Chapter 5: The Su Family's Eldest Son and Grandson, Su Bin Appears
Su Daqiang naturally wouldn't just accept the fish immediately. The two exchanged polite refusals for a bit, and Su Daqiang, pretending he couldn't refuse, finally accepted it and personally saw Su Yu off.
Passing by Hu Zi's house, Su Yu started knocking on the door again.
"Huh, Yu Ge, why are you here?"
"I just went to the Old Party Secretary's house and, while I was at it, called you to come to Su Yu's house to eat fish. I caught a lot of fish today, so I called you over for a treat."
The two had played together since childhood, so there was no need for formalities. In fact, in the Village, if families had a good relationship and cooked something delicious, they would either send over a bowl or call people over to eat together. This is how the custom of becoming sworn relatives became popular in the Village. It meant the heads of the two families got along well, so they simply recognized each other as sworn relatives; your Su Bin would become my sworn Su Bin, and my Su Bin would recognize you as his sworn Father, making the two families even closer. This way of building friendships started with these small things.
"Ah, why didn't you call me when you went fishing?"
Hu Zi didn't stand on ceremony. He told his Father and Mother, closed the door, and followed along. He was full of complaints about why Su Yu didn't take him along, but there was no false politeness; this showed they were the closest of buddies.
Similarly, when Hu Zi's family cooked something delicious, they would also remember Su Yu. The reason they didn't send any over was simply because there wasn't much, just enough to call him over for a taste. So, Hu Zi didn't hesitate and went directly to Su Yu's house with Su Yu.
"Third Brother, Hu Zi Brother."
As soon as she entered, the little Yatou heard the movement and ran out of the kitchen.
"You're back? Hu Zi is here too? Quickly, come inside, wash your hands, and get ready to eat."
Comrade Liu Yuzhi was back. Su Yu called out "Mother." Seeing his Mother for the first time since his Rebirth, he felt a little excited. After all, he had never noticed his Mother's aging in his previous life, and by the time he realized it, she was already old. But now, his Mother wasn't considered old; she was only in her forties, in the prime of her life.
"Hehe, Aunt, don't be so polite, I'll go help bring the dishes."
Hu Zi wasn't being polite either; he went straight into the kitchen. Liu Yuzhi followed closely behind, urging Hu Zi to leave the kitchen. Su Yu didn't watch them; he went into his room by himself.
As soon as he entered the door, he saw a young figure, facing away from him, seemingly tinkering with something.
"Big Brother, you're back?"
The one squatting on the ground tinkering with wild vegetables was none other than Su Yu's Big Brother, Su Sheng.
"Yeah, I'm back. As soon as I entered the house, I smelled the fish you stewed. Why did you stew it all at once? What will you do if you can't finish it?"
"It's fine, it's just the beginning of spring, it won't spoil."
"Oh, right, where's Lao Si?"
The Lao Si Su Yu was asking about was indeed the fourteen-year-old Su Jin, who was attending primary school. However, in this era, schools often had holidays for various reasons.
"You still have the nerve to ask? You stewed all the fish, of course, we have to call our Father back! I sent Su Jin to get him. Looking at the time, he should be arriving soon."
Big Brother Su Sheng, Second Su Li was the Eldest sister, Su Yu was the Third, Lao Si was Su Jin, and the Fifth, the youngest sister, was named Su Jing. She had just started primary school and was also home because school was out.
"Oh, right, I heard you were beaten? What happened?"
Big Brother stopped tidying the wild vegetables, put down the basket he was holding, stood up, and questioned Su Yu, staring at him.
This matter couldn't be hidden, so Su Yu didn't intend to hide it. He had already instructed that little Yatou Su Jing to say he was fine when she told others, just a little scraped skin. This was also why his Mother didn't ask when she saw he was okay.
Because Village kids often fought in the Village, especially Big Brother, who once kept a machete under his bed. Father Su He had to go to the Police station to bail him out quite a few times.
But that was when he was little, under fifteen. After he turned eighteen, he rarely fought.
"It's nothing, just a scraped skin. It was Lai San from Ma Family Village. I don't know what got into him, he deliberately came looking for trouble."
