Seeing Su Qiao looking as if she had been frightened, the woman’s tone softened a little.
She patiently explained, “These fabrics technically aren’t for sale. Usually, they’re collected over a couple of days, and once there’s enough, the street office sends someone to pick them up.
The small factories on the street take the fabric scraps back, sort them, and distribute them to households in the alley. Those households then turn them into mops, which are later collected and managed by the authorities.”
Hearing this, Su Qiao couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed, though it was not unexpected.
Even though the fabrics were obviously leftover scraps from the factory, it was still a planned economy. To avoid responsibility, even useless materials were rarely sold to individuals.
So she had already prepared herself for this outcome when she came to inquire.
“Okay, I understand. Thank you, Auntie,” she said obediently, nodding. Then she stopped probing further, picked up her tea container, and quietly took a sip.
But anyone could see the faint trace of disappointment on her face.
Seeing her like this, the woman laughed, “Oh ho, the little girl’s upset, huh? What do you want those fabric scraps for? Let me tell you, there aren’t any whole pieces left. The factory keeps a tight eye on waste, and if we’re careless with materials, the factory manager will lose his temper. Little girl, if you’re hoping to find something useful in there, it won’t be easy.”
Seeing the woman’s expression, Su Qiao realized she might have been overthinking earlier.
She relaxed a little.
“Auntie, I just want some scraps to patch clothes for my younger siblings. I noticed some of the fabrics are pretty, and I thought maybe I could even patch together a small curtain,” she said shyly, setting down the tea container as she spoke.
“Patches, huh? Well… you might actually be able to pick out a few usable pieces,” the woman replied.
Hearing that Su Qiao wanted the scraps to repair her siblings’ clothes, a hint of surprise appeared on the woman’s face, quickly followed by a touch of sympathy.
Previously, seeing Su Qiao neatly dressed and able to eat wontons, she had never guessed this.
But after hearing her explanation, her gaze fell on the bamboo basket Su Qiao had placed to the side, and she suddenly realized she might have misjudged her.
No city girl would carry such a large basket through the streets!
This girl must have come from the countryside, probably someone with no prospects at home, seeking a way to make a living in the city.
Since the woman herself secretly ran a small business, she couldn’t help feeling a bit of empathy for Su Qiao.
It wasn’t much, but it was enough to make her decide to lend Su Qiao a hand.
Her expression grew serious, and she lowered her voice: “Go pick now, while the street people haven’t arrived yet. You might still be able to find some bigger pieces. Go on, quickly, leave the basket here, I’ll keep an eye on it for you.”
For Su Qiao, the woman’s words were an unexpected delight!
She hadn’t imagined things would turn around so easily.
She didn’t dare waste a single minute, quickly stood up, gave the woman a hurried bow, and said, “Thank you, Auntie.”
Then she turned and ran outside.
But this time, she was careful; she didn’t leave the basket in the guardroom, but carried it on her back.
With permission granted, Su Qiao let herself act boldly.
At the gap between the factory buildings, she didn’t rush to empty the burlap sack. Instead, she dragged the huge sack further into the space, making sure no one eating wontons outside could see her. Only when she was certain she was out of sight did she stop.
Su Qiao set the sack down and poured out the fabric inside. Just as the woman had said, the pieces were truly scraps.
Most were long strips only about an inch wide, some even narrower, with jagged, frayed edges, the unusable outer edges of full bolts of cloth.
Besides these were various small, irregular pieces.
Having worked in clothing in her past life, Su Qiao was no stranger to cutting and tailoring. Just by looking at the scraps, she could tell the woman had spoken truthfully, the factory strictly controlled its material waste.
She sifted through the small pieces, yet she couldn’t even find a single piece as large as a palm.
Now she understood why such a large bundle of scraps had been left out, nobody would have thought to take it, for the same reason she had been interested.
But Su Qiao had never expected to get large pieces anyway!
At this time, without connections or special access, that was simply impossible.
Even these tiny scraps were a treasure to her.
Without overthinking, she put down the basket and began squatting to sort through them.
Pieces with nice colors, without defects, slightly neat edges… Su Qiao crouched there for over half an hour.
Her legs went numb, sweat blurred her eyes, but she finished selecting all the pieces she could.
The gap, being between two factory buildings, contained not only the scraps but also some scattered trash.
Su Qiao didn’t mind at all. She rummaged through a nearby pile of miscellaneous items and found two slightly larger pieces of torn burlap.
First, she removed the straw covering the bamboo basket, taking out the rice wine and other items she had bought earlier and putting them into her own backpack. Then she spread half of the straw at the bottom of the basket, padding the fish and shrimp she had inside.
Next, she laid the burlap pieces on top of the straw, making sure they wouldn’t soil the fabric scraps, and carefully placed her selected “treasures” inside.
Because the opportunity was rare, Su Qiao wanted to take every usable scrap she could find. Even with the large bamboo basket, she didn’t manage to fit everything in. The remaining scraps she wrapped up with another piece of burlap.
