Chapter 015 Chapter 15 Department Stores and Speculation

Lin Yue folded the letter and put it in her pocket. Envelopes and stamps cost money to buy, and she didn't have a penny on her now. She could only hope to get the remittance slip today so that she could have money to buy envelopes and stamps. If the remittance slip didn't arrive today, she wouldn't be able to send this letter.

Fortunately, today's letter contained a remittance slip from the Far East, and a letter with a meat ticket and an industrial ticket inside, both of which are valid throughout the country. Apart from the two tickets, there was no word on it.

Lin Yue didn't know that these two tickets were asked by Sun Hongmei to her son. The meat ticket was to be kept for the New Year, and the industrial ticket was to buy a bicycle. Of course, this ticket could not buy a bicycle. Zhang Yuandong did not have the national industrial ticket, and he only exchanged this one with someone else. He did not have more.

Lin Yue bought an envelope and a stamp, wrote the address on it and mailed it out, then went to the department store again.

The department store is not very large. It is divided into many areas according to the types of goods. There is a glass counter in the front and shelves in the back. There is a salesperson in each counter. You have to tell the salesperson what you want, and the salesperson will show it to you, but you can only look but not touch.

The clothes she wore were patched up, and because she was too thin, the clothes hung on her body and swayed, as if she was wearing someone else's clothes. When she first walked in, she got a lot of cold stares. But she didn't care. She was like a country girl who had just moved to the city, curious about everything, looking around and looking at things. The salesperson rolled his eyes at her and didn't even let her look.

I've heard that the salespersons at this time have bad attitudes, but Lin Yue didn't mind at all and just treated it as shopping in a luxury store. Besides, she is just a country girl who has just moved to the city.

After wandering around for a long time, Lin Yue finally arrived at the place where kitchenware was sold.

She handed the introduction letter and the marked size to the salesperson, but the girl took one look at it and threw it back, saying casually, "You need a ticket to buy things here, so the introduction letter is useless."

Lin Yue was stunned. He didn't expect this to happen.

Seeing that the little girl didn't look at him straight in the eye, he knew that it was useless to argue with her. Lin Yuecai happened to have an industrial ticket in his hand, and he slapped it on the table in a rude manner: "I have the ticket, take the pot!"

The little girl looked Lin Yue up and down, picked up the ticket and looked at it, without saying anything, she grunted and brought up a large iron pot of corresponding size.

This pot costs 18 yuan, and Lin Yue was so distressed that he was crying.

There was no way she could continue shopping with such a large group of things in her arms, so she walked out of the department store carrying them.

At the store entrance, Lin Yue heard someone whispering that there was "cloth that didn't require a ticket".

Lin Yue was very happy, as this was her chance to run into "speculation and profiteering". She glanced over and saw a short and fat lady in her fifties pulling a younger, tall and thin lady towards a quiet street.

Lin Yue was still holding a big pot in his arms, so he didn't dare to follow them. He could only watch the two people walk away. Then he tied the pot to his bicycle as if nothing had happened and rode the bicycle into the street openly.

The street is very narrow, it might be more appropriate to call it an "alley", with walls of other people's houses on both sides, and there is a fork not far inside.

Lin Yue took advantage of the darkness and the absence of people in the alley and quickly entered the space. He left his bicycle and pot in the space, changed his clothes, packed some peanuts, millet and eggs, caught a rabbit, and put it in a basket before leaving the space.

She reached the fork and saw a little boy of about seven or eight squatting in the corner playing with stones. When he saw someone coming, he raised his head and looked at her warily. Lin Yue guessed that the child was probably keeping watch.

She grabbed a handful of peanuts and stuffed them into the little boy's hand, then said to him, "Go tell your family that Lin Daya from last time is here and needs help from Auntie."

The little boy grabbed the peanuts, looked up at her for a while, and ran away.

Lin Yue was actually quite nervous. In this era, speculation was severely punished. She was worried that people would not want to do business with her because she was a stranger. She was also afraid that she would be cheated. Even worse, there were fishermen and law enforcement officers waiting for speculators like her.

Fortunately, the little boy quickly stuck his head out of a door in front and waved to Lin Yue to let her pass.

After entering, Lin Yue could clearly see that this was an abandoned old house. In addition to the little boy, there were also the two women standing in the yard.

The short and fat woman looked at Lin Yue and said bluntly: "I don't know you, and you have never been here before."

Lin Yue touched his nose and confessed, "Auntie, I just heard you two talking about cloth at the door of the department store, and I was anxious, so I followed you here without permission. My younger brother is getting married, and he is worried about not having cloth. You see, I am also..."

The fat auntie's expression eased a little. She had just finished negotiating the price with the auntie in front of her. After receiving the money, she rolled up the cloth that the thin auntie wanted and gave it to her. The thin auntie was about to leave when she saw something moving in Lin Yue's basket. She asked nervously, "What's in your basket? Why is it moving?"

Seeing that she was nervous, Lin Yue quickly lifted the cloth covering the basket to show them the contents, and soothed her, "Auntie, don't be nervous. There's a rabbit inside. I brought it back from my mother's house."

