CH 19

Chapter 19 – Lure

Old man Zhou wasn’t willing to move, “Why do you want the small baskets? You can’t eat or drink them.”

“They can be made into flower baskets to make money,” Man Bao shared her plans with her father, but she omitted the main attraction – the sweets.

She confidently said, “After I make money, I’ll pay you for your hard work.”

Old man Zhou stroked the shredded tobacco in the cloth pouch around his waist, but he wasn’t willing to smoke.

He had decided to sell all the tobacco at home. Although it wasn’t worth a lot of money, he could still buy a couple of doses of medicine for his wife.

He glanced at his daughter, shook his head, and said, “I don’t need the hardship allowance so I wouldn’t make the baskets.”

He didn’t want to play around with a bunch of kids.

Everyone was disappointed. Man Bao went to find her mother to support her.

Mrs Zhou couldn’t bear Man Bao acting like a baby, so she could only say to her husband, “This is a simple thing. After all, you are idle. Just weave a couple of baskets for the children. Moreover, this doesn’t even require much energy.”

His wife had spoken, and his daughter, grandsons and granddaughters were all looking at him eagerly. He had no choice but to go to the shack and drag out the bag of bamboo strips to weave the baskets.

When he saw his two grandsons, Da Tou and Er Tou who were watching the excitement, he called them over and said, “Come, grandpa will teach you. You are growing up, and it’s time to learn a craft.”

There were only a few villagers who knew the art of bamboo weaving, but they were not masters of the craft. Only Er Lang’s weaved goods were good enough to be sold in the market and town.

The bamboo baskets he weaved were so sturdy and dense that even small grains of wheat couldn’t escape.

But when others weaved bamboo baskets which resembled those sold in the market, those products were inferior. After using them a couple of times, the baskets would crack and leak, and would be rendered useless.

Old man Zhou’s craft belonged to the latter.

Although he couldn’t weave big bamboo baskets like Er Lang, he could weave small baskets similar to the one that Man Bao was holding in her hands. After all, those were just the size of her little head!

At best, his baskets would only be considered imitations. At most, you could put 10 eggs in the basket, but he felt his products were sturdy and wouldn’t be damaged even after 10 years!

Since he wasn’t really bothered and he was using the bamboo strips which Er Lang spilt and prepared, he didn’t feel distressed about teaching his grandsons how to weave.

Man Bao looked at them and felt weaving looked pretty fun. She helped herself to the bamboo strips, and even got Da Ya and Er Ya to join her.

Old man Zhou glanced at his two granddaughters. Girls shouldn’t learn this craft but when he looked at the bamboo strips on the ground, he thought, just learn, just learn, these bamboo strips could only be used once.

He wasn’t the second son and didn’t have to worry about splitting and preparing more strips.

If they used up the bamboo strips, then, he wouldn’t have to weave anymore.

Man Bao wasn’t aware of her father’s scheming. She was focused on learning and was watching him closely.

Old man Zhou was taking his own sweet time weaving, and said to her, “You’re a baby, the bamboo strips can’t bend, is this even fun? Be careful not to hurt your fingers.”

Mrs Zhou was sitting on a stool and basking in the sun. She smiled when she saw the kids learning the craft, and called out, “Man Bao, come here. Mother will teach you.”

Man Bao happily carried the bamboo strips over to her mother, “Mother, do you know how to weave?”

“I’ve seen people weave throughout my life. Even if I haven’t weaved before, I know how to weave.”

Mrs Zhou was sick and couldn’t do any heavy work, but she could easily weave as she could sit, and work with the strips.

So, she sat and weaved while explaining the techniques to Man Bao. Weaving small bamboo baskets weren’t difficult, and she worked very fast.

In a wink of an eye, Mrs Zhou had completed her first ever woven product!

Man Bao took the basket and compared it to the two made by her father. She wrinkled up her little nose and said, “Mother, yours look so ugly.”

