The district department store has two floors and is considered the largest market within a hundred miles of the suburbs.

There were quite a lot of people at this time, even more than in the city.

Before I even entered, I could hear the loudspeaker announcing what products were on the shelves and which products were defective and did not require a ticket.

Zhou Jiao hadn't heard these words for a long time, and for a moment she thought she was hallucinating. In the past two years, it wasn't a shortage, it was just a limit on how much each person could buy, or they said they were out of stock and there was no need to queue.

After walking around with Qiao Na, Zhou Jiao still found that compared with the first time she went to Beijing, the prices of many commodities had increased a lot and the quality had become much worse.

"I'll get in line to buy fish skin beans first. They're running low. Do you want to buy some for Ping An? Kids love the hawthorn cake and peanuts. Buy them quickly. I didn't get enough last time I came."

Zhou Jiao glanced at the crowded crowd and immediately shook her head, "You buy it. I'll go take a look at the side."

Joanna waved and hurried to line up.

Seeing this, Zhou Jiao laughed dumbly. Where was the fabric she had agreed to buy? However, looking at the food counter crowded with customers, she knew that food was still the most popular item.

Strolling through the mall, surrounded by people, Zhou Jiao looked at her own small frame and resolutely gave up on going forward. She could not forget the times when those women pushed and squeezed her until she couldn't breathe.

That’s not all. If customers quarrel or fight, it would be terrible if she suffered an unexpected disaster. Therefore, Zhou Jiao was still afraid of being in crowded places.

I went from downstairs to upstairs and found a counter with fewer people. Unexpectedly, it was selling fabrics and textiles.

Zhou Jiao was not surprised that there were relatively few customers here.

Grain coupons were valuable, but cloth coupons weren't bad either. In the early years, everyone in the capital could get 17 or 18 feet of cloth, but in the past two years, she only received a little over 7 feet of cloth coupons at the end of each year.

Compared with the previous two years, every family is now even more stretched. The days of three years of new, three years of old, and three years of mending have to continue.

It's been 1962, and there's still a lot to endure...

When Qiao Na came over, she saw Zhou Jiao picking out scraps of cloth, so she hurried over to stop her. "Oh my god, using cloth coupons to buy these scraps is crazy!"

"What are you buying these for? Show me some good-looking patterns. I've been saving up for two years, and I need to keep my eyes open to pick the ones I like. You have no idea how much time and effort I put into these tickets. It's such a hassle to exchange them every year when they're about to expire."

Zhou Jiao was pulled away by her and didn't bother to pick any more. She really didn't lack fabric, she was just bored. She had just thought that this could be used to make a sachet or something.

Summer is approaching and there are more mosquitoes. I wonder if I can buy tinder this year.

Zhou Jiao's biggest regret for preparing so many supplies was the lack of some raw materials. She had previously ignored them, thinking that wormwood and mugwort were not in short supply.

Now, retribution had arrived. She had generously given away her mosquito repellent formula and tinder, leaving little behind. And mosquito coils had never been her favorite. Back home, she could have gone up the mountain to look for them. But now, in the suburbs of Beijing, it was rare to find even a single piece of mugwort.

(If Zhang Guoqing knew this, he would definitely laugh to himself: "Girl, you have no common sense. It's still the tail end of spring. Wait until the end of summer and go to the wild mountains and wilderness with your brother to have a look.")

Zhou Jiao followed Qiao Na to the side and looked at the two or three small floral fabrics on the counter. She really didn't think there was anything to choose from. It felt like there was no difference.

Finally, Qiao Na used the cloth coupons she had saved for two or three years to pick out a light pink floral fabric. Seeing her beaming face, she must have been very happy, after all, she had been looking forward to it for a long time.

Zhou Jiao poked her maliciously, "Are you not going to prepare a smock?"

"No, I'll just make do with it for now. I need to prepare the cloth coupons for the next two years so I can graduate and start working."

