17
There were low and dilapidated houses with red and white slogans painted all over the walls. Teams of little red soldiers wearing red armbands passed by on the streets. Most of the people walking on the streets were wearing gray clothes in three colors: blue, black and gray. They all lowered their heads, did not smile, and walked hurriedly through the streets.
Yang Qiujin stood at the door of a department store in the county town, slowly leaned towards Chen Shengqing, who was wearing a military green officer's uniform, and walked into the department store under the sharp gazes of the little red soldiers who were patrolling back and forth.
The department store is deserted with only a few customers. It is no longer as bustling as before with huge crowds of people and no one could get the goods.
There were very few customers in the entire three-story store. Even the sales clerks, who used to be aloof, were now much more enthusiastic than before.
The whole county was in a state of fear and trepidation. Perhaps infected by this solemn atmosphere, Chen Tianyou had restrained the excitement he had when he first arrived in the county. He quietly let Yang Qiujin lead him around, not daring to make any noise, for fear of attracting the attention of the ubiquitous Little Red Soldiers outside and causing unnecessary trouble.
Yang Qiujin looked around in the department store for a long time and only bought a dozen feet of cloth, intending to make clothes for Tianyou and Chen Shengqing.
"The army will issue uniforms. I have clothes to wear. You don't have to buy them for me." Chen Shengqing couldn't bear it. "You should buy yourself some more clothes."
"Do you have any extra cloth coupons?" Yang Qiujin glanced at him.
He gave her all his money and coupons, and the total amount of cloth coupons was only enough to buy this much cloth. If she wanted to buy more, she needed a coupon.
"If you don't have any, you can buy defective ready-made clothes." Chen Shengqing pointed to a Dacron long coat hanging on the ready-made clothing cabinet and said to a round-faced saleswoman, "Comrade, please give me two of those clothes according to my wife's size."
"We're out of defective goods for now. If you have a clothing ticket, you can buy them and wear them." The saleswoman cracked melon seeds lazily, looking him and Chen Qiujin up and down.
The man is so handsome and he is a military officer, why would he marry that shabby-looking woman wearing patched clothes?
What a pity, if she had married me, she would have been able to get him whatever clothes he wanted to wear.
"Why, you've been working as salespeople for so long that you really think you're worth a meal!" Chen Shengqing's face turned cold. "I'm a soldier, fighting on the front lines of the country, risking my life to protect the safety of the people. Now I want to buy clothes for my military dependents, and you can take the defective ones! What? Are you going to keep those defective products for some relatives, or are you planning to secretly resell them to make a profit? I'd like to ask your leaders or the Little Red Soldiers whether you salespeople understand the principle of giving priority to soldiers."
When the man got angry, his facial features became cold and hard, his body was sluggish, and he stood straight in front of the clothing counter, with an imposing manner.
"Comrade, please don't be angry. Calm down." The salesperson was frightened by him and stammered to explain, "We do have defective ready-made clothes. You can buy them without a ticket. But the price is not cheap. I am just worried that you can't afford it. Since you really want to buy it, I will go to the warehouse to look for it right away. If I have it, you can take a look."
Just kidding. If this soldier really caused trouble to her leader or the Little Red Soldiers, she would be in big trouble. How could she dare to fool around again? Having said that, she ran to the warehouse behind the counter to look for defective products.
This excuse is really poor. Anyone who can become a military officer must have a better family background than ordinary people. How could he not be able to afford a piece of defective clothing?
Chen Shengqing did not expose her. When she came out with several clothes of different colors and sizes, he turned his head to look at Yang Qiujin and said, "Take a look and see if there are any that catch your eye. Pick two and wear them. When I return to the army, I will ask someone to exchange some clothing tickets for you. Then you can buy nice clothes to wear."
Yang Qiujin didn't even look at them, and waved her hand, "I want them all."
"All, all?" The saleswoman was dumbfounded and stammered, "Although these defective ready-made clothes don't require coupons, they are not cheap. One piece of clothing costs 15 yuan. There are four pieces here, so it costs 60 yuan. You..."
Can you come up with so much money at once? Don't try to be so arrogant!
You have to know that for country people these days, five dollars is enough for a family to live for a whole year, and sixty dollars will take at least ten years to save.
Yang Qiujin slowly took out six large group notes from the cloth bag she carried with her and threw them on the counter in front of the saleswoman. "Count them and see if they are enough."
The salesperson who looked down on her really thought that she was a good-tempered country bumpkin and didn't dare to get angry with her.
Isn't it just being a salesperson? She is so capable. Yang Qiujin didn't know that those defective products might just have some small greasy stains that can't be washed off, or a hole, or improper cutting, etc., and they were sold as defective products. In fact, if you buy them home and make some changes, it will not affect your normal wear.
Defective products do not require cloth coupons and the price is a little lower than the normal price of ready-made clothes. I wonder how many people want to buy defective products.
The saleswoman wanted to leave the defective products for her relatives and friends to buy, but Yang Qiujin refused to let her do so and took all of them to see if she would dare to look down on others in the future.
The saleswoman looked embarrassed by her actions, but the other woman's husband was a soldier and she was a military dependent, and there were so many red guards outside staring at her. No matter how angry the saleswoman was or how much she felt sorry for the clothes, she had to pack up the clothes and give them to Yang Qiujin now that the other woman had paid for them.
Yang Qiujin was about to leave with her clothes in her hand, but Chen Shengqing grabbed her hand and led her to the second floor. "Let's take a look at the rest."
