Chapter 397 Shoe Soles
"Okay, okay, sister-in-law, are you okay? You fell down the slope and fainted, and we were worried that there might be something wrong with your hands and feet. Now it seems that there is no need to worry."
Huang Xinran wanted to smile at them, but she couldn't.
The way these people looked at her was really uncomfortable.
She didn't say anything, and these people didn't mind. They just gathered together and whispered to each other, and the looks they gave her carried a deep meaning that she couldn't understand.
"Sanya, has sister-in-law had her meal?"
"Yes, I ate a big bowl of sweet potato porridge. I ate more than I did! I haven't had sweet potato porridge for a long time." The little girl spoke.
It turns out her name is San Ya.
Huang Xinran suddenly felt enlightened.
"Well, in that case, you can take her to work. You know, we don't want idle people here."
"Okay, okay, we'll go right away."
San Ya nodded happily and took Huang Xinran's hand again: "Sister-in-law, let's go over there to work. The women in the village are working there."
Huang Xinran nodded, tried hard to smile at everyone, and followed San Ya.
As they walked away, the crowd quickly burst into laughter.
"Boss Ji, your family is rich this time! Such a beautiful woman, let alone how much money you can make if you sell her. Even if you keep her for yourself, you will be very lucky! Thanks to you for buying medicine for her before, otherwise, she might not be able to survive."
Huang Xinran was unconscious when he was carried back by Ji Lao Da. There was a goose egg-sized bump on the back of his head. Ji Lao Da was delighted to see the prey and planned to have some fun after dark. But he didn't expect that he would develop a high fever soon after he was carried home.
His whole body was red from the fever and he was talking nonsense.
That temperature seems enough to cook a person.
Originally, the Ji brothers had no intention of saving her, but the eldest brother Ji, who carried her back, seemed to be possessed. He ignored everyone's obstruction and went out of the mountain to buy medicine for her, thus saving her life.
Now that he has woken up, it seems that the medicine is indeed effective.
Ji Laoda smiled but said nothing, but his heart was burning. The reason why he saved her was because he was attracted by her beauty. He remembered clearly that when he knocked her down with a blowpipe that had been drugged, she was arrogant and had an outstanding temperament. It was not difficult to see at a glance that the other party must be very unusual.
How comfortable it would be if a woman like this were to enjoy yourself?
The thought of this made him feel hot all over.
Unable to sit still any longer, he left the hut on the pretext of having something to do.
As soon as he left, the Ji brothers looked at each other and also found excuses to leave.
As soon as they left, the thatched cottage had a rare moment of peace.
Not long after, someone spit out a mouthful of thick phlegm with a loud "Puh" sound: "Damn it, those little bastards from the Ji family are having so much fun. It seems that the woman will have to serve the Ji brothers together tonight, I'm afraid she will have a great time!"
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone burst into laughter.
Everyone started discussing this matter.
All kinds of dirty words are unbearable to hear.
Huang Xinran, who was being talked about by everyone, had no idea what was happening behind her. She followed San Ya to the other side of the village and finally saw the woman in the village whom she had not seen before.
Compared to the comfortable men in the straw hut, the women in the village were full of tension and weirdness. Several sturdy and big women stood at the door, watching the women in the house working.
The women in the room all lowered their heads and numbly repeated the tasks at hand.
Some spin yarn, some weave cloth, some sew shoe soles, and some embroider on fabric.
What surprised Huang Xinran the most was that there were pots of green leaves beside these people. Some people took the velvet from the back of the leaves and twisted them into threads, watching her wonder.
This thing is really rare.
"What did the boss say?"
Several strong women guarding the door asked San Ya, their eyes full of malice as they looked at Huang Xinran.
"Aunt Liu, my eldest brother said that my sister-in-law should work with you to earn a living."
San Ya walked forward with a smile, not caring about the ferocious looks of those people, and took some cigarettes from their pockets and ate them.
"That's fine."
One of the big women came forward, looked at Huang Xinran, and pointed inside: "You, go over there and help him sew the soles of shoes, don't be lazy."
Anyone who has made shoes knows that sewing soles is not an easy job.
This person obviously couldn't stand Huang Xinran, so he deliberately made her do the most difficult job.
Sure enough, before Huang Xinran expressed his opinion, the numb people in the room could not help but secretly raise their heads and look at Huang Xinran. But soon, everyone lowered their heads and continued to work on their own things.
Huang Xinran quickly glanced at the other people who were sewing shoe soles and saw that everyone was silent. He sat down next to that person and watched him work.
The woman seemed very satisfied with Huang Xinran's gentle obedience and snorted coldly: "Why are you standing there? Hurry up and do your work. If you can't sew a pair of soles before dark, you won't have dinner tonight!"
These words made him raise his head subconsciously to look at the other person, but soon he retracted his gaze under the other person's glare and silently took the shoe sole sewing tools handed to him by the woman next to him.
Seeing that Huang Xinran obediently started to take action, the woman was satisfied.
She turned around and started chatting and laughing with the others. Her tone was fast and with strange syllables, and Huang Xinran couldn't understand her. But she also found that they spoke in this strangely pronounced language when they spoke to themselves, and when they talked to the people who worked for them, they used broken Mandarin...
Huang Xinran didn't understand why she felt that her Mandarin was broken. But at the moment, the woman sitting next to her was explaining to her the key points and steps of sewing the soles of shoes, and she couldn't care less and listened carefully and memorized.
Even though Huang Xinran tried very hard, her hands were still not suited to the heavy work of sewing thousand-layer soles, especially the thick sewing needle that kept stabbing her hands, not to mention the strong cotton thread that left deep marks on her hands.
Huang Xinran stretched out his hand and looked at the smooth fingertips, a hint of deep thought flashed across his eyes.
Perhaps, in the past, I was a rich young lady who had everything handed to me?
The kind that doesn't do any work?
Naturally, by dark, Huang Xinran had not yet finished sewing a pair of soles, and naturally was looked down upon by those tough women for a long time.
When she was leaving, she walked to a place with fewer people. The woman who was sewing the soles with her tugged at her clothes and whispered to comfort her: "Don't be sad. It's not easy to sew the soles of shoes. It's normal that you can't make a good pair..."
"Who is talking there??! Do you want to die?? Ah!~~"
Unexpectedly, the woman was discovered after she had just said a few words. The big woman ran over and pushed her hard several times, frightening her so much that her face turned pale. She dared not say anything more and ran away with tears in her eyes.
Huang Xinran had many questions to ask, but she couldn't figure out what she should ask at the moment. She could only keep all the questions in her heart.
San Ya spent the whole afternoon chatting and laughing with the tough women guarding the gate, and showed no signs of doing any work. She did not leave until it was almost dark, and it was said that she was going home to cook for her brothers.
When Huang Xinran returned, San Ya had already prepared the meal.