A woman in her forties walked out of a small door. She was wearing a mung bean-colored satin jacket with only a circle of lotus embroidered on the collar and a golden peacock hairpin on her head. She looked like a capable professional woman. She had delicate features and looked familiar.
When she saw the man behind her, she knew why she felt familiar with him. The man turned out to be Manager Luo.
Dabao called out loudly, "Grandpa Luo, what a coincidence."
Chen Afu also laughed. It really is no coincidence.
Chen Afu thanked Manager Luo again and briefly talked about how his son helped support his family.
Manager Luo smiled and said, "My master and young master both like Dabao, and it's what they deserve."
Then, he introduced the female shopkeeper as his sister.
This female shopkeeper is Luo's sister, Luo Shi. Their mother is Luo Yun, the former Madam Chu, and the wet nurse of the current abbot Liaochen. In other words, they are Liaochen's former wet brother and sister.
When Shopkeeper Luo heard that it was Chen Afu who designed the buttons, he was a little skeptical. He glanced at the buttons on Chen Afu's chest and said, "Although the color combination of your buttons is quite unique, but..."
But Manager Luo was absolutely convinced. He smiled softly and said, "Little sister, those swallow dolls in Sister Yan's hand were made by the young lady of the Chen family. She is clever and skillful, and she won't lie."
When Shopkeeper Luo heard this, his eyes immediately lit up and he quickly invited a few people to a private room to talk.
When she saw Chen Ahfu take out the three dolls, she couldn't hide her disappointment. She said, "Although these three dolls are relatively novel, they are not as amazing as the button doll, and they are far inferior to the swallow doll."
Chen Afu nodded in agreement. She made these three little things just to make some money.
Although these three cartoon dolls are different from contemporary dolls and are very cute, they are not amazing. She dare not make dolls that are too good-looking, because it is easy for people to imitate them, and she is afraid that unscrupulous merchants will see it and lower her price.
The Nishang Embroidery Workshop is the Chu family's shop, and the shopkeeper is the sister of Manager Luo. She is quite reassured and also wants to test her real skills.
Then she smiled and said, "I can also design buttons that are as beautiful as the chrysanthemum buttons, and there are many kinds. I can also make dolls and accessories that are more beautiful and cuter than these dolls, and there are also many kinds."
Shopkeeper Luo was pleasantly surprised. "Really?"
Chen Ahfu nodded and smiled, "I don't have the guts to cheat Shopkeeper Luo. But the buttons can't be made right away. Because I have an agreement with Madam Luo that I can't make buttons within a year, let alone sell them."
Shopkeeper Luo chuckled and said, "You are talking about Fourth Grandma Luo, right? She will come to Dingzhou Prefecture in a few days to celebrate my sister's birthday. Yayun Embroidery Workshop is her dowry shop. I will ask her for instructions when the time comes to see if your agreement can be modified. Our Nishang Embroidery Workshop should also give Yayun Embroidery Workshop a discount on the new style buttons, which will benefit everyone." He then said, "Miss Chen, are you willing to cooperate with our Nishang Embroidery Workshop?"
Chen Ahfu was waiting for this sentence, and asked with a smile, "How do you want to cooperate?"
Shopkeeper Luo bowed his head and pondered for a moment, then said, "There are two ways. One is that if you design something, we will pay you a lump sum. For example, if the jewelry you designed is as good as the chrysanthemum button, we will pay you twenty to thirty taels of silver. If it is better, we will pay you more. If it is not as good, we will pay you less. The second way is that you become the new product manager of our embroidery workshop and provide new products to the workshop regularly, and the workshop will give you a monthly salary. The monthly salary is, um..." She thought for a moment and said, "If the chrysanthemum button is really designed by you, we will give you ten taels of silver as a monthly salary."
Wang was pleasantly surprised. If they cooperated for a long time, the annual salary would be 120 taels of silver. But she remembered her daughter's reminder before she left, so she didn't dare to say anything more.
Chen Ahfu thought for a moment and said with a smile, "I choose the first option." She didn't want to be trapped, so she added, "My house is next to Manager Luo's. If we can come up with a plan, we can ask Manager Luo or Junior Manager Luo to come to the city to do business."
Shopkeeper Luo nodded, took the chicken, puppy, and duck dolls and said, "These dolls are quite novel, well made, and made of good materials. Children will like them. I'll give you ten taels of silver, how about that?"
Chen Afu nodded. Ten taels of silver was reasonable.
Afterwards, two copies of the agreement were written, and both Manager Luo and Chen Afu signed and stamped their fingerprints. They also agreed that after consulting with Grandma Luo, Chen Afu would design a buckle.
Chen Ahfu nodded in agreement. Because she was going to sell jewelry and dolls in Fucheng, and she also wanted to go to the pawnshop to see if there was any land for sale in Zhongning County. So she agreed with Chen Ming to stay in Fucheng for ten days to half a month. Zhongning County is between Fucheng and Sanqing County, and it takes more than an hour to get there by donkey cart. Buying land there can conceal her identity and it is not too far away.
Seeing that they had almost finished discussing their business, Manager Luo smiled and said, "Now that Dabao has come to the city, why don't you go to the palace to see my sister? Among so many children, my sister can only play with Dabao."
Dabao was delighted when he heard that he could see Chu Hanyan, and immediately said, "I miss sister Yan'er, too." He added, "I brought Qiqi and Huihui to the city. They are at my third grandfather's house. I'll take them with me when I go to see sister Yan'er."
Manager Luo laughed and said, "That's even better. Let's go to your third grandfather's house and take them away, and then we'll go back to the Chu Mansion together." He then said to Chen Ahfu, "Young lady Chen, come with us. Last time, my eldest son brought back the sweet-scented osmanthus glutinous rice dates that you sent to my family, and my sister loved them very much. The cook in the mansion made a dish based on those dates, but my sister didn't like it. You go and make more for my sister."
Chen Ahfu thought to himself that the girl was really picky. The glutinous rice dates he made were made with water that he added ingredients to, and there was indeed a slight difference between them and the dates without any ingredients. She could actually taste it. He nodded in agreement, thinking that when he got home, he would go into the space to get some of Yan Chenxiang's wood residue while going to the toilet.
She wanted to ask how Miss Chu was doing, but she held back. They were very secretive about Miss Chu's illness, and it would be bad to ask too much.
Manager Luo said, "Make our sister a bigger swallow doll. She doesn't like the one made by the needlework room in the mansion. You can pick some satin and cotton here and make it as soon as possible."
Chen Afu nodded in agreement. She was willing to do anything if she could help the little girl recover quickly or make her happy.
So she pointed out several types of satin for making big dolls and told me how much to tear. This time she changed the colors of the satin, except for the moon white, and changed the others to navy blue, azure blue, light yellow, and bright red. In addition, she also asked for a few strands of embroidery thread.
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