Chapter 78 Little Fish Gets a Haircut Dad, You Should Be Sick

"Many publishers want to publish 'Shanghai's Road to Wealth,' and also want to reprint 'The Biography of Ding Xian'?"

Yao Xiaoyu was somewhat surprised. With the success of Ding Xian's Biography, it was inevitable that Miao Youjin would be popular. But Ding Xian's Biography was going to be reprinted so quickly... Considering the sales boom described by the bookstore owner, it didn't seem too unexpected.

"Ding Xian's products sold so well that even I couldn't get one."

Pi Kangxiu was still explaining in the first half of his sentence, but the second half carried a hint of resentment. He had originally planned to buy it after get off work, but on his way back, he went to several bookstores and couldn't find a single one.

He was the editor who reviewed Ding Xian's biography!

"Who wants to publish it, and what are the royalties and print runs?"

Yao Xiaoyu was startled by Pi Kangxiu's resentment and tried to change the subject to the book's publication—she didn't know about others, but she really didn't have a sample copy of Ding Xianchuan's book!

"Many people are interested in Shanghai's path to wealth, including the Commercial Press, Liming Academy, and the History Press..."

Ding Xian's book sold such impressive sales that profit-driven investors, drawn by the scent of money, flocked to it, each offering increasingly attractive terms and conditions—a truly enticing and tempting prospect.

"Remove all publishers who want me to cooperate with their promotional efforts or make significant revisions to their articles."

Yao Xiaoyu frowned and said that she was not afraid of becoming famous, but not in the next few years, or rather, she preferred not to reveal her true identity until the Yao family's debts were paid off.

The reason for refusing to revise the text is even simpler and more direct: it costs extra!

Pi Kangxiu responded, and with a stroke of his brush on the paper, several of the publisher's names were quickly removed.

"I want to get rid of publishers with a reputation for misappropriating royalties and manipulating sales contracts. I just want to make some money peacefully and don't want to be involved in lawsuits everywhere."

With a stroke of the brush, the name was reduced by half.

"If the royalty is below 10% and the print run is less than 10,000 copies, or if either of these two conditions is met, the application will be rejected."

After screening through all the criteria, only five or six companies remained. Yao Xiaoyu chose the one with the best overall conditions, entrusted the signing of the contract to Pi Kangxiu and Editor-in-Chief Bei, took the manuscript fee, and left, waiting to collect the royalties next time.

The reprint of Ding Xian's biography was given to Kaiming Bookstore, based on the idea that it's better to do what you already know than what you don't. This time, however, they requested that a contract be signed and royalties be paid.

What if you disagree?

Pi Kangxiu asked tentatively, and Yao Xiaoyu's answer was anything but tactful.

"Then let's change publishers."

They renewed their contract with Kaiming Bookstore because they were familiar with the process and it was convenient. Don't they understand the value of a seller's market?

Three minutes later.

Yao Xiaoyu happily brought out thirty silver dollars, skillfully waved and hailed a rickshaw, asking it to take them to the best restaurant nearby. The driver took them to the entrance of the restaurant with the Lao Zhengxing sign, and then ran off like the wind, pocketing the silver dollars he had just received.

Everyone's been saying that a rich man has appeared in Shanghai recently who'll give you silver dollars for every short walk he takes. I never thought I'd run into him today!

Lao Zhengxing specializes in Ningbo and Shaoxing cuisine, but instead of recommending common dishes like braised eel with fish maw or braised pork hock with tofu skin and rock sugar, they emphasized that their signature dish is steamed grass carp. They explained that grass carp has a strong earthy smell and is usually prepared with heavy oil and soy sauce to mask its flavor, but steaming it...

"One dish, please. And another braised eel with pork belly. I just saw you had some water spinach over there."

Yao Xiaoyu is from the South, where water spinach is a staple for months on end during the summer. During the day, she stir-fries the leaves with minced garlic, and at night she stir-fries the stems with chili peppers. After removing the cleaning and preparation work, it can be served in five minutes. This provincial dish, which she has eaten since childhood along with pomelo peel, seems quite rare in this era.

"You mean water spinach, right? It's a bit expensive, and right now it's the only vegetable we have at home..."

The waiter didn't elaborate, but his meaning was clear: Yao Xiaoyu knew she was going to suffer a major hemorrhage, but she hadn't eaten water spinach in a long time and was really craving it.

"Give me a plate, just the stems, not the leaves, cut them into 1-inch lengths, sauté them with minced garlic, fermented black beans, and red chili peppers, add salt and stir-fry until the stems are soft, then it's ready to serve."

