They found a noodle shop nearby, ordered four bowls of noodles and two stir-fried dishes, and ate their fill. After chatting a little longer, the four of them parted ways.
Shen Moxi and Song Qi returned home. Song Yongjun and Huang Yushan had gone out to work in the fields, so the two went to their room and lay down for an afternoon nap.
After lying down, Shen Moxi thought about how to make better use of the clothing shop once its renovations were finished and earn more money.
"Clothing... clothes... outfits..." she muttered softly, frowning in thought.
Song Qi had taken off his jacket and just lain down when he heard Shen Moxi muttering and saw her tightly knitted brows. He shifted closer to her. "What's wrong? You look so worried."
Shen Moxi rolled onto her side and sighed. "I'm thinking about how to get the most value out of the shop once the renovations are finished."
Song Qi raised his eyebrows and smiled. "Have you thought of anything? Isn't a clothing shop for selling clothes? What else could you do with it?"
Shen Moxi bit her lip and scratched her head, then her eyes lit up. "I think I've come up with something?"
At that, she got up, climbed off the kang, and found paper and a pen in the drawer of a nearby table. "I could design some children's clothes to sell too. There aren't any children's clothing shops nearby, and the few shops that carry children's clothes don't have anything nice. I could partition off a small section of the shop to sell children's clothes, and I could design matching parent-child outfits too."
Song Qi looked thoughtful after hearing this. "Children's clothes? I really haven't noticed any for sale. That could work."
"Right? I think it's worth trying. Say you're visiting friends who have children-you could buy some children's clothes as gifts. I think it's a pretty good idea." With that, Shen Moxi began sketching designs for children's clothes. She would send them to the workshop to make a few later and take them along when they set up their stall tomorrow.
Children's clothes were simple and easy to make. She designed all sorts of clothes, shoes, and hats for children ranging from a few months old to their teens. Once she started drawing, she couldn't stop.
For tomorrow's stall, she planned to bring clothes for children from five or six to around ten. She wouldn't bring anything for very young children yet; she would build a reputation first.
All her designs were coordinated sets, saving people the trouble of matching clothes. A whole outfit would look nice as a gift, and buying one for their own children would look much better than anything they put together themselves.
After finishing some of the drawings, she placed the design sheets in the workshop to be scanned and produced. She made only two styles for each age group, with just two sets of each style. She would test the waters tomorrow; she didn't know how well they would do.
She also designed a few styles of children's shoes, mostly sneakers and little canvas shoes that were lightweight, breathable, and comfortable. Little leather shoes were too tiring for children to wear and made their feet sweaty.
The hats were simple. She designed mesh styles that could still be worn when the weather grew hot. The girls' hats were similar to little berets and looked very stylish.
She wrote and drew, making changes along the way. More than three hours passed before Shen Moxi finally stopped, her hand aching. She raised a hand to rub her sore lower back, then handed the drawings to Song Qi. "Here, take a look at my work."
Song Qi took them and sat to one side, examining them carefully one by one.
He nodded as he looked. "Mm, these are very well drawn. These styles look so much better than the plain clothes our children wear. I don't think they'll be hard to sell."
Shen Moxi stood up, bounced a little, and twisted her waist. "Of course. In a few decades, you'll see even more beautiful clothes. Times are changing, and everything will only get better."
Once she was finished, she put away the drawings. The clothes, shoes, and hats in the workshop were all ready. She took them out and checked them; the sizes, colors, and materials were all correct. She folded the outfits one set at a time, placed them in a cardboard box, and had Song Qi put it away.
"I should buy another rack and hang the children's clothes separately. If everything's together, it'll be hard to make their distinctive features stand out. I'll also need two mannequins, a little boy and a little girl," Shen Moxi said, rubbing her chin.
"Mm, children's clothes are too small. They won't attract much attention alongside adult clothes." Song Qi nodded in agreement.
Shen Moxi went back to the system and ordered a rack a little smaller than the previous one, along with two small mannequins modeled on children around seven or eight years old. After purchasing them, she took them out and gave them to Song Qi to put into his space as well.
"That should be about everything, right? I don't think we've missed anything." Shen Moxi yawned.
"Go rest a little longer. It's still early." Song Qi helped her clear the table.
"Oh, it's already so late. I won't rest. I'll go cook." She took out the alarm clock to check the time and saw that it was already past four.
"I'll cook. I can't promise it'll taste great, but it'll be edible. You rest for a while." Song Qi stopped her.
Hearing this, Shen Moxi said, "You can cook? I thought men in ancient times never went into the kitchen."
Song Qi smiled and shook his head. "I'm not very good at it. Like I said, it's just edible. I used to catch pheasants, wild rabbits, and things like that in the forest and roast them. Cooking the way you do, settling down to stir-fry dishes and make porridge-I hardly ever did that. When I ate meals, I went to restaurants."
"Oh, I see. I'd better do it, then. I'm not that tired. I'm very picky about food. If it doesn't taste good or doesn't appeal to me, I generally won't eat it. You can watch and learn, then cook once you've learned how." Shen Moxi smiled and patted his shoulder.
"All right. You cook, and I'll help you and learn along the way." Song Qi opened the door, and they headed to the kitchen.
"I'm suddenly craving steamed buns. Tomorrow, let's ask Aunt Shan to get some dough rising so we can make buns when she comes back." For some reason, Shen Moxi suddenly wanted meat-filled buns. She wanted to make the dough herself, but she didn't know how to use the dough starter from this era. There was no yeast, and she couldn't simply buy some and bring it out.
She would have to find a chance to learn properly from Aunt Shan next time. Once she learned, making steamed bread and stuffed buns would also give her a good excuse.
After looking over the vegetables in the kitchen, she decided what to make for dinner.
She took out potatoes, peppers, and cabbage and had Song Qi wash, peel, and cut them. The potatoes were cut into thin strips for hot-and-sour shredded potatoes, a dish she never tired of eating.
Then she took out a small handful of glass noodles and soaked them in hot water. She would use them with the cabbage to make shredded cabbage with glass noodles.
She bought a jin of pork tenderloin, seasonings for Sichuan boiled pork slices, and soybean sprouts from the system to make Sichuan boiled pork slices.
The two worked in the kitchen for over an hour. By dusk, all the dishes were ready: Sichuan boiled pork slices, shredded cabbage with glass noodles, stir-fried pork with peppers, and hot-and-sour shredded potatoes.
They also steamed some buns and cooked porridge. In the countryside of this era, this tableful of food was quite a lavish, high-end spread.
They carried the food to the table and washed their hands. Shen Moxi went to the courtyard gate and saw that the others still hadn't returned, so she pulled Song Qi outside for a stroll near the house.
"Song Qi, in these few days since you came here, have you missed your old world?" The question suddenly occurred to Shen Moxi, and she blurted it out.