Chapter 21 Chapter 21 Knowing nothing and visiting a garment factory with his traveling companions

The car got on the shore and started to run on the street.After a few minutes, it stopped beside a very beautiful flesh-colored circular ten-story building. "Come with me!" said Little Rivet. "Here we are." He jumped out of the car in a flash and rushed towards the entrance as if making an assault.When Little Square, No Knowing and Little Thumbtack climbed out of the car to help Little Face untie the life buoy, Little Rivet had already jumped in and out of the door several times. "What are you mushrooming over there?" He shouted, waving his hands like a windmill. "follow me!"

At last our travelers got out of the car and headed for the entrance. "Be bold!" ordered Little Rivet. "Follow me, you don't have to be afraid of anything. I know all the technicians here." The friends entered through the door into a rotunda with a white tiled floor and the same white walls and ceiling.From all sides came the deafening rumble of machinery and the soft rustle of looms.At this moment a little man came towards the travelers.He was dressed in clean, neatly pressed blue overalls, with large white buttons on the chest and belly, and the collar was open to reveal a white scarf.This little man is fat and strong, but his shoulders are very narrow, so his middle part seems to be enlarged, while the upper and lower parts are reduced. His figure looks like a fish and a gauze. .

"Hello, little crucian carp!" Little Rivet said to the little spindle-like figure. "I've brought people up to see you, brother! Please show us how you sew your clothes." The little crucian carp used a pose on stage instead of answering. He waved his fists and said with expression. "Welcome, welcome, please follow me! Friends, I will reveal all the secrets here to you." Then he stretched out a hand in a high-spirited manner, twisted his strange grimace, and roared: "Go forward, my friends, don't be afraid, don't be suspicious!" When Xiao Hualian heard this frightening cry, she trembled with fright and hid behind Xiao Fangfang'er.

"What is this? Crazy?" he asked fearfully. However, the little crucian carp is not crazy.Here's the thing: he not only worked as a technician in a garment factory, but also as an actor in the theater.When he was practicing a certain role alone, if someone asked him something, he couldn't immediately recover, and would often answer the other party's question with an acting tone.He thought he was on the stage. Little crucian carp saw that his talent as an actor was very effective for Xiaohualian, so he smiled with satisfaction, and then led the travelers to the center of the hall.There stood a tall, pointed metal cylinder, of bronze and glowing blue, surrounded by a spiral staircase culminating in a small flat surface.Wires and various metal pipes are connected to the large cylinder, and there are pressure gauges, thermometers, voltmeters and other various measuring instruments on it.

The little crucian carp stopped beside the big pillar and began to explain.This time he no longer used his acting voice, but his usual voice.His words are mixed with such nonsense as: "This and this", "If you may say so", or "Excuse me for saying so", etc. "If it can be said that, standing in front of you is a large textile boiler, which was designed by the engineer Xiaoqitong." Little crucian carp began to introduce. "The interior of the boiler is filled with, 'this-this' a gray substance made of crushed dandelion stalks. This gray substance, if you may call it that, is affected by the heat and undergoes various The chemical reaction of matter results in, pardon me for saying this, a thin, semi-fluid, pasty colloid which congeals immediately on contact with the air. This colloid flows from the boiler, passes through the tubes and is subjected to The pressure, please forgive me for saying this, is that it is pressed out by the press through the pores at both ends of the tube. The gel comes out of the pores, this and this, and condenses into countless thin threads, and then they go to the boiler and put them in the loom of the loom. As you can see for yourselves, the thread in the loom becomes material, and the material emerges from the die, so to speak, in continuous long strips. The material, just as As you can see, it is cut in pieces. They are glued to each other with a special compound and become this and this, the finished shirt. Those stampers that you see around, also make a close-fitting Yes, forgive me for saying that, underwear in different sizes."

Having seen the whole production process - from the spinning of the thread to the boxing of the finished shirts - the travelers went up to the second floor and saw that the various jackets, jackets, coats were made in exactly the same way. or blouses.The only difference is that here the thread goes through the dyeing process before entering the loom, that is, it is continuously stretched through a container containing a dyeing solution.The little crucian carp explained that although the thread is made of the same raw material, the materials produced are various.This is due to the different processing methods, that is to say, due to the special construction of the loom, not only textiles can be woven, but also knitwear can be produced, and felt and velvet can also be produced.There are also mixed ones, such as hybrid fabrics woven by mixing knitting and weaving methods, or hybrid fabrics of felting and weaving.

