Bai Xue was awakened by the cold at dawn, unable to sleep due to the thin blankets at the clinic, which barely provided any warmth. She sat up and saw her father and second uncle sleeping soundly.
They were already accustomed to the cold, so the room temperature was warmer than at home, allowing them to sleep peacefully.
Bai Xue couldn't sleep, so she decided to go out for a walk.
She wandered to the canteen, and indeed, it was already open. Although there were few patients, the medical staff all dined in the clinic's canteen, which made it normal to open early.
Bai Xue went inside and saw the same young male comrade from yesterday, who said they were having cornmeal buns for breakfast, but if she didn't have food vouchers, she would need to trade grain for them.
Bai Xue traded coarse grain for five cornmeal buns, three bowls of piping hot... clear broth that they called porridge, and a small plate of pickled vegetables.
When she brought breakfast back, Bai Daliang and his brother were already awake.
"Xiao Xue, you got up early to buy breakfast? Why so much? We can be discharged today and eat at home instead. Just buy enough for yourself!" Bai Daliang said.
"Dad, you're a patient. You need to eat more to recover fast. If the wound doesn't heal due to lack of food, it costs money the same way! And Second Uncle came all this way to bring us money, aren't you going to give him breakfast? Come on, eat while it's hot! After breakfast, while waiting for the ox cart, I'd like to explore the supply and marketing cooperative since it's my first time in Pingyang Town. How can I miss visiting it?" Bai Xue said, handing chopsticks to her dad and second uncle.
Bai Daliang indeed listened to his eldest daughter. Bai Xue knew that the original character had a similar personality to her own, and her father would listen to her.
In her memory, the few times Bai Daliang lost his temper were all smoothed over by her, while others' words had no effect, not even Mother's, Wang Cuihua.
"What's there to do at the cooperative? We don't have any money, and can't buy anything!" Bai Daliang said, biting into the cornmeal bun contentedly. They couldn't bear to eat dry rations at home.
"Even if we don't buy anything, it's good to take a look and gain some knowledge! Dad, I still have some money left. I'll see if I can buy something for Mom! She's had a rough time postpartum! When we left, she fainted and hadn't even woken up! Remember when Aunt San was postpartum and Grandma took our two jin of pork to help nourish her? But Mom didn't even get a decent meal!" Bai Xue spoke up for Wang Cuihua.
Both daughters-in-law were treated differently, which seemed quite unfair.
"What did you say? Your Mom fainted?" Upon hearing Wang Cuihua fainted, Bai Daliang asked anxiously.
"Dad, don't worry. Mom's just too weak after giving birth. I asked Xiao Shan and Xiao Yun to cook meals for Mom, and gave her two eggs. Mom should be fine!"
"Okay! How much money is left? Buy something to supplement for your Mom. Once I get better, I'll exchange work points with the team leader for money to repay your second uncle! Don't let your Mom's health suffer! Once I'm well, I'll try my luck in the mountains to catch a wild chicken or hare to nourish your Mom!" Bai Daliang said guiltily. He knew his Mom's character but was stuck in the middle, criticized whether he acted tough with her, all under the pressure of filiality.
"Okay, Dad, I've got it," Bai Xue nodded, a spark in her mind—could she hunt in the back hills to cover for bringing the family some meat?
Moreover, she had already planned that she could repay her second uncle in grain! Work points alone were barely enough to eat. Giving him money when he couldn't buy food without food vouchers wasn't practical. She could find an excuse to take grain from the supermarket and return it to him.
Seeing her dad eat only one cornmeal bun and adamantly saving the other, Bai Xue decided to put the extra buns into their clothes' pockets, cleaned up the dishes, returned them to the canteen, and headed to the cooperative.
The cooperative wasn't far from the clinic, just in the opposite direction of the State-Owned Restaurant.
Curious, Bai Xue arrived at the cooperative, only to find a small 200-square-meter red brick house. Inside, the space was large, surrounded by glass counters with clerks standing behind them.
Different types of goods had clerks specifically responsible for them, and a few people were shopping inside.
She walked around, looking here and there, but the clerks didn't take the initiative to approach her.
She didn't see any bicycles, so she curiously asked the fabric sales clerk, "Big Sister, where are the bicycles sold?"
The fabric saleswoman looked her up and down and replied unkindly, "We're just a small town; how could we sell bicycles here? Are you thinking of buying a bicycle?"
"No, just asking!" Bai Xue, embarrassed that the town's cooperative didn't sell bicycles, replied awkwardly.
"Hmph, if you can't afford it, why ask?" the clerk muttered, resuming her knitting.
"Big Sister, are there any fabrics that don't require a voucher?" Bai Xue, knowing the service manner of the era, didn't mind and asked again.
"Are you talking about flawed fabrics? If the cooperative had flawed fabrics, it wouldn't be this quiet, would it? No, none!"
Though the saleswoman was unfriendly, she answered Bai Xue's questions earnestly.
Bai Xue was somewhat disappointed; her supermarket didn't have fabric from this era. She wanted to make some beddings, but she had to put the thought aside for now.
Almost everything required vouchers, which gave her a headache as she watched others buy their things and leave while she looked like a fool, checking each counter without buying anything, walking out feeling gray and dejected.
She knew the clerks were probably talking about her as she left.
She racked her brain thinking of how to take out items from the supermarket to use, pondering the issue all the way back to the clinic.
As she neared the clinic, a thought suddenly occurred to her.
Instead of going inside, she walked past the clinic and took a good look at the 1960s town.
By the time she returned, it was almost noon.
In her hand was a fabric bag containing three jin of white flour, two jin of yellow millet, two liang of brown sugar, a jin of pork belly, a Double Happiness red candle as thick as a baby's arm, and a handful of old-fashioned paper-wrapped candies.
She didn't dare take out more, fearing she would frighten her father.
As she entered the ward, her second uncle had already gone to borrow an ox cart from the village, leaving only her father getting an IV drip.
"Dad, I'm back!" she called.
"Xiao Xue, why were you gone so long?" Bai Daliang asked, raising his head while lying down.
"Oh, don't ask. On my way to the cooperative, I encountered an old lady who slipped and couldn't get up. There was no one around, so I had to help her up. But she hurt her back in the fall, so I had to be a good person all the way and take her home, which was exhausting!" Bai Xue said convincingly.
"Is she alright?" Bai Daliang, hearing this, worried about the old lady.
"Not too bad; she just needs to rest in bed for a few days. When I escorted her home, her son just returned. Seeing his mom had fallen, he was worried sick and gave me a lot of things to thank me. I said no, but he insisted, so I brought them all back!" Bai Xue said, lifting the cloth bag in her hand slightly.
The cloth bag was even borrowed from Uncle Wang at the State-Owned Restaurant.
The plan to store up cloth bags had to be expedited, or how could a mysterious rich person keep asking for mere cloth bags?