Hearing it was Lai San, Su Sheng's face turned fierce. Lai San and Big Brother were considered peers. Su Yu was much younger than Lai San; Su Yu only had a height advantage, but his age was even younger than Lai San's.
"As long as you're fine, I'll help you get revenge another day."
Hearing this, Su Yu quickly stopped Big Brother and talked for a long time before getting him to give up.
Are you kidding? Su Sheng's revenge was simple and direct: go directly to Ma Family Village and beat people up. Su Sheng was a reckless man, relying on his height and weight, he could fight two or three people by himself. If he had a weapon, he could fight four or five.
Maybe it was good genes; Su Father wasn't short, standing at a straight 1.9 meters. Su Sheng was also 1.9 meters. Only Su Yu, at eighteen, was only 1.85 meters. It could be said that their children's heights were all outstanding, typical Northern heights.
"Speaking of Lai San, I ran into him on the way back. I saw him and Su Bin seemed to be arguing about something. But when Mother and I passed by, they both stopped talking. It wasn't until we left that we heard them arguing again."
Su Bin, Uncle's eldest Su Bin, was considered the Su Family's eldest son and grandson. He was only one year older than Su Sheng, twenty-four years old, and was also considered an older young man. Su Sheng hadn't married because his fighting and troublemaking in the past few years had become widely known, giving him a bad reputation. Just by asking around, everyone knew who Sheng Ge'er was.
This sort of thing wasn't popular these days. On the contrary, if you had a reputation on the streets, people would only see you as a hooligan, a drifter, a ruffian, a scoundrel.
Although Su Sheng hadn't been involved in gangs, he had indeed gotten into many fights, stood up for people, etc. He only attended junior high school and dropped out before graduating. Of course, it wasn't that he didn't want to attend, but the school had advised him to leave.
His reputation was predictable, which is why his marriage was delayed repeatedly. Su Bin was different; he was purely idle, lazy, and didn't have a job. He even slacked off when earning work points in the fields, a typical idler. Coupled with Uncle having no particular abilities, being a native farmer, his marriage was also delayed.
Idle people all have a common problem: they think highly of themselves and are unwilling to settle for less, a typical case of deserving their fate.
If only his standards were a little lower, he wouldn't still be unmarried at twenty-four. Simply put, he looked down on ordinary girls and had high standards.
Combining what Big Brother said about Lai San arguing with him, Su Yu already had a rough guess in his mind.
He just knew it. Lai San was five years older than him and from a neighboring Village. This kind of hooligan wouldn't carry water at all, so the two only knew each other and had no interaction whatsoever. How could the other party come looking for trouble with him?
Combining the news Big Brother brought back, the answer seemed obvious. After all, Su Yu was a reborn person; before his Rebirth, he was nearly fifty years old, lacking neither experience nor insight. It was easy for him to figure out this small matter.
"I knew it. Why would Lai San suddenly come looking for trouble with me? So it turns out Su Bin was pulling strings behind the scenes."
That day, when sending Xu Zhiqing back, they definitely had to pass through the central Village. There were generally two ways to settle educated youths: one was to let them live in the house of a family in the Village that had spare rooms; the second was for the Village to provide a courtyard for the educated youths to live in together.
Clearly, there were no families in Sanshui Bay wealthy enough to let educated youths stay with them. So, the Village could only provide a place to live, usually something like a cave dwelling. If not, they could only build an adobe house and set up a courtyard for them during the non-farming season.
Besides using a bit of wood, adobe houses were made of bricks from earth and didn't need firing. The roofs didn't have tiles; they were smoothed with wheat straw mixed with mud. When rain washed it thin, they would patch it up. Rural areas in the 1960s and 1970s had these kinds of adobe houses. The rooms all had heated brick beds (kang), so they weren't afraid of the cold at night.
It can be said that except for the main beams made of wood, everything else was earth. It just required some manpower and resources. The Village needed to provide a place to build the houses; there were no other investments.
In such cases, the educated youths would usually be settled at the head or end of the Village, not in the middle, because the building land wouldn't occupy anyone else's property.
Su Yu's house was at the head of the Village, so the educated youth point was naturally at the end of the Village. Therefore, they would definitely have to pass through the center of the Village, and it wasn't strange for Su Bin to see them. Everything made sense.
"What? Su Bin found Lai San to beat you? Why would he do that?"