Chapter 90 Chapter 90 But I couldn't have guessed

There are many tailors in Sangqing Town. Anyone who knows a little needlework can be called a tailor.

Lin Xiushui felt this deeply. At this moment, she was sitting in a small cubicle on the second floor, listening to the woman in front of her chattering on and on, holding a crumpled dark blue headband in her hand.

“Look how meticulously I sewed these stitches. I often sew old burlap bags, shoes and socks at home. I’m best at making shoe uppers and soles. This is a headband I made for my mother last year. Ever since she put it on, she’s never taken it off her forehead.”

Li Xiaochai spoke smugly, saying that this was something she had snatched from her mother's head during this trip. Before her mother could beat her to death with her cane, she quickly stuffed it into her bosom and said, "Once I confess, I'll make ten to honor you, old lady."

Lin Xiushui touched her forehead. Since taking a job, she had seen all sorts of people, and she was so scared that her hair was about to fall back.

She asked earnestly, "Did you make the clothes you're wearing today yourself?"

She wanted to wear clothes she made herself. She and the tailor could see the imperfections: the stitches, the allowance, the size, the color matching, and whether it fit. From these, she would select the best ones and ask them to make the clothes, keeping only the suitable ones.

Li Xiaochai stammered, explaining that she had stolen her sister's clothes—a bright red jacket paired with bright green shorts. Luckily, she was thin and young, so she didn't look too strange.

She didn't lie, "I wasn't wearing anything on the outside, but I was wearing something on the inside."

“Young lady, the bra underneath was sewn by myself,” Li Xiaochai said, taking off her clothes. “Why don’t I show it to you? We’re all women, so there’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Lin Xiushui closed her eyes tightly and shook her head repeatedly, almost breaking her voice, "No, no, I won't look."

Upon hearing this, Li Xiaochai decided not to take her clothes off anymore, as it was too cold.

Lin Xiushui breathed a sigh of relief, opened one eye, and then took out a handkerchief to wipe her temples. She was not very satisfied with Li Xiaochai. The stitches were rough, and the embroidery on the headband was crooked. It was nothing like the tailor she had been looking for.

She then explained the reason truthfully. Li Xiaochai was not disappointed. She put away the headband first. It seemed that being a tailor was indeed not suitable for her. After she finished speaking, she immediately changed her mind. If she couldn't be a tailor, then she would find a tailor.

"Young lady, how about I find you a tailor?" Li Xiaochai asked in a low voice, her back hunched. "If I find one, can you give me some money?"

Although Lin Xiushui was surprised, she did not refuse. She was willing to help anyone find a tailor and embroiderer. She had already entrusted Liu Ya Sao, Sun Ya Sao in the brokerage, and Jin Tailor to help her find a tailor and embroiderer. It wouldn't hurt to add Li Xiaochai as well.

Shui Ji Clothing had a good reputation among the people of Sangqiao Ferry, and its location was excellent. Many people wanted to work as tailors when they heard about the job openings. Lin Xiushui and Tailor Jin could see more than thirty people every day.

However, there were also many oddballs. One insisted that Lin Xiushui hire her, saying that she had been blessed by the Goddess of Silkworms and that she would be punished by heaven if she didn't. There was also a man who came from who-knows-where, a shoemaker, who thought that if he could make the most difficult shoes, he could definitely make tailors. He thought very highly of himself.

There was another woman who wasn't selected. In her anger, she demanded that Lin Xiushui compensate her for her travel expenses. She hadn't taken a boat; she had walked over a thousand steps from West Street to Sangqiao Ferry. She should have been given a string of silver coins. When she saw that Lin Xiushui disagreed, she left cursing and swearing.

Lin Xiushui thought the embroiderer's skills were quite good and wanted her to try again the next day. However, the next day the embroiderer came and said that her relative had passed away and her whole family had gone to mourn. She was never seen again after that.

Lin Xiushui met many people, truly every facet of many people, and there were some she never wanted to see again.

Of course, she was extremely serious about her craft. The first tailor she hired was named Shuiqin, who made clothes for performers in Nanwazi, such as singers, dancers, magicians, and acrobats.

She couldn't stand staying in Nanwazi. While making clothes for men, she always heard foul language. It was too chaotic inside, and even in the middle of the night, it was noisy. Several men were mingling together. Shuiqin really wanted to throw black dog blood at them to death.

