Chapter 82 The Umbrella's New Clothes

While others enjoyed moon-viewing and family feasts during the Mid-Autumn Festival, Lin Xiushui climbed mountains to visit temples.

There is a legend that every Mid-Autumn Festival, osmanthus seeds fall from the moon palace at Tianzhu Temple. If you collect them and plant them, osmanthus trees will grow the following year.

There are three temples in Tianzhu, divided into upper, middle and lower, all located in the mountains. It takes an hour and a half to walk to the upper Tianzhu Temple. The sky is dark blue and the mountains are lush and green.

The path up the mountain was very steep, but Lin Xiushui, with the mindset of "we've already come all this way," and Xiao He, both looking dejected, made it to the top.

Tianzhu Temple is very popular, as it enshrines Guanyin Bodhisattva. Pilgrims from Jiangsu, Hubei, and Hunan provinces come to offer incense, so vegetarian meals are served in the temple in the morning, noon, and evening.

Xiaohe was listless while climbing the mountain, but as soon as it was time for vegetarian meals, she jumped up and shouted, "I want to eat vegetarian steamed duck. It's duck meat, it must be delicious."

The young monk serving the food chuckled and served her a plate of steamed vegetarian duck. Xiaohe happily took the plate, but when she picked it up with her chopsticks, she was dumbfounded. It was a lie! Why was it a gourd? Where was her duck?

The duck that was about to be eaten escaped. Xiaohe held up her chopsticks, wanting to cry.

Upon hearing this, Lin Xiushui glanced at the increasingly bland dishes, such as plum porridge, chrysanthemum sprout decoction, and fake reunion tofu. Sang Ying muttered, "Just give me a bowl of rice. I've learned quite a bit about rice lately. I think this rice is definitely medium-grain white rice, so it can't be too bad."

Chen Jiuchuan brought over a pot of osmanthus tea and said, "There are only two good things to eat here: osmanthus tea and bamboo shoot noodles."

The reason is simple: Tianzhu Temple is rich in osmanthus flowers and is located in the mountains, so there are plenty of bamboo shoots. There are spring bamboo shoots, whip bamboo shoots in August, and winter bamboo shoots in winter. There are many vegetarian dishes related to bamboo shoots in the vegetarian meals, such as bamboo shoot salad, spicy bamboo shoot soup, spicy bamboo shoot noodles, bamboo shoot shreds, and vegetarian bamboo shoot powder, etc.

The bamboo shoot and vegetable noodles were alright, but the vegetarian meal was free, though you had to burn three sticks of incense, which cost two coins each. When Wang Yuelan took out her money, she said, "I always say that no matter which temple it is, they can't do business at a loss. Look at the golden light on that plaque, a longevity storehouse is enough for them to make a living."

"I really don't want to give them a single penny."

Wang Yuelan said this, but when it came time to offer incense and candles at night, she ran faster than anyone else, followed a few newly acquainted women, took out 120 coins to offer incense and candles, and said with utmost sincerity, "May Buddha have mercy."

After she finished speaking, she made more than a dozen wishes, big and small. After listening to her, Lin Xiushui realized why she had shouted first; it was to give the Bodhisattva time to prepare.

"Sang Ying, will you allow it or not?" Lin Xiushui asked Sang Ying from outside the hall.

Sang Ying, twirling the yellow-green ribbon of her skirt, took two steps down the steps, shaking her head left and right. "I have nothing to promise."

Facing the dazzling lights and many Buddha statues, she said, "I am very satisfied with the present moment."

Even though she didn't make much progress in the rice shop, she still followed the two ladies, delivering rice from house to house. Every day, her legs ached from exhaustion, and her monthly salary didn't increase much. But compared to before, she was very content.

“Making any promise is a bit greedy,” Sang Ying said. “So I decided not to make any promises at all.”

She said with a smile, "I'll save 120 coins."

“I have nothing to ask for,” Lin Xiushui said firmly, even standing in front of the Buddha statue.

She shook the rented lantern and asked Chen Jiuchuan beside her, "What about you?"

“I have some requests,” Chen Jiuchuan said, leaning against a pillar with his back to the light, “but I don’t ask the Bodhisattva.”

