Chapter 11

Qiao Baozhu quickly withdrew her gaze.

She knew in her previous life that Shen Xiao was helping his comrades’ wives and children.

Qiao Xifeng described the relationship between the two as very obscene, but Qiao Baozhu did not investigate the details.

Since she decided to marry Shen Xiao, it means she doesn’t care about these things at all. What’s there to be jealous of a man who can’t be humane?

Qiao Baozhu was very clear-headed. She knew clearly that her marriage with Shen Xiao was based on their mutual needs.

Thinking of this, Qiao Baozhu felt relieved all of a sudden.

Her eyes fell on the counter, and she saw a lot of scraps of cloth piled on the bottom layer of the counter.

Qiao Baozhu recalled that when she woke up in the morning, she saw that her foster mother’s boxer shorts were patched, and her socks were also patched up with patches, so that you couldn’t even tell what the socks looked like originally.

Qiao Baozhu walked back to the counter and asked Sun Jihong with a smile: “Sister, do you have any good cloth?”

The cloth is cheap and can be used to make boxer briefs or vest socks. The wider cloth can also be used to make short-sleeved shirts for summer.

She remembered that when she was a child, her adoptive mother used a few pieces of cloth to piece together a complete shirt for her, which looked very beautiful.

Seeing Qiao Baozhu coming back, Sun Jihong’s tone became much gentler. After hesitating for a moment, she shook her head and said, “No, they are all sold out. You’ve already bought so much fabric, why do you need more fabric scraps?”

Qiao Baozhu understood her hesitation. Sun Jihong not only had scraps of cloth, but also very high-quality ones, which were probably reserved for those with connections.

Nowadays, the things used to maintain relationships are cloth and industrial tickets.

Qiao Baozhu was not annoyed. She naturally held Sun Jihong’s hand and said with a smile: “Sister, I’m getting married soon. I bought this little bit of fabric today just to make two sets of clothes. The back and curtains are not made yet…”

Sun Jihong clenched her fists and glanced around. At this moment, everyone went to the door to watch the excitement, and no one noticed them.

She lowered her head and quickly glanced at her hands, then immediately put on a smiling face and patted Qiao Baozhu’s hand in a very artificial manner.

“Tsk, you should have said it earlier. Getting married is a big deal, and there’s a lot of fabric needed.”

Having received the fifty cents benefit for nothing, Sun Jihong was really enthusiastic this time.

She winked at Qiao Baozhu and walked to the other side. Going out from the back door and through an aisle, you will reach the warehouse of the supply and marketing cooperative.

When Sun Jihong came back, she was holding a flowered bag in her arms. She walked to Qiao Baozhu and lowered her voice.

“I was going to leave these for others. You pick them first, and I’ll give them the rest.”

Qiao Baozhu curled up the corners of her mouth excitedly. She could see that the fabric that Sun Jihong brought out was really good.

Although they are called scraps of cloth, some of them are even three meters long, enough to make a shirt.

She looked at Sun Jihong excitedly, and Sun Jihong blinked at her proudly.

Keeping some good stuff for themselves is a privilege they are proud of. Otherwise, what would those people in the supply and marketing cooperative be so proud of?

Qiao Baozhu knew that there must be better cloth in the warehouse at the back, but Sun Jihong didn’t take it out because she only gave her 50 cents.

But the power of fifty cents was enough for her to get a big bargain.

Qiao Baozhu saw at a glance that there were two pieces of corduroy in the pile of cloth, one was a three-foot-long black corduroy, and the other was a red piece with small black flowers that was less than one foot long.

Corduroy was a high-end fabric in that era. It cost $1.17 per foot.

Although the two pieces of corduroy in front of me cannot make a pair of trousers together, they are more than enough to make shoe uppers.

In addition to corduroy, Qiao Baozhu also picked out two pieces of red cotton with white diagonal stripes, a piece of white muslin, and a piece of blue plaid cotton.

Sun Jihong picked up a ruler and pretended to measure them one by one.