“I stayed there for six years. Last spring I had another daughter. She was a little over a year old and just started to learn to speak, so she started to learn to swear,” Shuiqin said, her hair neatly combed into a bun, hands on her hips. “I was so angry that I bought a house in the alley next door and moved out. I stopped working there and decided to find a new job.”

"Master, please don't think I'm dressed too old-fashioned. We make clothes for others. I brought several clothes with me today. Take a look and see if you can use me."

Shuiqin moved nimbly, untied the large bundle she had brought, and found the clothes inside neatly folded. She pinched the shoulders of the clothes with both hands, slowly shook them open, and spread them out flat.

Lin Xiushui tilted her head and looked at it. It was a red silk narrow-sleeved slit jacket with yellow copper coin patterns on the collar, which was not unusual. The other one was the same, but it used a lot of colors: white with blue flowers, ochre and red on the collar, and a light yellow wide border.

With her permission, she began to examine the items herself and was somewhat surprised to see a tattered Tang-style skirt with blue, green, and orange stripes. "You can make tattered skirts?" she asked.

Ripped skirts were relatively rare in the Song Dynasty, as they were clothing from the previous dynasty. Lin Xiushui recognized ripped skirts but didn't know how to make them. Although they were made by cutting strips of cloth and sewing them together upside down, and seemed simple enough to be made by combining different colors of several fabrics, there was actually a lot of skill involved.

For example, skirts with six or more pieces of ripped fabric, skirts with eight or more pieces of ripped fabric, skirts with twelve or more pieces of ripped fabric with shoulder straps, skirts with twenty-four or more pieces of ripped fabric, etc., are also quite troublesome.

Upon hearing this, Shuiqin took out a pair of pants that resembled lantern pants, with tapered cuffs at the hem, also known as narrow-leg pants. Holding the pants up by the sides, she said, "Yes, I can make quite a few Tang-style clothes. There are plays from the previous dynasty performed in the entertainment district, and they often change the play. I need to make clothes in other colors as soon as possible. I must finish a set within ten days."

"I can make quite a few clothes, but I couldn't bring them with me right now. Why don't I take you to the entertainment district and see which person is wearing clothes that I made? I remember them all."

Shuiqin spoke with great confidence, "Although I am not well-known in Nanwazi, if you ask around, you'll know that I, Shui Erniang, am quite skilled at making clothes."

"And my name is Wang Shuiqin, I just call myself Shuiqin. Shuiqin grows in water, and it has the character 'water' in it. Your shop is also called Shuiji, which means we are one family."

Lin Xiushui replied in a serious tone, "Then we can also go by the Eight Delicacies of Water. Water celery is one of the Eight Delicacies. My surname is Lin, so my name is Lingjiao. It makes sense no matter how you look at it. We are indeed from the same family."

"How about starting work tomorrow? For now, the monthly salary is four strings of cash. We also have holiday gifts, which will be given out on the Winter Solstice. Of course, if you do well, we can give you more..."

“We can do it anytime,” Shuiqin quickly replied. “We have needles and thread, so we can work anywhere.”

Lin Xiushui asked her to first cut the large-sleeved shirt for the Wang family's rented shop, and asked Xiahou Niangzi to teach her first. Shuiqin picked up the big bundle and went out with a proud and imposing air.

After listening to their discussion about water sources and the eight aquatic delicacies, Jin the tailor said, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do. I should be called arrowhead."

Her name contains the character "慈" (ci), so she is called Jin Huaci.

“My name is Water Chestnut,” A-Yun said, holding a duster. “My surname is Qi.”

Lin Xiushui said, "That's great! It sounds nice and tastes good too."

"If that's the case, then we're still missing water chestnuts, water bamboo shoots, water shield, and lotus roots. It seems I should look for these when I'm looking for people in the future."

After she finished speaking, she clapped her hands and suddenly realized, "No wonder I can handle the full pond of beauties, the pond can't be without water."

“It should be me,” Lin Xiushui boasted a little. The tailor patted her shoulder. “Yes, you have the advantage of your name. Water is one advantage, and Lin is another.”

Lin Xiushui asked, puzzled, "What do you mean?"

"He's quite quick-witted."

Lin Xiushui covered her face; the praise was so unexpected.

Although the "eight delicacies of the water" was just a joke among a few people, the tailors and embroiderers they later hired were indeed closely related to these items.

