After dressing as a widow

Lin Zhen led them straight to a shop that was about to leave Zhazi Street. The cabinets inside were filled with cloth of various materials and colors.

However, linen and cotton are mostly used, and the colors are only relatively dull, and bright ones are rare.

As soon as Lin Zhen walked in with a few children, the proprietress, who was wearing a cross-neck top and an apricot pleated skirt, greeted her: "What kind of material does this brother want to buy? I have a lot of things here and they are cheap. You just need to buy them." look."

Stretching out his hand to touch the cotton cloth, the cloth was very soft and breathable. He asked the proprietress, "How do you sell the cotton cloth?"

The proprietress smiled exaggeratedly, and patted the material under Lin Zhen's hands: "You have a good eye, my cloth is imported from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and it is all high-quality cotton cloth. Look at the weaving, it is tight and tight. Dense and smooth, it couldn't be more comfortable to wear on the body."

"Just the one you have, 28 cents a foot."

A foot of cloth is not much, and Gu Shuanzi and others are so tall, it takes five or six feet to make a suit of clothes, which is 170 Wen.

And this kind of cotton cloth is still undyed, the cheapest kind, if it is red, blue and other pretty colors, you may not be able to buy it for more than a dozen pennies.

Lin Zhen withdrew his hand from the cloth: "The price is a bit high, the boss said a solid price, if it is suitable, I will buy a few more."

"Oh, this price is already very real, it can't be any cheaper." The proprietress held her chest, as if she would faint if it was even cheaper.

Without saying a word, Lin Zhen took Gu Shuanzi, Lin Xiaoyao, and they turned around and left.

The proprietress didn't expect the customer to leave as soon as he said it, and immediately walked out of the counter and grabbed Lin Zhen's sleeve: "My brother is so impatient, you need to talk about business bit by bit, so if you really want The amount of two clothes for each of you, that one foot is cheaper than two renminbi, 26 renminbi.”

She frowned and raised her hands: "The price is really only as cheap as this. If it is so cheap, I won't even have half a penny for hard work."

Lin Zhenxin made a calculation with his head, and was quite satisfied with the price. He returned to the counter where the cloth was placed, pointed to the slightly yellowed cotton cloth although it was said to be white cotton cloth, and said, "Two pieces of this cloth are needed, and another Take two bolts of light blue cotton, and two bolts of gray cotton."

The landlady's eyes lit up. She didn't expect Lin Zhen to be quite a customer. Two bolts of white cotton cloth cost 72 yuan and [-] cash, plus four bolts of colored cotton cloth...

Not bad!

The smile on her face was brighter than when they first came in, and she said to Lin Zhen, "two bolts of white cotton cloth are worth 72 yuan and [-] yuan in total. It's free."

"As for two bolts of blue and two bolts of gray cotton cloth, the price in our store is also very reasonable, 41 renminbi per foot."

Seeing Lin Zhen looking at her, she hurriedly said: "My brother must also know that dyeing is a delicate job, which depends on both the craftsmanship and the weather. If you are not careful, the cloth will be damaged. Since you just bought it in our shop Two bolts of cloth, I'll give you a couple of cents a foot for these four, too much."

Only then was Lin Zhen satisfied, "Just follow what you said, let's count together."

"Okay, my brother is a straightforward person." Business people like such straightforward customers. The proprietress is in a good mood and quickly settled all the accounts. arts."

Lin Zhen did the calculations by himself, and it was the same calculation. He nodded and reached for the purse. Suddenly he remembered something. The needlework of himself and Xiaoyao was not very good, especially himself, who couldn’t even hold a needle, and bought cloth. When I go back, do I expect a snail girl to do it for me?

He touched his nose and asked the proprietress: "Madam proprietress, can you make tailor-made clothes for customers in your shop?"

The proprietress was also a little dumbfounded. In their town, almost everyone bought fabrics and went back to make clothes by themselves. If there is no girl and brother in the house, why waste money.

So her shop is full of fabrics, not a single ready-made garment.

Suddenly, the proprietress thought of something, her tone became a little more serious, and she said to Lin Zhen: "If you don't have time to make clothes, I can introduce someone to you. The craftsmanship is not to mention, and the person is clean. You are satisfied with the safekeeping."

As long as Lin Zhen has someone to make clothes for him, he said, "Madam Boss, tell me, I'll go find it."

"I'll take you there. I've done your business so far, and I won't die of hunger these days." The proprietress let Lin Zhen and the others hold their cloths and shouted to the backyard, "Ru'er, I'll go out for a while." Come on, come and look at the shop."

"Okay, mother, you go, I'll come right away." A voice came from the backyard, and the proprietress walked ahead with confidence, leading Lin Zhen and the others to find the clothes maker.

Zhazi Street is a straight street from the beginning to the end. There are shops on both sides of the street, which is very lively.

The proprietress walked into an alleyway that was only two people wide, and she said as she walked, "The person we are looking for is a widow who lives alone, her husband died early, and when she died, she didn't even know that she had her own blood in her stomach. "

"She gave birth to the child by herself, and hasn't remarried for so many years. On weekdays, she takes on some washing and mending jobs, barely raises the child, and takes care of her mother-in-law."

