Chapter 7

"Maybe I'm still young." Jing Xian pretended to be shy, as if she didn't see their little thoughts, "Sister-in-law, then you guys chat, we'll go and catch up first!"

Jing Xian's behavior left Zhao Xiuzhi and the others dumbfounded.

There was clearly nothing wrong with what Jingxian said, but why did it sound so uncomfortable to me?

After walking a distance, Ma Shufen couldn't help but asked with a smile: "You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

Jing Xian pretended to be confused and asked, "What do you mean?"

"It's okay, it's okay." Ma Shufen looked at her twice and found that she was really simple-minded. She smiled and said nothing.

The place where we gathered was not far from the food factory. There was a large open space there, and many people had set up stalls there, one after another. Each area was divided into detailed areas. Some places sold only meat, some sold only seafood, and some sold clothes and shoes, etc.

"Sister-in-law, I'll go to the place where clothes are sold first. If you want to buy something, just go and buy it. I'll come to find you later." Although the market is big, it is not difficult to find people.

Ma Shufen also heard the gossip about Jingxian yesterday.

She was curious but didn't show it. She smiled and said, "I don't have anything to buy, so I'll just go with you."

"Then let's go over there."

Jingxian wanted to buy a lot of things, and didn't want to drag others to keep shopping with her. They had said it in advance, so as to avoid making the other party unhappy. Jingxian led the two children forward, and with Ma Shufen's guidance, they soon arrived at the stall selling clothes.

Jingxian happily walked there, only to find that there were no autumn clothes for sale.

She had no choice but to choose a few pieces of cloth to make pants and autumn clothes for the child. The suit she was wearing was given to her by a female comrade from Shanghai. At that time, she used a folk remedy to cure the female comrade's illness. The female comrade gave her money but she refused it, and she gave her a suit of clothes instead.

Jing Xian was reluctant to wear it before, and only took it out after she got married.

She had never been to the market in her life, and always went to the supply and marketing cooperative. She also forgot that the supply and marketing cooperative did not sell autumn clothes and pants, and all the clothes there were made by herself.

Ma Shufen was stunned when she saw Jingxian buying a lot of cloth in one go.

"Why did you buy so much cloth?" People only buy so much for their wedding.

Jing Xian said calmly, "The two children have no clothes, and they need two sets of clothes for winter."

The two children are very weak. After a winter, they will probably grow a lot. By then, their clothes will be too small. The boy's clothes are also worn out. When the patchwork is almost done, it is time to change them into new clothes.

If she goes to work and doesn't have much time, she can make the children's clothes in advance and put them there so that she doesn't have to make them when she needs to wear them.

Ma Shufen finally realized Jingxian's spendthrift nature.

Jing Xian looked at other cloths, picked out the ones suitable for making shoes, and paid for them directly.

Ma Shufen asked in shock: "Why are you buying cloth again?"

"Oh, making shoes. Children's feet grow fast, so we need to make a few more pairs of shoes." Jing Xian put the cloth into the cloth bag she made, and walked forward carrying it.

Ma Shufen lowered her head and said to the two kids, "Your mother is very good to you two!"

Tiedan's fierce expression turned into a proud one: "If my mother doesn't treat us well, who will she treat well?"

"that is!"

Fusheng mustered up his courage and loudly agreed with his brother.

The two children's cute looks made Ma Shufen feel very complicated.

She felt that the two children were still young and immature. If a stepmother would be as devoted to her first child as she was to her first child, there would not be one such person among a thousand and eight hundred people. Shang Nanchen's young wife had just married in. On the surface, she seemed to be good to the children, but who knew what was really going on.

After all, this is someone else's business. Ma Shufen is just thinking about it in her heart and won't say anything nonsense.

Jingxian was very purposeful in her shopping. There were no vegetable vendors, but there were many seafood vendors. They were all fresh seafood, and no tickets were required, but very few people bought them.

Jing Xian saw the thing that looked like abalone, squatted down and asked, "What is this?"

"Abalone, do you want some? Just a few." The fisherman was from a nearby village.

Everything in the sea belongs to the country. People of that era were very simple and honest. Even if they found a grain of corn on the road, they would voluntarily hand it over to the organization and would never take even a needle or thread into their own homes.

The things caught from the sea are also sent to the collective, and then taken out in bulk to exchange for other things.

There weren't too many abalones, but there weren't too few either.

There were more than thirty of them.

"How much?" Jing Xian knew that this thing was good.

"If you want both, just give me two cents." The fisherman said this but was still afraid that Jing Xian would not want them.

Jing Xian said nothing, then looked at the things in the other buckets and asked, "What are these?"

"This is a sea cucumber, this one contains scallops, and the one next to it is an oyster. This bucket contains seaweed, and the last one is a prawn." After saying that, the fisherman looked at Jing Xian eagerly.

Jing Xian was extremely excited, but she asked calmly, "How much do you sell this for?"

"They're all 20 cents a bucket."

Jing Xian: “…”

Thinking of the end of the world, the old man drooled and muttered: "Abalone, four hundred yuan a piece, do you know what that means? And do you know how expensive sea cucumbers are? Many of them are now farmed artificially. How difficult is it to eat wild ones? Now those things in the sea have changed, and you can't eat them even if you want to. You might even lose your life in them. I don't know if I can have a bite before I die."