Going up another floor, the travelers saw trousers of all sizes being produced.On the fourth, fifth and sixth floors are dresses, skirts, blouses and jackets.After the textile comes out of the loom, it is sent to a machine called a "printing and dyeing roller" to print small squares, small dots, small stripes, small flowers and all kinds of patterns.The seventh layer makes small items such as shoe covers, stockings, socks, ties, bows, hair ties, shoelaces, belts, and handkerchiefs.The eighth layer is to manufacture all kinds of head decorations.The ninth floor is dedicated to shoemaking.People in Sun City like to use felted wool, fine felted wool and thick thread cloth, and also like a kind of multi-layered compressed cloth made of rice shoes.

In all the nine floors, the travelers have never encountered a second little person except the little crucian carp.Because the production process here is all mechanized until the packaging of the finished product.But on the tenth floor, the situation is completely opposite: there are hardly any machines, and there are quite a few little boys and girls.Some were standing at their easels drawing, some were sitting at a table proofing, and still others were sewing with different materials.Many were flanked by mannequins—mannequins who were the exact size and height of the little people, and used to try on finished clothes.

"Our place, please forgive me for saying so, is the art and design department." Little crucian carp said while taking his little friends to the tenth floor. At this time, a little girl in a beautiful gray gown jumped up to him and said angrily: "What does this mean, 'Please forgive me for saying that', why do I have to ask for forgiveness? The art design department is the art design department, There is nothing to forgive!" "Hey, art design—in fact, the word 'beautiful' is derived from the word 'mildew'!" replied the little crucian carp.

"It didn't come from the word 'mould' at all, but from the word 'artist'!" "Well, excuse me, little needle, I don't know. I brought you a group of visitors." "Here we come, that's great!" said Little Needle. "Now you can go to the side, don't hinder me! I will explain everything myself." She said to the visitors: "What is our punishment? ... Our punishment is nothing but fashion You have probably noticed by yourselves that we don't wear one dress all the time here, but try to try to change it every time and try to be different. Take dresses for example, sometimes people like to wear long ones, sometimes people I like to wear short clothes; I like to wear thin clothes for a while, and I like to wear fat clothes for a while; sometimes I wear clothes with folds, sometimes with patterns; Some peas, sometimes with zigzags; sometimes with little berries, sometimes with little flowers... In short, any pattern can be imagined! Even the colors are fashionable. Sometimes everyone likes to wear green, Sometimes brown suddenly and out of nowhere. Before you can put on a new dress you just made, people tell you it's out of fashion and you have to rush to make new ones. …”

