What's in Chapter 24?

"Would you like to try making your own dough drum?"

Lin Xiushui asked Zhu Qiniang this question.

Zhu Qiniang looked slightly surprised. She had never imagined this before. Holding the drum, she hesitated and said, "But aren't you a seamstress? How could this be?"

The unspoken question was: Could she really make a drum? Or had Zhu Qiniang misjudged the young woman before her, and was she actually a drum maker?

She asked cautiously, "Does your family make drums, young lady?"

"No, I've barely even touched a drum," Lin Xiushui said as she rummaged through her cloth basket, looking for a suitable piece of silk.

Zhu Qiniang was already somewhat regretful, but since she had already drunk the tea, she couldn't just turn around and leave. So she had no choice but to hold back and see what Lin Xiushui was up to.

The drum Lin Xiushui described was very simple: it was a hand drum, made with a bamboo hoop, a piece of cloth, and a bottle of fish glue.

She got a bamboo ring from Zhang the carpenter, which was sawn off from the top of a bamboo tube. She put the silk cloth and fish glue on the table and said to Zhu Qiniang, "Just cover the bamboo ring with the silk cloth and apply fish glue to the edges. I will tighten it."

Zhu Qiniang exclaimed, "Is this how you make a drum?"

"Yes, this is a simple hand drum."

Zhu Qiniang was skeptical. She wasn't good at refusing other people's requests, so she put down her drum, sat on a stool, and clumsily fiddled with it, applying glue to the edge of the bamboo ring and sticking the silk cloth on little by little until the whole piece of silk cloth became taut.

This method was so simple that she still didn't believe it after she finished. Lin Xiushui didn't care whether she believed it or not, and tightly wrapped the bamboo ring with a rope, making the silk cloth extremely smooth and taut.

"Try patting it, pat the cloth with your palm," Lin Xiushui handed over the simple hand drum.

Zhu Qiniang took it, glanced at the bamboo ring that was tightly bound, and gently patted it on the silk cloth. When she patted it, the sound was no longer the familiar sound, not the dull thud of a wooden drum, but a light popping sound.

She suddenly became interested and clapped her hands several times. The completely different drum sounds stimulated her, and she clapped along rhythmically.

"This can actually make a sound when you tap it, it's completely different from a wooden drum," Zhu Qiniang said, somewhat surprised and excited.

Lin Xiushui told her, "There are even more different ones. You can try adding a string of bells at the bottom, or adding it inside the bamboo hoop of the hand drum, or even replacing it with a leather cover. The sound produced when you strike it will be different."

It was still early, so she led Zhu Qiniang to try adding a layer of cloth on top, or placing a pair of scissors, or pasting silk cloth underneath. Zhu Qiniang was pleasantly surprised to find that all the sounds were completely different; she had never heard them before.

“I used to only know how to play the drum. Whatever drum I was given, I just played it and sang along. When the drum that had been with me for eight or nine years broke, and I replaced it with another drum, I just couldn’t sing well anymore,” Zhu Qiniang said, bowing her head and touching the drum. “I never knew that a simple cloth drum could have so many intricacies. And yet I was like this. Alas… I am truly ashamed.”

Lin Xiushui folded her cloth neatly, turned around and said, "There's a saying that out with the old, in with the new, and the same applies to the drum."

"Although we menders always say that we can patch it up and it will still work, when something really can't be patched up, we often stubbornly insist that it's broken. In fact, we're just fighting with ourselves."

“Once a drum is broken, it’s broken. Even if you make a new one, it won’t be the same drum as before,” Lin Xiushui said. “You always have to accept the departure of something, and so do people.”

"I made this hand drum to tell you that if you're not satisfied with many drums you've tried, you can try making a new one yourself. A drum you make yourself will always be different."

Lin Xiushui said all she wanted to say. Actually, she wasn't very familiar with the person and shouldn't have said so much. But sometimes people get stuck on a rut, and it's good for her to help them get through it.

