Wu Chunhua was also tossing and turning at night, with several bags of rice and flour in her room, still pure white rice. Who could stand that?!
The next morning, seeing the dark circles under her mother's and Wu's eyes, Qin San Niang wondered to herself, "Didn't anyone sleep well? But the beds in this inn are quite comfortable!"
After a while, I saw them looking radiant as they called the children to eat, carry goods, and set off, and I realized I had been worrying too much.
After everyone paid their bill and prepared to leave, the waiter hurriedly came over and handed Qin San Niang a fluffy little dog. He had found it at his neighbor's house the day before.
That woman is a nice one; she even gave him a bag of winter melon candy yesterday. Candy isn't cheap, and his mother loves sweets. The guy still diligently went to look for the dog.
Upon seeing the dog, Qin San Niang fell in love with it at first sight. In her previous life, she had been very fond of police dogs in the police force, especially her senior brother's dog, which was particularly intelligent and brave. However, as a forensic doctor, she was neither allowed nor had the time to train dogs.
The young man gave him a wolfhound. Don't be fooled by its small size now; it will grow fast and soon be enormous!
Qin San Niang was very grateful to the young shop assistant for helping her so much. After thinking for a moment, she took out another tael of silver and gave it to him as a thank you gift, which should be enough to cover the dog's expenses!
Unexpectedly, the woman gave him another tael of silver. The waiter felt a little embarrassed, as he wanted to say that the dog hadn't actually cost him any money.
The neighbor's dog had given birth to puppies, and the family was barely able to afford food, let alone a dog. He was overjoyed to see the man looking for his dog; how could he possibly ask for money? However, the money was enough for the mother and puppies to have a good winter; they needed to replace their winter blankets…
In the end, the shopkeeper reluctantly accepted the money, then turned and ran back to the kitchen, packed a large bag of flat steamed buns, and handed them to Qin San Niang and her family for their journey. Naturally, he received another round of thanks!
The children were overjoyed by Xiaobai's arrival. Anan and Xiaoer kept asking to hold Xiaobai to sleep. At that moment, they were arguing about who could get Xiaobai tonight, and finally reached an agreement that each of them would get to sleep with Xiaobai for one day!
Qin San Niang also liked the little wolfhound very much; it looked intelligent! Just like its owner, it was indeed a dog she had raised!
But thinking about the dog hair flying everywhere, and reminding the kids to be careful, and then realizing that people on the road aren't much cleaner than dogs, I stopped talking.
Amidst the children's chatter, Fatty drove the mule cart away from Luzhou City, heading towards the unknown south.
Once outside Luzhou City, it seemed like we were back in the same situation as three days ago. Outside the city was a vast wilderness, and a winding official road stretched into the distance. Along the road, there were many groups of refugees, visibly more numerous than those outside the north gate of Luzhou City.
Perhaps it was because they felt very safe inside the mule cart.
The carriage separated them from the outside world, at least they no longer had to worry about being directly exposed to the public eye, and they seemed much more at ease.
Qin San Niang and Pang Ya sat together on the carriage floor, driving the carriage. The weather was sunny now, and the scorching sun of the past few days was gone. A slightly cool breeze was blowing, which was quite pleasant. Remembering that they still had winter clothes and quilts to make, they hurried back to the carriage to talk to Liu Shi and the others.
“Mother, Sister Chunhua, the weather is getting colder, we need to make winter clothes and quilts.”
"I was just about to tell you about this. Fatty and I both brought a leather padded jacket, which we can wear in a few days, so there's no rush. But I noticed that none of the children have any warm clothes yet, so we'll make some for the children and you first," Wu Chunhua quickly said. She had heard Qin San Niang mention making clothes and quilts yesterday, and she remembered it all. She had already taken the children's measurements.
“Alright, sister-in-law, you decide what to do. Let’s make the ones for the child and the mother first.”
The supermarket sells thermal underwear and down vests, so she's not worried about the kids getting cold. She could even give them to the kids if necessary, but she'd need a reason. Now that she has cotton and fabric, she might as well make the clothes herself. It would be better than wearing strange clothes and would save her a lot of unnecessary trouble.
Liu and his group stepped aside slightly, took the seat cover from the car, and several bolts of cloth were presented in front of everyone.
Upon seeing such a variety of fabrics, Wu Chunhua was speechless with surprise. She had thought that some linen would be fine enough, but she never expected that there would be fine cotton fabric as well!
"This fabric feels so nice! Third Aunt, this will make nice and comfortable clothes for the child."
Wu Chunhua loves handicrafts, and she couldn't wait to get started when she saw such good fabric. How beautiful it would be if she could make several identical sets of clothes for her dolls to wear!
"There is plenty of cotton cloth. I plan to make two sets of clothes for each person, one linen and one cotton, and at least three cotton quilts."
As for the possibility of not having enough cotton, there's no need to worry. She plans to get some silk floss from the supermarket, which is softer, warmer, and lighter.
Wu Chunhua thought for a moment and said, "Make the linen winter clothes bigger so they can be worn over the clothes when it gets really cold, and they'll keep you warm! Also, make the winter quilts three jin each, so we can make four. If it gets really cold, we can fold them up and use them as blankets." If there are any left over, we can make smaller quilts for the little ones.
Upon hearing this, Liu also thought it was a good idea! She was a midwife, and although she did her chores at home, well, many times Qin San Niang thought that her mother, who was also a working woman, did not do these delicate things as well as Wu Chunhua.
As for kapok, it was quite different from cotton in later generations. To make it softer and warmer, the children were entrusted with the important task of tearing kapok leaves by their mothers, grandmothers, and aunts!
Qin San Niang knew that cotton needed to be carded, but she didn't know whether kapok needed to be carded. Similarly, wouldn't it be better if it were carded? But under the current conditions, it was impossible to do so. She could only have the children tear the kapok into small pieces, the finer the better.
The kids all said they really enjoyed this activity.
The little ones sat together in the carriage, surrounded by a pile of kapok trees, and began to happily tear them apart.
Doing this job is really stress-relieving, and Qin San Niang was having a great time tearing them apart.
At midday, several women still needed to go outside the cart to cook food. The cart shed was piled with cloth and kapok; what if it caught fire accidentally? Besides, they didn't have a small stove!
Fatty stopped the mule cart and led the mule to the roadside to graze and drink water. The mule needed to be well taken care of; it was their only means of survival and they couldn't be careless.
Liu counted the items; there were twenty large steamed buns the young waiter had given her. If they were eaten sparingly, they could last for several days. Besides, there were also leftover sesame cakes, all excellent foods. She then instructed them to cook some millet porridge and dig up some wild vegetables for a cold salad.
Everyone nodded and began to split up.
Wu Chunhua cooked porridge and rice, while Qin San Niang and Da Wa'er went to find wild vegetables and fetch water in the surrounding area. The remaining two little children sat with their grandmother under the shade of a tree. In order to prevent Liu Shi from doing any work, Qin San Niang let the little girl listen to her grandmother tell stories. Liu Shi was very good at telling stories about the King of Han.
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