She spent two yuan to buy a pound of White Rabbit creamy candies and a bag of traditional caozigao pastries for Lu Tian. Even though the little girl had already eaten a full meal, her eyes still watered as she stared longingly at the sweets.
“Mom, can I please have one candy?” Lu Tian asked with utmost care.
In the past, she had only ever seen Lu Dongdong and the other village kids eat these candies. She had drooved over them countless times, never once getting to taste one.
Remembering how much rice Lu Tian had just eaten, Lin Shirou worried about overloading her small stomach, but one little sweet wouldn’t hurt.
“Go ahead and have one.”
Earlier, Lin Shirou had spotted a counter selling malted milk powder. A tin cost five yuan—truly quite expensive!
What was more, it required industrial ration coupons. It wasn’t that she begrudged spending the money, but she lacked the necessary industrial coupons, and she had just spent her candy ration tickets.
She hadn’t thought of the malted milk initially, but now that she considered it, with how terribly thin Lu Tian was, wouldn’t a daily cup of malted milk be the ideal way to nourish her?
As she strolled along, she ended up near the ready-to-wear clothing counter. Glancing at the floral-print blouses and dacron skirts on display, she felt a wave of darkness wash over her vision.
Honestly, ever since arriving in this era, she hadn’t laid eyes on a single clothing item that met her standards. In this day and age, women weren’t allowed to wear anything form-fitting; everything was cut in loose, baggy silhouettes. She really struggled to stomach such hopelessly outdated styles.
Right by the clothing counter, a young woman whose outfit passed for genuinely fashionable in this era was holding up a dress, squinting as she measured it against herself.
“This is way too big. Do you have a smaller size?” the young woman asked the sales clerk, frowning.
The clerk popped a melon seed into her mouth and rolled her eyes dramatically. “These all come in one universal size! Are you buying it or not?”
The young woman liked the fabric quality and the cut well enough, but the waist and overall fit were simply dreadful!
She was naturally slender with a modest bust, so if she wore this dress as-is, it would hang off her like an empty sack and look utterly shapeless.
The only reason she was shopping for a dress today was because she had a blind date scheduled for tomorrow and wanted something fresh to wear. After scouring the entire store, this was the only piece that had caught her eye.
“Sigh, fine. Just wrap it up for me,” the young woman conceded with a sigh.
Lin Shirou had been observing her for a while. As soon as the customer walked away with her package, Lin Shirou pulled Lu Tian along and hurried after her.
“Comrade, are you looking for a dress that actually fits your figure?”
The young woman spun around, her eyes instantly flashing with guarded suspicion.
“Who are you? How did you know I wanted something better-fitting?”
Lin Shirou smiled warmly. Seeing her expression, the young woman’s guard dropped a notch; Lin Shirou was strikingly pretty, with eyes that crinkled just like the little tabby cat her family kept at home.
“If you want something tailored to your shape, I happen to know a way.”
The young woman’s eyes lit up instantly. “You really can fix it?”
Lin Shirou gave a confident, easy smile. “Do you have a sewing machine at home?”
Coming from a decent family with factory-worker parents, and working at a factory herself, the young woman naturally owned a sewing machine. Most households only used them for basic undergarments, though—when it came to properly tailoring actual outerwear, nobody claimed to be an expert.
Sitting down before the sewing machine, Lin Shirou picked up a razor blade and sliced right through the dress’s side seams.
Then, with lightning speed, she began recutting and reshaping the fabric—her movements so swift the young woman could barely track them.
The young woman introduced herself as Lin Min. Discovering that Lin Shirou shared the surname Lin instantly brought a sense of easy familiarity between them.
“Tiannian, have a sip of this.” Lin Min handed the child a freshly mixed glass of orange drink.
She placed another glass right beside Lin Shirou’s hand. “Sister Lin, you are incredible!”
Stars practically twinkled in Lin Min’s eyes; she couldn’t quite believe the transformation unfolding before her.
Before long, Lin Shirou handed the tailored dress back to Lin Min. “Go ahead and try it on.”
Lin Shirou took a satisfying sip of her orange drink, draining the glass. In this sweltering heat, a sweet, cool beverage was wonderfully refreshing.