Zhu Qiniang looked at the hand drum, then at Lin Xiushui, and stood up, saying, "Thank you, young lady. This thing that I've used every day for eight or nine years has suddenly broken. I feel like nothing is right, and I feel empty inside. In fact, no drum is the same as before. Why don't we find a new one?"

She quickly reached into her purse and asked hastily, "I'm sorry to have interrupted your business, young lady. How much is this drum?"

“You made the drum yourself, the bamboo hoop was given to you by someone else, and the cloth cost less than a penny. Why would you give me money?” Lin Xiushui waved her hand. “Take it. When you can sing well someday, just sing me a little tune.”

After arguing with Zhu Qiniang for a while, Lin Xiushui lowered her head and tidied up her stall.

Actually, there are people in this world who are fickle and easily bored, and there are people who are loyal and nostalgic. According to her, each has its own merits.

She actually knows someone who is sentimental; he can't bear to throw away anything that's broken. He says he was happy when he bought them, but now he throws them away when they're broken.

I bought eighteen items from her stall: silk flowers that I'd worn for over a decade, old mats from home, old tattered covers—all sorts of random things.

Sure enough, just as the clock struck midnight, Aunt Zhang came to get her nineteenth item replaced.

"Auntie, what are you getting mended today?" Lin Xiushui asked with a smile, wiping her scissors.

Aunt Zhang smiled and handed over the curtain in her hand. "I'm not the one mending things today. The curtain of the teahouse in front of me has a tear and they want to find someone to fix it. I'll take this job and give it to you. It'll be ten coins."

"Look, it's cracked in three places."

Aunt Zhang placed ten coins on the table and whispered, "I'll keep an eye out for you from now on. If there's any work for others, I'll take it for you first. If you can't do it, I'll turn you away."

Lin Xiushui held the thread board, pulled out the yarn, and said with a smile, "Then I'll be looking forward to you getting me business every day, Auntie."

"Of course, of course. You didn't mind repairing those items for me, so naturally I'll help you attract business."

Lin Xiushui joked around for a few more minutes, finished mending the curtain, and after seeing Aunt Zhang off, she put the things she had mended the day before aside, waiting to collect the remaining deposit.

This was her favorite thing to do every day: exchanging money for goods, and she could hear the coins clinking in her bag.

Give the fishing net to the fisherman, earn five coins; mend the lantern for the water-catching maid on the other side, earn ten coins; alter a long jacket into a short jacket and add a collar, earn twenty coins; add a cat-pattern patch to a child's trousers, earn two coins…

Lin Xiushui carefully counted the money and put it into her money bag. She had already earned seventy-three coins today. Just as she finished calculating, a woman came over with a child, who was carrying a pile of trousers.

Walking unsteadily, Lin Xiushui stepped forward to take the pants and counted them. Tsk, ten pairs of ripped pants, either torn at the knee or ripped in the crotch.

The woman was so angry she gritted her teeth. "I can't do anything with him. I mend his clothes every day, and after I finish mending them, he runs off again. His trousers are torn everywhere. I'm completely at my wit's end. Ah Qiao, you mend his clothes. Don't worry about how they look. The more secure the mending, the better."

“I can’t fix him up. The more I fix him, the angrier I get. I feel like hitting him with that bamboo stick.”

The child pretended to be obedient and called for his mother, but his mother said, "I am not your mother, I am your stepmother."

“Stepmother,” the child cried.

The woman grabbed a pair of pants and chased after him, hitting him. Lin Xiushui shook her head as she mended the pants, thinking, "She's really stupid."

Ten pairs of trousers cost twenty-eight coins. Lin Xiushui took the money and cheered inwardly, "Over a hundred coins!"

There was no particular work to do today, but Lin Xiushui did run into Li Xixian. The man who had brought a chicken earlier to ask him to make a chicken feather sweater had brought his chicken again today.

From afar, a man and a chicken began to call out. The man called out, "Young lady, wait a minute!" and the chicken crowed, "Ah ah ah, hoo hoo hoo!"

