The beautiful blue dress hung there, far more eye-catching than the white shirt from two days ago. Very quickly, two young women came over. “How much is this dress? What size is it?”
Su Jinle had already made an agreement with the woman from that day, so she could only refuse apologetically. “It’s… it’s already been bought.”
“Ah? There’s only one?” The two girls looked at it again and again, clearly smitten. “Then how much is it?”
Su Jinle didn’t really know what price to set. The fabric cost more than the white shirt’s, and it had taken more effort to make. After thinking for a moment, she said, “Fifteen…”
The egg-selling auntie beside her jumped in first. “Twenty yuan! If you like it, she’ll come again in two days to sell more—and you can even pick different colors!”
The two girls hesitated. “It’s really pretty… just a bit expensive.”
Su Jinle hurried to add, “It can… can be cheaper…”
She had planned to sell it for fifteen. How had the auntie suddenly raised it to twenty?
The auntie was clearly a seasoned businesswoman. She launched into a rapid-fire pitch. “Girls, take a good look at this fabric—it’s no worse than what the department store sells! And this belt—have you seen one like this before? And these buttons, aren’t they lovely? Let me tell you, if this dress were in the department store, it’d sell for thirty yuan! Don’t you doubt it. If you hesitate too long, the dresses the day after tomorrow won’t even be yours!”
Then she turned to Su Jinle and whispered, “Girl, what’s your name?”
“S-Su Jinle,” she answered blankly.
The auntie swallowed and continued grandly, “Our Lele here—her craftsmanship is first-rate! She was planning to open a clothing shop, you know. Everyone for miles around knows how good her work is!”
Su Jinle silently added in her heart: even she didn’t know she was planning to open a shop…
The two girls gazed at the dress reluctantly. “Can’t it be a little cheaper? If we order now, we don’t even know when we’ll get to wear it. It’s so hot lately. If it takes too long, we might as well just go to the department store.”
The auntie nudged Su Jinle. “When can you finish it?”
Was business really this easy?
Su Jinle was practically stunned, but she answered quickly, “I-it’ll take two days. Actually… it can… can be ch—”
She wanted to say she could lower it. She would’ve been thrilled with eighteen yuan.
But the auntie promptly covered her mouth and turned to the girls. “If you like it, she’ll even throw in a gift.”
The two girls were indeed tempted. The dress was genuinely beautiful, and you couldn’t find anything like it outside. Imagine wearing it out—who knew how many heads would turn? It was a bit pricey, but their families were well-off. With monthly salaries of seventy or eighty yuan, spending twenty on a dress wasn’t unbearable.
“What kind of gift?” they asked.
The auntie pinched Su Jinle lightly at the waist and whispered, “Just give them one of those flower things.”
Su Jinle shook her head, then quickly remembered something. She took out the fabric headbands she had made from leftover scraps and held them out with both hands. “This… is this okay?”
The headbands she made were unlike the common ones on the street. They were double-layered, with carefully crafted ruffles and tassels. From a distance, they resembled roses. Clearly, a lot of effort had gone into them. She didn’t have much, but she did have plenty of time—and making little things like this was her hobby anyway.
The two girls looked at the headbands and stopped hesitating. “Alright, it’s settled. We’ll come pick them up the day after tomorrow. Measure us—we want this same style. I want yellow.”
“I want pink!”
In just a short while, she had pre-sold two dresses. Su Jinle’s little face flushed red with excitement. She quickly took out a pen to measure them. After making so many clothes, her eyes were practically measuring tapes; a quick visual estimate gave her the approximate sizes.
Before the two girls left, Su Jinle obediently handed each of them a headband. “For… for you.”
“But we haven’t paid yet!” the girls exclaimed, embarrassed. She was too honest—wasn’t she afraid they wouldn’t come back?
When Su Jinle smiled, it was especially sweet. She was genuinely happy. “Not… not afraid. The day after tomorrow… I’ll give matching colors too.”
Her stutter wasn’t unpleasant. If anything, it made her more endearing. She looked like the girl-next-door, holding out the headbands with wide, blinking eyes. It was hard not to soften.
The two girls felt a bit guilty for bargaining so much earlier. They exchanged a glance and decisively handed her five yuan as a deposit. “We trust you. This is the deposit. We’ll definitely come back!”
After they left, Su Jinle still hadn’t fully processed what had happened. Staring at the five yuan in her hand, she was so excited she couldn’t even calculate how much she would earn.
The egg auntie gave her a hearty slap on the shoulder. “See that? That’s how you do business! Learn from me!”
If not for the auntie’s help, the deal might not have gone so smoothly—or sold for twenty yuan apiece. Su Jinle was the type who never forgot kindness. Rubbing her shoulder, she said, “I-I’ll buy eggs…”
The auntie glared at her. “You just bought two jin the other day. Buying again in this heat? Planning to pickle rotten eggs?”
But she didn’t know how else to repay her…
After thinking hard, Su Jinle pulled out another headband. “Then… this is for you.”
The auntie gave her a long look. “You think that suits me?”
With her ear-length hair, it really wouldn’t. Su Jinle awkwardly withdrew her hand, feeling terribly embarrassed.
Yet the auntie suddenly snatched the headband anyway and grinned. “Fine, I’ll shamelessly take it. I’ll give it to my daughter-in-law. She’s vain enough—she’ll like it.”
Su Jinle let out a relieved breath and smiled too.
But the woman from the other day had arrived around three in the afternoon. Now the sun was setting in the west, and there was still no sign of her. The street vendors were gradually packing up. A thread of worry crept into Su Jinle’s heart.
Some people had asked about the dress earlier, but she had promised someone else first. She couldn’t break her word, so she had turned them all down.
Even the egg-selling auntie was heading home. “Girl, I have to cook for my grandson. Don’t stay too late. Be home before dark.”
Su Jinle nodded. “Goodbye, Auntie.”
As the sun sank lower and the street grew emptier, she glanced at the darkening sky. Her long lashes fluttered uneasily.
Would her dress not sell today?
This morning, before coming out, she had confidently boasted to her brother that she would buy him pork ribs…