The alley is really too narrow, and the newly bought cloth can only be hugged vertically, and the road under the feet has been trampled for many years, and the potholes are not easy to walk.

After turning another corner, the proprietress at the front finally stopped and said, "Here we are, bro, wait a minute, I'll call the door."

"Yeah." Lin Zhen glanced around, and saw that the narrow alleys extending in all directions connected these crowded and low houses together, like a broken mirror, and he didn't know where the next corner was, or where the next fork would lead. to where.

Compared with the glamorous shop in front, it's like a sky and a ground.

The proprietress patted the crumbling door: "Ms. Chen, is Mrs. Chen there?"

"Yes, who is it?" There was a voice in the low room, and there was a creaking sound, but the door was opened by a young man in white starched clothes with a patch on his shoulder.

The young man was not very old, only about twelve or thirteen years old, but his figure was very thin, as if he could be blown down by a gust of wind.

The proprietress's eyes lit up: "Boy Zhong didn't go to school today?"

The young man bowed his hands to the proprietress and Lin Zhen who were outside the door very gracefully, and said calmly: "Mr. is in a hurry today, so he gave us morning class. Everyone, please come in."

From the moment he opened the door to the present, Lin Zhen saw in this young man the strongest bookish spirit since he came to this world.

A widow supported a scholar. Lin Zhen, who had bought a pen, ink, paper and inkstone, knew the difficulties and formidable difficulties in it, and seeing the proprietress, the young man's books were probably well read, so she treated her differently.

The proprietress walked in, and glanced at the narrow courtyard where only four or five people were standing, and saw Mrs. Chen who was wiping her hands on the apron, and said quickly: "Ms. Chen, I'm here to introduce you to business." .”

She turned around to look at Lin Zhen, and said to Mrs. Chen: "They are customers who just went to my place to buy cloth. They want to make two clothes for each of them. I immediately thought of you."

Lin Zhen looked at Mrs. Chen, and found that Mrs. Chen looked almost like his son, with a bitter complexion, and her hands were a little peeled from washing clothes all the year round.

Lin Zhen nodded to Mrs. Chen: "Hello, Mrs. Chen, my surname is Lin, you can call me brother Lin, the proprietress said that you are good at making clothes, so I want you to make two clothes for me and these children. I don’t know how you collect money.”

In the eyes of Mrs. Chen, Lin Zhen who spoke was really unworthy of her yard. She said in a reserved voice, "It's really flattering the proprietress. The clothes I make here have always been priced at the same price. A child's Qiwen, an adult's." Ten words."

Lin Zhenyi heard that the price was really affordable, but now there is no sewing machine, all rely on manual work, which is time-consuming, labor-intensive and eye-catching.

He thought it was quite good, and said: "Then I will trouble Aunt Chen, this is the fabric, the white cotton is used to make the inner garment, and the blue and gray fabrics are used to make the clothes and trousers."

"Only this child." Lin Zhen pointed Gu Shuanzi to Mrs. Chen. "His two clothes are made of a blue robe and a gray robe."

There are six bolts of cloth in total, more than enough for one person to make two sets of clothes. Gu Shuanzi is almost finished reading the thousand-character prose, and he is about to go to school to make two sets of robes.

As soon as Mrs. Chen heard that she was going to make a robe, she knew that this child, like Yan'er, was also a scholar, so she kept whispering: "No problem, Brother Lin, wait here, I'll get a ruler to measure the size for you .”

Although brothers can marry and have children, they also have the ability to conceive women, but the ability to conceive is very low, so the widow Chen Niangzi still subconsciously avoids it.

Her family's Yan'er is a scholar, and she will have to take an examination of merit in the future, so she can't leave any bad reputation because of her.

As soon as she entered, only Mrs. Zhong Yan and Lin Zhen were left in the extremely narrow yard, which almost crushed the yard.

The proprietress smiled and said to Lin Zhen: "Boy Zhong is very good at studying. I heard that next year he will go to Fucheng to take the exam for juren. If he passes the exam, he will be the only master juren in our town."

Lin Zhenxin was startled, and couldn't help but look at Zhong Yan who was quietly standing beside him. He didn't expect this young man to be so powerful. He passed the Tongsheng and Xiucai exams at such a young age, and he will go to the Juren exam next year.

It's not an exaggeration to say genius.

"Then Mrs. Chen has come to the end of her hardships." Lin Zhen couldn't help but sigh.

The proprietress smiled and said, "That's not true. Boy Zhong was only nine years old when he was admitted as a scholar. Many people in the town wanted him to be their son-in-law, but he was too young at that time."

"If he is admitted to Juren, he doesn't know what will happen in the future."

Speaking of this, Lin Zhen couldn't help being curious: "Then no one...sends his family's financial..."

The situation of Mrs. Chen's family, to be honest, couldn't be worse. Even Zhong Yan didn't have a good dress on him.

And if Lin Zhen remembered correctly, the most knowledgeable gentleman in the town is only a scholar like him. If he wants to take the Juren examination, it is a wise choice to go to school in Fucheng.