On the first day I sold about 40 pairs of shoes altogether and I do believe it is good sales. Although Shanto town is small it also has its fair share of rich people. And there are 5 home schools here, containing more than 300 students of total. I do believe they could help me raise my sales. And this is a small business so I hope this won’t make any rich business men jealous and won’t make them want to join in the competition. But for small and medium scale business men.. Hm, it might turn to a real headache.
Anyway for today I got a profit of 200 copper. So in a month if I make near 3-4 silvers (reducing 2 silvers for making charge and rent), it would be enough for my family to live happily. But sorry to say, I am not an enough kinda gal.
The business of town slowly declined as the sky grew dark. I closed the shop and took Roulan to go back home. On the way back I brought her some sweets and a few buns for dinner. Also bought enough shoes for the next few days to sew, and my balance returned back to 10 copper (excluding the wage for hunter’s family).
By the time I reached home hunter’s family had already left my house. They would only work till evening as they were scared to stay in the ghost courtyard after evening. I thought I would pay them their money now itself because tomorrow morning I have to leave for town before they come for work. As I walked towards the mountains near the Hui clan’s side I saw the worst enemy of Hui Juan running towards the Hui ancestral home, the one who destroyed her life, the mighty holy cow.
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Hui Jia is coming back from town to visit her maiden’s family. She comes to visit home with her 3 children every once in three month’s in her bullock-cart. Her life is smooth in town, but still there are problems. Even though she is treated nicely by her in-laws but still she is not treated as a precious gem by her husband’s family.
She just buys a few sweets and comes home once in a while to be treated as a fairy by the whole village. Even her parent’s love her occasional visit as it increases their prestige.
From far she could see her favourite dress she used to wear nearly a decade back. That dress was her favorite once and she has added many designs in the sleeves. But later she grew tall it was inappropriate to wear those hence with great reluctance she gave it to her sister. So how could anyone walk towards the mountain route wearing those clothes at this time of hour. She never imagined it would be her sister, as she is married to the Ye family on the west side of the village.
Even though both clans (Ye and Hui) exist peacefully in the village, the houses of Ye family are leaning towards the west side of the village and Hui clan houses are towards the east side. After the marriage of her sister rather than increasing the friendship between the 2 clans, it was the enmity that increased. Other than once when her sister came crying home during the first week of her marriage, she had never returned home for the last 6 years, even during the new year.
Hui Jia thought maybe her mother might have given the dress to her nieces and that woman might be one of her cousins. She happily pulled the reign of the cart to stop in front of the lady to know the exciting gossip from the village and to show off her successful life. As she saw the face of the woman she felt deeply familiar but can’t remember who was this (she has not seen her sister for more than 6 years). But still she smiled and called out, “Sister (as a figure of closeness or respect) are you here to go towards the Hui ancestral home. I could give you a lift there, if you wish”.
I looked at Hui Jia and almost choked on her hypocrisy. It is her and her beast that ruined Hui Juan’s life. If she had not been given a cow as a dowry, the Ye family would have never come to ask for a marriage. And the Ye family will never humiliate me to that extent and treat me as a slave. Even if my position would have been low, it will never be so miserable. The thing which the original soul hate the most in her life was that cow. All the images of sadness and pain experienced by Hui Juan rushed into my heart and I cursed out loud, “Hm, you want me to get on top of your disgusting beast, never even in my nightmare will I touch it”. I walked back faster towards the mountain area saying that.
Hui Jia was stunned. She had no idea when she and her cow had offended her. And how could she wear her dress and humiliate her cow (the pride of her life). Not to mention she bathes her cow everyday. That is it, she would complain to her mother about that lady and let's see if she still has the courage to talk back to the clan’s patriarch's wife. And how dare a mud leg from a poor family who wears her decade back clothes shout back at the clan leader’s daughter.
Hui Jia entered the house and saw her mother feeding the chickens in the backyard. Her second brother’s son saw her coming and rushed towards her shouting “auntie”. He knew she would bring some sweets with her. Other kids in the house also rushed towards her. She gave the sweet packet to her eldest brother’s son and told him to share it with his cousins and went towards the chicken coop.
“Mother did you remember my blue dress with lotus design on the sleeves? Whom have you given that dress to”. Mother Hui was very happy to see her daughter return home. But hearing her words, mother Hui frowned unconsciously thinking of something. “Why did you ask for it now, you gave it to your useless sister before”. Hearing mother Hui say that she fell into stupor. She never thought that women would be her sister. Because her sister had a mild character and she never saw her curse anyone before. In her memory her sister has never even complained loudly till now, other than when her husband was sent to the army.
