Chapter 50: The State-Run Store, Encountering a Scalper

"Wait, don't leave yet. How are things going between you and Su'e?"

Thinking it was something important when his mother suddenly grabbed his sleeve, Su Yu realized it was just her gossiping soul reigniting.

Su Yu rolled his eyes, flashed out of the way, and muttered, "You should help the eldest brother find a wife instead. If he doesn't get married, how can the fourth brother and I tie the knot?"

Su Sheng put down his bowl and chopsticks, fixing a glare on him that could kill, but Su Yu wasn't the least bit intimidated.

He wasn't Su Jin. While he might have been afraid of his eldest brother a few years ago, he wasn't anymore.

"You brat, stop talking about your brother. We're talking about you right now. Get back here."

Ignoring her completely, Su Yu left the house and headed to the village chief's place to borrow a bicycle.

In the countryside, there was indeed this unwritten rule: if the eldest brother wasn't married, it was considered improper for the second brother to be courted for marriage first. The eldest was the pillar of the household, and generally, when the family property was divided, the parents would live with the eldest.

This was also one of the reasons why their grandmother favored the eldest brother.

Clearly, however, no such favoritism existed in Su Yu's family. For their mother, whichever child got married first made her happy.

"Uncle Daqiang, I'm here to borrow your bicycle. The commune doesn't need it today, do they?"

Knocking open the gate, Su Yu strode in casually.

"It's you again, brat. What am I supposed to say to you? We're all of the same clan, so let your old uncle say a word—this bicycle belongs to the collective. Even though anyone can use it if they need to, if you keep coming to borrow it all the time, other people are bound to start having opinions."

Yes, to put it into perspective, Su Father went to the brickyard every day, but he rarely borrowed the brickyard's bicycle. As for the village bicycle, he borrowed it even less. When going to work, he would rather run than come to borrow a bicycle unless it was absolutely necessary.

"Uncle Daqiang, did someone say something to you? Is someone jealous?"

Su Yu was a straightforward person who spoke his mind. Besides, Su Daqiang was his kinsman. Even though they were from distant branches of the same clan, they were still clansmen and would naturally side with the Su family.

"Monkey, do you need people to spell it out? People have already been hinting at it in their talk. Borrowing it to ride once in a while is fine, but if you're riding it every other day, people are definitely going to have complaints."

"Oh well, I didn't think it through. But I really have something to do today, so I'll be off."

With that, Su Yu wheeled the bicycle away, took a stride, hopped on, pedaled hard, and shot forward.

Fellows surnamed Su shouldn't be gossiping that much. Although his eldest uncle's relationship with their family wasn't great, his uncle wouldn't go around badmouthing them in public because someone who cared about saving face would keep up appearances of harmony even if they were truly at odds.

It must have been a few lazy idlers in the village talking nonsense behind his back again.

Even though Su Yu now knew that borrowing the bike would cause some trouble, he didn't take it to heart. After much effort, he arrived in the city.

State-run stores sold guns. You read that right; they were displayed for sale. Not only rifles, but also air rifles—Shanghai brand. You broke the barrel a few times to pump air, loaded a steel ball, and you could hit a bird with absolute accuracy from tens of meters away.

You could even kill a rabbit at close range, though beyond twenty-five meters, it was hard to say—you could only kill birds.

Hunting birds worked at a great distance, fifty or sixty meters was fine, but hunting rabbits required close range, and hitting a pheasant in the head at twenty or thirty meters would kill it instantly.

However, he wasn't here to buy an air rifle; he was here to buy a rifle. First, he needed to ask about prices. Without knowing the market rate, buying a secondhand one would be a blind guess.

"Comrade, how much is the Type 56 semi-automatic?"

As soon as Su Yu walked over, he saw the Type 56 semi-automatic in the display case. It was gorgeous.

"Twelve hundred yuan for a brand new one."

"What about the Mauser rifle?"

