Not two years after the Great Movement, the clerk in charge of the office was actually a little afraid of Ning Yuan, this kind of young person who was full of enthusiasm and slogans.
She could only manage a forced laugh: "Yes, yes...yes."
Can she still say that such progressive ideas are wrong?
In the end, the older woman produced a marriage certificate with Ning Yuan and Rong Zhaonan's names on it.
Then she quickly stamped the document and sent them away.
Ning Yuan looked at the marriage certificate printed with the leader's quotations, suppressed her wildly beating heart, and walked out of the office with Hua Zi.
Once outside, she finally breathed a sigh of relief, put her hands on her hips, and burst out laughing, clutching her chest: "Hey, it worked!"
Hua Zi also breathed a sigh of relief: "Ning Zhiqing, you're really amazing. You scared me to death just now."
He didn't know how to respond.
Looking at Hua Zi's honest appearance, Ning Yuan smiled and said, "Thank you for your hard work, Brother Hua Zi. You go and get the fertilizer first, and I'll go to the county department store."
The marriage registration office is not far from the county department store, only about a ten-minute walk away.
Hua Zi nodded: "Okay, then I'll wait for you at the entrance of the department store."
Hua Zi drove off again, chugging away on his tractor.
Ning Yuan went to the department store in the county town. The people on the street were either wearing green military uniforms, blue work clothes, or white shirts.
Simple and unpretentious.
The most impressive building in the county town is a three-story department store, which was just renovated and reopened last month. It was originally called the Department Store Branch.
There was a long queue when it opened, and even today, a weekday, there are still a lot of people.
She looked at the bustling entrance of the department store, felt the five yuan in her pocket, and went inside.
Now that she's been reborn back to her youth, she needs to familiarize herself with her surroundings again and figure out how to make money in the future.
The department store has counters on both sides of the first floor, displaying various daily necessities, with the cash register at the highest point.
She had just entered the room and stood in front of the counter to take a look when—with a "whoosh," a small clip holding money flew over her forehead along the wire.
Ning Yuan was startled. She looked up at the various wires above her and then remembered—
By the way, at this time, you don't need to go to the cashier to pay when you buy things.
Above the cashier, there are long wires connecting the cashier to the counters where the goods are sold. Once someone has selected their items, they pay and hand over the receipt to the salesperson.
The salesperson would clip the money and the written receipt onto a small clipboard, then push the clipboard hard, and it would slide down the wire toward the cashier.
After receiving the money, the cashier calculated the amount, put away the change, the ticket, and the stamped receipt, and then slid them back to the sales counter.
She looked at the thin ropes, and then at the smug expressions of the department store sales clerks and cashiers, and couldn't help but smile.
Ah, how I miss it...
"What do you want to buy? If you're not buying, don't block the people behind you!" A saleswoman with two bows in her hair rolled her eyes at Ning Yuan, who was standing there grinning foolishly.
Ning Yuan wasn't angry at her attitude; on the contrary, she was in a very good mood and even smiled at the sales clerk.
During times of scarcity, working in a department store was a highly desirable job, better than many government officials. Salespeople had many connections to get items that couldn't be purchased without coupons, hence their poor service attitude.
Seeing a salesperson like that again made Ning Yuan even more certain that her life had truly been given a second chance!
She strolled around the department store. The county department store was still the same as she remembered. There were many things, but nothing fancy.
Soon after the reform and opening up, the South got rich first, and by the mid-to-late 1980s, people would gradually stop using cloth coupons, grain coupons, stamps, meat coupons, industrial coupons, etc.
However, we are still in the era of planned economy, and tickets are harder to come by than money.
Fortunately, she still had some meat coupons, cloth coupons, and other valuables that she had saved up, and she wasn't foolish enough to give them all to Tang Zhenzhen.
An hour later, Ning Yuan came out carrying a bottle of Songhe liquor, a shoebox, and a thermos.
From afar, she spotted Hua Zi's tractor loaded with fertilizer. She hurried over, carrying her things, and smiled, "Brother Hua Zi, let's go back!"
