Joyful Motherhood in a Rural Family

Chapter 40 - 40:  38: Show Sincerity

Translator: 549690339

Upon leaving the rice and grain store, Di Yelei led everyone to a clothing store.

Sisi only had two summer dresses when she came, and she didn’t even have any extra clothes for changing.

Still unable to make up his mind after looking at the ready-made clothes for a long time, Di Yelei asked, “Sisi, which dress do you like?”

Seeing Di Yelei letting her choose the dress, Liu Sisi’s eyes lit up – buying dresses was a woman’s favorite thing!

Pointing to the light purple dress she liked, she asked, “Shopkeeper, how much is this dress?”

The shopkeeper hurriedly came over from behind the counter and glanced at the dress. “Customer, this dress is 150 copper coins. How many would you like to buy?”

“That’s expensive!”

Liu Sisi was startled and asked while pointing to the cloths beside her, “What about these cloth pieces?”

“Our store’s silk is 600 copper coins per bolt, cotton is 300 copper coins, inferior cloth is 200 copper coins. These pieces of cloth are two feet two inches wide and twelve yards long. One bolt can make three large clothes or four dresses: two large and two small. Which one do you want?” The shopkeeper’s voice was very steady, almost no ups and downs.

The shopkeeper’s meaning was clear – if you want to save money, buy a bolt of cloth and make the clothes yourself.

Liu Sisi touched a bolt of dark blue fine cotton cloth, and ten thousand grass-mud horses galloped through her heart.

A ready-made dress costs 150 copper coins, while a fine cotton cloth costs 300 copper coins and can make four dresses. Naturally, it’s more cost-effective to make them yourself.

As Sisi looked at the bolts of cloth, she felt extremely torn. Whether the original owner could make clothes or not, she wasn’t sure. However, as for her, while small tasks like sewing and patching were manageable, making clothes felt like a death sentence!

Liu Sisi turned her head and looked at the inferior cloth on one side. She couldn’t help but flip through it for a moment. She found that compared with fine cotton cloth, besides the slightly inferior quality, some of these cloth pieces also had obvious weaving mistakes and small damages.

Among these inferior cloths, she even found half a bolt of silk that was clearly leftover from someone’s cutting. This half silk had weaving mistakes and damages, but the worst thing was the messy colors.

“Shopkeeper, this cloth is…?”

“Oh, it’s just some fine silk that was accidentally ruined by the dyeing and printing female worker when she knocked over the dyes.”

The shopkeeper spoke calmly, but indeed the batch of silk was ruined after the dyeing and printing female worker knocked over the dyes, leaving tiny holes in it. The servants tried to remedy it by throwing the silk into an ink pool and reworking it, hoping to dye it black to compensate for the loss. However, the resulting cloth was just like this… a riot of colors and a complete mess!

If they were to rework it again, not only would it require more costs, but the silk fabric was also clearly unable to withstand another round of processing, so it could only be sold cheaply as atonement!

Liu Sisi stared at the silk with her eyes and touched the thin fabric, feeling that it was very similar to the silk flower material she had bought for YingEr before. She immediately had an idea.

In the end, she raised her head abruptly, “Shopkeeper, is all the damaged silk here? Do you have any more?”

The shopkeeper’s eyes lit up, and it was the first time he took a closer look at them. “Yes! There are six bolts of this silk. However, their conditions are the same… the other five are even worse.” He originally didn’t want to mention it, but then he decided to add that anyway.

To the shopkeeper’s surprise, Liu Sisi was very happy. “Could you please take them out so that I can take a look?”

“Of course.”

The shopkeeper left for a moment and carried out several bolts of silk. Indeed, the colors on these silks were even messier than before!

“Shopkeeper, I will take all of these cloth pieces! And also, that dress and this bolt of fine cotton cloth, how much will they cost in total?” Liu Sisi’s eyes sparkled like little stars in the sky.

The shopkeeper was also very happy. This batch of silk had been lying in his shop for nearly a year without anyone interested in it. Selling it now, however much he sold it for, would be a profit!

“Since you want them all, I’ll give you a discount! Let’s count the dress as 120 copper coins, fine cotton cloth as 280 copper coins, and these silks at 250 copper coins per bolt!”

Liu Sisi was taken aback. “Shopkeeper, didn’t you just say that the inferior cloth is 200 copper coins per bolt? Why is the price higher now that I want to buy more?”

“I said that the inferior cloth is 200 copper coins per bolt, but these are silk, not inferior cloth!”

Looking at the calculative shopkeeper, Liu Sisi was speechless. Was he trying to rip her off?

“Oh, so these aren’t inferior cloths? I must have misheard then. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough silver. Shopkeeper, can you give us a discount? Let’s say the dress and this bolt of fine cotton cloth cost 380 copper coins.”

The shopkeeper was stunned. How did the silk suddenly become unwanted?

He quickly reacted, “That’s not going to work! The lowest price for these two items is 400 copper coins, not a penny less!”

“Fine, 400 copper coins, shopkeeper, please take care of it.”

Liu Sisi was laughing in her heart, while she carried the cloth and dress to leave. The reason she haggled was because she was afraid the shopkeeper would go back to the original price.

The shopkeeper was a bit slow to react. He lifted his head to look at the departing group, then lowered his gaze to the silks. It had been over a year since anyone had inquired about this silk. Who knew how long it would take to sell it again?

“Miss, wait! Wait!”

The shopkeeper hurriedly called the group to a stop. “Let’s talk about the money. You can also take two bolts first and use them. If you need more, you can come back to our store next time. I will give you a discount to guarantee the most favorable price. How about that?”

Liu Sisi had long expected the other party to stop them, so she wasn’t surprised at all!

She gave a cold laugh, “Shopkeeper, let’s not beat around the bush! I have to wash off the colors on these inferior cloths and re-dye them. Maybe I can make a small profit by doing this. You are charging such a high price, not even giving me a sip of soup. What’s the point of me buying these silks? These silks are not even as good as worn-out cotton cloth, and they can’t even be used for shoe soles.”

To tell the truth, it was exactly as Liu Sisi said!

Otherwise, these silks wouldn’t have been sitting in the shop for so long without anyone inquiring about them. The shopkeeper felt bitter in his heart.

Di Yelei had been quietly holding the hands of the two children and closely followed Liu Sisi. Although he didn’t understand what Sisi was doing, he had an instinctual trust in her.

If she wanted to buy these damaged cloths, there must be a reason behind it.