Chapter 119 Clothing Sales: Lan Shuangyu is going all in!
On the 25th of the twelfth lunar month, Tao Jingu sent someone to deliver a letter to Yao Xiaoyu, saying that the clothes were ready. Yao Xiaoyu and Tao Xiaoxiao rushed over and were immediately dazzled by the winter clothes hanging in the room.
The clothes were a classic style with a jacket on top and a skirt on the bottom, but the sleeves were gathered and the waist was cinched below the chest. Yao Xiaoyu opened the collar with the Chinese knot buttons and felt a warm sensation when she reached out her hand.
"Is this embroidery present on all the clothes?"
Yao Xiaoyu touched the patterns on the jacket and skirt and asked, "The fabric and embroidery on each outfit are in contrasting colors, but there are no eye-straining red and green styles like those of the thick cotton-padded jackets from Northeast China. They all look quite comfortable."
According to the information she researched in her previous articles, this design should not appear for another ten years or so. Now, with the flapping of a butterfly's wings... Shulan is truly talented.
But making the clothes isn't the real hurdle; the real challenge lies in what happens after they're sold. Yao Xiaoyu hopes Lan Shuangyu can persevere. Once the door to a new world is opened even a crack, the subsequent changes will be much easier. Even if there's a temporary setback, it's just part of the spiral upward process.
"There aren't any cheap ones; I want the most expensive style."
Tao Jingu answered frankly, not worried that Yao Xiaoyu would not pay—this person never shortchanged herself, and besides, no one could refuse such clothes.
Yao Xiaoyu indeed had no intention of switching to a lower-priced style. After paying, she even asked if it was possible to customize. Although mass production is cheaper, there are always some things that don't meet one's expectations. It's better to avoid it in the first place than to modify it afterward.
Tao Jingu only had a general understanding of what was going on with Lan Shuangyu, so he didn't dare to agree immediately. He only said that he would ask Yao Xiaoyu about it later. Yao Xiaoyu left happily, and Tao Xiaoxiao followed silently behind her, the oil paper package she was carrying almost touching the ground.
At this time, things are usually packed in rattan baskets, straw baskets, wooden boxes, or wrapped in cloth. That's where the saying "packing a bundle" comes from. But Yao Xiaoyu didn't consider the transportation issue when she came today, so she had to ask Tao Jingu for help. Tao Jingu then found some oil paper and straw rope and tied the clothes together one by one, just like tying medicine pouches.
Tao Jingu runs a small soap business, but because he wholesales it to others, he usually wraps it in oil paper for them. Some generous vendors will cut the oil paper and use it to pack the soap when they buy it.
Some thrifty people would use lotus leaves or large tree leaves to pack the items, while others would simply tie them with straw rope and send them out. As for the oil paper, it was either for their own use or returned to the Taojingu factory—the factory would recycle the oil paper at a low price and then use it to pack other soaps next time.
However, while hot-process soap making can be done quite roughly these days, cold-process soap making requires more refinement in terms of product and packaging to be profitable, for example...
"Where did this little thief come from!"
Tao Xiaoxiao's loud shout interrupted Yao Xiaoyu's train of thought. She looked up and saw a man running wildly ahead, with Tao Xiaoxiao running behind him. The oil paper package in the man's hand looked very familiar... an oil paper package?!
Yao Xiaoyu instinctively took off to catch up, her feet avoiding people, but her eyes were fixed on Tao Xiaoxiao's hands. One, two, three, plus the two large bags in the man's hands, the numbers matched!
Before Yao Xiaoyu could even get angry, Tao Xiaoxiao had already caught up with the man and kicked him to the ground with a loud, painful kick. This prompted the people around to part the sea, giving Tao Xiaoxiao room to teach him a lesson.
"Misunderstanding, misunderstanding..."
The man tried to argue, but he had an honest-looking face that made him seem very convincing. Some of the onlookers even spoke up for him. Tao Xiaoxiao didn't want to be wronged, so she stepped on the man's chest, snatched the oil paper package, and showed him the cut rope on it.
"As you passed by me, the things I was carrying felt lighter. The rope was cut in the exact same place as my package, so there's no misunderstanding."
The straw rope that Tao Jingu used to tie the oil paper package had been burned at both ends and was covered with black ash from the fire. Only one section of the broken oil paper package showed this mark. Even without finding the knife, there was still natural evidence.
"Injustice, injustice..."
The man was still protesting his innocence. Yao Xiaoyu, who had caught up, was annoyed by what she heard. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and became even angrier. But the man was still not behaving himself. He flipped his wrist and found a razor blade between his fingers. He slashed at Tao Xiaoxiao's ankle. If the cut landed, Tao Xiaoxiao's Achilles tendon would be severed.
"You dare!"
Yao Xiaoyu rushed forward in three quick steps and kicked the man's wrist hard. The blade flashed silver in the air and fell to the ground with a clang. Yao Xiaoyu was still furious and stomped between the man's legs.
"Pfft!"
"ah--"
The man's screams made the male onlookers silently close their legs. Yao Xiaoyu covered her ears and nodded in satisfaction. She had just heard a sound like an egg breaking. With the current medical technology, this man was definitely beyond saving.
"Kill me! Just kill me!"
After the man's screams subsided, a tear rolled down his cheek, and he muttered to himself with a look of utter despair. Yao Xiaoyu couldn't quite understand this mentality of valuing a little bit of flesh more than life, but she chose to respect it and cooperated by looking for the razor blade that had just fallen to the ground... Where was the razor blade?
