Su Jinle swallowed the bun in her mouth: “Ten yuan.”
This time, Lin Yun finally heard clearly. She froze for a moment, and her eyes suddenly grew moist. Others always said her daughter was the most useless—originally, she could have been married off for a bride price, but she ended up becoming a stutterer after falling into the water before finishing high school.
Yet Lin Yun always felt her daughter was the most well-behaved. So when matchmakers came before, suggesting they introduce Lele to older men who had lost their wives, she chased them away immediately.
She would rather support her daughter for a lifetime than marry her off for money.
But misfortune never comes alone. A few months ago, her most pride-worthy son was seriously injured. Though he narrowly escaped death, his leg still hadn’t fully recovered. How could a cripple return to the military?
Even his previous fiancée came to break off the engagement. Now, everyone at the canned food factory was whispering behind their backs, saying their family was cursed with terrible luck.
Seeing her mother cry, Su Jinle was stunned and flustered as she comforted her: “Earn money, earn money, not lose money.”
She tried hard to speak more fluently: “Earned seven yuan.”
Lin Yun laughed through her tears and hugged her obedient daughter: “Lele has grown up and can even earn money now.”
Su Jinle felt a pang of heartache. Other girls her age had long since started working, and some were already married. Only her mother still treated her like a child.
When Su Weihua returned from work and saw the lavish meal on the table, he was surprised: “What’s the occasion today?”
Stir-fried eggs with chili peppers, braised pork, and big buns—this was even more sumptuous than New Year’s.
Su Yi’an sat on a stool, a crutch leaning beside him, and said with a smile: “Dad, we’re all benefiting from Lele. She went to the small market to sell clothes by herself and earned seven yuan!”
Su Weihua glanced at his wife, who nodded with a smile and even ate a big mouthful of eggs—something unheard of—before snapping out of his shock and praising: “My daughter is really amazing.”
Su Jinle used to avoid speaking, even at home—if she didn’t have to talk, she wouldn’t.
But today, she didn’t shy away from her stutter at all and said cheerfully: “Dad, day after tomorrow, day after tomorrow I’ll go again.”
She had agreed with that woman to go sell skirts again in the afternoon the day after tomorrow.
“Going again?” Su Yi’an was also surprised. He had thought Lele was only going to sell the shirt she had prepared for Gu Jingxiu, but he didn’t expect her to have gotten hooked on doing business.
Su Jinle was full of pride as she pointed at the blue dress: “Continue, sell!”
That night, Su Jinle leaned over the table drawing designs. She hadn’t studied fashion design, but because she was interested in it, she often read magazines and watched fashion shows on TV in her past life.
After thinking for a moment, her pencil flowed smoothly across the paper, sketching a stylish and elegant square-neck dress with buttons of the same color on the chest and a waistband design. It would look good on girls whether they were twenty or thirty.
Filled with motivation, she was full of energy and was still working the sewing machine at eleven at night.
Lin Yun urged her several times: “Lele, you can continue tomorrow. It’s already very late.”
Su Jinle’s small face was flushed: “Not late.”
Just thinking about earning money made her feel like she could work all night.
Su Weihua laughed: “It’s rare for her to be in such high spirits. Let her do as she pleases—she can sleep in tomorrow anyway.”
Early the next morning, Su Jinle got up with dark circles under her eyes and continued working on the sewing machine. Although the clothes weren’t due until the day after tomorrow, she still wanted to leave extra time to perfect the details.
The buttons needed to be covered with the remaining floral fabric, and the belt wasn’t the fixed type. She had drawn several design drafts and finally felt that for this French-style dress, a twisted rope belt would look better. However, the dangling tassels were another hassle, requiring manual adjustments.
Just this belt alone took her a full hour to make. She only hurriedly ate a few bites for lunch and didn’t finish the entire dress until after two in the afternoon. To make the silhouette look better, she gave the dress a quick wash and hung it outside to dry in the sun.
Under the sunlight, the pale blue dress looked exceptionally beautiful.
Su Yi’an looked at the dress outside the window and smiled, “You’ll look really good in this dress.”
Lele had fair skin, which complemented blue well.
Su Jinle cupped her face in her hands, her big eyes and long eyelashes making her look like a doll on TV. When she smiled, a sweet little dimple appeared on her right cheek. “Earn money, and your leg will get better.”
Su Yi’an was slightly taken aback. After a long pause, he gently patted her soft hair. “Brother isn’t your responsibility.”
He wasn’t her responsibility, but he was her family.
Su Jinle turned back, her eyes filled with sunlight. She spoke slowly, and when she spoke slowly, she didn’t stutter. “Brother, don’t leave in the future, okay? Let’s both stay at home.”
In her previous life, her brother’s leg never healed. He went far away, sending money home regularly every month but rarely returning. Later, she got married, had children, and followed Gu Jingxiu to work in another city. The siblings were separated, one in the north and one in the south, making it so hard to see each other…
Su Yi’an was stunned for a moment. He had planned to leave for another city after Lele got married, but hearing his sister say this, he sighed softly. “Okay.”
Only then did Su Jinle feel relieved. She knew her brother was a man of his word and never broke his promises to her.
Since he hadn’t fully recovered yet, Su Yi’an began to feel tired after talking with her for a while. Su Jinle urged him to rest while she went to dry some flower petals to make sachets later.
There were still a few small pieces of fabric left from the dress. Following the principle of not wasting anything, Su Jinle threaded elastic through them to make a few hairbands. Just as she was threading the sewing machine, she heard the front door being pushed open.
Su Jinle put down her work and hurried outside, only to find that the visitors were none other than Gu Jingxiu and Yang Muqing.
“What… are you doing here?” Su Jinle frowned, wanting to shoo them away.
Yang Muqing came from a well-off family—she was the factory director’s daughter. She was bright and beautiful but also very spoiled. Everyone was used to flattering her, so even someone like Gu Jingxiu, a college student, wasn’t taken seriously by her due to his ordinary family background.
Seeing Su Jinle, Yang Muqing lifted her chin, her tone filled with displeasure. “Gu Jingxiu, what do you mean by this? Why are you asking a little stutterer to make clothes for me?”
Gu Jingxiu’s tone was somewhat placating. “Didn’t you want a unique dress? You won’t find anything like this sold outside.”
Su Jinle clenched her fists. Suddenly, she remembered her previous life—when they had just started dating, Gu Jingxiu had said that a colleague of his liked the clothes she made and wanted her to make one. That was the time he had spoken to her the most.
She had put a lot of effort into making that dress, but Gu Jingxiu’s demands were exceptionally high—it had to be unique, with good fabric and excellent design. She had drawn many design drafts before barely passing his standards.
What she saw in his diary was: Mu Qing really liked the dress she made. This is the only thing I could do for her.
At that moment, Yang Muqing suddenly spotted the blue dress hanging in the courtyard. Her eyes lit up, and she pointed at it, commanding, “I want this one! Gu Jingxiu, go get it down for me!”