Yao Xiaoyu gave detailed instructions, explaining that this was the usual way of cooking water spinach in her hometown. In some places, vinegar is added when stir-frying water spinach, while in others, tomato juice is added. Normally, Yao Xiaoyu eats the dishes that the cooks usually prepare, except when she has dietary restrictions. But today, she felt inexplicably melancholy and decided to indulge herself.

The steamed grass carp was served with rice. The rice was placed at the bottom of a large bowl, separated by cabbage leaves in the middle. The fish on top was sprinkled with shredded ginger and chopped green onions and seasoned with soy sauce. When you took a bite, the fish had a hint of rice aroma, which was quite unique.

The water spinach stems were stir-fried until crisp and cooked through, with a spicy and fragrant flavor. The strong-flavored fish meat was balanced with a light taste, and the refreshing vegetables were surprisingly delicious. The reversal of flavors between the ingredients was quite wonderful. After just two dishes, Yao Xiaoyu had already marked this restaurant.

Having eaten and drunk her fill, with the crisp autumn air, it was the perfect weather for sleeping. Without any writing assignments, Yao Xiaoyu lay around for days, feeling completely exhausted. But she couldn't go on like this. She racked her brains and finally remembered that her family had found her a job that she could do once the weather cooled down. So she went down to the job.

"Mother, where is the work we talked about before?"

Wenrou was styling her hair with wood shaving water when Yao Xiaoyu startled her. She pulled hard and almost pulled out several strands of hair.

"When your brother comes back, ask him about the job he found for you."

Wenrou looked up and saw the wispy hairs on Yao Xiaoyu's head, and her eyebrows immediately furrowed.

"You're all grown up now, you need to comb your hair neatly to look good..."

Yao Xiaoyu pretended not to hear, took Tao Xiaoxiao out, and only breathed a sigh of relief after getting into the rickshaw—let her use hair oil or wood shavings water? Just kill her!

In this era, there were no modern headbands with a wide variety of styles, and combs couldn't keep all the stray hairs in place, but that doesn't mean people couldn't handle frizzy hair.

Hair oil and wood shaving water are the secrets to taming hair in this era.

Needless to say, hair oil is a powerful tool for making hair smooth and soft. In the novel "Dream of the Red Chamber," there is a line that says, "The daughter is worried because she has no money to buy osmanthus oil." In the famous song, there is a line that says, "Combing a head of oil is like smelling osmanthus." Osmanthus is the most common scent, but there are other scents as well.

Before the Yao family went bankrupt, Wenrou used Baihua hair oil, which had a rich but not greasy fragrance. Later, it became cheaper and cheaper, until it became water comb. Now that the family is better off, they can't afford to buy hair oil and just use wood shaving water instead.

Wood shaving water is not the water used by carpenters to shave wood. It is a gel-like substance extracted from thin elm bark by soaking it in boiling water. Its function is similar to modern mousse and hair gel. Because it is cheap, women with limited means often buy some to style their hair. At this time, the actors in the opera also applied wood shaving water to their hair in addition to glue.

But no matter what hair oil, gel, or hairspray she used to, Yao Xiaoyu couldn't stand the feeling of them on her head. She was used to clean, straight hair that she could easily run her hands through. Even in modern times, she would tie her hair in a high ponytail, put on a small crown headband, and run around everywhere. Her parents knew her habit and bought her a bunch of small crowns, so she could have a different one every day for three months—

Modern labor is both valuable and worthless; for a hundred or so yuan, you can get a hairpin maker's completely handmade works. She has an acrylic shelf that takes up several square meters, and no two crowns or hairbands inside are exactly alike.

Thinking of all her treasures, Yao Xiaoyu sighed. She was destined to be forever separated from Western-style dressing—the trend of Western influence on the East was becoming increasingly intense, and although one more Yao Xiaoyu wouldn't make a difference, one less of her wouldn't make a difference either.

"When do you think women will cut off their braids like men?"

Yao Xiaoyu sighed and asked Tao Xiaoxiao, "Your hair is so thick and abundant that it's a moving sight. You don't need a hairpiece to wear a whole set of hair accessories. It keeps you warm in winter, but it's really hot and heavy in summer."

Tao Xiaoxiao couldn't imagine what she would look like with short hair. Back in the Republic of China era, some men in Taojia Village had cut their hair. The wealthy wore melon-shaped hats and bought fake braids to keep on hand, while the poor wore straw hats. Even in the summer, they would get heat rash on their heads but still refused to show their heads. But they had changed their ways. Women's hair, however, was always long, unless they were sick or became nuns.

