North America 1849, from Gold Rush to Warlord

Chapter 12 The Essential Ring
The next day, just after dawn, A-Zu, Vivian and Jason drove a horse-drawn carriage, pulling a cart of old canvas, and headed straight to Vic's tailor shop.

Sitting on a tall pile of canvas, A-Zu looked at the destination to which he had traveled across the ocean and halfway around the world!

To be honest, I am very disappointed, very, very disappointed!
San Francisco is really too small in this era!

With a permanent population of more than 20,000, even if you add the gold diggers flocking from all over the world, it can only be considered the size of a small county at most.

Jason's shipyard was already quite far from the city, but two old horses pulled the carriage at a jog, crossing most of the city in twenty minutes.

The streets were not very wide, and on both sides were mostly two or three-story wooden buildings that were built to a tight deadline and were shoddy. It was not much different from the typical western town in western movies.

There are even more half-finished wooden buildings rising from the ground, one after another.

On the side of the road, there are temporary tents that stretch as far as the eye can see!

Unlike the street tents set up by homeless people and drug addicts in later generations, most of the people living here are decent people, and not all of them are poor!
The tents are almost all filled with new immigrants and laborers who cannot find housing because the city's population is expanding too quickly.

Apart from this, the entire city has only a few brick and stone buildings such as the municipal building and churches, and they are all in Spanish colonial style.

Although the small town was very disappointing, there were all kinds of horse-drawn carriages flowing on the streets, carrying people, goods, manure, water...; there were also white, yellow, black, brown... people of all colors, bustling and flowing!
The loess streets were trampled by carriages and crowds, and dust was flying everywhere, mixed with the neighing of horses and people, and the shouting of vendors, which was very noisy!

"This is truly a place full of vitality, with everything flourishing!"

In A-Zu's view, this once remote frontier and desolate land is bursting with infinite attraction and vitality at an incredible speed.

After a while, the carriage stopped in front of a three-story building. Looking up, I saw a sign with blue letters on a white background hanging on the door.

"Barbara's Tailor Shop"!
A-Zu jumped off the carriage, looked up at the sign, and smiled knowingly: "Barbara again!"

"That's my grandmother's name!"

A young girl of medium build, beautiful features, and a slender figure pushed open the door and walked out. "Excuse me, are you Mr. Li? The Mr. Li who saved my father?"

A-Zu looked her over and asked, "Ms. Daisy?"

"You know me?" A hint of surprise flashed in Daisy's eyes.

"I heard Mr. Vick and Harley mention Miss Daisy!"

"So..." Daisy looked A-Zu up and down carefully: "Are you really that Mr. Li?"

"What? Not like?"

Daisy nodded honestly: "According to my father's description, you should be taller, more handsome, and more mature!"

"Sorry!" A-Zu smiled, "I didn't grow up to be Miss Daisy's ideal image!"

Daisy opened her mouth, but realized she couldn't continue the conversation that day, so she said, "Mr. Li, please come in! My father asked me to wait at the door early this morning!"

A-Zu turned around and helped Vivian down, while Jason threw down his whip, opened his arms and walked up to her with a big laugh: "My dear niece Daisy, long time no see, come and let your uncle Jason hug you!"

Daisy quickly slipped into the store and shouted crisply upstairs, "Dad, Uncle Jason and Mr. Li are here!"

"Oh? We'll be right down!"

A-Zu took Vivian's arm and walked into the "Barbara" tailor shop.

The shop is neither big nor small, about 70 or 80 square meters, and the furnishings are quite exquisite and delicate, and it is obvious that a woman is in charge. On the left is men's clothing, and on the right is women's clothing, separated by an exquisite screen with very oriental characteristics in the middle.

It's not even seven o'clock yet, it's too early, there are no customers, not even a single clerk.

At this time, Captain Vic, who was dressed neatly as if he was going to attend a dinner party, came down from upstairs with a woman in her thirties who still had charm.

"Good morning, my dear Lee! Last night, Anna and I made some small modifications to the design of your jeans! Come and see...!"

As he said that, Captain Vic couldn't wait to walk to the men's clothing counter and took out a pair of canvas jeans!

"Wow, Captain, you always amaze me! I can't believe you made a sample so quickly!"

A Zu took the sample jeans and noticed at a glance that the trouser legs were changed from the original straight-leg style to a flared style.

"This is……!"

"Haha!" Vic pulled his wife over and said with a hint of pride, "This is all thanks to Anna! She said that the gold diggers who come here to buy pants prefer these flared styles."

"why?"

Anna explained with a smile, "Because gold diggers work almost exclusively near water, trumpet-shaped pants are more convenient for them to roll up their trouser legs, while narrow-leg straight-leg pants are relatively difficult!"

"This is a very important improvement! That's why we always need and trust professionals!" A-Zu nodded and smiled at her. "Thank you very much, ma'am!"

"No, no, no, I haven't had time to thank you, Mr. Li!" Anna's expression was excited, as if she was back to the moment when she suddenly saw her husband come home last night.

"We all thought my husband was dead and even planned to hold a funeral for him! But last night, he came back alive, and brought Harley with him!"

As she spoke, Anna couldn't help but shed tears again: "Mr. Li, do you know how happy and joyful our family was at that moment? I was almost crazy with joy!"

"When I learned from my husband that you saved him and the lives of everyone on the ship, I couldn't wait to thank you in person!"

"Especially when I learned that you were willing to help our family repay our debts, my gratitude to you could not be expressed more!"

Anna bent her knees and bowed deeply!
A Zu quickly helped her up: "Madam, we Chinese have an old saying, 'We are in the same boat!' Only by cooperating and helping each other can we survive and live better, whether in the sea or on land, right?"

Anna looked at A Zu with admiration: "Just as my husband said, you are a wise, brave, and upright gentleman! You not only saved my husband, but also saved our entire family!"

"No, I just did a small, insignificant thing! Surviving at sea is easy, but paying off a huge debt is a much more difficult and complicated task. Madam, your professional skills and knowledge are an indispensable part of the plan."

"It is my honor to serve you, and I will do my best!"

"No, no, no, ma'am, it's not about serving me, it's about serving our cause!" A-Zu corrected her.

"In my eyes, they're all the same!"

Next, the couple took A-Zu and Vivian to visit the three-story building.

The first floor is a sales shop, the second floor is a tailoring processing area, and the third floor is the residence of a family of four.

When A-Zu went up to the second floor and saw several sewing machines inside, his eyes suddenly lit up.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I think I have found a solution to the startup capital problem!!!"

(End of this chapter)