Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

"Go, I'll go, I'll go!" Jinghe excitedly raised her hand and shouted. "Then let's go together," Liu said, seeing her daughter's high spirits, and also wanted to go and see.

So the group of people each took their own baskets and headed to the embroidery shop together.

After walking for ten minutes, they arrived at the town's only embroidery shop. Upon entering, Jinghe was stunned by the variety of embroidered items displayed. The shop sold everything imaginable, from small handkerchiefs and purses to large items like curtains and bedding. The embroidered patterns were exquisite. These were things she couldn't afford in her previous life. Well, it seemed she still couldn't afford them now. This was all hand-embroidered, unlike the machine-made embroidery she'd seen in tourist areas in her previous life. While it didn't reach the level of lifelike quality, it was still incredibly impressive for Jinghe, a country bumpkin in both her past and present lives.

While Jinghe was still drooling over the embroidery in the room, Li was already talking to the shopkeeper. Li seemed to have been here before selling knotted fabric, as the two seemed quite familiar with each other. The shopkeeper took the knotted fabric she had brought, looked at one of them, and exclaimed, "Seventh Sister, your hands are so skillful! Every knotted fabric you bring is so exquisite. How about I give you eight coins for one?"

Li smiled and nodded, then said to the female shopkeeper, "Fifth Sister, I need to buy some more silk thread. How much do you think it costs? Deduct it from the money for the netting."

"Okay, go pick the color, I'll give you the lowest price," the female shopkeeper said generously.

Hearing Li call her "Fifth Sister," Jinghe was a little confused. She didn't expect that her second aunt was related to this female shopkeeper and called her "Fifth Sister." They must be from the same clan.

Slowly moving closer to Madam Liu, who was looking at embroidered pillowcases, Jinghe asked her in a low voice: "Mother, is this shopkeeper related to Second Aunt?"

"Yes, that's right. This is her third uncle's daughter. She's the fifth in her family, and your second aunt is the seventh," Liu said softly.

"Oh, how many daughters does your second aunt's family have in total?" Jinghe asked in surprise.

"Twelve!"

"Wow, so many sisters! How many brothers do you have?" Jinghe asked again.

"Fourteen brothers," Liu said calmly.

Jinghe fell silent. No wonder her patriarchal grandmother, though cold and sarcastic towards her second aunt, didn't dare to truly mistreat her. Aside from cutting back on her food, she didn't dare do anything else excessive. Even though she hadn't given birth to a son, she didn't dare suggest that her second uncle divorce her. It turned out that her second aunt's family was so large!

If Grandma dared to encourage Second Uncle to divorce Aunt and bring her home, I reckon her brothers would break his legs.

The two women chatted quietly as they looked around. After looking around for a while, Wang came over to Liu and nudged her with her elbow: "Hey, third sister-in-law, I just saw a bundle of scraps of cloth in the corner, and it looks like there's some silk in it. Why don't we pool our money and buy it, take it home, and try to piece it together to make some small things? If all else fails, we could make some hair ornaments for the girls in the family."

As she spoke, she pulled Liu to look at it. A few minutes later, the two returned, their expressions suggesting they had already discussed it. Wang called out to the shopkeeper, "Sister Li, I just saw a bundle of scraps of cloth in our shop. How much do you want for it?"

"Oh dear, don't mention selling! Sister-in-law, if you need it, just take it. It's just scraps of fabric cut from making things, no need to pay. We're family, it's too polite to offer money," the female shopkeeper said generously, ready to give it away.

“How can you not charge us? You have costs to pay too. If you don’t charge us, how can we have the nerve to come back again?” Wang said immediately when she heard that she didn’t want to charge us.

"Fifth Sister, just take whatever amount you're entitled to. If it's free, my sister-in-law and third sister-in-law definitely won't take it," Li Shi chimed in, trying to persuade them.

"Oh dear, Seventh Sister, instead of helping to persuade your sister-in-law, you're trying to persuade me instead." After thinking for a moment, she said, "Then, sister-in-law, just give me six coins."

“Okay, that’s how it should be, otherwise how can we bring ourselves to visit in the future? But we still got a good deal,” Wang said with a smile.

Wang took out six coins from her bosom and placed them on the counter. The female shopkeeper didn't hesitate and smiled at Wang, saying, "Thank you for your patronage, sister-in-law. Please feel free to come if you need anything in the future."

Then he personally took out the bundle of rags and handed it to Wang.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Li had also chosen the colors of silk thread she wanted and placed them all on the counter.

"Fifth Sister, I've made my choice, can you help me calculate it?"

"okay"

A series of clattering sounds filled the air as the abacus beads clicked. "Seventh Sister, you brought a total of twenty-four nets, each costing eight coins, for a total of one hundred and ninety-two coins. The silk thread you chose cost forty-seven coins, so let's say forty coins. I'll give you one hundred and fifty-two coins in total. Is that right?"

"Yes, that's right. Fifth Sister, you're getting faster and faster at doing accounts now. I haven't used it much in all these years and I've almost forgotten how." Her gentle tone held a hint of envy and nostalgia.

Jinghe, listening from the side, didn't understand. She felt that this second aunt was nothing like a girl from an ordinary farming family. She usually spoke gently and softly, knew how to make knotted knots, and from what she had just heard, she even knew how to use an abacus. Jinghe was extremely curious, but there were too many people around, so she couldn't say anything more. She decided to go home and ask Liu about her second aunt.

The sisters-in-law directly divided the scraps of cloth they bought into their own baskets in the shop, without making any special selections, each grabbing a handful. Seeing that most of them were small scraps of cloth, which Jinghe considered unusable, she couldn't understand why her aunt and Liu Shi would spend money to buy these things.

Seeing the confusion in her daughter's eyes, Liu smiled and explained, "These scraps of cloth can be picked out to mend clothes in the same color, or used to make shoe soles or insoles. The narrower pieces can even be used to make hair ties. They have many uses, all for places you won't see. These scraps are just right; it would be a waste to use larger pieces. When we get home, I'll teach you slowly, and you'll start learning needlework too."

When Jinghe heard that Liu was going to teach her needlework, she felt a bit overwhelmed. Curiosity killed the cat, and she shouldn't have shown her confusion.

While Jinghe was still secretly regretting her actions, Liu and the others had already said goodbye to the female clerk and were preparing to leave.