Buying Clothes and Coaxing the Elderly Couple into Selling the Land!

Late in the Hour of You!

Li Feng’s family had already finished their evening meal.

Daya went to clear away the bowls and chopsticks.

Dagou and Ernai wiped their mouths and ran off to busy themselves with chores.

Sanniu, along with Siniu and Wuniu, cleaned up the mess left on the ground.

Glancing over, Li Feng caught sight of a bare, muddy little buttock.

It belonged to Wuniu.

In a peasant family, people were reluctant to spend money on cloth for making clothes. Having even a single garment to cover their bodies was enough to satisfy them.

Seeing Wuniu’s bare bottom, Li Feng suddenly remembered something: he had forgotten to buy clothes for them.

He had previously bought a beggar-style outfit for himself, but the children still had nothing.

In the past, Madam Li Wang used to make the clothes for the household. She always bought narrow bolts of cloth, three cash per foot, with a width of fifty centimeters and a length of 2.2 feet.

For someone of his height, making a complete set of clothes required at least a full bolt of cloth. However, to save money, Madam Li Wang would usually resort to endless mending—buying a bolt of narrow cloth, cutting it herself at home, and patching things together piece by piece.

In the end, the garments were nothing more than layers upon layers of patches. That was how rural men always dressed.

Because they had to work the fields, their clothes were always stained a murky black. Li Feng looked down at his own outfit; although it had been washed and still carried the scent of gleditsia pods, nonetheless...

There seemed to be other colors hidden beneath.

Weren't new clothes a different shade to begin with?

Furthermore, he noticed that the clothes they wore were almost entirely monochromatic—either dusty grey, greyish-black, or the white cotton padded jackets kept tucked away at the bottom of a chest for special occasions!

In short, the color palette was extremely monotonous.

Moreover, they had worn them for so long that the original colors had completely faded.

The younger boys didn't even wear undergarments. It wasn't as if the family was poor—a foot of cloth cost only three cash, and a whole bolt was just a little over one hundred cash.

Even wide-width cloth was only five cash per foot, coming to just over two hundred cash a bolt.

Madam Li Wang and Li Dashan both wore coarse linen garments. Though not fine silk or satin, they were still of superior quality—soft and comfortable to the touch without scratching the skin, likely having undergone advanced processing.

Yet he and his grandchildren wore the coarsest cloth imaginable.

He hadn't noticed it before and hadn't given it a second thought, but now that he considered it, Li Feng felt that something was profoundly wrong.

Even his skin began to itch.

There was simply no way Li Feng could tolerate this!

Stepping into the room and closing the door behind him, he immediately opened the system mall.

He browsed through the clothing and fabrics available inside.

There was a vast selection with complete styles.

There were ready-made garments in various colors, dazzling and bright.

There were also fabrics from this era, complete in their variety.

Li Feng looked through them and chuckled inwardly; everyone certainly worked hard when it came to cultural renaissance.

Many of the items featured ancient crafting methods, and the prices had already been converted—two cash per foot, which was even a cash cheaper than the local market.

Li Feng had originally intended to buy raw fabric, but thinking of Daya, who was only twelve years old, he shifted his focus to ready-made garments.

Ready-made clothes were much more expensive than bolts of cloth. In this era, girls learned garment-making from their elders at a very young age, and a man’s clothes, shoes, and socks were almost entirely taken care of by the women of the household.

Hardly anyone ever bought ready-made clothing. The production techniques and time cost were quite high. A plain linen outfit, without any special treatment, cost seventy to eighty cash; adding the lower garments brought the total to at least just over a hundred cash.

Furthermore, such garments were coarse and unendurable, rubbing against the skin and causing redness and swelling until the stiff seams were worn smooth through friction, after which they became somewhat comfortable to wear.

Li Feng’s system mall also offered ready-made linen clothing.

The prices ranged from thirty to fifty cash, which was quite reasonable.

However, Li Feng had no intention of buying those.

He cast his gaze upon flaxen linen. This type of fabric was much more expensive than ordinary homespun cloth, and the ready-made garments made from it were pricier still.

They ranged from seven hundred cash to one full silver tael per set.

Such clothing was comfortable and breathable to wear, and there were also matching large cotton-padded coats available, priced at one to two silver taels each.

These were somewhat more expensive than the regular linen ready-mades.

After some thought, Li Feng bought three sets of flaxen linen ready-mades for himself according to his size, spending a total of two taels and four hundred cash, averaging eight hundred cash per set.

