Chapter 42: Cousin Liu Yun

"Hurry up and choose. Once you're done, I'll let them choose, and whatever is left will be taken elsewhere," Liu Mei urged. Though they were sisters who had their ups and downs, they were still family; she would certainly let her cousin pick first, and only after that would the others have their turn.

Liu Yun couldn't quite make up her mind, and in the end, she picked out a full ten... "Cousin, I don't know which one to choose."

Liu Mei gritted her teeth, "Keep them all. You keep five and I'll keep five; we can take turns wearing them."

"That works, I'll give you the money." Liu Yun quickly agreed and handed the money for the Square Scarves to her cousin.

Her cousin had already said that she was giving them to them at two yuan and eighty cents, so there was no change in price; besides, they told everyone else it was three yuan, so if they took more stock, they could naturally earn twenty cents per scarf.

However, she didn't pay much attention to that. Her work was very busy, and her salary was higher than the other sisters', so she didn't care about these extra gains.

"By the way, my younger sister said she has Woolen Coats. Your brother-in-law's birthday is coming up, so I ordered one according to his measurements. Didn't you want to buy one for your husband when you went to the provincial capital last time? Are you ordering one?" Liu Mei didn't beat around the bush with her cousin and asked directly.

Liu Yun hesitated, "Cousin, is that sister of yours reliable?"

A Woolen Coat was no small item; one piece cost at least a month and a half's salary. She could earn money, but she couldn't just throw it away.

"These Square Scarves were brought over by her, and she didn't even ask for a deposit. We can just wait until the coats arrive and check the quality before paying," Liu Mei thought very openly, but she had her own calculations; although she was anxious, she didn't mention the deposit.

As for An Yinan, she was even less anxious. She was purely confident in her own craftsmanship and fabric; she didn't believe that anyone could resist the temptation once the Woolen Coats she made were brought out.

"Then I'll order one. I'll give you my measurements." Liu Yun quickly wrote down the measurements and handed them to her cousin.

"Alright, I'm leaving first to go distribute the Square Scarves to them. This past week, they've been pestering me until my head hurts." Liu Mei took the slip of paper with the measurements, along with the cloth bag she had brought, and hurried away.

Liu Yun chose a Square Scarf and tied it around her neck, using the simplest "Daddy knot" her cousin had taught her. The light white gauze, adorned with two sprigs of red plum blossoms, made Liu Yun look a bit more gentle and graceful.

Putting the remaining Square Scarves into her bag, Liu Yun pushed open the door of the lounge and walked back to her workstation.

The busy Xiao Li looked up and saw Liu Yun walking back from afar, only she felt that something about her seemed different.

"Head Nurse, why does it feel like you're different?" Xiao Li asked in confusion.

The busy young nurses around them also looked up, "Huh? It seems like she's gentler? There's a kind of calm feeling."

"Yes, yes, yes, I have that feeling too."

"Oh, did Sister Liu Yun put on a new scarf?" A sharp-eyed young nurse immediately found the source of the issue.

"It really is. This scarf is so pretty; it makes her complexion look very fair and her temperament much more peaceful." Xiao Li nodded repeatedly, having also noticed.

Liu Yun chuckled, feeling wonderful inside, "It's not as exaggerated as you all say."

Xiao Li shook her head, "Head Nurse, really, you should go look in the mirror." As she spoke, she rummaged through a drawer, pulled out a small mirror, and handed it over.

Liu Yun took the mirror Xiao Li handed her and saw that the person in the mirror had a fair complexion with a healthy, faint flush. With the Square Scarf as an embellishment, she didn't look so stern, but rather gentle and quiet.

Just one Square Scarf, and it actually made such a big change?

Now, Liu Yun had high expectations for the Woolen Coat.

"Sister Liu Yun, where did you buy this scarf? I want to go take a look too," a young nurse asked in Liu Yun's ear.

The other young nurses also pricked up their ears, waiting for the answer. They often frequented the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, and they had never seen such beautiful scarves there.

Liu Yun tapped the tip of the young nurse's nose, "Work first. I'll tell you when we're done."

"Got it." The young nurse immediately threw herself into her work, and everyone else busied themselves as well.

It was during the lunch break that the group of young girls at the nurse station finished their meal and gathered in the lounge. Everyone had longing eyes, looking straight at Liu Yun, who was wearing the Square Scarf.

"I'll tell you, I'll tell you. My cousin has a distant younger sister who has relatives in Shanghai. She had those relatives mail them over. Don't even talk about our County; even in the City, there aren't patterns like these." Liu Yun didn't hide anything. These young girls hadn't been working long, and in the environment of the hospital, they were well-protected by her and didn't have those bad intentions. Besides, they were used to trading things among themselves.

"Head Nurse, can you help me bring one over?" Xiao Li blushed. Her family had recently been arranging for her to meet a potential partner, and her skin tone was on the darker side; she was just an ordinary person, and her features weren't particularly outstanding, so she was thinking about whether there was some external bonus.

Liu Yun looked at the young girls around her. Although they didn't speak, everyone had expectations, and she realized that all these young girls wanted one.

"There's probably no chance this time. I'll ask my cousin next time if she can spare some for you. However, this Square Scarf is a bit expensive—three yuan each, no ration coupons needed." Liu Yun hadn't originally intended to sell them, but she couldn't resist everyone wanting to buy.

She decided she would just ask her cousin after work. She had nine in her bag, plus her cousin's five; she would take them all over and they could pick through them together.

Liu Mei took advantage of her break to run to several places. She had left at least five with everyone, and the last person had even bought the rest out...

Not counting the five she kept for herself, she had actually earned twenty-eight yuan and fifty cents.

Even after deducting the cost of the five she kept, she still earned sixteen yuan—that was her half-month's salary!!!

She had only gone out for a walk, and everything had been taken.

And she didn't know at this moment that the craze for the Square Scarves had just begun, and everything was fermenting little by little. Each of the sisters had at least five, but they had already been mostly divided up by colleagues and friends.

Before the afternoon was even over, one after another couldn't wait and hurried to the State-run Restaurant to ask if they could still get more of these Square Scarves.

Liu Mei was also a bit helpless, "The quantity is too large, the goods are hard to get, and my sister has her own difficulties."

This created a market trend where a single scarf was hard to come by.

An Yinan, who didn't know that the Square Scarves had become a hit, had two taels of peanuts and a small dish of soy-sauce beef in her basket, along with two taels of liquor in a tea mug, and arrived at the waste recycling station.

She had even specifically dug out three bowls of white flour into a cloth bag. She had never met the old man's family, and she didn't dare to ask rashly, so she could only provide some help each time she came, without being too conspicuous and bringing trouble upon herself.

"Creak~" The dilapidated wooden door opened. The reclining chair that had always been under the sun was still in its original position, only the old man was uncharacteristically not on the chair.

Perhaps hearing the sound of the door opening, the old man ran out from the back. Seeing it was An Yinan, he then said ungraciously, "What are you standing there blankly for? Come over here and take a look at this painting."