In the morning, she sold three hairbands and two small keychains. Two skirts attracted inquiries, but upon hearing the price and examining the style, the customers hesitated and shook their heads repeatedly. Especially since most shoppers at this hour were married women over thirty.
One middle-aged woman even curled her lip and said, “Good heavens, if I wore such a flashy skirt out, wouldn’t my husband beat me to death? I wouldn’t dare wear it!”
Su Jinle’s face flushed red. She stammered in explanation, “N-not flashy.”
It was a blue-and-white checkered set, just designed a bit more boldly than those conventional skirts. How could it be considered flashy?
Beside her, the egg-selling auntie rolled her eyes dramatically. “Sister, don’t worry about it. With your figure, you probably couldn’t fit into it anyway!”
The middle-aged woman: “…”
She had wanted to retort, but after one look at the auntie’s sharp tongue, she judged from years of arguing experience that this was likely a master of quarrels, and she probably couldn’t win. So she could only purse her lips and walk away.
Su Jinle was utterly disheartened. She hung her head low. “P-probably won’t sell.”
She loved designing clothes too much and was too confident in herself. She shouldn’t have made such bold styles; she should have stuck to the original designs. At least those would have sold even at a lower price. The fabric for these had cost ten yuan—it was heartbreaking.
Seeing her dejected look, the auntie immediately comforted her. “It’s fine, it’s fine. At worst, you can keep them for yourself to wear. You’d definitely look good in them.”
Su Jinle shook her head. “I-I have clothes.”
The auntie narrowed her eyes, giving the young girl in front of her a once-over—her delicate face and slender figure. She slapped Su Jinle on the shoulder, nearly knocking the frail girl over. “Girl, listen to me. Wear one set yourself this afternoon, and the other set will sell right away! Clothes need a good frame to show them off. Look at the department stores—they even have mannequins wearing them!”
“M-me wear it?” Su Jinle glanced at the large bow and hesitated. Though she designed clothes boldly, she always chose the simplest styles for herself.
The auntie’s expression turned serious. “I’ve eaten more salt than you’ve eaten rice. Listen to me—you won’t go wrong!”
The two outfits could sell for forty yuan. Su Jinle was now single-mindedly focused on earning money to treat her brother’s leg. She pursed her lips. “Then I’ll… try.”
At noon, she returned home.
The siblings had a simple meal. Su Yi’an asked her, “Are you going again this afternoon?”
Su Jinle hummed in agreement. “Yes.”
Su Yi’an glanced at the blazing sun outside. “Wait until the sun goes down a bit before heading out. Bring plenty of water. It’s fine if the clothes don’t sell. I still have two hundred yuan in subsidies—that can last us quite a while.”
Two hundred yuan could cover a family’s food expenses for most of the year!
Su Jinle didn’t mention that she hadn’t sold any clothes all morning. Instead, she smiled brightly. “Besides, there’s nothing to do at home. Over there, at least I have someone to chat with!”
Su Yi’an perked up with interest. “You made a friend?”
After Lele nearly drowned, she developed a stutter and rarely interacted with outsiders. She had no friends, her personality timid, weak, and reclusive. Their parents, heartbroken, sheltered her carefully, but because of that, she went out even less.
Ever since she turned down the Gu family’s marriage proposal last time, he felt his sister had matured a lot. Though she still appeared timid, she was now willing to try new things.
Su Jinle nodded emphatically: “Yes, it’s the auntie who sells eggs. She’s really nice.”
Auntie?
Su Yi’an smiled—this could be considered a friendship across generations.
It wasn’t until around four in the afternoon that Su Jinle left home again. Before heading out, she checked herself several times in the mirror on the wardrobe.
The girl in the reflection wore a blue-and-white checkered outfit, with dark hair, fair skin, and a slender figure. Her hair was tied up with a matching checkered ribbon, and when she turned slightly, the large bow accentuated a uniquely feminine softness. To complete the look, she deliberately wore a pair of white ankle socks and black cloth shoes, revealing a small stretch of slender, pale calves.
Just like the anime characters she later saw on TV…
She rubbed her flushed cheeks and gave herself a pep talk: Making money is what matters, nothing else is important!
When Su Jinle appeared, the street vendors all turned to look, especially the men, whose eyes were practically glued to her…
The auntie reacted swiftly, immediately standing up with her hands on her hips and glaring at them one by one: “What are you staring at? Never seen a pretty girl before? The police station is right across the street—I’ll have you all arrested for hooliganism and shot, one bullet per person!”
Everyone: “…”
The egg-selling auntie was the undisputed queen of this street. Her mouth could curse the heavens above and berate the earth below. Once, during a dispute over a spot, she stood at the street corner and cursed for an entire day—even the police chief couldn’t do anything about her.
Who would dare provoke her? Besides, hooliganism was a serious crime!
With that warning, the men not only stopped staring at Su Jinle but even quietly shifted their stalls a bit further away…
Su Jinle had been feeling awkward under all those stares, but now she breathed a sigh of relief and whispered to the auntie: “Thank you! Auntie, I… I’ll buy eggs from you later.”
The auntie sighed helplessly: “Please don’t. My hens can’t lay enough eggs for you to keep buying.”
Her family was actually quite well-off, but now that her children were grown and didn’t need her, she found herself bored at home alone. Selling eggs was just something to do, not entirely for the money.
Su Jinle thought for a moment, then took out a small cloth bag for the auntie—blue-and-white checkered, with a wavy trim sewn from fabric scraps: “Then… then take this. You can use it to hold money.”
The auntie gave her a look of mixed emotions: “Sweetie, I’m fifty years old.”
Su Jinle smiled shyly, her long eyelashes lowered, looking a bit silly but incredibly sincere.
The auntie’s heart softened. Fine, fine—in all her life, she’d never met such a gentle, soft-spoken girl. Though she had a daughter of her own, that girl was always flapping around like a giant bird at home…
Su Jinle sat on a small stool nearby while the auntie occasionally called out: “Fresh eggs for sale! Who wants fresh eggs? Pretty skirts for sale! Who wants a nice skirt?”
Around five in the afternoon, nearby factories began letting out, and many female workers passed through this street on their way home, checking to see if there was anything they needed. Su Jinle, in her checkered skirt, stood out like a bright splash of color, quickly drawing attention.
But not everyone carried the hefty sum of twenty yuan. Upon hearing the price, many immediately backed off: “It’s beautiful, but the style is just too unusual. The dresses at the department store only cost eighteen yuan—this is too expensive.”
Su Jinle was too eager to sell the dress. She couldn’t afford to be shy anymore and stood up directly to showcase it: “No, it’s not unusual at all.”
She spun around in place, the bow swirling in the air, her long hair lifting and then falling back down.
Gasps rose and fell around her.
Like a person from a painting, truly lovely…