Although Qin Zhiyu was still young, she already understood quite a lot.
People often said that children from poor families grew up early.
Qin Zhiyu had long learned how to carefully calculate every expense.
She had accompanied her classmates to the supply and marketing cooperative more than once and had seen many hair accessories there.
But now, she felt that none of them looked as nice as this hair tie.
She believed that as long as the price was reasonable, Sister Sangluo’s items would definitely sell well in the county.
People in the county weren’t short of money.
She had once seen her deskmate buying hair accessories at the cooperative—more than a dozen pieces at once, all wrapped in a big bundle.
Spending one or two yuan was done casually, as if the money had been blown in by the wind.
Hair ties like Sister Sangluo’s—her deskmate would definitely like them and be willing to buy them.
So there was no doubt they could make money.
But the materials had been bought by Sister Sangluo, and she was the only one who knew how to make the hair ties.
What right did they have to make them together with her? Wouldn’t that just be taking advantage of her?
Absolutely not.
She quickly shook her head. “No, absolutely not. Sister Sangluo, this will definitely make money. We can’t take advantage of you. But we can help you make them.”
Xu Sangluo had already expected this reaction, and probably the others would think the same.
She smiled and said, “If you help me, then it won’t count as me taking advantage of you. Since it’s called cooperation, it should be fair. First, the cost of buying materials should count as yours. I’ll provide the skills and sell the products, while you provide the labor and the materials. We split the profits fifty-fifty—no one takes advantage of the other.”
Qin Zhiyu opened her mouth and blinked, trying hard to understand.
It sounded like she understood… yet it also seemed a bit off.
She frowned slightly. “I… maybe I should wait until Big Brother comes back and ask him first.”
Xu Sangluo smiled and nodded.
She had never intended to let a young girl like Qin Zhiyu make the decision alone.
In this family, Qin Zhiyi was still the head of the household.
“Alright, let’s not talk about this for now. Come help me pick the fabrics, otherwise we won’t finish before it’s time to cook dinner.”
“Okay!” Qin Zhiyu immediately ran over and sat on the other side of the bed.
Now that she knew the purpose of the scraps of cloth, they didn’t seem so bad anymore.
“Pick out whichever ones you think look nice, based on your own taste.”
“Alright.”
The two of them began chatting while sorting through the fabrics.
Before long, they finished going through all three bags.
In the end, two full bags could be used to make hair ties.
Only one bag had to be discarded—mostly pieces that had been cut too small to reuse or had unattractive colors.
But they weren’t completely useless. They could still be used for making shoe insoles or stuffing pillows.
Later, Qin Zhiyu also went to tell Mother Qin about the matter.
Mother Qin felt somewhat tempted as well.
However, she didn’t know much about girls’ accessories, so she wanted to wait for her eldest son to come home before discussing it.
If they really planned to work together, they would still need to come up with a proper arrangement.
They couldn’t let Xu Sangluo suffer a loss.
Xu Sangluo’s earlier words might have fooled Qin Zhiyu, but Mother Qin immediately recognized the imbalance.
With Xu Sangluo’s skills, she could find anyone to work with.
But they couldn’t do the same. Besides, she had even said she would be responsible for selling the items, which was also hard work.
Still, if these things could truly make money, it would be a good thing for the family—at least it could ease some of the pressure on her son.
However, splitting the profits fifty-fifty definitely wouldn’t be appropriate.
For dinner, Xu Sangluo didn’t cook; Qin Zhiyu did.
Actually, all that was needed was a pot of cabbage porridge.
There was still a little braised meat left, which they ate with the porridge.
Meanwhile, Xu Sangluo focused on sewing patterns with needle and thread.
By evening, she had already made quite a lot.
Looking at the various hair ties, hair flowers, headbands, and hair clips—each prettier than the last—Qin Zhiyu’s eyes nearly popped out.
During dinner, Xu Sangluo brought up the matter first.
Just as she expected, Qin Zhiyi refused immediately.
He understood that Xu Sangluo wanted to help their family, but they couldn’t take advantage of her kindness.
Having known Qin Zhiyi’s personality quite well across two lifetimes, Xu Sangluo had already prepared a set of arguments.
In short, she said that she couldn’t handle the work alone. If she hired outsiders, they might start selling the items themselves before she even had the chance.
At least with the Qin family, she knew them well. They all lived together too, which made things convenient.
As for why she didn’t simply hire the Qin family to help, that was even more troublesome.
If it were an employment arrangement, would the Qin family members only be responsible for making the items?
Then what if she needed help with something else? How would the wages be calculated? Would different tasks require different pay?
And if they refused to accept wages, she would feel guilty about it.
It would be better to just cooperate as partners.
In the end, Qin Zhiyi was persuaded, but he insisted on splitting the profit seventy–thirty, and she couldn’t be the only one responsible for selling the goods—the Qin family had to take part as well.
Xu Sangluo had no objections.
After all, this was just a short-term way to make some quick money.
Since they had reached an agreement, they naturally needed to take action.
That very night, several of them gathered in Mother Qin’s room and, by the light of an oil lamp, began learning the patterns from Xu Sangluo.
Even Qin Zhifeng and Qin Zhishu joined in.
Fortunately, the two boys had helped with sewing quilts and clothes since childhood, so their handiwork was quite decent.
Meanwhile, Qin Zhiyi went out to cut bamboo to make several baskets and woven bamboo boxes.
He also dug some soil and used wooden boards to make a few planting boxes so Xu Sangluo could grow vegetables.
Xu Sangluo first assigned two designs to each person.
With five people, that meant ten different styles.
Without a sewing machine, using only needle and thread made the process much slower.
However, since the designs were simple, their speed improved once they got the hang of it.
Qin Zhifeng held the hair tie in his hand and examined it from side to side.
He couldn’t quite understand—would girls really like this kind of thing?
Could these really be sold?
He wasn’t very sure.
But when he thought back, it did seem that many girls at school wore all kinds of strange things in their hair.
Early the next morning, Qin Zhiyu excitedly went to find Xu Sangluo.
The day before, Xu Sangluo had told her that she would style her hair in a new way today, using the newly made hair ties so she could show off their products at school.
Although she didn’t quite understand everything, she was already fascinated by Xu Sangluo’s hairstyling skills.
And now that she had been given the “mission” of promotion, she was even more enthusiastic.
This time, Xu Sangluo didn’t make the hairstyle too exaggerated or avant-garde.
After all, schools had many people and watchful eyes—it was better not to attract unnecessary trouble.
She simply tied Qin Zhiyu’s hair into a high ponytail, braided it into three braids, then curled them upward and secured them with a blue hair tie decorated with white polka dots in the shape of a large bow.
Beside the bow were four small cross-knots made of cloth, each about the size of a thumbnail. They were connected with thin strands of rolled cloth thread, hanging perfectly at the curve of the braid.
When she walked, they swayed along with the braid, looking very pretty.
She also clipped a small three-dimensional flower hairpin made from blue floral cloth on the side.
The overall look made her appear lively and fashionable, yet not overly flashy.
In the 1980s, many girls in the cities liked wearing hairstyles like this.
But none were as delicate as the one Xu Sangluo created.
In any case, Qin Zhiyu loved it immensely.
Early in the morning, she hurriedly ate two buns, then skipped happily off to meet her friends and go to school.
She didn’t even wait for her two brothers.
And unsurprisingly, Qin Zhiyu’s new hairstyle and hair accessories not only drew admiration from her friends—many women working in the fields along the road couldn’t help turning to look at her.
For a moment, some of them didn’t even recognize who she was.
Qin Zhiyu was also quite clever. As her friends asked questions, she responded loudly while walking along with them.