Yao Xiaoyu calculated when Chinese women started cutting their hair short and was devastated to find that the earliest was 1927. Her initial thought of just enduring it was gone. After eating, she inquired about the location of the female hairdresser and learned from Tao Jingu that there was a traveling doctor who was leaving Shanghai in a couple of days. Before she could even use her money to get back, she was told where the doctor worked.

The Yao family used their wealth to get Yao Xiaoyu a job as a librarian in the newly built Zhonghua Bookstore's library.

Although she was called a librarian, she was actually more like a visitor to the library. She didn't need to do anything from compiling catalogs to transporting books. All Yao Xiaoyu had to do was show up for work. As long as she didn't damage the books, she could read or copy them as she pleased.

Yao Xiaoyu might have been indifferent to other jobs, but this one really resonated with her – the weekly borrowing of four books and the newspapers and magazines she usually bought couldn't satisfy her soul, which was used to modern reading speed. If it weren't for the fear of danger and not knowing where to go, Yao Xiaoyu would have gone to Anhui or Hunan, or to the Catholic library. [1]

For Yao Xiaoyu, Zhonghua Bookstore's library was like a dream come true. She was so happy that she almost forgot about using her money powers. Fortunately, when she shook her head, the pain from her swaying braid hitting her back reminded her that she had something to do.

"Dad, have you been sick lately?"

Yao Xiaoyu changed the subject too quickly, and Yao Ping'an didn't have time to react, subconsciously shaking his head.

"No……"

Yao Xiaoyu interrupted Yao Ping'an before he could finish speaking.

"Dad, you're sick."

A stack of silver dollars was slapped on the table. Zhou Chunhua, with her keen eye for counting money every day, recognized it at a glance—exactly ten!

"I……"

Yao Ping'an realized something, but before he could speak, Zhou Chunhua quickly covered his mouth and nodded repeatedly.

"That's right, the weather can change in an instant. Your father has been feeling very delirious lately."

Yao Xiaoyu nodded in satisfaction, but then looked worried.

"The itinerant doctor who will come tomorrow wants my hair as a medicinal ingredient to cure his illness. As his dutiful daughter, I can only cut my hair with tears in my eyes for my father's sake."

Zhou Chunhua was about to explode when she heard this, but when she saw Yao Xiaoyu bid another five silver dollars, she immediately put on a smile.

“You’re doing this out of filial piety, which is understandable, but it doesn’t look good for a girl to have a shaved head.”

Yao Xiaoyu had no intention of becoming a nun and decisively stated:

"The itinerant doctor only said he needed a foot-long hair. I suppose if the hair is used in the medicine, my father will be much better the next day."

The two of them worked together to settle the matter, while the others stared blankly at the two drama queens in front of them, feeling that they were still too ignorant.

But the power of money is limitless, so the next day, a gasp came from the Yao family's courtyard. Yao's second daughter ran out with tears in her eyes and "happened" to be at the itinerant doctor at the crossroads. After diagnosing the illness, the doctor said that the prescription was not expensive, but the medicinal ingredient was hard to find. The filial Yao Xiaoyu was in tears and vowed to dig three feet into the ground to find the medicinal ingredient.

"The key ingredient for this medicine is the hair of a young girl in her prime who is related to the Yao family by blood."

Yao Xiaoyu was reluctant to part with her long hair, but she still nodded with tears in her eyes. The itinerant doctor then said that if it was cut by someone in a certain year and month, then only a foot in length would be needed.

These words were overheard by a passing woman. Touched by Yao Xiaoyu's filial piety, the woman offered to cut Yao Xiaoyu's hair, saying that she was born at that time.

The itinerant doctor's prescription was very effective. The eldest son of the Yao family drank the medicine and recovered the next day. However, the second daughter of the Yao family suffered because her long black hair only reached her back. Fortunately, the woman who took the initiative to help was from a family that had been hairdressing for generations and was highly skilled. Her short hair did not affect her appearance.

-----------------------

Author's Note: Passerby: That Yao family's second daughter is truly filial!

————

Unlike today, free libraries are not readily available in that era. Most of the books were kept in the homes of certain families or institutions. The only common point was that they were not easily accessible. That's why Yao Xiaoyu was so excited about the book list provided by Editor Bei and so satisfied with the work of the library.

————

[1] In 1916, the Zhonghua Book Company established a library; in 1847, the Shanghai Xujiahui Catholic Church Library was established in China and is considered the first modern library in China; in 1901, Anhui established the first formal public library; in 1904, the Hunan Library and Education Museum used the term "library" for the first time.

————

————