One of them was Li Xiaochai's second sister, Li Qian, whom Lin Xiushui immediately thought of when she heard the name. Li Qian wasn't cut out to be a tailor, but her embroidery was excellent. She embroidered a large cluster of intertwined peonies on a piece of crimson fabric, and the stitches were very solid, indicating that she must have practiced diligently for many years.

Li Xiaochai looked proud. "That's really good. I've been crawling out of the house since I was a child wearing the bib my sister embroidered. No one in the whole alley has a bib as pretty as mine."

Li Qian rolled her eyes. She couldn't kick her, so she secretly pinched Li Xiaochai. "That brat, she tells everyone everything."

Li Xiaochai didn't care. She knew her sister was capable. It wasn't in vain that she had desperately tried to recruit people. In this way, her sister not only had a job, but she also received three hundred coins.

Three hundred coins! With so much money, her sister can no longer order her around for a mere two coins a day. She's going to live a carefree life now. Li Xiaocha laughed heartily.

The two, who were discussing monthly wages and how long it would take to complete an embroidery pattern, were startled by the loud laughter. Li Qian, unable to bear it any longer, said directly to Lin Xiushui, "When my mother was a child, she gave birth to her for too long. Later, she kept hitting her head on the door and the wall, and that's why she's always laughing like an idiot."

Li Xiaochai snorted. She wasn't stupid; there was no stupid person as smart as her.

Once outside, Li Qian dragged Li Xiaochai by the ear, while Lin Xiushui watched the commotion from behind. Then, she entered the room with her hands behind her back, feigning mystery, and asked, "Let's guess who the next one of the Eight Delicacies will be?"

Jin the tailor was keen on using an abacus, the beads clicking loudly as he said half-heartedly, "I like to eat water chestnuts. Here's the betting strategy: if you win, you give me money; if you lose, I don't."

"What a clever scheme, Lao Jin," Lin Xiushui pondered the words, and the more she listened, the more something seemed off.

Ayun said, "I guess the lotus roots are ready; it's lotus root harvesting season now."

Lin Xiushui waved her sleeve and said boldly, "I'll bet on them all."

The two looked at her, but she remained unfazed. "Betting on just one is too small. Xiao Chun'e told me that to win at poker, you have to bet everything."

Jin the tailor turned her head and helped Lin Xiushui calculate whether the 96 guan she earned from Shuiji Clothing could pay all her monthly wages, even without her own. After all, her wages had increased to 6 guan a month, which was still a cause for celebration, even though she wasn't short of money.

The three people placed a bet, with the prize being a meal paid for by Lin Xiushui. In October, mutton was in high demand, but a pound of it cost 900 coins, which was unaffordable. However, a serving of mutton rice noodles with sauce cost 50 coins, which was affordable.

Aside from Lin Xiushui guessing everything, the other two guessed wrong, and the second tailor who arrived had a somewhat complicated experience.

That afternoon, it was drizzling outside when a girl of about eight years old walked in. She was wearing a well-fitting light yellow embroidered osmanthus-patterned cotton robe, and her hair was tied with a matching hair ribbon.

Ayun took the large bundle from her hands, squatted down, and asked curiously, "Little sister, are you making your own clothes?"

“No,” the young woman said clearly, “I’m here to choose a tailor for my grandmother.”

She quickly corrected herself: "No, no, I wanted my grandmother to come here as a seamstress, but she refused, so I had to come by myself."

“I heard that you are going to wear clothes that you make yourself,” Zhang Xiaomei said with a bit of distress, “but my grandmother never made a single piece of clothing for herself.”

She made two pieces of fabric from the fabric she bought at home, one for my older brother and one for me.

“Look, the clothes I’m wearing were made by my grandma,” Zhang Xiaomei said, patting the bundle gently. She then squatted down and picked up the bundle. Her hands were already red from the straps on the way here, but she didn’t seem to care. “These are all clothes my grandma made for me.”

Zhang Xiaomei raised her head, quite proudly, "She is the best dressmaker in the world."

Lin Xiushui echoed her words, reaching out to take it, and said softly, "Alright, let me see who is the best clothes maker in the world."

Inside the large bundle were only two garments. One was a thick padded jacket with three or four layers of silk floss, made of satin. However, the red satin looked quite old, and Lin Xiushui scratched the snags with her fingernail.

The other garment was also a thick coat, but it was made of ordinary green silk. She touched it and felt that it must have been made of silk woven from new silkworms in April of this year. It was very smooth and the weaving was quite good. She could tell that it was made by her own family.

