Xu Changqing had expected the goods she brought to be popular, but she never imagined the very first person to see them would immediately want a bolt of fabric that was unevenly dyed and had a flawed pattern.
Clearly, she had still underestimated the extraordinary appeal of fabric. No wonder the salesclerk who'd traded coupons with her kept insisting she take any fabric she could get her hands on while leading her to the warehouse.
'At the time,' she had mused, 'Dad already made me several new outfits, so why would I need defective fabric? My parents, and even my grandparents, aren't short on clothes.'
'No matter how much fabric I brought back, wouldn't it just end up being used by the mother-and-daughter-in-law duo of my grandma and mom? It would all go to their precious granddaughters and other nieces, or to my nephews.'