Hua Zi laughed and said, "Alright, let's go!"
The tractor chugted and sputtered all the way out of the city and headed back to the village.
It was already afternoon when the two returned to the village in the truck carrying pesticides.
When they reached the village entrance, Ning Yuan looked around to make sure no one was watching, then suddenly handed the wine to Hua Zi: "Brother Hua Zi, this is for you and the old Party Secretary."
Hua Zi immediately refused, taken aback: "Isn't this the wine for your wedding? This won't do!"
A bottle of Songhe Grain Liquor costs 2.5 yuan, unlike those cheap liquors sold for just a few cents at the brigade's supply and marketing cooperative.
Ning Yuan smiled and her eyes crinkled: "That's right, I got married and I'm treating everyone who helped me to drinks. It's not against the rules, I'm off!"
As she spoke, she shoved the bottle into Hua Zi's arms, grabbed the rest of the things, jumped off the tractor, and ran away.
Although she used some persuasive words to coax the old Party Secretary into helping her.
But the old Party Secretary was a good man; otherwise, he wouldn't have sympathized with her and asked Brother Hua to help her go to the city to get her marriage certificate.
"Wait... Oh dear..." Hua Zi was still driving the tractor, so he could only quickly stuff the liquor into the truck bed to avoid being seen and gossiped about.
First, we drove the tractor back to the village production team's office.
“Dad, look at this…!” Hua Zi told the old Party Secretary what had happened.
He was afraid that accepting gifts would violate discipline.
The old Party Secretary puffed on his water pipe, glanced at the bottle of Songhe Grain Liquor, and nodded.
"That girl even gave us wedding candy yesterday, and the kids were overjoyed. She's a grateful girl, so keep it. It's not a violation of the rules, it's just wedding wine!"
Hua Zi was delighted: "Okay, tonight I'll order Man Hua to stir-fry a dish of peanuts and dried anchovies."
These days, the cheapest snacks to go with drinks are peanuts and fried dried anchovies.
The old Party Secretary thought for a moment and said, "Oh right, tell Manhua that these few days will be considered as leave for Ning Zhiqing's wedding, and her work points will not be deducted."
Manhua was the work point recorder in the team, and also Hua Zi's wife. She was an educated youth from the "Old Three Classes" and married into the village party secretary's family.
Hua Zi nodded: "Okay."
Ning Yuan carried the shoebox and the thermos all the way back to the cowshed.
At four o'clock in the late autumn sunshine, Rong Zhaonan saw a figure running towards him from afar.
The girl's two braids swayed back and forth, and she looked like a bright daisy in a field.
Rong Zhaonan watched for a while, then lowered his eyes and continued repairing the roof.
The little spy was only so happy because she had completed her mission in the county town?
Ning Yuan returned to the small house next to the cowshed, put her things down, and took a big gulp of water from her enamel cup before she felt thirsty.
"That's strange. I didn't see Rong Zhaonan in the cowshed either. Where did he go?" Ning Yuan looked around, puzzled.
Suddenly, a man's cold voice came from the rooftop: "Do you need something?"
Ning Yuan was startled and looked up, only to find someone crouching on the roof beam.
"What are you doing up there? You scared me to death!" She couldn't help but jump in fright.
Rong Zhaonan casually braced himself with one hand, then executed a clean and neat backflip, landing just past Ning Yuan.
Ning Yuan couldn't help but widen her eyes and clap her hands: "Impressive! You used to study gymnastics?"
Rong Zhaonan: "This is not gymnastics."
Ning Yuan asked with great interest, "Wow, you used to study acrobatics? So you can walk on stilts and balance bowls on your head, right?"
It's hard to imagine that such a powerful figure in the future would have had to learn acrobatics as a child.
Rong Zhaonan's lips twitched, and he gave her a cold glance: "..."
Is this little spy genuinely unaware, or is he pretending to be stupid?
She hadn't done any background check on him before getting close to him.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
