TCRT_09
Chapter 9: Renting a Shop — Back to Old Trade
The shop front that Ji Qingzhou had his eye on was located at the entrance of a lane called Love Lane on Jing'an Temple Road. It was one of the ground-floor units of a three-story brick-and-wood structure building.
The shop had originally been a tailor's, and its owner was an elderly woman past sixty by the surname of Wu.
Old Mrs. Wu had been running her business there for over ten years and had earned herself something of a reputation among the nearby residents. However, due to her advancing age and increasing physical inconvenience, along with a sudden and significant decline in her eyesight, she had been compelled by her children to close up shop and transfer the premises.
Ji Qingzhou had his eye on this shop for two reasons: firstly, it had already been a tailor's, meaning it came with an established customer base; secondly, it was in a good location with heavy foot traffic.
Love Lane was short, stretching no more than five hundred meters in total, yet both sides of the lane were lined with small shops.
Teahouses, restaurants, cafes, shoe stores, pharmacies, confectionery shops... all manner of little establishments filled the lane, and the moment you stepped inside, you could feel the warmth and bustle of everyday life.
All in all, as far as the surrounding environment was concerned, Ji Qingzhou was quite satisfied.
On top of that, the place was close to the Jie residence, just two tram stops from the lane entrance. After asking Old Mrs. Wu about the rent the previous day, he had made up his mind on the spot to take the shop.
The signing of the lease was set for noon that day. As Old Mrs. Wu could not read, her son, who worked at a newspaper office, came to handle the shop transfer on her behalf.
However, Old Mrs. Wu was not the true landlord. Her lease only ran until the end of the year, so when it came time to sign, the shop's original landlord, a woman in her forties by the surname of Liu, came to the scene as well, accompanied by her daughter.
Mrs. Liu actually lived upstairs. Apart from the three ground-floor units rented out to different proprietors running small shops, the two upper floors of the building were a guesthouse operated by the mother and daughter.
"It is already mid-April, so we will not charge you for April's rent. Consider it a gesture of goodwill.
"From May through the end of December, that is eight months in total, the monthly rent is ten and a half yuan, coming to eighty-four yuan altogether. Please check and see if there are any errors or omissions."
Old Mrs. Wu's son laid out the terms concisely and handed the lease agreement to Ji Qingzhou.
Ji Qingzhou had prepared the rent money the day before. Aside from the twenty-nine yuan in savings he had brought from the Jie household, the remainder had been raised by pawning jewelry at a pawnshop.
Fortunately, as he had only recently returned to the country, some of his less frequently worn jewelry had been tucked away in the hidden compartment of his luggage and never taken out, which now proved most useful.
Among the valuables brought from the modern era, aside from the Longines watch he wore on his wrist, there was also a Cartier mechanical wristwatch, two small bottles of perfume, and various items such as necklaces, bracelets, rings, and stud earrings.
While perfume brands were luxury goods in the modern era, their value was difficult to estimate in the present time. Naturally, the most valuable items were still the watches.
If he were to pawn both watches, he could, with some luck, get around two to three hundred yuan in exchange. However, considering that mobile phones were unusable now and watches remained quite important in daily life, he pawned only the Cartier, along with two pieces of gold and silver jewelry, exchanging them for a total of one hundred and twenty yuan.
Pawned items could be redeemed within a year, though interest would certainly be added. Ji Qingzhou had no particular attachment to any of it. He figured that if he managed to earn enough within the year, he would redeem the items; if funds fell short, selling them off would be fine too. He was not especially heartbroken over it, feeling at most a small sense of regret.
After pulling the money from his bag and paying the full rent in one go, Ji Qingzhou also purchased the furniture, cutting tools, and remaining bolts of fabric inside the shop at second-hand prices.
All of that came to ten silver dollars in total.
As for the sewing machine, Old Mrs. Wu refused to sell it.
According to her, this 'iron tailor' had been bought by her son with three months' worth of savings, costing a full one hundred and thirty yuan.
It was only because writers and literary figures commanded such high salaries these days that such a purchase was possible. Otherwise, an ordinary tailor's shop simply could not afford such modern equipment.
In truth, even if she had been willing to sell, Ji Qingzhou no longer had the money to buy it. Yet he genuinely needed the machine, so he discussed with Old Mrs. Wu whether he might rent it instead.
Considering that a sewing machine was of no real use for the household's occasional mending, and that Ji Qingzhou was willing to pay three yuan a month for it, Old Mrs. Wu could not help but be tempted.
