Chapter 7: All these cloth tickets are for you  

Fu Wenjing smiled, raising his hand once again to ruffle Su Ruanruan’s hair. “Alright! Comrade Su Ruanruan, from now on, we’ll learn from each other, improve together, and strive to make our days better and better!  

“Wife, can we go in and buy things now?”  

Su Ruanruan nodded firmly. “Yes!”  

She had no interest in the so-called “Three Turns and One Sound.” She neither cared for them nor wanted them. However, she truly wanted to buy clothes.  

The original owner’s clothes were extremely worn out. They were a real example of “new for three years, old for three years, and patched for another three years.”  

She originally didn’t have many outfits, and no one knew how many cycles of three years they had gone through. Patches upon patches covered the fabric. Even though the original owner’s sewing skills were decent, the clothes were still too tattered to be presentable.  

The outerwear was still manageable, but Su Ruanruan really couldn’t stand the undergarments.  

The two of them entered the department store, went straight to the second floor, and found the fabric counter.  

At this time, most of what was sold were fabrics, with ready-made garments being scarce. There were only a few styles available, and they were very expensive.  

The “Dacron” shirts and “Blaji” dresses—Su Ruanruan had heard the older generation mention them before she transmigrated. Now, she was finally seeing them in person.  

As clothing that had taken the entire country by storm in this era, there was indeed a reason for their popularity.  

The Dacron shirts were relatively stiff in texture. Since they were made of synthetic fabric, they felt smoother to the touch and had a bright white color. Wearing one instantly made a person look full of spirit and energy—very presentable.  

The Blaji dress was essentially a skirt, but with a sense of design.  

It featured a round neckline, a cinched waist, and a large skirt hem. The sleeves had delicate pleats, forming puffed sleeves. The colors and patterns varied widely.  

There were red, white, pink, yellow, green, and floral designs. Some had Peter Pan collars or ruffled edges. No matter how one looked at them, they were simply beautiful.  

No girl disliked looking pretty. Compared to the dull blue, gray, and black shirts and trousers, the Blaji dress was undoubtedly more fashionable and far more popular.  

However, making a Blaji dress for an adult required at least nine feet of fabric. Each foot of fabric cost fifty cents, meaning a single dress would cost four yuan and fifty cents.  

In the 1970s, the average wage for an ordinary female worker was only twenty to thirty yuan, and for an apprentice, it was a little over ten yuan.  

If a woman were single and could control her own salary, she might be able to grit her teeth and afford one.

However, if someone had a family or couldn’t fully control their salary, saving up to make a Blaji dress would take months of frugality.  

Behind the fabric counter, two Blaji dresses were hanging—one in pale yellow with small floral prints and the other in white with delicate flower patterns.  

For this era, these two dresses were truly beautiful. Anyone wearing them on the street would undoubtedly attract the envy of countless girls.  

As Su Ruanruan was staring at them, she suddenly heard Fu Wenjing’s voice.  

“You like these? Then let’s buy them!”  

“No, don’t!”  

Su Ruanruan quickly turned to look at Fu Wenjing. “I was just looking. There’s no need to buy them.”  

“You don’t have to worry about money or ration tickets. I have plenty. Before coming back, I specifically exchanged a lot with my teammates.”  

As he spoke, Fu Wenjing reached into his pockets and pulled out not only a thick stack of money but also numerous colorful ration tickets, placing them all on the counter.  

The service staff behind the counter widened their eyes in shock at the sight.  

Su Ruanruan was equally stunned. When Fu Wenjing said he had a lot, he really meant a lot!  

After carefully counting, she found that there were thirty-five feet worth of cloth tickets alone.  

For someone of Su Ruanruan’s build, making a set of long-sleeved and long-pants clothing for spring and autumn required about seven feet of fabric.  

For winter clothing, which required both inner and outer layers, the fabric usage would need to be doubled.  

Summer clothes, being short-sleeved, required less material—about five to six feet per set.  

With so many cloth tickets, if she used them all for fabric, she could make at least five or six full outfits!  

Su Ruanruan tugged at Fu Wenjing’s sleeve. “With so many cloth tickets, we might as well buy fabric. I can make new clothes for you and also for Father and Mother.”  

“No need to make any for me.” Fu Wenjing refused outright. “I wear military uniforms all the time. At most, I just need a few undergarments, which can be made from leftover fabric scraps.  

“As for Father and Mother, you don’t have to worry about them either. I already gave Mother twenty-five feet of cloth tickets—that’s more than enough for them to make new clothes. These are all for you.”  

Originally, Fu Wenjing had only planned to visit home and hadn’t intended to get married. The cloth tickets he had specifically exchanged were meant for his mother, Wang Maoni.  

But plans could never keep up with changes—he had only been home for one day before getting married. Now, he could only give Wang Maoni more money and send additional cloth tickets back home after exchanging them again once he returned to the military unit.

Hearing Fu Wenjing’s words, Su Ruanruan couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from curling up.  

It wasn’t because he had given her more cloth tickets, but because when he did something, he always considered his mother without forgetting his wife.  

A man like Fu Wenjing was definitely not a “mama’s boy.” nor was he someone who would be completely controlled by his wife.

He knew how to balance his relationship between his mother and his wife, which would help Su Ruanruan integrate into the Fu family more smoothly and get along better with her mother-in-law, Wang Maoni.  

As for what the sisters-in-law in the Fu family thought—well, that didn’t matter.  

Whether they had cloth tickets or new clothes was a concern for their husbands, not something for Fu Wenjing, their younger brother-in-law, to worry about.  

In the end, all thirty-five feet of cloth tickets were used to buy fabric.  

Su Ruanruan didn’t choose anything too eye-catching. She picked the most common colors—black, blue, gray, green, and white.  

However, Fu Wenjing wasn’t quite satisfied and swapped out the gray fabric for pale yellow and soft pink.  

“You have fair skin. These two colors will definitely look good on you.”  

Hearing this, the saleswoman pursed her lips into a smile. “You two just got married, didn’t you? What a loving couple! This young man really knows how to spoil his wife!”  

Being teased by the saleswoman, Su Ruanruan’s cheeks turned slightly red, but she couldn’t hide her smile no matter how hard she tried.  

When all thirty-five feet of fabric was rolled together, it was quite a sight—and also quite heavy.  

But for Fu Wenjing, it was nothing. He lifted it effortlessly with one hand.  

Compared to all that fabric, the sewing kit seemed insignificant. It only cost a few cents.  

At this time, most people wore homemade thousand-layer cloth shoes, and some even wore straw sandals.  

Of course, the department store also sold rubber-soled shoes, sneakers, leather shoes, and even plastic sandals that cost two yuan a pair.  

Fu Wenjing seemed to have turned into a god of fortune, wanting to buy two pairs of every kind of shoe for Su Ruanruan. She had to hold him back with all her might, and in the end, they only bought a pair of rubber-soled cloth shoes and a pair of white sneakers.  

Even so, the two pairs of shoes cost eight yuan—not cheap at all.  

However, compared to the items on the first floor, the clothing and footwear on the second floor were relatively inexpensive.  

After all, the first floor sold bicycles, watches, sewing machines, radios, flashlights, electric fans, and other household necessities.  

Among these, the cheapest item was the flashlight.  

At this time, flashlights were silver-colored, made of tin, and cost three yuan and twenty cents each.  

The flashlight itself wasn’t too expensive, but the batteries were.  

Each flashlight required two large batteries. A single battery cost twenty-six cents, so a pair would be fifty-two cents—and they didn’t even last very long!