Lin Xiushui wanted to pretend she couldn't hear, but it was too embarrassing.

She slowly turned around. "What's wrong? Did the chicken feathers fall out again?" "No," Li Xixian rushed up, beaming, and pulled open the chicken's coat to show it, pointing to a small patch of feathers. "It's grown feathers!"

"Ever since I came back from your place, I've been showing it the light from time to time to provoke it. Our iron rooster is the most determined. When we're all in a fighting spirit, it can eat anything. And when it eats, some feathers grow out."

“You have no idea how happy I was when I saw you. I rushed over to find you,” Li Xixian said, squatting down and flexing his heels, not even having put his shoes on properly. “Young lady, I’ve never thanked anyone in my life, but I really have to thank you.”

"Tell me, how about I give you a red envelope, and have that miserly guy kowtow to you and acknowledge you as my god-sister?"

Lin Xiushui jumped back a step, startled, and stammered, "For such a joyous occasion, a few coins are enough as a token. As for being my godmother or anything like that, I think we should skip it."

Li Xixian was not giving up. "Then make a noodle sign? Write 'Saving a Chicken's Life,' and I'll bring it to you with gongs and drums. Come from the very edge of the South Goods Market, everyone in the Sangqiao Ferry area knows it."

What do you know? Do you know she makes feather sweaters?

Lin Xiushui shook her head repeatedly in fright, "Please don't."

“Sigh,” Li Xixian had no choice but to give up, then turned around and patted the iron rooster, “Then the young lady should make him a few more clothes. Once it grows feathers, I will take it out every day and make clothes for it every year.”

“A fighting cock should live like a fighting cock. My fighting cock, Li Xixian’s, should be different from others.”

Lin Xiushui rubbed her temples. What was all this nonsense? A man and a chicken were staring intently at her. She decided to just throw caution to the wind and say, "Fifty coins a piece. Chickens and people aren't the same price."

Li Xixian readily agreed, handing over 150 coins without hesitation. He also gave Lin Xiushui a thick red envelope, which she refused, taking only three coins as a token of her appreciation.

Watching the man and the chicken disappear into the distance, Lin Xiushui breathed a sigh of relief. She touched her hands and found them sweaty. The whole thing of banging drums and gongs to send her off as a promotional stunt was too daunting, so much so that she wasn't even that happy to receive 150 coins.

When they arrived at the clothing shop, Da Chunling was carrying bolts of cloth, while Lin Xiushui was carrying one bolt in each hand. Da Chunling carried two bolts in each hand and said to Lin Xiushui, "I brought you some crispy fried pork fat."

“My mother said that she has learned a little bit of your skills and wants to regard you as her master, so she asked me to bring some things to give you.”

Little Chun'e poked her round head out, carrying two bags of meat floss in her hands, and chattered, "My mother won't let us take advantage of you for nothing. This is meat floss, and this is lotus leaf cake. These are my mother's specialties. She said that next time she comes to our house, she will cook you a dish she has never cooked before, a lamb stew with four pieces."

Right now, mutton is 900 coins a pound, and it comes from Huzhou sheep.

Lin Xiushui scratched her head. "I feel really bad that you two are doing this. I'll have to remember what I know and teach you properly in the future."

She didn't completely refuse; instead, she accepted generously, promising to teach him properly after he ate, so that others could feel at ease.

The three of them happily shared the meat and fried dough, knowing that a full stomach would give them energy to get up early and go to work.

After ironing the pleated skirt today, Lin Xiushui still needs to iron six bolts of new fabric. Without help, she can't iron them all by herself. She also taught Da Chunling how to use a cloth pad and how to control the heat of the iron.

After finishing her work, she really didn't want to iron the cloth anymore, but when she saw Yu San Niangzi chatting with Gu Niangzi, she knew that the work she had promised earlier had finally come.

“I was just talking when a new piece of cloth arrived. Your wife said you have the eye of the cloth shop manager, so you can come and take a look for me,” said Yu San Niangzi as she walked over.

