Qiu Lian felt a bit tempted upon hearing this, but looking at the clothes in her hands, she blushed a little. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ ⓝovelFire.net
After thinking for a moment, she put them down, "Never mind, back in the village, people judged a woman’s figure by whether she could stand against a wall with her body flat against it. They said that meant she had a good figure. Wearing this, it would definitely bulge out in the front. How would that look good?"
Juzi couldn’t help but laugh upon hearing this, and said to Qiu Lian, "Ha ha, Sister-in-law Qiulin, your ideas are really outdated. Nowadays, those flat, board-like figures are not considered attractive at all. Look at the city folks, they like wearing clothes that cling to the body, highlighting a woman’s advantages—that’s what looks good."
Qiu Lian looked down at her front, and thought about how her husband at home would criticize her if she dressed like that. She immediately shook her head and handed the clothes back to juzi, "I don’t want this thing, I don’t like it anyway."
Juzi chuckled, pursed her lips, saw Fang Pingying holding the clothes and scrutinizing them with interest, not opposed to them. She then stuffed the clothes into Fang Pingying’s hands, "If you don’t like it, forget it, give them to Sister-in-law Pingying. After all, the two of you have similar figures."
"Alright, don’t bother giving it to me, I’ve always liked trying new things the most." Fang Pingying had never cared for those camisole-style undergarments anyway, and had been thinking about changing them for a while, but she hadn’t come across any and she was too lazy to bother. Now that juzi bought them and gave them to her, she was naturally overjoyed and immediately accepted.
If it weren’t for the two women being there, she would have even considered trying them on for size.
Seeing this, juzi leaned in and whispered in Fang Pingying’s ear with a laugh, "Ha ha, put it on when you get back and show it to your Camp Chief Luo at home. I bet he’ll be so happy he won’t be able to stand it."
Fang Pingying’s face turned red, and she pushed juzi away, "Don’t talk nonsense."
"Ha ha." Both juzi and Qiu Lian laughed out loud upon hearing this.
Fang Pingying glared at them with a pout and said to juzi, getting back on topic, "Right, I went to ask about the houses near us today, and coincidentally, the one above ours is for sale. Do you want to take a look?"
"Upstairs from you?" Juzi lit up upon hearing this, and said with a laugh, "Great, the closer to your place, the better. That way if there’s something at home, we can look out for each other."
Fang Pingying remembered that Liu Fengsheng did not give specific details about how the house was for sale over the phone, so she told juzi, "The person selling the house is a friend I met in my hometown. I talked to him about it, but didn’t get into detail. I’ve invited him to dinner at my place tonight, so we can ask him in person then."
Upon hearing this, juzi immediately agreed, "Sure, I will call Huang Lin later and have him come over tonight, so we can all go take a look at the house together."
Speaking of Huang Lin, Fang Pingying remembered the issue with Huang Lin’s mother at the compound last time, and asked juzi, "Is Huang Lin’s mother still here?"
"She’s still here, and she’s even planning on staying for the long term. She said she won’t leave until I get pregnant," juzi replied, rolling her eyes helplessly, "I’m thinking if I actually get pregnant, she’ll be even less likely to leave. Then she’ll say she wants to stay to help take care of the grandson or something."
After pausing, juzi continued, "Now I can’t go back to the compound there. If I do, it will definitely lead to a fight, and it’s gotten to the point that Huang Lin has been called in by his superiors to talk several times. I can’t keep arguing with that old lady there, otherwise Huang Lin might even lose his job."
"So, are you buying the house because of Huang Lin’s mother?" asked Qiu Lian, laughing, "Then have her stay here and you all can argue every day."
"Don’t talk nonsense." Juzi glared at Qiu Lian and said with a sigh, "It’s not just about her. After all, Huang Lin and I need our own home too. Although living in the military compound is stable, who knows when Huang Lin might be transferred out like Battalion Commander Luo or moved to some other place. But we always need a home of our own."
"That’s true. If I had the money, I would also like to buy my own house like you guys," Qiu Lian said enviously, looking at juzi and Fang Pingying, "No matter how the men are transferred, if we have our own home in the city, it’s always better than moving around everywhere. Not like now, where a family of three is split up in different places, and it’s quite hard to see each other."
Actually, at this time, most military wives were like Qiu Lian’s family; after all, the pay for military personnel wasn’t high. Although taking care of the family’s expenses wasn’t a problem, the idea of buying a house was still a far reach.
Juzi and Fang Pingying were truly exceptional cases.
Juzi came from a well-off family, and Fang Pingying had lived two lives, having realized many things. Only in this life did she have such a good fortune. Thinking back on her past life, she had it worse than Sister-in-law Qiulin.
With these thoughts, Fang Pingying sighed and comforted Qiu Lian, "Sister-in-law Qiulin, don’t worry, take it slow. Once you’ve saved up money, we can also start our own business, and then you’ll surely be able to buy a house."
Sister-in-law Qiulin forced a smile, "I don’t even dare to think about buying a house. I just want to save up more money, so I can bring my baby to the provincial city to study later this year. He’s with his grandmother at home and I don’t even know what he has turned into."
Fang Pingying looked around the store and thought that it indeed had enough space to accommodate an extra child.
She then said, "Sister-in-law Qiulin, if you don’t mind the small space here, you might as well bring your little one over later this year. You can live and eat here with him, it’s no big deal. After all, he’ll be at school during the day and won’t need your supervision. After school, just have him play in the shop, that will be fine."
Qiu Lian had actually thought about this before, but since she was working here, it wasn’t her place to say. Hearing that juzi and Fang Pingying both suggested it, she was so happy her eyes reddened.
After many words of gratitude, she quickly agreed, "Good, good, I will discuss it with his father tomorrow to see if we can bring him over in the second half of the year."
The women chatted for a while, then all had lunch at Qiu Lian’s place.
As for Qiu Lian, she was going to cook for herself anyway, and with another girl helping around the shop, the four of them simply ate together.
In the afternoon, Fang Pingying and juzi went to the back to the area specializing in tailoring to take a look.
Because business in the shop was good, Fang Pingying had added two more tailors, so now there were six tailors working in total.
And since they couldn’t always supervise these tailors, Fang Pingying noticed that some of them, after working for a while, seemed to feel secure in their jobs and their work had become less meticulous than before, and the quantity of work they turned out each day was also decreasing.
So Fang Pingying changed her strategy, no longer paying a fixed monthly wage, but instead rewarding on the basis of work and effort. The price for making a garment was also determined by the quality of the craftsmanship.
For instance, if the base price for an article of clothing were three yuan, the price would be adjusted to three and a half yuan or two and a half yuan depending on the level of craftsmanship. Plus, how much a tailor earned each day depended on how much work they completed.