Chapter 37 Signing the Contract

Chapter 37 Signing the Contract

Xie Wanniang was afraid of being tricked? Coincidentally, Qin Niangzi was also afraid.

She knew her old friend well enough and had already said similar things to her, so she wasn't worried that her friend would take her anger out on her and Xie Wanniang.

However, she didn't know Xie Wanniang well enough. Whether it was Xie's skills or her character, Qin Niangzi would have to verify them little by little through subsequent collaborations.

The two sat there, exchanging ideas back and forth for nearly half an hour before finally agreeing on the specific contents of the contract.

The contract stipulated that Qin's Cloth Shop needed to pay Xie Wanniang a deposit of twenty taels in advance, and provide her with a set of utensils, fabrics and specific patterns. Xie Wanniang, in turn, was required to complete all the items listed in the contract within six months and promised not to disclose the matter to anyone.

Xie Wanniang was meticulous. She not only asked Qin Niangzi to list what she needed to do in the contract, but also asked Qin Niangzi to write down the acceptance standards, steps, and payment procedures for the final payment.

Although Qin Niangzi's wrists ached from writing, these clauses were a guarantee of her interests, so she didn't think Xie Wan Niang's request was superfluous at all.

In addition, the two also wrote that if the fabric, embroidery thread, etc. were accidentally damaged in Xie Wanniang's hands, Qin Ji Cloth Shop would have to sell Xie Wanniang the exact same fabric, embroidery thread, etc. at market price.

This last point was brought up by Xie Wanniang herself, because there's always a chance of something going wrong, and she had to consider all possibilities.

After the two signed the contract, Madam Qin quickly selected the first batch of fabrics, needles, thread, embroidery frames, and other items she needed to provide for Xie Wan Niang. "Should I send someone to send you back?"

Xie Wanniang shook her head, "Please keep the things for now. It's not easy to come to town, so I'd like to buy some things to take back with me."

She hadn't paid for the fabric she had just picked out yet; when she came to pick up these other items, she would also have to buy those three bolts of fabric.

After leaving Qin's Cloth Shop, Xie Wanniang, accompanied by Jiang Yuan, first went to buy pork belly, ribs, lard, eggs, brown sugar, oil lamp and lamp oil, and then went to the grain store to buy rice, wheat flour, red beans, dates and other items.

Passing by a pastry shop, Xie Wanniang heard the shop assistant hawking freshly baked mooncakes and went inside with great interest.

The mainstream mooncakes in Tang County today are the Tijiang mooncake and the Zilaihong mooncake.

The crust of the Zilaihong mooncake is made of flaky pastry, and the filling is always sugar and nuts. It gets its name from the red circle mark on the surface.

The crust of Tijiang mooncakes is made of syrup, flour and other ingredients, and has a relatively soft texture. There are many choices of fillings, such as five nuts, mixed nuts, sesame, chestnuts, red bean paste, jujube paste and lotus seed paste.

This pastry shop in town has been open for many years, and every August it sells only these two types of mooncakes.

After introducing the types, fillings, and prices of mooncakes to Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan, the shopkeeper pointed to the outer packaging of the three types of mooncakes in their shop and said to the two of them: "We also provide oil paper, cardboard boxes, and carved wooden boxes. Oil paper is free, cardboard boxes are two coins each, and carved wooden boxes are five coins for small ones, eight coins for medium ones, and twelve coins for the largest ones."

Upon hearing this, Xie Wanniang immediately pointed to the oil paper and said to the shop assistant, "Then I want a total of twelve tubes of mooncakes, and wrap them all in oil paper for me."

The so-called "one-tube" mooncakes in Tang County refer to a total of six mooncakes wrapped together in oil paper.

When the shopkeeper saw that Xie Wanniang had chosen oil paper as the outer packaging for the mooncakes without hesitation, he thought she would only buy one or two tubes at most, but to his surprise, she bought twelve tubes in one go.

The waiter happily brought over some oil paper. "May I ask which kind of mooncake you would like to buy, sir?"

"Give me one of each of these first." Xie Wanniang pointed to the red bean paste and jujube paste mooncakes first. These were her favorite fillings, so she bought them without hesitation.

As for the other family members, after asking Jiang Yuan about his own, Hao Yu's, and Wang Xiaozhi's preferences, Xie Wan's mother bought two tubes of mixed nuts, two tubes of mixed fruits, one tube of chestnuts, and one tube of lotus seed paste.

She planned to give one tube each of the five-nut and mixed-fruit varieties to Wang Xiaozhi. As for the remaining six tubes, Xie Wanniang thought they weren't expensive anyway, so she would keep them at home as snacks for everyone to enjoy at their leisure.

In addition, she also needs to send some holiday gifts to Chen Lizheng and Doctor Chen to maintain their relationship.

She bought these two kinds of fillings: five-nut and mixed fruit. After all, they are popular flavors and the least likely to go wrong when giving them as gifts.

After buying the mooncakes, she also bought two jin of steamed rice cake and two jin of walnut shortbread, asking the shop assistant to wrap them in oil paper, one jin per package.

A bag of steamed rice cakes, a bag of walnut shortbread, and two tubes of freshly baked mooncakes—this is a very presentable gift in the village.

After paying, Xie Wanniang carefully placed the mooncakes and pastries on the top layer of her basket before walking out of the pastry shop with Jiang Yuan.

On her way from the pastry shop to Qin Ji Cloth Shop, Xie Wan Niang also bought a large piece of tofu and twenty steamed buns filled with chives and pork.

Jiang Yuan also bought something, but he bought two small jars of baijiu (Chinese liquor).

He also intended to give this liquor as a gift. He planned to give one jar to Chen Lizheng and the other jar to Wang Xiaozhi's father-in-law, who was also her adoptive father's former savior and good friend.

A jar of liquor and a pheasant—this gift is already quite generous.

The two walked back to Qin's Cloth Shop, which was about a hundred meters away from the grain store, with one carrying heavy things such as grain and pork on his back and the other carrying snacks, mooncakes and other odds and ends on his shoulder and in his hands.

When Qin Niangzi saw that the two had bought so many things, she hurried to the backyard to call her husband and asked him to drive the carriage to take Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan back to the village.

Qin Niangzi's husband was named Li Hong, the second son of her distant cousin. Her cousin's family lived in poverty, but all of them were hardworking, honest, and grateful.

In the early years, Qin Niangzi's parents often helped their family with rice, cloth, and other necessities when they were short of food and clothing, and they have always tried their best to repay the Qin family.

Delivering firewood, mountain produce, vegetables, and new grain to the Qin family was just routine. When the Qin family was targeted as easy prey by bad guys because of their wealth, the whole family, young and old, joined forces and risked their lives to fight against the thugs and vagrants who wanted to rob Qin's Cloth Shop.

The two families were not close relatives, but they visited each other frequently. Later, when Qin Niangzi's family wanted to find a husband for her to marry into the family, her parents immediately thought of the three sons of the Li family.

Li Hong was the second son in his family. He was not as valued by his parents as his eldest brother, nor as favored as his youngest brother. However, he was the most favored by the Qin family because he was the most hardworking and honest.

After marrying Qin Niangzi, he stood silently behind her for twenty years without fail.

Taking care of the children, doing housework, looking after Qin Niangzi's sick father, driving the carriage, carrying goods... He would take the initiative to do any job he could and was good at. He never put on airs just because he was a man or his wife was the owner of a cloth shop, and he never coveted the Qin family business just because he married Qin Niangzi.

As a result, Qin Niangzi lived a very comfortable life. The couple respected each other, and no matter what outsiders said, they always had a harmonious and tacit relationship.