Lin Xiushui certainly wouldn't refuse; she also wanted to go to the tung oil workshop to check on the progress of her oilcloth gloves.

On the way, she asked Yu San Niangzi, "Madam, is the price of this oilcloth still two or three strings of cash per bolt? Do you have any cheaper options?"

"I want to buy some oilcloth from the oilcloth shop."

After thinking for a moment, Madam Yu said, "There are some cheap ones available. They are good oilcloths, the kind that have been coated with tung oil three or four times. The only problem is that the color of this kind of cloth is uneven and there are many spots. It costs 600 and a half bolts. If you want it, I will keep it for you."

Lin Xiushui actually had six hundred coins in her hand. After deducting the money she earned from various sources, the majority of the money came from the sachet money given to her by Li Xixian and Yao Niangzi, amounting to more than two hundred coins.

Lin Xiushui had saved up for a long time, but it was all gone in one go. She was heartbroken, but she was also so sure that she could make a fortune with her oilcloth gloves, provided they didn't leak.

The job that Yu San Niangzi asked her to do was not simple. The batch of cloth that needed to be ironed was quite ordinary, just fine silk, but Lin Xiushui couldn't iron it well no matter how many times she tried.

She said, "Let me take a look first."

She checked everything: the copper iron was fine, the cloth was fine, the stove was fine; her gaze then fell on the charcoal.

She believed there was definitely something wrong with the charcoal, as the copper base was not heated evenly. So she ironed the cloth with an iron, and when the temperature was just right, one side was able to be ironed flat, while the other side was still wrinkled.

She picked out the charcoal one by one, but couldn't figure out what it was; Lin Xiushui didn't have a good eye for these things.

She said, "My lady, this charcoal might not be very good; the cloth just won't iron properly."

Xu San Niangzi worried, "The charcoal master we used to work for went to Lin'an, and we haven't been able to find a good replacement. The one we have now isn't very useful either."

Lin Xiushui suddenly laughed and said confidently, "I have a friend who is very good at burning charcoal. If I ask her to help, she will definitely be able to tell."

Xiao Chun'e was a first-timer at the oilclothing workshop. When she heard the caller saying it was Lin Xiushui asking for her help, she came without hesitation. She was initially a little apprehensive, but when she saw Lin Xiushui, she hurried over and learned that she was asked to watch the charcoal fire and manage the stove.

She immediately lost her fear, went up to examine the charcoal, shook the charcoal basket and immediately saw that it was smoked charcoal from the charcoal fire pit, some was made from coal, and some was pine charcoal that doesn't produce smoke.

"Charcoal cannot be mixed together. Simmering charcoal must be placed together with simmering charcoal. Even simmered charcoal can vary in quality. Before burning, each piece of charcoal must be picked out individually. Lighter charcoal burns faster, while heavier charcoal glows red more slowly..."

Xiao Chun'e spoke without the slightest hesitation, and as she spoke, she had already taken out the fire tongs and picked out the charcoal piece by piece. She had a good eye and could tell even though the charcoal was almost completely black. She sorted it into piles, put it on the stove to burn, and then ironed the cloth to make it flat and neat.

The problem of ironing clothes at the oilcloth shop was solved by the two young women. Xu San Niangzi even gave them a roll of oilcloth and thirty coins, telling them to come to the oilcloth shop often.

Xiao Chun'e said after she left the house, "A Qiao, feel my hands, they're shaking a lot. This is my first time burning charcoal outside."

“You did a great job,” Lin Xiushui said, gesturing with her hands. “When I saw you back then, you were like a candle shining in the black coals.”

"Once you learn how to burn lots of charcoal, who knows, if I ever want to see you again, I might have to go to the oil and candle department to invite you."

Xiao Chun'e was happy, feeling that she had finally gained recognition from outsiders for her charcoal-making skills. But when she heard Lin Xiushui say that, she lightly hit her with an oilcloth, saying, "If you make fun of me again, I'll hit you."

