Chapter 1817: Summer in Fool Village (31)

In front of the window of the three-dimensional residential apartment at No. 23 Xiangzhang Street, Selena sat on the bay window, fiddling with a bunch of beads in her hands, and turned to look at the courtyard in the center of the building.

Maggie, who was opposite her, was not in a wheelchair, but leaning against the bed. There were two boxes on the bedside table, and three bags under her feet, all of which were filled with some shiny little things.

Maggie held a thin nylon rope in her hand, carefully threaded the small parts selected in the box onto the rope, and weaved a fancy pattern at a certain distance. As her fingers flew, an exquisite Gotham-style bracelet was completed.

The reason why this bracelet is said to have a Gotham style is that the decorations on it are not ordinary exquisite gems or round beads, but brown-red nuts, chain buckles, bullet shells printed with the names of popular rappers, and a metal label in the middle with a bat pattern printed on it.

The string that Selina is weaving is similar, with more metal parts, and some resin simulated hearts and brains, which are slightly Gothic dark style accessories.

Bruce has been very busy recently, and Selina has not been idle either. Since she became a little famous in Hollywood last time, many directors have taken a fancy to her face and figure and want her to play some vase roles in the movie.

Selina's acting is originally for novelty, and she would rather not take scripts that she doesn't like. After being idle for a while, she returned to Gotham, and at this time her good friend Maggie found a new way to make a living, that is, to set up a stall.

Maggie was in poor health and couldn't do heavy work. She had been helping in the church before, helping the old priest count donations and write purchase orders. Although this job was leisurely, it had almost no income. Maggie always wanted to save money to go to the sperm bank to buy sperm to have a child of her own, so she was looking for a higher-paying job.

At that time, Gotham's tourism industry had just started to rise. Maggie found that the style of the gang's peripherals was a bit too rough. Basically, they put whatever was produced in the factory on the shelves for sale. The badges didn't even come with pins, let alone some small accessories with high practical value.

Maggie keenly seized the business opportunity. She found a black mother who was in charge of food in the gang before. She bought a small bag of mini badges through her, and went to the second-hand market to buy ropes and second-hand accessory parts. She made a few bracelets at home and sold them near the beach.

Because she didn't set up a stall and didn't take up space, she just hung these things on a piece of cloth on her wheelchair and walked into the crowd to sell them. The gang didn't bother to care about her.

Either out of sympathy or because Gotham really lacked such small accessories, Maggie's business was quite good. The dozen bracelets she made were sold out in less than two hours, in exchange for a huge sum of nearly thirty dollars.

For a woman in poor health, this is indeed a very considerable income, because there is almost no cost. Buying factory-produced accessories with Gotham elements from the gangsters used up most of Maggie's savings, but it was only seven or eight dollars. The remaining ropes and accessories together cost less than three dollars, but she made twice the profit, which is quite amazing.

It's not that there are no more profitable jobs in Gotham, but Maggie is in poor health and almost relies on a wheelchair to go out. She can only earn 30 cents a day as a helper in the church, which is enough to make a living, but she can only save a few dollars by saving money. However, she only takes one day to weave and sell, but she has a very amazing savings compared to the lower-class people in Gotham.

Before Selina came back, Maggie had been doing this job, but after Selina came back, she saw a bigger business opportunity. Although Catwoman has no interest in doing business, she can make a name for herself in Gotham, which proves that she is very smart.

She found the gangs that managed the nearby streets and showed them the results of Maggie's handicrafts. At first, the gangs were dismissive of it, so Selena set up a stall in front of the gangs.

The gangs couldn't let them be so arrogant, but in the ten minutes from when they gathered their men to when they were ready to go out, the small ornaments on Selena's stall were swept away by a group of spray painting enthusiasts passing by.

They hung chains all over their bodies, put pendants with locks directly on their ears, and asked Selena to come back to set up a stall the next day because they thought it was really cool and wanted to send it to their friends.

The gangs thought it was very profitable, so they cooperated with Selena, organized those people in the gang who had almost no fighting ability and were not convenient to go out and socialize, and used the design drawings provided by Selena to make small ornaments from metal parts produced in the factory, and set up stalls to sell them.

Due to their special living environment, the aesthetics of Gotham people are somewhat different from the mainstream aesthetics. The design drawings Selina gave them were just to hang some metal badges with ropes, or to make some exaggerated small ornaments into earrings and pendants.

But the Gotham people's ingenious ideas made them take a big step forward in terms of unique style. People who have worked in gangs for a long time choose accessories according to their own understanding, so there are a lot of pure prison-style bracelets, earrings and pendants.

Selina was helpless about this, but unexpectedly, outsiders were very interested in this style of accessories, especially those industrial-style accessories made of bullet shells, bolts, metal bearings, etc., which were almost sold out as soon as they were put out.

