Chapter 52: Two things to do after the rainy season ends...

"God knows why it always goes out to fool around on rainy days."

"I'm so confused. It's raining so hard, and there's no poop for it to eat."

The dog owner was utterly baffled. Holding onto a pillar with one hand and pulling his big yellow dog, which was about to rush into the rain, he turned his face around the pillar and said, "On sunny days, it stays right at home and won't even move to eat a bone. But on rainy days, it will go to any lousy place. It will crawl through other people's cat holes, chicken coops, and under the eaves of every house."

Dogs truly have their own preferences, which people don't need to know.

Lin Xiushui looked at the rain outside, which was pattering against the eaves. The big yellow dog was pacing around anxiously, and when it couldn't turn around, it let out a howl and angrily lay down.

"Is this your guard dog?" Old Mrs. Zhang, the shoe repairwoman, looked up and asked, "Why is it throwing a tantrum?"

The dog owner, holding the leash and with his legs wrapped around the chair post, stiffly turned his head and replied, "This dog is no good for guarding the house! It's so stubborn, it treats everyone like its own dog relatives, never barks at anyone, and seems to want everyone to come over for a walk. Look at it, it's a real headache."

Nowadays, people who love cats call them "li nu" (狸奴), and they will use fish, salt, sesame seeds, sugar and other things to woo the cats. They keep dogs hoping that they will become guard dogs or hunting dogs. However, hunting is illegal from the second to the ninth month of the Song Dynasty. Some people keep cats as pets, and most of them are small in size.

There was also a dog market next to Cat Lane, selling all kinds of puppies and dog food, including a food called tangkang (饧糠).

The man who owned the dog carried it with him. He took it out of his pocket and it was a round, dark yellow cake with a rough surface. It was baked over a fire. He said it was made with rice bran and coarse flour.

With food, the big yellow dog Huang Sanjin finally settled down and obediently let Lin Xiushui measure its body with a measuring tape. First, she measured its head, then its neck, then its entire abdomen, and finally its tail. Afterward, she stroked its wet fur and muttered, "What a chubby and good dog."

With crumbs still stuck to his lips, Huang Sanjin turned to look at her with his round eyes and nuzzled her hand.

Lin Xiushui had long since come to terms with it. She believed that anyone who came to her to have clothes made, whether human, dog, cat, or something else entirely, would be made a good job if she could, so that no trip would be in vain.

She started by making clothes for fighting cocks and parrots, and later took on many more, and had long understood that they were all the same, many of which contained human expectations.

As she scribbled on the paper, she said, "A simple oilcloth, with a puppy cloak."

She turned the simple cloak she had drawn with charcoal over to show the dog owner. It had a large hat that covered the dog's head. The hat was connected to a whole piece of cloth that could wrap from the dog's neck to its tail. The cloth would hang down on the dog's calves. She had also drawn her own monogram of the character "water".

This method is quick, ensures that Huang Sanjin's limbs are not restricted, covers his fur, and is cheap. Based on Huang Sanjin's size, it should be about two to three feet long, costing around fifty coins.

The older man then asked, "What about something better?"

Lin Xiushui draws meticulously; some of her better works resemble children's onesies with open crotches, hoods, and slits on the back, including the limbs, abdomen, and back. She can even sew on a tail cap.

This kind of clothing requires many seams to be made. The hat alone needs to be disassembled into three to five semicircular pieces, and it must be made sure that the hat has an ear shape so that the ears can be inserted.

The trousers covering the limbs are loose, and will connect with the fabric for the abdomen and back to form a single piece. Dog shoes can be made separately; she has experience making donkey shoes before. Of course, this is time-consuming, involving drawing various paper patterns, cutting the fabric, and sewing, costing over three hundred coins.

She glanced at the man who owned the dog and realized she was still wearing a tattered raincoat.

“I can make two pieces, and I can bring it here to make clothes. I definitely won’t be short of a few hundred coins,” the dog owner said without hesitation. “I make a living by painting boats. I apply tung oil to the boats. On sunny days, I need to apply three coats of oil: base coat, top coat, and sun-dried oil.”

"Don't let my current leisurely situation fool you. We're incredibly busy on sunny days, walking from south to north all day. The only time we can't apply tung oil is on rainy days. Our line of work is all about working in the sunshine."