Lin Xiushui had to go to the tung oil workshop, so Xiao Chun'e had to leave first. Yu Liuniang had already gone home, so she went in alone.

When she received the oilcloth gloves that everyone in the tung oil workshop had used, she blinked. They were completely different from the smooth and clean ones she had imagined.

She couldn't believe her eyes; the gloves looked like the bumpy skin on a toad.

A woman who makes tung oil umbrellas said, "These gloves are the best to use at first, but after a while, as more tung oil drips on them, there are tung oil sacs on them, which we scrape off with a spatula."

“But these gloves are better than empty hands,” the other woman said. “We just don’t need to use oilcloth much; some lighter fabric will do.”

Lin Xiushui noted down everyone's needs, collected the oilcloth gloves, and prepared to exchange them for a new batch of linen gloves.

But what to do with these old gloves?

Lin Xiushui and Zhang the carpenter stared at each other, and she tried to explain herself: "Tung oil can smooth a table, so it should work on gloves too, right..."

“Uncle Zhang, you can’t stick to old rules. Look at me, I mend clothes, and I do all sorts of odd jobs. As long as I can sew, I can make money.”

Carpenter Zhang coughed. He had no intention of turning the job away. He cleared his throat and said, "I was just thinking about whether to make a hand mold to fit in. Remember to pay me."

Lin Xiushui knew that no one would refuse money that was offered to them.

The gloves, which had been polished, were rough. Lin Xiushui took them back, carefully soaked them in tung oil, and hung them upside down to dry in the wind.

Wang Yuelan came out to pour water and was startled by several pairs of gloves under the eaves. She touched her trembling heart, stepped across the threshold and said, "Aqiao, what are you doing with oilcloth gloves again? Do you want to start a business in this field?"

Lin Xiushui tapped her neck, put down the brush, and said, "I want to do this business."

She told Wang Yuelan about her plan: "These gloves are the simplest thing to make. If they can be waterproof, I can sell them to people in the laundry industry."

As for making gloves without other fabrics, they still need to be sold. For now, besides using tung oil, she can't find anyone else to buy cloth gloves.

But if the oilcloth gloves sell, the laundry women in the laundry industry will definitely be her potential customers.

The laundry shop was next to the perfume shop. Unlike the perfume shop, which was surrounded by fragrant hot water and steaming, the laundry shop used cold water drawn from the river to wash clothes all year round. In winter, the water froze into ice, so they would break the ice shards, heat them on a stove, and wash them after the water thawed.

Xiao Jiu, who was washing linen clothes, said to Lin Xiushui, "Everyone says there are three hardships in the world: rowing a boat, blacksmithing, and grinding tofu. I say washing clothes is the hardest. Look at my hands."

Lin Xiushui put the oilcloth gloves on and looked at Xiao Jiu's hands. Her knuckles were thick and red, and when she turned them over, her fingers were covered in blister packs, white and wrinkled.

“We have to wring, beat, pound, starch, and soak the clothes to wash them,” Xiao Jiu smiled. “You have to use your hands for everything. If you really have something that can wash clothes well, I’ll buy it for twenty coins.”

Lin Xiushui shook her head. "I don't need you to buy it now. Take it and try it out. Wash it for a few days and see how long it takes for water to seep in. If it does seep in, come to Gu's Clothing Shop and find me. I'm working there."

"Don't wear them if you feel uncomfortable. I've tried these gloves before. Like linen clothes, if you beat them a lot, they'll soften up after you wear them a few times."

Xiao Jiu took the ten pairs of gloves handed to her, still thinking from the bottom of her heart that these things were strange. Could they be some kind of novelty from abroad?

But they didn't take her money; they just told her to share it with everyone. It was made of oilcloth, and everyone was happy to get free oilcloth.

So Xiao Jiu took the oilcloth gloves and went into the workshop where linen and linen clothes were washed. Whoever's hands hurt the most, whoever's hands were soaked until they were chafed, got the gloves.