There was no other way, Selina could only adjust the design, and the gangsters saw that this style could make money, so they asked the factory to produce more parts of similar style. Before long, almost all the accessories on the stalls in Gotham became this style.

This solved the employment problem of a large part of the elderly, weak and disabled in Gotham. As long as their hands could move, they could sit there and weave. It also provided extracurricular activities for many children who were recruited into the school. Often, children in a class divided the work and cooperated, some were responsible for purchasing, some were responsible for manufacturing, some were responsible for occupying positions, and some were responsible for selling.

For a while, Gotham had another kind of vendor, that is, children with necklaces, bracelets, pendants and earrings hanging all over their bodies, walking around the streets and selling the small accessories they made to tourists.

Maggie also wanted to participate, but she found that she really didn't have the mind to do business. She was not as fierce as Selina, and she was a little out of breath after saying a few more words. She was lucky to be alive today, and she couldn't do the work of negotiating with gangsters or occupying stalls at all.

So Selena reached a deal with the gangsters they had initially worked with. They got the right to use a stall three days a week. Maggie led five or six children upstairs and downstairs to make products, and then went to the stall to sell them when the time came.

Although the products were already somewhat saturated and their production speed was not as fast as those gangsters with sufficient labor, they could still make dozens of dollars a week, and Maggie was almost saving enough money.

The stall would be set up again tomorrow, but three children in the small team led by Maggie had heatstroke and could not work at all. They could not even fill a table with products now. The stall layout that was too sparse would greatly reduce the desire of passers-by to buy, so Selena came to help Maggie to rush the work.

Maggie was weaving the bracelet in her hand, while looking up at Selina and asked, "Have you read the recent newspapers?"

Selina nodded and said, "Of course, the recent front-page headlines are really lively."

Maggie smiled bitterly and sighed, "You are too optimistic. Do you know that the reporters are looking for you everywhere, trying to get evidence of Bruce Wayne's mental abuse from you?"

Selina curled her lips and said, "I am only sure of one thing. If Bruce really wants to sleep with that woman named Talia, he doesn't need to drug her at all. He doesn't even need money. That face is the best weapon."

"And I am more sure that if he really drugged Talia, Talia would not be able to test drug residues in any hospital in Gotham, or any hospital in the world."

Maggie covered her face with her hands and said, "I don't know how you two get along with each other on a daily basis. I am very sure that if you two go to a mental hospital together, you don't even need an extra caregiver."

"That's it." Selina waved her hand and said.

"But I am still a little worried, Selina. Of course, I am not saying that he really controls you mentally or that you will scratch his face." Maggie shrugged and said, "But you have complained to me several times about the restrictions of the upper class. If you two really get married, there will be more troubles. Can you adapt to it?"

"Don't mention it, I have a headache just thinking about it." Selina dropped the things in her hand, covered her head and walked to Maggie to sit down, then lay back, looked at the ceiling and said, "To be honest, we have discussed marriage before, and just imagining this process has exhausted me. "

"You know what? He probably plans to invite people from all over the world to watch the ceremony, and then show them that I'm going to wear a wedding dress that Jesus might have prepared for his mother to get married, and a necklace made of gems from the crowns of the twenty-six British queens, strolling through a carpet that humans have been weaving since they jumped down from the trees, and kissing him with lips made of 72 of the most poisonous mushrooms in the world, but completely non-toxic and able to change into countless colors of lipstick. "

Maggie laughed softly and said, "Shouldn't you feel that he values ​​you?"

"Oh, 'Respect', that's the word. "Selena hooked two fingers on each hand and said, "Just to tell everyone that even if I marry a girl from the slums, I can dress her up like Queen Mary, like a 'you can never see any rusticity in her' competition. "

"Selena, don't say that. "Maggie reached out and touched Selena's head, and said, "This is not an auspicious metaphor. "

"But I just looked at the look in the eyes of the Italian designer and knew that he was going to strangle my neck with a collar weighing about ten kilograms. "

"I don't know why Why do you have to do this? "Selena sighed and said, "I always feel like he seems to have misunderstood something. Maybe I should find time to talk to him."

"Talking is always good." Maggie encouraged, "Maybe you can tell him that this makes you uncomfortable."

"Then he will show a very sad expression, as if it is my fault that I don't play those little games with him, "How many things can be hung on a doll?" I failed his love, so he plans to die in front of me now. Do you understand how lethal this expression is when combined with his face and eyes? "

"Wait." Maggie suddenly looked at Selina warily and said, "I take back what I said before. Are you sure you are not mentally controlled by him?"

"Damn it, of course I am - just like you will be mentally controlled by every wet and pitiful puppy you see in a cardboard box on a street corner on a rainy night."