Finally, he coaxed the little creature into submission and got two small agarwood leaves, which were as big as eye boogers, as he wished. He then put some on a handkerchief and Chen Afu left the space.
After returning to the cottage, he whispered to Wang that the ten-colored sparrow was sold for six hundred taels of silver, and said that he would use the money to buy land.
Wang almost dropped her jaw in shock. "My God, isn't the money of rich people money? How can you pay so much silver for a bird?"
Chen Afu smiled and said, "I heard that there are no such birds in our Dashun Dynasty. There are two ten-color sparrows in the palace, which were tributed by the foreigners. This is the third one, so of course it is valuable. Besides, rich people like these flowers and birds. The best flowers can be sold for thousands of taels of silver. This is called elegance."
Wang nodded and said, "Yes, that's right. But Mr. Chu is really a good official and he didn't deceive us."
That's true. If they didn't tell me, I wouldn't know that the Sparrow is so valuable. From this point of view, the hero looks cold and scary, but he is still a good person.
Chen Ahfu just remembered what Steward Luo said about the old marquis. Does that mean Chu Lingxuan was born in a marquis's mansion? Such a birth is quite noble. However, how could his mother become a nun in such a wealthy family?
While she was thinking about her troubles, she and Wang started to cut a doll for Chu Hanyan out of satin.
They had just cut two when they heard Chen Aman knock on the door, so Chen Afu had to put away the satin used to cut the Swallow dolls.
Because the Chu family didn't want others to know that their children liked the smiling swallow, Chen Afu didn't make a swallow doll, but made clothes for Chu Hanyan. Shopkeeper Luo gave a lot of fabrics, and he took so much money from her family, so he should make a nice set of clothes for the little girl Chu.
Chen Afu had now learned how to cut, so he cut by himself and asked Wang when he didn’t understand.
Chen Aman wanted Wang to teach her how to cut better-looking clothes. The little girl could tell the pattern, but she couldn't cut it herself. Wang was an embroiderer by profession, so after listening to the pattern, she helped to cut it.
Chen Ahfu generously gave Chen Ahman a piece of red satin to decorate her dress. He also suggested that it would be inappropriate to sew buttons on this kind of dress, as it would look cumbersome.
Seeing the girl's regretful look, she pulled out two feet of blue satin to make a half-sleeved double-breasted jacket for her. This kind of clothing is suitable for buttons and the color of the buttons also matches. The girl was so happy that she smiled and kept pulling Chen Ahfu to call her "good sister".
Zhang, who followed in, stopped him and said, "Stop it. What if the nobles get angry if they find out that you have embezzled their satin?"
Chen Ahfu smiled and said, "Nothing, Shopkeeper Luo specifically said that if the satin is not used up, it should be kept for me to make clothes."
After Zhang thanked Chen Ahfu, she asked Wang to cut the jacket a little bigger so that she could wear it next year, saying that she would have enough good clothes to wear in the next two years, including the scarlet dress. In this way, she would have good clothes to wear every year.
The next day, to the surprise of the Chen family, Bo Qing came again with a purchasing manager from the Chu Mansion. He said that Manager Luo had tasted delicious braised skewers yesterday, so he brought them to honor the master. It happened that several masters from the capital were there and they all liked them. He asked the Chen family to braise 10 more catties of various dishes, and not to string them on the skewers, because they wanted to arrange the dishes. This much goods would be supplied to the Chu Mansion for six days. On the 15th, he asked for more, and Chu wanted 20 catties of each braised dish.
Chen Shi was so happy that he bowed and said he would do it. Then he gave Qing Bo and the purchasing manager a silver ingot of one tael each.
As long as the people from the General's Mansion can come to Chen Sanlu Chuan every day to buy things in the next few days, and he can find a way to establish a relationship with these managers, those people will not dare to cause trouble. In the past two days, Chen Shi has found people like hooligans wandering around the store.
After sending the people from the Chu residence away, Chen Shi smiled and said to Chen Afu, "Afu is a good name. He is really blessed. He has not only brought blessings to your family, but also to your uncle's family. Oh, your uncle really doesn't want you to go back. He wants to worship you like a jade Buddha in your uncle's family."
These few words made Wang smile.
The Chen family was busier than usual, and Wang and Chen Ahfu also stayed in the house busy making dolls and clothes. Time was tight, and Chen Ahfu and her daughter worked day and night, and finally finished making two big and small swallow dolls and a set of small clothes by the afternoon of the 14th, as a birthday gift from her.
Tomorrow is the little girl's birthday, Chen Ahfu wants to finish the things before her birthday, so that she can sleep comfortably with the big stuffed doll in her arms. When she is in a good mood, her mind will be stable.
Chen Afu guessed that the old woman risked her life to throw away the big swallow doll before the little girl's birthday, perhaps because she wanted the little girl's illness to get worse so that some people with ulterior motives could laugh at her or ruin her reputation in the capital.
The cotton of the two big swallow dolls is filled with some agarwood leaves. Although the swallows' flowery clothes have changed, their expressions have not changed, and they still smile brightly. I didn't have time to make the four small and four medium-sized dolls that I had cut, so I will make them later when I have time.
The dress was a goose yellow cross-collared skirt with a rather different cuff. It was not the narrow or wide sleeves that were popular in that era, but trumpet sleeves. It was narrow from the shoulders to the elbows, and from the elbows, the sleeves gradually spread out, like two large trumpet flowers in full bloom. The cuffs were trimmed with scarlet silk lace. The collar was edged with moon-white satin, and Wang also embroidered a peony branch.
The little dress was very pretty and unique. Not only did Zhang and others praise it, even Chen Afu liked it very much, thinking how beautiful the little girl would be in it.
When Dabao saw it, he smiled even more.
Yesterday, Chen Ahfu asked Zhang to go to the market to buy food ingredients and bring back five catties of red dates, two catties of glutinous rice flour, and a few ounces of sesame seeds. Chen San's grocery store has rock sugar and osmanthus sugar.
In the morning, she soaked the red dates before going into the house to do her own things.
After lunch, Chen Ahfu started to cook sweet-scented osmanthus glutinous rice dates in the kitchen. She had taken out a little Yanchen wood residue from the space before and put it in when cooking the dates. Before the dates were taken out of the pot, she sprinkled crushed sweet-scented osmanthus sugar and sesame seeds in.
When the glutinous rice and dates were ready, they filled a large wooden basin. Chen Ahfu filled two large bowls and took the rest away.
Now, Uncle Chu is his principal, and Miss Chu is both his student and his principal, so he has to take good care of their stomachs.
Chen Afu finished making the dates, and Wang had finished the last bit of work she had done.
Chen Azhu wrapped the doll and clothes in cloth and carried them, and asked Chen Ayu to carry the large basin filled with glutinous rice and dates, and left the Chen family. A mule cart had arrived outside Chen San's grocery store, and they got on it and headed straight to the Chu Mansion.
Dabao wanted to chase him away, but Chen Afu didn't take him. The Chu Mansion had many guests at that time, so they would definitely not let them see Chu Hanyan.
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