She brought her own pair and squeezed them hard. It felt like something was clamped around her hands, which was very uncomfortable. When she was rubbing clothes, her hands weren't as nimble as her own.

But after washing a few clothes, a woman in the corner exclaimed with delight, "I like this stuff. It keeps my hands warm even when soaked in cold water. My hands have been cracked and painful these past few days, so I can't touch soapy water."

"If you have these gloves, your hands won't hurt. You can wash a few more clothes and earn two more coins a day. Two more coins a day means you can buy two more liters of rice a month."

"Xiao Jiu, where did you get it? Go ask her quickly."

After finishing her work at the clothing store, Lin Xiushui saw Xiao Jiu and asked in surprise, "It got wet so quickly?"

Is what she makes really that bad?

"No, no," Xiao Jiu denied repeatedly, clutching the hem of her clothes, "We think they're useful and wanted to buy more from you. How much is one of these?"

“The oilcloth is expensive, and the tung oil is expensive. It costs twenty coins a pair. How many of you are ordering? It will take three or four days to get it. The tung oil needs to be applied several times,” Lin Xiushui replied. “Also, the gloves will leak. If you come to me within a month, I guarantee I will fix them. After a month, I will not care anymore.”

This is already the lowest price she can offer, because these gloves will still leak, so she can't sell them for too high a price. She'll wait until she has enough money to soak the oilcloth in tung oil for three or four days, and then it will be basically leak-free, and she can sell them for a higher price.

Xiao Jiu nodded repeatedly, "I need forty pairs first."

Forty pairs cost eight hundred cash. Lin Xiushui bought half a bolt of oilcloth for six hundred cash. Half a bolt of cloth could make sixty pairs of gloves. Two jars of tung oil were bought from the stubborn oil seller. He wanted better quality oil for two hundred cash.

Lin Xiushui received 300 coins as a deposit, but 200 coins were gone. With the remaining 100 coins, she bought paste, copper tweezers, needles, hemp thread, strips of cloth, and so on to replenish her meager tools.

She visited about twenty shops in the southern goods market before finally buying what she needed at the lowest price.

She came out carrying her things, feeling like she was robbing Peter to pay Paul, wondering why her savings were dwindling.

Later she realized that it was because she wasn't earning enough money.

After returning home, Lin Xiushui had two helpers when she was making oilcloth gloves. Her aunt helped her cut the oilcloth gloves to the right size, Xiaohe helped her separate the left and right sides, and Lin Xiushui sewed the threads.

The courtyard smelled of tung oil at night. The two families next door had just finished work and were cooking. Cats were meowing on the eaves, and birds on the opposite bank were singing. Lin Xiushui hummed a tune as she slowly sewed gloves.

Xiaohe leaned on the table and asked, "Why do we need to make so many sets of cloth for the hands?"

“It’s for people whose hands are constantly in the water,” Lin Xiushui said. “It’s called a hand protector.”

As she spoke, she sewed a pair of gloves, made a small hole, threaded hemp thread through it, and made a rope of suitable length so that she could hang it around her neck to prevent the gloves from slipping down if they were the wrong size.

In the middle of the night, unable to sleep, she got up and saw gloves hanging all over the yard. She thought to herself that if a thief were to steal them, she would be scared half to death.

After cutting out all the glove designs, Lin Xiushui shook the scraps of fabric into a bag. She didn't need them right now, but since her sewing business had picked up, she had to carefully collect even the cut threads, fearing she might need them someday.

That morning, Lin Xiushui set up her stall as usual. She liked to carefully check her tools while waiting for customers.

Later, she could never forget that day. Early in the morning, a man came from afar carrying two pig stomachs and asked her if she could get some nourishment.

She said pig's stomach is good for your health.

When someone handed her a pig's stomach, she thought it was a gift to eat and pretended to be polite. Little did she know, to hell with it, they wanted her to sew it up!

Author's Note: The next chapter will be updated tomorrow night at 11:30 PM. Sorry! [Please][Please]

Red envelopes will be given out in this chapter! [Sprinkling flowers]