Chapter 178 Clothing Modification, Outdoor Cleaning by Wang Yuesheng...

"Lady, I'm done washing."

Wearing a bathrobe, Fan Jinxiu stood in front of Yao Xiaoyu and said softly, "Yao Xiaoyu is not married, so she is not suitable to be called a madam, nor is she old enough to be called a lady. She also does not want to be called a young lady, so in the end, people only call her a young lady."

Do you know their clothing sizes?

Yao Xiaoyu's seemingly random words left Fan Jinxiu somewhat bewildered, but she quickly realized that Yao Xiaoyu was referring to the people who worked with her... but she still shook her head.

Having someone scrub her back was already Fan Jinxiu's bottom line; she simply couldn't accept bathing together. They even used curtains to cover themselves when combing their hair, let alone taking a bath. Each person had a small private room to ensure each other's privacy.

It is said that a true master tailor can tell the size of a garment just by looking at the customer, but Fan Jinxiu is just an ordinary seamstress. Even if she did see the figures of the other women, she would not be able to make proper garments without a measuring tape.

"Then let's revise yours first."

Yao Xiaoyu gestured with her chin to the side, and Fan Jinxiu looked over in a daze before noticing a tall stack of clothes.

"These clothes are for you to wear when you go to work. Two sets for each person. You can alter your own first, and then we'll take your measurements and alter the others when they come over."

Because a suitable tailor had not been found for a long time, Yao Xiaoyu asked Feng Qiongwu to make the first batch of work clothes. Considering that Pan Tiefeng was 1.7 meters tall and Ge Dazhuang was larger than the average man, Yao Xiaoyu made these clothes according to a height of 1.75 meters and a weight of 180 kilograms. There was no problem of not being able to fit into them, but they were still not very well-fitting.

She originally planned to have everyone make do for now and find an experienced tailor to come and make alterations, but Fan Jinxiu, whom she found on the road, filled the last gap in the workforce, so she decided to have her work at the bathhouse. It was freezing outside, and thick clothes would turn into ice sculptures after a while, but at least it was warmer here.

Yao Xiaoyu was very considerate, but that didn't stop Fan Jinxiu from making a face after hearing her words—these winter clothes were large and heavy, and altering them to fit other people's bodies would only require a little less work than making them all over again. If they were sewn by hand, she would be considered fast if she could repair one set in a day, let alone a dozen sets... Fan Jinxiu couldn't finish that amount of work even if she chopped off her head!

"Then you go and measure their sizes first, and then alter your own clothes. I'll find someone else to make theirs."

After Fan Jinxiu hesitantly admitted that she objectively couldn't complete the workload, Yao Xiaoyu quickly accepted reality and changed Fan Jinxiu's work from practical work to data statistics, while also keeping this little bit of knowledge in mind.

Yao Xiaoyu wasn't in a hurry to receive the clothes she made before, so she didn't know much about the efficiency of pure hand tailoring. Even with this work uniform production, the sewing workshop always had a lot of people working together, so they never had to worry about not meeting the deadline. This time, she finally got specific work data.

"OK."

Fan Jinxiu knew that time was tight and the task was heavy, so she hurriedly left with the waitress who was leading the way. Yao Xiaoyu glanced at Tao Xiaoxiao, who had short hair. Tao Xiaoxiao didn't care about the length of her hair, but her family was really bad at dealing with people, so she decided to have her head shaved in the first month of the lunar year, hoping to use the old saying to bring her some bad news from her family.

The situation of Tao Xiaoxiao's uncle is still unknown, but it has made things convenient for Yao Xiaoyu: once she made sure Tao Xiaoxiao's hair was completely dry, Yao Xiaoyu asked Tao Xiaoxiao to go to the sewing shop to alter the clothes order. The shop there is a well-coordinated assembly line operation. If there are many clothes, the time may be longer, but for just a dozen or so items, as long as Yao Xiaoyu is willing to pay, the order can be completed on the same day.

"Just have them send someone over to pick up the clothes, and we'll cover their round-trip transportation and lost wages."

Yao Xiaoyu gave Tao Xiaoxiao some instructions, and the taller girl nodded, grabbed the silver coin, and ran out quickly. The poor man's house was some distance from the bathhouse, and Fan Jinxiu didn't slack off. When the poor man came to get his clothes, the waitress who had been instructed in advance was already waiting at the door for a while.

"Deliver it as soon as you're done."

The waitress handed over the note with Yao Xiaoyu's new home address and quickly went into the bathhouse—the reward Yao Xiaoyu gave was indeed very generous, but it was really cold outside.

The alteration and transportation of clothes take time. Yao Xiaoyu brought the people to the bathhouse and didn't intend for them to go back in their old clothes. However, the full cleaning was almost done, and it would be too much trouble to leave them sitting there. After thinking about it, Yao Xiaoyu decided to give them a full set of treatments.

It was called nursing care, but it was really just applying medicine to the body. Apart from Fan Jinxiu, her employees were all young, middle-aged and old. At first glance, they might look okay, but once they stretched out their hands, they would be covered in chilblains. Some of them hadn't escaped the same fate on their feet either.

