Chapter 72: Buying a Lot

The next day, Wen Jiajia got up at six o’clock, had a quick breakfast, and went straight to the New World Department Store.

At this hour, the New World looked quite impressive.

From the outside, New World appeared to be a four-story building. Once inside, she was stunned by the dazzling array of goods.

Wen Jiajia stood in front of a counter selling daily necessities, where thermos bottles were displayed.

What kind of thermos is this? It’s a thermos with a pink and blue plastic shell! It’s almost the same as the ones on the market decades later. Wen Jiajia’s mouth opened slightly in surprise.

And what about the cabinet at the back? There were thermos bottles with red iron shells, which Wen Jiajia often saw on TV. There were also thermos bottles with pandas playing, which were very delicately painted in the Chinese style. Next to them were enamel basins and spittoons^[1]is a containers people used for spitting, often when they were chewing tobacco. It was common in public places like bars and train stations in the past. with red flowers and green leaves printed on them, neatly arranged, with at least a hundred of them.

“Hello, comrade. How much is the thermos?” Wen Jiajia approached the counter and asked.

Before the salesperson could answer her, the person next to her said, “The iron one is 6.5 yuan plus two industrial tickets, and the plastic one is 7.5 yuan plus two industrial tickets.”

It turns out that plastic ones are even more expensive!

It’s normal to think about it. Plastic is in short supply at this time; even plastic bags are rare.

The person next to her said enthusiastically, “Girl, is this your first time here? Let me teach you. Look under the products. There are price tags under the products.”

Wen Jiajia smiled and said, “That’s true. Thank you, big sister.”

“Oh, it’s okay! We help each other.”

As he said this, he made way for Wen Jiajia to take a closer look at the plastic thermos bottle. He even taught her how to choose a good thermos bottle.

“Girl, do this. Open the bottle stopper, put the bottle mouth to your ear, and then flick the bottle. A good thermos bottle will make a muffled and thick sound when it is flicked.”

Wen Jiajia was surprised: “Is there such a saying?”

“Yes, you young people have to learn a little bit, so as not to buy bad goods.”

The salesperson was unhappy and said, “Big sister, we won’t put out the bad goods.” The bad goods are all in the warehouse, and their internal employees are scrambling for them, so how could they bear to put them out for sale?

The eldest sister laughed twice and passed it off with a smile.

Wen Jiajia took a look and finally gave up buying it.

She really wanted it because it would last for ten years. But the journey is long, and she was afraid it would get damaged by the crowd on the train.

Wen Jiajia stepped out and immediately saw the bowls.

The bowls were piled up one after another, completely filling up. When she was done, she saw that she could no longer walk.

Unlike the earthen bowls in the countryside these days, the bowls here are almost as exquisite as the ones sold on the market decades later.

The inside of the bowl was white glaze, without any other color.

But there were brightly colored flowers on the wall of the bowl, outlined in great detail. Judging from her meager painting knowledge, Wen Jiajia believed that the painter must have some skills.

Even the slightly inferior bowls next to them had some elegance in their patterns.

Wen Jiajia looked at them again and again… Ah, it is still not easy to carry, otherwise, she would have prepared two sets for the family.

She loves collecting beautiful bowls and always brings back six sets of bowls every time she goes to Jingdezhen.

Wen Jiajia endured the heartache and left again, thinking: Next time, next time I will definitely take you home.

She wants to buy a house here and put ten sets of bowls in one house!

Then she came to the clothes and shoes counter.

The clothes were ready-made, and Wen Jiajia knew that it was time for her to take action.

Wen Jiajia took out the purchase plan she had written last night from her pocket and said to the salesperson in the clothing section, “Comrade, please take down that gray-white coat and let me see it, and that army green shirt… Yes, the small ones, take two.”

Wen Chun and Wen Xuan insisted on wearing military uniforms. They saw other people wearing military uniforms every day in the army and were jealous. So Wen Jiajia had to buy two pieces to appease them.

“…Give me one of the pink floral dresses and one of the blue floral dresses, as well as the black Mao suit^[2]also known as a Zhongshan suit, is a type of suit that became popular in China during the mid-20th century., and the yellow coat…”

Wen Jiajia bought several pieces of clothing in one go as if she were buying cabbages.

