Abandoned Woman Busy Farming

Chapter 512: Chapter 514: Hua Xiangrong is Swept Away

Mrs. Li also intended to visit Hua Xiangrong, but as it turned out, all the women at the table wanted to go too. Bai Ruozhu, looking at the elaborate preparation, couldn’t help but laugh. She’d attracted so many customers to the shop in one go, would Fusa be scared silly?

For convenience, the group of ladies decided to split into three horse carriages. The carriages not in use would follow later, stopping near Hua Xiangrong to wait for them.

Bai Ruozhu and Yu Hongxiu were pulled by Mrs. Li to sit in one carriage, along with the eloquent Mrs. Gao.

As soon as the horse carriage started, Mrs. Gao gave Bai Ruozhu the thumbs up, ”Ruozhu, you truly are capable. Not only can you cure illness, but you’ve also opened a shop, and the way you handled Mrs. Sun just now was good, too. Otherwise, she would have gone home with a grudge.”

Yu Hongxiu also held Bai Ruozhu’s hand, saying, ”That’s right. I wouldn’t have known what to do if it were me.”

Bai Ruozhu shot her a glance, ”That’s impossible. You are such a clever person. You are giving me high praise.”

Yu Hongxiu smiled, then said to Mrs Gao and Mrs. Li, ”You don’t know, my health was regulated by Ruozhu. After that, I became pregnant. Also, I used to suffer from pregnancy vomiting, but her treatment helped. Besides, she’s a great cook, so I often go to her house for a meal.”

Having known Bai Ruozhu for a long time and introduced by Yu Hongxiu, Mrs. Li naturally knew Bai Ruozhu had cooked for the Xie Family. She couldn’t help thinking about how she once thought Bai Ruozhu was just a kitchen maid. How did she become so myopic?

Was it because I’ve spent too much time in small places and lack foresight?

Mrs. Li, while blaming herself for her lack of insight, contemplated the importance of returning to hold a position in the Capital. Capital City is the most prosperous place in Danliang Country.

Bai Ruozhu felt a little embarrassed at Yu Hongxiu’s praise, and Mrs. Gao was also surprised to ask, ”Oh, I heard Old Lady Meng found a girl to treat her toothache, who had great cooking skills. That was you, right?”

Yu Hongxiu quickly nodded, saying, ”Yes, it’s Ruozhu. Old Lady Meng loves her greatly. The hairpin she wears is a gift from her.”

Mrs. Gao envied her greatly. Indeed, she was a top-quality commodity, she was also glad to know Bai Ruozhu today. Who knows, she might become a big shot one day.

The carriages quickly reached Hua Xiangrong, and all the women got down and entered the shop. Sure enough, Fusa was scared when she saw so many people. It was difficult for her to greet so many at once.

Luckily, these ladies had just finished a meal and weren’t particularly interested in tea or dim sum, otherwise, even with Bai Ruozhu’s help, Fusa would’ve found it hard to manage.

The Ladies strolled around the shop, examining the displayed samples. Some could not resist reaching out to touch the items, commenting, ”Although it’s not as smooth as silk, it’s soft and comfortable, and there are many patterns, which is quite good.”

Watching them being fascinated, Bai Ruozhu brought out a catalogue for them to look at. There were items like a quilting, half sleeves, and a long crocheted scarf that she demonstratively showed them various methods to wear.

As a modern person, Bai Ruozhu had seen plenty of graphic or video tutorials on various scarf wearing methods in her past life. Coupled with her good memory remembering many scarf techniques, her demonstrations immediately left the ladies captivated. Almost everyone wanted to buy a scarf, resulting in a heated dispute since there were only three scarves available in the shop.

It was finally Bai Ruozhu who intervened, saying, ”Since Mrs. Li is our host today, let’s give the first scarf to her, okay?”

Everyone agreed. After all, who in the right mind wouldn’t settle their debts after eating someone’s food?

”For the remaining two, everyone can draw lots to have a bit of fun. Don’t be angry if you don’t get a scarf, you can order one today. I promise to work overtime to weave them for you. Plus, you’ll have the chance to choose your favorite patterns and colors,” Bai Ruozhu added.

Everyone thought her idea was reasonable and all agreed.

Next, Bai Ruozhu found some bamboo sticks, broke two of them into smaller pieces, mixed them up and let everyone take their pick. Those who drew the shorter sticks were the winners of the scarves.

Soon, the lottery drawing ended, and to everyone’s surprise, Mrs. Sun, who was not in a good mood earlier because her dignity had taken a hit, won one of the scarves. This greatly pleased her, as it meant her luck was good. Who wouldn’t be happy?

The other scarf was drawn by a lady whose husband held a not-so-high official position. She was extremely thrilled and promptly paid for the scarf. Mrs. Sun then came to her senses and hurriedly paid too, as if afraid the scarf wouldn’t belong to her if she paid later.

Following that, the ladies swept through Bai Ruozhu’s shop and by the time they were leaving in twos and threes, Bai Ruozhu was left clutching a considerable amount of silver and chuckling at the irony. Her shop had practically been cleared out and she had taken a whole lot of orders. She was definitely going to be busy!

Fusa alternated between smiles and frowns. She was thrilled at earning so much silver, but was also worried about the pile of work ahead.

”We might as well close the shop now and head home to work, anyway the shop is essentially empty, and even if we get orders, we won’t be able to keep up,” Bai Ruozhu said helplessly.

Fusa immediately took out the cashbook, then handed over the silver and deposits they had received that day to Bai Ruozhu. Then they closed up shop and headed home.

Yu Hongxiu had no urgency to leave and wanted to go over to Bai Ruozhu’s house. Seeing that Bai Ruozhu had piles of work to get to, she suppressed her laughter and took her leave.

When she got home, Bai Ruozhu related the day’s happenings to everyone, and while they were all delighted, they saw Bai Ruozhu pulling a grimace and saying, ”Having good business can be so worrying too. Why don’t we hire a couple of workers?”

Upon hearing this, Fusa immediately shook her head, ”No way, didn’t you say someone learned your crochet technique to compete with us? What if someone arranges a spy among the people we hire or an employee leaves us after picking up our skills?”

That is indeed a problem, Bai Ruozhu thought for a moment before saying, ”Let’s just buy a diligent maid for now, one with a binding contract, so we wouldn’t have to worry about her being poached.”

”But if she’s bought off and leaks out our crocheting technique, we wouldn’t be able to prevent it,” Lin Ping’er expressed her concerns.

Bai Ruozhu laughed, ”Let’s not think so much for now. Let’s just get a maid to spin thread, if we can trust her later, then we’ll see.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. It was the only solution for now.

”Now, the most important thing is to make some samples, otherwise, it will be difficult to continue running the shop. Let’s divide the work and start now,” Bai Ruozhu stated before proceeding to delegate the tasks.

Thankfully, the sample items - small hats, hand warmers, waistbands, gloves, etc., didn’t take much time for experienced hands to make. However, Bai Ruozhu insisted on intricate designs. How could they demonstrate the caliber of Hua Xiangrong and compete with rivals otherwise?

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