When it was approaching the evening, Mo Yan saw a cart passing by them, and there were bamboo baskets piled up on it. Seeing that they looked like she had ordered, she ran over and asked, “Are you delivering these to the Ng family’s courtyard?”
The man pushing the cart was in his forties and dressed like a farmer. He carefully stopped the cart before replying, “Yes! Did you order these?”
Mo Yan nodded, “Yes, I’ll take you there.”
After going to the back to pay him, he politely wished them a prosperous business and then pushed the cart away.
Ms. Hua helped bring them into the house, “There’s too many, they won’t fit in the house!”
“Then put them outside and cover them with an oil tarp. Today, we’ll make gift baskets for the New Year!”
As these will only be used once, they weren’t soaked in saltwater, and they only placed a layer of paper inside.
Mu Yan packed candied fruits of various colours in each one, and Ms. Hua and Zhao’er helped put them into small baskets. Finally, they covered it with a piece of paper with their storefront’s seal on it and tied it on to make a gift basket.
“Do you think these gift baskets will sell well?”
Ms. Hua praised her repeatedly, “Definitely! They’d be great to give when visiting relatives and friends during the Chinese New Year, as they’re affordable and beautiful.”
As soon as their voices fell, they continued working, only to hear someone shouting from the courtyard, “Is Miss Mo Yan here?”
Mo Yan got up, went out, and saw a woman in her thirties standing there, “Madam, are you looking for me?”
The woman said with a smile on her face, “I’m from the Liu family. Tomorrow, Yuyan will get married, and many relatives and friends will come over. Her mother is worried about what to give them. She heard Yuyan say that the dried fruit in your shop is delicious, so her mother sent me to have a look.”
“Then you came just in time, we are packing gift baskets, come in and have a look!”
The woman entered the house and saw gift baskets in various stages of completion, as well as unpacked candied fruit.
She reached out and picked up two to taste, and kept praising them. She said that they were different from the ones sold in the dried fruit shop in the town.
“Then how much does a gift basket cost?”
Mo Yan thought about it, “We haven’t chosen a set price yet. If you want to buy in bulk, let’s set the price for eighty dollars each for now!”
Ms. Hua chimed in from the side, “The bamboo baskets also cost money! Considering the price of dried fruit, it’s really cheap, you can weigh it yourself.”
Mo Yan said, “It’s really just a few extra dollars.”
“Then I’ll take one back and ask Yuyan’s mother if we want these for the gifts and how much I want. I’ll get back to you later.”
Mo Yan gave the woman a gift basket, and asked her to present it. Then, she turned to Ms. Hua and said, “Let’s make the gift baskets quickly! Even if they won’t buy them, we won’t have to worry about selling them during the Chinese New Year.”
After half an hour, the woman returned and said with a beaming smile as soon as she entered the door, “It’s decided, we want thirty-five gift baskets, one for each family, and some dim sum. It’s a pity that the dim sum aren’t as beautiful as the gift baskets.”
“Then I’ll add a piece of red paper on top of them.”
Mu Yan took out money to give Zhao’er, and asked him to go to the paper shop to buy some red paper. After all, anything used for weddings would look better with some red.
They agreed she’d come to pick it up early tomorrow morning, and the woman went back. Mu Yan cut the red paper bought by Zhao’er into small squares, stamped it with the seal of Yanling Storefront, and put it on the top of the gift box to add some colour.
After a busy afternoon, 35 gift boxes were packed and neatly stacked together, just waiting for people to pick them up.
Even Mo Ling said, “I don’t know if we have enough goods and baskets!”
At this time, the price of the goods in the Upper Valley has also started to rise, and it’s not worth it to buy more, so they just had to hope it’d be enough.
On the way home, the two sisters discussed packing the gift baskets as soon as possible. In addition to their dried fruit, tea leaves could also be put into gift baskets.
Early the next morning, the Liu family took those gift boxes away.
In the countryside, the bride was accepted by the groom’s parents in the morning, and then she waited at home until the evening for the wedding.
When the bride goes out, is according to the chosen auspicious time of the day. If there are other brides in the same village getting married on the same day, they had to race to go out to begin their wedding ceremony first.
Fortunately, Liu Yuyan was the only girl getting married in Qianshui City today, so she stayed at home until the end of the day.
She and the groom are from the same city, and they have known each other since childhood. They could be considered childhood sweethearts.
The entrance of her house was blocked by people who came to see the wedding, and the groom’s horse couldn’t get in.
The bride bid farewell to her parents and went out. She was covered with a veil, and the bridesmaid by her side was her aunt. A group of her relatives walked her to the entrance.
A sedan chair was supposed to stop at the gate, but Liu Yuyan said, “I’m getting into a sedan chair as soon as I go out. My beautiful wedding dress is really unfortunate.”
A person only got married once in their life. Liu Fengchun and his wife let the sedan chair park a ways outside, so she could show her dress off.
Liu Yuyan walked out slowly with the help of her bridesmaid. The inner robe was faintly visible, and the floor-length outer dress was gorgeous. The golden falling phoenix at the back, elevated its nobility and magnificence to the extreme, and she could rival a princess from the palace getting married.
The common folk weren’t banned from using the dragon and phoenix patterns at the time.
Everyone who saw it praised Liu Yuyan’s gorgeous wedding dress. Mo Yan came late, and only saw the back of Liu Yuyan as she got into the sedan chair. When she turned her head, she saw that Ms. Zhao, who was also watching in the crowd.
“Ms. Zhao, Miss Yuyan’s wedding dress is really beautiful, it’s all thanks to you.”
Everyone turned their attention to Ms. Zhao. When did such a stunning woman come to the town? No matter her appearance or clothing, she was very recognizable.
Someone came to ask who she was, and Mo Yan replied, “Ms. Zhao from Jiaolan Courtyard made Liu Yuyan’s wedding dress. She has high-quality fabrics, and if you want to buy or make something, go to her.”
In Qianshui City, Jiaolan Courtyard instantly became famous.
They couldn’t find a suitable person to help. At the same time, the official road would be closed for the New Year in the next few days, leaving only a stableman in charge of the horses, in case there was an emergency military report which needed to be delivered.
Young Chuzi had nothing to do. He’d be twelve years old after the New Year, and should have a real job, so Lu Junming sent him to Jiaolan Courtyard to help with cleaning and running errands. When he planned to go to the Upper Valley again, he’d also take Chuzi.
Mo Yan remembered that it’s been a long time since she went to see Master. In the countryside, unmarried girls can’t go and see others in the first month of the year, so if she wanted to see her master, she had to hurry up and go before the New Year.
Mu Ling said, “Then let’s go as soon as possible, it’ll be even busier later.”
Now that their conditions had improved, they didn’t have to worry about a few dozen anymore. Mo Yan wanted to prepare some gifts for her master this time.
A gift box containing candied fruit, and a gift basket which contained four things: tea, honey, premium lotus seeds, and lilies.
In addition, she also took a roll of fabric suitable for the elderly from Jiaolan Courtyard. This would be a respectable gift for her master.
In the past few days, Mrs. Liang couldn’t care less about inquiring about what was going on in the shop. She was busy cleaning the house and preparing things for the New Year.
Post-translation notes: A simple slice-of-life chapter which ties up a few loose ends and sets up a few hooks for future chapters. As always, thank you for reading!