But people around her didn’t find it strange because she was obviously from another place, and it was very common for people from other places to buy things like this!

The salesperson was also not surprised. He took down the clothes one by one and even helped her choose the sizes.

Wen Jiajia didn’t know how to choose sizes. She just needed to tell the salesperson roughly the height and body shape of the person wearing the clothes, and the salesperson could pick out the right size.

Anyway, if it’s not right, she can modify it. Who doesn’t know how to modify clothes? Even Wei Dai is better at modifying clothes than she is.

After choosing, Wen Jiajia carefully checked the stitches again. Although the ready-made clothes were expensive, the fabrics were really good, and the stitches were really dense.

Wen Jiajia said, “Comrades, please help me wrap these up.”

“All of them?”

Wen Jiajia nodded, “I’ll pay first and then let you go, okay? I still have more shopping to do.”

“Okay, just come and get them when you’re ready to leave.”

Wen Jiajia took out the bill with difficulty and then spent another three minutes paying the bill.

She was so bored that she used cotton and synthetic cotton cloth to exchange for cotton coupons at home. Now she used the cotton coupons to buy ready-made clothes and brought them home from afar…

I always feel like there’s something wrong.

The next stop was the shoe cabinet next to it.

There were shoes to buy, all of which were Huili sneakers^[3]is a well-known Chinese brand, particularly famous for its classic canvas sneakers.. The styles looked quite novel now, and some of them would not be too outdated even after decades.

Wen Jiajia bought two pairs for herself and two pairs for Wei Dai. They both wore out shoes quite a lot, especially Wei Dai, who wore out a pair of shoes almost every year.

Fortunately, the army provided him with shoes; otherwise, the cost of his shoes alone would have been a considerable expense for his family.

Each of her two sisters got a pair of shoes.

Then she bought some for Lan Lan and the others. Lan Lan specifically asked for white sneakers with red ticks.

Wen Jiajia thought about it and decided to buy a pair for Wei Xiaomei and Wei Wenzhu in her hometown.

Her younger sister had sent her a package a while ago, which contained this year’s new rice and some mountain dried goods, such as dried fungus, dried bamboo fungus, pickled rice fish, and wine lees.

Unsure of what gift to give back to her family, she decided on a pair of shoes and thought about buying a bottle of Pechoin as well, which seemed like a good idea.

She could buy them for her younger sister and Wenzhu, but what about her eldest sister-in-law? Forget it. Wen Jiajia took another pair of shoes.

Earlier in the year, she heard that Wei Dai’s mother was ill, so she and Wei Dai did not go home. Her sister-in-law took care of her. Because of this, she felt she had to buy her a pair of shoes to thank her.

One purchase led to another, and finally, she bought several pairs of shoes. The industrial tickets that Wen Jiajia had saved up and exchanged with others were almost gone.

Wen Jiajia didn’t dare stay any longer and left quickly.

With some cloth in hand, Wen Jiajia went to the fabric counter to buy some.

She didn’t buy cotton; she bought polyester.

It is called Dacron^[4]is a brand name for a type of polyester fiber developed by the DuPont company. abroad and Dacron in China.

Dacron is really popular now; it is light and cool, very suitable for making shirts. In her hometown, if someone had a piece of Dacron, it was something worth showing off, and people would turn around to look at you when you walked down the street.

Moreover, Dacron comes in many bright colors, which is really eye-catching among the black, blue, and green shades.

When the wind blows, shirts made of Dacron flutter in the wind, and the girls look really beautiful in them.

Even Wen Jiajia, after wearing coarse cloth for half a year and cotton cloth for more than a year, did not have much resistance to Dacron.

So she bought enough fabric to make seven or eight Dacron garments, but she only kept two for herself and gave the rest to others.

The last thing she bought was food.

The most common candy here is White Rabbit milk candy. Wen Jiajia weighed three kilograms of it in one go, and also weighed two kilograms of chocolate-flavored milk candy.

Then there were butterfly crisps, mung bean cakes, and other pastries. In addition, she also bought two bottles of wine and two packs of cigarettes.

