She would buy it even if it were 20 cents more expensive, let alone 10. It was impossible to let the house fall into darkness as soon as the sun went down. She was as reluctant as the old lady when it came to lighting the kerosene lamp.
But of course, the old lady still did it for herself and left her children to deal with the dark.
Light was the solace of the human soul. She didn’t want to let the children smear with the darkness all day long and develop a character of stubbornness.
It was a pity that she still didn’t have the means to buy non-staple food since she truly couldn’t get tickets.
Waiting for Lin Mei for a long time, she wanted to go out to look for her. But in a secluded place, she saw a woman with a hat on her head that was sneaking her way over.
She went around and slapped Lin Mei on the shoulder. Lin Mei was so frightened that she was going to run away.
Lin Lan grabbed her, “Why are you running? It’s me.”
Lin Mei rolled her eyes, “You really don’t suffer, do you? I scared you once and you just had to return the favour.”
She dragged Lin Lan away and went to a small alley where Big Sister Liu was hiding behind a haystack with a large bag of cotton on her back.
“I made these with great effort. The rest would have to wait until the new flowers are sent over this year.”
Lin Lan was very satisfied when she saw that the cotton had been played and folded into four squares, “Third sister and Big Sister Liu certainly do things neatly.”
She paid according to the black market price. In addition to the market price, she had to add the payment for the cotton ticket. Now, lint cotton costs about one Yuan per pound. The seed of the cotton would be cheaper, but the seed cotton had to be handled by herself and had to be taken care of even more. Unless one grew it at home, it was basically the general rule to buy lint cotton.
WIth a total of three catties, Lin Lan gave her four Yuan.
Lin Mei returned one Yuan, “Three is enough.”
Lin Lan refused, “I have to trouble Big Sister Liu in the future; but it’s not like I haven’t troubled you now though.”
Sister Liu was speechless, oh my god, she really was rich! People like me buy things at a penny for a penny. No matter how rich one was, they would only tip by cents. But damn, she tips by Yuan.
Lin Lan had her own ideas. If she wanted to have a long-term business relationship with people, of course she should be more generous.
Now that she was not short of money and supplies, if she was more generous, they would think of her as soon as they have good things in the future.
This was the best way to do things when money couldn’t buy certain things.
In the end, Lin Mei only asked for fifty cents more and gave the rest back to Lin Lan, “That’s it.”
Lin Lan didn’t say anything else. The third sister and her mother had lent her money before, and if there was a chance to give them more in the future, there was no need to rush to pay it back now.
She invited Lin Mei to dinner back at home, but her sister didn’t have the time, so she gave Lin Lan a few tassels with two steel needles stuck in them, “We still have something to do, so we’ll have to go first. We can talk when we are free.”
After saying that, Lin Mei hurried away with Big Sister Liu.