She didn’t know whether the old man could eat it or not, but she could eat it.

"They're all 20 cents a bucket?"

Jing Xian felt that the price was really not expensive, at least it was quite cheap compared to what the old man said.

The fisherman didn't know whether to nod or not. Just as he was about to change his mind, he heard Jing Xian say, "Can you please send them home for me? I want all of them."

The fishermen were dumbfounded.

Jing Xian thought he was unwilling, so she asked again: "Comrade, I can't take these, can you help me take them back?"

“Yes…yes!”

The fishermen immediately put the things on the cart.

Jing Xian paid the money, gave a dollar and twenty cents, turned around and said to the two boys, "Let's go home."

The two boys immediately followed happily and asked, "Mom, are these all our things?"

"Yes." Jing Xian asked with a smile, "I'll make it for you when I get back."

Ma Shufen was so shocked that she quickly grabbed Jingxian and asked, "Why did you buy these lousy things? No one eats them!"

When the fishermen heard this, they looked at Jing Xian anxiously.

Jing Xian said, "Sister-in-law, our family is poor and we can't afford anything else, so we can only eat this."

"You can buy two pounds of meat with one piece."

Ma Shufen now felt that it was no big deal for Jingxian to buy so much cloth, after all, the cloth would be used one day. But buying these broken things from the sea was fine, but buying so much was a waste of money.

"I also want to buy meat, but there are only so many meat coupons and the child needs to grow. It's not good for him to always eat carrots, potatoes and cabbage." Jing Xian was telling the truth, and Ma Shufen knew it.

But that's not how life is in everyone's life.

Why do they have to treat me specially when I come to their house?

Ma Shufen looked down at the two children, but couldn't say, "Big sister, don't buy these for the children. They are not oily."

In her opinion, Jingxian was definitely a spendthrift.

Passing by a meat stall, Jing Xian looked at the pig's trotters and asked the price. No tickets were required for the trotters, and they were the same price as the meat. Most people wouldn't buy them, so Jing Xian bought four of them.

Ma Shufen: “…”

This is really a wasteful daughter-in-law!

Captain Shang has poor vision. What's the point of marrying a pretty wife? Such a spendthrift daughter-in-law will ruin the family sooner or later.

On the way back, I met Zhao Xiuzhi again at the intersection.

Zhao Xiuzhi started to greet them from a distance: "Sister-in-law, Jingxian, you guys are back? What did you buy?"

Jingxian didn't want to pay attention to Zhao Xiuzhi, but Zhao Xiuzhi came to her in the blink of an eye. Seeing what Jingxian was holding and the fishermen pushing their carts behind her, she asked in a loud voice, "Sister Jingxian, didn't you buy all these?"

Bar?"

"I bought it." Jing Xian said lightly.

"What?"

Zhao Xiuzhi just said this deliberately at first. She never thought that they were actually all bought by Jingxian.

She slapped her thigh and said regretfully, "Why are you such a spendthrift? Do you know what these are? No one eats them here. Sister Jingxian, they are just bullying you because you are from the country and have never seen the world. Don't be fooled."

The fisherman was so nervous that he immediately said, "Comrade, how about I return the money to you?"

"Hurry up and get out of here. You're really a country bumpkin who's causing trouble. You're using this kind of shabby stuff to deceive people. You're just bullying our sister Jingxian because she comes from the countryside." If there weren't differences between men and women, Zhao Xiuzhi would have wanted to go up and pick the man's pocket, take out the money and stuff it into Jingxian's pocket.

Ma Shufen was also embarrassed. Standing by, she also advised: "Why don't you just not buy it?"

Jing Xian glanced at the people around her, and they all looked at her with a mocking look. She was very calm inside and even wanted to laugh.

"I appreciate your kindness, sister-in-law. I am a country bumpkin who has never seen the world, but I like these things that I have never seen before." Jing Xian turned around and said to the fisherman, "Come back to sell these things next time. If you have more than this, I will buy them all."

Not to mention the fishermen, even everyone else was dumbfounded.

Zhao Xiuzhi was delighted. She had not expected Jingxian to be so brainless. She did not listen to her kind advice and even did the opposite.

Ma Shufen was speechless and wished she could distance herself from Jing Xian.

This is obviously a lack of brains.

The fisherman felt uncomfortable. When he followed Jing Xian to her doorstep, he whispered, "Comrade, no one in our village eats this. Only the hungry children roast it and eat a little. Others eat this because they can't afford to eat. They are right. This is rotten and no one eats it."

Jing Xian felt very complicated when she heard this.

"Comrade, I really like to eat this. Come back next time and I'll buy it again." Jing Xian opened the door with the key and went in with a bucket. "Wait for me to empty the food out for you."

"Don't worry, don't worry."

The fishermen stood at the door with their sleeves tucked in, waiting. Tiedan and Fusheng did not go in either. The two boys stared at the fishermen intently.

Jing Xian came out and saw this scene, and couldn't help laughing out loud.

She decided to reward the two kids at noon.

Jing Xian came out with a bucket of lobsters: "If you have any of these lobsters, you can bring some more."

Ma Shufen who happened to pass by: "..."