Chapter 42
Xiao Xinyue had seen many plays, but this was the first time anyone had ever said such bold and unrestrained words to her: “can’t let go, can’t bear to part, can’t forget.” Even though she understood that Zhou Shuren’s sweet words were not very sincere, her heartbeat still sped up.
“You… truly don’t want me to leave you?” Xiao Xinyue asked.
“Of course. By my side, I can still help you. If you’re afraid of implicating Ayou and the others, that’s easy. I’ll move out with you and let them stay here,” Zhou Shuren said without hesitation.
Of course, her proposal was completely rejected. Lin You and the others all disagreed. “Wherever Benefactor goes, we go!”
Zhou Shuren laughed cheerfully. “Aiya, this is so embarrassing. You’re making it seem like all of you are my girlfriends.”
“What does girlfriend mean?” A group of people looked at her with burning gazes.
Zhou Shuren: “It means female friend.”
Lin You’s angle was tricky. “Then does Benefactor mean that we are not your girlfriends?”
Zhou Shuren: “…”
Facing such a battlefield of romantic rivals, she had a flash of inspiration. “Of course, our relationship is above friends. We are good sisters as close as family!”
Lin You and the others were deeply moved. “Benefactor, you are truly too good to us. You are a good person.”
Zhou Shuren: “…”
She had avoided a battlefield of romantic rivals, only to immediately be handed a good-person card. Ai, how miserable she was!
Xiao Xinyue: “…”
Why did she feel Zhou Shuren’s expression was strange? So did “girlfriend” really mean female friend?
Zhou Shuren said, “I already said all of you should stop calling me Benefactor. It sounds so distant!”
“Indeed. Benefactor already treats us as sisters, so we cannot be so distant either. Since everyone shares the same aspirations, why don’t we become sworn sisters and address one another as sisters?”
Lin You’s suggestion received unanimous approval. Zhou Shuren and Xiao Xinyue looked at each other, not knowing how things had evolved into this, but they still joined in the excitement. Then Zhou Shuren was excluded.
Zhou Shuren: “???”
Why treat her like this?
Lin You explained, “Benefactor, your age is neither too old nor too young. It would not be suitable for us to call you elder sister, and even less suitable to call you younger sister. So we will not become sworn sisters with you, but we are willing to honor you as our master.”
Goosebumps rose all over Zhou Shuren. “Ai, don’t! I don’t support that whole master-servant thing here. Since you don’t want me to be the eldest sister and don’t want me to be the youngest either, that’s simple. You can form a girl group, and I’ll be your mentor.”
“Girl group? Does mentor mean master?”
“No. Mentor means someone who guides you in a certain aspect. Aren’t you going to do business? I’ll guide you on how to do business, so I’ll be called a mentor. You can call me Director Zhou.”
Everyone suddenly understood. After thinking it over briefly, they shouted in unison, “Director Zhou!”
Zhou Shuren: This has the flavor of a pyramid scheme.
Speaking of business, Zhou Shuren asked them, “Have you written your business proposal?”
Lin You came from a merchant family, knew how to read and calculate with an abacus, and had experience managing the Lin family’s business since childhood. So after finding a suitable direction, she already had a rough plan for production, operation, and the like.
To do business, one first needed products. During their meeting just now, they had made a tally based on everyone’s strengths. Because girls were trained in needlework from childhood, they all more or less knew how to do sewing. Wei Siyun, who had skillful hands and a clever mind, could also make some delicate ornaments.
Once they had products, they would need cost investment to produce them. Zhou Shuren had said she would sponsor them, so they did not need to worry about funding.
After finding an investor, the next thing to worry about was operations. For example, finding a shop. The shop’s location, size, and the types of shops nearby would all affect the store’s business. After choosing a shop, they would also have to open up sales, continuously expand sales channels, and update products.
At the same time, they would also need to communicate externally, improve their awareness of service, and deal with peers, the government, and people of the martial world.
Lin You’s thinking was very clear, but Xiao Xinyue also raised her concern. “Needlework is something many wives and daughters of households can do. Are you certain the needlework everyone makes can be sold?”
