Chapter 52: Getting the Bicycle, Time to Show Off

"Mister, busy working?"

The old man looked up at him, then glanced at Su Yu's bicycle, and muttered, "Hmm, what's wrong with the bike? I don't see anything wrong with your bicycle."

"Ahem... I was recommended by Six-Pence. He said you have second-hand bicycles for sale here, so I came to take a look."

The old man glanced at him and saw that he was young, with a long object strapped to his back, which should be a rifle.

"Ha, recommended by Six-Pence? All right, follow me."

With that, the old man stood up, lifted the cloth curtain, and walked into another room, with Su Yu following closely behind.

"There are three left. Take a look and see if any catch your eye. One is nine-tenths new, one is eight-tenths new, and one is six-tenths new."

"The prices are one hundred eighty, one hundred fifty, and one hundred twenty yuan respectively."

Su Yu glanced at them. The nine-tenths new one was a ladies' model, which Su Yu filtered out immediately. As for the six-tenths new one, at a glance it was very old, and he doubted it would hold together after a few days of riding.

"Mister, did you assemble these yourself?"

The principle of a bicycle is not complicated, especially for someone who has been repairing bicycles for years; he had a natural advantage. Whether finding parts at the scrap yard or collecting second-hand bikes, he kept what was usable and sold the rest as scrap. In short, he wouldn't lose out.

"What? This price doesn't require a ration coupon from you. Do you want a receipt?"

That was true. Not everyone knew how to piece things together like that. At least if he had to do it himself, spending one hundred fifty yuan, he might not be able to get it to look that perfect.

"But this is second-hand, and you assembled it yourself. One hundred fifty yuan is a bit high. Look, I'm a kid from the countryside, coming into town and having to borrow a bike from my village uncle—it's not easy. Make it a bit cheaper. How about you sell it to me for one hundred twenty yuan?"

"Hey, kid, for one hundred twenty yuan, you can only buy this six-tenths new one. The eight-tenths new one is one hundred fifty yuan, non-negotiable."

No ration coupon needed, and you even get a registration certificate issued—it really wasn't expensive. But if you were expected to raise the price, people were expected to haggle, right?

"Don't be like that, mister. It's not easy for a kid to make some money. Do me a favor and lower it to one hundred thirty yuan, and let me push it away."

Normally, someone Su Yu's age wouldn't haggle so shamelessly. It was the first time the old man had encountered this, and he looked somewhat surprised.

"Fine, fine, fine. Considering you came on Six-Pence's recommendation, I'll knock off twenty and let you have it for one hundred thirty yuan, and you can ride it away. Writing the certificate costs five yuan—do you want it or not?"

Damn it, the old fogey was waiting right there; it even cost money to issue a paper certificate. Whatever, I won't argue with him.

Su Yu counted out one hundred thirty-five yuan and handed it to the old man. The old man took a piece of paper, wrote something on it, stamped it with a seal, and handed it to Su Yu.

Why could a repair shop owner issue certificates? Because once the steel serial number stamped on the frame got worn out or damaged, the stamp would disappear. If the repairman replaced the frame for you, didn't a new steel stamp need to be made? Or if someone lost their bicycle registration card and the like, going through other channels was not as fast as going through the repair shop.

Who asked them to be affiliated with the street office? Despite the small size of the shop, it was a state-owned enterprise with an official seal. This seal was a kind of grey income, and not just any ordinary repair shop dared to pull that off.

Su Yu pushed the bicycle out, took it for a spin around the block, and felt there were no issues. Riding one-handed and pushing the other bicycle alongside him, he headed to the police station to get the steel serial number stamped and complete the transfer of ownership.

Not long after, Su Yu rode one bike while guiding the other and returned to Sanshuiwan Village.

When he arrived at the village chief's house, he returned the borrowed bicycle. The village chief walked him out to his front gate and also saw the bicycle parked there.

"Well, well, kid, you bought one yourself? What? Are you upset with your uncle?"

Su Yu smiled brightly and muttered, "How would this kid dare? You are an elder, which is why you were willing to speak your mind to me. If it were anyone else, they wouldn't have said such heartfelt words to me. Weren't you worried, Uncle Daqiang? So I just earned a little bit of money and bought one myself."

