After Li Mai confirmed with the shopkeeper that she would buy a brocade robe for Zhou Quan, she also selected two pieces of fine cotton casual clothes for him. Only then did she turn to look at Zhou Quan and meet his blank stare.
What's wrong? You seem a little excited? It's just buying a few clothes, is there any need to be so agitated?
"Wait a little longer, it'll be soon!" Li Mai smiled at him, then pointed at Zhou Lei and said to the shopkeeper, "Prepare two outfits for my brother as well, matching inside and out. He's going to study, so just prepare clothes suitable for students, one brocade robe and one fine cotton one."
The shopkeeper agreed. Although Zhou Lei was only ten years old, he was taller than other children his age and looked like he was twelve or thirteen. After the shopkeeper helped him choose clothes, Li Mai also picked out two outfits for Old Man Zhou and Zhao Shi.
Finally, I bought two outfits for myself and Xiaotaozhuzhu as well.
This time she didn't buy fabric; she bought ready-made clothes for her family instead.
As for the shoes, she plans to bring them to town another day to try them on herself.
Nowadays, shops sell clothes separately from shoe shops, so you can't buy both at the same time.
After the shopkeeper arranged for the waiter to help load the three large bags of clothes onto the oxcart, Li Mai paid the nineteen taels of silver.
The whole family each had two sets of clothes, totaling nineteen taels of silver. The most expensive items were the three brocade robes bought for Zhou Quan, Zhou Lin, and Zhou Lei.
The rest weren't expensive, especially the cotton dresses and the tulle skirts for the three girls, which were priced in a way that ordinary people could afford.
Seeing that Li Mai was so generous in buying so much at once, the shopkeeper gave her some extra scraps of fabric similar to the clothes, which she could use to make shoes, sachets, purses, money bags, and handkerchiefs.
Li Mai thanked the shopkeeper, thought for a moment, and said, "Shopkeeper, thank you for giving me so many pieces of cloth. Well then, I'll give you something nice in return."
As she spoke, she asked the shopkeeper to find a strip of white cloth, about ten feet long, and then used a fine brush to draw markings on it, one centimeter at a time, making a simple soft ruler.
Then she taught the shopkeeper how to use it: use the shortest mark at one centimeter, a slightly longer mark at five centimeters, and an even longer mark at ten centimeters, writing a smaller "1"; write "1 meter" at one meter, and "2 meters" at two meters.
The numbers 1 and 2 are simple; Li Mai taught them to the shopkeeper, and he remembered them. For the three-meter mark, he simply wrote "one zhang" (丈).
The shopkeeper's eyes widened as he looked at the item; it seemed quite good.
"This is very convenient for measuring the body; the markings are easy to read," Li Mai instructed the shopkeeper, showing him the measurements.
Then he measured Zhou Quan's body and taught him how to recognize the measurements, which the shopkeeper carefully noted down.
Li Mai had him measure Xiao Er several more times until he had memorized the measurements. Li Mai smiled and said, "The shopkeeper is very clever. That's it. You'll be more accurate when you measure customers in the future."
"Thank you, thank you, madam, please wait a moment!"
The shopkeeper noticed a glance from a young man in the customer group, went over and picked up a fur-trimmed cloak and placed it in front of Li Mai.
"I noticed that you looked at this fur cloak a few times earlier, so I suppose you like it very much. I'm giving it to you to thank you for teaching me this method. It's been a great help to us. Otherwise, we usually have to measure customers by hand, which is never accurate."
Li Mai smiled. She enjoyed dealing with people of conscience like this. She glanced at it and confirmed that it was indeed to her liking. She accepted it. "Thank you, shopkeeper. My husband's surname is Zhou, and mine is Li. Farewell!"
"Alright, see you again sometime!" The shopkeeper nodded and personally saw the family out.
Old Man Zhou only came in when Zhou Lei called him, and together they carried Zhou Quan out. Li Mai followed behind, carrying the fur cloak.
Just before getting into the carriage, Li Mai glanced back at the young man in black who was looking back at her. She hadn't missed the innkeeper; he had given her the cloak after receiving a look from him.
I suppose that young master must be the owner.
Since the other party knew how to be grateful, she accepted the gift with a clear conscience.
"Wheat, where are we going?" Old Man Zhou asked Li Mai as they left Jinluyi Workshop.
"Let's find a butcher shop and see if they have any meat. We'll buy some pork to take home. It's been a long time since we've had dumplings. Let's make some and have a dumpling feast. We also need to prepare the braised pork we promised the chef," Li Mai said.
“Okay!” Old Man Zhou led them directly to a slaughterhouse to buy pork, as they probably wouldn’t be able to buy good meat at the shops outside that afternoon.
When she saw Old Man Zhou leading them directly to the slaughterhouse, Li Mai wondered if there would still be meat there in the afternoon. However, since she was already there, she followed along and took a look at the slaughterhouse.
She had to admit that the environment was very dirty and chaotic. She felt that in the future, she would just buy meat directly from the shop, out of sight, out of mind.
Then, Li Mai discovered that they had piled up a lot of pork bones and ribs in several large baskets, with flies buzzing around them.
"Boss, how much are these bones?" Li Mai asked.
"Those that nobody buys, we've been selling them to restaurants and bone broth noodle shops for a few hundred coins a basket to make bone broth," a person walking over said kindly to Li Mai after glancing at her.
"Could you weigh out fifty coins for me?" Li Mai asked.
"Do you know how to make bone broth?" the man asked.
"Yes, actually there are many ways to eat this besides making bone broth!" Li Mai thought of braised pork ribs and decided to buy some to satisfy her craving.
"What other ways are there to eat it?"
Someone actually weighed her, and asked Li Mai curiously.
"Braised pork ribs, stewed pork ribs, pan-fried pork ribs, fried pork ribs, steamed pork ribs are all fine," Li Mai listed the dishes she could cook.
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