Not only did I pay him back, but I also saved myself money. Many families in rural areas plant one or two orange trees in their backyards. They usually don't dare to sell the fruits, but they secretly exchange them for daily necessities. They are not worth much and are easy to get. As for local specialties, aren't they dried sweet potatoes, dried radishes, eggplants, and dried cowpeas? Anyway, these are all the products in rural areas. You can set the price yourself and just give enough... It's just like online shopping in later generations. It's great!
The more Meng Tao thought about it, the brighter her eyes became: if more people came to do this kind of business, wouldn't she be able to make money by mailing packages?
She looked around and soon became discouraged. She could only fantasize, as reality would not allow it. The public had sharp eyes. If people found out that she was making profits in this way, it would be considered speculation and she would definitely be arrested and sent to a labor camp.
However, Shen Yu, a customer who came to the door, could not be let go. Meng Tao simply took out the work diary from her schoolbag and asked Shen Yu to write down his detailed address. She then tore off a piece of white paper and left her own address for him to show that she was trustworthy: the person was in that village and could not run away.
Meng Zhehan felt something was wrong. It made no sense. His brother hadn't made any move yet, but Shen Yu's address was posted first. He hurriedly took Meng Tao's notebook, wrote down his own address, and asked her to write to him.
Meng Tao readily agreed and said that she would also send some oranges and local specialties to her brother "from five hundred years ago."
Meng Zhehan was very happy and talked to Taohua for a few more words. Zhang Guoqing looked at his watch and reminded Teacher Meng that it was time to go back to class.
So the few people parted on the street. Meng Zhehan and Zhang Guoqing took Shen Yu's car back to the college. After Shen Yu sent them off, he had to go do some business, while Meng Tao went shopping.
Considering that Meng Tao was able to go shopping and take the bus back to the steel plant by herself yesterday, there was no need to worry about her getting lost.
It was agreed at the dinner table just now that the day after tomorrow, Saturday, Meng Zhehan and Zhang Guoqing will come to take Meng Tao to the train station to take the train back home.
Today and tomorrow, Meng Tao can travel around the provincial capital.
But the capital of Province D is a historic city and it is very large. It is impossible for Meng Tao to visit the whole city in two days. She does not have such ambition. She can only take a quick tour and visit selectively to see the city's historical sites that have not been modified by later generations and are authentic without too much commercial atmosphere.
The important goal this afternoon is to complete my purchasing plan first.
Xian Fangfang's special tickets could be used in any building of the department store. Meng Tao took the bus to the nearest Second Department Store.
This time I went around in more detail. After all, I had money and tickets, so I could buy things and I had to choose.
The fourth floor sells clothing, shoes, socks, bedding and fabrics. Just as Xian Fangfang said, many autumn and winter clothes are already on display at the clothing counter. The styles are very conservative, loose enough for casual wear, and there are also slightly slim-fitting styles. Most of the colors are the common blue, gray and black on the street. There are a few sets of more eye-catching and bright ones, in beige, sky blue, silver-gray, as well as pure white shirts, and women's coats in tweed plaid and floral patterns.
These clothing styles were not considered good in Meng Tao's eyes. After all, people of different generations had different aesthetic standards. But she knew that her current appearance was also rustic and bumpkin in the eyes of city people. And every set of ready-made clothes on the shelves was much better than what she was wearing, so she had no right to dislike them.
After choosing and selecting, Meng Tao put together five sets of clothes for herself, all of which were long-sleeved coats, two sets for autumn and two sets for winter. The other set of autumn clothes was given to Zhou Cuiling. Zhou Cuiling had also given Meng Tao a set of summer clothes before. It was a give-and-take.
Then I bought two sets of autumn clothes, two pairs of cotton socks, and a pair of nylon socks. Cotton socks were cheap, only 1.6 cents a pair, while nylon socks were 50 cents.
A pair of slippers for bathing, a pair of rubber-soled elastic shoes for working, and a pair of low-heeled black corduroy buckled shoes for daily wear. I would like to buy a pair of semi-high-heeled leather shoes, but when I think about the bumpy dirt roads and uneven stone roads in the village, I decide not to buy them. No matter how many leather shoes I wear, they will not be bad enough for me on such roads, and they will also be inconvenient to walk in and I am afraid that they will hurt my feet.
I also bought two new towels, four printed handkerchiefs, and three scarves, the colorful tasseled plaid scarves that are full of age and are common in movies, and the more fashionable solid-color woolen scarves. I gave the plaid one to Aunt Yang, and the fashionable solid-color scarves, bright red and beige, to Zhou Cuiling and myself. Zhou Cuiling is suitable for bright red, but Meng Tao's skin is currently too bad and has not been properly treated. Other colors will only make her look darker, so I'll use beige.
