Chapter 135: Shopping at the Mall
After bouncing along the bumpy gravel road for two hours, the car finally arrived in the city just before ten o’clock.
Ning City used to be the largest prefecture-level city in terms of area within the entire Sai Bei Province, but over the past twenty years, seven or eight counties had been successively annexed by neighboring prefectures and cities. As a result, it now consistently ranked among the bottom three out of the 12 prefectures and cities in Sai Bei Province, both in terms of territory and regional economy.
Even so, Ning City was still far more bustling than Qingshan County.
As soon as they got off the bus, Tang Xue asked nervously, “Are you familiar with this place?”
Li Yi smiled and said, “Not really!”
“Then… where are we going now?”
“To the mall!”
“Where’s the mall?”
“Let’s go out and ask!”
Although Li Yi didn’t know where the shopping malls in Ning City were, he did know the name of the city’s largest one—the Joint Venture Mall!
It was a state-owned enterprise, famous throughout Ning City, but it eventually went out of business in the early 21st century due to poor management and the rise of several other major shopping malls.
The two left the bus station with just the essentials. Li Yi asked a few passersby and finally figured out where the United Department Store was.
Immediately, the two set off down the street, heading straight for this legendary “den of vice.”
Outside the Joint Venture Department Store, the two stared in astonishment at the building before them!
Tang Xue was astonished by how vast and bustling the place was. Inside the massive three-story building, every kind of merchandise was on display—from everyday staples like oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar to larger items like televisions, sewing machines, and bicycles.
And there were plenty of shoppers inside—men, women, and people of all ages—crowding every corner.
In comparison, the Qingshan County Supply and Marketing Cooperative was truly subpar—it was practically a rural corner store!
As for Li Yi, he was shocked by just how small and run-down this place actually was!
Li Yi had long admired the renowned Joint Venture Department Store. After all, in the minds of residents in Ning City and the surrounding counties, it was an absolute shopping paradise, with a reputation every bit as great as that of the Wangfujing Department Store in Beijing.
But once he actually arrived, Li Yi realized this was a completely different story from the shopping center he’d imagined.
Wasn’t this just a giant supply and marketing cooperative?
It really is true that the reality doesn’t live up to the hype!
With a hint of disappointment, Li Yi led Tang Xue toward the clothing section!
Although the decor and sales methods were similar to those of the supply and marketing cooperatives in the counties below, the selection of goods was indeed more extensive than at a typical cooperative.
Take the clothing section, for instance: as far as the eye could see, there were stalls stretching at least several dozen meters, all selling clothes. The selection included men’s and women’s ready-to-wear, children’s clothing, underwear, and various fabrics.
The styles were a bit old-fashioned, but at least there was plenty of variety.
However, as soon as Li Yi arrived, he didn’t linger; instead, he pulled Tang Xue along as they quickly browsed through the area.
“What are you looking for?”
After walking for a while, Tang Xue couldn’t help but ask.
“A wedding dress!”
“A wedding dress?”
Hearing this answer, Tang Xue was a bit taken aback.
She knew what a wedding dress was—she’d seen them in books.
But people in their part of the world didn’t wear that sort of thing when they got married.
“Why are you looking for a wedding dress?”
“For you to wear. I want you to marry me in a pure white wedding dress!” Li Yi said.
Hearing this, Tang Xue felt a little touched. She immediately grabbed Li Yi’s hand and said, “There’s no need to waste money on that. After all, you’re marrying me—the person—so what I wear doesn’t matter!”
“That may be true, but I want our wedding to be as perfect as possible!”
“Alright then!”
After that, the two began searching for a wedding dress in the shopping mall.
The result was somewhat disappointing—the huge shopping mall didn’t actually sell wedding dresses.
But then again, wearing a wedding dress is a Western tradition. On the wedding day, a wedding dress symbolizes the bride’s purity and innocence, as well as a bright and smooth future ahead.
But the Chinese don’t have this tradition; ordinary people prefer to wear red wedding robes when they marry, symbolizing joy and celebration.
The Li family had already had a red wedding gown made for Tang Xue, but Li Yi simply wanted to see his wife wear a pure white wedding dress for him just once.
But what a pity—they didn’t have any here!
Seeing that Li Yi seemed a bit disappointed, Tang Xue immediately comforted him: “If we can’t find one, we can’t find one—it doesn’t matter what we wear!”
Li Yi nodded and said, “If we can’t find a wedding dress, let’s just look at some other clothes. After all, you only get married once—you’ve got to have a few decent new outfits, right?”
“Right!”
But after browsing for quite a while, the results were still disappointing. In such a huge department store, not a single piece of clothing met Li Yi’s standards.
To be honest, even though it had been two years since the reform and opening-up began, people’s mindsets hadn’t changed much from previous years.
Especially when it came to clothing and grooming, they still adhered to the old aesthetic standards.
Women’s fashion in the 1970s was still dominated by military-style casual wear. The young women of that era devoted their passion and youth to the land, seemingly with little time to spare for fashion.
Consequently, women’s fashion during that period was essentially stagnant, with the entire country a sea of blue, green, gray, and black.
Although people’s material lives continued to improve and mindsets gradually opened up, many young women still sought beauty amidst the sea of workwear and military uniforms.
People began shedding their Lenin suits, military uniforms, and workwear, yet blue, green, gray, and black remained the dominant colors in the nation’s wardrobe.
Consequently, Li Yi and Tang Xue wandered around the ready-to-wear section of the United Department Store for quite a while, yet not a single garment caught his eye.
Tang Xue did find a few decent pieces, but Li Yi just shook his head after looking at them.
After all, they were shopping for wedding attire—what on earth was a green military-style casual outfit doing there?
Suddenly, a white dress caught Li Yi’s eye. It was pure white from top to bottom, simple and unadorned, with no special patterns or embellishments.
But compared to those drab, homespun work clothes, it looked ethereal and simply much more beautiful.
“Comrade, could you bring that dress over for me to take a look?” Li Yi asked.
The sales clerks in the city were all trained professionals, clearly more skilled than those at the Qing Shan County Supply and Marketing Cooperative.
Although they saw that Li Yi and Tang Xue were dressed plainly, they still took the white dress hanging on the rack behind them and handed it to Tang Xue.
After receiving the dress, Tang Xue held it up to her body a couple of times, and a satisfied smile immediately lit up her eyes.
The dress was simply stunning—the most beautiful garment she had ever seen.
Plus, with a long skirt like this that only shows a little of her calves, no one in the village would have anything to say about it.
“What do you think? Does it look good?”
Tang Xue held the white dress up against her body and asked Li Yi.
Li Yi nodded and said, “It looks great!”
Then, Li Yi turned to the sales clerk and said, “My wife is 5’5” and on the slender side. Could you please help me find one in the right size?”
“Sure thing!”
Seeing that the couple was serious about buying, the sales clerk responded enthusiastically.
Tang Xue quickly interjected, “Wait a minute, comrade. How much is this dress?”
“Eight yuan each, no fabric coupons required!” the sales clerk replied immediately.
Tang Xue couldn’t help but gasp. Eight yuan for a single piece of clothing was simply too expensive.
“We don’t…”
Before she could finish her sentence, Li Yi cut in: “Comrade, we’ll take this shirt. Hurry up and find one in the right size for my wife!”
“Got it!”
Tang Xue: %￥#@#…
…….