Wang Yuesheng, who was in charge of cleaning the outside of the house, even had his ears swollen up like Buddha's. Because it was the mildest form of erythematous frostbite, it looked not much different from the high-altitude redness on a person's face. Every time Yao Xiaoyu saw it, she felt that her morality and sense of humor were fighting each other.

She had originally planned to buy frostbite cream for the workers to apply themselves, but now she wanted to delay things a bit. She could apply a thick layer and then take a nap; a few hours would be enough to get rid of the frostbite.

...

"hiss!"

Wang Yuesheng gasped in pain, and the little girl immediately softened her grip. Noticing the reduction in pressure, Wang Yuesheng wanted to encourage the little girl to apply the medicine boldly, since she wasn't afraid of pain. However, when she opened her mouth, she couldn't say anything, and her eyes quietly reddened.

Everyone who works for Yao Xiaoyu has a story to tell, but Wang Yuesheng is definitely the most tragic one. No matter how difficult other people's lives are, there are always some sweet moments to savor, but her life is just one hurdle after another, with no end in sight to her suffering.

Wang Yuesheng wasn't originally called this; it was a new name she gave herself when she signed the contract. She was born into a family that favored sons over daughters. Since they already had four daughters, Zhaodi, Pandi, and Laidi, the family felt that the lack of a son meant their dislike for daughters wasn't strong enough. So they stopped calling their fourth daughter "Xdi" and instead used the more direct term "cheap girl."

The name could no longer be described as unpleasant, but the fourth daughter could be considered lucky, because the four female fetuses born after her did not even have a chance to survive. After confirming that there was no "that thing" between the infants' legs, the Wang family directly let them reincarnate. It was just that they kept it a secret, and the villagers did not know.

The village where the Wang family lived was relatively developed economically. Although it was not immune to the preference for sons over daughters, the Wang family was truly the only one who treated their daughters so badly. The villagers couldn't bear to call the fourth daughter of the Wang family by her full name. When they needed to find her, they would just call her Siya.

Growing up in such a family, one can imagine what Wang Siya's life was like. She learned to do things before she could walk. She had to help in the kitchen even before she was tall enough to reach the pot. She worked non-stop all day long, and in the end, she could only drink a sip of the dishwater. If it weren't for her three older sisters taking care of her to some extent, Wang Siya might not have been able to grow up.

She finally reached the age of ten, only to be hit by exorbitant taxes and famine. Her whole family fled with the villagers. Because her three-year-old brother kept asking for rice and meat, Wang Siya's three older sisters were sold to slave traders in exchange for food. Wang Siya was able to stay not because the Wang family was soft-hearted, but because they couldn't agree on a price.

However, the sisters' being sold off turned out to be a blessing in disguise. In the decades that followed, Wang Siya would coincidentally meet them all. They didn't live a life of luxury or great wealth, but they were all well-fed, clothed, and had both sons and daughters. In those turbulent times, this was already a blessing.

Siya didn't stay at the Wang family's house for long. Their village encountered a group of deserters and was scattered in their escape. Wang Siya, because she was gathering firewood in the forest, escaped this disaster. On the third day of her journey alone, she accidentally entered the vegetable market. Apart from the four sisters, the Wang family members were all scattered and reunited there.

Life was tough for her alone, and Wang Siya had no experience as a homeless person. She was soon bought to be a child bride, but she was unlucky. Her young husband died of a high fever in the winter, and his family wanted her to be buried with him. When she heard this, she secretly ran away.

Life is not a script, and Wang Siya is not the heroine of a novel, so she did not find a job and make a career. Instead, she barely survived by going hungry for three days and having to share her water.

Hunger is a terrible feeling. When you're starving, you can clearly feel your stomach churning and your back bulging, and you even have the illusion that your internal organs are being digested and you're eating yourself. Wang Siya could never get used to this feeling, so when a man wanted to marry her, she agreed without hesitation.

What is love? All she wants is a roof over her head, a bed to sleep in, and food to eat.

Her belly was quite cooperative; she got pregnant just two months after the wedding, and gave birth to a healthy baby boy nine months later. Although the man didn't earn much, it was enough for the family of three. Although the man liked to drink a little alcohol now and then, it wasn't a serious problem—that's what Wang Siya thought until his friends carried her husband home.

The man got drunk, which wasn't a big deal in itself. The problem was that he refused his friend's invitation to go home together, stepped into a ditch, and fell asleep before he even realized what was wrong. In the dead of winter, even the strongest man would likely fall seriously ill if he went into cold water, let alone after soaking for several hours!

She consulted both traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine doctors, and even consulted shamans and sorcerers, but the man's life still couldn't be saved. Wang Siya cried and wailed, and in the end, she gritted her teeth and became a widow, raising her child alone. The hardships she endured are self-evident.

She had finally reached the age for her son to get married, and thought that she could finally enjoy a peaceful life after helping him find a wife. Who knew that the person she had raised was an ingrate who would marry her off to someone else in order to raise the dowry for his son's marriage.

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Author's note: Wang Yuesheng actually appeared in Chapter 55, and the popcorn vendor is the second time.

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