Chapter 121 Chapter 121 Custom-made Boots
Looking at the direction the villagers were returning, that was the village of Lin Shuilian's ex-husband's family.
"Maybe."
It was still dark when Lin Chuntao and her friends arrived at the county town. Pei Ying had gone out to slaughter a pig, so Lin Chuntao and Lin Chunxing moved all the rack stoves out.
Lin Chunxing lit the fire while Lin Chuntao went to the noodle shop to get the noodles.
It was still early, so Lin Chuntao cooked two bowls of noodles for the two sisters to fill their stomachs.
While eating noodles, Lin Chuntao looked around and said to Lin Chunxing, "Keep an eye out for shops for sale. If there's a suitable one, we can rent it and move our stall inside."
Lin Chunxing asked, "Buy a shop? Or rent one?"
"We need to save some money. We're harvesting beans and chilies lately. We can save money by making our own charcoal and setting up a stall. If possible, we can buy a mule."
Lin Chuntao said, "It's free to set up a stall, but isn't it tiring to go back and forth like this every day? If I open a shop, I can sell soup noodles all day long, and I can even live in the shop. I don't have to get up so early in the morning, and I can sell three meals a day, breakfast and lunch. I might even sell more, and you can rest better."
"We need to make money, but we can't work too hard. We couldn't do it before, but now we have the conditions to make ourselves a little more comfortable, so we shouldn't be reluctant to do so."
After hearing what Lin Chuntao said, Lin Chunxing nodded.
Lin Chuntao said, "If we open a shop, we will definitely sell more than just this kind of noodle soup. We can also find two people to help. Do you have any ideas?"
When asked about this, Lin Chunxing did have some thoughts about it, and that was about Lin Qingqing.
"I used to think that if possible, I would ask Qingqing to come and sell noodle soup with me. Now that she has gone to the sauce shop, I don't know if I should ask her anymore."
Lin Chuntao was silent for a while. "Actually, working in the sauce shop is not bad. You can go ask her what she thinks. If she doesn't want to come, then I think you can ask your cousin to help you."
Lin Chuntao said it casually, but she must have thought about this a long time ago. They made money, and the grandmothers in the village also had income. Her uncles and others lived far away, and her aunt and others used the money they gave them for help last time to make a quilt for her.
Lin Chuntao felt that her uncle and aunt had a hard life and were all nice people, so it would be best if they could make money together.
Lin Chunxing also understood Lin Chuntao's thoughts, and she nodded.
"I'll ask Qingqing another day. If she doesn't come, we'll ask my cousin to help."
"Yeah." Lin Chuntao responded, and after thinking for a while, she said, "If Chai Xingyu's shop opens branches in other counties in the future, then Qingqing would actually be a good fit working in this sauce shop."
Lin Chunxing nodded.
"I know."
The two sisters ate and talked, and soon it was dawn.
After cleaning up the dishes and washing them, people started to set up stalls at the market. Lin Chuntao took a look around and when she thought the cloth shop was open, she went to get some clothes.
When going to the cloth shop, they passed by Old Man He's clinic. Several people carried a person out of the clinic and put him on the mule cart. Lin Chuntao took a look and found that it was Lin Shuilian's ex-mother-in-law, Zhao.
His old face was terribly pale, and he looked as if he was about to die.
An old lady nearby, who seemed to be Tian Xiang's aunt, stood beside the mule cart and advised: "Silver and money are all external things. If they are gone, they are gone. You can save them slowly in the future."
"If you leave right now, what will happen to Tian Xiang?"
As soon as the man finished speaking, Mrs. Zhao cried out, "That's what I saved my whole life. I saved a dozen taels of silver in my whole life, and they didn't leave me a penny. It's all gone!"
With just this one sound, the people around fell silent.
This old lady would complain about being poor all the time, but she also said that Lin Shuilian hadn't made a set of clothes in their family for several years, and it was all thanks to Aunt Guizhi who made them for her daughter.
In the end, the money ended up in the hands of scammers.
When Lin Shuilian was about to divorce, Lin Chuntao had seen that woman. She had a premonition that something was wrong, but she also felt that there would not be much profit for a scammer to target a rural man like Tian Xiang.
I didn't expect that I still managed to cheat people out of more than ten taels.
No wonder the old woman was so angry that she jumped into the toilet.
If the old lady had a kinder heart, her son would have been more disciplined and protected Lin Shuilian and her grandchildren, and she would not have suffered such retribution.
The old lady was almost dying, and there was no sign of Tian Xiang. Lin Chuntao thought she had to go back and tell Aunt Guizhi. What if this family failed to climb up the social ladder and came back to look for Lin Shuilian? That would be disgusting enough.
The people who were traveling with them pulled a mule over and drove the mule cart. The man pulling the mule said, "Auntie, please be more positive. Brother Xiang can't get out of bed yet, and there's no one to take care of him. If you don't take care of him at this time, he'll be really helpless."
The man had a loud voice, so Lin Chuntao, who was walking by, heard what he said.
She almost laughed out loud.
When we arrived at the cloth shop, they had just opened and the women in charge were preparing breakfast.
Seeing Lin Chuntao coming, he quickly put down what he was holding and greeted her, "Mrs. Lin, good morning."
Lin Chuntao smiled and said, "Good morning, I'll come over to get my clothes."
The woman in charge smiled and led her inside. As she walked, she said, "Everything is ready for you, my lady. Please check it and I will wrap it for you."
After she finished speaking, the woman took out clothes from the closet. All the clothes were folded, and each set was tied together with a cloth bag. Lin Chuntao opened them and took a look. Even the thread ends were cleaned up. She looked carefully at the coats with cotton added. The cotton was wrapped with a layer of thin cloth, sewn into square blocks, so the cotton would not leak out and would not bunch up. The inner lining was made first and then the outer layer, all according to Lin Chuntao's requirements.
