Chapter 72 Lotus Robe

Shops selling for seventy strings of cash are everywhere, but good shops are hard to find.

Lin Xiushui's tailor shop couldn't possibly be next to Ma's incense and candle shop, a Wenzhou lacquerware shop, Fu Guanren's toothbrush shop, or Ling's paper horse shop, let alone a shop selling Guangjia soup or fruit.

Zhang Yalang, carrying the geomancy manual, stood on the bridgehead, took out the palm-leaf fan from his waist and shook it, saying, "Seventy strings of cash are enough for those shops up there. They're not even suitable for you to open a shop. Some are at the entrance of the alley, and there are two or three that are far from the mulberry tree entrance, across two bridges."

"Let's add some money," Zhang Yalang urged her. "If it's 100 guan, we can choose from many more places."

Lin Xiushui was really tired from walking around. She moved her feet, but with so many people around, she felt embarrassed to squat down, so she put her hands on the bridge pillar. Hearing this, she said, "Do you think I'm a cash cow? You think you can make money so easily?"

“Don’t use such an unpleasant term. We all call him General Manager of Money, okay?” Zhang Yalang firmly opposed the term. After all, if you keep calling him that, it will sound like “collecting money,” which is quite frightening.

Brokers deal with the government all the time and collect the most money. For every thousand coins sold, they have to pay an extra tax to the government, called the "head tax." Previously, it was thirty-three coins for every thousand coins, but now it has increased to fifty or sixty coins.

Not only the dental tax, but also the tax on deed stamps, house rent, sales of lees, sales of wine, vinegar, sales of paper money, household head's salary, and the tax on the guarantor's license, etc. Recently, they have also collected taxes on the bookkeeping records. They collect taxes based on the income of the shops' accounts. Lin Xiushui once heard the accountant cursing the tax office.

The money she earned was less than half of the tax revenue collected by the tax office in a single day.

However, finding a suitable shop with 70 strings of cash was impossible, so Lin Xiushui had to start increasing the price: 75 strings, 80 strings, 81, 82…

“There’s no such thing as adding money like that,” Zhang Yalang said, stopping in his tracks.

Lin Xiushui ignored him and continued counting, from eighty-two to one hundred strings of cash. As the amount of money increased one string at a time, she finally broke through her inner defenses, flicked her sleeves and said, "Let's go take a look at the one hundred strings."

"Hey, you've figured it out?" Zhang Yalang jumped up, full of energy. "If you buy now, you can save two or three strings of cash. You can sign the contract in a day. We'll take care of all the house cleaning for you. If there's a house tax to collect later, we'll calculate how much money it will cost for you in advance."

"Don't make it sound like I can just pull out the money right away," Lin Xiushui followed behind him, as she was thirty strings of cash short.

Zhang Yalang whispered to him, "If you really want to buy it, I know someone at the pawnshop. If you pawn some things, borrowing thirty strings of cash won't be difficult."

"No."

Lin Xiushui refused outright. After all, she had some extra money and was eager to borrow from the pawnshop, but her aunt insisted on going from the top of the mulberry tree to the bottom.

Zhang Yalang was not disappointed and still excitedly took her to see the shop.

There were indeed quite a few good shops among the hundred strings of cash. She walked to the side of the street, took two steps back and looked at the two shops next to her. The one on the right was Chen's Silk Shop, and the one on the left was Wang's Silk Shoe Shop. She took two more steps forward and saw two more shops ahead: Kong Balang's Headscarf Shop and Xu's Wool Shop. In the back street were Chen Erniang's Knot Shop and Zhang's Hemp Shoe Shop.

The shop in the middle was originally a belt shop, but it couldn't keep going and eventually sold. Lin Xiushui stroked her chin and pondered that adding a tailor shop on both sides would be quite suitable.

She stepped through the threshold. The room was spacious, and she could see all the way to the end. All the decorations and furnishings had been completely removed, except for the floor and ceiling. She guessed that if these two could be removed, the whole thing could have been taken away.

Buying this house for 100 guan is not a bad deal, as it's about the same size as the house her aunt bought, with the entire yard and three rooms downstairs.

It's a loss, really. It's just a bare shopfront, no second floor. If there were an upstairs, and the location was good, the real estate agent would dare to sell it for two hundred strings of cash.

She visited five places, but none of them were particularly satisfactory. She was mainly dissatisfied with the price. Her legs ached from walking so much, and she said she wanted to look around some more, as she couldn't just do a one-off deal.

I'd like to ask other dentists; I need to take my time and choose the right one.

While making plans on the way, Lin Xiushui ran into a vendor selling summer cabbage and bought two bundles of vegetables. When she got to the covered walkway, an old lady was selling perch. She hung a rope and gave her a big perch.

"Ah Qiao, my aunt peeled lotus seeds for someone and gave me two jin. You can use it to make sweet soup."

After the woman finished speaking, she took a packet of lotus seeds wrapped in fresh lotus leaves from the basket and handed it over. Lin Xiushui had some impression of her; she had asked her to mend a handkerchief a few days ago.