"Haha, you really know how to talk. This bike of yours isn't brand new, is it? Eight-tenths new?"

"Hehe, no wonder you're the village party secretary; that eye for detail is unmatched. It is indeed eight-tenths new. You told me to buy a new one, but I don't have a bicycle ticket either. I scavenged this from a repair shop."

Nowadays, scavenging old bicycles from repair shops was no secret; many people did it. It carried less risk than buying a bicycle ticket on the black market and then purchasing a brand-new one, because these were old bikes coming from a repair shop, and people could easily claim they assembled them themselves.

"Not bad, still looks quite new. Now that you have a bike, it's time to find a partner. You're already nineteen, and you'll be twenty next year. You're at the right age."

Su Yu couldn't be bothered to ramble with the village secretary. He gave a few perroutine responses and hurried to make his escape.

He pushed the bike back home, and the moment he stepped through the door, the little girl spotted it.

"Third Brother, wait, this doesn't look like the village chief's bicycle."

The village chief's bicycle was only about six-tenths new and looked obviously old. Their family's bike was eight-tenths new and still looked very fresh, so the little girl noticed it at a glance.

"Our little girl is truly smart. That's right, this is what Third Brother just bought for our family. How is it? Does it look cool?"

The little girl clamored for Su Yu to take her out for a ride. Unable to resist her, Su Yu went into his room to put away the rifle and bullets. As for the money, he had sixty-five yuan left.

Although it wasn't much, it wasn't a small amount either.

"Come on, I'll take you to pick up our mother and bring her home."

Su Yu felt a bit showy, so he took the little girl down to the fields and rode around.

"Mom! Mom!"

As soon as they reached the edge of the fields, the little girl started shouting at the top of her lungs, drawing the attention of all the aunties in the village.

When Mother Su saw her son riding a bicycle with her daughter coming down to the fields, she didn't think much of it at first. But after looking closer, it seemed... the bicycle looked rather new.

"Why did you come? Where did you borrow this bicycle from?"

The eldest son walked over. Since work was almost ending for the day, he didn't mind people seeing him come over to talk.

"I bought it myself, from a repair shop. Cost one hundred thirty-five yuan. How is it? Cool? Good enough for you to use when you get married?"

"Huh?" Su Sheng was startled. His younger brother bought it? And was offering it for him to use when getting married? He certainly wanted to get married, but someone had to be willing to marry him first.

"Stop talking nonsense. Did you really buy this?"

"Duh. Look, the bicycle registration certificate."

Su Yu pulled it out of his jacket pocket and handed the brand-new certificate to Su Sheng.

Su Sheng cross-referenced the steel serial number on the bicycle with the certificate in his hand. Good grief, his own brother really had bought it.

"Weren't you going to buy a gun? Why did you buy a bicycle instead?"

"Buying a gun can't help you propose marriage. Didn't I do this to get you out of your sea of suffering? Your younger brother here has put in a lot of thought."

"Cut the useless talk. Did the village secretary tell you that the villagers had complaints? And that they wouldn't let you borrow bikes anymore?"

Su Yu immediately shook his head; having an eldest brother who was too smart wasn't necessarily a good thing.

"All right, hurry back now. Look at you showing off like you've caught a fever, riding it out here to flaunt."

With that, he flicked the little girl lightly on the forehead and headed back into the fields.

"Hmph, no fun. Let's go back, Third Brother will cook something delicious for you."

Saying that, Su Yu took the little girl and zipped back home.

"Why did your younger brother come? What happened?"

Mother Su still wasn't at ease. Seeing her eldest son chat with the third one for a bit before returning, she hurried over and asked in a low voice.

"Nothing's wrong, Mom. Just do whatever you were doing. Your son has simply caught a feverish impulse—spent one hundred thirty-five yuan to buy a second-hand bicycle and purposely rode it out to the fields to show off."

"What!"

Mother Su let out a sharp cry of shock that startled Su Sheng.

"Oh, my dear mother, keep your voice down."