Seeing such a fat rabbit, both of them were very tempted. The thin lady hesitated for a long time, then she made up her mind, took off her shoes, took out a small handkerchief from inside, and asked: "Will you sell this rabbit? I have grain coupons and oil coupons here."

Lin Yuet acted embarrassed and said, "I want to eat this rabbit myself."

Hearing her say this, the fat lady's face became much better. Although she also liked rabbit meat, she was not happy to see others doing business right next to her door.

The thin auntie held onto Lin Yue's basket and refused to let go: "Sister, my daughter-in-law is about to give birth, and now she is so thin that she only has a big belly. I am worried every day about not having a way to buy nutritional supplements. Sell me this rabbit, and I will pay extra money and tickets!"

The fat auntie immediately broke the news: "Girl, don't listen to her. How can you feed rabbit meat to a pregnant woman? If she gives birth to a baby with three-lobed lips, be careful that she will depend on you! Sell it to me. If you like any cloth, tell me and I will give you a discount!"

The thin aunt was annoyed: "Bah, you old thing, who are you cursing here! My daughter-in-law can't eat it now, and I can't save it for her to eat during her confinement period!"

Lin Yue quickly persuaded them: "Two aunties, let's discuss something! Auntie, I still have some eggs in my basket. I really don't want to sell this rabbit. How about I give you some eggs?"

As he spoke, he lifted the rabbit up, revealing the neatly stacked eggs and two white cloth bags underneath. The two aunties pointed at the two white cloth bags and asked in unison, "What's in them?"

Lin Yue was startled by the two people and whispered, "It's... Peanut and Xiaomi?"

When the two heard this, their eyes lit up, especially the thin aunt, who held Lin Yue's hand tightly, fearing that he would run away if they were not careful.

The fat aunt is okay. Looking at her figure, you can tell that her family lives a good life.

She asked about the price one by one, and Lin Yue said embarrassedly: "Peanuts and eggs are easy. My parents are from the countryside, and I go back every few days, so I never lack eggs. My family planted a lot of peanuts this year, and they gave me a lot. If you want this, I can give you some, but there is really not much millet. This is all I got in total." He looked like a honest person who would answer whatever you asked.

The thin lady no longer cared about the rabbit. After all, city dwellers would receive some meat coupons every month, so they could always eat some meat. Instead, eggs and millet, which were rare and good things for pregnant women and newborn babies, were more attractive to her, especially eggs, which could not be bought even with coupons.

Finally, the thin aunt bought all the eggs, millet and peanuts in Lin Yue's basket and gave him a sugar ticket and 2.7 yuan.

Eggs in the supply and marketing cooperatives and department stores were 5 cents per pound, and they were often out of stock. Lin Yue's eggs were large, and with the help of a fat lady, she sold them for 8 cents each, or 2.5 yuan for 30 eggs. Millet and peanuts were not much to begin with, so she only sold them for 20 cents.

She had a basket full of stuff, but apart from a rabbit, she only sold it for less than three yuan. The last time Lin Yue went to the market, she was impressed by how cheap things are now. Now that she is earning money, she realizes that it is really hard to make money in this era.

After sending the thin aunt away, the fat aunt took out two pieces of homespun cloth of different colors. One piece was blue, and the other was beige. The beige color was the original color of the old homespun cloth, and the blue one was a bit like the color of jeans in later times. However, they were not very big, less than 40 centimeters wide, and about ten meters long.

Sun Meifeng can also weave this kind of old cloth. In the past, every household had a weaving machine, and many elderly people in the village could weave cloth.

However, cotton is now a war reserve material. Private trading is not allowed, and large-scale private planting is not allowed. Farmers generally only grow some in their own vegetable gardens. It takes three to five years to sew a new quilt.

Moreover, the harvest is bad now and everyone is afraid of going hungry. Everywhere and every corner where crops can be grown is used to grow food. Cotton has become even harder to come by, not to mention cloth.

Cloth coupons were also issued in the countryside, but many people still had no clothes to wear. Xiaotian Village was relatively well off, but in winter, many children still couldn't go out because they had no clothes to wear.

The price of these two pieces of cloth is not cheap. They are more expensive than the machine-woven cloth in the supply and marketing cooperative. The total cost is 9.5 yuan.

Lin Yue's heart ached. She had just deposited less than three dollars into her account, and now she had to pay out nearly ten dollars. It would be a lie to say she didn't feel bad. But it was impossible for her to buy less, after all, the opportunity was rare.

In the end, the fat aunt bought the rabbit. The big rabbit weighed more than ten kilograms and was worth four yuan and fifty cents.

Lin Yue counted out five yuan and gave it to the fat aunt. Seeing that she was generous, the fat aunt came closer and whispered, "I still have this year's cotton, do you want some?"

Lin Yue was very tempted, but what she wanted most was cotton seeds, so that she could grow cotton herself. The fat aunt was straightforward, and when she heard that she wanted to grow cotton herself, she readily gave her a bag of cotton seeds.