Chapter 116: Recruitment
Aunt Ma helps people with needlework here, and now the soldiers from the garrison also send their clothes here to be mended and washed.
Seeing Song Liyun come in, the women stood up and made room for her.
Song Liyun has been in Suijin Town for such a long time, but she has never seen women gathering together.
Seeing that everyone was very reserved, he smiled and said, "Sisters-in-law, aunts, please take a seat. Don't be polite!"
Not long after Song Liyun arrived in Suijin Town, she met Aunt Ma through the introduction of Boss Mu. The clothes, shoes and socks of the three siblings were all made by Aunt Ma, and she was most familiar with Song Liyun.
Seeing that everyone was feeling awkward, Aunt Ma immediately tried to smooth things over: "Come, everyone sit on the kang. Don't be afraid. Miss Song is a very nice person.
You must have heard from the men that this winter Miss Song delivered food and firewood to the nursing home.
Mr. Zhang has praised it several times in public and behind people's backs, saying that the big kang in the hall will be warmer this year."
Several women here have seen Song Liyun to some extent, but they are not familiar with her. They were also frightened by her beating people in the street, and they all said privately that they were afraid that she was a difficult person to deal with.
Seeing Song Liyun speaking with a smile and in a friendly manner, without the terrifying aura of that day, and with what Ma's wife said, they also relaxed, but they spoke carefully, fearing that they would anger Song Liyun and get slapped in the face.
Song Liyun brought cotton and cloth, and the women naturally talked about clothes and the like.
Aunt Ma had received the news a long time ago. Two days ago, Song Liyun said she wanted to make three sets of gowns. When she saw the new cloth coming, she knew that the time had come.
He pulled the cloth bag over and took a look at it, then he exclaimed, "Oh! This is top-quality Qingfu cloth, thick and durable. This piece must be worth at least three hundred coins!"
She was holding a piece of thick stone-blue cloth, which Song Liyun bought for the two brothers in Qili County.
The two men were of small stature, so one piece of cloth was enough to make two sets of clothes, large and small.
When Song Liyun heard Aunt Ma say it cost three hundred coins, she smiled and didn't mention that the cloth cost five hundred coins. She just said, "I also bought a piece of twill cloth, and my sister-in-law will make me a set as well."
In the past, Song Shuirong sold the red wedding dress and other clothes in her box to a second-hand clothing store, and one of them was bought by Xu Yaner.
The three brothers and sisters were all wearing old clothes that had been altered. Even if they didn't care about their clothes, they should wear new clothes during the Chinese New Year.
Aunt Ma looked through the cloth and new cotton prepared for Han Ming and Hei Jin, praising them: "They are all good cloths. Hey! All these things together will cost you one or two taels of silver."
She asked how much money she wanted, and several other women came over, touching and looking at her, with envy in their eyes.
Living in town, they seldom have money to buy new clothes.
Now the Song family sells acorn tofu and vegetables to the garrison, and their lives are getting better and better.
Finally, a young wife spoke up, "Miss Song, I heard from Mr. Zhang at the Elderly Care Center that you'd like to ask them to peel acorns. Are you willing to pay?"
Song Liyun smiled and said, "I always ask people to help me with work, so of course I have to pay them, but I didn't give them money. I gave Uncle Zhang and the others acorn flour and firewood."
Although the young wife was shy, she still mustered up the courage to say, "We can also help you with the work. We also want acorn tofu and firewood, is that okay?"
It's only the twelfth lunar month now, and it's still a long way to go before March when we can pick wild vegetables. I also heard that there has been another war on the border, and food prices have risen sharply everywhere.
The isolated nature of Suijin Town has its advantages. Everyone is self-sufficient, and few families buy food. Even news is spread slowly by others.
But even these scattered words make everyone worried, fearing that they will return to those terrible days.
Now every family can only make the porridge thinner and try to eat it with multi-grain acorn noodles.
If we can get the Song family's non-bitter acorn tofu now, we can save a lot of food.
In the past, Song Liyun might have needed to consider polishing herself and hiding her shortcomings, but now that she and Song Zhenping have become famous after a battle, it is impossible for her to keep a low profile.
In addition, although his fresh vegetables have never been publicized, now that Xue Zhuang has started selling them, the fact that he makes a lot of money will soon become a household name.
She doesn't need to hide anymore.
I originally thought that there would be more opportunities to hire people in the future, but now that the question has come to me, I might as well start now.
However, she didn't know most of the people in Suijin Town. People needed to be used, so she had to observe them first.
Song Liyun didn't answer for a moment. The young wife was also very anxious and couldn't help asking again: "My husband and I are farmers. Although we have more than ten acres of land, we have a large family of seven or eight people, young and old. Relying on the land alone is not enough to feed us, so we want to find some work."
"There are seven or eight people in your family, how could it be..." Song Liyun was a little surprised. There were not many families that could be together in Suijin Town.
The young wife looked only twenty years old and was a quick-witted person. It was obvious that she was somewhat proud of the size of her family.
"Miss Song, I know what you want to ask. Tell me the truth! I'm the only one in this room with my whole family.
In the past, my parents-in-law were honest people. They didn’t dare to wash the gold sand, so they just farmed and picked pine nuts and wild fruits to exchange for money.
When the bandits came with their men, my family was collecting acorns and staying in the mountains, so we escaped the disaster."
The young wife chattered for a while and said that she had not yet married at that time, and she got married half a year after the tragedy. At that time, Suijin Town had returned to peace, which did not prevent her from getting married, having children, and becoming a mother, so she did not feel the pain.
But several women in the room were furious, as their family members had been robbed and killed.
Song Liyun had no intention of hurting anyone's feelings, so she simply said to her young wife, "Of course your family can help me with the work, but it's Chinese New Year now, and everyone needs to prepare for the festival. So, why not wait until after the New Year to do the work?"
When the young wife heard that she could get some work, she was immediately happy. It was after the New Year, and now she could get some laundry and mending work from Aunt Ma to supplement the family income.
When the other women heard that they could take the job, they also became interested. An extra pound of grains would make the porridge thicker, so they were willing to do it.
Song Liyun saw what they were thinking and also agreed to give them work after the New Year. Everyone smiled.
After chatting for a few more words, the young wife named Chuntao left happily with some clothes that needed to be washed.
The other women didn't sit for long either, and said goodbye to Song Liyun and left.
Aunt Ma was watching from the side, and she was happy to see that Song Liyun agreed to find work for everyone.
Now the only thing these women can do is to wash clothes for the soldiers in the garrison, and they are paid one penny for two pieces of clothes.
These women were idle anyway, and they could earn a few cents by heating hot water on the stove.
When the weather gets warmer, the soldiers will be able to wash themselves, and they won't even be able to earn these three or five cents.
If Song Liyun could get some work, such as peeling acorns at the nursing home, she could have a few more pounds of acorn flour to fill her stomach during the spring famine.
At this time, Aunt Ma was in a good mood. While taking Song Liyun's measurements and making clothes for her, she talked about the gossips of each household in the town.
In the past, she never mentioned those sad things.
After listening to her talk, Song Liyun finally understood why Boss Mu's family originally lived in Qili County, but still stayed in Suijin Town to open a store.
(End of this chapter)
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