The electronic watches Fan Hongying bought last time sold very well in Jiangcheng; they were sold out within two days of being brought back. This time, in addition to electronic watches, she wants to buy something different.

Fan Hongying lingered in the electronics section, her eyes scanning each stall like searchlights. Besides the electronic watches that were bestsellers last time, this time she set her sights on many more novel gadgets.

"Look at this!" She stopped in front of a stall, pointing to a small calculator. "This is a calculator. You don't need to learn how to use an abacus; you can just press the numbers to calculate."

The stall owner glanced at them, but didn't pay them any mind, casually introducing the product: "This is a Casio calculator from Japan, the latest model, especially suitable for university students and engineers."

Li Xiuxiu picked one up and examined it carefully, then pressed a few buttons randomly: "Wow~ it really works! I don't know how it works, but I randomly pressed a five-digit number multiplied by another five-digit number, and it calculated it instantly. It's amazing!"

Zhan Chunlan was standing next to a radio, which was playing music. The familiar melodies of that era made her feel a moment of disorientation.

"This is a Sanyo transistor radio," the vendor demonstrated. "It receives stations very clearly and consumes little power."

"How many stations can this radio receive?" she asked carefully, pulling herself out of her thoughts.

"It can receive both medium and shortwave signals, and you can even catch programs from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan at night!" the stall owner said mysteriously in a low voice. "Sometimes you can even hear Teresa Teng's songs."

Fan Hongying keenly sensed this was a selling point and immediately followed up with, "Can the sound quality be guaranteed? How's the power consumption?"

"Four batteries can last for more than half a month," the stall owner said, patting his chest.

Fan Hongying didn't place an order yet and continued walking. She wanted to look at home appliances. She had seen rice cookers, washing machines, and refrigerators in the newspaper, but she had never seen them in real life. She wanted to go and take a look.

With two friends in tow, Fan Hongying headed towards the home appliance section, filled with anticipation. Before she even got close, she saw several stalls surrounded by people, various appliances gleaming metallicly under the lights.

"Look! That's a rice cooker!" Li Xiuxiu exclaimed, pointing to a small, silver pot.

The stall owner is demonstrating: "Put the rice and water in, plug it in, press a button, and you can have fragrant rice in half an hour. No need to worry about it burning!"

The onlookers gasped in amazement. Fan Hongying squeezed to the front and carefully examined the amazing appliance: its rounded shape and simple operating buttons required only a gentle press.

"This is perfect for working people. Just steam the rice before leaving home in the morning, and you can cook two dishes when you come back for lunch." The owner showed everyone the steamed rice. "Look, this is what I steamed this morning. Isn't it incredibly fragrant? It's almost the same as the rice we steam ourselves, isn't it?"

"Won't the food get cold?" Fan Hongying asked, somewhat puzzled.

"No, besides cooking rice, the rice cooker also has a 'keep warm' function. After the rice is cooked, if you don't unplug it, it will keep warm, and it will be hot whenever you open it." As she spoke, she opened the rice she had steamed earlier. "Look! This rice was steamed this morning, and it's still steaming hot now."

Fan Hongying was madly in love. Before getting married, she didn't feel anything. She didn't have to do anything at home. Her parents, her brother and sister-in-law took care of everything, and she just had to wait to be fed.

After getting married, although her husband and mother-in-law treated her very well, there were only a few people in the house, including her husband, parents-in-law, and a younger sister-in-law who had gotten married before her. She often had to take care of the children and cook at the same time, and she was always too busy to manage. Having a rice cooker at least made things a little easier for her.

"How much does this cost?" Fan Hongying asked.

"Sixty-eight each, the latest model from Hong Kong!" the shopkeeper replied.

The price elicited a collective gasp from those around her. Fan Hongying quickly calculated in her mind: how many digital watches would she need to buy just one rice cooker?

Some people are worried: "It needs to be plugged in to keep warm, how much electricity does it consume? I guess we won't be able to afford the electricity bill."

This statement resonated with everyone present. Indeed, in this day and age, people are reluctant to even turn on the lights, let alone use such appliances. It's a bit of hard work to save money, which many people consider a good deal.

