Chapter 64
Bei Bitang took the bus all the way to Nanjing Road. There was a constant stream of people. At the door of the food store...
Bei Bitang took the bus all the way to Nanjing Road.
The flow of people is like shuttle.
A milk shed was set up in front of the grocery store, with cold water dripping from two large iron barrels.
When I looked up, my eyes felt colder.
Bei Bitang walked over and said to the salesperson in white clothes, "Comrade, I want three ice cream scoops."
Don’t think about monomials, polynomials, downstream and upstream problems, perimeter, area, volume...any more.
At this moment, she just wanted to comfort herself.
The saleswoman was a middle-aged woman. As she unfastened the lid of the iron bucket, she kindly advised, "Girl, it's autumn now. Girls shouldn't drink too much cold drinks, or you'll suffer when you get old."
Bei Bitang smiled but said nothing in response to her aunt's kindness.
How could she know where she was when she was old? She was poor and wandering the streets.
Bei Bitang thought to herself with self-mockery.
The salesperson scooped out three white ice cream balls, poured a layer of chocolate sauce on them, and handed them to Bei Bitang.
Bei Bitang took it, paid the money, turned around and looked at the people coming and going on the street, not knowing where she was going.
She found an empty corner and stood there, looking at the skirts in the beautiful window opposite and eating ice cream.
Ice cream is sweet, chocolate is sweet too, but tears are salty. The sweet and salty taste spreads in Bei Bitang's mouth.
First Department Store.
The escalator at Vodice was not open today, so Bei Bitang took the stairs to the second floor, where the women's clothing area was located.
The women's clothing area faces the large windows, which provide excellent lighting. The warm sunlight shines through the windows and falls on the beautiful clothes.
Clothes of different colors and styles are hung on an iron rod, next to which is a huge floor-to-ceiling mirror and a special changing room.
Bei Bitang picked and chose, holding a pile of clothes in her hands, and went into the dressing room to try them on one by one. Not only did she put on the clothes, but she also walked out in her new clothes, stood in front of the floor-length mirror, looked left and right, and walked back and forth.
The salesperson next to her rolled her eyes at Bei Bitang impatiently, but her leader reminded her that as one of the face of Shanghai, the First Department Store is a must-visit place for tourists from all over the country, and they must improve their service awareness and not treat customers with indifference.
Working at the First Department Store was worse than working at the neighborhood supply and marketing cooperative. The salespeople at the supply and marketing cooperative were always fawning over by customers, and customers had to read their expressions and moods. Being a salesperson at the First Department Store was just a good name.
The salesperson looked at Bei Bitang with disdain, thinking to herself, "But if she really had to change jobs, to work at the supply and marketing cooperative, she wouldn't do it, not even for money. The salary is the same, but the benefits, big and small, are different. Procurement samples, internal defective products, and New Year's gifts—any of them would make people jealous."
After Bei Bitang changed into her own clothes, she hung the clothes she tried on neatly on the iron rack. Only then did the salesperson's expression look better.
But then, seeing Bei Bitang taking out pieces of clothes one after another, her face turned bad again.
If you don’t have money to buy it, why try it?
Gu Wangxi drove his sister and Gu Xiangnan to the First Department Store.
Gu Xiangnan has been under pressure at home lately, studying like crazy and crying from time to time. Not to mention Gu Qinghua and the aunt at home, even Gu Wangxi couldn't bear it and let his sister continue studying.
It just so happened that one of Gu Xiangnan's pens broke, and Gu Wangxi had a way out.
He specially took out most of his free time for half a day and drove his sister out to buy a pen, actually to let his sister go out and relax.
The two of them went up to the pen counter on the second floor. Gu Xiangnan was a slow person and walked back and forth, not knowing which pen to buy.
Gu Wangxi didn't want to stand next to her and put pressure on her. The more pressure she felt, the more anxious she became, the harder it was to choose, and the greater her sense of frustration became.
Gu Wangxi regards the correction of Gu Xiangnan's character as the top priority. In his heart, this is far more important than next year's college entrance examination. His sister has been spoiled, and it is all his fault in the final analysis. If he had not insisted on going to the United States, he would not have left his sister alone in the country to suffer for twelve years.
No one taught me, no one cared about me, and I developed the personality I have now.
Gu Wangxi walked to the corridor on the second floor and stood at the edge of the fence. He casually looked downstairs.
I saw Bei Bitang taking clothes and going in and out of the dressing room, just trying them on but not buying anything.
Gu Wangxi couldn't help but frown. If he remembered correctly, today was a weekday. Bei Bitang was a good young man, but instead of going to work or school, he was just sitting around shopping and trying on clothes?
Gu Xiangnan turned back to look for his brother and asked softly, "Brother, what are you looking at?"
Gu Wangxi came back to his senses and said, "Nothing."
Gu Xiangnan didn't believe it. He didn't see anything, but he looked so engrossed that he couldn't even hear her calling him.
Gu Xiangnan followed Gu Wangxi's gaze and saw the glamorous Bei Bitang. She exclaimed in amazement, "Brother, this woman is so beautiful, and the clothes she's wearing are so pretty. Brother, I want to buy one of her clothes!"
Gu Wangxi turned around, shook his head mercilessly, and refused, "I don't believe you. Today, you can only buy a pen. You can't buy anything else."
Gu Xiangnan has a serious lack of self-confidence, but she still has to take a hit, otherwise she will buy a lot of useless things and fill up the entire house.
