Chapter 26 Preparing Supplies for Rural Areas

After watching the last hurrah at the Ma family's house, Bai Nuo took the tram directly to the state-run Jiefang Department Store. The supply and marketing cooperative didn't have as many items as the department store, and it was probably quieter with better service.

There weren't many people on the tram, so Bai Nuo bought a ticket and found a window seat.

"A-Tong, go to the study and get me ten 100-yuan notes. Also, find out all the receipts that can only be used locally. Use them while we're still in Shanghai. We don't know when we'll be back in the Northeast, so they'll be wasted if they expire."

"Yes, host."

Although Bai Nuo could use her divine sense to find it herself, she found it troublesome. Now that the system was placed in her space, she figured she might as well use it.

The system was very fast; it found everything in five or six minutes and reported it to Bai Nuo one by one.

"Host, among the receipts that were taken from that fat pig's house, there are many nationally valid grain coupons, as well as two bicycle coupons, twenty industrial coupons, one watch coupon, eight liquor coupons, and ten cigarette coupons. I have put all of these back in the box."

The remaining receipts, plus the ones found at Old Ma's house, totaled fifty catties of grain coupons, thirty catties of meat coupons, ten catties of sugar coupons, fifteen catties of oil coupons, five non-staple food purchase coupons, as well as milk powder coupons, tea coupons, pastry coupons, and candy coupons.

These are all food coupons, and I must say, there are quite a lot of them. However, most of them were smuggled from that fat pig director. Old Ma's family only has some grain coupons, oil coupons, and pastry coupons.

Besides these, there were also coupons for daily necessities, including 15 feet of cloth coupons, two soap coupons, two menstrual pad coupons, five catties of cotton coupons, two thermos flask coupons, and two light bulb coupons.

Oh, right, the Ma family also has a sewing ticket, probably saved for Ma Fubao's wedding. It's a local ticket, we don't need it, should we find someone to exchange it for us?

"Give it to me, and I'll see if there's a chance to exchange it later. We'll keep the remaining tickets for the big items and sell them when the opportunity arises."

"Okay, host, I've taken them all out and put them in the study. You can just take them out."

Upon hearing the system's words, Bai Nuo reached into her small bag and immediately felt the money notes in her hand.

If you want to buy grain, you need to go to a state-run grain store. For non-staple foods, you need to go to a non-staple food store or a supply and marketing cooperative. Both of these places are located on Fuyuan Road. You can buy them when you get back.

As soon as I got off the tram and walked to the entrance of the department store, the check-in program, which Bai Nuo often ignored, suddenly popped up.

"Ding, detected the Jiefang Department Store location on Nanlu Street. Do you want to check it in?"

"beat!"

"Ding, check-in successful. The department store lottery wheel has been activated. Please draw a prize in time."

After checking in, Bai Nuo entered the department store. Actually, she had spotted several checkpoints on the way, but since she was on the tram, she didn't have a chance to go over and trigger the check-in mechanism.

But there's no rush. She still has four days left after today. Once she's finished dealing with everything, she can go out and explore. Anyway, she's kept all the raffle tickets, and she's only used two so far.

Clutching a stack of receipts, I started running from floor to floor counter. First, I went to a corner counter on the first floor and bought a large basket to carry my things. Then I rushed into the food section.

She bought ten pounds of white sugar at 81 cents per pound, but didn't need any brown sugar—she had a whole box of it. So she used all her sugar coupons to buy white sugar. She bought five 325-gram packets of whole-fat sweetened milk powder at 6.7 yuan each. She also bought Tieguanyin tea for 17 yuan, which is considered a mid-to-high-end product, hence the higher price. Tea coupons were usually only available to officials.

In addition, I bought ten pounds of fruit candy for five yuan, several kinds of Shanghai specialty pastries for ten yuan, and spent three minutes buying three hard boxes. This way, even if I take them out intact in the countryside, I don't have to worry about being suspected. After all, with a box, they won't break easily after being shaken around on the train for a few days.

Bai Nuo spent 73.6 yuan in the food section, and when she walked to the daily necessities section, she quietly took out ten more 100-yuan bills from her space.

Ah Tong is a liar; this money won't last long.

Sure enough, Shanghai's prices are the highest in any parallel universe or era.

Bai Nuo went into the daily necessities section and first bought two bars of soap for 88 cents, then two more bars of scented soap for 1.5 yuan. She bought two thermos flasks, one a Xiangyang brand and the other a Jinji brand, because she thought they were the prettiest. They cost 8 yuan each, totaling 16 yuan. She also bought a flashlight for 8 yuan. These are two thermos flasks from 1972 that I found; I think they're quite nice. Five rolls of toilet paper for 15 cents, very similar to the old-fashioned pink toilet paper she had in her online space, although the texture of the latter was much finer. There were also uncolored rolls for 10 cents for five rolls, but Bai Nuo didn't buy those; the pink ones were clearly better than the earthy-colored ones.

She wouldn't dare use it openly while inside the space, but since she probably wouldn't have many opportunities to use the toilet outside, five volumes should be enough for a while.

There was also a pair of size 35 rubber boots, which were perfect for working in the fields. She had quite a few of these in her inventory, but she left a pair out in plain sight on the way to the countryside so it would be convenient to bring them out again later. Anyway, no one knew exactly how many pairs of shoes she had in her bag.

The rest were Tiger Balm, face cream, toothbrush, and ointment, which I bought two of each. In the end, I bought a ceramic basin for thirty yuan and a plain ceramic jar with a lid for ten yuan. These two items required industrial ration coupons and were expensive. No wonder every family has one these days.

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