The two puffy coats were well-made with fine stitches. They didn't have any particularly novel patterns or styles, but they were made with plenty of silk and cotton, which made them very appealing.

Lin Xiushui bent down and said to Zhang Xiaomei, "Then you should call Grandma over tomorrow, and we can discuss it together first."

"Is today okay?" Zhang Xiaomei picked at her fingernails hesitantly, and said with her head down, "I don't know if it will be sunny tomorrow."

"Grandma stays at home when it rains, and goes to the wet fields when it's sunny."

“Our family grows a lot of water chestnuts. Even if we sell them all, there will be plenty left over. I was thinking of Grandma becoming a seamstress. Seamstresses don’t have leg pain.”

Jin the tailor deeply sympathized. In the freezing cold, his legs would ache as soon as they got cold. If he planted water chestnuts, his legs would swell up so much that he couldn't walk after getting them wet.

She called Zhang Xiaomei to warm herself by the fire and said slowly, "Your grandmother can't walk far in the rain, so you can come earlier or later. We'll wait for you in the shop."

Zhang Xiaomei bit her finger, a little hesitant. In her mind, her grandmother was only free all day on rainy days. She suddenly sighed, "I'm still too young."

“Otherwise, I would become a tailor and make lots of nice clothes for Grandma.”

Lin Xiushui told her, "I only started learning needlework when I was twelve. You might be better than me and could have learned it by the time you were ten."

Zhang Xiaomei was delighted to hear this. She dried her wet shoes by the fire, and the socks she took off were made of several layers of fabric, which made them very warm to wear.

The next morning, Lin Xiushui was still thinking about this matter and went out early. Wang Yuelan followed her out and called out, "Take your hood."

After taking it, Lin Xiushui hurriedly went out against the wind. When she arrived at the shop, she saw a grandmother and granddaughter standing there. The old lady had gray hair, but her back was not hunched, and her eyes were clear.

Seeing her pull Zhang Xiaomei forward, thanking her profusely, it turned out that Zhang Xiaomei's explanation for going home was that she had gone out to play yesterday and it had rained. She went to Shuiji to take shelter from the rain, where people warmed her by the fire and gave her tea and snacks.

The old lady hadn't slept all night when she heard this, and the next day she quickly brought Zhang Xiaomei over.

They had no idea that they had been tricked by Zhang Xiaomei.

After hearing the whole story, she wasn't angry at all; instead, she laughed and said, "I was wondering why we ended up in the south while we were having fun, since we live on the east side of the road."

Without hesitation, Grandma Xia said, "She wanted me to give it a try, so I'll take the liberty of giving it a shot."

"Let her know that her grandmother is also a courageous person."

At least when I think back to my youth and say I wanted to be like Grandma, I won't feel regret or shame.

Zhang Xiaomei cheered and jumped up, her heart filled with excitement, her eyes fixed on her grandmother's straight back.

When Grandma Xia was young, she was a tailor. But later, she realized that being a tailor wasn't as lucrative as growing vegetables. A small vegetable garden could earn three or four strings of cash per acre. Growing vegetables in dry land wasn't as profitable as growing them in water. But she was also bold enough to take her family and borrow money to buy a large tract of paddy fields to grow water chestnuts. Two years later, she had paid off the loan and had enough to live comfortably.

However, her legs were weak and she could no longer go into the paddy fields. She had originally planned to find another job making paper lanterns, but now that she had this opportunity, she did not hesitate at all. She picked up her needle and thread and sewed very carefully and attentively.

Even if your feet are bad, you can still use your hands.

Lin Xiushui was very satisfied with her skills and didn't think that being over fifty years old was too old. She was very happy that she could join Shuiji.

"Really?" Zhang Xiaomei was overjoyed. She ran around the room, radiating joy. "My God, Grandma, you really are the most amazing person in the world."

Grandma Xia squinted her eyes and smiled kindly, "That's right, there's nothing your grandma can't do."

"I call this 'still going strong in my old age'."

“Going back will scare everyone to death. They’ll think all I can do is make paper lanterns, and that I’ll have more than three pounds of scrap paper. I’m an old woman, but I’m young at heart. Young lady, wait for me, I’ll come over early tomorrow morning.”

Grandma Xia boasted, "Old people like us go to bed earlier than dogs at night and get up earlier than chickens during the day. We're the perfect people to do any kind of work."

