The three-day New Year holiday ended, and most people returned to work.
A small number stayed away a few extra days to visit relatives and the like, but this did nothing to disrupt the running of Taoyuan Village.
On the fifth day of the new year, the garment factory that Jinxiu had been responsible for setting up opened its doors, hiring one hundred seamstresses in its first batch.
This gave many women yet another new option to consider.
They would take on more workers as circumstances warranted; the workshop had been built large enough to accommodate three or five hundred people without any trouble, and if the workforce grew larger still, they could always expand again.
The factory produced all manner of ready-made clothing, and wages were expected to run between five and eight mao per day, with more pay for more work.
To prevent anyone from working themselves into the ground, there was a cap on daily working hours.
Without such a limit, there truly would have been people who worked until they collapsed.
The range of garments was broad: clothing for adults and children, for men and women, and even socks and gloves.
The factory also took on custom orders.
For instance, the uniform order for the public security post.
And the standardized work attire for village committee staff, and so forth.
The factory operated on an assembly-line basis, greatly improving efficiency, and a set of simple tools provided by the village-level system boosted productivity further still.
So even with modest pricing, the profit margins were considerable—roughly half the sale price on each garment.
There were also fine garments made from expensive fabrics and crafted with meticulous workmanship, aimed exclusively at wealthy buyers, where the profit margins were even more impressive—several times over.
Thus it was not long before a ready-made clothing shop appeared on the commercial street, occupying three storefronts.
A large sign bore four bold characters: Jinxiu Fashions.
The left-side entrance was for men only; the right-side entrance was for women only.
The middle storefront was the largest, carrying every style sold in the other two, and was open to both men and women.
It suited the social customs of the day perfectly.
When the shop opened, virtually all the women of the Zhao family turned up, along with Lady Lin, and the wives and female relatives of the middle and upper management of the various businesses under the mansion's umbrella were nearly all in attendance as well.
It was not mere show of support—this sort of thing had an irresistible pull on women by its very nature.
An ordinary garment at two or three hundred wen was well within anyone's reach.
To buy your own fabric and sew it yourself cost about the same in materials and time.
So why not choose something better made and far more attractive from the shop?
"Mengxuan, come over here quickly and tell me—does Mother look beautiful in this one?"
"Mother, you look wonderful! I want to try one on too."
"Miss, do you have sizes small enough for my daughter?"
"We do—let me find one for you." The young salesgirl was nearly beside herself with delight.
Working here came with a commission on every sale, and this particular lady was clearly free with her money, reaching straight for the most expensive items in the shop—nothing under a hundred yuan would catch her eye, and anything in the twenty-to-thirty-yuan range she didn't even glance at.
A single sale like this would be worth several days' wages for her.
If Lady Lin took both garments, she felt she might faint from sheer happiness.
Maybe then her father would stop calling her a money-losing proposition.
"Jinxiu, come over and tell me—does your Auntie look good in this one?"
"Auntie, you have a natural beauty that makes anything look wonderful on you, but this one truly does suit you especially well. Here, let me add a shawl—see? Doesn't that make it even lovelier?"
"Mother, it really does look nice."
"Then it's settled—I'll take it!" Lady Lin pulled out a fat sheaf of hundred-yuan notes and moved to pay on the spot.
Jinxiu quickly said, "Auntie, there's no rush—why are you still keeping your money tucked inside your clothes? Come over here and have a look at our newest product: wallets."
"Pick a few out before you go. One each for yourself, your daughter, Master Lin, and your son Yunxuan. A set for the whole family."
"They're my gift to you—no charge."
Under Zhao Baihui's influence, Jinxiu and her girls had grown increasingly generous in their dealings, though unlike Zhao Baihui's indiscriminate largesse, theirs was a generosity with purpose and method.
"Auntie has plenty of money—I don't need you to pay for me. Let me tell you, my family and the Lins have businesses both in the capital and back home. We earn no less than your Celestial Drunkenness brings in!"
Lady Lin bought a great many garments, picking out several pieces for nearly everyone in the household.
It was impossible to resist—the clothing was simply that good. The women's styles were beautiful; the men's were sharp and distinguished.
In the end, guided by Jinxiu's recommendations, she walked away not only with wallets but with a good many small items like socks as well.
When it came time to settle the bill, the total came to well over three thousand yuan—the equivalent of more than thirty taels of silver.
The two women went back and forth for a little while, and at last Jinxiu offered Lady Lin a thirty-percent discount.
"Auntie, please don't refuse. The discount isn't a comment on whether you can afford the full price—it's a matter of distinction."
"At Jinxiu Fashions, only our most valued customers receive thirty percent off. Ordinary shoppers who ask for a discount are simply turned away."
Jinxiu had consulted Zhao Baihui specifically on this point, and he had offered her a great deal of advice.
"Ha! You only give discounts to favored customers?"
"That's right, Auntie. And I give you my word—no one will ever receive a better discount than you."
Lady Lin accepted with a pleased smile, thinking to herself that this Jinxiu girl was really something—she would have to stay close to her in the future.
Jinxiu, of course, had no interest in claiming the commission for herself. Every bit of Lady Lin's purchase was tallied to the account of the young salesgirl who had greeted her at the start.
To have landed such a lavish customer—the commission from this one sale alone was worth several months of the girl's wages. She burst into tears on the spot.
It was opening day, and curiosity brought in a great many visitors; a good number of them bought something as well, and all the young salesgirls in the shop made a tidy sum.
---
Zhao Baihui had not anticipated that it would be women who set off the first wave of trends in Taoyuan Village.
The occasional wealthy visitors of the past had been a handful of wine merchants who collected their orders of Celestial Drunkenness and left without lingering.
But once word spread beyond the village that the ready-made clothing at Jinxiu Fashions was exceptionally fine and beautiful, it took only a few days before more than a dozen carriages arrived carrying ladies and young misses.
One young miss lifted her carriage curtain and peered out with curious delight. "Mother," she exclaimed, "it's so clean here! The road is smooth, and there's none of that smell like on the streets of Qingniu Town."
On the streets of most towns, people threw their wastewater and slop directly onto the road, and the resulting odor needed no description.
There was none of that here.
"My lady, we have arrived." The carriages drew up beneath the large sign reading Jinxiu Fashions, and the ladies and young misses from more than a dozen vehicles stepped down one after another.
All three storefronts had their doors propped open, giving passersby on the street a clear view of the interior.
The women's eyes went wide at the abundance of clothing inside; there was simply too much to take in at once.
"Let's go in and have a look." A crowd of women surged forward, and the cluster of clearly wealthy and distinguished arrivals gave the young salesgirls at the door quite a fright.
It was a somewhat older woman from deeper inside the shop, also dressed as a matron, who had been attending to other customers, that stepped forward to greet them.
She made no move to hold anyone back, letting the crowd pour in freely, then raised her voice with a smile: "Ladies and misses, I am the manager of this shop. This is our general store—gentlemen are welcome here as well. If you would prefer a ladies-only space, our women's-only shop is just to the right."
A few of the unmarried young misses felt a moment's hesitation, but with so many companions around them and their mothers at their side, they decided there was nothing to worry about and paid it no further mind.
The matron manager was quietly pleased. Each of the three storefronts had its own manager, and it was her duty to inform customers of the shop's policies.
But if customers chose to stay of their own accord, the sales generated would all count toward her performance.
How could she not be pleased?