"If you pray to the Bodhisattva,"

He paused, then said, "I'd rather ask you."

Lin Xiushui wasn't buying it. She clicked her tongue and said, "Just say you want to learn my skills."

Sang Ying suddenly realized, walked around to the side and nudged Chen Jiuchuan, "Brother, you want to learn needlework? It's such an unorthodox skill."

"Well, praying to Buddha won't help. You're all big and burly, this kind of shipping job is going to be tough. How about you give me a piece of rice to deliver, and I'll take the profits. I'll let you suffer."

"Just say you want to work yourself to death," Chen Jiuchuan glanced at Sang Ying.

He was teased by the two men, feeling both angry and amused, and he still had to follow them to pick up osmanthus flowers. At this time, there were quite a few people carrying lanterns to pick up osmanthus flowers, and they all passed by him.

The temple had many walls. He walked behind Lin Xiushui, on the side closest to the wall. To his right, there was moonlight and hanging lanterns. There were shadowy figures on the red wall, walking alongside him.

Chen Jiuchuan turned his head to the side, the long ribbon on the shadow's head swaying back and forth. His fingers twitched slightly. There were many osmanthus trees on one side of the wall. The fragrance grew stronger and stronger until the shadow disappeared from the wall. Lin Xiushui asked beside him, "What are you looking at?"

He looked up and heard the chanting and wooden fish sounds from the Buddhist temple. Suddenly, he felt uneasy.

"I," Chen Jiuchuan explained, "was looking at the bamboo shadows."

Lin Xiushui smoothed the long, pale yellow ribbon in her hair and looked at the wall in the direction of her gaze. She saw bamboo shadows that were blurry and swaying in the wind, too hazy and poorly lit.

"We need to find a place with good moonlight," Lin Xiushui said, adjusting the osmanthus sachet hanging from her yellow silk skirt. The osmanthus flowers she had just picked were very fragrant.

Chen Jiuchuan remained silent, while Lin Xiushui eagerly watched the shadow on the wall. After several bends, fewer people came to pick osmanthus flowers. The moonlight was bright, and there were four rows of carved characters on a wooden wall, written in a flowing, powerful style, painted with gold powder.

The moonlight shone on the osmanthus tree beside her and two or three clumps of bamboo. The shadows of the osmanthus and bamboo fell on the writing, reflecting shimmering light. It was a beautiful scene. Lin Xiushui stopped and thought of the large green silk umbrella with sixty-four ribs that Hong Niangzi carried.

The umbrella was covered with flowing characters. She kept thinking about what it would look like, what color it would be, what shape it would be, and what pattern it would have if she were to turn it into a garment.

Suddenly, she gleaned a clue about clothing from the shadow on the wall: the clothes should be substantial and heavy, rejecting all gauze and silk fabrics, and not fluttering lightly when blown by the wind. Only gauze, silk, and satin were suitable.

Lin Xiushui stared intently at the shadows on the wall. The shadows moved with the wind; the bamboo shadows were slender, the osmanthus shadows broad, overlapping the characters. The characters were no longer monotonous, as bland as vegetarian food, especially with the light reflected from the gold trim, which was just right. As for changing clothes, there was no need to make a rubbing of all the characters. The bamboo shadows, the osmanthus shadows, the characters, the gold trim, and the appropriate white space created a beautiful combination of shadows and reflections.

"I've got it!" she shouted, startling Xiaohe, who held the osmanthus branch in her hand. "Sister, are you thinking of becoming a nun?"

Wang Yuelan covered her mouth with her hand, "I think you want to get beaten up."

"What did you think of?" Sang Ying rushed over, carrying a cloth bag full of osmanthus flowers.

Chen Jiuchuan lit a lantern and walked ahead, saying, "There's a pavilion with a stone table after the corner."

Lin Xiushui was well-prepared, with paper and pen in her bag. She spread out the paper on the stone table and fell into her own thoughts, picking up the charcoal pencil to scribble and revise. The first thing she had a clue about was the lower skirt.

She originally thought that the pleats on the umbrella would resemble a pleated skirt, and that she would make a green silk pleated skirt, hiding calligraphy and poetry in each pleat. But now she feels that it's not like that at all.