He lowered his voice and said, “I will charge you for all these plaids according to one and a half feet. Three pieces of plaid are four and a half feet, one dollar and seven cents, and I will charge you one foot and two cents of cloth coupons. I will charge you one inch of cloth coupons for the corduroy. For that piece of white fine cloth, I will charge you fifty cents for three feet, and I will charge you eight inches of cloth coupons.”

The selling price of these cloth scraps is basically half price, but the ratio of the cloth coupons depends entirely on the mood of the salesperson.

The piece of white fine cloth that Qiao Baozhu chose was 9 feet long, enough to make a shirt for a strong man.

Sun Jihong treated it directly as a piece of cloth and only charged a symbolic price for three feet.

If it weren’t for the fifty cents benefit, how could these things have ever fallen to Qiao Baozhu.

Now Qiao Baozhu bought 160 feet of cloth, not only spending only 24.5 yuan, but she still had 18.9 feet of cloth coupons left.

This amazing operation left the adoptive mother Bao Huihua dumbfounded.

“Uncle Shen, it’s this bad woman! She was the first one to look down on us, so I threw dirt at her.”

“Yes, she was in cahoots with those police officers. They forced us to buy all the fabrics from the supply and marketing cooperative, or they would arrest my mother.”

The three naughty kids rushed in aggressively, pointing at Sun Jihong with faces that acted like they had someone backing them up.

All the cloth that was soiled by the naughty kids was bought by Qiao Baozhu.

At this moment, Sun Jihong was no longer panicked. She put her hands on her hips, raised her head and looked arrogant and domineering.

“Hey, I was wondering how you little brats had the guts to run into the supply and marketing cooperative and act wild. Turns out you have a background.”

“Didn’t that woman say she was a widow? You guys…”

Sun Jihong had a weird look on her face and was about to taunt the person who came. But when she saw Shen Xiao’s cold and serious face, she was so scared that she swallowed the second half of her words.

Shen Xiao was dressed in a military uniform, his temperament was as cold as ice. He walked in slowly and put his big hand on the naughty kid’s shoulder.

“Wei Dong, apologize to the saleswoman!”

Shen Xiao’s voice was very soft, but his tone brooked no room for argument.

Wei Dong looked unhappy and reluctantly bowed to Sun Jihong and apologized: “I’m sorry.”

Sun Jihong had just put on an attitude that she would not stop until she had scolded him enough. Now seeing Shen Xiao’s imposing manner, she smiled bitterly and said, “If you know your mistakes and correct them, you are a good child.”

“Comrade, calculate the price of the fabric this child has damaged and I will compensate you.”

As soon as Shen Xiao arrived, he wanted to buy all the dirty fabrics. This was the attitude to solve the problem, and the people around him nodded repeatedly.

Sun Jihong glanced at Shen Xiao, then pointed at Qiao Baozhu who was packing things with her head down and said with a smile.

“The soiled fabric has been bought by this comrade.”

“What? Bought it? How can that be possible?”

Bai Hongmei pretended to be surprised and came over, covering her mouth with a look of annoyance: “How could you sell it? Didn’t I tell you that I would be responsible for anything my son soiled? How could you sell soiled fabric to someone else?”

In front of Shen Xiao, Bai Hongmei changed her previous aggressive and arrogant attitude and pretended to be very reasonable.

She deliberately walked up to Qiao Baozhu and kindly reminded her, “Comrade, the cloth you bought was soiled by my son. You must have been cheated. Sell the cloth to me.”

Qiao Baozhu turned around and raised her eyebrows at Bai Hongmei.

“I came in half a minute earlier than you did, and saw with my own eyes how your son had soiled the fabrics. The salesperson didn’t lie to me, so don’t accuse a good person.”

Bai Hongmei’s face turned red with shame. She was humiliated in front of Shen Xiao and she wanted to tear Qiao Baozhu’s mouth apart immediately.

Why does this bitch talk so much? She makes it seem like she is being unreasonable. Bitch, bitch, bitch!

Before Bai Hongmei could think of how to respond, she heard Qiao Baozhu smile faintly.

“Didn’t you just say that you wouldn’t compensate even an inch of these fabrics? How come you can be reasonable now that the PLA comrades are here?”