Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

"Yes, yes, we have some new patterns that just arrived in our shop yesterday. Let me show you." The shop assistant looked at the clothes Liu Shi and Xia Yu were wearing and took down several bolts of fabric from the back shelf.

"Sister-in-law, take a look and see if there's anything you like. These patterns just arrived yesterday, and I put them up last night."

Looking at the several bolts of fabric on the counter, mostly thick cotton, suitable for making winter clothes, there were also two bolts of brightly colored silk. Seeing that Liu's hand brushed past the silk and only touched the cotton, the shop assistant smiled and introduced, "Sister-in-law, these are all new patterns from the South, the most fashionable ones right now."

"How much is this cotton fabric?" Liu asked, pointing to a bolt of dark blue fabric.

"The plain ones are twenty-five coins a foot, and the printed ones are twenty-seven coins a foot," the shopkeeper explained to Mrs. Liu, pointing to the fabrics on the table.

"How can the price be so wrong? I bought cotton cloth a few months ago for only twenty coins a foot. Your price is dishonest," Liu said to the shop assistant, looking somewhat angry.

"Oh, sister-in-law, you said it yourself, it was a few months ago. Back then, the fabric was thinner, and the price was indeed twenty copper coins per foot. Look at the fabric now, it's so thick! The amount of cotton thread used is significantly more than before. And the printed fabric is much more complicated to make than the plain colored fabric, so the printed fabric is a few copper coins more expensive than the plain fabric. Our shop has been an established business in this county for many years, and we're honest and trustworthy. Sister-in-law, you can buy with confidence; the price will definitely not be more expensive than elsewhere."

"Can you give me a discount if I buy a lot?"

"Well... I can't make that decision!" the shop assistant said, scratching his head with some difficulty. He was quite happy to hear that Mrs. Liu wanted a lot, but he really couldn't decide the price. So, his eyes lit up and he thought of a solution, saying to Mrs. Liu...

"Why don't you choose first, which pattern and how much you want? Our shopkeeper will be here soon, and he'll give you a discount."

Liu remained noncommittal, silently calculating in her mind who needed how many sets of clothes to make and how much fabric was required. She carefully felt the differences in the texture of several different fabrics, and asked Xia Yu to help her choose. It took more than ten minutes before she finally decided what she roughly wanted.

"One dark blue horse, one light blue horse, one grayish-brown horse, six feet of apricot yellow, twenty feet of green, and twenty feet of light red." The shopkeeper excitedly jotted down every word Liu Shi uttered, thinking to himself, "What a big customer! What a big customer! I never expected to have a god of wealth come knocking on my door as soon as I open it." However, despite this, he still thoughtfully offered a reminder...

"Sister-in-law, a bolt of cloth costs forty feet. Are you sure you can get that much?" After asking, he nervously stared at Liu, afraid of hearing the word "not sure" from her.

"Forty feet? Isn't it fifty feet?" Liu remembered that the piece of scrap she bought last time was fifty feet.

"Our summer cloth is thin, and each bolt is fifty feet long. The fabric we have now is thicker, so each bolt is forty feet long. If one bolt isn't enough, we can cut more," the shop assistant enthusiastically suggested.

"No need, just take it as I said."

Finally, Liu picked out a piece of crimson jacquard silk, which was more expensive than the one she had seen last time, costing one hundred coins per foot. Liu ordered three feet.

"When it gets warmer next year, I'll make you two silk dresses. These few feet of red ones are for your second aunt's unborn child." Hearing her mother's explanation, Xia Yu found it somewhat amusing. Was her mother afraid that she would be angry if she didn't buy her silk fabric?

"Mom, are you worried I'll be jealous of my little brother? Silk is comfortable to wear, but we can't really wear it when we're cooking at home, otherwise a spark could easily leave a hole." As she said this, Xia Yu suddenly thought of the silk pajamas from her previous life. They couldn't wear them for work, but they could sleep in. Next year when it gets warmer, they'll buy some silk fabric and have her mother make them pajamas, and bedding too. Thinking of bedding, Xia Yu also thought of silk quilts. It seems they need to start raising silkworms quickly so they can make a few silk quilts to improve sleeping comfort.

"What are you daydreaming about?" When Liu saw her daughter start to space out halfway through her sentence, she waved her hand in front of her eyes.

"It's nothing, I was just thinking about raising silkworms next year."

The shop assistant placed all the materials that Mrs. Liu had ordered on the counter, waiting for the shopkeeper to come and settle the bill. Fearing that they might get impatient and leave, the shop assistant attentively served the mother and daughter tea and snacks prepared by the shop, asking them to sit and wait patiently.

The shop assistant kept peeking out the door, and finally, just as he was about to lose all hope, the shopkeeper arrived. Before the shopkeeper even entered, the young assistant quickly told him what fabric Liu and her family had ordered and, on Liu's behalf, expressed their desire for a discount.

Upon hearing that they had ordered so much fabric, the shopkeeper quickly stepped forward to apologize to Madam Liu and her companions, saying he was sorry to have kept them waiting and that he would definitely give them a discount.

Then he went back behind the counter, picked up the abacus, and started calculating rapidly. Seeing that he had finished, Liu and Xia Yu put down their cups and came to the counter to look at the shopkeeper.

"Madam, our colored cloth is 25 coins per foot. I'll give you a discount of one coin per foot, so it'll be 24 coins per foot. You've ordered 166 feet of cotton cloth, which is 3,984 coins. Jacquard silk is 100 coins per foot. You ordered 3 feet, so that'll be 295 coins. Thank you for your kind offer. The total is 4,279 coins." In front of the mother and daughter, the shopkeeper counted the abacus beads again, explaining as he did so.

Madam Liu silently calculated in her mind that she had saved more than a hundred coins, and the storyteller had been quite sincere. She then took out a five-tael silver ingot from her sleeve.

Seeing that Liu Shi didn't haggle anymore and paid promptly, the shopkeeper was overjoyed. After giving Liu Shi the change, he kindly asked where she lived so he could deliver the goods to her door.

"No need, the child's father will come to pick us up in a while. Shopkeeper, do you have any fabric to sell?"

"Processed cloth? You mean cloth with defects?" The shopkeeper looked at her suspiciously, asking uncertainly. After all, families who could buy over a hundred feet of cloth at once were generally well-off. He was afraid he had misheard or misunderstood her and might offend her.

"Yes, that's what you mean, a defective piece of cloth. Is there? I'd like to see it." Liu repeated herself, noticing the shopkeeper's uncertain expression.

"Yes, yes, please wait a moment, I'll go find it for you right away." With that, she ran off to the storeroom in the backyard like a whirlwind.