Even better would be a pleated skirt, with the plain sides more suitable for painting and coloring, and the pleats could be made larger, with each pleat inscribed with fluttering verses.

But as she continued drawing, she felt that the three-pleated skirt was better able to express the stability of the characters and the unique design of the umbrella opening and closing, and it wouldn't be as rigid as pleats. The three-pleated skirt could create a contrast between the colors of the skirt surface and the pleats.

However, if not done well, it can easily accentuate the stomach and hips, and it is very selective in terms of who can wear it. The waistband should be low, and there shouldn't be too many pleats or sews on the skirt panels so that it doesn't feel like it's being constricted when walking. The sides of the skirt should sway like a fish's tail. Lin Xiushui requires very smooth fabric.

A jumble of thoughts raced through her mind. She yawned and heard someone next to her ask, "Are you hungry?"

Startled, she honestly replied, "I'm not hungry, I'm sleepy."

Sang Ying was dozing off in the pavilion, and Xiao He needed to use the restroom, so Wang Yuelan took her back first. Chen Jiuchuan, on the other hand, was full of energy. "Let's go then, I'll see you off first."

"Is it finished?" Sang Ying asked groggily.

Lin Xiushui yawned and replied, "No, it can't be that fast."

Chen Jiuchuan walked ahead of her this time and suddenly spoke up, "A Qiao, look up."

"Look up," Lin Xiushui repeated, then raised her head. A bright full moon hung in the sky, and the two stood in the moonlight.

I didn't miss this moon.

I haven't missed a single year, in Shanglintang, in Sangqing Town, and at Tianzhu Temple in West Lake.

Lin Xiushui thought that for many years, since her parents left, the person she had been gazing at the moon with was the same one.

What about next year?

She looked up at the moon, but her thoughts went beyond just the moon.

Lin Xiushui couldn't sleep in the temple. There was only a large communal sleeping area where everyone lay down haphazardly, fully clothed. The smells of osmanthus, face powder, and a sour stench mingled together. As the snoring grew louder, the smell became increasingly pungent, and she could only sleep intermittently.

As soon as the midnight bell rang, she quietly climbed out, straightened her green upper garment and yellow silk skirt, tied the skirt sash, and planned to find some water to wipe her face with a handkerchief.

Wandering around the temple, I saw the scattered osmanthus blossoms on the ground, heard the deep sound of bells and drums, saw the upturned eaves of the buildings, saw all kinds of Buddha statues, and saw the gilded patterns on the walls, plaques, and pillars. In the distance, I heard the thumping of wooden fish drums and the sound of chanting sutras, sometimes near and sometimes far.

Lin Xiushui visited several temples, and many details gradually took shape in her mind, giving form to the green silk umbrella with poems, like the tranquility of the ancient temple, yet sometimes revealing a lightness.

She walked along the path of the ancient temple, intending to abandon the pleated skirt and make a three-pleated one instead; to forgo the tube top and make a blouse; and to use green, white, gold brocade, painted colors, and calligraphy. However, she still needed to think carefully about how to blend them in a beautiful way.

In the afternoon, we were going to watch the Qiantang River tidal bore. After having a vegetarian breakfast and strolling around for a while, we set off, taking with us the osmanthus blossoms we had picked under the moonlight the night before. The uphill path was difficult, but the downhill path was easier, taking about an hour, before we turned back to the Qiantang River.

The moon is fullest on the 15th of August, and the tide is at its highest on the 16th. The area from the autumn tide of the Qiantang River to the riverbank of Lin'an is a great place to watch the tide.

The crowd was so large it was like fish splashing ashore. There was no room on the nearby riverbank, so several people were pushed onto the steps. Wang Yuelan cried out, "My hair bun is about to fall off my head!"

“I’m going to be squashed before the tide comes in,” Sang Ying stretched her neck out like a goose’s neck, squeezing through the crowd and trying to see the river.

Xiaohe sat on Chen Jiuchuan's shoulders. Before Lin Xiushui could complain, the first wave of the river tide slowly surged in. From a distance, it looked like a narrow white line, but when it got closer, it turned out to be a rolling wave.