Yao Xiaoyu looked at the empty ground, then at the various expressions on the faces of the onlookers. She had to admit that their typing speed was incredibly fast, but she was a kind-hearted girl, and she couldn't very well refuse the man's request. So, she very considerately asked the man to wait a little longer.
"I can't find your blade. Let me find where I put the dagger, then I'll slit your throat."
The man's eyes widened as he struggled desperately, shouting things like "murderer" that Yao Xiaoyu couldn't understand—it was clearly the man who said he didn't want to live and begged her to kill him; she was just a kind girl trying to help him fulfill his wish, so what did these words have to do with her?
But the man didn't seem to think that way. He used all sorts of methods and finally managed to break free from Tao Xiaoxiao's feet after losing a leg. Then he scrambled away. Yao Xiaoyu sighed and complained to Tao Xiaoxiao as they walked away that the man's words were indeed not to be trusted.
Onlookers: ...
Perhaps the man had his own intelligence network, because no one else dared to touch the oil-paper package. The five sets of clothes arrived home safely. Yao Xiaoyu, with a touch of ritual, washed and cleaned herself before putting on the new clothes.
Modern new clothes need to be washed, but at this time most clothes were made with natural dyes, and each wash would make them look older. Tao Jingu said that the clothes had already been washed when they were delivered, and Yao Xiaoyu looked at the undergarments she was wearing and decided to believe him.
You should also change into special pajamas when sleeping on either side.
After getting dressed, I look in the mirror, twirl around happily, and then go downstairs to show off. I'm so happy!
Yao Xiaoyu walked around the yard a few times, her excitement subsiding. She noticed some minor imperfections in the one-size-fits-all clothes, but none of them were serious. Yao Xiaoyu planned to have them altered at a tailor shop once the clothes were officially released.
On the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, the narrow-sleeved jackets and skirts from the Blue Bilingual Factory had already been distributed to wholesalers—hence the name, as the garments are slightly narrow at the waist.
This was Lan Shuangyu's do-or-die attempt: she only produced this one style of clothing, and priced it according to details such as embroidery and button styles. If the sales were good, she would have taken the first step and made a breakthrough. If the girls couldn't accept it... well, it would definitely sell like hotcakes.
As Lan Shuangyu struggled to convince herself, the shop had already hung up the jacket and skirt set, and the vendors had taken their positions in the places they thought would sell a lot of clothes.
Yu Leyin is a student at a girls' middle school. On her way to class that day, she saw a vendor selling clothes at the school gate. Her family was well-off, and her clothes were made by a professional tailor. She usually looked down on clothes from outside, but after just one casual glance, she couldn't take her eyes off them.
The fabric is so-so, but the embroidery is decent. It's probably a product of a semi-factory – this was invented by her mother. A semi-factory is a combination of machines and manual labor. This dress is a product of an assembly line, but the embroidery is done stitch by stitch by the embroiderer. This kind of jacket and skirt is a standard example of a semi-factory.
They don't use these kinds of things much. You get what you pay for, especially with clothes. Factory-made clothes can never compare to handmade ones. Tailoring is the best way to make clothes. Mass-produced products always require various modifications to fit perfectly, and these details are really exhausting.
You Leyin felt she should continue walking towards the campus, but in fact she stopped. By the time she came to her senses, You Leyin had completely skipped the part about asking for prices and paying, and entered the campus with her slightly deflated purse and packed clothes.
Oh dear, I'm already at school, so it's not convenient to go out and return the clothes. I'll just keep them for now.
You Leyin convinced herself and hugged the clothes even tighter.
...
Baili Yu walked along the road with a frown on his face and a heavy heart, when he suddenly heard a hawker's cry.
"Beautiful clothes, new clothes, the most beautiful and exquisite clothes..."
Baili Yu looked speechlessly toward the source of the sound, wondering what the vendor, who couldn't even come up with a proper hawking cry, looked like. She wanted to avoid him when buying things in the future... What was that?!
Baili Yu stepped forward and carefully examined the jacket and skirt that the vendor had just displayed. She even touched them, and the vendor did not stop her. There were no patches on the clothes, no dirt on her fingernails, and she had a hairstyle like a girls' school girl. She looked like a generous person.
Generous my ass!
Watching Baili Yu walk away, the vendor finally couldn't help but roll his eyes. He was dressed so well, yet he still had to haggle over a single copper coin. Sure enough, the richer you are, the less you'll let go of anything!
Baili Yu was unaware of the vendor's complaints about her; she was simply delighted that she had managed to buy clothes suitable for a blind date within her budget.
The vendor's deduction was actually correct. Baili Yu was indeed a female student and a generous person, but that was all in the past. Now her family was in decline, and she had to be very careful with every penny. If it weren't for the fact that she was going to meet the young master of the Shangguan family, she would never have spent money to buy new clothes.
A woman's reincarnation and marriage are both opportunities to change her fate. Baili Yu seized the former, but she did not expect the world to change so quickly, and her family fell into ruin. Fortunately, there was the latter - the Shangguan family was extremely wealthy. As long as she could marry into the family, she could live a life of luxury again... and pay her tuition for the last semester and get her graduation certificate.
Baili Yu admitted that she was not a good woman. She had had enough of poverty and could not bear the hardship of struggle. So she went to great lengths to catch the eye of the Shangguan family and get a chance to meet them. As long as the young master did not dislike her, her good life would be secure.
The young master is in his teens, the age when young people are prone to admiration. She is quite beautiful, and a nice outfit would surely please him. A meeting is a battle, and a general needs armor to go to the battlefield. This dress is her battle robe!
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