Lin Xiushui admitted that what she said was the complete truth.

We've only managed to recruit these three people so far, so we've now gathered six of the eight delicacies of water celery.

The six of them would also gather in the afternoon at the shop rented by Lin Xiushui. It was truly a meeting of the six of them, a gathering of heroes.

The meeting discussed how to make wedding dresses for cats and dogs, along with two sets of children's clothing.

The group of people were not very familiar with each other yet, so they sat in a circle with two plates of glutinous rice-stuffed lotus root and a plate of fried lotus root in the middle. It was a pity that there was no water shield in winter, otherwise Lin Xiushui would have served a whole basin of it.

As for why there are no other dishes, it's because it's not good for people of the same kind to eat each other, which would lead to infighting.

Everyone arrived with a lot of courage, but upon seeing Lin Xiushui's appearance and hearing such strange and unusual things, their fear gradually turned into timidity.

Thankfully, it was a cat or dog, not a horse, otherwise it would have been a humiliating display.

"Dogs wear wedding dresses too?" Grandma Xia asked in surprise. "When you hired me, you didn't say you were going to make one for a cat or dog."

"Otherwise, I'll catch two and try it out."

The old lady is very open to new things. "Whatever the cat or dog likes, I'll make it for it. Since the owner has asked, I can definitely make it for the cat or dog. I, Xia Damei, will never refuse to do anything that I can do."

“I’ve never made clothes for cats and dogs before,” Watercress said with great interest. “I can always try making some first.”

Li Qian hesitated and said, "I don't know how to make clothes."

"But I can embroider. If I've seen them before, I can embroider them very well."

In fact, for tailors, making clothes for things other than people is an offense to their craft itself. If Lin Xiushui mentions it in the tailor's workshop, eighteen out of twenty people will angrily walk out.

But at Shuiji, she hoped that those she recruited, whether tailors or embroiderers, would be more open-minded, since it would be exhausting to communicate if their views differed too much.

Fortunately, although they didn't quite understand, at least they were all aquatic creatures and were relatively accepting of it, without any strong reactions or feelings of being looked down upon.

Everyone discussed that they could freely express their opinions without Lin Xiushui exerting any pressure.

Grandma Xia was most concerned about one thing, and she repeatedly emphasized, "Put on more cotton floss, so they don't get sick from the cold. Cats and dogs love to lie on the ground, which is cold. They can't get sick from the cold."

Lin Xiushui agreed, and Li Qian said, "Then I'll make the embroidery pattern and embroider the images of cats and dogs on it."

“Since the colors have already been decided, red cat and green dog, let’s add some decorations to their heads. The cat will wear a green veil and the dog will wear a red hat,” Shuiqin said. Having spent many years in Nanwazi, she was the most accepting of this idea and could come up with the most ideas.

She also suggested, "If we want to make something interesting, let's make another sign, one that says I'm part of the dowry, and the other that says I'm part of the bride's family."

“This is a great idea. It would be even better if it were embroidered. Making it into a bib and hanging a tag on it would be heavy and not very attractive,” Lin Xiushui said, holding up the inverted triangle bib drawn on the paper for everyone to see.

Upon hearing that she was to embroider, Li Qian first lowered her head and then stammered, "But, but I can't read, so I can't embroider words."

Needless to say, Old Lady Xia, A-Yun who helped cut the cloth, couldn't read, Shuiqin didn't know many characters, and Madam Zhou was also illiterate. It didn't matter; Lin Xiushui decided to hire Sizhen at a high price to teach her after this.

Jin the tailor also had an idea: "Actually, for the size of a cat, it is possible to make a long cloth that can be dragged on the ground, and then add another layer of cloth to cover its legs."

"However, I also said that we are three cobblers, but we can only offer whatever we have to say."

That's better than Lin Xiushui thinking about it alone. She hired tailors for this very moment. Since they were all tailors, everyone got happier and happier as they talked, and all sorts of ideas came out. Inspired by their conversation, Lin Xiushui drew two sketches and then discussed and revised them carefully.

Make a green veil for the cat, embroidered with a tabby cat; make a floral hairpin for the dog, which is a hat with a big white bone at the back.

The cat's dowry dress is red, with straight sleeves and a long tube. It covers the belly and is worn on the back. It is divided into two parts: the upper body is pure red with embroidery, and the back has a pleated red skirt, which looks like a bride's skirt. The middle part is embroidered.

