At a counter, Wang Meilan slammed a wad of cash onto the surface with her left hand. With a sweeping gesture of her right, she boomed, "Pack all of those up for me. I'm buying the lot!"
"Yes, yes." The normally proud and aloof sales clerk was now grinning from ear to ear at Wang Meilan. He reached out, scooped up the cash she had slapped down, and began counting it in his hand.
Jin Xiaomei, standing beside Wang Meilan, looked for all the world like a handmaiden attending to a wealthy madam.
Dozens of onlookers had gathered around the pair to watch the spectacle.
"Look, look." Sun Haizhu pointed at Wang Meilan in the crowd and said to Jie Chen, "We've got a real big spender at our Supply and Marketing Cooperative, eh?"
Jie Chen glanced at his brother-in-law, then turned to Zhao Jun and whispered, "Brother Jun, that's your mom buying all that canned food."
