Ancient Widow's Hard Survival

Cheng Ruyi, a ten-year corporate worker, died from overwork and transmigrated into the body of a widow in a small county town of the Great Yue Dynasty.

Her family is composed of the elderly a...

Chapter 52 Ancient Craft Masters

On the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Cheng family members changed into their newly made clothes early in the morning. Everyone dressed very neatly and smartly. Before it got dark, the family went out to stroll around the streets, feel the festive atmosphere, and then slowly walk to Zhiwei Restaurant.

This was the first time in more than half a year since Ruyi transmigrated that her whole family had gone out together. Considering that she wanted to take her seven-month-old baby Cheng Mande out smoothly and comfortably, she decided to make good use of the unused baby stroller.

Although it's called a baby stroller, it's actually quite different from modern ones. To put it simply, it's a small bed with railings around it, four small wheels at the bottom, and a stroller handle.

Although the wood had been carefully sanded and waxed, the stroller still looked a bit rough and not refined enough in Ruyi's eyes.

Since it was meant to be the brand of the home furnishing store, Ruyi put in some extra effort and made a second modification to the stroller.

First, a "retractable canopy" was added to the top of the stroller, which could not only provide shade and wind protection but also look nice. This "retractable" function took Cheng Yan several days to figure out, and almost made him develop a phobia of strollers.

The next task was to make a set of "bedding" to match the stroller. This didn't sound difficult, but it really tested the women's needlework skills. Unfortunately, all the women in the Cheng family said they were unable to do it, so Ruyi had to ask the Zhang family next door for help.

Speaking of the Zhang family, the entire family has an inseparable relationship with the fabric industry.

Zhang Hui's father was an old scholar who failed the exams many times but refused to give up. The family of four could only make a living by relying on their meager family property and Zhang Hui's mother, Du, weaving cloth day and night.

When Zhang Hui was sixteen, his father passed away, and the arranged marriage had to be postponed. Unfortunately, misfortune struck again, and his fiancée also died unexpectedly before they could get married. After that, rumors of him being a cursed loner and dying alone spread everywhere. The teenage boy couldn't bear it and went to the prefectural city to make his way in the world on his own.

Fortunately, Zhang Hui had watched his mother weave and sell cloth since he was a child, so he was very knowledgeable about cloth-related information. In addition, he was smart and tactful, so he quickly found a job at a small cloth shop in the prefectural city.

Not long after, he was promoted to manager. He originally planned to bring Du and his younger brother to live in the prefectural city, but Du was unwilling to leave her hometown. So only his younger brother, Zhang Yao, came to rely on him and found a job in a dyeing shop through an introduction.

A few years later, both brothers found their ideal partners and got married smoothly.

Zhang Yao's wife was a female worker in the same dyeing workshop. She was a local from Fucheng. Although her family was not wealthy, people from Fucheng had a certain sense of superiority, so Zhang Yao couldn't very well take her back to the county town to live.

Zhang Hui's wife, Yu Xiaoxiao, is someone who shares his tragic fate.

Yu Xiaoxiao was born in a small town near the prefectural city. At the age of sixteen, she married her childhood sweetheart and soon gave birth to her eldest daughter, Yu Mian. However, unexpected events occurred, and her husband and mother-in-law passed away one after another, causing rumors to spread throughout the town. Yu Xiaoxiao had no choice but to take her daughter to the prefectural city to make a living. With her excellent embroidery skills, she managed to gain a foothold in the prefectural city.

Zhang Hui had noticed Yu Xiaoxiao, who frequently came to their fabric shop to sell embroidery, early on. Their similar experiences quickly made them feel a connection, and since they were both getting on in years, they soon formed a family.

As Du Shi grew older, she fell ill several times without anyone to take care of her. Cheng Yan secretly wrote to Zhang Hui, hoping they would come back to visit her.

The two brothers discussed the matter thoroughly and finally decided that Zhang Yao would continue to live in the prefectural city and would only need to return home for holidays, while Zhang Hui would resign from his job as the manager of the cloth shop in the prefectural city and return to Huaishan County with his wife and daughter.

The eldest daughter, Zhang Yumian, developed a strong interest in embroidery from a young age under her mother's influence. As she grew up, she showed exceptional talent and entered the largest embroidery workshop in the city a few years ago to work as a full-time embroiderer. The workshop not only provided room and board but also offered a very generous income. The only requirement was that the embroiderer could not get married until she was 25 years old.

Now nineteen years old, Yu Mian has become the head embroiderer of the embroidery workshop. She is single-mindedly focused on embroidery and has no interest in things like love between men and women. She would rather spend her time doing embroidery than wallowing in melancholy. This not only improves her skills but also earns her more money.

Fortunately, the Zhang family all work in related industries, so everyone is understanding of her. They are just a little worried about her future, but Yu Mian herself is very confident. She said that after she turns twenty-five, she will follow the example of the Cheng family next door and have a son-in-law marry into her family. Anyway, the money she has earned in the past few years is definitely enough to support a man and a child.

Not long after Yu Xiaoxiao married into the Zhang family, she also gave birth to a son named Zhang Xiangyang, who is ten years old this year. He is studying at a private school nearby, but he doesn't seem to have any academic talent. Instead, he often skips class to play at his father's cloth shop, and he will probably follow in his father's footsteps in the future.

So when Cheng Ruyi went to the Zhang family to ask Yu Xiaoxiao for help in making accessories for the baby stroller, she was enthusiastically surrounded by the whole family, who all expressed great interest.

Both Du and Yu Mian offered many useful suggestions, and Zhang Hui, who had a keen business sense, even began to discuss with Ruyi the possibility of collaborating with their fabric workshop to develop related products.

Ruyi's plan is to make a four-piece stroller set, including a base cushion with drawstrings at the four corners for easy securing, two backrests that can be used as pillows or backrests when sitting up, fabric decorations for the surrounding railings and handrails, and finally, decorations for the canopy.

Due to time constraints, these four pieces of clothing do not have any overly complicated patterns or decorations. They are simply embroidered with a large "囍" (double happiness) character, and the edges are sewn with a simple texture.

However, when Cheng Ruyi received the final product, she was greatly surprised. The exquisite quality of the handmade embroidery was on a completely different level from the machine-made embroidery and printing of later generations. No wonder it could sell for such a high price.

After installing the four-piece set on the stroller, the entire little stroller instantly transforms from a simple wooden product into a beautiful and exquisite handicraft. It looks great just sitting there. Then, when you put Cheng Mande, the chubby New Year picture doll, into the stroller, who wouldn't feel joyful and happy?

As Ruyi looked at it, she felt that the price could easily be several times higher!

In fact, everything went as she expected. The moment Cheng Mande stepped out of the car, he attracted the attention of all the passersby, and for a moment he almost couldn't even get out of the alley!

The neighbors all know that Cheng's Furniture Shop recently launched children's furniture, such as baby cradles and baby seats, and business is booming. Now that they see this stroller, they are even more envious of the Cheng family's quick thinking. They really deserve to make money.