As for the dog, it was a bit too fat, so we kept going up the size. The green backless shirt was a bit monotonous, so in the end, we opted for tassels and a red embroidered ball tied to its chest instead of carrying a big bone.

Fang Xing was extremely satisfied with these two designs. Of course, Xiao Tuan liked the tiger costume, which Lin Xiushui had also designed. Xiao Tuan closed her eyes and shook her head vigorously, saying, "I don't want to look at it. If I look at it, I won't be able to sleep every day."

"I'll always want to wear new clothes."

"I'm waiting for my new clothes with the eel and the big bone."

Xiao Tuan sat on the chair, swinging her legs, and said, "That way, when they're dressed, one will say 'meow' and the other 'woof,' and I'll say 'okay.'"

Lin Xiushui put it away without hesitation. "Of course you can. Please close your eyes then."

The clothes were sewn quickly this time. The cat and dog clothes used less material, and the children's clothes were not as difficult to make as the adults'. The difficulty was that after padded with multiple layers of silk floss, the sleeves were hard to turn over. Grandma Xia was very experienced in this. She liked to make extra-large clothes for her grandchildren, so that the sleeves were always puffy.

Whether cats and dogs are looking forward to it or not, this sense of anticipation is like waiting for snowflakes to fall into everyone's hearts in winter.

On the day of trying on the clothes, Xiao Tuan skipped in. Only after she had crossed the threshold did she cover her eyes and say, "Sister A Qiao, I've closed my eyes."

"Can I watch it now? I've been wanting to see it for so long."

“Of course,” Lin Xiushui led her to the clothes, told her to close her eyes, and let her touch the clothes first. Xiao Tuan didn’t dare to open her eyes, but asked in a surprised tone, “It’s furry, is it tiger fur?”

"Open your eyes and take a look."

Xiao Tuan first opened her left eye a crack, then slowly opened her right eye. But before her eyes, her mouth opened wide, and she let out a "Wow!"

The first thing I saw was a very beautiful red tiger head hat, with a fuzzy white rim made of silk floss and wool. It had two ears, each with a gold embroidery in the middle, and two red eyes on a blue background, with a light orange rim around them, and then a rim of flattened wool. The eyes were very big.

Xiao Tuan really loved it. She absolutely adored it. The inside was also fluffy. She couldn't wait to put it on, dangling the two white balls hanging down from the red embroidered ribbons.

I also like the clothes. My favorite part is the big tiger with a tiger-like head on the front, and the pockets with round ears on the left and right sides, all with fluffy white trim.

Xiao Tuan practically transformed into a big tiger, running around asking everyone if he was a big tiger.

Fang Xing looked at the cat and dog dressed up and laughed out loud. The red made the tabby cat look even blacker, and the green did not suit the dog at all. Even if it was made with great craftsmanship, it was hard to escape the comical feeling.

The cat, in particular, looked extremely distressed, wearing a red bib with a yellow embroidered "I am part of the dowry," while the dog kept fidgeting, its embroidered ball on its chest swaying as if it were about to fly into the sky, grinning broadly. This made the "I am part of the dowry" part seem rather ridiculous.

Everyone else except the cat was very satisfied with this. Of course, the cat, who was very dissatisfied, squatted on its owner's lap and looked at Zhang Shunniang, who was wielding a brush in front of it, and softened its attitude a little.

With each stroke of the brush, cats, dogs, and people were meticulously recorded and drawn on paper.

The cat and dog, wearing clothes for the first time, also had their first self-portraits.

Fang Xing shouted, "We'll be together forever and ever."

She doesn't want a lifelong commitment; she wants forever, with cats, dogs, and her beloved.

Everyone was smiling, the red color was festive, and even bystanders could feel the happiness from the bottom of their hearts.

Lin Xiushui stands amidst the happiness of others, a blissful bystander.

When someone asks, "Do you yearn for this kind of happiness?"

She turned around. She was no longer standing amidst a sea of ​​red songs of celebration. The daytime was no longer before her; she was now in the black winter night, with a tall figure walking in front of her, shielding her from the wind.

Fireworks exploded along the roadside at night, accompanied by the sounds of gongs and drums. She heard Chen Jiuchuan ask her this question, the first thing he asked her after his long journey back.

Lin Xiushui said softly, "Guess."

"But I can't guess."