Chapter 50 They've been tricked
Shen Zhixia was holding a small cloth bag containing 800 yuan in cash. She also had many coupons—cloth coupons, grain coupons, rice coupons, and so on. This was enough to buy a lot of things.
She went directly to the state-owned No. 1 Department Store.
"Comrade, however much cloth you have, I'll take it all!"
Shen Zhixia placed the neatly folded cloth tickets on the glass counter, startling the sales clerk who was wrapping straw rope.
The surrounding customers all turned their heads. In this day and age, who would buy so much fabric at once? But Shen Zhixia didn't have time to pay attention. Her eyes swept across the shelves as if she saw a treasure trove of fabric.
"Thirty feet, that's an exception."
The sales clerk placed the blue and white striped fabric on the counter, but Shen Zhixia's eyes lit up with a smile.
Then she pointed to a tin biscuit box, a stainless steel lunchbox, and an enamel basin printed with peonies: "Give me five of each of these."
She actually wanted to buy more, but she knew she couldn't buy too many of these things, or she would be targeted.
Even so, some people still whispered, "Could this young wife be the daughter of some official in Shanghai?"
Shen Zhixia ignored her. Although she was buying a lot of things, it wasn't much. She turned around and rushed to the stationery counter: "Five Hero brand fountain pens, twenty exercise books with overprint paper, ten erasers with characters from model operas printed on them! And five more abacuses, the commune's accounting department will need them."
She turned and glanced at the enamelware section, where she bought up washbasins, gilded spittoons, and covered mouthwash cups printed with "Serve the People." She even ordered thirty enamel mugs with the slogan "Prepare for War and Famine for the People."
As they passed the hardware section, Shen Zhixia said, "Five pairs of pliers, five sets of wrenches, and ten pounds each of wire and nails."
She took two more rolls of waterproof tarpaulin and five bundles of hemp rope. She quickly took down flashlights, batteries, and kerosene lamps from the shelf. Sewing machine oil, thimbles, and colored silk threads from the corner were also put into her storage space. She even took a few packets of rat poison.
Turning into the children's goods section, she saw tin frog toys, hopping plastic deer, kaleidoscopes printed with Sun Wukong (the Monkey King), and flashcards with pinyin (phonetic symbols). She also picked out ten pairs of tiger-head shoes and five woolen hats styled after Lei Feng's hats. Although the baby isn't born yet, she'll have one sooner or later, so it's good to get things ready in advance.
She went to the state-run food store, where the aroma of cream cakes made her mouth water, but she resisted the urge and used her grain coupons to buy ten jin of white flour steamed buns, twenty packs of compressed biscuits, ten cans of pork, and ten bags of enriched flour. Seeing the fruit candies, preserved plum candies, and sorghum syrups at the far end of the counter, her eyes lit up: "Five jin of each of these, please!"
Finally, I didn't forget to ask for ten cans of condensed milk; it's sweet and delicious.
There were just too many things for a pregnant woman like her to carry, so she had to lie and say that she had a car outside and would take the things out one by one.
Every time she went out, she would find a secluded corner and then put all these things into her own space in batches.
Only after she had done all this did she leave satisfied.
She actually wanted to buy some more things, but if she bought too much, it would attract too much attention, so she decided to end the day here.
However, she was still carrying some canned goods. When she got back, she ran into Zhang Mei in the living room. When Zhang Mei saw her carrying things back, she assumed that she had gone out to buy something, and that it wasn't anything special.
It was just canned food; they could eat as much as they wanted in Shanghai, so they turned their heads away.
"Zhixia, let's go transfer jobs tomorrow morning," Zhang Mei said.
“Okay, I’ll listen to Mother.” Shen Zhixia seemed quite agreeable.
Seeing this, Zhang Mei breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that Shen Zhixia was still the same as before, and had not changed much. She was still firmly under their control.
The next morning, the three of them planned to go to the textile factory.
Shen Zhixia glanced at them and asked, "Did you bring your household registration booklet?"
Shen Jinxiu asked, "Do we still need the household registration booklet?"
"Of course you need it. We're transferring the job today, so we'll definitely need your household registration booklet to prove your identity," Shen Zhixia said.
Shen Jinxiu wasn't sure if she needed it or not. She glanced at Zhang Mei, who said, "Take it with you, just in case."
All she wants now is to transfer the job as soon as possible.
Shen Jinxiu then went to get her household registration book.
When Shen Zhixia saw her household registration book, her eyes flashed and a smile appeared on her lips.
When the three arrived at the factory director's office, they explained their purpose. The factory director asked Shen Jinxiu to leave her household registration booklet and then asked them to leave first, leaving only Shen Zhixia behind.
Shen Jinxiu asked in confusion, "Why did you only let her stay, but not us?"
For some reason, she felt a little uneasy. She felt that something was wrong. What if Shen Zhixia and the factory manager teamed up to scheme against her?
Although she felt that the possibility was not high, after all, Shen Zhixia and the factory director were not familiar with each other.
Although Shen Zhixia worked in a textile factory, they kept track of her movements, and Shen Zhixia had no interaction with anyone in the factory.
The factory manager looked at her expressionlessly: "We prohibit the buying and selling of jobs in our factory. I only made an exception for you this time because of Xiao Shen. You're all here; do you want everyone to know what you've been doing?"
It's true that job transfers are currently prohibited, but that's only on the surface; many people still do it behind the scenes.
The factory manager's words were not wrong.
"If I had known you wouldn't know what was good for you, I wouldn't have helped you with this."
Before Shen Jinxiu could say anything, Zhang Mei had already pulled her hand and led her outside: "Alright, don't cause trouble."
Although she was also dissatisfied with the factory manager's attitude, she was worried about the upcoming successful job transfer and wanted to avoid any conflict.
After the two left, Shen Zhixia took Shen Jinxiu's household registration book.
With Shen Jinxiu's household registration booklet, she can do many more things, which is something she and the factory manager had already discussed.
A few minutes later, Shen Jinxiu and Zhang Mei came in. The factory manager handed her a piece of paper: "Fill in your basic information."
That's all after you fill it out.
Even though Shen Jinxiu had never changed jobs, she felt something was wrong. She asked, "Is this alright?"
The factory manager said, "The factory's audit is strict now, but don't worry, the transfer process will be completed in seven days at most. You just need to come and sign the papers then. Your household registration can stay with me for now."
"It takes this long? I remember it shouldn't take this long?" Shen Jinxiu asked doubtfully.
"It used to only take one day, but now the review process is much stricter, isn't it?"
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