Yunling didn't think that far ahead. The panties were just a vague prototype in her mind, and whether they could actually be made was still under investigation. So she simply bought a pair and decided to try making them herself.
How much is one horse?
"Seven hundred coins, that's a bargain. In the past, that would have been an astronomical price. Where in this small county town could you sell it?"
Yunling understood this principle and didn't say much, simply buying it.
After paying for the bag, Yunling and Yun Ruoxia went to the Fu family's trading company to wait for Yun Shenghua. Yunling didn't sit idle either; she borrowed a fine pen and some straw paper and started sketching on the paper.
As far as she knew, these briefs were generally divided into medium, large, and extra-large sizes, which were related to waist and hip measurements. This was a bit difficult for Yunling, because she was not good at knitting and could not give a general idea of her waist and hip measurements.
Moreover, briefs are generally elastic, but this kind of elasticity is not available in this dynasty. Yunling then thought of bows and arrows, whose strings are usually made of grapevines, vines, or bamboo.
The elastic part is the tendon attached to the back of the bow arm. The best ones are made by repeatedly working with materials such as silk, cow back tendon, and fish glue. Some are even made with deer tendon.
Yunling temporarily put aside her thoughts about beef tendons and deer tendons. These things were valuable and hard to find. More importantly, people in this dynasty, or even earlier, did not have the habit of wearing underwear. They generally wore open-crotch underwear, which is why menstrual belts were tied with ropes.
Therefore, she dared not use too expensive materials, but started with ordinary styles to gain market acceptance, and then gradually made changes.
Another idea popped into Yunling's mind: to tie ropes on both sides of her waist. The advantage of this was that she wouldn't have to worry about the size; she could simply adjust the length of the ropes herself. This was similar to menstruation. However, with the addition of sanitary pads, it would be cumbersome, and she figured it wouldn't work.
"Ling-jie, what are you thinking about so intently?"
"Auntie, have you started your period yet?"
Yun Ruoxia immediately looked left and right, put her index finger to her lips and shushed them, "You're here. Why are you asking about this?"
"How does it feel?"
"It's quite uncomfortable, but I'm okay."
Yunling was a little confused, "Which method is better?"
Yun Ruoxia leaned closer and whispered, "My menstrual belt is stuffed full of wood ash and cotton. It's so full that I don't have to change it all the time, and I don't have to get up at night, which makes me more comfortable."
Yunling suddenly had a new idea. She thought of those pants with drawstrings tied at the front for securing them; it might work for briefs...
"Why are you asking this? You're not thinking of taking advantage of this menstrual belt, are you?"
Yun Ruoxia had originally wanted to ask Yun Ling what she was going to do with the cotton cloth, and now that she saw her ask this, she naturally made the connection.
"What does Auntie think?"
“I don’t think it will work.”
It was rare for Yun Ruoxia to say something wouldn't work, so Yun Ling had to listen carefully.
“Our family is open-minded and we’re not in a hurry to marry off our daughter. But how many young women in the village get married at the age of thirteen or fourteen? They haven’t even had their period yet, and they’ve already had sex. Then, a year or two later, when their period comes, they’ll be pregnant again. How can they possibly have time to recover from their period?”
“After giving birth once, you have two more. Sometimes you even lose your period and can’t wear a menstrual pad more than a few times. Besides, most of the intimate items like menstrual pads are sewn by ourselves. How can we entrust them to others?”
Yun Ruoxia's words were true, but they also gave Yun Ling other thoughts. The young women in the village married early, but what about those in the city? What about the wealthy families? They certainly wouldn't marry so quickly.
As far as she knew, the principal wives of wealthy families generally didn't mind taking concubines, because they usually only gave birth to legitimate sons and then left the rest of the offspring to the concubines. After all, childbirth was a life-threatening ordeal, and who would want to repeatedly go through the ordeal of giving birth?
What Yun Ling thought of, Yun Ruoxia also thought of: "Ling-jie, what new tricks are you planning to come up with for your period?"
Based on her understanding of Yunling, she wouldn't bother to put in the effort if there was nothing new or interesting.
"I want it to be convenient, comfortable, and reassuring."
Yunling overturned her previous idea. If she wanted to do business in the upper-middle class, she had to be different. So she asked Yun Shenghua to help with the beef tendon business.
Yun Shenghua had just recently registered a batch of materials to be sent north for bow making, which included cow back sinew. However, this cow back sinew was obtained in Qingcheng, which is quite far from here.
To prevent Yunling from having to go to Qingcheng again for beef tendon, he planned to spend a higher price the next day to buy a few pieces of inferior beef tendon from Liushi.
Having received Yun Shenghua's promise, Yun Ling was naturally relieved. Yun Ruoxia was completely baffled by the matter of finding the beef tendon, and couldn't understand how it could be related to menstrual blood. However, before she could think about it any further, she was stunned by the crowd at her doorstep.
No matter how hard the three of them thought about it, they couldn't understand why so many villagers had gathered at their doorstep today. Did they give out copper coins at home?
"Chu-jie is really amazing. At such a young age, she can already write. She's destined to be a female Zhuge Liang."
"That's right. Old Master Yu praised Sister Chu in front of everyone. It's true that Brother Hua is capable, managing to get all the girls in the family into school."
"I think it's because of Chu'er's kind heart that she cares about our fellow villagers. It's no wonder we've treated her so well all this time."
"..."
Yun Ruoxia, who got off the donkey cart first, was dumbfounded. How had these people treated Yun Chu so well in the past? Why were they all fawning over her now?
But as she walked a little further in, she saw a long table standing at the door of the house. On the table were writing brushes and ink, as well as some red paper. Yun Ruochun was cutting paper, and Yun Chu picked up the brush and wrote the character "丰" (feng, meaning abundance) on the red paper, and then handed it to the person waiting on the side.
Good heavens, these guys are all coming here empty-handed, bringing nothing, just to freeload off us. Damn it, Yun Ruoxia wasn't going to be so patient, and immediately spoke up.
"Hey, you should at least bring some red paper or copper coins. I'd be so embarrassed to accept this red paper with ink after just a few kind words about it being free."
If you say this to one person, that person might feel embarrassed or ashamed. But if you say it to a group of people, that group is like a great shield, making them fearless.
They had considered asking Yun Shenghua to write calligraphy before, but they felt it would be awkward for adults to see each other every day. Yun Chu was different. First, she was young and wouldn't care, and was easy to fool. Second, as an elder, she was pressured to do it, and Yun Chu was too embarrassed to accept the money.
The Wu family immediately replied, "We all live in the same village. If your family makes money, would it kill you to help the villagers out?"
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