"Ah Qiao, I have water chestnuts and lotus roots at home. I'll bring you some to eat later."

Lin Xiushui, carrying fish in one hand and lotus leaves in the other, quickly said, "Either you pay for it, or you can ask me to replace your things next time, and I won't charge you."

Someone turned around from beside the pillar and said, "I really do have something to fix, but it's too hot to come out. I'll show it to you next time."

"That's right, business picks up as soon as the weather gets cooler."

Yesterday there was a light rain, so it wasn't so hot. More people came out, no longer hiding at home or on boats to escape the heat. The business of mending the covered walkways was better than before.

Lin Xiushui talked to them for a long time before moving on. As she passed Chen Guihua's house, smoke billowed out from the cracks in the tightly closed door, and steam rose. She could hear several indistinct female voices inside.

The door creaked open, and two girls, around ten years old, came out, laughing at each other. One of them hadn't even stepped out yet; she was holding a small mirror, adjusting her hair, looking left and right, and couldn't stop laughing.

Another woman stared at her head for a few moments, saying, "This hairstyle is much prettier than before; it makes your face look smaller than a plate."

"Stop talking nonsense, the Ghost Festival hasn't arrived yet," the young woman snorted.

Chen Guihua went out to see the two off, and was about to turn back when she saw Lin Xiushui turn a corner again. She hurried over, smiling before she could even speak, "Sister Xiu!"

"Business looks good," Lin Xiushui said, glancing at the open door and two or three people sitting in the courtyard.

"It's alright, it's alright."

Chen Guihua was unusually modest; she had recently made a good amount of money. Starting in July, she would wash her hair in the afternoon and take her son to the night market in the evening to sell gauze bags and hair ties. She would only go home to sleep for two hours after midnight when there were few people on the streets, and then get up early to go to work.

The people inside urged her on, and Chen Guihua responded, saying she wanted some more hair ties. Then she turned and went inside, went up the steps and ran back down, saying, "Sister Xiu, it's all thanks to you for showing me the way. I don't have anything to repay you with right now. I'm thinking of learning the craft of a court attendant. When I'm successful, I'll definitely patronize your business more often."

Lin Xiushui weighed the fish in her hand, then switched hands to carry it, wondering what a court attendant was. Chen Guihua then said, "It's a barber."

"I've heard that there are many skills there, such as how to pluck gray hairs from people's heads, comb out grease with a comb, shave the fine hairs on the cheeks, trim the hair on the sideburns, and there are various hair combing techniques. It's just that learning these skills is expensive, costing two strings of silver."

Chen Guihua learned hairdressing from an old woman in the alley who combed her hair. She was reluctant to spend money, and she still is now. It feels like tearing out her heart when she spends so much of her hard-earned money.

But when she thought of her good-for-nothing son, Xiao He who wanted to learn to read and write, and Wang Yuelan who had already surpassed her, she realized that she had to learn something good.

Lin Xiushui said, "You really have to learn it. You can always earn more money. Someone inside is already saying that."

Chen Guihua hurriedly replied, "Coming."

Lin Xiushui took a few steps. The door to her house was open. Wang Yuelan had come back from work and was collecting the laundry. Xiao He was reading a book, nodding her head and stroking the cat Xiao Ye's fur with her right hand.

"What were you saying to Chen Guihua?" Wang Yuelan asked, draping her clothes over her shoulder and shaking them.

Lin Xiushui called to Xiaohe, "Dabao, come and help me get my things," and then replied to Wang Yuelan, "She said she wants to learn more about her hair washing business. I said that's a good idea. If you master this skill, you can earn more money in the future."

Wang Yuelan hung the clothes on the clothes rack. Hearing this, she looked up at the yard and saw white smoke rising from it. She pouted, but couldn't say anything nice. She just muttered, "It's good to learn something, so you can earn more money."

These days, she's been weaving brocade, and it's given her a headache. She's not sick, just lacking energy. She took two doses of medicine and felt a bit better. When she returned by boat earlier, she saw Chen Guihua collecting cheap firewood, carrying bundles home in the sweltering heat. She watched from there and eventually went up to lend a hand.

Suddenly, he stopped thinking about competing with others and even considered finding a firewood business for them.

She then despised herself, sat there thinking for a long time, and said that she was just too hot and had lost her mind because of the heat.

Lin Xiushui, unsure of what Wang Yuelan was thinking, washed her hands and came out saying, "Aunt, I went to look at a few shops this afternoon."

"What kind of shop? How much?" Wang Yuelan asked first, then continued, "I won't stop you from opening a tailor shop, but you're doing just fine in the tailoring business. Are you going to quit and take on jobs on your own? You won't earn that much each month."

Lin Xiushui's monthly salary at the tailor shop has been increasing again and again. It started from two and a half strings of cash when she first joined the tailor shop in April. Now that she has the skills, she comes back and says that she can sew collars. She happily tells everyone that her monthly salary has increased and that she has received many holiday gifts.