"Luckily, I have time on rainy days so I can take it for a walk around. Otherwise, with its personality, who would want to go out for a stroll in the rain? Look, my pants are half wet."

After hearing what he said, Lin Xiushui understood a little. Looking at the big yellow dog next to the man, it was wagging its tail excitedly and sticking out its tongue and laughing.

"It's possible that because you're never home on sunny days and only stay home when it rains, it wants to go out on rainy days and asks you to take it for a walk."

The dog owner thought about it for a moment, then looked at Huang Sanjin, who was engrossed in eating, with surprise and said, "Why didn't it say so earlier?"

"If you had told me earlier, my son and I wouldn't have had to suffer like this in the pouring rain. It gets soaked every day, and I soak my feet until they turn white. You mute dog."

Lin Xiushui turned around, took the money, and truly showed her "dog's eyes" to a blind man.

However, it was a case of one party willing to give and the other willing to receive.

Lin Xiushui urgently made an oilcloth cloak for Huang Sanjin to protect it from the rain. In the morning, she called the dog owner to come and pick it up. He put it on Huang Sanjin, and the hood was just big enough to fit inside the dog's head, leaving only a bit of its mouth exposed. The oilcloth covered its fur, and the dog's tail swayed gently.

Inside the covered walkway, everyone gathered around Huang Sanjin as if watching a spectacle. Some people squatted down to touch it, wanting to make one for their own dogs so they could wear it when going out on rainy days.

The man who owned the dog looked at the crowd with a wry smile, "What's so good about it? What do you know? Do you understand the pain I suffer from walking my dog ​​every day, rain or shine?"

Lin Xiushui understood him well. The river had risen a lot these days, and since she and Sang Ying's boating skills were only so-so, they finally decided to walk to work in the rain, at least to avoid the risk of capsizing.

So when you go out in the morning, you can see the dog owner walking slowly in his tattered raincoat, while Huang Sanjin, wearing an oilcloth, swaggers ahead of him, barking every now and then.

It's not like a person walking a dog, it's like a dog walking a person.

After she finished work, she would often see a dog and a person coming out of the alley and walking towards another intersection. For some reason, she always felt that the person's back looked unfortunate.

Anyway, the dog owner said, "Huang Sanjin is more famous than me. Nobody greets me. They wave at the dog from afar. It's so annoying."

What's even more famous is that she wore a whole dog-shaped oilcloth made by Lin Xiushui. The front seam of the hat was made of yellow dog-hoof silk, which was dotted with small flowers that resembled dog paws. Lin'an silk fabrics are famous, and apart from persimmon calyx, mixed flower carving, and wave pattern, dog-hoof pattern is more famous.

She also sewed a piece of dog-hoof silk around the neck of Huang Sanjin's oilcloth, embroidering Huang Sanjin's name on it.

An oilcloth or cape isn't anything new, but this whole oilcloth outfit for a dog is truly unusual. The dog is dressed up like a human, with all its exposed parts covered, including small yellow shoe covers, and even its tail is covered.

Huang Sanjin walked away proudly, wearing his oilcloth, and ran a lap in the rain. He came back happily with his tongue lolling out. He no longer had to wonder why the rain always soaked him or why his fur was always wet.

Even when it gets wet, it's still a puppy that only likes rainy days, wants to be with its owner, pulls its owner out, and meet everyone it knows.

Later, he never changed this habit. Yi Gou and Yi Ren were known in Sangqiao Ferry as frequent visitors on rainy days, disappearing on sunny days but meeting everyone precisely on time on rainy days.

Lin Xiushui couldn't sell puppy oilcloths because each dog was a different size, but she could sell puppy capes. She noticed that cats would hide under the eaves or wherever they could find shelter from the rain when it rained, which is commonly known as cats staying at home.

But dogs are different. They walk slowly outside in light rain and run wildly in heavy rain. Rain doesn't stop them from going out all day.

The woman who came to buy a large cape said, "If I weren't afraid it would get soaked to death, I really wouldn't want to take care of it. It's always jumping around like that. We say dogs are like dogs waiting for bones, they're so impatient. My dog ​​is just like that."

"I even named it Huanhuan (meaning 'slowly'), hoping it would take its time. But it's incredibly fast. I said it's like it's eating poop, even if it's the first one, afraid it won't be hot enough."

