Good guys don't live long, and the eldest brother is getting anxious

"Third Brother, what's for dinner tonight?"
As soon as she returned with her third brother, the little girl remembered that he had promised to make her something delicious. Right now, her mind was entirely occupied with what she would be eating tonight.
"You foodie, go study your homework quickly. I'm going to stir-fry some pork large intestines for you."
With that, Su Yu stepped out of the courtyard and headed over to Huzi's house. He plucked a few chili peppers from the garden, brought them back, and sliced them into strips. After giving the pork large intestines a brief boil, he cut a section into thin slices. Setting the wok on the stove and heating up the oil, he tossed in the chili peppers and the pork intestines for a quick stir-fry.
"Third Brother Yu, where's your gun? Let me take a look!"
Huzi had remembered the mention of it when Su Yu stopped by for chili peppers earlier, and sure enough, he had followed him right over.
"Wait a minute. I'll let you look at it as soon as I finish cooking."
In a flash, Su Yu whipped up a plate of food. He poured water into the wok, placed a steaming rack inside, put the corn cakes on top, covered the lid, and added a few logs to the stove. There was no need to watch it—once the logs burned down, the dry rations would be thoroughly heated.
"Come on, take a look."
With that, he reached under the bed, unwrapped the cloth covering, and a ninety-percent-new rifle came into view. Except for the bayonet, the weapon lacked virtually nothing.
"Be careful, there are still three bullets in the magazine. If you want to play with it, I'll take you hunting in the mountains another day."
Huzi eagerly took it, his eyes shining. He received the gun, detached the magazine, removed the bullets, pulled the bolt back, and pulled the trigger toward the sky, producing a crisp *clack, clack*.
"That sound is so crisp! The condition of this gun is amazing. You call this second-hand?"
"Yeah, I picked it up in the residential compound. It must have been well-maintained; otherwise, the rifling wouldn't be so smooth, and the bolt action wouldn't feel this slick."
Huzi marveled repeatedly, muttering to himself, "This is way too enviable. I wouldn't be jealous if you bought a bicycle, but how did you manage to buy a gun without a word? It's making my hands itch."
Su Yu shook his head in amusement, offering his deep sympathy to his childhood friend's envy.
"Third Brother Yu, did you really strike it rich in Huangjia Village? Since you've got a gun now, does that mean we can hunt wild boars?"
"Technically speaking, yes. This Type 56 semi-automatic rifle packs too much punch and isn't quite right for regular game; it's better suited for things like wild boars or brown bears. But this Mauser rifle is different—its firepower isn't as excessive, so hitting a game animal won't leave a bowl-sized wound. It's much better suited for hunting."
"However, wild boars aren't that easy to run into. Having a gun is just a precaution. If we encounter a beast we can't beat, you and I will have the means to protect ourselves. For hunting ordinary pheasants and hares, your family's bow and arrows are more than enough."
After agreeing to go hunting tomorrow, Huzi finally left with lingering reluctance. Su Yu didn't put the gun away immediately either; Su Sheng would definitely want to see it as soon as he came back. Besides, there was no point in hiding something like this—even if he managed to conceal it tonight, it would still be discovered when he went out tomorrow.
He removed the bullets and placed them on the bed to avoid any accidental injuries.
Just as he was about to get back to work, a thought suddenly struck him.
"Oh no, I forgot to mention the situation with educated youth Xu when I was at the police station."
The police station had many different departments; the people who stamped serial numbers on bicycles definitely weren't the same ones who investigated cases or mediated disputes. Even if he had dropped a name, they wouldn't have had any impression of it, which caused him to completely forget the matter and trot all the way back here empty-handed.
"Whatever, I'll just make another trip tomorrow."
Just as he was about to step outside, his eldest brother walked in. The moment he crossed the threshold, he spotted the rifle resting on the bed.
"You bought a gun? Oh ho, a Mauser? Brand new?"
"No, ninety percent new."
True enough, his eldest brother was also a gun enthusiast, and he immediately started tinkering with it, utterly fascinated. Comrade Liu Yuzhi walked in and saw it too, though she was clearly much more interested in the bicycle.
Not long after, the fourth younger brother and their father arrived one after another. Even the little sister stopped studying her homework, hurriedly running over to set up the table in preparation for dinner.
"Alright, spill it. How much did it cost?"
"What is this? A trial by a tribunal?"
"You brat, you bought a bicycle without a peep, and now you've gone and bought a gun too. Don't you think you owe us an explanation? That's a bicycle we're talking about—a huge deal! You bought it without even asking anyone?"