Zhou Shuren said, “In the end, the product itself must be good. As long as you choose the right product and position your target customers properly, you won’t have to fear having no customers come to your door.”
She had already thought it through. Not only would she support them financially, she would also provide them with help in production technology!
Using the knowledge she had learned, Zhou Shuren had Lin You and the others help collect materials for her experiments, then successfully tinkered together some cleaning and washing products.
Of course, she was also very clear that many people did not have good hygiene habits. These cleaning and washing products would only be used by households with slightly better conditions. Thus, she also went to tinker with rouge and powder, then told them the secret formulas for making them.
Aside from her researching products, these women also did their best and displayed their craftsmanship. They were careful and skillful. Not only could they weave cloth, dye cloth, cut, and sew, they could also make gold and silver jewelry, pearl hairpins, and other ornaments.
Upon seeing the cutting and sewing, Zhou Shuren thought of the sewing machine. This was a technological product invented in the eighteenth century and still used in the twenty-first century!
As it happened, her father had once assembled a sewing machine, and she had also memorized the structural diagram of her father’s foot-pedal sewing machine. So at this very moment, she wanted to make that sewing machine.
The problem was that there were many fine parts, and she really was not sure whether any blacksmith would be willing to forge them for her.
When she pondered the design drawing, she did not avoid the others. When they saw the finished draft, they all gathered around curiously and asked, “What is this? We can’t understand it at all.”
Zhou Shuren said, “This is a sewing machine. As the name suggests, with it, sewing clothes in the future will no longer require stitching one needle and thread at a time.”
Everyone froze, then laughed awkwardly. “Director Zhou, you’re joking, right? How could there be such a convenient tool in this world?”
It was not that they did not believe Zhou Shuren, but this was too far beyond their imagination. From ancient times until now, people had always sewn with one needle and one thread. They had never heard of using machinery to make needle and thread move automatically.
Zhou Shuren was not angry at being questioned and said, “Of course there is. Technology is invented by people. It is only that the current level of production has not yet reached that stage.”
She thought, This is a fictional world anyway, and many things here already don’t match historical fact. So if I make a sewing machine ahead of time, it shouldn’t matter, right?
She sighed. “The only problem is that such fine parts will probably be very difficult to make.”
The measurements of these parts often needed to be accurate to one decimal place. Of course, if extremely tiny parts could not be made, then the sewing machine as a whole could be made larger. But in that case, it would not be easy to move.
Xiao Xinyue also leaned over curiously to look. Of course, she could not understand it either, but she became even more curious about Zhou Shuren, who understood these things. “If the parts on this drawing can be made, can the sewing machine truly be manufactured? How does a sewing machine operate?”
Since the female lead had asked, Zhou Shuren definitely had to explain enthusiastically. However, describing it verbally would not leave as deep an impression as operating the actual object, so she said, “It has to be made first before I can explain it.”
At this moment, she noticed that Wen Xi had been staring at the drawing, so she casually asked, “Ah Wen, are you interested?”
Wen Xi pointed at the drawing. “I can make these.”
Zhou Shuren froze for a moment, then was immediately overjoyed. “You mean these parts? You can make them?”
Wen Xi nodded.
Lin You and the others also smiled in surprise. “Not bad. Who would have thought that although you usually don’t say a word, you actually know how to forge iron!”
Zhou Shuren also remembered seeing Wen Xi in front of the blacksmith shop that day. She had said that they were all searching for things they were good at.
The reason she had suggested opening a blacksmith shop was because she was good at forging iron?
But looking at her thin arms and slender figure, she really did not seem connected to forging iron at all.
No matter what, since someone had taken on this task, Zhou Shuren would naturally give her trust. “Ah Wen really is reliable. Then I’ll leave this important task to you!”
Wen Xi accepted the drawing and nodded again.
Over the next few days, everyone was full of curiosity and expectation toward the sewing machine. When Wen Xi went to forge iron, they also ran over to join in the excitement and help out.
Zhou Shuren and Xiao Xinyue went over to take a look, and very quickly, they discovered something.
Whether it was controlling the temperature of the heated iron or the force of her hammering, Wen Xi handled everything just right. This was not only a skill that only an old blacksmith would have, but it could also be seen that her internal force was actually not low.
