Pei Manning felt that she had made a mistake. She should have raised some chickens, ducks, geese and other animals in Xumi World. But now she just focused on raising flowers.
She put the money in her pocket, sighed, avoided the crowded crowd, and went to the department store in the direction pointed by her aunt.
There were many kinds of goods in the department store, and most of them were middle-aged women, who crowded in front of the counters, making a lot of noise.
Pei Manning followed along in the queue, looking around.
The five-story building is spacious and bright with clean windows. A wide variety of goods are displayed in glass cabinets behind the counters, and there is a salesperson standing behind each counter.
There are counters that specialize in selling daily necessities, counters that sell cakes and candies, counters that sell food ingredients, counters that sell ready-made clothes, counters that sell watches...
In the middle, there is a sky loft. A plump middle-aged woman with short curly hair sits inside, looking high and mighty.
Several steel wires were pulled out from the attic and led to various counters, with an iron clip hanging from each wire.
Pei Manning saw the customer who had chosen the items hand over the money and receipt to the salesperson. The salesperson filled out the receipt, put the items and the money in an iron clip, and tossed the clip, which quickly slid into the attic.
The middle-aged woman took it swiftly, verified it, stamped it, gave the change, and then put the change and the receipt in the iron clip and slid it along the wire.
"Serving the people, Wang Zhi, what do you want to buy?" Finally it was Pei Manning's turn, the salesperson asked.
"Zhi, I want to buy some cheaper paper and pen." Pei Manning observed while waiting in line. Most things required tickets, but paper and pen did not.
"Pencils are three cents, small notebooks are five cents, and large notebooks are ten cents. Which one do you want?" the salesperson said.
While looking for something in the cupboard, "Do you want an eraser? Two cents a piece."
"Then I need a small notebook, a pencil, and an eraser?"
"No more?"
"No more." Pei Manning nodded.
"A total of ten cents." The salesperson almost rolled his eyes when issuing the receipt.
Finally, Pei Manning spent ten cents and bought a small notebook, a pencil, and an eraser.
"Today is National Day and we have a special offer. You can buy a towel with your grain and oil supply certificate. No ticket is needed. Have you brought your supply certificate?" the salesperson asked as usual.
Food and oil supply certificate?
Pei Manning shook her head. She didn't have that thing at all.
Although Pei Manning didn't buy much in the day, she gained a lot from staying in the department store and seeing and hearing things.
At least she knew that the 12.65 yuan she had left was a huge sum of money and could buy a lot of things.
She also observed every counter and knew the quantity of things that could be bought with each ticket, such as rice tickets, cotton tickets, sugar tickets, kerosene tickets, match tickets, salt tickets, soap tickets, milk powder tickets, cigarette tickets, cake tickets... There were also special tickets for cadres, infants, and maternal diseases, as well as festival tickets for festival quotas.
Where would she get those tickets?
Although there were many things in the Xumi Realm, they could not be used. Seeing the yellow leaves falling, winter was coming soon. She didn't know if there would be snow in this place in winter. The clothes she was wearing were too thin.
Pei Manning walked back slowly while thinking.
…
"Nurse 땢zhi, where is Pei 땢zhi from room 4-6 on the fourth floor?" Liao Weiguo found a nurse and asked.
"Ah? That pretty girl? She has been discharged from the hospital. What do you want to see her for?" The nurse had a deep impression of Pei Manning.
"Discharged from hospital? When?" Liao Weiguo was surprised.
The Public Security Bureau has been very busy these past two days. He had promised beforehand that he would take care of Pei Manning, so he went to the hospital as soon as he finished his work today. Unexpectedly, the other party had already been discharged.
It's not his fault that he didn't take it seriously. After all, as a male doctor, he couldn't possibly come to the hospital all day to look after a female doctor. His wife had to work and take care of the kids, so she was even busier than him.
"He was discharged from the hospital yesterday afternoon."
"Yesterday? Did she say where she was going?"
The nurse looked at him suspiciously and said, "That's not what he said. He should have gone home."
"Okay, I understand. Thank you."
Liao Weiguo thanked the nurse and left the hospital. He didn’t know whether the girl had returned home or gone somewhere else.
The county town is neither big nor small. In addition to various units and state-owned stores, there are textile mills, steel mills, bearing factories, grain and oil processing factories, agricultural machinery factories... There are tens of thousands of people living within a radius of 3 kilometers. Finding one is like finding a needle in a haystack. What's more, she may not stay in An County.
He looked a little solemn, this little girl couldn't speak, looked too conspicuous, and was unfamiliar with the place, he hoped nothing would happen to her being alone.
After thinking about it, he decided to tell Brother Shen about this.
…
Pei Manning had no idea that someone was looking for her. At this moment, she was in the Xumi Realm, sewing clothes stitch by stitch.
When she decided to go to Chongzhou in the northwest, she made all the necessary preparations and stored a lot of clothes made of ordinary fabrics, as well as a lot of cotton, coarse, linen, and cotton...
Pei Manning cut out the clothes here one by one according to the styles, and then filled them with cotton to make a set of cotton shirts and trousers with blue background and wax-dyed floral patterns, a pure black vest, a set of cotton coats and trousers with green background and plain patterns, several pairs of cotton socks, and several pairs of black cotton shoes with velvet soles.
She has excellent craftsmanship, and her exquisite embroidery is not to be underestimated, let alone making clothes and socks.
The dress looked a bit bulky and not exquisite at all, but Pei Manning felt it was safe.
By the time the clothes were ready, three days had passed.
Pei Manning then discovered that the vegetable seeds she had scattered in front of her had already sprouted a few young shoots, but she couldn't tell what they were.