Bai Jiu was dumbfounded when she arrived at the supply and marketing cooperative. Instead of the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds she had imagined, the place was quite empty early in the morning. It was obvious that the staff had just started their shift and were currently cleaning up.
The cooperative was housed in a single-story building with six or seven rooms knocked through to form one large space. Glass display cabinets filled the interior. The variety of goods was dazzling, offering a much more complete selection than the cooperatives on the outside.
Bai Jiu stared blankly. She felt like she had walked into a fake cooperative. Before she could dwell on it, however, someone inside called out to her.
"What are you here for? Why are you just standing there?" a middle-aged woman near the entrance shouted.
Bai Jiu was immediately snapped back to reality. "Hello, comrade. I’m here to buy some things," she said, walking toward her.
"Then buy them! Why are you just standing there?" the woman asked, a bit puzzled. But she quickly realized, "You must be a newly arrived family member." That was the only explanation for why she had been standing there motionless. "I can tell just by looking at you. Alright, things are different here compared to the outside. We have a complete stock of goods, so there’s no need to fight over them. Except for specially supplied items, of course—we don’t get many of those either," the woman kindly explained.
Come to think of it, it made sense. This was one of the nation’s most highly valued areas, so its supply should naturally be better than the outside. To be honest, it was her first time learning about such privileges, but she completely understood.
Bai Jiu was a natural hoarder. If the weather hadn’t been so hot, she would have hauled back everything she could possibly use and stockpiled it just to save herself from running out constantly. Because of the heat, however, many of her plans had to be put on hold. She could buy at most two days’ worth of groceries; any more would be impossible to preserve.
Fortunately, no one knew what she was thinking. Otherwise, they would be shocked. She was the only one with enough money and ration coupons anyway. Anyone else would probably only be able to window-shop. Since the selection was so complete, there was no need for her to scrimp and save. She even bought a full set of bowls and chopsticks so she wouldn’t have to borrow any, though she would still need to borrow tables and chairs since they weren’t sold here.
Her woven basket was completely full, and her hands were occupied too. When she reached the tobacco and liquor counter, Bai Jiu was completely rooted to the spot. She had seen her fair share of good things, but the prices displayed here were what truly stopped her in her tracks.
"Do you want to buy some liquor?" the person behind the counter asked quickly, seeing that Bai Jiu was carrying quite a few things. Not only were these items expensive, but they also required special supply coupons. Very few people bought them on any given day.
"Yes. Does this Wuliangye require coupons?" She really didn’t have many liquor coupons on her.
"Wuliangye, Maotai, and this Imperial Liquor don’t require coupons, but they cost around twelve yuan a bottle. However, there’s no purchase limit." Knowing that Bai Jiu was planning to host a dinner, the young girl behind the counter kindly explained.
Bai Jiu had only ever heard older people talk about Imperial Liquor; it seemed like this particular brand didn’t exist in later generations. She wasn’t a big drinker, so she didn’t really understand liquor culture. She retrieved her liquor coupons from her spatial dimension. These premium liquors would hold their value, and she didn’t intend to drink them all. Of course, she also had to buy some cheaper ones.
"Please exchange all of these for liquor. As for the ones that don’t require coupons, give me a case of each. However, I can’t carry them all back by myself. Could two comrades help me carry them?" Bai Jiu asked somewhat sheepishly.
The young girl was startled by her grand request. "Ma’am, these aren’t cheap. Are you sure it’s okay to buy so much?" The girl had never seen anyone shop like this before.
Putting everything else aside, just the liquors that didn’t require coupons would add up to several hundred yuan. A case of Wuliangye had eight bottles. At twelve yuan a bottle, that came out to ninety-six yuan. Not to mention Maotai, which came in several different varieties: Flying Fairy, Sunflower, and Revolution. The price per bottle varied. The Sunflower variety cost fifteen yuan a bottle. The Flying Fairy cost eighteen yuan, and the Revolution variety was a whopping twenty yuan a bottle. All three varieties came with ten bottles to a case. Let alone the Imperial Liquor, which was even more expensive at thirty yuan a bottle.
And the woman in front of her was actually asking for a case of each. How much money would that be?! In all her life, she had never seen that much money.
"A case of each?" the young girl asked, her voice trembling.
Bai Jiu was a bit bewildered. "Can I not?" Hadn’t the girl just said there was no purchase limit?
"You can, you can." Despite her excitement, the young girl was a bit worried. "Ma’am, please wait a moment. I’ll go get the cashier." She didn’t dare handle such a large sum of money herself.
Bai Jiu hadn’t expected there to be so many varieties of Maotai. However, her money was completely aboveboard, so she had nothing to fear. Just the cash Gao Zhijun had given her was enough to buy all this liquor.
Soon, a man with a large belly hurried over, his head covered in sweat. He hadn’t believed it at first and wanted to see who would dare play such a prank.
"It’s her," the young girl said, pointing. She had just been scolded by the cashier, so she looked a bit displeased. Although she could earn a ten-cent commission for every bottle sold, she was still upset at the thought of being toyed with.
Bai Jiu was confused. Everything had been fine just a moment ago—why the sudden change in attitude? But she didn’t dwell on it. Since the person in charge was here, she got straight to the point.
"Can you find someone to help me carry this liquor back?" She had no intention of putting these cases into her spatial dimension. There was nothing to hide anyway.
"Do you really want them? You’re not joking?" The large-bellied man wiped his sweat and looked at Bai Jiu seriously.
"Of course. Who has the time to joke about something like this? I’m not crazy." No wonder the young girl’s expression had changed. They had thought she was just joking and making fun of her. "Calculate the total for me, and I’ll give you the money."
With that, she pulled a cloth bag out of her woven basket. She had used the money in this cloth bag to pay for her earlier purchases, so everyone knew what was inside. Bai Jiu was using the cloth bag as a cover just in case. It didn’t matter when she only needed a little money, but for a large sum like this, she had to pull out a physical bag.
She pulled out a neat stack of crisp ten-yuan bills—a single stack amounting to one thousand yuan. It was more than enough to buy the liquor.
The cashier jumped in fright, never expecting this family member to be able to produce such a massive amount of cash. Seeing the money, his attitude did a complete one-eighty.
"Is this enough?" Bai Jiu placed the money on the glass counter, smiling at the two of them.
"Enough, more than enough! Please wait a moment, ma’am. I’ll have someone bring the liquor out right away."
Before long, two burly men brought the cases of liquor out from the back. Staring at the liquor on the floor, Bai Jiu looked confused.
"Didn’t I ask for one case of each? Why are there two extra cases?" She didn’t mind having more liquor, but she still needed to clarify.
"Ah, didn’t you say one case of each, ma’am? There are exactly five cases here, that’s correct, isn’t it?" The cashier looked utterly bewildered.
It was the young girl who finally understood Bai Jiu’s confusion. "Ma’am, it’s like this: there isn’t just one type of Maotai. There are three types in total, but we only had one type on display," the young girl explained with an apologetic smile.
Realizing she had made a huge blunder, Bai Jiu felt a bit embarrassed. "I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I just figured that since these didn’t require coupons or have a purchase limit, I’d buy a bit more to keep at home for my husband to drink."
"We completely understand! How are we women supposed to know about these things?" By this time, the onlookers had gathered around, and the older woman who had sold her the bowls and chopsticks spoke up to defend Bai Jiu.