After tidying the leftover scraps back into the sack, Su Qiao carried the bamboo basket on her back, holding the “treasures” she had collected, and returned to the guardroom.
The woman clearly looked startled seeing her come back with such a huge pile: “You want this much?! How many brothers do you have? How many clothes are you planning to patch?”
“Is it too much? Should I put some back?”
Su Qiao, like a schoolgirl facing her teacher, stood up straight, looking nervous as she replied.
But although she said that, her hands tightly clutched the burlap bundle, and she didn’t move a step, clearly unwilling to let go.
The woman couldn’t help but feel both exasperated and amused.
“All right, all right. If you want it, take it all. Three cents a pound, if you can pay, I’ll sell it to anyone anyway.”
Hearing this, Su Qiao’s eyes immediately lit up!
She still held onto the pile, saying nothing, just grinning as she bent deeply to bow to the woman.
It was the kind of gesture that made anyone feel a little chided, but couldn’t bring themselves to say anything.
The woman gestured toward her, then went ahead into the guardroom.
Su Qiao quickly followed.
Inside, there was a scale, showing that all the scraps had been weighed here before leaving the factory.
Su Qiao carefully placed all her items back onto the scale.
“Ten pounds and three ounces, let’s call it ten pounds. That’ll be thirty cents,” the woman said casually, glancing at the numbers.
Su Qiao happily paid the money.
As she began placing the scraps back into the basket, her hand paused.
Then, without the slightest hesitation, she pushed aside the straw and took out the small bag of river shrimp she had bought earlier.
Su Qiao held the bundle wrapped in leaves with both hands and brought it over to the woman, speaking sincerely: “Auntie, thank you so much today and sorry for giving you so much trouble. When I came this morning, I happened to buy some river shrimp, and they’re pretty fresh. You can take them home, boil them in salted water, and let the children have them as a snack.”
Without waiting for a response, she placed the leaf-wrapped bundle beside the scale.
The woman clearly didn’t expect her to bring food and quickly protested: “No, no, that won’t do! How can I possibly take your things? You take it back for your siblings to eat.”
“It’s fine—I even bought them some candy!” Su Qiao squinted and smiled.
“Auntie, please accept it. It’s not anything valuable, just a little token of my gratitude. If you hadn’t helped me, I wouldn’t have been able to get such good fabric.”
As she spoke, Su Qiao lowered her head. Embarrassed, she wiped the sweat from the tip of her nose and admitted, “Auntie, I won’t hide it from you, these scraps are enough to make two door curtains. Maybe if I piece them together carefully, I can even make a bed sheet. That’s something I never even dreamed of before.”
The woman looked at the pile of scraps and couldn’t believe Su Qiao’s words.
“Make a bed sheet out of such tiny scraps? That would take so many days and so much effort!”
She glanced up and down at Su Qiao, unable to imagine such a frail-looking little girl having that ability.
Su Qiao rested her hand on the edge of the basket and sighed: “What can you do? In our village, one person can’t even get a foot of fabric coupons in a year, and the whole family combined can’t gather enough for a single piece of clothing. With so many brothers and sisters, we never have enough for clothes, let alone a bed sheet. So what if the pieces are small? At least it’s fabric! If there’s fabric to piece together, it’s thanks to your kindness.”
She spoke earnestly, pushing the river shrimp a little closer to the woman: “Auntie, don’t think it’s too little. I didn’t manage to prepare more in advance. Next time, when I come to the county again, I’ll bring you something tasty!”
Hearing Su Qiao, the woman was silent for a long moment.
Obviously, her words had touched the woman’s heart.
When she heard that Su Qiao would return, the woman asked, “When are you planning to come next?”
Su Qiao’s heart skipped a beat. She knew she had spoken correctly earlier.
She quickly said, “I can come anytime. My home is close to the county, so it’s convenient to come and go.”
The woman nodded, then glanced at the calendar on the wall and said, “Then come by again next week. Don’t come too early—Thursday will do.
If you come at this time, there are fewer people eating, and the workers are on their lunch break. There won’t be many people in the factory.
I’ll tell you quietly, the factory just received a batch of children’s clothing orders a few days ago, and they’re going to be sent to Haishi for sale. The people over there are picky, and the clothes are beautiful! Children’s clothes, the fabric will definitely be even nicer!
When there are scraps, I’ll set some aside for you. You can pick the ones you like first, and after you finish, I’ll let the street collectors come and take the rest!”
Su Qiao was completely stunned by this unexpected stroke of luck!
The reason she had tried to get close to the woman was that she had noticed the woman held a special position in the clothing factory.
Although she looked like an ordinary gatekeeper, who else’s father would be allowed to set up a wonton stall inside a factory?
And who else could control the weighing of goods, casually allow someone to pick through fabric scraps, and even round down the price for them?
Su Qiao wanted to build a relationship with this woman precisely because she knew the scraps weren’t limited to just this batch, she wanted to keep a backdoor open, so she could come back later and pick through the leftovers.
But she didn’t expect this auntie to help her so wholeheartedly.