For bedding, Meng Tao picked out a white gauze mosquito net, two sheets, and two pillowcases for changing and washing. There were no ready-made quilt covers for sale, so she bought six meters of special quilt cover cloth and went back to sew them herself.
I saw that the fine-spun floral fabric was very cute, with fresh and elegant colors, so I tore off a few meters of it. I can learn how to cut clothes myself, and it can also be used as curtains.
After buying so many things at once, the salespeople were impressed by Meng Tao and served her warmly and attentively.
All the special welfare coupons and cloth coupons given by Xian Fangfang were bought out, and Meng Tao also added several dozen yuan in cash.
I had a few soap tickets, so I went to the detergent counter and bought soap, perfumed soap, and Seagull shampoo.
On the counter next door were thermoses, washbasins, iron buckets, etc. Meng Tao found the industrial coupons and bought the iron bucket and thermos, and two enamel washbasins, one pure white and one printed with bright red peony flowers. The pure white one was to be placed in the space to collect dew from pine needles, and the one with peony flowers was to be used for washing the face.
She also bought a light blue enamel cup with a lid, a square medium-sized aluminum lunch box, and a small aluminum spoon. Aluminum tableware was not very good, but there was nothing she could do as it was the only condition available in this era. She also wanted stainless steel ones, but they were out of stock.
On the train, Meng Tao saw many people bringing their own cups and lunch boxes to get hot water and buy meals. She felt that she should also buy a set so that she could use them when traveling.
Meng Tao bought a large travel bag. When she stuffed the things into it, she put most of them directly into the space. She carried the iron bucket and washbasin first, and put them into the corner of the stairs where no one was. This way, she only had the travel bag in her hands, and it wouldn't be too heavy.
At the food counter on the first floor, I used sugar coupons to buy two pounds of brown sugar, two pounds of rock sugar and one pound of fruit hard candy.
After leaving the department store, Meng Tao took a taxi to the Chinese medicine store she saw yesterday. She would not miss those pills, so she bought them all and spent a hundred yuan.
There was a Xinhua Bookstore not far from the Chinese medicine shop. Meng Tao went in and picked out two agricultural technology books and a Xinhua Dictionary. After all, she had to use them to learn culture.
There are also seven or eight picture books, which I plan to give one to each of Zhou Cuiling's three younger brothers, and keep a few for myself. They are picture books with ancient Chinese themes and meticulous paintings. They are exquisite and beautiful, such as Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio and The Scholar and the Beautiful Woman. Although the plots seem a bit cliché, I just like them.
In less than half a day, she had spent nearly two hundred yuan in cash. Meng Tao had to admire herself. She was really a spending maniac. She only dared to make such a large purchase because she had a small space to store things. If she really brought so many things back to the village in public, she would be scolded as a spendthrift by the team leader Bao Shunfeng.
Unable to think of what else to buy for the moment, she walked through the streets with a half-empty travel bag, wandering aimlessly. When she passed a shady alley with several tall locust trees, she thought this was a nice place, quiet and peaceful, so she sat down on a stone bench at the foot of the wall to rest her feet.
I hadn't been sitting there for a few minutes when two middle-aged men approached me and asked in a low voice, "Girl, what are you selling?"
Meng Tao was secretly surprised: Why do these two people look like spies meeting, so mysterious, and what kind of questions are they asking?
She answered smoothly, "I don't have anything to sell."
A man pointed to the travel bag she placed next to him and said, "Inside..."
“This is what I bought.”
"Oh, sorry, we thought you were selling something. Since you've already bought it, you should leave now. It's too conspicuous to be holding a bag like this. It will be hard to say if the police come over. After all, we are doing business secretly, so we have to be careful!"
The other man said, and the two of them turned and walked away.
Meng Tao was stunned for a long while, and finally realized one thing: she had come to a place where people conducted private transactions, commonly known as the black market, and people mistakenly thought she was trying to sell something.
He hurriedly got up, picked up the bag and left, walked to the opposite side of the street, then looked back at the deep alley. He thought the place was well chosen. It was indeed suitable for private transactions. There were street intersections on both sides. He could enter from one side and exit from the other side, and disappear in the crowd.
When we took the bus back to the steel plant, it was already night and the lights were on.
The second update is here, and I’m asking for votes as usual.
(End of this chapter)