I played as an assistant in ancient times

Upon hearing this, Yue Jinxuan immediately said, "Niece, based on my relationship with my eldest brother, can we take an even number of thirty taels?"

“Friendship is friendship, and business is business.

Come in and have a seat, and try our farmhouse meal." Shen Changsui also took himself out very straightforwardly, and said to Huang: "Sister-in-law, this is my classmate, the young master of Yueji Cloth Shop and Embroidery Shop."

"Please come in quickly. I'll prepare the meal." Huang invited with a smile.

Yue Jinxuan also bowed without hesitation: "Thank you, sister-in-law. When we were in the academy, we all liked the pickled fish that Brother Changsui prepared."

"Okay, okay, we have some ready-made fish at home. Wait for us." Huang pulled Shen Xiaoye aside again and asked her to go to the warehouse with her to get the fish, so that people would not bargain with her again.

After a while, Shen Xiaoye squatted beside a row of jars, watching her aunt picking up pickled fish according to her number. She sighed, causing Huang to look back and ask, "There's a big business coming to your door, why are you sighing?"

More than thirty taels, even when the family had the escort agency in the past, it was still a considerable amount of monthly income. After all, a partnership business requires various management and wages to be distributed.

Shen Xiaoye held his chin with both hands: "I sighed because I have to find someone to bleach the cloth and pay him before I get the money.

I have to buy some more jars to get all the indigo out at once.

Besides, maybe we should give Yueji a little more discount.”

"Why are you looking for someone? I can wash that little piece of cloth by myself." Huang selected the fish and patted her on the shoulder to signal her to go out.

Shen Xiaoye hugged her arm and said, "Aunt, I don't make money to make you work non-stop. Three hundred pieces of cloth are not three pieces. One or two people can't finish washing them in three to five days.

Can you help me find someone to wash ten pieces of cloth for ten cents each? Is that enough?"

"But you can earn a few copper coins by rubbing a piece of cloth in the river water when you have time, and the wives in the village are eager to do it.

After dyeing, we can ask them to mill the cloth. How about 15 cents for 10 pieces?" Huang also sighed, because she really couldn't finish bleaching in a few days. It was good enough to arrange the cloth that Erniu had sent.

Cloth milling means rolling the cloth onto a smooth stone slab, pressing concave stones and stepping on the two ends to rotate the cloth so as to make it tighter and smoother. Large workshops have several special foot-milling workers to operate the operation, while in the countryside, women put the cloth on a stone roller and beat it with a mallet.

This requires a lot of technique and strength. Shen Xiaoye tried it herself, but she couldn't do it, so she naturally agreed to her aunt's suggestion. Everyone can make money, and although it's not much, it can buy a few kilograms of food.

She would rather dye thousands of pieces of cloth every month and give the aunts and sisters in the village the opportunity to earn more pocket money.

Because of the labor cost, she was unwilling to give in when bargaining with Yue Jinxuan after dinner.

The other party had another trick. When the carts carrying cloth came to unload the cloth, Yue Jinxuan pointed at one of them and said, "See? These three big bags of scraps are for your family. Ten cents."

"Weigh this according to your regulations. It should be the required amount." Shen Changsui vetoed it.

Yue Jinxuan pulled out a piece of red cloth, and when he and the others were further away from the carriages and horses, he whispered, "Brother Changsui, look, among the cloths I brought, there are dozens of them that were originally colored.

You can certainly save a few steps, and don't add any patterns to the white cotton cloth. Can you give me a discount?

And niece, the cloth you dye sells for four cents a piece, and I have to sell these at five cents a piece after dyeing, and it’s not easy to sell them all.”

Shen Changsui on the side did not respond, nor would he make a decision for Xiaoye.

Shen Xiaoye knew that he would bring up these two points. She knew that she just got a chance to get a gray silk print. Otherwise, dyeing just one color would only cost a few dozen coins per piece in the south, not five coins per foot.

After thinking for a moment, she said, "The texture is different and the origin is different. People who like Songjiang cloth and can afford it will not buy my cheap cloth."

"How about this, I'll give you two taels, no more." She seriously suspected that the other party was going to ship the cloth outside the customs to be sold, at five cents a piece, no, it would be more than eight cents.

The cloth she collected could be sold at four cents a piece, which was already a high price, and she has not sold any yet.

Yue Jinxuan still refused, "Remove a zero, remove a zero, and dye the cloth in the future, oh no." He didn't want to go through the trouble of dyeing the cloth again, so he changed his words and said, "In the future, what kind of cloth do you need, what kind of embroidery do you buy, I'll give you 20%, okay?"

"No." Shen Xiaoye was not going to buy luxury goods. How many cents was a pound of cloth?

Yue Jinxuan: "Let's discuss it further..."

Shen Changsui just watched the two of them bargaining back and forth for several hours just for a few taels of silver. He couldn't help but shake his head and laugh.

He knew that Xiaoye would make concessions in the end. After all, there was a dyeing factory in the next county. The Yue family not only knew the market conditions but also delivered cloth to the door. The little girl didn't want to just do a one-time deal.

"Mom, you see, there are so many cloths that need to be dyed red. When Taoist Hengxi comes to see you and prescribe medicine, can you confirm the time to go to Taixu Temple?" Shen Changsui went to discuss with Lin who was counting.

Lin thought for a moment and said, "How about asking your uncle to take you to bring it back?"

He advised again: "Xiao Ye will definitely not want to go. Uncle and I are watching, and Taoist Priest Hengxi is escorting back and forth. Mother, it's only a hundred miles. It's safe to take the official road instead of the waterway."

"Let me think about it." Lin planned to delay for three or four days to see if her husband could get home by then.

It's true that on the afternoon when they were busy preparing lime, urns, and indigo-making tools at home and had asked the girls and wives in the village to rinse the cloth, Shen Shanyou and his son arrived home.

They came back with a nervous mood, not knowing how to talk about choosing an auspicious day to bury their loved ones. But when they arrived at the door, they saw all kinds of cloth hanging in and out of the yard, but no one was there.

The father and son looked at each other and thought they had taken the wrong path when they heard Xiao Ye's surprised voice: "Grandpa, uncle, you are back!"

Shen Xiaoye looked again and saw that his grandfather was holding a large wooden box and his uncle was carrying a bag full of things on his shoulder.

Her eyes fell on the wooden box and she stopped smiling, "Grandpa, did you bring them back?"

"Xiao...Xiao Ye, do you know?" Uncle Shen Changshou asked with great difficulty.

She nodded gently and went forward to take the box from grandpa's arms, but found that the old man was holding it tightly, "Grandpa, grandma has fainted from worrying too much these days.

The doctor told her to be more cheerful. Her family had received more than thirty taels of dyeing cloth, and she was very happy!

I'll take them home first and then tell grandma later, okay?"

"Where is she?" Shen Shanyou heard his old wife's voice, faintly coming from the east courtyard which was only surrounded by an earthen wall. He then let go of her hand and strode towards the east courtyard.

Shen Changshou wanted to say, "Dad, wait for me," but then he changed his mind and decided to accompany his niece into the house first, "Xiao Ye, let me go to my room."

"No, put it where I am." As soon as Shen Xiaoye finished speaking, Shen Changsui rushed over and snatched the wooden box, "Put it in the room in the middle of the west wing.

Xiao Ye went to prepare the table, incense and candles, and invited them to rest in the west wing. "