Chapter 18: Going to the County Town 4

The salesperson at this supply and marketing cooperative is really something, almost acting all high and mighty.

Although Zhao Xiulan was not pleased, she didn't argue with the salesperson. She figured it wouldn't be useful to argue with someone like that, so she decided to save her breath.

The salesperson hesitantly approached and asked, "What do you want to buy?"

"I want to ask how much the soap costs!"

The salesperson replied indifferently, "One yuan plus one yuan of industrial coupons."

The salesperson's response left Zhao Xiulan dumbfounded. Why do you need coupons to buy things in addition to money?

"What are industrial coupons? Do you need coupons to buy things?" Zhao Xiulan, not understanding, asked.

Upon being asked by Zhao Xiulan, the salesperson looked at her with a disdainful expression and sarcastically remarked, "Truly a country bumpkin, doesn't know anything!"

To buy things, you need both money and coupons. For example, for grain, you need grain coupons; for pastries, you need pastry coupons; for candy, you need sugar coupons; for fabric, you need fabric coupons; for oil, you need oil coupons!

For items like soap, towels, metalware, cigarettes, and alcohol, you need industrial coupons!

If you don't have money or coupons, I won't sell to you! It's different from your countryside.

Country bumpkins like you, without money or coupons, should just leave and not linger around me!

With that, the salesperson ignored Zhao Xiulan and continued cracking sunflower seeds.

Without money and coupons, and being looked down upon by the salesperson, Zhao Xiulan didn't have the confidence to argue and could only turn around to leave the supply and marketing cooperative.

As she was leaving, she seemed to hear the salesperson continuing to mock her.

Zhao Xiulan was infuriated by this person! Just because she didn't have coupons, was it necessary to look down on her like that?

Before she could even leave the entrance of the supply and marketing cooperative, Zhao Xiulan accidentally bumped into a girl who was entering. The girl, named Liu Xiaohong, seemed to be around the same age as Zhao Xiulan, probably seventeen or eighteen.

Presumably a city dweller, she was dressed much more stylishly than Zhao Xiulan, wearing a dacron top and a black skirt.

After being bumped into, Liu Xiaohong, feeling the pain, exclaimed, and upon seeing that it was Zhao Xiulan who had bumped into her, she had overheard the conversation between Zhao Xiulan and the salesperson.

Looking at Zhao Xiulan's attire, with her clothes tattered and patched, Liu Xiaohong's eyes also revealed a strong sense of disdain.

Liu Xiaohong straightened her clothes, and with an angry tone, said to Zhao Xiulan, "You, country bumpkin, you've dirtied my clothes. My clothes are expensive, can you afford to compensate me?"

Feeling the pain from being bumped into, Zhao Xiulan initially wanted to let it go, but seeing Liu Xiaohong's attitude, she immediately became a little annoyed, "Clearly, you bumped into me! What does it have to do with me? You didn't watch where you were going and now you want to blame others?"

"You..." Liu Xiaohong gritted her teeth in anger. She had indeed bumped into Zhao Xiulan due to her carelessness and couldn't blame Zhao Xiulan for it. However, she was unwilling to be criticized by Zhao Xiulan and could only angrily retort, "I bumped into you first, but so what? Who said that someone like you, without money or coupons, can wander around the supply and marketing cooperative? I'm different from you; I'm here to buy things, and I can afford them! In my opinion, people like you, country bumpkins, shouldn't come to places like this, then you wouldn't have bumped into me!"

Zhao Xiulan didn't understand where Liu Xiaohong got this reasoning from. She was being unreasonable, distorting the truth, and with a bad temper, she immediately argued loudly, "What's wrong with country people? Do country people eat your food? Huh, do you think you city folks are so great? If it weren't for the grain that we country people toil to grow, do you think you city folks could eat grain?"