Lin Xiushui chuckled and handed the dog the oilcloth. As she put it on the dog, she patted its bottom and said, "This is great. I'm not afraid you'll get soaked to death anymore. It only costs me a little money. If you're gone, where will I find such a disobedient dog again?"

In Sangqiao Ferry, raising a dog and raising a cat are truly different. Raising a dog makes you angry and want to bark, while raising a cat makes you shout in a low voice. When people come to buy oilclothes from her, they always have to say a few words about their hardships and struggles. When people come to buy cat toys, they say that they can still raise them. If they don't pay attention to people, it must be a problem with the person.

The plum rains gradually subsided, no longer raining all day long, but instead raining for a while in the morning and then clearing up, followed by heavy rain at night.

The two bridges were covered with moss, the trees were lush and green, mold spots were everywhere, and freshly washed clothes were drying everywhere, fluttering in the streets and alleys and on the river. Even the number of children washing themselves had increased significantly.

The people in the covered walkway were evacuated, and the street officials began their work, painting the walls, applying another coat of paint to the pillars, and installing a row of benches along the side.

Since the donation far exceeded the street office's estimate, Lin Xiushui asked if the extra money could be used to hire an experienced craftsman to write the names of the donors on the wall, so that at least they could be preserved.

The manager looked at everyone and said, "If you all agree, we'll make a large wooden board out of mulberry wood, have a master craftsman write on it, apply several layers of tung oil, and hang it here near the side. First, our town produces a lot of mulberry trees, so mulberry wood is cheap. Second, mulberry wood has its own advantages; it's resilient. We say that a mulberry wood carrying pole is more likely to break than bend, just like the people of Sangshukou and even Sangqiaodu."

"And mulberry trees raise silkworms, which produce silk. So sewing here is like thread going back and forth, patching up what's broken and missing. It's really perfect. Don't you all agree?"

"Yes! That's absolutely right."

"Those who study and become officials are truly different."

Everyone said in unison that the words of the street supervisor had resonated with them. No wonder everyone said that he was able to rise through the ranks later.

The construction of the covered walkway was done quite well. First, the mulberry wood plaque with the words "Mending the Covered Walkway" was hung up, and the donations written on the mulberry wood were also hung on the left wall to be preserved for a long time. Tung oil was applied, the roof tiles were hastily installed, the leaky places were repaired, and benches and benches were installed.

Encroachment on the street is not allowed. You can't treat the covered walkway as your own home and leave everything here. If you don't set up a stall every day, you have to move it away.

Lin Xiushui was relieved; things were better than she had expected, at least the street office hadn't taken the money and done nothing.

During the long rainy season, she earned more than three strings of cash, mainly because Sun Da and Song San Niang were also restricted by the rainy weather, making it inconvenient for them to travel together.

On the contrary, the mending stalls, which used to have mediocre business and didn't make much money during the rainy season, all made a lot of money. For example, Zhang Pozi, who used to set up her stall on another bridge, started working at the night market every day from five in the morning and earned about a hundred coins.

Everyone knew that there was a mending shop here, and people from all around and along the street would come here to get their clothes mended. She was constantly busy with work, and her earnings went from a hundred or so coins to two or three hundred coins. She even earned four hundred coins in one day. Her family members didn't earn as much as she did. Before, they had to watch their husbands' faces, but now they had to watch hers.

Hu San Niangzi, who makes clothes mending, does a better business than her. After all, shoes don't break every day, but clothes are worn every day. When they get torn, old, or cracked, there are all sorts of things that need mending every day. She really manages to take care of her children and earn this money steadily. Her mother-in-law was quite unhappy about it before, but she was only appeased after seeing the money.

The money earned here may be more or less, but compared to not being able to set up a stall on rainy days and worrying every day, this money can bring food to make a living and peace of mind.

Everyone suggested inviting Lin Xiushui to dinner, but Lin Xiushui thought it wasn't quite right; inviting her to breakfast would be more appropriate.

Zhang Musheng also invited her to dinner, to which she replied, "Have you sent out invitations yet? I've invited a lot of people."

“It’s more like it’s raining,” Zhang Musheng said sadly. “Everyone else is happy that the plum rain season is over, but only those of us who fight fires treat the rain like our own mother. These days have been extremely peaceful.”

"How about you sew me another rain cover, sister? I miss it."

During the rainy season, everyone had their own worries, but the fire prevention officers and firefighters were happy because they no longer had to work from dawn till dusk to prevent and extinguish fires in such dreary weather, and the fires were much calmer.

