Chapter 19: So She Had Been Calculating Wrong All Along—Looks Like She Needs to Teach the Three Little Ones Basic Literacy
Wen Nuan Nuan simply assumed Leng Chen didn’t want to go out and gave a soft “mm” to acknowledge she understood.
Her thoughts gradually drifted to the snow-white, fluffy cotton.
How should she sterilize and disinfect it?
With several months of being unable to go out, how much should she prepare?
Maybe she could boil it in water, then dry it in the sun and store it away.
Each time she needed it, she could stuff some into the middle layer of the “menstrual belt.”
She checked the box and found seven or eight of them. If she changed three or four a day, they’d run out in two or three days. What if it rained or snowed and they didn’t dry fast enough?
Wen Nuan Nuan decided to buy some needle and thread when she went out, then use small pieces of cotton cloth to sew a few more. With items like these, having plenty on hand naturally brought a sense of security.
Although she didn’t know how to tailor clothes or make shoes, she could still do basic stitching on cloth strips.
Who hadn’t sewn sandbags as a child?
No time like the present. Wen Nuan Nuan picked out some snow-white, fluffy cotton and carefully removed the cotton seeds and dried twigs and leaves bit by bit.
Under the sun, just as she was picking and her eyes were starting to blur, she heard the wooden door being knocked loudly.
Leng Tian and Leng Yun had already returned, their flushed little faces equally excited.
“Sister-in-law, Second Brother and Little Brother aren’t very tall, so we can make two sets of inner clothes and two sets of cotton-padded clothes for each of them, plus a lined jacket for each!” Leng Tian reported enthusiastically.
“That many?” Wen Nuan Nuan only knew that a bolt of cloth was heavy, rolled up into a cylinder. She couldn’t estimate how many meters a bolt contained.
Spread out flat, it should be quite long, but being able to make so many sets of clothes was indeed beyond her expectations.
Still, Second Brother and Little Brother weren’t very tall yet. “What about you and Eldest Brother? How many sets can you make?”
“Second Brother said Eldest Brother can’t wear clothes that are too shabby or old at the Academy, so he only made two sets of inner clothes for himself, but he made two sets of inner clothes and two sets of long cotton-padded robes for Eldest Brother,” Leng Yun answered on behalf of his second brother.
“No, it’s because I often go up the mountain to gather firewood, dig for wild vegetables, and pick wild fruits. It’d be a shame to ruin such nice cotton fabric, and I’m much shorter than Eldest Brother, so whatever he can’t wear will definitely go to me. That way, nothing goes to waste, right?” Leng Tian explained casually.
He truly felt he was the type where a wild boar can’t eat fine grain. No matter how precious the fabric, it wouldn’t feel as comfortable on him as coarse linen.
No need to worry about it getting torn by branches or vines while climbing the mountain, no need to fear mud or grease stains.
If he really had to wear such fine cotton winter clothes, he’d be worrying all the time. For him, that would be a burden, just unnecessary stress.
As for wearing Eldest Brother’s hand-me-downs, wasn’t that how every household did it?
Fortunately, he had an elder brother above him. If it had been an elder sister, he’d have had to wear colorful clothes too. Thinking about it, things were already pretty good as they were.
They had food and clothes.
Besides, Eldest Brother had a steady temperament, so the clothes he passed down were still like new. But Second Brother and Little Brother, who got his hand-me-downs, had it rough—they used to only wear tattered clothes.
They were the ones who should wear new, nice clothes.
“I don’t need too many clothes. Let’s swap my cotton-padded clothes and lined jacket for Second Brother’s,” Leng Chen spoke up.
“No need to swap. The day after tomorrow when we go into the city, we’ll buy another bolt of cloth. Eldest Brother, you have a lot of work to do, so you should have a few more sets of clothes to change into,” Wen Nuan Nuan said, feeling a pang of sadness as she thought of her own closet, once overflowing with clothes she no longer wanted to wear shortly after buying them.
For every grain of rice and every bite of food, remember how hard it was to come by; for every thread and every strand, always keep in mind the effort it took to produce.
In times of material scarcity, they were living earnestly and diligently.
What was even more remarkable was how brotherly and respectful they were toward one another.
