Crossing the Unknown Country

Su He came to the cloth shop and asked the proprietress directly: "Aunt Haokan, do you have any cheaper cloth here? We want to buy more."

The lady boss smiled and said, "Oh, this kid is really sweet. I actually have a few batches of fabrics that have been soaked in water and have flowery fabrics. Do you want any? This is the cheapest coarse fabric."

Su He nodded quickly and said, "Thank you, Auntie. We'll see if we can buy them all. If we can't buy them all, we'll bring some villagers to buy them tomorrow."

The proprietress laughed and said, "This child is really smart. Let me go get some cloth."

After a while, three pieces of coarse cloth were brought out from the house, black, navy blue, and gray, but they were all in pieces. Su He said that she wanted all three pieces, and the proprietress generously gave them the lowest price of 300 wen per piece, a total of 900 wen. In fact, these cloths had problems during transportation, and the merchant gave them to her at half the price. She still made money by selling them to Su He, but it was less. It depends on her mood to give to whom she is happy. Today, she is in a good mood, so she will give the remaining three pieces to this family at a low price, just as a good deed for herself!

Su He saw that one piece of cloth could make many clothes, and these three pieces were enough for the two families to make quilts and clothes. Even the uncle's family had some, so he went back and told his uncle that he bought them with the money his brothers earned from copying books.

What Su He wanted most when he came here was for the whole family to wear clean and tidy clothes, so that they could have two sets of clothes to change. This time, it was realized in one go. He went to find persimmon leaves and dyed them gray. Dye them a few times to make them black and gray, and then dye all the cloth again. There was no big pot, so he made the clothes directly and then dyed them.

Su Heniang was very happy. She bought the cloth at such a low price. The family didn't need to buy cloth for the next few years. She bought three pieces of cloth for less than the price of two pieces of cloth. It was a great deal. She went home and made new clothes for the whole family. This was the first time she wore new clothes before the New Year.

Su He said happily: "It looks great, Auntie. We will buy a lot of cloth in the future, so we bought it from you. Thank you for your care this time."

The lady boss smiled and said, "Okay, I'm waiting for you to buy a lot of cloth, and I'll give you a discount next time."

After they left the cloth shop and walked a long way, they cheered in a low voice. They really made money this time. They saved a lot of money. They didn't need to buy anything now. They just had to go home quickly. So much cloth would be too conspicuous. The family packed their things separately. Su He's parents and eldest brother each carried a piece of cloth. The second brother carried some food, and Su He was carried by her father. Su He looked at her short legs and thought it was too inconvenient. She suggested to her parents to take a bullock cart back home. Although it would cost more money, it would save effort.

My parents said seriously, "We bought so much cloth, it would be bad if the villagers knew about it. We should just walk back slowly. This way, when we get home it will be dark, many people will go home for dinner, and there will be few people on the main road in the village so we won't see them."

It's better to be low-key and not waste money. Su He could only walk back with his parents. His two brothers said it was not a long way and they could get there in a short walk without feeling tired. Su He knew that everyone wanted to save money, but they were still too poor. They would wait until they had money in the future!

The family bought a few steamed buns and ate them while walking home. My parents and two brothers felt that they would not feel tired no matter how far they walked if they had white steamed buns. Su He ate a steamed bun and stopped eating. He left it for his parents and brothers to eat. He didn't walk much, so they needed to eat more to have energy.

On the way, Su He told his parents: "I want to dye these cloths again." After thinking about it, they agreed.

Her mother also said: "What do we need to do at home? We have only heard of dyeing cloth, but we have never done it."

Su He thought that persimmon leaves and many other leaves had colors, so they should be able to be used to dye cloth. So he thought about going home to mash them, put them into water to cook the cloth, and then dry them to try. Anyway, the colors of these cloths were not good, and they could not be dyed. But he had to use his own rice cooker to cook them, and he didn't know if it would work.

Her father said, "That's okay, just wash the pot a few more times."

Su He thought that it was fortunate that they had a big iron pot at home, otherwise they would have to buy another pot, which would cost a lot of money. Iron pots are not cheap. Su He saw that a large iron pot sold in a blacksmith shop cost one or two taels of silver, and a small one cost six hundred coins. If the clay pot was not durable, who would be willing to spend so much money on a pot? Their family has now found a way to make more money. In the past, their annual income could only buy two pots.

They discussed how to dye faster, and finally dyed the finished clothes first, and then dyed the remaining pieces of cloth together. In this way, they were all dyed dark together, and it would not be obvious that the cloth was damaged.

It was already dark when they got home. They took a few breaks on the way, managing their time so that they could get home just as it got dark. They really didn't meet anyone from the village, as everyone went home to eat and sleep when it got dark.

The family washed and wiped, drank some rice porridge and went to sleep. The cloth was very heavy on their backs, and they were very tired when they got home. They just rubbed salt on the meat and put it in a basin of water to keep it in the ice. They would get up early tomorrow morning to make stuffing and steam the buns. The weather is not too hot now, otherwise they would have to make it no matter how tired they were.