Zhou Jiao joked, "After graduation, I'll continue preparing for my wedding dress."

"Yeah... Yeah, you're trying to trick me."

Now that they had bought something, Zhou Jiao didn't want to go shopping anymore and pulled her to go back. As for the offer of noodles with soybean paste, Zhou Jiao declined it, saying they would be back in time for dinner.

She didn't want to let others spend money, nor did she want Zhang Guoqing to wait for her to eat alone at school. That man would definitely wait for her to come back.

She thought she would return empty-handed today, but unexpectedly, there was a huge surprise waiting for her when she returned.

After the two returned to school, Zhou Jiao said goodbye to Qiao Na and went straight upstairs.

Just as she arrived at the dormitory door, before she had time to take out the key to open the door, Zhang Guoqing unexpectedly opened the door from the inside and immediately pulled her in.

The room was filled with the familiar aroma of mugwort, and the baskets on the table were filled with wild fruits like hairy cherries and mulberries. These were all the things she had planned to look for at the small market.

Well, they are a couple that really understand each other.

Zhou Jiao looked around the room and asked in a low voice, "Aren't you going there with Dayi to do some business? Why are there these things?"

Zhang Guoqing happily picked her up and said, "We went to the farm with them to discuss the double harvest task. Now that we're done, we'll go back to the village separately."

"It cost a lot of money, didn't it?"

Zhang Guoqing shook his head. "It didn't cost much. A piece of matchlock was three cents, and a bag was only two yuan. We each had a bag. The team leader was quite clever. He brought the old man who drove us back with him, and he also brought a lot of matchlocks. Quite a few teachers and students bought from him just now."

Zhou Jiao smiled knowingly.

The school is located in a remote area with many trees and surrounded by farmland and wasteland, so mosquitoes are very common. Many students cannot afford mosquito nets and cannot bear it without mosquito coils.

The tinderbox is better than mosquito coils, it is cheap and good quality. A tinderbox is about 15 centimeters long and can burn for a day and a night. There will be no mosquitoes in the room, and there will be no smoke. Only a faint scent of mugwort will remain. It is clean and environmentally friendly.

However, apart from the freshmen and students from well-off families, the old students should have made a lot of them themselves last year and kept them for this year.

She had followed the trend and rolled a couple of sticks before giving up. Not only were the raw materials hard to find, but she also lacked the skill to roll a matchstick. It would be faster to just make a powder.

"Give the remaining powder to Dad and Ping An. From now on, we'll just buy the medicine directly instead of mixing it up. It's too much trouble. This captain is too talkative and too active, so I didn't order more from him. In a few days, find a village and order more tinder to keep as a backup. If you're worried about not having the raw materials, I'll have someone wait until late summer when they've grown more and then prepare some more."

Zhou Jiao nodded. She didn't find the preparation of the medicine troublesome; he did all the manual work, but she felt a little reluctant to let him go, as she was tired. As her mother said, anything that can be solved with money is not a problem.

Especially the tinder, since she could just pay for it, she absolutely didn't want to do it again. Zhou Jiao had no interest in twisting hemp rope or tinder. It was easy for her mother-in-law to do it at home, but she couldn't do it herself.

She never compared her own weaknesses with others' strengths; that was foolish of her. Especially since twisting tinder was such a daunting task.

The process is one by one, don’t make it too difficult!

First, they have to sweat in the hot summer to collect them, and then carry them back. This is not the most difficult part. The most difficult part is that the braiding cannot be too thick or too tight. If it is too thick or too tight, it will not burn easily.

That’s not all. After weaving, it has to be placed under the eaves to dry for most of the day. It cannot be dried directly in the sun.

By the time the finished product came out, my face was sunburned, my back and waist ached, and my hands were covered in blisters. Honestly, three cents a stick really devalued the item.

Sigh... that's only three cents now? In the future, if one stick doesn't cost three hundred yuan, no one will be willing to do it.