Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

Zhou Rui was overjoyed to be back in the village. Although it had taken a little time, he had made a windfall. While he hadn't eliminated the group of vagrants, they were likely no longer capable of causing trouble. After all, the two most ruthless among them were crippled; they were lucky to even be able to protect themselves.

Moreover, Zhou Rui revealed that the big guy had hidden away treasures. Judging from the appearance of those people, there will probably be some infighting for a while, and maybe one or two people will die.

Back home, Zhou Rui started handing out gifts, but before he even began, An'an jumped up excitedly. Zhou Rui had brought a big, fluffy gray dog, even cuter than the dogs at Uncle Wang and Gu Shaofeng's house last time.

After Zhou Rui took the basket off the handlebars, An An went even crazier, screaming repeatedly.

"Little puppy, you have to be good, okay? I'll get you something yummy." An'an kept petting this dog and scratching that dog.

Instead, Zhou Ping stood to the side, somewhat frightened, too afraid to move. The big dog was enormous; when it sat on the ground, its head reached Zhou Ping's waist.

An'an was already quite fond of the seven dogs that had visited his house, but his second brother brought him a few even more adorable ones. There was the majestic Mao Mao, and several tiny little puppies as well.

After An'an had had her fill of admiration and calmed down, Zhou Rui took out a few more Su Enlai items from his bag.

The beautiful clothes of Su En made Zhou An and Zhou Ping very happy, and even Xiao Niangao, who knew nothing, was also grinning foolishly.

Then I took out the jade pendant and the "no worries" plaque, feeling a bit of a headache. Which one should An'an wear? Oh well, let's make her wear the "no worries" plaque. After all, jade Buddhas are now considered feudal superstition, and it wouldn't be good if others saw them. There were exactly two, one for each of them.

As for Xiao Niangao, forget about it. She's just started teething and will bite anything she can get her hands on. Zhou Rui is afraid she'll swallow things.

"Keep the jade pendant close to your body for protection. Don't take it out to show off unless someone sees it, it won't be good."

Zhou Ping nodded vigorously. Listening to his second brother was the best course of action; only a fool would disagree.

"Yes, I'll definitely hide it well. Second brother, can I wear some pretty new clothes?" An'an didn't seem to care much about the bare plaque, only interested in the new clothes.

"That's made of roe deer skin. Don't you feel hot wearing it now?" Zhou Rui didn't refuse directly, but asked with a smile.

"Ugh... I can't wear such pretty clothes?" An'an pouted, her unhappiness written all over her face.

"If you like it, go back to your room and change into it, but you can't wear it outside. People will laugh at you for wearing something so thick in this heat."

"Yay, my second brother is the best!"

Zhou Rui, covered in sweat, sat on a large rock drinking water, then bent down to re-tie his slightly loose leg wraps.

Helpless, Zhou Rui, after a few days of peace, received another task from the village chief: meat, more meat. Zhou Rui was also puzzled; why were the Chen and Gu families so unlucky lately? Neither team had caught any large prey. Was it because there weren't many large wild animals in the mountains near the village recently?

This time, Zhou Rui went up the mountain alone. In order to go further, he sped up his pace, so even though his physical strength was getting stronger, he was a little tired.

Zhou Rui had relied on his sixth sense multiple times along the way, but he hadn't found any large prey. He had spotted quite a few pheasants, wild ducks, and rabbits, and some badgers as well. He hadn't found a single hair on any of the larger animals like roe deer, wild boar, or sika deer.

Zhou Rui took out a cigarette and lit it, pondering in his mind what exactly was going on.

Seeing that the cigarette was half-burned, Zhou Rui suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

No, it's not categorized by animal size, but by their habits. Pheasants, rabbits, badgers, and the like all have fixed territories, and rabbits and badgers both burrow and rarely leave their burrows.

Roe deer and wild boars, on the other hand, don't stay in one small area; they roam much wider and basically follow their prey. Once they've finished eating in one area, they move on to another.

Zhou Rui knew that there were several places in the surrounding mountains that were rich in resources and couldn't possibly be devoid of any animals. So there was only one possibility: a predator at the top of the food chain had recently arrived here, and the other herbivores, including wild boars, had sensed the danger and fled the area.

Zhou Rui stubbed out his cigarette; it seemed he couldn't go any further. Providing meat for the village wasn't the main issue; killing or driving away these troublesome beasts was crucial. Letting them linger here would ruin the feng shui of the area.

So he started walking back, but in a different direction, since he had already sensed the danger on the way here and had not found any foreign beasts.

As he kept changing directions, Zhou Rui would occasionally activate his senses to see what had come to his territory, but he couldn't find any direction.

As they walked for longer and longer, and as sunset drew closer, Zhou Rui sensed several small animals.

Zhou Rui glanced at his watch. It was getting late. He thought, "Why don't we call it a day? Let's hunt a few small animals down the mountain and report back tomorrow."

Zhou Rui never dwells on anything; once he makes a decision, he immediately puts it into action. So he quickly moved in the direction he sensed.

Upon arriving at the location, they found it was another badger burrow. Zhou Rui really liked badgers; they were gregarious, usually living in dens of five or six, sometimes more than ten. Their meat was plump and delicious.

Zhou Rui planned to use the same method as last time: fire a double-bang to scare away the badger, then guard the burrow entrance and whack-a-mole. He first found a rock and blocked the first burrow entrance he discovered, then went to look for other burrow entrances.

When he found the third burrow entrance, he suddenly realized something was wrong; the entrance seemed to have been damaged. Zhou Rui crouched down to examine it. These were likely claw marks from another animal, but definitely not from a badger.

Zhou Rui blocked the opening and then searched outwards in a circular pattern along the opening. Finally, he made a discovery more than 20 meters away from the opening.

Not far away were two skeletons that had been gnawed clean. Judging from the shape of the bones, they were definitely badger skeletons. Zhou Rui didn't go forward directly, but instead scanned the ground next to the skeletons. It was very messy, indicating that a badger had fought with something here.

There were many footprints, and they were haphazard, but still followed a pattern, basically circling around the two badgers. Were these wolf footprints? No. They were noticeably smaller than wolf paws.

Zhou Rui continued his search and finally found a tuft of reddish-brown hair on a tree branch. He finally realized it was jackals, a large pack of them.

Don't underestimate the small size of jackals; a single jackal might not even be able to defeat a badger. However, jackals are social animals, and jackal packs are generally much larger than wolf packs.

It seems I need to go back to the village as soon as possible and discuss it with the village chief.

Although he wanted to return to the village as soon as possible, Zhou Rui didn't let the badger in the burrow escape. Since the place had been exposed, if Zhou Rui didn't hunt it down, it would eventually be wiped out by jackals.

Zhou Rui continued to find the remaining holes and blocked them up, leaving only the last one open. He lit the firecrackers, then found a large wooden stick and squatted at the hole's entrance. After the firecrackers exploded, he would simply knock them off one by one on the head.