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Hui Jia wore a sad expression across her face and said “Mother, on my way back I met sister Juan. I asked her whether she wished to meet you both. But she,..hm”. Hui Juan slowly sighed. “She also cursed my cow to die and swore at me. Mother, why do I feel, younger sister has enmity towards us”. Mother Hui grew angry when she heard this, that girl Juan had shamed her family a lot during this time. The elders of Ye family are telling, it is because they didn’t raise her properly is why she has no respect for her parents and elders. Now she even dared to curse at her daughter, it is about that time that stinky girl should be taught a lesson. Mother Hui determined to consult this matter with her husband.
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It has been 2 weeks since I started business and it is going smoothly. Day by day business is slowly getting better, now I do sell nearly 40 shoes every day. My heeled shoes are slowly becoming a trend among the girls in town. I also signed a deal with a cloth shop owner for fixing heels for their cotton and silk shoes. Cotton and silk shoes cost more than 100 copper, so they don’t want to go to extra trouble in hiring a carpenter to work for them, they only need to pay me 10 copper to get the shoe done. That cost would be charged when they sell the product. Also their main product is clothes not shoes. Some more shops do have a plan to approach me.
But still the customer count is between 10-20 who visit the shop (In this era most people do live as big families, hence one person would have to buy for the entire family if one needs something, for example sweets, dress etc). So I do have a lot of free time in the shop. My job is to make cotton dresses (from the new cotton that I bought) for me and my daughter.
Now my routine has slowly formed. Everyday morning I would wake up early, make breakfast and clean the house. By the time me and Roulan finished having breakfast, the bullock cart driver would arrive in front of the house to pick us up. For the driver, I would pay him 300 copper at the end of every month. We started the habit of eating lunch from town.
After I leave for the shop, the hunter family would come to my additional courtyard and make shoes. They make about 50 shoes every day, and their speed is increasing as they increase their experience. By 6-7 pm, I would reach back home.
I informed the hunter’s family that I have started a small shop in town to sell shoes because it is better for them to know this from my mouth than from others. I also made them sign a contract making them agree that they would not make my craft for anyone else for 1 year, in return I would employ them for 1 year.
The Hui clan have also started distancing themself from me. I doubt it is because of my incident with Hui Jia. But still Hui Cong’s wife comes to clean my house. Even though I do know she comes early in the morning secretly and does not wish others to know about her job.
The farmers have started planting their winter crop. Today when Hui Cong’s wife came I told her “tomorrow onwards tell your husband to come work in the fields”. Her face darkened when she heard this. But still she didn’t say anything and entered the pigsty to clean it.
Hui Cong’s wife’s name is Ye Fen, she is actually the younger sister of Ye Fang (3rd sister-in-law). When her sister was married to the Ye patriarch's son, her family thought their bad luck was over, and her sister would do something to help them. But until today her sister has not helped them. She only has a small daughter at home, and her man would have to go to Tu village most of the part of the year only for a rate of 3 or 4 silver a year. She was not even able to sleep peacefully without being scared of hooligans for the last summer. Her life was truly miserable. Each day it was a fight to find enough food for her family.
After Hui Juan separated from the Ye family, she was one of the people who has benefited the most. Her husband can stay at home during the nights and only needs to work during the day when the winter crop farming starts. She also got a job of taking care of the house for 50 copper a week. A week back when she received 50 copper as salary at that moment she experienced a special type of happiness. That was the first moment in her life when someone has rewarded her for the hard work she does. But thinking of her husband’s clan, she is scared her happiness would be temporary.
Two days back some of her neighbours found out that she works in Hui Juan’s house as a maid. The Hui Clan leader called her husband and said she should no longer work in Juan’s courtyard and Hui Cong should not work in her fields as well. This is just driving her family to die. For the money Hui Juan pays it would be no problem to hire a woman as maid from a neighbouring village or find a worker to work in her fields. You should know that Hui Juan pays 2 silvers to take care of 2 acres of field. Usually a worker would be hired to look after 4 or 5 acres of field for that money. Ye Fen is determined to not give away this job no matter what.
After today’s work she went back home and cried and made a ruckus at home and attracted all the neighbours. Many of the neighbour’s tried to console her and explained why the clan leader said they should not mingle with Hui Juan. But Ye Fen refuted back with tears and said that her family is so poor that they won’t survive the winter if they give up this job. Seeing her cry so much her daughter also started crying. After hearing all the sadness in his wife’s heart and miserable appearance of his daughter, even Hui Cong started crying and blaming himself for being useless. Hui Cong finally took an huge axe and decided to enter the deep mountains. Finally the elders of the Hui clan interfered and agreed to let them work for Hui Juan’s family and that incident ended at last.
Next day Hui Juan also came to know of this matter. Then only she realised that Ye Fen is actually the sister of Ye Fang (her dear sister-in-law). This incident also affected Ye Fang as all the members of Ye family scolded her family members for being shameless.
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Few days passed and some of the people do guess that I am selling shoes in the town but not any specifics. And other than hunter’s family nobody knew that I do own a shop in town.
One day when I was at the shop, I did have an unexpected set of customers whom I have not seen since my soul took over this body.