The Supply and Marketing Cooperative wasn’t far from the state-run restaurant, and they arrived in no time.
Upon arrival, Li Yi first had his third sister take Tang Xue inside to pick out some items, while he went to park the car.
Since there were still quite a few things in the car, they were easy targets for thieves.
Don’t go spouting nonsense about how people were “simple and honest” back then—in an era of extreme material scarcity, there were plenty of people who couldn’t even put food on the table.
Given the slightest opportunity, those people wouldn’t pass it up.
And since Li Yi’s cart was loaded with food, if left unattended, plenty of people would surely have their eyes on it.
So after securing the mule cart, Li Yi didn’t go inside right away; instead, he crossed the street to call Liu San over.
Li Yi had exchanged bills with Liu San a few times and had privately inquired about the young man.
Although his reputation among the neighbors wasn’t great, he was actually quite loyal and a reliable guy to have around.
Li Yi first traded some grain and cloth coupons with him, then took all the industrial coupons he had, and finally asked Liu San to keep an eye on the cart before striding into the supply and marketing cooperative.
But as soon as he stepped inside, he heard a commotion; listening closely, it sounded like people were arguing.
Li Yi didn’t usually pay much attention to such things. These days, arguments—let alone fistfights—were a daily occurrence at the supply and marketing cooperative. As long as it didn’t involve him, Li Yi generally didn’t bother to get involved.
But he soon realized he couldn’t just ignore it—because the person in the argument was none other than his third older sister, Li Na!
“…What gives you the right to look down on people? Just because I’m not buying anything, does that mean I can’t look? Can’t I ask questions?”
Although he’d only caught a few snippets of the conversation, Li Yi could roughly guess why his third sister was arguing. The sales clerk on the other side had clearly looked down on her, which had sparked her displeasure.
Li Yi immediately walked over and asked, “Sis, what’s going on?”
Seeing her younger brother approach, Li Na felt reassured. Though he was a bit of a rough-and-tumble type, he never backed down in an argument or a fight.
“Yi, she’s being mean! Xue and I had our eyes on that red bedspread—we wanted to buy it to make a wedding quilt for you two—but she looked totally annoyed and even took jabs at Xue!”
No sooner had she finished speaking than the saleswoman in her twenties behind the counter snapped, “How am I bullying you? I just told you not to touch it if you can’t afford it. What did I do wrong?”
Li Yi frowned and said, “How do you know we can’t afford it?”
“Do you know how much that wedding quilt set costs? A whopping 18 yuan. Do you really think you can afford it?”
The saleswoman said smugly. She couldn’t believe that a bunch of penniless country bumpkins would have the nerve to argue with her after hearing that price.
However, what happened next completely caught her off guard!
Li Yi said coldly, “Do you think that just because these two ladies are dressed more simply—not as flashy as you—they aren’t worthy of your service?”
“No…”
“Don’t explain—explanations are just excuses! Let me tell you, behavior like this is class discrimination. It shows you look down on the masses and discriminate against the vast majority of farmers!”
Li Yi continued, “Everyone says workers and farmers are one and the same, but it seems you’ve forgotten your roots. Never mind whether we dress well or not—we live with dignity. We haven’t eaten a single grain of rice from your family, nor worn an inch of cloth from your family. What right do you have to flaunt your superiority in front of us?”
“Besides, the only reason you lot can stand here acting all high and mighty isn’t because you’re so exceptional, but because ordinary folks like us are toiling away in the countryside, tilling the land to support you.”
“Just look at how you act—eating the grain we grow, yet behaving this way, all while claiming to ‘serve the people.’ Don’t you feel ashamed of yourselves…”
Before she could finish, someone in the crowd shouted in approval, “Well said! That’s exactly right!”
“Exactly! Let them keep looking down on people with their dog’s eyes—this time they’ve met their match!”
“That’s the spirit! They’re all so stuck-up, don’t know where to vent their frustration, and we have to put up with their nonsense just to buy something…”
This sales clerk’s attitude had always been poor, so many people were already fed up with her.
Now that someone had directly confronted her, many people stepped forward to criticize her.
In an instant, the whole supply and marketing cooperative was in an uproar, as if it were a public trial.
The saleswoman had never seen anything like this before; she turned pale with fear.
She was genuinely afraid these roughnecks would overturn the counter and rush in to beat her up.
Just then, a balding middle-aged man emerged from a door behind the display cases and shouted, “What’s all the commotion about? Don’t you know this is a supply and marketing cooperative?”
Seeing the bald man enter, the female clerk looked at him as if he were her savior and immediately began wailing at the top of her lungs, looking as though she’d suffered the greatest injustice in the world.
The bald man hurriedly asked, “Why are you crying? What happened? Who’s bullying you?”
The female clerk immediately pointed at Li Yi and said, “It’s him… he’s bullying me!”
The bald man turned to Li Yi and snapped, “Who do you think you are? What gives you the right to bully people? Don’t you know this is a supply and marketing cooperative?”
Hearing this, Li Yi flew into a rage and shouted, “If you hadn’t said that, I would’ve thought this was some kind of shady shop!”
“What do you mean by that? You’re slandering our Supply and Marketing Cooperative!” the bald man shouted.
“With your attitude toward work, do I even need to slander you? Just look at the looks on everyone’s faces—you should know how angry they are!” Li Yi said coldly.
The bald man glanced at the crowd of onlookers and, sure enough, saw everyone staring at him with anger in their eyes. He immediately realized something was wrong.
“Comrade Zhou Fengmei, what exactly is going on here?”
“Director… it’s just that they didn’t have the money to buy anything, yet they kept asking all sorts of questions. Plus, she reached out to touch that expensive duvet cover of ours, so I scolded them a bit. I never expected this comrade to start yelling at me!”
No sooner had the saleswoman finished speaking than the bald manager turned to Li Yi and said, “Comrade, this is where you’re in the wrong…”
Before the man could finish, Li Yi took a step forward and said coldly, “I’d like to hear exactly what we, as consumers, did wrong. Let me tell you, we’re going to settle this today!”
As he spoke, Li Yi exuded the aura of a big shot from his past life, and everyone was intimidated by his presence.
The bald manager was clearly startled, but he stubbornly retorted, “It’s clearly your fault. You should shop within your means. If you can’t afford it, don’t waste our staff’s time—we’re very busy!”
“Besides, we have to set aside many of these expensive items for our superiors. If you get them dirty or damage them, how are we supposed to sell them to other customers?”
Hearing this, Li Yi burst out laughing in exasperation. Just as he was about to give the bald director a sharp retort…
Suddenly, an angry voice rang out from behind him: “Shut up!”
……