Lin Xiushui turned and left. She and her fabric were firmly opposed to it. Some of her fabrics and a couple of clothes, which she had carefully stored away, still got moldy. Moreover, they had a lot of mold spots that couldn't be washed off. How infuriating!

When I asked her to mend things, she would always say, "Go back and wash it again. If there's really no other way, just replace the fabric."

After the rainy season, she had two things to do.

First, she wanted to find a tutor for Xiaohe to teach her to read. Wang Yuelan hesitated for several days before finally agreeing that she would pay for it and that it would be best to see if there were any female tutors available.

Lin Xiushui also wanted a female guest, but such women were rare, mostly found in wealthy households.

After searching and inquiring for several days, they finally found Sizhen, the girl Lin Xiushui had previously learned calligraphy from. Sizhen's family ran a private school.

At first, we didn't think of her. It was because a close relative of Sizhen's mother had passed away in Mingzhou. The group made a long trip to attend the funeral. The round trip wasn't too far, but they stayed there for more than half a month to handle the funeral arrangements. They only returned a couple of days ago.

“Why look for a guesthouse? Look for me,” Sizhen pointed to herself. “I have studied all the things that are taught in early childhood education. I know them all by heart, including the ‘Elementary Primer,’ ‘Seventeen Histories for Beginners,’ the ‘Three Hundred Classics,’ the ‘Three Character Classic,’ the ‘Hundred Family Surnames,’ and the ‘Thousand Character Classic.’ I can recite them backwards.”

At this time, the trend of valuing literature and learning was becoming more and more prevalent. There were also girls taking the imperial examinations for children. One girl named Lin Youyu passed all the tests and obtained the title of Ruren (a title for a young lady). Although she was not given a real official position, more and more families in the city were starting to educate their daughters.

Sizhen was one of them. Her father was a scholar who was old-fashioned but not rigid. She and her brother started their education together from a young age. At five, they learned the Three Hundred Classics and the Thousand Character Classic, and at eight, they read various primers. They had studied poetry, classics, history and philosophy for ten years.

Sizhen stood on the steps and said, "If Xiaohe comes over, I'll take her to the private school this afternoon. I'll teach her a couple of characters first, and then let her play for a bit before we talk about anything else."

Lin Xiushui wanted to settle the bill with her. In the past, the two had exchanged skills. She learned the stroke order of writing from Sizhen, and Sizhen learned needlework from her. Now that she was being hired as a proper guest, she had to pay her tuition and monthly salary, such as one string of cash.

She then asked, "Should we accept someone who's about fourteen years old, as long as they can read and write?"

She asked on behalf of Sang Ying. She herself knew many characters, but when it came to teaching, her knowledge was quite average.

Sizhen readily agreed, "Come on, I'd love for everyone to be literate."

Xiaohe didn't quite understand what the significance of literacy was for her, or what she could actually recognize. Those crooked and twisted characters were even more difficult than winding thread. She carried the new book bag and hairband that Tulin Xiushui had made for her, feeling like an adult going to work. She felt so capable that she was willing to be led by her mother to the private school to write and draw every day after her midday nap.

She doesn't understand yet why it's so rare to study at this age, but she will understand later.

As for Sang Ying, after she arrived here, she tried her best to seize every opportunity to learn something, and she firmly grasped the good thing of learning to read.

She only had free time after work in the afternoon. She would study for an hour then, and she paid 500 coins herself. She didn't plan to tell her brother, afraid that she wouldn't learn well and would make a fool of herself.

When she came out of the private school, she was still confused about what she had learned, but she told Lin Xiushui, "I will study hard. It's just a tough nut to crack. I'll just treat myself like a little dog."

Lin Xiushui wanted to praise her, but upon hearing this, she didn't know how to compliment her. Should she praise her for having good teeth? That she could chew hard bones?

But what Sang Ying really wanted to say was that she knew it wasn't easy to get out of Shanglintang, and she wanted to climb up the social ladder on her own.

Finding a patron was the first thing to do, and it went fairly well. Lin Xiushui then had to do the second thing: go to the cloth market to buy and purchase cloth.

After all, one reaps what one sows. Of course, she wanted to be a cuckoo, where she could get both cloth and grain just by calling out.

Author's Note: Thank you everyone for following along! Here's a red envelope for this chapter [Let me see!]