Stepping out of the changing room, Lin Min ran her hands over the fabric, completely enamored. “Sister Lin, it’s wonderful! I’ve never worn anything that fits and flatters me this well.”
Mindful of the contemporary restrictions against clothing that was overly tight, Lin Shirou had incorporated subtle design tricks—nothing overly ostentatious, yet just enough to gracefully accentuate the body’s natural lines.
Most importantly, after taking Lin Min’s measurements, she had made clever adjustments to the bust line. Since local women still wore traditional bodice-style undergarments that flattened their chests, the alteration not only improved the overall silhouette but also gave the bust a much more flattering, upright shape.
Lin Min was utterly ecstatic, looking at Lin Shirou with near-worshipful admiration.
This woman’s hands were truly capable of working magic!
“Sister Lin! Here are the industrial tickets you asked for.” Lin Min produced two industrial ration vouchers, a couple of candy tickets, and a two-yuan bill.
As Lin Shirou looked at the payment, Lin Min insisted, “Those two yuan are your tailoring fee—you must take them. Your craftsmanship is simply priceless!”
She even felt two yuan was underpaying her; talent like this was exceedingly rare!
Though Lin Shirou and she had originally agreed upon just the industrial and candy tickets, seeing how generous the girl was, she happily accepted the money.
Seeing that Lin Shirou took the cash, Lin Min was even more thrilled, wishing she could hand over every single dress in her wardrobe for remodeling.
Regrettably, she had run out of industrial vouchers.
“Sister Lin, besides industrial coupons, what else do you need? I have extra candy tickets and fabric coupons here—I’d love to have you alter a few more dresses for me.”
Ultimately, Lin Shirou helped her tailor three additional garments, walking away with four candy tickets, four fabric coupons, two meat tickets, two miscellaneous household utility tickets, and an extra six yuan.
In a single afternoon, Lin Shirou had earned eight yuan and a handsome stack of ration tickets—more than enough to buy that tin of malted milk for Lu Tian.
If it weren’t for the gathering twilight, Lin Min would have kept her around to alter even more of her wardrobe.
“Sister Lin, you have to come find me the next time you’re in town!” Lin Min called out, waving goodbye with deep reluctance.
Lin Shirou made one last stop at the state-run store to purchase the tin of malted milk alongside a few other small essentials.
Hauling such an eye-catching, premium tin of malted milk, it was impossible to keep it hidden from the other villagers on the return trip.
The moment Liu Chunli caught sight of such a luxurious item, jealousy flared green in her eyes.
“Tsk, tsk. Some people really know how to live high on the hog. Daring to splurge on something as extravagant as malted milk! Looks like all the money her husband risked his life to earn is going to get squandered down the drain!”
Zhang Ximei was equally apoplectic when she realized Lin Shirou had quietly gone and bought such an expensive luxury.
She herself felt a pang of deep heartache whenever she spent money on a single pound of pork during her trips to town, yet this good-for-nothing was already living large enough to drink malted milk!
“Second branch’s wife! What on earth are you buying this kind of trash for?”
Lin Shirou shot her a sideways glance. “What else? To feed my precious baby, of course!”
Xu Xiaoying still found it difficult to swallow that Lin Shirou could undergo such a drastic metamorphosis—transforming overnight from a mother who only knew how to beat and berate her child into a doting caregiver.
“Lin Zhiqing, your heart is in the right place, though. Little Tiannian is far too skinny; she really does need some good nourishment to build herself up.”
She would have done better to keep her mouth shut. The moment she spoke, every single pair of eyes on the ox-cart snapped toward Lu Tian.
Liu Chunli chimed in immediately, “Hmph. If it was really meant for Lu Tian, why didn’t you buy it sooner? Look at how emaciated the kid is—anyone walking by would think our village was suffering through a famine!”
A tiny smirk tugged at the corner of Xu Xiaoying’s lips, deeply satisfied with Liu Chunli playing her part in the chorus.
Zhang Ximei narrowed her eyes with mounting suspicion. She couldn’t shake the feeling that Lin Shirou only bought the malted milk to satisfy her own cravings, using the child merely as a convenient excuse!
Besides, why should a good-for-nothing money-loser like Lu Tian be wasting good malted milk anyway? Wasn’t that just throwing money into the wind?