The road to wealth of a peasant widow

Chapter 202 Sweater

Although Chen Cui did not dare to believe this statement completely, she felt that it was a relatively reliable statement. However, she did not think that the King of Shu was just taking advantage of the situation, but that he had accumulated strength over time and waited for an opportunity to act, and thus became the final winner!

Throughout history, how many emperors kept a low profile before ascending the throne, but shined brightly and displayed their ambitions after ascending the throne!

Chen Cui would rather believe that the King of Shu was a man of great ambitions and that his position as Crown Prince was the result of his painstaking efforts, than to think that he was just a lucky guy!

Because this is related to the future land and people's livelihood, as well as the strategy of governing the country, although Chen Cui is a businessman without much ambition, but in this strange world, as a modern person with vision and knowledge far beyond the present, she also has a sense of ambition to change the status quo!

Ever since Changping set out for Beijing, Chen Cui's family has resumed their peaceful life, but she would calculate the time and distance from time to time, and check the map to see where Changping and his convoy were.

This map was copied by Zhang Ruomei. It only marked the route to Beijing and the place names along the way, which is very rare.

According to their planned route, the entire team would arrive in the capital city in mid-December, which is the coldest time of the year in the north.

"I heard that the rivers in the capital freeze every year, and the ice can be two palms thick. If it rains or snows, the icicles under the eaves can be a foot long. It must be so cold!"

Chen Cui said with some worry.

Although she had brought thick cotton-padded clothes and fur clothes for Changping as she had inquired, she was still worried that her eldest son would not be able to adapt to the climate in the capital. If he got cold or caught a cold, it would be no joke.

"Mom, don't worry. People in the capital city use heated kangs, so the house is warm. Even the inns have enough braziers. Besides, didn't Aunt Zhang say that we can let our eldest brother live in her house in the capital? It's fully equipped and there are servants to take care of us. Don't worry anymore."

Changan advised.

Alas, Chen Cui didn't know when she developed this habit of worrying too much, especially when it came to matters concerning her children. She always thought too much. Forget it, she should just do something else.

Chen Cui is busy knitting a sweater recently.

It was originally because she was preparing warm clothes for Changping to go to Beijing. When she was buying a leather jacket, she saw a wool blanket and suddenly thought of wool and knitting sweaters.

But because Changping left in a hurry, she had no time to prepare. She just bought all the wool. Only after Changping left did she have time to think about it.

This wool can be spun into yarn just like cotton yarn, but the existing spinning wheel needs to be adjusted, and the wool also needs to be rinsed multiple times to remove the smell.

It was more than half a month later when Chen Cui got the strong and even wool yarn. Thanks to Ding's ingenuity and constant improvement, she was able to successfully spin such good wool yarn.

As for knitting sweaters, it was a skill that Chen Cui learned in the orphanage. Although she hadn't used it for many years, as soon as she got the bamboo needle in her hand, her dead memory would be revived again, and she would start knitting according to her memory.

As Chen Cui's hands flew up and down and the bamboo needle moved back and forth, the thin wool thread gradually turned into a piece of fabric-like thing, which made Ding and Mai, who were watching, marvel.

The lady in their family is really a capable person and knows a lot of things. The wool that was originally dirty and smelly has turned into its current appearance in her hands. It's really magical!

Even more amazing things are yet to come. The first piece of work Chen Cui knitted was a woolen vest for Suisui to wear over an inner garment. It was light and warm, so there was no need to wear a thick cotton coat outside.

It was the first time for everyone to see a pullover outfit and they all found it strange. The men were okay and didn't pay too much attention to it, but it was different for the women in the family.

Mrs. Ding, Mrs. Mai, and the elder daughter, Xiaoxue, looked at the woolen vest of Sui Sui over and over again. They still couldn't believe that such a light and warm garment was made of wool and was made by the lady.

"Oh my god, this dress is elastic. It can wrap around my body without being too tight. It's really great!"

Ding exclaimed in admiration.

As a needleworker, she had seen a lot of materials and fabrics. She had been fortunate enough to see and even touch wool blankets, but she had never imagined that wool could be made into what the lady called a "sweater", a new type of warm clothing.

"Madam, how did you come up with this needlework? It's really ingenious!"

Ding hit the nail on the head. This wool fabric is not rare, but the weaving method is rare. This is a skill that Chen Cui learned in modern times, and it became an original idea when brought to ancient times.

"I just thought of it by chance. This method is nothing special. It's just simple. The wool requirements are not high. It can't compare with those exquisite weaving methods."

The material Chen Cui was talking about was the kind she had seen at Zhang Ruomei's place.

Nowadays, there are looms that can make wool fabrics thin and smooth, but the requirements for wool and weavers are extremely high. A skilled weaver can weave at most three pieces of that kind of material a year, and its value is not much cheaper than the same weight of gold.

She also learned all this from Zhang Ruomei. Although the Zhang family was a merchant family, she had seen and used just as many good things as those of the wealthy and powerful, especially after the Zhang family began to get involved in overseas trade.

Zhang Ruomei had all those imported items that were sought after by the nobles, but because of her husband's official position, she could not use them in a high-profile manner and show them to others. She could only share a few with her close friend Chen Cui.

Chen Cui was fortunate enough to see the "foreign gadgets" of that time, such as pocket watches, music boxes and table clocks, and she was extremely curious.

Sometimes she thought that the Great Zhou was a dynasty she had never learned about in history books, but its development in some aspects had similarities and overlaps with real history, which was really puzzling.

Just like these foreign goods, just like in real history, they originated from foreign countries and spread to domestic markets.

Among them, Chen Cui received a pocket watch and a bottle of perfume from Zhang Ruomei.

She gave the pocket watch to Changping to use for telling time, but she kept the perfume for herself to ponder over and over again, trying to figure out the trick.

That’s right, Chen Cui wants to make perfume next. This is basically a business for women, so it’s definitely a sure win.

She remembered that there seemed to be two ways to obtain perfume, one was immersion and the other was distillation.

The soaking method requires alcohol, but most of the liquors on the market today are low-alcohol. There may be strong liquors, but she has never seen them.

To purify usable alcohol from this low-alcohol turbid wine would surely require a lot of manpower and material resources.

Moreover, Chen Cui knew nothing about winemaking. She had only watched a few videos on the Internet showing traditional ways of making perfume and had crossed out the method that required the use of alcohol.