The Farm Girl and the Executioner (Rebirth) 57

Chapter 57: A Great Sale

In mid-April, a mohele(type of doll) trend inexplicably swept through Changping County. The wealthy young ladies of the entire city were all talking about this novel little toy.

In the streets and alleys, in the teahouses and taverns, there was talk of mohele everywhere.

Those exquisite dolls, whether dressed in chest-high skirts, open-collared robes, or heroic Hu-style clothes, were all lifelike, as if they had their own souls.

The young ladies would gather together, holding their mohele, and compare whose was more beautiful, whose clothes were more unique. They would also enthusiastically change the dolls’ clothes, as if in a costume party. Some even specially ordered clothes of the same style as the dolls and wore them, as if they had merged with the dolls, attracting the attention of others.

Lin Shuang’s shop was crowded with people every day.

Everyone was scrambling to buy mohele, afraid that if they were a step too late, they would be sold out. Those who had originally come to take a look out of curiosity were also infected by the lively atmosphere and joined in the buying frenzy.

And in the prefectural city, they had also begun to hear about the mohele trend in Changping County. Many merchants began to stir, wanting to inquire about the origin and supply channels of this novel toy.

But no matter how fast they were, they were not faster than Lin Shuang.

As soon as the first batch of mohele had arrived in Changping County, Lin Shuang had immediately made further adjustments. She had also added couple and sister doll models. Among them, she had even ordered over two thousand clay dolls, over seven hundred ceramic blanks, and a little fewer ordinary ceramics, but no less than five hundred. She had even ordered about twenty top-grade white porcelain pieces. The total cost was one hundred taels of silver.

Having already cooperated once, the two parties discussed it and decided to pay a twenty percent deposit first, and the balance would be paid upon delivery.

Lin Shuang’s pressure was instantly lightened.

In the two months of back and forth, the momentum of mohele had been fully leveraged. Wang Xiuxiu found that there were also many young women patronizing her original stall, and she immediately realized that the opportunity to get rich was coming.

After receiving Lin Shuang’s second order, she had her husband quit his job the next day and rush back to Jizhou. In addition to the quantity on the order, she also had her father-in-law fire an extra small batch of mohele, planning to also earn some meat soup.

Wang Xiuxiu had seen the mohele that some of her customers had bought from Lin Shuang’s shop and found that these little dolls that she had ordered from her had been greatly transformed. Not only had they been added with various small clothes and accessories, but they had also been placed in a gift box. Each gift box contained four different sets of small clothes, which the customers could use to dress up the little dolls.

This one gift box alone sold for one tael of silver.

And the ceramic dolls of the same material that she had sold from her stall were only one hundred copper coins.

Including the cost of the boxes, small clothes, raw materials, and labor, she estimated that it would not exceed two hundred copper coins.

Wang Xiuxiu was not jealous. First of all, for someone to be able to sniff out such a business opportunity was something that ordinary people could not do. Secondly, to have such a genius mind, to be able to think of pairing the little dolls with clothes and accessories, was already something that ordinary people could not imagine.

She even felt that the trend of discussing mohele in the streets and alleys was created by Lin Shuang.

Knowing that she was no match for her, she just wanted to take advantage of this fire and also sell some, so that her family could live a better life in the future.

By mid-June, the second batch of goods had all been transported to the pre-rented shop in the prefectural city.

At the same time, the small clothes, accessories, and gift boxes from Whitewater Village also arrived. Lin Shuang and Jiang Huaizhen, along with Hu Guiying’s several older brothers and sisters-in-law, also rushed to help, assembling the shelves and gift boxes overnight and putting all the goods on the shelves.

And Hu Guiying simply took a half-month long vacation. In the few days before the opening, along with Xue Luan and her little sisters, she broke into the boudoir information circle of the prefectural city and spread the news of the upcoming opening of the shop.

She even got the storyteller at the East Market Teahouse to change his script, saying that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl had to change into seven sets of clothes before they were willing to cross the river.

For a time, the mohele trend swept through the entire city.

Early on the morning of June 19th.

The auspicious time had arrived.

Lin Shuang removed the red cloth covering the shop sign, revealing the three large characters “Linglong Pavilion.”

The arranged lion dance team entered the field, beating gongs and drums.

The little girls who had been waiting in line outside rushed into the shop to choose their goods.