Seeing that Su Yu was only asking for prices and didn't look like someone who could actually afford a gun, the salesperson impatiently explained, "The Mauser isn't cheap either. A brand new one is eight hundred. You might want to consider buying an air rifle instead; after all, it's more suited to your age."

What did "suited to my age" mean? Was it suitable for shooting birds and fighting dogs? He was utterly speechless.

"Can you make it cheaper? Eight hundred is too expensive."

"This is brand new, never fired since it left the factory, and it has been carefully maintained all along. Even though it was manufactured quite a long time ago, it is still brand new. Even if you don't use it for hunting and just buy it as a collectible, isn't it a fine collector's item? So I can't lower the price."

Damn it, Su Yu was speechless. Buying it as a collectible? How could you say that with a straight face? The Mauser rifle, commonly known as the 98k, ceased production in 1944, and it was now exactly twenty-six years since production stopped from Su Yu's current time. And she had the nerve to call it brand new.

Su Yu turned around and walked away. This wasn't the only store selling them; he didn't have to waste time with her. Other places sold them for five hundred, yet she insisted on eight hundred. Ridiculous.

As soon as he stepped outside, he ran into a man wearing a military overcoat, with a mouthful of yellow teeth and a cigarette pinched between his fingers, who sidled up to him.

"Brother, looking to buy some hardware?"

Su Yu knew he had run into a scalper—one of those gangs that collected secondhand guns and resold them.

"Yeah, for hunting. Do you have stock on your side?"

"Hehe, you've got a good eye, brother. My name is Liu Zi, and I often hang around outside the department store just to run into kindred spirits."

Su Yu thought to himself: aren't you just trying to poach business from the store? Why make it sound so mystical?

These people didn't just stake out the state-run stores; they also hung around the commune's fur-purchasing stations. Some of the fur buyers even knew them and would occasionally introduce business to them for a referral fee.

You could say these people had mastered the art of intercepting business.

"What kind of hardware do you have? How much is it going for?"

Glancing around to make sure nobody was nearby, Liu Zi leaned in and lowered his voice. "That Mauser you were eyeing? I happen to have one in stock right on my side. How about five hundred flat for you? Not expensive, right?"

Hearing that, Su Yu turned around and walked away.

What kind of international joke was this? For five hundred yuan, couldn't he just go through proper channels? Other stores sold them for five hundred, it wasn't impossible to find. It was just that the salesperson in this store was weird, probably in cahoots with this fellow. Whenever they spotted someone who didn't look like a real buyer, they drove them away with an inflated price so these scalpers could intercept the sale. This sort of racket was nothing new.

It didn't need to happen often—once a month was enough. You only made twenty-odd yuan a month working at the state-run store, but if you drove away a customer and got a ten-yuan kickback from a hijacked sale, you wouldn't be losing out. The crucial point was that Su Yu really didn't look like he was going to buy a gun. If she ever got caught, she could completely claim she thought he was just a troublemaker who kept asking for prices without buying, which was why she wanted to run him off.

See? Nothing goes wrong, and you can stuff your belly by doing it just a few times a month. Why wouldn't you do it?

"Brother, brother, don't walk away! Let's talk. How about I throw in twenty rounds of ammunition?"

A single bullet cost around a few dimes. During the War of Resistance, a Mauser rifle, complete with ammo pouches, a canteen, and a bayonet, cost about 40 silver dollars, and a thousand rounds of ammunition cost only 80 silver dollars.

Since they were out of production and practically obsolete, the price of ammunition wasn't too outrageous.

"What condition is it in?"

"Ninety percent. Absolutely ninety percent new. I acquired this from the child of a high-ranking cadre's courtyard. Ninety percent new, five hundred yuan, and I'll throw in twenty rounds of ammunition for free."

Su Yu curled his lip. Twenty rounds—what was that supposed to do?

"No way, twenty rounds is way too few. A box of ammo has thirty rounds. I'm buying your gun, and you won't even give away a single box of bullets? You're too stingy."