Chapter 340: Buying Clothes

After finishing their meal, Zhou Yimin and Zhang Yan went out for a walk. Originally, it was supposed to be a little time for just the two of them, but in the end, an extra “third wheel” tagged along. No matter how Zhang Yan tried to chase her away, it didn’t work. With no choice, she had to bear with it—after all, they were family.

Naturally, Zhang Lu wouldn’t miss the chance to go out with Zhou Yimin. While her family wasn’t poor, there wasn’t much spare money for her to spend on snacks or treats.

Before long, they arrived at Wangfujing Street. At this time, Wangfujing Street was packed with people. Since the workers were all on holiday and preparing for the New Year, they came here to shop for supplies. This was home to the largest department store in all of the capital, and as long as you had ration tickets, you could buy just about anything.

Looking at the sea of people on Wangfujing Street, Zhou Yimin reminded them, “Stay close to me, or it’ll be trouble if we get separated.”

“Okay!” Zhang Lu and Zhang Yan replied sweetly.

After using every ounce of strength they had, they finally squeezed into the department store. But once inside, they were stunned to see it was even more crowded than outside.

The three of them were pushed along by the crowd until, before they knew it, they were right in front of the women’s clothing section.

Zhou Yimin stopped when he saw the women’s wear.

Zhang Yan looked puzzled. “Yimin, why aren’t we moving?”

“Let’s take a look here, see if there’s anything that suits you,” Zhou Yimin said directly.

Zhang Yan, thinking of the money he’d have to spend, wanted to decline, “Yimin, don’t waste the money. Just buying some fabric and making clothes at home is the same.”

After all, buying ready-made clothes was far more expensive than buying fabric and sewing at home. Most people still opted to make their own clothes.

“Come on, let’s just take a look,” Zhou Yimin said, ignoring her, pulling both of them into the section.

Zhang Yan and Zhang Lu had no choice but to follow.

Although this area was also crowded, it was much less so compared to the other sections. Even though people were starting to believe that women could hold up half the sky, the old mindset hadn’t completely changed. Most still thought it unnecessary to spend so much money on women’s clothes. Women themselves often had the mindset of accepting whatever life gave them; if their husbands didn’t like something, they wouldn’t do it.

Zhou Yimin, generous as ever, said, “Take a look around. If you see anything you like, I’ll buy it for you—consider it a New Year’s gift.”

“Brother Yimin, do I get one too?” Zhang Lu asked, eyes full of hope.

Zhou Yimin smiled and nodded. “Of course. Go ahead and pick something out.”

He’d already saved up quite a bit of money, and spending a little to make his future wife and future sister-in-law happy was a great deal in his eyes. He wasn’t going to run out of money anyway. As long as the store existed, money wouldn’t be an issue. He just didn’t want to be too flashy for now.

After all, this wasn’t the reform era yet. Having too much money now wasn’t necessarily a good thing. If the store didn’t need funds to upgrade, he wouldn’t be spending this boldly. At this time, capitalists were still considered the enemy of the working class.

Zhang Lu was delighted and immediately went off to browse for clothes.

Zhang Yan, on the other hand, scolded Zhou Yimin, “You can’t spoil Zhang Lu like this. What about the household’s money…?”

She knew how hard it was to earn money these days. Anything earned should be saved for emergencies.

“Don’t worry. Once you marry me, I’ll hand over the household finances to you,” Zhou Yimin said, looking at her.

Zhang Yan blushed. “Who’s marrying you?!”

“Well then! Since you won’t marry me, I guess I’ll have to go find someone else…” Zhou Yimin teased.

Zhang Yan quickly cut him off, “You’re not allowed to look for someone else!”

“You won’t marry me, but you also won’t let me find someone else. Tell me, is that fair?” Zhou Yimin pressed on.

Words like these might be low-tier flirting in the future, but in this era, they packed quite the punch.

Zhang Yan turned bright red. “I’m not talking to you anymore! You’re awful!” she said, and hurried off to look at clothes herself.

Zhou Yimin didn’t idle either; he also helped Zhang Yan look around.

As they browsed, he noticed Zhang Yan stopping in front of a coat, hesitating. He looked at the price—it was probably too expensive, and that’s why she couldn’t bring herself to buy it.

It was a long velvet coat with a fur collar, priced at over 80 yuan and required 28 feet of fabric coupons.

Keep in mind, a person only got about 15 feet of fabric coupons per year. This one coat cost nearly two years’ worth, making it extremely expensive.

No wonder Zhang Yan couldn’t bring herself to buy it. Eventually, she walked away to look elsewhere.

After she left, Zhou Yimin, worried someone else would snatch it up, immediately called over a sales clerk to make the purchase.

The clerk, seeing Zhou Yimin wave, walked over reluctantly. “Comrade, what do you need?”

“Comrade, please wrap up this velvet coat with the fur collar for me,” Zhou Yimin said straightforwardly.

Upon hearing that, the clerk’s attitude changed instantly, becoming much more enthusiastic. “Comrade, you have great taste. This is one of the few imported pieces we have. Your wife is going to love it.”

After all, someone who could afford something this pricey was not someone she could afford to offend. That whole “do not mistreat customers” rule only applied to average people. If someone with status complained, she could be reassigned in the blink of an eye to a grueling, low-paying position. It was all perfectly possible.

Zhou Yimin followed her to the counter to check out. Clothes had to be paid for here.

The clerk said, “Comrade, the total is 82 yuan and 50 cents, and 28 feet of fabric coupons.”

Zhou Yimin didn’t say a word and simply pulled the money and coupons from his pocket—though they had actually come from the store space. The pocket was just for show.

The clerk carefully counted everything, confirmed it was correct, then wrapped up the velvet coat with care.

Zhou Yimin didn’t continue shopping. Instead, he waited by the counter for Zhang Yan and Zhang Lu.

You had to hand it to women when it came to shopping—this transcended eras. Whether women of the future or of the present, once they started shopping, it was like they had infinite energy. No matter how long they walked, they never seemed to tire.

So Zhou Yimin waited by the counter for nearly half an hour until finally, he saw Zhang Yan walking over slowly with Zhang Lu.

Seeing Zhang Lu’s reluctance, it was clear Zhang Yan had dragged her over.

But both of them had a piece of clothing in hand. It wasn’t that they hadn’t found anything they liked—they just knew their limits. Each of them only picked one reasonably priced outfit that they liked.

Zhou Yimin said, “You two only picked one each? Why not pick a few more?”

While he couldn’t buy out the whole store, getting a few more items would have been no issue.

(End of Chapter)