Hu Guiying led the few sweet-looking and honey-mouthed little girls she had chosen from the village to welcome the guests. These fifteen or sixteen-year-old country girls, after more than half a month of training, had shed their shyness and become poised and graceful. They stood at the door, wearing the same clothes as the dolls, and enthusiastically greeted the little girls who entered the shop.

Xue Luan came with her sisters to congratulate them and insisted on naming each doll and set of clothes, saying that the pomegranate red one was called “Drunken Rouge,” and the bamboo green one was called “Jade Green.”

The young ladies chattered like sparrows, and the shop was very lively.

Dongzhi also came to join in the fun.

Her father, Jiang Dalang, was one of the carpenters responsible for making the gift boxes. When he was helping to deliver the goods, she had insisted on coming along and didn’t want to leave. Seeing this, Jiang Dalang had left her here with Lin Shuang and had gone back first.

Lin Shuang and Jiang Huaizhen had to stay for a few days this time. Fortunately, the old woman at home still had Ping’er to accompany her.

The village chief had told them to take care of the big client’s business outside first and to get the final payment for the villagers’ wages. During this period, he would have his eldest daughter-in-law, Dongzhi’s mother, go to the valley every night. If anything happened, they would take care of it.

It was also because of this support that the two of them dared to go out and do business with peace of mind.

After Dongzhi stayed, she helped out in the shop.

She was only eight years old, and although she was small, she had a lively personality and was good at being playful. With a “beautiful sister” here and a “pretty sister” there, she made the young ladies of the city giggle and happily take out their purses.

But the most eye-catching was the female cashier.

She was wearing a moon-white feathered robe of the same style as Chang’e. She was tall, with a slightly cold personality, but her eyes were soft. She was not as delicate as the Chang’e in the New Year’s paintings, but she was not as stern as the female generals in the storybooks.

She had her own unique beauty, which did not make people jealous. When you met her cool yet gentle eyes, you did not feel ashamed.

Some little girls even took the opportunity to buy mohele to secretly come to the shop to see her.

This female cashier was Jiang Huaizhen.

She had originally just wanted to restock the goods in the back, but she had been pushed to the front by Lin Shuang.

Hu Guiying also egged her on, “What’s the use of being so beautiful if you’re not out here greeting the customers?”

Lin Shuang said, “Exactly. What a waste of such a beautiful face.”

Dongzhi also said with a star-struck expression, “Sister Huaizhen, you can just collect the money here. If our shop has a beautiful cashier, the business will definitely be booming.”

Jiang Huaizhen wanted to refute, but she was outnumbered. After they had dressed her up and changed her clothes, she was put on the spot.

When she had been selling sauce flatbreads in the county seat before, she had been in charge of collecting the money, so this job was no challenge for her. But at that time, she was facing a group of common people, men and women, old and young. She didn’t have to deliberately please anyone.

But now, she was facing a group of wealthy and powerful young ladies. Hu Guiying used the same methods she had used to train the little girls from the village to demand that she not have a stern face and not treat the customers coldly.

But she could be half cold and half soft.

So a new type of Jiang Huaizhen appeared.

The results seemed to be good. She had almost become another signboard of the shop, a living “mohele.”

The treasure of the shop was the Jizhou white porcelain couple mohele that Lin Shuang had specially ordered, named “Lovers’ Boat.” It was placed in an exquisite and huge gift box, with a total of eight sets of clothes that could be changed. But the price of two hundred taels of silver was also staggering.

There were only three of these top-tier sets. Besides this one male and one female couple combination, the other two were single doll gift boxes. One was given to the daughter of the prefect, and the other to the daughter of the vice magistrate of the prefectural yamen.

Below the top-tier set were the high-end gift boxes, which were a ceramic mohele with four sets of clothes, priced at ten taels.

The ordinary gift boxes were painted ceramic blank gift boxes, priced at five taels a box, with two sets of clothes.

The clay sculptures, painted ceramic blanks, and clothes and accessories could all be purchased separately, with different prices. But compared to the ex-factory price provided by Wang Xiuxiu, they were indeed more than ten times more expensive.

All three materials had specially designed couple’s Qixi gift boxes. Compared to the single small gift boxes, the price of these double Qixi gift boxes was naturally double or even triple.

