Chapter 207

After a while, Wang Li suddenly said, "Fourth Brother, I want to go buy a gun tomorrow. Come with me, will you?"

Wang An was just about to speak when Mu Xueli hurriedly said, "Brother-in-law, I also want to buy a '56-Semi' like yours. Do you think that's okay?"

Wang An looked at Mu Xueli in surprise and said, "What? Have you had enough of that Mosin-Nagant of yours?"

"Not really, it's just that you two will be using '56-Semis' from now on. My marksmanship is already not as good as yours, and if I keep using this Mosin-Nagant, there won't be anything for me to do when we go mountain-chasing," Mu Xueli said, his expression clearly showing a bit of inferiority.

Wang An looked at Mu Xueli with a half-smile and said very readily, "Fine, tomorrow all three of us will go buy guns, and we have to buy new ones. You two buy two each. The gun I'm using now is still okay, so I'll buy one."

After Wang An finished speaking, Wang Li felt a bit pained by the cost, so he said in a negotiating tone, "Fourth Brother, this stuff is damn expensive. Can't we just buy one? I feel like one is enough."

Mu Xueli also immediately advised, "Yeah, brother-in-law, even though we have money, we can't be like this, right? A new one costs over a thousand!"

Actually, Wang An knew that one gun was enough, but he also knew that starting from the end of 1982, the supply and marketing cooperatives would no longer sell '56-Semis' and other rifles, and after 1984, single-barreled and double-barreled shotguns wouldn't be sold either!

If you wanted to buy a gun later, you could only buy air guns. If you wanted a rifle or shotgun, you'd have to find someone who had one to buy it privately, or find a way on the grasslands in other provinces.

Although wages and prices hadn't risen much, the price of guns increased year by year! The most critical thing was that you absolutely couldn't buy new guns!

Although with Wu Dong's connections, it was very simple to get this stuff, but a gun is a lethal weapon!!!

And more than a decade later, China's management of firearms would become increasingly strict, and with the call to protect wild animals, mountain-chasers would basically be unemployed, except for setting traps for hares or shooting pheasants.

The reason Wang An asked them to buy two guns each was because within these ten-plus years, even if one gun had an accident and couldn't be used, the other spare gun wouldn't delay their work!

Most importantly, it was because none of them were short of money!

And the reason Wang An wanted to buy another gun was very simple: because in a few years, high-lethality rifles like the '56-Semi', Mosin-Nagant, SKS, Arisaka, and Zhongzheng would have to be registered.

But the two '56-Semis' at home were "black guns" without serial numbers, so buying a new gun was actually for registration. Of course, buying an old one would work too, but Wang An wasn't short of money, so why buy an old one?

Wang An looked at their stingy appearance and said with a chuckle, "If you only buy one gun, what will you do if it breaks?"

Mu Xueli said, "If it breaks, then just buy another one. Last time I went to the supply and marketing cooperative, I saw there were plenty of them, and nobody was buying them."

Wang An asked with a smile, "Then what if the supply and marketing cooperative stops selling them?"

Upon hearing Wang An's words, Mu Xueli asked in confusion, "Stop selling? If they don't sell this stuff, what can it be used for? As a fire poker?"

Wang An found that his brother-in-law was becoming more and more asking for a kick, daring to argue with anyone. But since they were on a sled, standing up was really not comfortable, mainly for fear of falling, so Wang An slapped him across the face.

After slapping Mu Xueli, Wang An felt much better and said to the two, "If you two want to keep mountain-chasing, then trust me and buy two guns each. I heard that in two years they won't let us sell '56-Semis' here anymore. When that time comes, even if you want to buy a gun, there won't be anywhere to buy one."

Mu Xueli and Wang Li still trusted Wang An's words, because Wang An had been hanging around the county town before, and people who hang around the county town definitely have broader sources of information.

Then the two looked at the sacks containing the "Great Unities" and gold bars, falling into a struggle.

Wang An stopped paying attention to them, watching the snow splashing on both sides of the sled, pondering the matter of building a house after spring. The arrival of his sister-in-law, Mu Xueting, made Wang An feel more and more that the house at home was really too narrow.

After a while, Wang Li seemed to have made up his mind. His expression gave the feeling that he had summoned all his courage to make a very major decision. Only then did Wang Li say, "Fourth Brother, I'll listen to you. Tomorrow we'll buy two '56-Semis' together."

Following closely, Mu Xueli also muttered fiercely, "I'll buy two too. It's not like I don't have the money. Buying two is buying two, what's the big deal?"

Mu Xueli's tone made people hear the full pain of spending money. Being able to say this, one wondered what kind of internal struggle Mu Xueli had gone through.

"Hahaha, look at you two, what a sorry sight. Who asked me before, 'What's wrong with all this money?' How did I forget that!" Wang An said, laughing while teasing the two.

"Fourth Brother, it was Brother Mu who said it. I heard it all. He said it after getting kicked." Wang Li hurriedly seized the opportunity to add fuel to the fire for Mu Xueli, while incidentally clearing himself.

How could Wang An not see through Wang Li's trick? So he turned his head away, no longer caring about their verbal attacks.

The main thing was that these two idiots, after three sentences, would have to curse the Japanese in the fourth. Anyway, no matter what bad thing it was, they could naturally link it to the Japanese, and the key was that it sounded very smooth, as if it should be that way, as if it were only right and proper!

Anyway, Wang An found it very interesting, not much different from the feeling of listening to crosstalk.

Speeding along the way, they soon arrived at Mu Xueli's house. The three of them moved Mu Xueli's sack and box into the house together, and then Wang An and Wang Li said their goodbyes and left.

Before leaving, Wang An told Mu Xueli that there was no need to be too early to go to the county town tomorrow, and it would be fine to sleep in.

Mu Xueli watched them walk away, then hopped and skipped back into the house, probably to share the joy with his parents.

No problem, sharing joy with others is better than enjoying it alone.

After Wang An and Wang Li left Mu Xueli's house, they returned to Kaoshantun in just over ten minutes. Today, perhaps because of the sale of the production team's assets, there wasn't a single idler on the village road.

Wang An drove the sled and delivered Wang Li, along with the gold and "Great Unities" belonging to Wang Li, to Wang Li's house.

Sure enough, as expected, there was no one at Wang Li's house; they must have all gone to the brigade headquarters to join the fun. And the key to Wang Li's house was placed under a small stone on the windowsill of the lower room.

After helping Wang Li move the gold and "Great Unities," Wang An drove the sled home.

Naturally, there was no one at Wang An's house either, but the five little puppies were home. Seeing Wang An return, they all surrounded him, affectionately pouncing on Wang An's thighs.

After unloading the sled, tethering the horse, and feeding it, Wang An looked at the four boxes containing calligraphy and paintings and fell into deep thought, because there was no place to put them at home!

After thinking and thinking, Wang An decided to move the boxes into the house and stack them up. No matter what, these were ancient calligraphy and paintings, and they would be worth quite a lot in a few years!

Wang An put away the box of gold bricks, the box of "Great Unities," and all the gold bars, then strolled toward the brigade headquarters.

When Wang An arrived at the brigade headquarters, the asset sale meeting was already nearing its end. Seeing the smiles on the faces of Wang Dazhu and his wife, Wang An knew that his parents had achieved their expectations.

Turning his head, he saw that his second uncle and his wife were also quite happy, which meant they had also gained quite a bit.

In a thousand words, actually, as long as there is money, generally speaking, things related to money are no longer problems!

Of course, looking at most of the families in the village with mournful faces, if there were no surprises, then the problem had appeared, and that problem was "no money"!

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(End of chapter)