Chapter 148 Shopping in Town
After the food was exchanged, it was piled on the ox cart, and Zhao Da was responsible for guarding the ox cart.
Cheng Wanwan and Old Mrs. Zhao went to the embroidery workshop.
The most prosperous industry in Ping'an Town is probably the cloth shops. There are more than ten embroidery workshops and cloth shops of all sizes, and many women from small households in the town work as embroiderers in these workshops.
I randomly entered a not-so-high-end embroidery shop. There were quite a few customers in the shop, mostly farmers from the village who had sold their grain after the autumn harvest and then used the money to buy cloth to make autumn and winter clothes.
Grandma Zhao and Cheng Wanwan went inside and went straight to the shopkeeper standing behind the counter.
The shopkeeper was also good at judging people. There was an old lady and a woman in front of him. Both of them looked smart and capable. They were obviously the heads of the family. They came to the cloth shop at this time, and they must have bought cloth for the whole family.
When the harvest is bad and everyone is hungry, the cloth shop's business is extremely bleak, and they can only make a little money when the seasons change.
The shopkeeper came forward and said, "Old lady, sister-in-law, if you need anything, just let me know."
Grandma Zhao took the bib out of her sleeve: "Could you help me take a look at the embroidery on this bib? Is it presentable?"
Besides selling fabric garments, this embroidery shop also sells some embroidered items, such as handkerchiefs and purses, but these embroidered items are difficult to sell.
Unless it is a year of good harvest and everyone has enough food to eat and clothes to wear, people will think of buying these useless things.
The shopkeeper shook his head. "If it were the year before last, I would have accepted the two cents for this bib, but not this year. The villagers won't come specifically to buy bibs, and the people in town spend their extra money on food. It's hard to sell this thing..."
Mrs. Zhao smiled. "What the shopkeeper means is that this embroidery is well made. In a normal year, it can be sold for a good price, right?"
The shopkeeper nodded. The needlework was actually alright, but the fabric was too poor; it was made of scraps sewn together. If it were made of fine silk or satin, the price would be much higher.
Grandma Zhao was satisfied. It couldn't be a year of disaster forever. Once things got better, she would let Xia Hua do this business full-time.
After she finished her work and was about to leave, she was grabbed by Cheng Wanwan.
"Since we're here, let's buy some cloth. Autumn is coming soon, and the children have grown taller. They won't be able to wear last year's autumn clothes, so we'll have to make new ones." Cheng Wanwan dragged Mrs. Zhao to pick out the cloth. "Mom, what color do you like? Dad, how about black?"
Grandma Zhao frowned: "Isn't this for those boys from Dashan?"
Cheng Wanwan lowered her voice and said, "Didn't the magistrate reward me with a hundred taels of silver before? I've been wanting to buy something for my parents for a long time, but I've been too busy with the autumn harvest and haven't had the time. Since we're in town together, let's buy them together. I think this gray one suits Mother very well, and the black one is for Father. Sixteen feet of cloth for each of them, enough to make one inner garment and one outer garment..."
These were the lowest grade of coarse cloth, costing two coins per foot, totaling thirty-six coins. Old Mrs. Zhao knew that her eldest daughter-in-law had money, so these few coins were nothing. What she didn't expect was that her eldest daughter-in-law would actually offer to buy cloth for the old couple... Ever since her eldest son died, she had never thought that her eldest daughter-in-law would be filial to them. As long as she could treat her four grandsons well and help them get married, she would be grateful.
“Mother, how about this piece of cloth for Young Master Chen? The moon-white color looks so good and complements his complexion.” Cheng Wanwan waved a piece of cloth in front of the old lady. “It’s just that this piece of cloth is a bit expensive, eighteen copper coins a foot, and it would cost more than a hundred copper coins to make a whole outfit. It’s too expensive. Forget it, let’s change to this one that costs twelve copper coins a foot. It looks pretty good too.”
Mrs. Zhao immediately said, "I'll pay half of the money for this piece of cloth. The county magistrate is a good official, but his life is not easy. He can't even afford to eat eggs. He is such a pitiful person..."
Cheng Wanwan laughed a little but didn't refuse.
Just now, the old lady sold grain and got two taels of silver. This amount of money sounds like a lot, but it is actually not prohibited at all. Buying cloth for twelve people in the family is a considerable expense. Buying some meat and salt, the money flows like water... In a year, if you can save two or three taels of silver, it will be a blessing for your ancestors.
Even so, taking out a few dozen coins to buy cloth for the county magistrate's son was barely within the old lady's means.
Cheng Wanwan chose cloth of the same price for Cheng Zhao and Shen Zheng. Since these two were scholars, they should indeed wear better clothes.
Her sons were busy in the village every day, so she figured they'd probably just keep such good fabric to themselves and wouldn't wear it. She bought coarse cloth as usual to make outer garments, then some fine linen, which was more expensive at six coins a foot and suitable for making inner garments. She also needed to buy fabric for making shoes, and some needles and thread... All in all, when she went to pay, the total came to over seven hundred coins.
Grandma Zhao sobbed with heartache: "People in the countryside have rough skin and tough flesh, coarse cloth is fine, why buy fine linen? Isn't this just a waste of money..."
One hundred taels of silver is indeed a lot, but twenty taels were spent on buying the land, and there are still three grandsons to marry off, and once the baby in her belly is born, there will be expenses everywhere. We can't live like this; we have to be more frugal and use the money wisely...
Cheng Wanwan ignored the old lady's distorted face and paid the money readily.
She didn't dare to spend like this before because she didn't have any money on display. Now that she has money, she can't continue to be stingy.
Among the four major things in life, food, clothing, housing and transportation, clothing comes second. As the weather is getting colder, the children don’t even have a decent autumn shirt. It’s okay to wear straw sandals in summer, but they have to change into cloth shoes in autumn. People get cold from the feet. If you don’t protect your feet well, you will easily get sick all over your body.
Coming out of the embroidery workshop, Old Lady Zhao said, "It's been a long time since we came to town. I'm going to the butcher's to buy a pound of pork for the children to satisfy their cravings. You should come with me."
Cheng Wanwan covered her face. There were twelve people in the Zhao family, and they only bought one pound of pork, but each person took two bites and it was gone.
It would be better not to spend half of the money and use it all to buy meat for the children.
However, the old lady regarded the county magistrate as her father and mother, and out of love for Shen Zheng, she felt sorry for him, so she didn't bring herself to say anything that might offend him.
Besides, she has more important things to do.
The mall storage function can only be unlocked with one thousand and two taels of silver. I finally took some time out after the autumn harvest to come to the town just to solve this top priority.
Cheng Wanwan said, "Mom, go and get me two pounds of meat too. I'll go to the general store to buy some coarse salt and stuff, and then wander around to see what kind of small business I can start. We'll meet at the city gate in half an hour."
Old Mrs. Zhao knew that her eldest daughter-in-law had her own plans; if the ice jelly business couldn't be done, she must have other ideas in mind.
The old lady warned: "Don't show off when you spend money, or you might be targeted."
Cheng Wanwan nodded vigorously: "I know everything."
The two parted ways at the entrance of the embroidery workshop.
Cheng Wanwan was already familiar with Ping'an Town. She knew where the downtown area was and where few people passed by.
She walked into a small alley, clicked on the mall, and entered a clothing store that specialized in selling ancient costumes...
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