemed to be in position and adjusting their firing angles. It seemed that the hillside on the other side was easier to traverse.

Zhou Rui turned his head: "Be careful, don't let the rocks roll down, too much noise will wake up the wild boars."

Liu Qingguo nodded. Although he was a carefree and somewhat thoughtless person, he had one advantage: he was obedient, even to those younger than him.

The two walked another thirty meters or so. Ahead was a curved bend in the road, where a vertical mountain wall blocked their view. Once they rounded that bend, they would see the wild boar directly. That was also the shooting range Zhou Rui had planned, about a hundred meters away from the boar.

Just as they were about to reach it, gunfire suddenly erupted from the other side.

Bang... A plume of smoke rose from the opposite side.

Damn it, we haven't reached the designated location yet, so there's no way to herd the wild boar in one direction. Zhou Rui quickly quickened his pace; by now, he no longer needed to be discreet, as the gunshots had already alerted the wild boar.

Before he even reached the protruding rock face, Zhou Rui could already hear the short cries of wild boars and heavy footsteps approaching him, growing ever closer.

Zhou Rui quickly went over and pressed himself against the rock wall, sticking his head out. He saw that the wild boars had split into two groups. One group consisted of two large wild boars leading five or six small yellow-haired boars running upstream in the valley, while another large wild boar was running towards their position, followed by an unknown number of other wild boars.

At this moment, a head suddenly popped out from behind Zhou Rui. It turned out to be Liu Qingguo. He was following closely behind Zhou Rui, and when he saw Zhou Rui peeking out to observe, he followed him to look.

Bang! A gunshot rang out, and a shot was fired from the opposite side into the valley.

Upon seeing them, the wild boar quickened its pace. Zhou Rui didn't have time to grab his gun; Liu Qingguo blocked his path, and in his panic, Liu Qingguo hadn't even taken his gun off his shoulder. It was too late. Zhou Rui didn't have time to check the results on the other side; he quickly pulled back, grabbed Liu Qingguo by the collar with his right hand, and dragged him tightly against the mountain wall.

The wild boar ran in front of Zhou Rui, and as it turned, it braked with its hooves, slowing down abruptly.

So Liu Qingguo saw a huge pig's head sticking out from around the corner, then bent one leg upwards and kicked the wild boar's head.

With a thud, followed by a wild boar's howl, the boar rolled off the ground in front of him, kicking up a large pile of pebbles.

A little spotted pig came along, and seeing the big wild boar rolling down the hillside, it was startled and prepared to turn back.

Zhou Rui looked at the roast suckling pig... no, the little spotted pig, which was hopping around in front of him, bent down, grabbed the pig by the neck, pulled out a knife from behind his waist, and stabbed it in.

Bang... A bullet exploded on a rock beside Zhou Rui. Zhou Rui looked up at the opposite side, his eyes shooting out a death stare.

Zhou Rui released the little pig he was holding, and the pig rolled down the slope with the knife still stuck in its neck. Then Zhou Rui grabbed the still dazed Liu Qingguo and slid down the slope with him.

Caught off guard, Liu Qingguo was pulled down the rocky slope by Zhou Rui, even dropping his gun in the process. He braced himself on the ground with one hand, letting out a muffled groan; it was unclear whether he had twisted his ankle or broken a bone.

As Zhou Rui slid down, he passed a clump of bushes. Sharp branches grazed his face, leaving a thin gash, but Zhou Rui didn't even blink. Reaching the wild boar, the boar's descent was halted by a tree trunk, but the small trunk was already on the verge of breaking after the boar's impact. Another kick to the boar, which had just regained its footing, snapped the tree trunk, and the boar rolled further down the slope.