The more you lack something when you are young, the more you become obsessed with it as you grow up, trying to satisfy yourself. Gu Xiangnan is in this situation now.
Over the years, Gu Qinghua and Gu Wangxi have never given up on Gu Xiangnan and have been inquiring about the situation in the country. Gu Wangxi chose to start a business in Hong Kong, thinking that one day he could use Hong Kong as a springboard to return to the mainland and find his sister.
Unexpectedly, in 1977, the policy was relaxed, and Gu Wangxi and Gu Qinghua, regardless of their situation, broke through the checkpoints together and came back.
They thought that if Gu Xiangnan stayed in the country, his situation would not be good because of them, but they did not expect it to be so serious. Gu Xiangnan and Gu Wangxi looked very much like Gu family members.
But after the family reunited after a long separation, there was no trace of a Gu family member on Gu Xiangnan's face, and her temperament had changed drastically. Gu Wangxi and Gu Qinghua could not recognize her. If it were not for all the evidence, they would have thought that their sister had been replaced.
Fortunately, after bringing him to Shanghai and raising him for almost a year, he finally regained some of the appearance of Gu Xiangnan as a child.
However, the hardships over the years have caused Gu Xiangnan to suffer serious sequelae.
Ever since the family got to know each other, Gu Xiangnan turned from an ugly duckling into a white swan, and this symptom has become uncontrollable.
Gu Qinghua and Gu Wangxi, one played the good cop and the other played the bad cop, which prevented her from going too far.
If you were to ask who Gu Xiangnan is most afraid of, it would of course be her brother Gu Wangxi, who controls her the most strictly.
Gu Wangxi spoke, and Gu Xiangnan nodded obediently, not daring to protest.
Back to the topic, Gu Wangxi asked, "Have you chosen?"
Gu Xiangnan stepped forward, took Gu Wangxi's arm, and said coquettishly, "Brother, none of the pens here look good. I want the pen that Mom showed me in the photo. It's shiny and has carvings on it, like a scepter or the point on a crown."
When Gu Xiangnan's pen broke, Gu Qinghua was in Hong Kong for something. When he heard that his beloved daughter's pen was broken, he picked out a Montblanc product brochure and brought it back to Shanghai for his daughter to choose.
Gu Xiangnan wanted all the pens in the booklet, but unfortunately, with Gu Wangxi, the obstruction king, there, she couldn't get any of them.
Gu Qinghua's original intention was to let his daughter see more of the world, broaden her horizons, and then choose two or three that she liked.
Unexpectedly, she got into trouble again. Gu Xiangnan kept nagging her to buy more than thirty pens.
It's not that she can't afford it, but she can't bring herself to ask for it. She hid away and let her son take care of her daughter.
She did not forget that at the beginning, she wanted to compensate Gu Xiangnan with everything, buy her all the good things, and even give her pocket money.
But after Gu Xiangnan used her pocket money to buy a lot of expensive food, filling the basement and kitchen with enough to last for ten years, she realized the seriousness of the matter.
Gu Wangxi ruthlessly refused again. He said to Gu Xiangnan, "You can only buy heroes."
The domestic atmosphere is conservative and the living standards of everyone are generally not much different. If Gu Xiangnan uses a high-end Montblanc at school, he will definitely be ostracized by his classmates.
When Gu Xiangnan transferred to Shanghai, people in the school initially blackmailed her because she was well-dressed, well-fed, easy to talk to and easy to bully. Some gangster students even robbed her directly.
Gu Xiangnan was timid and cowardly, and she was afraid to get into conflicts with others, so she could only take beatings. He and his mother could not be by her side all the time to protect her.
Gu Xiangnan said "Oh" in disappointment.
But she could still tell who was good to her. She loved buying lots of things and owning lots of things, but Gu Wangxi was her biological brother, and she wouldn't stop her from buying this or that just because of Gu Wangxi, or meddle in her affairs or bear a grudge against him.
Gu Xiangnan was a very simple-minded person and had never hated anyone. Even though she had been bullied a lot over the years, she had never blamed even her most irresponsible father.
So, Gu Qinghua took her to Shanghai to live in a different city. She never thought about her biological father or asked about him once, which made Gu Qinghua and Gu Wangxi worry in vain. She couldn't adapt and wanted to go back to Beijing.
Gu Xiangnan picked out a red and black Hero pen for 6 yuan.
Looking at his sister holding a pen and staring at the counter with reluctant eyes, Gu Wangxi sighed softly in his heart, took out his wallet and paid.
Gu Wangxi pulled Gu Xiangnan, who kept looking back, and walked out.
As Gu Xiangnan was being dragged away, he asked, "Brother, are we going home now?"
Why bother? The pen his sister needs is only six dollars, and he gets more than six dollars in tips when he's out. The family doesn't rely on her to earn money to support them. If she can be successful, she won't be able to spend all the money she has in her lifetime.
Gu Wangxi paused, cleared his throat, and said casually, "On the fifth floor, there's a game room, a theater, and a movie theater. Let's go up and take a look before going back."
Gu Xiangxi jumped up, his eyes sparkling, and he smiled until his eyes shrank a little. He flattered his brother, "Brother, you are the best. I want to eat popcorn and ice cream."
Gu Wangxi tried hard to suppress the upward curve of his lips and said coldly, "You can only eat one portion of each."
After watching an opera on the fifth floor and coming down to the first floor, Gu Wangxi couldn't help but look towards the women's clothing area, but Bei Bitang was no longer there.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