Fan Hongying didn't linger and led the two of them towards the washing machine. At this time, the washing machine was a single-tub washing machine. The shopkeeper put a few clothes into the drum, poured in water and detergent, pressed the switch, and the drum started spinning with a rumble.

"This is much easier than hand washing!" Li Xiuxiu stared at it intently.

"That's right, washing clothes only takes three steps: throw in the dirty clothes, pour in the laundry detergent, and add water." Seeing that someone was actually listening to his joke, the owner immediately became even more enthusiastic in his introduction, "We don't need to scrub them hard, especially in the dead of winter, when even hot water is freezing to the touch. We can use a washing machine and wash our clothes clean with just cold water."

"Can I just take the clothes out and hang them to dry after washing?" Li Xiuxiu was very concerned about how the washing machine worked. She wished she could just put the clothes in and not have to worry about anything, and have it hang up for her.

"That won't do." The boss was a little unhappy. "You have to wash your clothes three or four times yourself, and the washing machine has to wash them three or four times too, otherwise the laundry detergent won't be rinsed off properly, and you won't feel comfortable wearing them."

"Then I have to stand here and wait for it to finish washing the clothes, then drain the water and waterproof them again?" If that's the case, it's not very convenient.

"You still have to wring it dry, otherwise you don't know how many times you'll have to rinse it," Zhan Chunlan added from the side. Having used a fully automatic washing machine, the contrast with this single-tub washing machine was too stark.

"It's too much trouble. I could have washed the clothes myself by now." An old lady had been listening to the explanation with great interest, but the more she looked, the more she felt that it would be faster to wash them by hand.

"That's not how it works." The boss noticed that everyone's enthusiasm was low and became a little anxious. "It's definitely easier to hand-wash one or two pieces of clothing, but we have to wash the clothes of the whole family, especially since the men don't pay attention to their clothes and the kids roll around on the floor. Putting these clothes in the washing machine is much better than scrubbing them hard by hand and still not getting them clean."

Those with large families couldn't help but nod in agreement; it made perfect sense. In winter, when washing clothes, the water would get cold before the clothes were even finished. This washing machine could really be a great help.

Those with small families shook their heads, showing no interest.

"What do you think?" Zhan Chunlan wanted to know what Fan Hongying thought.

"It's estimated that this won't be very well accepted in Jiangcheng right now."

"How so?"

“A large family means many people live together, and in most cases, the family is not well-off. Such families probably can’t afford or are unwilling to buy a washing machine like this. As for families with few people, just like they said, by the time the washing machine fills the water, the clothes are already washed.” Fan Hongying is not particularly optimistic about this washing machine. “In short, those who can afford it don’t like it, and those who like it can’t afford it. Of course, having a washing machine at home is still a great thing.”

"Single-tub washing machines don't have a spin-drying function. Actually, there's a twin-tub washing machine that washes and spins the clothes at the same time, which is much more convenient than this one." Zhan Chunlan didn't actually know the current state of washing machine development. She had only seen one during her internship in Beijing, which is what we now call a semi-automatic washing machine.

"Which counter? I can't see it."

"These are high-end products, which are difficult for even the local business owners to obtain, let alone us."

As they walked and chatted, they came across a refrigerator that amazed them. It had a silver-white exterior, a thick door, and when opened, a light shone inside, emitting cold air.

"You can store popsicles in the summer, and food won't spoil for days!" Although it's winter now, it doesn't stop people from watching the spectacle. Everyone is looking at a cabinet-like thing that's filled with ice.

Many people in Guangcheng had never seen snow before, and they were very curious when they saw the frozen ice blocks inside. They wanted to touch them, but the owner stopped them.

"I can't even imagine how refreshing it would be to chill a bottle of soda in the refrigerator during the hottest part of the day in summer," Li Xiuxiu imagined, standing in front of the refrigerator. "It's just too expensive, several thousand yuan. Who can afford that?"

"What are you afraid of? Let's see how it goes. Once you two have made a lot of money, you can come and buy it." Zhan Chunlan was full of confidence in the two of them.