Little Xue watched Lin Lan curiously. "Auntie Lin, why do you put a towel on the clothes?"
Lin Lan smiled. "This way, you’re less likely to damage the clothes while ironing, and it prevents the marks from the seams from showing. Once you’ve finished assembling the hangers, watch iron first. morize the steps, because you’ll be the ones ironing from now on."
"We will!" the two sisters replied dutifully.
After being ironed, the Zhongshan suit looked exceptionally crisp. Lin Lan put it on a hanger, hung it on the clothes rack, and went back to her ironing.
After she finished ironing a set of large and small sizes, Lin Lan started on the Western-style suits. By then, Little Xue and Little i had also finished assembling the hangers.
Lin Lan had them set up the other ironing board, then took an iron and a towel from a bamboo basket. She began teaching them how to iron the clothes, telling them the nas of each type of fabric.
Lin Lan noticed that Little Xue was slow but ticulous, while Little i was quick but a bit rough around the edges. ’They’re just sixteen or seventeen. Twenty or thirty years from now, girls their age would still be in school. But these two sisters only had a few years of education before they had to leave.’
By the ti Li Xiangyang and Shuiqing arrived pulling a cart full of goods, Lin Lan had already started ironing pants.
In those days, when you ironed pants, you had to align the seams and press a sharp crease down the front. This was especially true for suit trousers; you had to press the inner seams open to get that perfectly straight crease so they would hang properly.
They didn’t sell pant hangers with clips back then, so Lin Lan had no choice but to drape the ironed trousers over regular hangers.
After the two of them finished unloading the goods, Shuiqing rode his bike back to the East Market.
Li Xiangyang looked at the crisp clothes hanging on the rack and gave the three of them a thumbs-up. "Nice work. Our clothes look even better than the ones in the departnt store."
Little i pointed at Lin Lan. "Auntie Lin taught us how to iron. They look good hanging up, don’t they?"
Lin Lan smiled. "The Zhongshan suits are all pretty much the sa. The main difference is that the departnt store hangs their clothes up without ironing them. Ours have been ironed, so they look much crisper."
"Yeah! I didn’t think buying an iron would make much of a difference, but now I see there’s a real distinction between ironed and un-ironed clothes."
Lin Lan looked at the hooks on the high clothes rack and suddenly realized she had forgotten to make a reaching pole for getting the clothes down.
She turned to Li Xiangyang and made a gesture. "Xiangyang, when you go back, find a few wooden poles and attach so Y-shaped hooks made from thick wire to the ends. I need them to hang up and take down the clothes."
Li Xiangyang thought for a mont and understood. "Oh, you an like the poles they use to get clothes down at the departnt store, right?"
"Exactly!" Lin Lan hung another garnt on the rack and checked the ti. "It’s twelve o’clock. Let’s go ho for lunch and co back afterward."
Little Xue quickly said, "I still have one pant leg to go. I’ll leave after I finish it."
"No rush. We’ll wait for you."
Lin Lan unplugged the iron, wrung out the towel, and hung it on a drying rack. She reminded Little i and Little Xue again to always rember to unplug the iron after they were done using it.
The two sisters nodded repeatedly and started to tidy up.
Li Xiangyang pointed to the bicycle at the door. "Little i, you two can ride the bike back."
Little i nodded happily. "Thank you, Uncle Li."
Lin Lan turned off the light. After she and Li Xiangyang left the shop and locked the door, they began to walk ho at a leisurely pace, with him pulling the empty handcart.
"Little Lan, I have to go to the slaughterhouse this afternoon. You still have to make pastries, so just take your ti ironing the clothes. Don’t wear yourself out."
"With Sister Yuezhen, Qiaohui, and my mom helping, we already finished the kidney bean rolls and pea flour cakes this morning. With three people ironing, it’ll go quickly. I was thinking of working a little overti to get all the suits, Zhongshan suits, and jackets ironed. We can iron the rest as we sell them."
"Okay. I’ll co by this afternoon to help you hang up the clothes."
"Xiangyang, I’ve been thinking. Once the clothing shop and the general store open, I’ll have less ti to manage the pastry shop." Lin Lan paused. "Sister Yuezhen knows how to make basically all the pastries we sell now. I was thinking that once the new shops open, on top of her wages, we could give her a share of the profits. What do you think?"
Li Xiangyang thought for a mont. "That’s a good idea. I’ve been wondering these past few days what to do about Zhigang, Brother Yong, and Brother Shuiqing after the black market shuts down. I’ll use your thod and give them profit shares too."
Lin Lan said slowly, "I’ve been thinking about this ever since we got back from Yangcheng City. As the economy opens up, more and more people will go into business. In the future, people won’t just be working to fill their stomachs; they’ll be working for a better, higher-quality life. Without a financial stake, the bonds of old friendships can fade over ti."
Li Xiangyang nodded. "You’re right. The old man used to say that before they ’cut the tail of capitalism,’ the manager of the family’s butcher shop got a share of the profits. And for the sharpest employees, they’d always get a red envelope bonus during the holidays. That way, other shops could never poach them."
Lin Lan smiled. "Giving profit shares and holiday bonuses are just thods for keeping your staff loyal."
When the two of them got ho, Lin Yuezhen had already picked up Little Douzi from school.
Qiaohui pulled Lin Lan aside. "Cousin, our neighbor Sister Guizhi ca by. She said they still haven’t found Su Xiaoyong, and the Su family’s grandmother took rat poison and was rushed to the hospital."
Lin Lan sighed, finding the Su family’s tragedy deeply saddening. ’These absolute scum,’ she thought, ’who make huge profits from trafficking children, building their own happiness on the imnse suffering of countless families.’
’When they’re caught, they should face the death penalty. Their families should be punished too, because they definitely knew what was going on and enjoyed the profits from the trafficking.’
After lunch, Li Xiangyang found two wooden poles and made the hooked reaching poles with so wire.
Before leaving, Lin Lan once again reminded Little Douzi to wait for a family mber to pick him up after school.
Little Douzi nodded in agreent and thoughtfully walked the two of them to the door.
Lin Lan went to the shop, where Little i and Little Xue were already waiting at the door. The three of them worked busily until five in the afternoon, by which ti they had finally finished ironing and hanging all the clothes.
They took out the woolen sweaters, shook them straight, and hung them on the racks, separating them into n’s and won’s sections on the hooks and rods.
While Lin Lan and the two girls were busy, they heard footsteps at the entrance—it sounded like more than one person. Then, soone pushed up the rolling shutter door. Yao Xiuyun ducked inside, followed by Yang Xiaoman. "Sister Lin, we ca to help!"
Lin Lan laughed. "Great! I’m in desperate need of free labor."
Yang Xiaoman looked at the clothes in the shop with amazent. "Sister Lin, your clothes are gorgeous! Especially that two-tone, black-and-white striped sweater. Machine-knit sweaters just look so good."
Yao Xiuyun held up a sky-blue sweater. "I love this one. The pattern is beautiful, not to ntion the color—it’s so fresh and lovely!"
Lin Lan picked up the sweaters the two had been looking at and smiled. "If you like them, take them. They’re a gift from ."
Yao Xiuyun smiled and waved her hand dismissively. "Not now. We’ll co back after your grand opening."
Yang Xiaoman nodded in agreent. "That’s right. It’s bad luck otherwise. Have you picked a date for the opening yet?"
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