“So she also knows martial arts,” Zhou Shuren muttered.
Xiao Xinyue said, “Miss Zhou has been with her for so long, and you only noticed now?”
Zhou Shuren smiled and said, “That’s right!”
In truth, she did not care whether Lin You, Wen Xi, and the others knew martial arts or what their backgrounds were, just as they had never asked about her background either.
After watching for a while, Xiao Xinyue said, “She should be from West Pavilion Mountain’s Iron Sword Sect. Her process of forging iron and the techniques she uses to hammer it are both similar to the sword-forging techniques of Iron Sword Sect.”
“Iron Sword Sect?”
Xiao Xinyue realized that Zhou Shuren knew very little about the jianghu. For example, she could not name many famous righteous sects. But at times, she seemed rather knowledgeable, such as about the Demon Sect.
“Iron Sword Sect is a famous sword-forging sect in the jianghu. Many famous swords under heaven came from their hands. However, two years ago, a mysterious man attacked West Pavilion Mountain. Direct disciples died or disappeared, while all the branch disciples fled. Thus, the sect was destroyed.”
“A mysterious man…” Zhou Shuren felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
Someone with this ability was, nine times out of ten, the great villain of the book, Demon Lord Li Dang!
“Do people know the mysterious man’s identity?” Zhou Shuren asked.
Xiao Xinyue shook her head. Nothing showed on her face, but her mood was extremely heavy. She suspected the Xiao family massacre was related to that mysterious man!
Zhou Shuren thought, The Demon Lord really is a dog. He adopted the original owner as his foster daughter, then had her establish the Thousand Mechanisms Cult, gather evildoers from all under heaven, and commit evil everywhere, drawing everyone’s attention to the Thousand Mechanisms Cult. This way, when he did evil, he could shift the blame onto the Thousand Mechanisms Cult or onto her, the Cult Leader. He could keep himself clean, hide his identity, and continue doing evil!
Zhou Shuren did not want to take the blame for him, so she asked Xiao Xinyue, “Have you heard of the Demon Lord?”
Xiao Xinyue shook her head again. “I only know of the Demon Sect and the Demon Sect Leader. I have never heard of someone called the Demon Lord.”
Zhou Shuren thought, That makes sense. According to Meng Xiaoxiao’s Moments summary, the Demon Lord appears relatively late. Through the male and female leads meeting, adventuring, and investigating the Xiao family massacre, the secrets of the Demon Sect and the Demon Lord’s true face are gradually revealed.
At this point, the story had only just developed to shortly after the female lead’s family was destroyed. Naturally, not many people of the righteous path knew of the Demon Lord’s existence yet. The reason she did not say no one of the righteous path knew at all was naturally because the righteous path actually also had the Demon Lord’s spies. Of course, Zhou Shuren, who had not read the original novel, did not know who those spies were.
Zhou Shuren decisively revealed the Demon Lord’s existence to the female lead in advance. “The Demon Lord is someone with extremely powerful martial arts. He can be said to be one of only two grandmasters among grandmasters in the current martial world.”
“Only two?”
“There is another one surnamed Zhuo, currently living in seclusion. The two of them are not just ordinarily powerful. If they fought here, they could probably flatten this entire city.”
Xiao Xinyue’s heart chilled. Emotionally, she believed this was impossible. If such experts truly existed, there should not be no one in the martial world who knew of them. Moreover, her master, and Cheng Xiyang of Yaoshan Sect, had already reached the peak of martial arts. How could anyone’s martial arts be even higher than theirs?
But rationally, she knew very clearly that there were always people beyond people and heavens beyond heaven. Just like Zhou Shuren before her, whose martial arts and internal force were both above hers. Judging by her actions, she should also be a powerful expert who had no reputation in the jianghu.
Xiao Xinyue became even more curious about Zhou Shuren’s origins, and her guard rose again. Because she felt that Zhou Shuren knew so much about the Demon Lord and the Demon Sect, there was a high chance she was someone connected to the Demon Sect…
Author’s Note:
Cult Leader: Lifting a stone only to smash my own foot!
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