Su Yu was speechless. Still, buying a bicycle in this era was pretty much equivalent to buying a car; riding it down the road definitely made you the most dazzling person around. In the entire village, only their family and the village chief's family owned one.
City dwellers getting married placed importance on the "three rounds and a sound," but while people in the countryside knew about the saying, almost no one actually demanded it. Being able to afford even one item left people quite satisfied, and most would choose a sewing machine.
That was because sewing machines could be used to mend clothes and subsidize household expenses, whereas bicycles were only good for showing off, besides being far too flashy. Ordinary folks nowadays preferred to keep a low profile; after all, having lived through the era of struggling against local landlords, if you lived too high on the hog and made people jealous, it was inevitable that someone would come looking to make trouble for you.
It was still an era where being poor was considered a badge of honor. If you went around flaunting your wealth too openly, you wouldn't even know what hit you. People would accuse you of living a bourgeois lifestyle, label you as corrupt, and crack down on you—criticism and re-education would be the least of your worries.
"The bicycle is eighty percent new. I bought it at a repair shop in the city for one hundred and thirty-five yuan. Here is the bicycle registration certificate."
"The rifle is a Mauser, ninety percent new. It cost five hundred, and it came with five boxes of bullets."
Su Yu honestly confessed to everything.
"Good grief, you little spendthrift! You spent six hundred and thirty-five yuan? You blew through that much in a single day? Why don't you just fly up to the heavens?"
Liu Yuzhi was furious. At least he had mentioned the gun beforehand; even though the family hadn't expressed explicit support, they had assumed he wouldn't actually pull it off anytime soon. Who could have imagined that not only would he buy a gun, but he'd also buy a bicycle?
"All right, it's already bought, and you can't return it. What are you yelling for? Besides, wouldn't it be nice for the family to have a bicycle?"
Their father finally spoke up, and their mother fell silent. In front of the children, she rarely argued back against their father or undermined his authority, fearing that his already meager prestige would completely collapse.
"Fine. As for the bicycle, we'll just tell people outside that it belongs to my eldest brother. That way, it'll be convenient for him when he's looking for a wife. I won't usually ride it anyway, except when I'm hauling wild game to sell in the city."
With Su Yu framing it that way, their mother found it even harder to object. After all, her eldest son was indeed well past the age where he should be talking about marriage, and that had always been a lingering heartache for the family.
"Alright, my eldest brother finding a wife isn't a huge deal anyway. I'll help ask around and have someone introduce a match for him another day."
"Let's eat."
Su Father glanced at his youngest son. In just a few words, the young man had cleanly and decisively settled the matter—somewhat unbefitting of his age, especially since he had quietly scraped together over six hundred yuan to add two major luxury items to the household.
After dinner, Su Yu returned to his room. His eldest brother followed him in, and soon the fourth brother came in as well to wash his face and go to bed.
"Third Brother, what you said earlier about having someone arrange a match for me—what's that about? Do you already have someone in mind?"
Hmm? Was his eldest brother getting anxious after all? He remembered that in his past life, his eldest brother didn't get married until he was thirty-four, and even then, it was a second marriage that eventually ended in divorce due to family discord.
"Yeah, I actually do have someone in mind. She's quite pretty, very capable, and quite virtuous. There's just one thing I need to tell you in advance: she is indeed very attractive—everyone for miles around knows it—but her father has a crippled leg. She's an adopted daughter, and the old man has no other relatives. You know how it is. If you want to marry her, you'll also have to shoulder the heavy burden of supporting your father-in-law in his old age."
The reason Su Yu knew about this was because in his past life, he had heard a gossip from her village mention it. That person frequently used the girl as gossip fodder: *What's the use of being pretty? Look at so-and-so in our village—she's pretty, kind, understanding, gentle, and virtuous, but what good does it do? She didn't end up marrying better than me!*
Later on, Su Yu inquired further and found out that the girl had delayed marriage until a very advanced age simply to take care of her father. She was thirty-five or thirty-six and still unmarried when her old man, unable to bear it any longer, used the threat of death to force her hand, prompting her to hastily marry off just so her father could close his eyes in peace. Yet she ended up suffering half her life, and her later years remained ill-fated.
When he first heard that story shortly after the girl got married, he had asked around purely out of sympathy for his eldest brother, sighing that good people often lacked good fortunes, which was why the memory stuck so firmly in his mind.