Leng Tian looked at his two younger brothers, then at his sister-in-law, knowing he couldn’t disagree even if he wanted to. He grinned sheepishly and said, “Alright, but could we just buy hemp cloth or coarse cloth, sister-in-law? I’m not used to wearing fine fabrics, and they’re not suitable for going up the mountain anyway.”
Wen Nuan Nuan considered the practical situation and saw that Eldest Brother spoke sincerely and without hesitation. She nodded in agreement. “Alright, but what about shoes?”
In such cold weather, keeping the feet warm was of utmost importance.
The cold starts from the feet.
“Auntie Zhu said the leftover scraps from two bolts of cloth could make two pairs of cloth shoes. The labor cost is only half that of the clothes. A set of clothes costs eighty wen, and shoes cost forty wen. Since we’re ordering a lot, she rounded down the total to one liang and three qian.”
“One liang and three qian?” Wen Nuan Nuan repeated in surprise.
That didn’t seem right.
Sixteen sets of clothes and two pairs of cloth shoes, eighty wen per set—how could the labor cost only be one liang and three qian?
Wait, had she miscalculated before? She had always thought one liang of silver was equal to one hundred wen, but actually, one qian was equal to one hundred wen.
One liang was equal to ten qian, which meant one liang was one thousand wen.
With this conversion, the labor cost for making the clothes and shoes made sense.
Ugh, she couldn’t be blamed for this. In the historical dramas she’d watched, didn’t the heroes always take out a silver ingot and say, “Keep the change”? How was she supposed to know the purchasing power of one liang of silver was this strong?!
She had completely forgotten about the unit “qian” and had naturally converted between liang and wen.
Then hadn’t she also miscalculated when she was haphazardly figuring out their living expenses before?
Why hadn’t the three little ones pointed it out?
Oh, right, they didn’t know how to count.
Thankfully, thankfully, the three little ones had never been to school and didn’t understand arithmetic, so they hadn’t caught on.
But wouldn’t they be taken advantage of when they went out in the future? The worst part was they wouldn’t even know where they were being cheated!
Sigh, it seemed she would have to teach them math this winter. The task of educating the three little ones was long and arduous.
She couldn’t let them suffer from illiteracy!
Although she wasn’t a professional teacher, she had learned the multiplication table by heart after her grandmother rapped her knuckles to teach it to her. It was ingrained in her memory.
Once she taught the three little ones, they would never be cheated again.
Ugh, she was so grateful to her country for giving her the right and opportunity to receive an education!
It allowed her, alone in this unfamiliar place, to outsmart others instead of being outsmarted herself.
While Wen Nuan Nuan was lost in her thoughts, feeling a whirlwind of emotions, the three little ones also felt a pang of anxiety.
They timidly asked, “Sister-in-law, do you think it’s too expensive?”
They thought that since they were ordering so many clothes, the labor cost wasn’t cheap.
“Auntie Zhu is the most skilled in the village, and she’s honest and reliable. She doesn’t skimp on fabric, so her labor cost is a few wen more expensive than others…” Leng Tian explained uneasily.
Wen Nuan Nuan wasn’t thinking about that at all. In fact, she felt the labor cost was as cheap as it could possibly be. She reassured them, “No, I don’t think it’s expensive. I think it’s incredibly cheap! Much cheaper than I imagined.”
She was just lamenting how undervalued the labor of those at the bottom of society was.
“The labor cost for one set of clothes is already enough to buy several jin of meat. That’s a lot of money,” Leng Tian replied earnestly.
Wen Nuan Nuan really wanted to say, “Young man, in the future, gold, silver, and jewels will flow into your eldest brother’s mansion like a tide, and then you’ll realize just how vast the gap in earning power between people can be.”
Ah, but there was no comparison. After all, in the entire Ling Kingdom, there was only one Leng Xiao.
Wen Nuan Nuan smiled gently and softly, “After all, a person’s time and energy are limited. Even if you work day and night, the rewards you gain are still limited.”
Leng Yun had already caught on and immediately continued, “So to make big money, we need to gather them together to work, then sell these goods at a higher price, like a ready-made clothing shop.”