Chapter 97 Buying women’s clothing
Qianhuan said to Master Cai with great respect: "Brother Yunlong, I never thought you would be so generous and selfless. These little beggars are really saved from starvation and freezing to death on the roadside thanks to you."
Young Master Cai felt a little embarrassed by her praise. "My parents died when I was very young, and I grew up eating at other people's homes. If it weren't for those kind villagers, I would have starved to death. These children are also orphans without parents. I am just helping them like those villagers helped me back then."
"Brother Yunlong, this is the continuation of love. You are such a kind person. Wait, I will help you distribute porridge to the children."
After two quarters of an hour, the porridge in the big pot was ready.
Master Cai shouted to the little boy playing in the yard, "Pumpkin, go and call them all over to have some porridge."
"Okay, Brother Yunlong, I'll go call them right away."
The little boy named Pumpkin immediately ran over and called all the little beggars over. A group of little beggars lined up with broken bowls to get hot porridge. Qianhuan helped everyone distribute the hot porridge to the little beggars.
The weather was getting colder and colder. Although these little beggars were dressed in rags, they were at least not naked because of Master Cai.
You have to know that before, many of them didn’t even have a cotton-padded jacket, and some were even barefoot.
After finishing her work, Qianhua said to Master Cai: "Brother Yunlong, you saved me last time, and I haven't had the chance to thank you properly. Tomorrow at 11: in the morning, wait for me at the entrance of Zuixianju. I will treat you to a good meal to express my gratitude."
"Qianhuan, no need. Saving you is just a piece of cake for me. You don't need to specially treat me to a meal."
"Brother Yunlong, please don't refuse. Saving me is just a piece of cake for you. But for me, it is a great favor. If you don't agree, Qianhuan will not be able to rest in peace."
Seeing that she insisted, Master Cai nodded and agreed, "Okay, then I promise you."
"Then it's settled. You must come tomorrow at 2:15. I'll be going back first."
"Do you want me to send you off?"
"No, I still need to go to the city to buy some things. After that I will take the bullock cart back."
"Okay, then be careful and go home quickly after shopping."
"Okay, I understand." Qianhuan said and left the yard of the cabin.
Only when he could no longer see her did Mr. Cai reluctantly look away.
Qianhuan was thinking about going to Zuixianju for dinner tomorrow. She definitely couldn't show up in her previous disguised appearance as a man. After all, she had sent recipes to Zuixianju. It would be bad if they saw her going to dinner and refused to accept her money.
Qianhuan doesn't like to take advantage of others. It is one thing for her to give them recipes for free, but it is another thing for her to pay for meals in the restaurant.
So she went to the most famous clothing store in the county town, called Baoyi Pavilion. She planned to buy herself a beautiful set of women's clothing and wear it to Zuixianju for dinner tomorrow.
She has been in this time and space for so long, and every day she either wears men's clothes or a worn-out cotton-padded jacket made of coarse cloth, and has never worn a decent piece of women's clothing.
Now that I have finally earned so much money, it is time to buy myself a beautiful set of ancient women's clothing.
After all, there is no woman who doesn't love to be beautiful. If she wasn't forced to make a living, she would also want to dress up beautifully every day.
As soon as she entered Baoyi Pavilion, she was attracted by a light blue long coat. The collar and hem of the coat were embroidered with white and pink lotus flowers, and it was paired with a skirt of the same color.
She pointed at the light blue dress and asked the shopkeeper in her natural female voice, "Boss, how much is this dress?"
"You have good taste, young lady. This set of clothes is new to our store. The whole set costs five taels of silver."
When Qianhuan heard that it actually cost five taels of silver, she thought to herself that it was no wonder that her mother would rather buy cotton and cloth and sew a cotton jacket and trousers for her herself. Making clothes by herself could indeed save a lot of money.
Qianhuan thought that it was a bit expensive, but she could make chestnut tofu and sell it soon, and she could also go to Xunfang Pavilion to dance and earn some money. She finally found a dress she liked, so she decided to buy it as a reward for herself.
"Boss, can you give me a discount on this suit?"
"Miss, I really didn't give you a price for this dress. Five taels of silver is the cheapest price. This is the latest model in our store. The flowers on it are all embroidered by the best embroiderers. The clothes sold in Baoyi Pavilion are fair to everyone, and the price cannot be any lower. But I can give you some scraps of cloth, and you can embroider a purse or a belt when you go back."
"No need for the rags. How about this? You can give me a veil. If it works, I'll take the suit. If not, I'll look elsewhere."
The shopkeeper was afraid that she would go to another store, so he nodded and agreed immediately: "Okay, young lady, go over there and pick out a veil yourself. I will pack the clothes for you right away."
Qianhuan picked out a white veil hat. She will wear it to Zuixianju for dinner tomorrow to avoid being recognized by them.
Qianhuan paid with a silver note, and the shopkeeper gave her change in taels of silver. Qianhuan carried the clothes and a bag of silver and left Baoyi Pavilion.
Qianhuan thought that she had so much silver in her hands, so she had to hide it carefully when she got home. Ever since Old Lady Liang came to her house to look for things last time, she felt that hiding the silver in the cabinet or quilt in the room was not so safe.
So she spent another dozen cents to buy a wooden box. Qianhuan put all sixty taels of silver into the wooden box and carried the remaining thirty-five taels of silver on her body.
Qianhuan went to buy a few pounds of cotton and more than ten feet of cloth. She bought these to sew new cotton-padded jackets and trousers for Liu and Liang Laoer. Qianhuan hid the wooden box containing the silver in a bag of cotton and carried it herself.
She thought that there was no white rice and meat left at home, and they had started eating brown rice and vegetables again in the last few days, so she went to weigh a few pounds of fat and lean meat. Thinking that her father's leg was now in the recovery period, she asked the butcher to chop some bones. These bones could be used to make soup for her father to nourish his body, so that her father's leg injury could heal faster.
She also bought 100 kilograms of rice. The owner of the rice shop asked the waiter to move the rice to the ox cart for her, and Qianhuan rode the ox cart home.
When they arrived at the door of their home, Qianhuan asked the uncle driving the ox cart to help carry the rice into the house.
Liu was cooking in the kitchen at the moment. She saw someone carrying a sack into the house, followed by Qianhuan carrying a lot of bags. She was cooking in the pot, and it was difficult for her to leave, so she could only ask her daughter in a loud voice: "Qianhuan, what did you buy?"
"Mom, this is the food I bought."
Qianhuan instructed the driver to put a large bag of rice into a rice jar in the guest room. After Qianhuan thanked the driver, he left.
While Liu was still cooking in the kitchen, Qianhuan quickly took out the wooden box from the cotton, then ran into her room holding the wooden box and stuffed it under her quilt.
After Liu finished cooking a dish, she came to the main room immediately. She first went to the rice jar in the guest room to check the food and found that her daughter bought white rice. She asked, "Qianhuan, isn't there not much money at home? Why did you buy such a big bag of white rice?"