The door was immediately opened, and a burly man appeared at the entrance, "Zhengguo? You're finally coming out of seclusion?"
The man extended his hands, intending to embrace Li Zhengguo.
Li Zhengguo pushed the man's hands away, "Behave yourself."
He then pulled Tian Jing, whose hand he was still holding, to his side, facing the man who looked about Li Zhengguo's age but appeared much more energetic.
"Wen Jianshe, this is your sister-in-law, Tian Jing. Tian Jing, this is my comrade, a brother from the same dorm, sharing the same bunk."
Seeing the petite and pretty Tian Jing, Wen Jianshe's eyes widened, "You, you, Old Li, you're an old ox eating young grass."
Li Zhengguo punched his shoulder, "Nonsense."
From his action and tone, Wen Jianshe detected nervousness. He stopped joking and formally addressed Tian Jing, "Hello, sister-in-law."
"Hello," Tian Jing nodded at him. As for the title "sister-in-law," she could only accept it for now and didn't fuss about it.
"Come in, come in quickly."
Wen Jianshe made a welcoming gesture with both hands, inviting them into the room.
Li Zhengguo waved his hand, "We won't come in. You know my time is tight. We're here to purchase supplies. Do you have any discounted items?"
"I do," Wen Jianshe hesitated, "but I don't know if they're what you need."
"Let's go take a look." Li Zhengguo turned and led the way, still holding Tian Jing's small hand.
Tian Jing didn't mind, assuming he was just in a hurry, and walked briskly with him.
Wen Jianshe locked the door and followed behind them, gazing at their tall and short, sturdy and thin figures. Coupled with their clasped hands, they looked like two generations apart.
Involuntarily, the word "pervert" crossed Wen Jianshe's mind. He shivered, shook his head, and muttered, "Sister-in-law hasn't fully blossomed yet. Once she does, it'll be fine."
Having reassured himself, Wen Jianshe quickly caught up with them and headed towards the warehouses.
He unlocked the large padlock on the warehouse door, pulled out the bolt, pushed the door open, and said, "Come in."
He led them to a pile of large cardboard boxes, "Take a look yourselves. Once you've picked what you want, come to the door to set the price."
With that, Wen Jianshe returned to the warehouse entrance to wait.
Opening a cardboard box and seeing the ceramic basins inside, Tian Jing's eyes lit up, "These are great, much better than wooden basins. Let's buy a couple more. One for general use, and two for Li Min and me to wash our faces. We can use the wooden basin at home for washing our feet."
"Okay."
"Then hurry up and pick. Pick the ones with smaller chips in the glaze."
"Okay." Li Zhengguo began to pick.
Opening the second cardboard box, they found tea mugs that were quite badly chipped, of various sizes, piled up casually. During the picking process, they would surely get bumped again.
Tian Jing quickly picked out all the tea mugs and placed them on the floor, putting them back as she sorted.
In the end, she picked over a dozen tea mugs of different sizes. Seeing Li Zhengguo look over, she bent down and cupped her hands.
"We want all of these. They can be used for soup, for oil, or even for dishes. They have many uses."
"Yes, yes, we'll take them all. Put them in these ceramic basins." Li Zhengguo couldn't help but smile. She was still a child, worried he wouldn't let her buy too many.
After storing the tea mugs, they continued their "treasure hunt," which was exactly what it felt like for Tian Jing.
This time, the cardboard box contained chamber pots? Tian Jing blinked her large, bright eyes and glanced at Li Zhengguo. She decided against it; they were too cold in winter and not as comfortable as wooden ones.
She closed the lid of the cardboard box and moved on to the next one.
When Wen Jianshe saw the items they brought out, his jaw dropped in astonishment, "You want to buy this much?"
"We do," Li Zhengguo nodded. "Please calculate the total and then take us to the front store to make further purchases."
The ceramic basins, enamel basins, and tea mugs were all discounted items with chipped enamel, considered scrap.
The prices were very low: one yuan for large ones, fifty cents for small ones, and three tea mugs for one yuan. Even so, they spent eight yuan and fifty cents.
After packing the items into their carrying baskets, the three of them went to the front store.
With a familiar face accompanying them, the saleswoman was friendly and fetched whatever they asked for. Toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, soap, hand cream, and facial cream – they bought four of each.
Socks: four pairs for each of the four people in the Li family, according to their sizes. Shoes: they looked at the shoe coupons, had five, and bought them all.
A few towels and handkerchiefs, two vests each for men and women, and one patterned autumn shirt and one pair of patterned autumn pants for everyone.
Of course, Li Zhengguo's were blue and for men.
Fabric: some plain white cotton fabric. Corduroy? This was great! It was suitable for making pants, jackets, or outerwear for padded jackets. Buy it.
Watching them, Wen Jianshe tugged at Li Zhengguo, "There are discounted items in the fabric warehouse. It'll be time to start work soon."
Li Zhengguo nodded and pulled at Tian Jing, who was happily shopping. He whispered something in her ear.
Tian Jing counted the fabric coupons in her hand and bought according to the quantity allowed by the coupons, opting entirely for corduroy, which she considered the best and most versatile. She asked for more black and brown, and red and yellow were also good choices.
After using up the fabric coupons, they bought cotton. They didn't have many cotton coupons, only three or four catties, and bought them all to make sanitary pads.
She didn't need the sanitary belts of this era. No, wait, it seemed there were sanitary belt coupons. She looked down and found four, so she bought them. Homemade sanitary pads wouldn't have adhesive, so they would still need sanitary belts for fixation.
She unabashedly asked the saleswoman to bring out the sanitary belts, scaring away the two men following behind her.
The saleswoman blushed and chuckled, "This girl is so funny. Do you want to open them and pick?"
"How do I pick?" Tian Jing raised an eyebrow at her.
The saleswoman opened a box for her and unfolded a long, inch-wide item, folded six layers deep. The middle resembled an inner tube of a bicycle tire, with fabric strips at both ends. She pointed to the straps and the waistband, explaining how to use it.
Tian Jing looked up at the saleswoman, who seemed to radiate golden light behind her, "Sister, you're so kind."
So, the saleswoman's suggestion to pick was actually an explanation of how to use it.
If the straps came loose, she could sew them back on. The stitches were already sparse. Back home, she would reinforce the seams of the straps. Sudao Novel Network.
The saleswoman was embarrassed by Tian Jing's admiring and joyful tone, blushing and clearing her throat. "Ahem, I'm just saying, you're a big customer."
As she spoke, she pointed to the rolls of crepe toilet paper on the counter, "You should buy some of this too, right?"
"Of course. Ten rolls."
Afterward, Tian Jing was urged by the saleswoman to take a small receipt and go to the cashier to pay. The small box of sanitary belts was hidden at the bottom of her carrying basket.
The ten rolls were simply wrapped in a thin white paper with "Crepe Toilet Paper" printed on it. The ten rolls, weighing less than three catties, were placed on top.
The next battlefield, naturally, was the food section. White sugar, rock sugar, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, alkaline noodles, matches, Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, fried dough twists, shortbread, and chicken cake were all purchased according to the coupons in hand, as they would expire soon, and who knew when they would be able to visit the city again.