The waves weren't too fierce at this time, and the annual surfers rushed to the river surface, each with tattoos and long hair, carrying a large, bright green umbrella or a colorful flag. Amid the gasps of the crowd, one of them leaped into the waves like a fish, and as the waves rolled, the flag and umbrella bounced up and down. The waves were already crashing heavily against the shore, but they were still battling the tide.

Wang Yuelan hissed, watching intently, "This guy is reckless, with a willingness to risk his life, making other kinds of money would be so easy for him."

However, once all the surfers had come ashore, everyone's hearts were in their throats. Then, wave after wave surged in, one after another, with the white waves having the momentum to reach the sky, splashing up waves many meters high, crashing against countless people.

For a moment, all that could be heard were countless screams, and the waves fell like a torrential rain. Even though Lin Xiushui was standing far away, her face was splashed with water droplets, and her eyes were blurred with water, she still tried her best to open them to see the magnificent tide. She could not hear any screams, only the sound of the waves crashing like a mountain collapsing and the earth splitting.

The waves are truly like mountain peaks, and the silver mountains are layered upon each other.

Even after a long time, Lin Xiushui could not forget the shock that watching the tide brought her, the intense shock that swept everything, and she also remembered the surging waves, the ripples on the lake surface, the arc of the splash, and the interweaving of white waves and yellow water.

After she got home, she had a dream all night. In her dream, the rolling waves turned into ink paintings of mountains and rivers, appearing on the oil-paper umbrella and gradually spreading out as small waves.

The next day, she went to the tailor shop and happened to run into the tailor, Mr. Jin.

"Did watching the tide scare you?" Jin the tailor pushed open the shop door and tapped her dark circles. "Really scared?"

“How could I be scared?” Lin Xiushui denied it outright, pointing to herself, “I have already figured out the true nature of those two umbrellas.”

The tailor said disdainfully, "If you weren't going to Tianzhu Temple, I would have thought you went to some random temple and saw some demon."

"Old Jin, stop talking nonsense and come and see my masterpiece," Lin Xiushui said, taking out two rolled-up sheets of paper and pressing them down on either side of the album with a wooden paperweight from the table.

The tailor hung up a red silk straight-sleeved shirt, walked over slowly, and said without much interest, "Let me see what you've come up with."

"Hiss, this is interesting," the tailor's expression changed from calm to raising his eyebrows. Look at this first one, it comes from the green silk umbrella with poems.

The design is very formal, a complete upper garment and a three-pleated skirt, without any alterations. The upper garment is made of satin green, with white trim on the collar and cuffs, and the background is inscribed with poems. If the fabric could achieve the clear and transparent green that is depicted in the painting, this upper garment would win by its color.

It rhymes well with the white pleated skirt below.

The brilliance lies in Lin Xiushui's design of the dress's plain surface as shadows cast by sunlight filtering through a wall. The bamboo and osmanthus shadows are green, embellished with gold thread as a base. Long and short lines of ink poetry are distributed on the left and right sides of the dress, not jarring, but orderly within the apparent chaos. The deep pleats reveal calligraphy and paintings of wall shadows under the moonlight, with a green silk base. The bamboo and osmanthus shadows are all in different shades of black, like ink wash, while the flowing characters are embroidered with silver thread.

The tailor could already imagine that if the fabric used was of good quality and smooth enough, and the weaving and painting skills were also up to par, then this dress would present two different kinds of beauty: movement and stillness.

As for the painting below, the skirt doesn't follow any existing style at all. The cut is layered, like surging waves or overlapping mountains. It uses only black, white and gray to create the feeling of an ink painting, which is very ethereal.

"You," the tailor Jin looked Lin Xiushui up and down, then hesitated, "have you found a new master again today?"

Lin Xiushui answered decisively, "Yes, one is the Master of Wall Shadow in the temple, and the other is Master Thousand Layer Waves."

"It had a profound impact on me."

"The essence of making clothes lies not in complexity or greed, but in the principle of simplicity."

The tailor said, "Go and become a Taoist nun."

"That won't do. If the tailor doesn't make enough for me, it's like the needle has no thread."