The tailor's workshop arranged for her to be the manager of the mending department. Although she only had three people under her, Wang Yuelan still remembers how she felt at the time. She broke a bowl, but her heart was pounding. The three of them went out for a meal, and she couldn't sleep at night, thinking about Lin Xiushui's future.

The monthly allowance increased from two strings of cash to ten strings of cash. Festival gifts changed from rice, flour, and cooking oil to various kinds of cloth, seasonal fruits, and good things from all over the country, such as scissors from Bingzhou, oilcloth and maltose from Zezhou, peaches, cherries, and so on. After Wang Yuelan learned a few words, she tried her best to memorize them, afraid that she would forget them later.

I also remember that Lin Xiushui started working in the sewing shop, managing three people under her, and then she also took charge of drawn thread embroidery, selecting apprentices and managing even more people. And after she came back this time, she said that there were even more people because of Qixi Festival.

Wang Yuelan was genuinely happy and remembered to tell her mother that she should tell her to burn paper money during the Ghost Festival.

Knowing that Lin Xiushui had a hard life, and unable to understand why she would stake her earnings on the shop—a full hundred strings of cash—Wang Yuelan was worried that she wouldn't be able to make money in the tailoring business after opening the shop. She was so anxious that she drank two bowls of water, afraid that she might say something unpleasant.

But she thought, no, I can't run a shop and spend all my time working there. In the past six months, you've been sewing in the mornings and working late into the night, spending every day in the tailor's workshop. You've gained weight and then lost it all back quickly. Your hands and eyes hurt from all the work. It's not easy to have the life you have today.

Lin Xiushui knew her aunt's concerns and anxieties, so she brought over a chair, sat down next to Wang Yuelan, and said, "I will not leave the tailor's workshop."

"Then why are you still running a shop? Are you going to do it like before, opening it in the morning and evening, and then going to work at the tailor shop during the day? A mending stall costs two coins a day, but the shop costs a hundred strings of cash. Are you just going to leave it empty?" Wang Yuelan lowered her voice and pulled Lin Xiushui into the house.

Lin Xiushui faced Wang Yuelan and said earnestly, "Aunt, don't worry."

“I will not give up my work in tailoring. It is precisely because tailoring provides a stable source of income that I can say I can open a tailor shop and make clothes for more people.”

“I’ve been doing mending jobs before. Although I can talk a lot, I always want more novel jobs to come to me. Mending doesn’t have to be specific to any location. I can set up a stall and do mending. But as a tailor, I want a proper shop.”

Since meeting many people on Qixi Festival, quite a few have asked her to make clothes. However, unlike other tailors who go door-to-door to do work, she doesn't have a dedicated shop. Her rented tailor's room is now piled high with various fabrics. She's making gauze bags and silk children's clothes, and in the next few days she'll be back to selling oilcloth gloves. With so many things to make, it's not convenient to take people with her. She thinks she needs a shop.

It's better to buy a big shop than a small one. Rather than waiting to exchange it later, it's better to buy a big one now. The shop deed gives Lin Xiushui more peace of mind than other things.

As for how to run the shop well and continue doing tailoring work, she is still figuring it out. She will not quit her job for the time being. She needs money and fabric, a stable source of income, to support her in doing what she wants to do. She wants to open a different kind of tailor shop.

Wang Yuelan didn't understand her plan and didn't want to stop her. She didn't think she was as quick-witted as Lin Xiushui. She just went upstairs, took out layers of wrapped silver coins, which totaled about five taels of silver.

“Aunt, I don’t have much money, and I don’t know much about tailoring. If you want to do it, then do it,” Wang Yuelan stuffed the money into her hand. “Anyway, even if things get worse, we won’t have to live the hard life we ​​used to live.”

Lin Xiushui was stunned. Five taels of silver wasn't heavy, but she felt like she couldn't even lift her hand. She stammered, "Aunt."

"Just do it. If you don't have money, just say so. Your aunt is still young."

Lin Xiushui shook her head. She didn't know what to say, so she simply rested her head gently on Wang Yuelan's shoulder.

She wanted to earn more money, so she first made up the remaining thirty strings of cash.

As for what kind of tailor shop she wants to open, it's probably to sell normal clothes and make custom clothes for people with special needs, because every need deserves to be seen.

For example, among the hundred or so clothing orders recently received by the tailor's workshop, there was one order that everyone was reluctant to take, even though it was a lot of money, a full five strings of cash. In the end, Lin Xiushui took it on.

Upon seeing her, the young woman asked, "What do I look like to you?"

Lin Xiushui looked her up and down; she was wearing a pink dress and a pink cloth bag, her whole body was pink.

She gave a foolproof answer, "Pink".

"What kind of powder?"

Lin Xiushui wanted money, and she had a sweet tongue: "She doesn't wear makeup, yet her beauty surpasses that of those who use rouge and powder."

“Of course I am the Lotus Flower Goddess,” the woman raised her head, “and make clothes for me to wear as lotus flowers.”

The goddess of flowers in June comes to make clothes in July; that's not in season, that's out of season.