Chapter 36 pt2 (1/2)

“Come sit down, Fourth Uncle. Let’s eat first and talk while eating.”

“Fourth uncle is too embarrassed to eat your family’s food. Don’t listen to your fourth aunt. Once she has her eyes on money, she cannot see anything else.”

“Sit down and eat first. Unless Gou’er and I cannot make uncle stay to eat a meal?”

Seeing this, Xue Qinghuai could only sit down on the kang.

In the whole Xue family, in terms of cooking skills, Zhao’er is the best. Everyone in the Xue family recognized that she cooks well, but Zhao’er rarely goes to the kitchen.

Zhao’er also prepared wine. Xue Qinghuai clamped a piece of the soft stewed pork hock with his chopsticks and sipped the wine, before saying: “Zhao’er’s hock are authentic, crisp and not fatty.”

Zhao’er smiled and then added food to Xue TingRang’s bowl, trying to make him eat more. These were originally made to nourish his body.

“I still stand my case. Fourth uncle doesn’t want to mess with your business. Watching nephew and niece do some business and make money, and then wanting to use family affection to gain benefits…what’s that supposed to be? Don’t listen to your fourth aunt. Her hair is long and her vision short-sighted, and she likes to be nosy and interrupt randomly.”

Zhao’er pursed her smiling lips and listened to Xue Qinghuai’s words. When he stopped talking, she said: “Actually, fourth uncle, I promise that my decision is not based on family affection but is because I have some other ideas. However, with only me and Jiang Wu, the manpower is really inadequate. You also know the origin of my business. The money is very good, but it can’t last long. When I was running around outside these few days, I was wondering, since this business makes good money, can we buy the fabric ourselves and make ready-made clothes to sell around?”

“Do it ourselves?”

Zhao’er nodded: “After all, these clothes in the pawnshop are limited in quantity, but that will be different if we do it ourselves. I did a calculation. A normal dyed cotton cloth is converted to about 300 wen at the market price, and one cloth can make about five clothes. This means that a piece of clothing costs about 50 or 60 cents. But this is the market price. In fact, if we buy more fabrics, the price will be about 30% lower than the market price. The more you buy, the cheaper the price. The more the price difference, the more money we can make from it.”

Xue Qinghuai could also calculate this kind of simple account. He estimated it in his mind and asked: “But if you buy the cloth and then process the garment, you have to calculate the wages. Who should we employ? What size? These are all things we must consider.”

Upon hearing this, Zhao’er smiled and said, “I didn’t go out for nothing these days. The clothes we wear are originally loose-fitting, and we can wear larger or smaller clothes as long as the size is not too different. Women’s physique will not exceed a range. We can choose two suitable sizes in this range. As for men, we have to choose a few more sizes. Generally, if you buy clothes, even if it’s bigger, it’s not troublesome to alter it yourself.”

“But your clothes are selling well because the fabrics are not ordinary goods. If they are replaced by ordinary goods, most people will not consider buying ready-made clothes, but buy fabrics and make clothes at home.” This was the reason why poor people rarely bought clothes.

“So what we have to do is to find cheap sources of fabric and win with quantity, so that our ready-made garments are cheaper than those the customers make themselves. That way someone will buy from us. I think there are many places to use this idea. Profits are also great, that is, all aspects are calculated. As for labor, it is easier. Which woman in our village does not know how to make clothes? Some meager wages are paid, and most of them are willing to do it for us.” These things Zhao’er already figured out when she sent fabric to an embroidery shop to make a purse.

Xue Qinghuai did not speak any more, taking small sips from his wine bowl, sinking into thought.

After a long time, he said, “Okay, how are you going to do this? I don’t have too much capital, but I still have a few liang1. In addition, your uncle has a lot of strength and can help.”