I really tried my best at dawn.
Thank you Xia for the tip!
"Hehe, all girls are like that, what girl doesn't love to look good?"
"But no one else is as strange as them."
The two arrived at the building chatting and laughing. Zhang Hongmei went straight to the candy counter.
"Comrade, is there a purchase limit on brown sugar?"
"Yes, a maximum of five jin per person."
"Okay, let's get the receipts. Ten pounds for two people."
Liu Jingze stood behind Zhang Hongmei, smiling but saying nothing.
"Comrade, give me two pounds of fruit candy, do you have any white sugar?"
"Each person is limited to purchasing two jin of white sugar."
"Then give me another four catties of white sugar."
Sixteen pounds of candy is quite a lot, and Zhang Hongmei wanted to keep shopping. But after the sales clerk had prepared all the candy, Zhang Hongmei didn't want to carry it anymore. "Comrade, could I leave it here for now? I'll come back for it later."
"Okay, I'll leave it here for now."
Zhang Hongmei rushed to the condiment counter, looked at it, and bought two jin of fermented black beans. These didn't require a coupon and cost 5 mao per jin.
Liu Jingze paid the money voluntarily, and Zhang Hongmei didn't argue with him about it.
I can't buy soy sauce or vinegar because I didn't bring any bottles and have nowhere to put them. I can wrap the fermented black beans in packing paper, but I'm too tired to buy those two.
Next, we bought pastries. The pastries in the building were more varied than those in the countryside, but because of the drought, there were only three kinds: peach crisps, glutinous rice strips, and jujube steamed cakes. Moreover, there was a purchase limit, and you needed pastry coupons to buy them.
Never mind, I'll just go back and make it myself.
“Hongmei, I have a few pastry coupons, which is about three jin.”
"I won't buy it, I'll make it myself when I get home."
"You can also bake pastries?"
"I've never done it before, it shouldn't be difficult."
"Yes, everything you make tastes good."
Zhang Hongmei was thinking of frying twisted dough sticks when she got back, either savory or sweet, so they would be a high-class gift.
I walked around the first floor. I didn't want to buy anything else, so I went to the second floor to buy paper, pens, and other necessities for the kids.
I bought fifty notebooks, fifty pencils, and fifty erasers on the second floor.
"Hongmei, did you buy so much to share with the children in the village?"
"Yes, last year I taught them to read, and this year more than ten children have gone to school. This is a reward for them, and a gift for the children who haven't gone to school yet."
Zhang Hongmei saw the large sheets of Xuan paper. "Comrade, how much is the Xuan paper?"
"Two cents a piece."
"Can I buy more? Can you sell me this whole bundle? Our village hasn't changed the window paper for two years."
"Okay, here are a hundred tickets. I'll issue you the invoices."
Liu Jingze offered to pay, and Zhang Hongmei thought about it and didn't refuse. She told everyone that Liu Jingze had bought it for them.
"We didn't go up to the third floor. Let's go to the food supply station and see if there's anything good to eat."
"Don't you need anything else? These aren't for your own use."
"I don't need anything, I'm leaving."
Liu Jingze had a solution: he put all the things he bought into a basket and followed Zhang Hongmei out of the building.
When I arrived at the food supply station, I ran into the leader.
"Little girl, are you here to buy something?"
"Yes, boss, do we have any candy here? We don't have enough candy to make glutinous rice balls for the Lantern Festival."
"Yes, but I can only sell you ten catties. The supply is too small. Our city only gave us two tons of brown sugar, one thousand catties of white sugar, and one thousand catties of sugar blocks. After distributing it to the supply and marketing cooperatives, there's hardly anything left."
"Thank you, boss. Give me five jin of white sugar and five jin of sugar cubes."
"Hey, do you have any gear to carry?"
"Yes, I brought a cloth bag."
"Give it to me. You can stay here and see if there's anything you want to buy. I'll bring it out to you in a bit."
"Hongmei, how do you know the leaders here?"
"Most of the vegetables grown in our village after the rain and before the autumn harvest are sent here to be sold."
"You're selling vegetables in our village now?"
"Yeah, it's been selling for about a month."
"Won't they all wilt by the time they get here?"
“The village chief would ride his bicycle and carry more than 300 kilograms of vegetables to the city every day. My third uncle would drive his oxcart to the city and then pick up the bicycle halfway back.”
"It must have been too tough," Liu Jingze couldn't help but sigh.
"Yes, Wang Hongxi is a very hardworking and dedicated village chief."
Zhang Hongmei found a place selling tofu. But where should she put it?
"Brother Jingze, put the basket down and go to the building to buy a basin. Let's buy some tofu to eat."
"Okay, I'll be back in a bit."
The staff here all know Zhang Hongmei, so they naturally save the tofu for her when she wants to buy it.
"Auntie, where is this tofu made?"
"Someone brought it over; it's a relative of the director. What happened?"
"I just want him to make me a slab of tofu. There are a lot of people in my family."
"Just ask the director directly. There shouldn't be any problem."
Zhang Hongmei wanted to treat Dashan and Liu Jianguo to a meal before returning to the village, and tofu was a fresh dish.
A moment later, the leader from before came over with three bags and handed them to Zhang Hongmei. "You can just go to the cashier to pay."
"Boss, could you please ask the tofu makers if they could make some tofu for me within the next two or three days?"
"If you want it, just come over the day after tomorrow and you'll be fine. I'll tell him today."
"Okay, I'll come over to pick it up the day after tomorrow morning. I'll pay you first."
"No need, just give it to the tofu maker that day."
"Nothing else you need?"
"Yes, I want to buy eggs."
"I can't do anything about this either. People aren't even getting enough to eat, so where would we get the food to feed the chickens?"
Zhang Hongmei didn't have much space left either, but it should be enough for New Year's gifts, so she stopped worrying about it.
When Liu Jingze returned, the saleswoman gave Zhang Hongmei water to wash the basin before putting two pieces of tofu in it for her.
Liu Jingze carried a basket on his back, and Zhang Hongmei carried a basin. They chatted and laughed all the way home.
For lunch, we had a three-ingredient flatbread, mapo tofu, and stir-fried cabbage.
“Brother Jingze, let’s go to the cotton mill and the power supply bureau this afternoon and ask them to come over for dinner on Sunday, which is the day after tomorrow, and ask them if they can go home.”
"Okay, now it's just the two of us free. I'll go wherever you want to go."
Zhang Hongmei didn't think there was anything wrong with what he said, and happily scooped up a large spoonful of spicy tofu and put it in her mouth.
Seeing Zhang Hongmei eating with relish, Liu Jingze unconsciously scooped up a spoonful and put it in his mouth as well.
After finishing her meal, Zhang Hongmei put the remaining pancakes into her lunchbox.
"Hongmei, is this for Jianguo?"
"Yeah, Dashan and his group have too many people, this isn't enough for them. I don't want to eat dry food tonight, so I'll take it all to Brother Jianguo."
Liu Jingze had just felt that Zhang Hongmei was treating Liu Jianguo specially, and he felt a pang of jealousy.
"Hongmei, shall we leave now?"
"Let's go, we need to find someone to call them anyway."
It took the two of them more than half an hour to reach the cotton mill. The gatekeeper looked at Zhang Hongmei with a smile and said, "Looking for Liu Jianguo? Wait a minute, I'll go and call him for you."
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