This affirmative statement made the engineer Rivet very amused, and he suddenly snorted loudly. "I'm explaining, please don't sneeze." Little Needle said sharply. "You're not a horse, and you're not in a stable! If you go to a stable, sniff!" The mention of the stables really made Xiaohua's face amused.He could hardly hold back his laughter.Little Needle gave him a look and said, "Hey... please come closer. Here are some artists who are designing new textiles and new clothes. Please meet, artist Xiaoxian... Please stand up, Little thread, let everyone see you!" Xiao Xianer stood up from the chair.This is a small and exquisite little girl.She was dressed in white overalls, had a white face, and shiny flaxen hair.She stood with her eyes lowered modestly so that her long lashes seemed even longer.She was so panicked that she didn't know what to do, and shyly grabbed the paintbrush in her hand. "Little thread is our best artist." Little Needle continued. "Now she's designing a pattern for a new textile. The new product is called 'Morning in the Pinewood'. You see, here's a forest all around, and here's a mother bear and a cub. It's fun, isn't it? It wasn't long ago , Xiao Xianer also created a textile pattern called 'Little Ladybug'. Just imagine, the green material is covered with orange-yellow little ladybugs with small black spots. How charming it is Well, dresses made of this material sell out quickly. No one wants to wear anything else. But after a few days, some 'smart man' said that he didn't dare to go for a walk in the street because he always I felt as if little ladybugs were crawling on all the passers-by. Since then, no one wanted to wear this kind of dress. Everyone said: 'We don't want ladybugs crawling on us.' Another time, Xiaoxianer came up with a more interesting material called 'All Seasons'. This is just like a fairy tale, a whole picture, not braids! It is colored many times, and it is specially prepared for it Eight new print rolls. The whole city is dressed up in these pictured dresses. Suddenly there is a female modern saying: 'I don't like this dress because people don't look at me, but the pictures on the dress .' And guess what? By the next day, the dress was out. We had to scramble to come up with another material." Little Rivet smiled again, but suddenly realized: he covered his mouth with both hands, so his laughter became a humming sound. "I beg you not to whine!" Little Needle reproached. "We don't allow whining here, but if you really want to, you can come home and do it. Hum! Where have I gone? Ah, yes! Speaking of fashion. That's it, like you all As you can see, we don't obey fashion at all. On the contrary, fashion obeys us! Because we create fashionable clothes, fashion can't do anything to us. In this way, our work is also very smooth. As everyone said , we just get hotheaded sometimes." Little Rivet couldn't help laughing all the time, and snorted again, and Xiao Hualian looked at him, and then smiled grinningly. "Look!" Little Needle spread his hands and said. "Well, a bad example, as the saying goes, is contagious. First one hums, now a second comes, and at last we all go home with you hum... oh ! By the way, you interrupted me again! Where am I talking?" "Speaking of which, let's all go home and hum." Don't know the answer. "No, it's about our hot heads. Whenever people come to visit us from other cities and see unusual clothes or hats on them, our residents think that there is something new. so they all went to the store to ask for these clothes or hats. If the store didn't have these, then we had to rush to make a new batch of products. , new stampers and rollers. Customers don't like to wait, we have to rush to do it. So I say we're hotheaded. How do we fight this frenzy? . . . Simple, we try and The store keeps in touch. The store informs us of every new request from the little people. For example, yesterday we were notified that some little people have come to buy yellow trousers, so we conclude that, Someone wearing yellow trousers must have come to our city... Tell me, have you been here for a long time?" Little Needle asked, knowing nothing. "I just came here the day before yesterday." Don't know the answer. "Look!" Little Needle said happily. "You came here the day before yesterday, and we knew yesterday that a person wearing yellow pants appeared in the city. That's not counting, we have already started to produce yellow pants! Please come closer and talk to the female artist Little Button Get acquainted. Little Button is designing yellow trousers, because we have never produced yellow trousers until now." Quan Shi and his friends walked to the small button and saw that she was drawing a pair of large yellow trousers on a large sheet of paper.At this time, Little Needle looked carefully at Little Wuzhi left and right, and even secretly touched the material of his trousers. "It's good that you're here with us," she said to the unknown. "Otherwise, we'd make trousers that don't suit everyone's needs at all. We've had that... little button, watch out for modifying your pattern. The trousers should be neither skinny nor fat, long, or short. Here it is: Just below the knee and just above the ankle. This is the best fit, and the easiest way to walk in it. The material is silk and shiny, which is also very It's good because the shiny material doesn't get dirty easily. The color is not the lemon you painted, it should be ginger. This color looks much more comfortable. Also, there are no buttons under it. The little boys don't like it There are buttons down the bottom of the trousers, because these buttons tend to get caught in something and end up falling off anyway." Meeting with Quanzhi has a great effect on small needles.She didn't even look at the little stud who was tormenting her with giggles anymore.She invited the guests to sit on the little sofa and talked to them very cordially.When she heard that the travelers were from the City of Hundred Flowers, she asked the little thumbtack in detail what clothes the little boys and girls wore in the City of Hundred Flowers, and what fashion was there.Other artists also came to participate in the discussion.A female artist named Xiao Pin asked Xiao Hualian what he liked most in Sun City. "Soda, it's juice soda." Xiao Hualian replied. "The main thing is that soda can be drunk at any of the kiosks, and there is no limit." "What's so strange about that?" said Little Rivet in. "It's like that with everything here. You can go to any restaurant and eat what you want, you can go to any store and ask them for what you want, and no one will ask you for anything. " "What if someone wants a car?" asked Clueless. "Small car! Probably won't give it?" "Why not? Yes! Ever since button taxis appeared, everyone doesn't want to touch these cars anymore." Little Square said, "Please tell me, I don't need any trouble when I sit in a button car. I can go anywhere, what do I need a car for? It's a hassle to own a car. Wash it, wipe it, grease it, fix it, fuel it, and have a garage for it. Take your own car , you have to drive yourself, be careful not to hit anything, don't drive over anyone. That is to say, you are working all the time, and you are very nervous. But you don't have to worry about it when you get in a button car or bus! You can read the newspaper or read a book, think what you want to think, or think about nothing at all, even sleep or write poetry. I used to have a car of my own, but since I threw it away, I have never really felt I am a free little man." "But, many of you little people have cars!" Quan Mo said. "For example, there are cars in small rivets." "I—that's another matter," said Rivet. "I'm an old motorsportsman. I'm not used to these newer cars that automatically get people where they need to go without accidents. For me, sitting behind the wheel and driving my own car— This is a kind of enjoyment. I like driving and encountering various dangers. This has long been used to me, and it is difficult to let go of my habits. Remnants of old ideas. But I have nothing to do with myself for the time being." Xiao Hualian has been starving since early in the morning, and finally couldn't help talking: "Brothers, do you have anything to eat? Even fruit juice and soda are fine! You know, I haven't eaten anything since morning !" "Oh, we're as stupid as donkeys!" cried Little Rivet. "Why are we still sitting and chatting? Go to the dining room! As the saying goes: You can't get enough of a nightingale with fables." Xiao Hualian likes this proverb very much.From then on, whenever he wanted to eat, he said, "A nightingale cannot be fed with fables."