Chapter 18: Going to the County Seat Part 4

The shop assistant of this supply and marketing cooperative was so mad that she almost raised her nostrils to the sky.

Although Zhao Xiulan was dissatisfied, she did not bother with the shop assistant. It is useless to argue with such a person, so it is better to save some of her saliva.

The shop assistant came over and asked, “What do you want to buy?”

“I would like to ask how much is the soap!”

The shop assistant said lightly, “One yuan plus 1-yuan industrial tickets.” 1票证 – ticket – During China’s planned economy period, when the supply of commodities was extremely scarce, in order to ensure the balance of supply and demand, the state implemented planned supply of food and clothing and other daily necessities for urban and rural residents, and issued special purchase certificates such as food stamps and cloth stamps according to the population. Credentials are commonly referred to as “tickets”. It’s like their second currency at that time.

Pictures of tickets

Zhao Xiulan was a little dumbfounded by the salesperson’s answer. So, it’s not enough to only use money to buy things because you still need tickets to purchase goods?

“What are industrial tickets? Do you need these tickets to buy things?” Zhao Xiulan didn’t understand, so she asked.

When Zhao Xiulan asked these questions, the shop assistant looked at Zhao Xiulan with disdain in her eyes and sneered, “As expected, a countryside’s muddy legs2泥腿 – muddy legs – A contemptuous term for farmers in the past. doesn’t understand anything!

In addition to using money to buy things, you also have to use tickets. These two things are indispensable. Like for foodstuffs, you have to use food tickets, for pastries, you have to use pastry tickets, for candy, you have to use sugar tickets, cloth tickets for cloth, and oil tickets for oil!

For things like soap, towels, iron tools, tobacco, and alcohol, you have to use industrial tickets!

I won’t sell it to you if you only have money but no tickets! It’s different from your countryside.

Countryside’s muddy legs, peasant, go away if you don’t have money or tickets, don’t hang around in front of me!”

With that said, the shop assistant stopped paying attention to Zhao Xiulan and continued to crack her melon seeds.

Zhao Xiulan had no money and no tickets. She was despised by the shop assistant, but she didn’t have the courage to argue with her, so she turned around and prepared to leave the supply and marketing cooperative.

***Original translation is from enchantesstranslations.com. Please read it on the translator’s website.

As she was leaving, she seemed to hear the shop assistant continue to mock and ridicule her.

Zhao Xiulan was very annoyed by how that person was like that! Isn’t it just not having tickets? Does she really have to look down on her so much?

Before leaving the door of the supply and marketing agency, Zhao Xiulan suddenly bumped into a girl who was entering the door. The girl looked about the same age as her, about 17 to 18 years old.

She is probably from the city, since her clothes are much more fashionable than Zhao Xiulan. She’s wearing a nice blouse on top and a black skirt on the bottom

The girl’s name is Liu Xiaohong, who bumped into Zhao Xiulan. Liu Xiaohong cried out in pain, and then saw that the person she bumped into is Zhao Xiulan. She just heard the conversation between Zhao Xiulan and the shop assistant just now.

Looking at Zhao Xiulan’s clothes again, her clothes are tattered, and she didn’t know how many patches are on them. Liu Xiaohong’s eyes also showed a strong disgust.

Liu Xiaohong patted her clothes, and said to Zhao Xiulan angrily, “This countryside’s muddy legs, you have soiled my clothes. How expensive are my clothes? Can you afford them?”

Zhao Xiulan suffered a bit of pain from the collision, but she didn’t mind it. However, when she saw Liu Xiaohong’s attitude, she immediately became a little annoyed, “It was obviously you who bumped into me, okay? Why would I care about your clothes? Do you still want to rely on others for your own mistakes?”

“You…” Liu Xiaohong gritted her teeth angrily. Just now, she accidentally bumped into Zhao Xiulan’s body, so she really couldn’t blame Zhao Xiulan, but she was not willing to reconcile after Zhao Xiulan said that to her. So, she could only say angrily, “I bumped into you first, but so what? Who let people like you, who have no money and no tickets, come to the supply and marketing cooperative? I am different from you. I buy things and can afford them! If you ask me, a countryside’s muddy legs like you shouldn’t come to this kind of place in the first place, so you won’t bump into me!”

Zhao Xiulan didn’t know where Liu Xiaohong got this theory. She was unreasonable and too sinister to twist her words and force her own logic onto people. She immediately raised her voice and said, “What’s the matter with being from the countryside? Have we eaten your meal? Heh, do you think that the people in the city are awesome? If it weren’t for the foodstuffs that the people from our side have worked so hard to grow, do you think the people in your city would be able to eat these foodstuffs?”