After mother and son conferred for a while, they agreed to the request.
The condition was that should the sewing machine break down, Ji Qingzhou would be responsible for paying to have it repaired. If it could not be repaired, he would be required to compensate at second-hand value.
It was, after all, a prized asset in this era, so Ji Qingzhou naturally had nothing to object to.
The transfer agreement and the sewing machine rental contract were signed in the joint presence of the landlady and her daughter, along with the owner of the neighboring barbershop.
Once the contracts were signed, Old Mrs. Wu's son handed him a name card, saying that if any issues arose, he could be found on Wangping Street.
Before leaving, he used a hooked pole to take down the shop sign at the entrance that read "Wu's Garment Shop". Only then was the handover of the tailor's shop considered truly complete.
After Old Mrs. Wu and her son departed, and the barbershop owner who had come to watch the excitement returned to his own shop, only Ji Qingzhou and the landlady mother and daughter remained inside the tailor's shop.
Landlady Aunt Liu was dressed in a traditional side-fastening robe with an embroidered long skirt, and spoke with a local accent.
She stood at the doorway, watching Ji Qingzhou with curiosity, and asked: "It's quite rare to see someone your age opening a tailor's shop on their own. Mr. Ji, are you twenty years old yet?"
Ji Qingzhou had his sleeves rolled up and was checking the condition of the tools in the shop, including the sewing machine and iron. Hearing this, he turned toward the doorway with a smile and said: "I am not that young. I will be turning twenty-six in another month."
"You really cannot tell!"
Aunt Liu gave a mildly surprised glance at her daughter standing behind her, then asked: "In that case, you must already be married?"
"Yes." Ji Qingzhou gave a nod and continued tidying up, when he suddenly noticed that Aunt Liu's gaze had been lingering on his arm.
He looked down in puzzlement, only then realizing that what she was staring at was the watch on his wrist.
Noticing his reaction, Aunt Liu offered an apologetic smile and lowered her voice: "That watch of yours must be quite expensive. When you are out, especially at night, do not let it show when you are alone. There are robbers about."
"Oh, thank you for the warning." Ji Qingzhou quite obligingly let his rolled-up sleeve back down.
Aunt Liu smiled warmly at the sight of this, and drew her daughter, who was wearing a blue short jacket, to her side:
"This is my daughter Xiao Qin. She is quite good with needlework and can also operate a treadle sewing machine. Back when Old Mrs. Wu ran this shop, she would often come by to help. From now on, if you find yourself too busy to manage, just call out to her in the inner courtyard. Feel free to have her help as an apprentice, no need to stand on ceremony."
Ji Qingzhou looked toward her daughter. The girl named Xiao Qin appeared to be no more than seventeen or eighteen, her jet-black hair braided into a thick plait hanging down her back, with a short fringe across her forehead, and a very young and unassuming face.
At that moment, having been pulled forward by her mother and suddenly meeting Ji Qingzhou's appraising gaze, her face flushed a deep red.
Despite her embarrassment, she still lowered her eyes and replied: "If the shop needs help, sir, you need only call for me. There is no charge."
"If it were two years earlier, I certainly would not have dared let Xiao Qin come help in your shop. But nowadays, are the newspapers not all talking about open social mixing and breaking down the barriers between men and women?
"These past two years, men and women have even been riding the trams together. Unthinkable in the old days."
Aunt Liu seemed worried he might read too much into it, and added these few words specially.
"But we ordinary folk never paid much mind to all that to begin with. Making a living always comes first. Otherwise I would not have opened a guesthouse with just my daughter."
"I understand, and thank you both for your kindness." Ji Qingzhou had not thought anything of it at first, but hearing this made him realize that the times were different now, and that one ought to be careful in one's manner around young women.
So he quickly averted his gaze and offered his thanks politely.
Aunt Liu's smile grew warmer, and she called out cheerfully from the doorway: "There is quite a bit here to sort through. Shall I help you?"
Ji Qingzhou shook his head with a smile: "No need, I will just do a quick tidy and then head back."
"In such a hurry. Whereabouts do you live?"
"Around Park Road."
"That is not far at all."
"No."
"Opening a shop around here is wonderful. All three meals of the day can be sorted nearby. The Yang and Tao establishments across the way, and the cooked food shop and vegetarian restaurant two or three hundred steps up the road, they all have excellent food. The guests staying at our guesthouse, I recommend those places to them, and they always come back to thank me."
"Is that so? Then I must go and give them a try."