The woman said, "Madam, this way you do it uses an extra piece of fabric, but it looks much better from the outside."
Lin Chuntao smiled and said, "The tailor's skills are still good."
She checked everything and found nothing wrong so she showed the deed, pressed her fingerprint and took the clothes away.
She took the clothes and went to the fur shop again. It was open, but no one was inside. Lin Chuntao called out, and an echo came from the backyard: "Here they come!"
Lin Chuntao waited for a moment and saw a couple coming from the back door. The woman wiped her hands as she walked and asked, "What would you like to order, ma'am?"
Lin Chuntao said, "I want to ask if I can make leather boots."
The woman smiled and said, "I can do it. What kind of leather do you want, ma'am?"
Lin Chuntao looked at the leather in the shop. Sheepskin seemed to be the most common, and there were also some deerskin, mink skin and the like, which looked very expensive.
"Sheepskin." Lin Chuntao said.
"Madam, are you going to be an adult?" the woman asked again. Lin Chuntao replied, "Three adults and two half-grown children."
The woman said, "You can make them a little bigger for a half-grown child. A pair of sheepskin boots can be worn for a long time. If you make them bigger and put a pair of insoles inside, they will be just as comfortable to wear."
Lin Chuntao nodded and asked with a smile, "How much is a pair for adults? How long will it take to make them?"
The woman said, "Two hundred and eighty wen a pair. The leather in our shop is all tanned early. We can make five pairs in six or seven days."
Lin Chuntao was a little surprised: "So fast?"
The woman said, "It takes one person about three days to make a pair. If there are a lot of shoes, we can work together as a team."
Lin Chuntao nodded and looked at the goods in the shop. There were quite a lot of them. There were also vests hanging next to them. She didn't know if they were samples from the shop or custom-made by others.
"Can I take a look at any of the finished products?"
Lin Chuntao asked, and the woman smiled and said, "Yes, please wait a moment, ma'am." After that, the woman said to the man behind her, "Go get it."
The man glanced at Lin Chuntao, turned around and went out from the back. After a while, the man brought over three pairs of shoes. One pair was only half finished and there were still stitches on it.
The woman smiled helplessly, but didn't say anything. She took it and Lin Chuntao touched it.
The leather is quite soft, and there is no peculiar smell when you get close to it. I don’t know how the leather is cleaned. The style is not very novel, but this basic style is durable. At 280 wen, it feels quite worth it.
The woman said, "If you're interested in making it, you can pay a deposit for the leather and then bring someone from your family to measure your feet. I guarantee it will fit you well."
Lin Chuntao: "If the shoes are slightly smaller, will the price be the same?"
The woman looked at her and smiled, "Madam, if you make more, I can give you a discount. If it's not a very small child, the amount of leather used is actually about the same. Do you want to order it?"
Before Lin Chuntao could say anything, the woman continued, "Winter is coming, and leather is in short supply. If you want to make it, you can make an order. I'll keep the leather for now."
Lin Chuntao asked, "How much is the deposit?"
"Fifty cents. If you decide not to do it on the same day, you can return it, but you can't return it after that," the woman explained.
Lin Chuntao thought for a moment and said, "Let's choose one."
"Then I'll write a contract for you." The woman said as she walked to the innermost part of the cabinet, took out a pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and quickly wrote a contract for Lin Chuntao. Lin Chuntao counted the money and handed it to her, then took the contract and said, "Then I'll come tomorrow morning."
The woman agreed with a smile.
After getting the clothes and the boots, Lin Chuntao went to the sauce shop. In addition to the original sauces, the shop now had some dried vegetables and beans. Chai Xingyu said to Lin Chuntao, "Let's see in a few days. If we can reach an agreement, we can sell both soy sauce and vinegar."
Lin Chuntao nodded. There were many kinds of things in the shop, and they were all things that ordinary people needed. As time went by, people would get used to coming to one place to buy several things they needed, and naturally they would only go to this place. It was a good start.
Lin Chuntao looked at Zhang Qingqing and Lin Qingqing. They both looked good and happy, so she felt relieved.
It just so happened that Chai Xingyu and his companions were coming to get some sauce, so Lin Chuntao followed them back in a mule cart.
By tomorrow, this sauce shop will have been in business for exactly one month. Chai Xingyu did the math and found that in addition to the fifty taels of silver that he had paid in advance, he still had to give some share to Lin Chuntao.
On the way, he said to Lin Chuntao, "Sister, are you free the day after tomorrow? Let's go to the shop and settle the accounts. We've been open for a month."
Lin Chuntao has been so busy lately that she is in a daze. The days have passed by unknowingly. She always feels that Chai Xingyu's business has just been opened for a short time.
It's almost been a month.
"If I'm free, I'll go early the day after tomorrow."
After Lin Chuntao finished speaking, Chai Xingyu smiled. Seeing his expression, Lin Chuntao asked, "How are the other sauces selling?"
"Actually, they're all pretty good. A lot of people have moved out, so they like lighter flavors. They even buy a lot of ketchup."
Lin Chuntao wanted to ask if his third uncle had any objections, but it seemed inappropriate to ask. Chai Xingyu seemed to know what she was thinking and continued, "My third uncle and his family have approached my father several times, but my father said that I was just making a small fuss and that the money I earned in a month wasn't even enough for my third uncle to make a set of clothes. He told him to be more open-minded. He recently went to Xuancheng, probably to discuss this with my second uncle."
Lin Chuntao frowned at the question, "Will it be difficult for you?"
Chai Xingyu shook his head: "No, if Third Uncle comes back and still looks for it, then I'll just say that I can store his sauce with him and sell it, and I'll just give him a share of the profits."
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