“Thank you very much, Auntie Fang. I’ll take all these pieces of fabric. By the way, does your department store happen to have any flawed enamel mugs or thermoses? If you ever want meat in the future, just have Sister Xiuzhen pass a message to me.”
Tian Baozhu didn’t stand on ceremony and directly took all the pieces of fabric Fang Fengying had shown her.
Fang Fengying hadn’t expected this girl to be so resourceful—she could get more meat? Her eyes lit up with surprise as she nodded. She asked Tian Baozhu to wait a moment, then went to whisper with a close colleague for quite a while.
Fang Fengying’s colleague came over with a mix of skepticism and curiosity. After seeing what was in the bamboo basket, she gasped and immediately nodded in agreement to whatever Fang Fengying had proposed.
Seeing her colleague nod, Fang Fengying had Tian Baozhu wait a bit longer. Her colleague went into the warehouse and soon came out carrying a mesh bag.
Inside the mesh bag, besides enamel mugs, there were aluminum lunch boxes and water flasks.
“There are no flawed thermoses right now, only new ones. If you want those, you’ll need industrial ration tickets.”
Hearing this, Tian Baozhu felt a bit disappointed, but she remembered she had thermoses in her space. She could just use those.
“That’s alright. Having these things is already great!”
After buying these items, the money in her hand was reduced by more than half.
“Girl Tian, next time you come to the county, come straight to Auntie’s house.”
After arranging a time with Tian Baozhu for the next delivery of meat and grain, Fang Fengying happily returned to work.
Having bought so many things, Tian Baozhu didn’t feel like continuing to browse the department store. Besides, her main purpose for coming was to build connections and plan for the future. Now that the connections were established, she needed to find ways to earn more money.
After all, while she probably had enough to repair her house in the village, there would be plenty more expenses. Having more money saved up was never a bad thing.
So, finding a secluded spot, Tian Baozhu put all her purchased items into her space and changed back into the clothes she had worn in town yesterday. Then she began wandering around the county.
It had to be said—the county was much larger than her town. There were more factories and more residential areas. Within just half a day, Tian Baozhu had added over a hundred yuan and a good number of ration tickets to her pocket.
However, the ration tickets were a mixed bag. There were matches tickets, thread tickets, coal tickets, sugar tickets, oil tickets—but no watch tickets. And among these tickets, Tian Baozhu didn’t seem to lack anything. After all, she had coal, sugar, and oil in her space, not to mention matches and thread.
But these tickets would expire if unused. So, later on, she planned to use them all up. She could bring the items back to the village to fill the empty gaps in her house.
Checking the sky, she saw it was around noon. Tian Baozhu asked for directions to the state-run restaurant. When she entered, there were only a few people eating inside. After all, one meal at a state-run restaurant cost as much as several days’ worth of groceries at home.
Tian Baozhu checked what was being offered today and was pleasantly surprised to find braised pork on the menu. She ordered a serving of braised pork, stir-fried chili with dried tofu, and a bowl of rice. The total came to two yuan, fifty-two cents, plus four taels of grain ration tickets.
The server took her money and tickets at the window, rolled her eyes, wrote down her order, and sent it to the kitchen. Tian Baozhu’s mouth twitched. With this kind of service attitude, if it were in the future, someone would definitely film a short video and post it online for keyboard warriors to tear apart. But these days, it was already considered good if state-run restaurant staff didn’t assault customers.
After waiting about half an hour, the server called her order. Tian Baozhu quickly hurried over and took her food from the window. At one yuan and eighty cents a serving, the braised pork was expensive for a reason—it came in a large, heaping plate, glistening with rich oil. The sauce was dark and glossy, and when she tasted it, the pork was fatty but not greasy, melting in her mouth.
With each bite of braised pork, she scooped up some rice, then added a piece of chili-fried tofu. In no time, she had finished everything cleanly. Even the leftover sauce at the bottom of the pork plate, she mixed with rice, stirred thoroughly, and ate every last bit.
After finishing, Tian Baozhu felt a little embarrassed. But glancing around, no one was laughing at her. In this era, waste was the most shameful thing. Cleaning her plate was the most normal behavior.
The braised pork was so delicious that Tian Baozhu wanted to order another serving, but the server shot her a harsh glare and curtly said it was sold out. Left with no choice, Tian Baozhu settled for buying ten meat buns instead.
Each meat bun was as large as two adult fists. Tian Baozhu took a bite—the filling inside took up a fist-sized space, truly packed with ingredients, with no skimping whatsoever. After finishing her meal and adding one large meat bun, Tian Baozhu finally felt about half-full.
She didn’t rush to eat the remaining nine meat buns. After leaving the state-run restaurant, she put them into her space.
She changed into a different set of clothes and went to another area to sell everything she could from her kitchen supplies in exchange for money and ration tickets. Then, using the leftover tickets she had no use for, she exchanged them for goods at the department store before heading to the bus station.
As she arrived at the station entrance, she saw Xu Xiuzhen waving at her. Tian Baozhu hurried over and, beaming, pulled out a handful of candy from her pocket and pressed it into Xu Xiuzhen’s hand.
It was only about four or five pieces, but Xu Xiuzhen was very pleased. She made a polite show of refusal but quickly tucked the candy into her pocket.
“Thank goodness you made it in time. Your brother-in-law will be driving back to town soon.”
“Xiuzhen, isn’t there a fixed schedule for the bus?”
“What fixed schedule? It all depends on when your brother-in-law feels like leaving,” Xu Xiuzhen said nonchalantly.
Hearing this, Tian Baozhu made a mental note. It seemed that if she ever needed to stay later in the county, she should let Xu Xiuzhen’s husband know in advance, so she wouldn’t miss the ride back.
On the way back, Tian Baozhu casually mentioned to Xu Xiuzhen that she had run into her aunt at the department store. But she twisted the story slightly, saying she had only learned that the woman was Xu Xiuzhen’s aunt while buying flawed goods, and feeling a bit awkward about it, she had given her a package of dried wood ear mushrooms in Xu Xiuzhen’s name.
Hearing this, Xu Xiuzhen felt that claiming this younger sister had been well worth it. After all, she hadn’t spent anything herself, yet she got the credit. It also helped repay the favor for her aunt setting aside that scarf for her.
By the time they reached town, Xu Xiuzhen had already clearly told Tian Baozhu where she lived and invited her to visit whenever she was free.