Having secured his own, Li Feng looked at the rest. Dagou and Ernai were roughly his height, so he bought them two sets each, along with two sets of processed coarse linen clothes.

The flaxen linen ready-mades cost eight hundred cash per set, so four sets came to three taels and two hundred cash.

The two sets of better-crafted coarse linen clothes were fifty cash each, totaling two hundred cash for four pieces.

Buying clothes for Dagou and Ernai cost a total of three taels and four hundred cash.

Next were Sanniu, Siniu, and Wuniu.

Li Feng prepared two sets for each of them, with each piece being one hundred cash cheaper, costing a total of four taels and two hundred cash.

Finally came Daya and Erya. Remembering the way Daya had looked at Baozhen and Baoshu, Li Feng browsed the women’s apparel and ultimately bought each of them a skirted outfit, along with silk hair ornaments to wear.

Li Feng did the math in his head, making sure they would look delightful in them, before finally making the purchase.
Two sets per person cost four taels.

He had to admit that ready-made clothes were a bit pricey, but it was manageable and acceptable.

Girls' clothing was also more expensive than boys'.

Li Feng clicked his tongue; it seemed he would eventually have to hire an embroiderer at home to specialize in making clothes, otherwise buying ready-made outfits all the time would simply be too costly!

Buying clothes for the entire family had unexpectedly cost fourteen silver taels!

That was more expensive than an acre of medium-grade paddy field.

It was almost catching up to the price of an acre of top-grade paddy field in silver.

Li Feng pondered that in the future, he could perhaps open a ready-made garment shop in the capital or some prosperous region—it was an immensely lucrative business!

After purchasing the clothes, Li Feng did not take them out immediately.

Now was not the right time; his newly acquired silver had not yet been properly justified.

The old Li family happened to be short on silver right now, so if he acted too extravagantly, certain people would inevitably grow suspicious.

Besides, the time was almost right, and Li Feng felt he could finally set his plans into motion!

Lijia Village backed against the mountains and possessed abundant resources, and Li Feng decided to go up and take a look tomorrow.

If there were any useful goods to be found, he could try his hand at trade.

It would also be a good opportunity to take the little ones out to broaden their horizons.

"Father, it's time to wash up!"

Dagou’s voice drifted in from outside. Li Feng stood up and went out to rinse up.

Lying back down on the bed, the corners of Li Feng’s lips curved slightly upward. He wondered how things were going over at the old Li family’s place; he was actually rather looking forward to it!

The moon was bright and the stars were sparse.

Accompanied by a few croaking frogs, the members of the old Li family sat in the main room, every single one of them wearing a gloomy expression as they stared at the bowls and chopsticks on the table in silence!

"Third son, go clean up the kitchen!" In the end, it was Madam Li Wang who broke the silence!

Li Qingyun lay nearby, speaking with an air of absolute righteousness: "In the past, those chores were always done by Daya and Erya. Your son doesn't know how!"

Li Dashan: "..."

If you've got the ability, go call Daya and Erya back then!

"You're injured now. What do you plan to do about it? What about the prefecture examination?"

Madam Li Wang had no intention of dwelling on that matter and instead steered the conversation toward the upcoming exams!

It would have been fine if she hadn't mentioned it, but the moment she did, Li Qingyun’s anger flared up.

"How am I supposed to know what to do? Several people were injured because of me, and their families are all waiting for me to cough up silver. What can I do?"

His backside was still aching fiercely!

His parents were truly exasperated; why on earth had they let the second branch slip out of their control? Weren't things much better the old way?

Every time he returned home, someone waited on him hand and foot, and he didn't have to worry about food, clothing, housing, or transportation. There were people to toil in the fields too, leaving them with nothing to care about except studying!

Now look at them: the silver was gone, the fields were gone, and he was even deep in debt!

When he returned, he truly had no idea how to face his wife!

After a moment of thought, Li Qingyun took a deep breath, raised his head, and looked at Li Dashan: "Father, why don't you sell the five acres of top-grade paddy fields you still have?"

"Your son truly has no other choice. Those people are insatiable, and they are all scoundrels. If their mouths aren't silenced, let alone taking the prefecture examination, it's hard to say whether I'll even survive!"

"I refuse!" Li Dashan was the first to object.

Those were his last five acres of paddy fields, and they wanted to sell those too?

He still needed to leave himself a way out!