Old man Zhou laughed proudly, “Your father is highly experienced, and my things will definitely look better than your mother’s.”

Mrs Zhou wasn’t discouraged, and beckoned Man Bao, “Bring a few more strips over. I’ll weave another one.”

She smiled and said, “Practice makes perfect. If you make the effort to learn, you’ll pick up the skills.”

Man Bao felt her mother’s words made perfect sense, so she dragged another handful of strips over to her mother.

The grandkids were confused. They had initially moved from grandfather to learn from grandmother but subsequently, Mrs Zhou’s first woven basket was just too ugly.

So, they went back to grandfather but continued to be indecisive and kept looking between the two elders, trying to decide who was the best teacher.

Man Bao reprimanded them, “It’s not good for you to be half-hearted like this. Never mind, Da Tou, Er Tou, just learn from your grandfather. Da Ya and Er Ya, come over and learn from grandmother.”

The four children finally settled down.

Mrs Zhou smiled and felt Man Bao was swift to make up her mind.

Man Bao was the most leisurely amongst everyone present. Well, it looked like that but in fact, she was very busy.

Once the bamboo baskets was completed, Man Bao took it for a discussed with Keke, “Do you think my mother’s bamboo basket can be sold?”

The system said, “There is no item in this world which cannot be turned into a commodity. You can perform secondary processing.”

Man Bao, “I’ll decorate this basket with the most beautiful flowers.”

Man Bao began to select what she thought were the most beautiful flowers from the pile of flowers they gathered from the mountain.

She placed the colourful flowers in her mother’s basket. The colours were all mixed up, but she liked it, and was happy, “This flower basket looks so beautiful.”

Keke was silent for a long time before saying, “There might not be many people in this world who share the same aesthetics as the host.”

Man Bao repeated this sentence, and then realized, “Keke, are you saying that my flower basket looks ugly?”

“Flower baskets don’t look like this.” The system couldn’t help but search for some pictures in the Encyclopaedia and showed them to Man Bao.

“This is what you would call a flower basket. As for yours, well, you can say it’s a bamboo trashcan for flowers or a trashcan of failed items.”

Man Bao didn’t hear Keke’s insults. She stared at the pictures with bright eyes, and almost rolled on the ground with joy, “So beautiful, so beautiful, Keke, can you give them to me as a present?”

What her parents saw was: Man Bao smiling and drooling away while holding the badly weaved bamboo basket.

The couple was silent for a moment, and then looked at the jumbled-up flowers Man Bao had placed into the basket.

They felt they had to pay more attention to the child’s aesthetics education. Really, how could she be so happy with such an ugly bamboo basket?

The four children lowered their heads. If possible, they wanted to bury their faces in the bamboo strips. Little aunt must be thinking about her money-making plan again, but could such an ugly bamboo basket really be sold?

The system glanced at Man Bao’s points and said, “Host, your points are enough to buy bamboo baskets, but you haven’t reached the authority to open the mall, so I can’t buy them for you.”

This was the first time Man Bao heard of the mall, “What is a mall?”

“It’s almost like your market. The host can buy all kinds of things including flower baskets from the mall.”

“Then, when will I be able to open the mall?” Man Bao felt if the mall could be opened, it’ll be so convenient as she could just go to the mall whenever she want to shop.

“When the host’s accumulated points reach 1,000 and there is no historical debt,” Keke said.

Man Bao slouched, and tried the bargaining techniques she learnt from her second brother, “That’s a lot. Can’t it be cheaper?”

Keke ruthlessly rejected her, “No way!”

A long, long time later, when Man Bao was older, she was also smarter. One day, when she was in the mall, she saw the same type of sweets that Keke used to buy for her. Suddenly, she recalled the incident today where Keke refused to allow her to buy flower baskets, and reacted, “Keke, you fooled me!”

Keke, “If I didn’t fool you, would you be willing to move forward?”