Once the matter with the flashlight was completely settled, Wang An began buying other things.
White sugar, brown sugar, hard candies, soda, biscuits, canned goods, dried fruits, malted milk, powdered milk... in short, as long as it didn't require a ration coupon, Wang An bought plenty of it.
Beyond food, he also bought plenty of clothing—for his parents, his wife, his younger brother, and his two younger sisters, and of course, for himself.
Three sets of shirts and trousers for each person, and three pairs of shoes each.
It was just that the styles of clothing in this era were truly limited, and shoes only came in leather or yellow rubber; as for sneakers, the supply and marketing cooperative didn't have any for the time being.
When Wang An had bought ten packs of Changbaishan cigarettes and was planning to leave, he discovered that tea no longer required coupons either.
At this moment, there were only three types of tea in the cooperative—to be precise, two: black tea and scented tea.
However, the black tea came in two price points. One was the "fine tea" Hao Dayou had mentioned, the "face tea" used for prestige, which looked like moldy bran.
Even so, this face tea cost a full 2 yuan per jin, something the ordinary common folk simply could not afford.
The other kind was black tea without the broken fragments, which cost a full 4 yuan per jin.
At that price, it was even further beyond the reach of the ordinary common folk.
Fortunately, Wang An didn't lack money at all, and he found the tea dust quite palatable, so he simply took five jin of each.
After Wang An finished buying everything, he carried and lugged a massive pile of goods toward the entrance of the cooperative.
However, as Wang An stepped out the door, the scene before him made him feel that the 2-mao parking fee had certainly not been spent in vain.
Because at that moment, a group of young hoodlums—also adolescent boys—were circling and kicking the boy who had been paid to watch the sled.
Most importantly, these boys beating him were holding Wang An's frozen fish and the jackal carcass.
Clearly, these hoodlums wanted to take the jackal and frozen fish from Wang An's sled, and the parking boy had refused to let them.
Unfortunately, the other side had the advantage of numbers, and the parking boy was being beaten.
Seeing this, Wang An very calmly carried his things back to the sled.
In a situation like this, Wang An could actually have ignored it entirely and simply asked the beaten boy to compensate him for the losses later.
Because a parking fee of 2 mao per hour was quite expensive.
Yet this boy had let the sled end up in this state; the responsibility lay entirely with the boy being beaten.
If one had no concept of what 2 mao meant, one only had to consider that the average monthly income per person at this time was less than 5 yuan!
Broken down by day, that meant a day's income was less than 1 mao 7 fen.
And yet, this boy charged 2 mao an hour just to watch a sled.
He took plenty of money but couldn't guard the sled; what was the point of hiring him?
In the world of thugs, if you lack the corresponding strength but dare to take a job beyond your capabilities, getting beaten is inevitable. There is nothing wrong with it; you simply deserve it.
After a while, Wang An had finished organizing everything he bought on the sled, but not a single companion of the beaten boy appeared.
It was clear that either this group lacked strength and didn't dare show themselves, or the boy had no companions at all and was working alone.
Regardless of which it was, it had nothing to do with Wang An; he just had to handle the matter in front of him.
Thus, Wang An pulled the horse whip from the sled's shaft, gripped the handle and the lash, walked up to the person carrying the jackal carcass and looking at the sack of fish, and nudged him with the whip, saying
"You. Go. Put the meat back. Put it exactly where you took it from."
Wang An's tone was extremely forceful, carrying an unquestionable aura of dominance.
However, the hoodlum carrying the jackal merely gave Wang An a sidelong glance and said with utter disdain
"Who the fuck do you think you are? Get the fuck out of the way."
There were quite a few of them—seven in total, all adolescent boys of sixteen or seventeen, at that age where they feared nothing in heaven or earth, fearing only the local gang bosses.
Since they didn't know Wang An, their arrogance was peak.
Hearing the exchange between Wang An and the boy, two of them continued beating the parking attendant, while the other four closed in.
Seeing this scene, Wang An almost laughed. Every one of them was as skinny as a monkey, yet they acted so pompous and menacing.
Originally, Wang An intended to just get the jackal and fish back and leave it at that, mainly because he was busy going to see Fang Xiu'e.
Regardless, the prospect of chatting with Fang Xiu'e was something Wang An looked forward to.
Besides, doing anything else was better than fighting these pieces of shit!
There was no benefit to it; it was a pure waste of time and energy.
Unfortunately, he hadn't expected these things to be so ungrateful. In that case, what was there to say? Let's do this!
Just because Wang An couldn't beat Zhang Shuya or Sun Nian didn't mean he was weak. If everyone were an ordinary person, Wang An truly hadn't feared anyone.
Before the group could even surround him, Wang An moved.
Releasing the tip of the lash, he swung the horse whip horizontally.
Wang An was over 1.85 meters tall, while these adolescent boys were only around 1.6 meters. Thus, when Wang An's whip lashed out, it struck the faces of the front two people directly.
A whip isn't particularly powerful if it hits through a cotton jacket or trousers.
Even through thick clothing, a person can endure it.
What is most feared is when it is snapped and makes direct contact with the skin; the struck area feels like it's being seared by fire, and the pain is incredibly intense.
Before the two who were hit could even react, two screams—"Ah!" and "Ow!"—rang out almost simultaneously.
Immediately after, the two who were whipped crouched on the ground, clutching their faces.
Wang An ignored them and, with a flick of his wrist, snapped the tip of the whip toward the third person's face.
This time, the whip produced a "crack." Following the sound, the third person wailed, "Ah, fuck your mother!"
As Wang An snapped the whip again, sending the fourth person crashing to the ground, the remaining three were stunned.
Wang An didn't bother with the remaining three; instead, he began frantically lashing the four on the ground.
In reality, the "crack" of a whip doesn't always happen unless one intentionally snaps it.
So, although the frequency of Wang An's strikes was fast, he didn't produce many loud cracks.
Just as Wang An was hitting them with gusto, he suddenly felt a massive force strike his lower back, and he was sent flying forward involuntarily.
Fortunately, the four he had beaten down were in front of him, so Wang An landed right on top of them.
But immediately after, Wang An felt a dull thud against the cotton hat on his head, and his entire being felt a bit dazed.
(End of Chapter)