Customers of different age groups had different choices. The younger girls loved the single female dolls, while the marriageable young ladies shyly chose the Qixi gift boxes, unable to put them down.

On the first day of opening, ten high-end gift boxes were sold, and hundreds of other clay sculptures and clothes and accessories were also sold.

Lin Shuang estimated that by the time Qixi arrived in about ten days, all the Qixi gift boxes in the shop would be sold out.

She had wanted to find Wang Xiuxiu to increase the order, but there were only a few days left until Qixi. The back and forth, plus the transportation, the goods would arrive after Qixi. Once Qixi passed, the mohele craze would quickly cool down, and it would be difficult to sell them later.

So she gave up.

And the merchants, watching this hot scene, were extremely envious and disguised themselves to go in and investigate the situation. After they returned, they rushed to Jizhou or looked for small workshops in the surrounding area, hoping to get a batch of similar dolls as quickly as possible.

At the same time, Jizhou also began to receive orders for mohele.

Qixi was only one day. To produce the products before this day, and to also deduct the time for transportation, the time left for them was too short.

Naturally, they would do it as simply as possible, as quickly as possible.

Two days before Qixi, three or four shops selling mohele suddenly opened in the prefectural city, with great fanfare and many gimmicks.

And the flow of people in the city was instantly divided in half. The originally crowded Linglong Pavilion no longer needed a line.

Hu Guiying said angrily, “We had originally delayed the time to create hype, just to catch them off guard. But they still managed to catch up. It’s so infuriating.”

Lin Shuang shook her head. “Just you wait. They’ll have to come and buy ours in the end.”

Sure enough, just one day later, the slightly deserted shop was crowded again.

Someone was secretly gossiping, “That Huayun Pavilion next door, what kind of broken things are they selling? The dolls’ faces are all pitted, and they’ve been covered with a layer of ash. It rained last night, and the color came off, and the ash is gone. It’s so ugly.”

“My cousin also bought one yesterday and spent fifteen taels of silver. When she came back and took a closer look, she cried her eyes out.”

“It’s better to buy here. The dolls here are all good, and the prices of the few shops are about the same. Why not choose a good one?”

“That’s right. Don’t you think that the types and colors of the small clothes and accessories here are more varied and brighter? The ones from the other places are just some fake and shoddy goods.”

“The little ladies who sell the goods here also tell good stories. Different little dolls have different stories. There are no stories to be told over there.”

“There’s also a beautiful female cashier here. She’s very pleasing to the eye. The other places don’t have one.”

Hu Guiying, who was mixed in the crowd, finally put her heart at ease and was full of admiration for Lin Shuang.

Lin Shuang patted her on the shoulder. “Sister Wang’s father-in-law is an old craftsman with decades of experience, and her mother-in-law is also good at painting. We’ve prepared thoroughly, and our goods are all top quality. There’s no need to worry.”

With that, she couldn’t help but look at the female cashier who was busy settling the accounts for the customers. This person was surrounded by a group of little girls in the shop during the day, counting and settling the money. At night, she was busy dressing the little dolls and putting on accessories, her knuckles wrapped in cloth, still planing the mortises.

Lin Shuang looked at the dark circles under her eyes and suddenly remembered that day when Xue Luan’s friend had said that she wanted to order a doll like her. She had subconsciously had the thought that “Jiang Huaizhen is hers.” At this moment, in the crowded shop, when the other looked up and their eyes met, she tasted a hint of possessive sweetness.

As the Qixi Festival approached day by day, the sales figures of Linglong Pavilion were setting new highs every day.

And on the day of Qixi, it reached its peak.

The most famous romantic young master of the Ren family in Shengzhou, Second Young Master Ren, had spent two hundred taels of silver at Linglong Pavilion to purchase the treasure of the shop, “Lovers’ Boat,” and had given it to the eldest daughter of the scholarly Cui family, sealing their love on Qixi.

After this news spread, the front of Linglong Pavilion was filled with couples.

The talented young masters, with their beloved young ladies, entered the shop one after another, heading for the Qixi gift boxes.

By the first quarter of the Hour of the You((5-7 p.m.) on the night of Qixi Festival, all the couple sets were sold out.

And the other single small dolls were also mostly sold out.

Lin Shuang had been helping in the inner room of the shop, continuously restocking the goods. Seeing the shelves empty and then full, and then empty again, she was in a daze.

It felt like she was in a dream.