Zhou Lanfang glared at Shen Mianmian and said irritably, "What kind of taste do you all have? How are her clothes any good? They’re just some old rags that others discarded, picked up by Li Chunhua for her to wear."
The wife of the Zhang family pouted unhappily, "So what if your family made money, we’re not asking for yours, why hide and hoard it then?" Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹·𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲·𝗻𝗲𝘁
Since when do old rags look ?
Although she hadn’t been to the city many times, she could still tell the quality of the basic fabric.
Did Li Chunhua’s family own a mine to be giving Shen Mianmian such nice clothes?
Auntie Liu joined in, "Even if the clothes aren’t expensive, these little leather shoes must be."
She thought to herself, Shen Jianhua had finally come to his senses and started treating his daughter well.
Seeing everyone gathered around Shen Mianmian, Zhou Siyu, who was already green with jealousy, adjusted her expression and walked over.
With an innocent face, she said, "My aunt is right, these clothes and shoes were indeed given to my family by Auntie Li. Auntie Li said they were defective goods from Uncle Zhao’s friend’s factory that couldn’t be sold."
Defective goods, meaning they failed in workmanship.
Even though they were new, they were no different from old rags, things that couldn’t be sold and had to be thrown away.
No matter how pretty the clothes were, they were still picked up trash.
"So these nice clothes and shoes were unwanted by others?"
The wife of the Zhang family started to believe Zhou Siyu’s words.
Zhao Xianlai couldn’t have spent so much money on Shen Mianmian’s clothes.
If the clothes were free, that would make sense.
But Auntie Liu said, "Who cares if they’re defective? As long as Mianmian looks good in them, it’s fine. Even if they are defective, they’re still unworn, and that means they’re new clothes."
Upon hearing this, both Zhou Lanfang and Zhou Siyu looked displeased.
There’s an Auntie Liu everywhere you go.
Always meddling in others’ business.
The group chatted about the clothes for a while, but with the onscreen Spring Festival Gala reaching its climax, their attention was diverted.
No longer the center of attention, Shen Mianmian and Xiaocui quietly slipped out.
The first day of Chinese New Year was a time for leisure when no work was done and slipping out for a day went unquestioned by the adults.
The two had nowhere special to go, so Shen Mianmian simply took Xiaocui to Lu Siyuan’s house.
Just as Lu Dagang finished bringing his children around for New Year’s visits and left, they saw Shen Mianmian arrive with a companion. Old Master Lu was pleased and invited them to eat sunflower seeds and peanuts.
Xiaocui, not familiar with Lu Siyuan, shyly kept her head down cracking seeds and casually watching Old Master Lu make bamboo baskets.
Old Master Lu couldn’t sit still; even though it was New Year’s Day, he insisted on doing some weaving.
Lu Siyuan wasn’t certain about the relationship between Xiaocui and Shen Mianmian, so he didn’t mention anything about business.
However, he did casually mention Old Master Lu’s basket-weaving need.
"My grandfather needs a helper for weaving bamboo baskets, my uncle’s a bricklayer and doesn’t have time to assist, do you know someone who can help? The pay is fifty cents a day."
The output was low with just Grandpa working alone, and he couldn’t spend time helping Grandpa anymore.
Now that the price for bamboo baskets was quite good, finding someone to help would not only reduce Grandpa’s workload but also increase productivity.
Plus, there’d be someone to chat with Grandpa during the day.
He figured it was well worth it.
"I don’t know anyone..." Shen Mianmian was about to say she didn’t know anyone suitable when her eye caught Xiaocui cracking seeds.
Her eyes lit up as she asked, "Would a teenage girl be okay?"
"As long as she’s diligent," Lu Siyuan said offhandedly, not having thought of Xiaocui.
Xiaocui was known in the village for her diligence.
With this in mind, Shen Mianmian directly asked Xiaocui, "Xiaocui, you’ve been listening to our chat, haven’t you? Would you like to help out here?"