"What are you doing? There are so many little Red Army soldiers watching outside, it's not good for us to argue." Yang Qiujin shook off his hand, "We can buy pots and pans when we get there. There's no need to carry so many bags and take such a long ride, making ourselves look messy. It doesn't matter where we buy them."
"I know." Chen Shengqing never thought about buying pots and pans. "When you married me, I only gave you about twenty yuan as a betrothal gift. I didn't even have money to buy a big item. Now our conditions are better than before. I want to make up for what I owed you before. I will buy you everything in a day."
"Do you have money to buy it for me?" Yang Qiujin asked with a half-smile.
"Well……"
Most of the money was in her hands, and he kept some for himself in case of emergency.
Of course, this cannot be told to her. Otherwise, given her personality, she will definitely argue with him, saying that if he doesn't tell her everything, he doesn't trust her.
"I thought I didn't know that you never thought of taking Tianyou and me to join the army when you came back this time." Yang Qiujin snorted, "Don't even mention that you have to buy new pots and pans, sauces, vinegars, oils, salts and tea. I'm afraid you haven't even applied for a house. You have to apply for one in the army and then clean up the house for living. When we get there, we have to buy tables, chairs, benches, beds, cabinets and everything. Everything costs money. You have to buy three turns and one ring for me. We don't need to buy anything else?"
"Well, if we don't buy the three turns and one ring, we have to buy one of them." Chen Shengqing felt inexplicably guilty and touched his nose uncomfortably and said, "I reported to the commander of the army a few days ago and applied for the house. We can move in now."
"What a liar! How can you live in a newly allocated house without cleaning it?" Yang Qiujin didn't trust this unreliable man at all. After thinking about it, she decided to go upstairs. "Then I'll buy a watch and check the time when it's time to pick up Tianyou to school."
The family of three had just gone up to the second floor when they saw a jeep parked in front of a department store. A beautiful woman got out of the car, holding a plump boy in her arms. Behind her followed a skinny little girl and a gentle-looking man.
"Hey, Sister Fangfang, why are you here just now?" The round-faced saleswoman greeted the woman warmly as soon as she saw her. "Let me tell you, the few defective clothes I left for you were just bought by a woman. That woman and her military officer husband are very unreasonable..."
She briefly told Shi Fangfang what happened before, and she quickly realized that she was talking about Yang Qiujin and her husband. She stamped her feet in anger, "What a narrow road for enemies to cross. I ran into them here, and they even stole the clothes I wanted!"
She hasn't bought new clothes for several years, mainly because her in-laws have always looked down on her, and she doesn't dare to spend too much money and upset her in-laws.
Now Ji Mingchen is back. Two days ago, she had persuaded him to finally agree to take her and her son to follow the army. She wanted to show off in front of the military families in the army, so she specially greeted her distant cousin who worked in a department store in the county and asked her to save a few nice defective ready-made clothes for her so that she could buy them when the time comes. Unexpectedly, Yang Qiujin snatched them away.
Shi Fangfang was so angry that her teeth were broken. She wanted to scold her cousin, but was afraid that it would ruin her gentle and virtuous image in front of Ji Mingchen. She wanted to cry at the top of her lungs, but Ji Mingchen refused to even look at her.
Upon hearing that Chen Shengqing and his wife were also shopping in the department store, Ji Mingchen went upstairs without saying a word. Shi Fangfang could only hold the child and follow him angrily.
Yang Qiujin looked at the watch counter for a long time and finally chose a small and exquisite Plum brand ladies' watch. When she asked the price, it was 98 yuan. She hesitated for a moment, "This is too expensive!"
"If you like it, buy it." Chen Shengqing motioned the salesperson to pack up the watch. "If I lose the money, I can earn more. If you miss out on something you love, you may regret it for the rest of your life."
"That's true. Okay, let's buy it." Yang Qiujin felt that he had some truth in what he said, so she stopped hesitating and, with great pain, took out ten big reunion tickets and handed them to the salesperson for counting.
After the salesperson confirmed that the amount was correct, he issued a series of purchase orders at the counter and gave the Green Union order to Yang Qiujin, explaining that if the watch had any quality problems, she could come to their store for repairs with the order.
Yang Qiujin nodded, didn't want the bag to put the watch in, and put it on her hand directly.
She was holding the clothes in one hand and Tianyou in the other, and it was clumsy for her to wear the watch by herself.
Seeing this, Chen Shengqing took the bag of clothes from her hand, held Yang Qiujin's slender wrist with his other hand, and naturally helped her put on the watch.
The man's hands were very hot, and Yang Qiujin's heart was trembling from the heat. She subconsciously wanted to hide, but Chen Shengqing held her tightly and carefully fastened the watch strap for her.
The two of them were so close that they could feel each other's breath. Chen Shengqing lowered his head and could see the woman's face gradually getting hot, her pink lips becoming more and more red, and her black, star-like eyes hiding a hint of shyness.
His heart seemed to be gently tickled by something, and it felt a little itchy. His eyes involuntarily fell on Yang Qiujin's red lips, which seemed to be hesitant to speak, and he involuntarily moved closer to her.
"Uncle Ji!" Tianyou, who had been sandwiched between the two people and was a light bulb, suddenly spoke.
Yang Qiujin and Chen Shengqing were both stunned for a moment, and turned to look at Ji Mingchen who was coming upstairs, their faces looking a little flustered and strange.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