After a brief exchange, Aunt Liu, seeing that he truly did not need any help, took her daughter by the arm and headed back.
Once they had gone, Ji Qingzhou wiped down all the tables and chairs, cleared out what was no longer needed, and tossed it into the public rubbish bin at the lane entrance.
With the tidying done, he stood in the middle of the room and took stock of the shop.
The shop was twenty square meters in total, with no windows. The main entrance faced east, consisting of two wooden doors that opened outward from the center. On either side of the doorway grew climbing roses, with a scattering of red blooms here and there.
The interior decor was plain. The floor was poured cement, while the walls and ceiling were of a dim wooden construction, making the light inside rather poor. Fortunately, the place had electricity and electric lamps installed, for without them, the room would likely have been quite dark by dusk.
Given the small size of the shop, the furnishings were equally simple.
Along the south wall stood a long table that served both for cutting and ironing, alongside an old full-length mirror. On the north side, folded bolts of fabric hung high from a wooden rod, most of them in dull, earthy tones.
In the middle of the room sat a treadle sewing machine, and behind a grey cloth partition at the back was a narrow storage room.
The back room also had a door that led out to the inner courtyard, which was the living area of the "Ke Lai'an*" guesthouse run by the Liu mother and daughter. It had a shared sitting room, dining room, kitchen, firewood room, and washroom.
*t/n; Ke Lai'an (客來安 / Kè Lái Ān), it's carries the meaning of "guests arrive and find peace" or "a comfortable place for guests".
Before the contracts were signed, Landlady Aunt Liu had made a point of mentioning that he was welcome to use the washroom at their guesthouse.
Ji Qingzhou had gone to have a look. The washroom floor was in fact kept reasonably clean, and the basin was fitted with running water. However, as there was neither a flush squat toilet nor a sit-down toilet, the old-style chamber pot was still in use, and the unpleasant conditions and pungent smell could well be imagined.
After seeing it, Ji Qingzhou decided that unless he was in truly desperate need, he probably would not be using that washroom at all, and would rather walk the kilometer there and back to use the flush public toilet at the lane entrance.
Of course, the sanitary conditions of the public toilets at that time were probably no better.
But there was nothing to be done about it. Having crossed over into the Republic of China era, one could hardly expect to get through it without enduring some hardship.
With the shop tidied up, Ji Qingzhou sat down at the sewing machine table, pulled a newly bought sketchbook and fountain pen from his bag, flipped to the first page, and quickly drew up a table on the paper to map out his plan of action.
After paying the rent and the next two months of sewing machine rental, he had forty-nine yuan left in his pocket.
He divided this sum into two parts: one for purchasing and ordering the fabrics his customers would need, and the other for necessary miscellaneous expenses such as utilities, sample-making costs, marketing costs, and tools like paper and pens.
On the matter of fabric, there were so many tailor shops in Shanghai that if he wanted to attract customers, he would need to take a different approach.
At present, the fabric market was flooded with foreign goods, and the public had long been enthusiastic about chasing after imported cloth and Western-style clothing. Whatever was fashionable among Westerners, they followed suit, blindly jumping on every trend, resulting in a sea of sameness.
Regarding this, Ji Qingzhou felt that since he had the benefit of hindsight, there was little point in passing judgment. For a society that had only just broken free from feudal constraints, such a tendency was only to be expected.
Since he was in Shanghai, Western-style garments were where the money was. In the early stages, he planned to focus primarily on custom Western-style women's clothing, with women's qipaos as a secondary offering. Men's suits and long robes could of course also be made if someone placed an order.
Designing novel styles that the market could accept and displaying them at the shop entrance to catch the eye of passersby was his initial marketing strategy. As such, expenditure on selecting and ordering fabrics was inevitably going to be considerable.
As for the shop's signboard, Ji Qingzhou felt that could be set aside for now.
Shop signs of this era came in all manner of forms. Some used actual merchandise as displays, others used scale models, and more commonly, a banner or lantern bearing written characters was hung at the entrance.
In any case, as long as it allowed customers to see at a glance what the shop did, that was sufficient. There was no pressing need to have a proper signboard made with gold characters on a black background, as such a thing was not cheap either.
In Ji Qingzhou's vision, this tailor's shop was merely a stepping stone, a first foray into the Republic-era garment market.
If he could adapt to this market and build up a steady customer base and network of connections, then it likely would not take too long before he had enough capital to move to a better location and a better environment.
When that time came, what he would be doing would be his true old trade.
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