Finally, she bought soap, toothpaste, a toothbrush, a towel, a hairband, hairpins, and other miscellaneous items.

When she went out, she carried her things with her.

Clothes, shoes, and fabrics were on her back, just like when she was returning home from collecting grass for pigs in the mountains.

Wen Jiajia still felt it was not enough, so she bought more than a pound of smoked fish and a serving of pickled duck from the state-owned restaurant at the nearby intersection.

When she was about to leave in the afternoon, she had to go to the restaurant next to the guesthouse to buy two fried buns.

It was already noon when she returned to the guesthouse with great difficulty.

Liang Mu also went out to buy some things. Wen Jiajia asked him, “Where is Director Gao?”

“We went to his teacher’s house for dinner,” Liang Mu said. “Director Gao asked us to wait at the guesthouse after dinner.”

Wen Jiajia nodded. Today is Sunday, and the teacher is also off.

Then she asked him, “Have you finished your meal?”

Liang Mu nodded and smacked his lips, as if reminiscing or enjoying himself, and said, “I had a bowl of crab roe^[5]refers to the eggs or reproductive organs of a female crab. It is considered a delicacy in many cuisines, particularly in Chinese and Southeast Asian cooking. noodles. Comrade Wen, you really should go and try it. The taste is a little different from ours.”

The noodles felt chewier and were not as sweet.

Wen Jiajia said, “Then I’ll go and try it!”

She also wanted to eat shredded eel noodles. She had eaten shredded eel noodles once before and wondered if the taste would be the same as it was in her previous life.

Arriving at a nearby noodle restaurant, Wen Jiajia first went to the supply and marketing cooperative next door to buy a lunch box, then ordered a bowl of eel noodles and a serving of crab roe noodles.

The noodles were made on the spot, and the portion was large. When the freshly cooked crab roe and eel shreds were covered with the noodles, the originally dry noodles immediately became colorful, fragrant, and delicious.

The waiter also helped to stir them so that every noodle was evenly coated with the soup.

First, she ate the crab roe noodles. They were slightly sweet, but more fresh. The crab meat and crab roe were particularly fragrant, and there were strands of crab meat and bits of crab roe hanging in the soup. When she bit into the crab meat and roe, the unique, fresh fragrance of river seafood burst in her mouth.

Wen Jiajia couldn’t help but nod. It was indeed different from the crab roe noodles in Linhe. The crab roe noodles in Linhe were at least two points sweeter.

After taking a few bites of the original flavor, Wen Jiajia added vinegar, which effectively alleviated the greasiness after eating too many crab roe noodles.

The portion was large, so she stopped eating and instead reached for the eel noodles.

She chose mixed noodles, which actually came with soup.

The eel was boneless and cut into strips, then fried with lard. Wen Jiajia was sure that the chef used lard, as only lard could produce this aroma.

Then he added minced garlic and stir-fried it. Wen Jiajia could clearly smell the garlic aroma, which complemented the eel perfectly.

Finally, the seasoning was added, simmered, thickened, and used as a topping to cover the cooked noodles, then sprinkled with chopped green onions as garnish. The rich, red sauce was very appetizing.

Wen Jiajia held the bowl and ate in big mouthfuls until only half a bowl was left. She stopped when her stomach could no longer hold any more.

She preferred eel noodles to crab roe noodles, which tasted much better than what she had in her previous life!

Ingredients are the soul. Even if a lot of soy sauce, sugar, and even pepper were added, she could still taste how delicious the shredded eel was.

After eating, she packed up the leftovers and took them away.

Oh, don’t forget to pack the fried buns. She originally wanted to pack two, but when she saw that there were only three left in the store, Wen Jiajia simply packed them all.

At that time, she planned to keep two portions at home and give the remaining portion to Teacher Shen and Sister Bao.

Wen Jiajia went to buy another pair of chopsticks. Tonight’s dinner would probably be on the train, so the remaining noodles could be used as dinner.

At 1:30 in the afternoon, Wen Jiajia woke up refreshed after a ten-minute nap and went to the train station with the luggage that had been prepared long ago.

Fortunately, they arrived more than 20 minutes early. The entrance to this train station was not as convenient as Linhe, and they had to queue up slowly.