The rain continued for three days and was getting heavier. Chunxiao was getting anxious because she couldn't burn or sell the charcoal. She looked outside and suddenly remembered that the hut was dry and could burn charcoal. It wouldn't affect her. She was really confused.
Now that it's raining and there's no one around, it's okay to stay outside during the day.
She got to work right away. There was ready-made hay in the straw shed, so she quickly built two firewood racks and covered them with dry grass. It was easiest to get mud now, so she made the earthen mounds and set them on fire. Then she stayed in the shed. However, the space in the shed was limited. After piling up the hay and building two earthen mounds, there was not much room left for her to make a bonfire. Although there was heat inside the earthen mounds, it was still cold to sit in them.
After two hours of sitting, she couldn't stand it any longer. She went back inside, put on another thin cotton coat, and continued watching. She sat outside for nearly four or five hours, waiting until both fires were shut down before washing her hands and returning home. By the time she finally slid into the quilt, her feet were cold and her body was no longer warm. Fortunately, the charcoal had started burning again.
Two days later, it was still raining, sometimes stopping and sometimes not. It might snow at any time. If it snowed, there would be no way to travel. Chunxiao decided that if it didn't rain much tomorrow, she would go to the town no matter what. First, she had to sell the charcoal quickly, and second, she had to go to the town to buy cloth and needles and thread. It would be difficult to carry cotton in the rain, so she had to bring back a few pounds at least.
In the afternoon, she collected charcoal from two kilns and then started working on two more. When she finished work, she was shivering with cold. She was afraid that if this happened too often, she would get sick from the cold, so she had to buy a thick cotton jacket.
The next morning, she got up early. Perhaps it was a blessing from the weather, as it was still raining, but it was just a drizzle. She padded the outer wall of the backpack with straw mats, filled the backpack to the brim, covered it with the straw mats, put on a straw raincoat and a bamboo hat, and went out with the backpack on her back.
It had been raining for so long that the road was muddy everywhere. Her shoes soon got wet and dirty. She didn't care about that and kept looking at the road carefully, for fear of falling and ruining all her efforts.
She took an hour and a half to walk a distance that usually took an hour, and this was because she sped up.
She went straight to Fuqiu Lane, her shoes already worn out of shape. The first thing she had to do was to find her old customers. She knocked on the door of the family where she had bought charcoal before. The servant who opened the door recognized her immediately and said, "Are you here to sell charcoal? Wait." Before she could say anything, the man had already run away. A moment later, the old man came over and was obviously very happy to see her. "Oh, girl, you're here! Come on, come in! It's still raining outside."
Chunxiao followed him into the yard and asked, "Uncle, does your family need charcoal today?"
"Yes, yes. It's raining now, so the charcoal sellers won't come out, and we're short of some." The old man looked at her basket and asked, "Is this all you have?"
Chunxiao nodded. "I only came out today because the rain wasn't heavy. If it had been any heavier, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to get out." She put down the backpack and lifted the straw curtain. "Feel it. I've covered the charcoal tightly. It's all dry."
The old man nodded and asked the servant beside him to weigh it for her. Today's charcoal weighed 52 catties. She received 3 taels and 120 coins. The old man gave her the backpack he had been using. When she was about to leave with the money, he stopped her and said, "Girl, will you come back tomorrow?"
Chunxiao looked at him and said, "I don't know whether I will come tomorrow or not. It depends on the weather. If the rain is as heavy as today, I may or may not come. It's hard to say." It was really a torture to go out in the rain. Her feet were cold now. If it weren't for the comfort of this silver, she would never come a second time.
"The weather is getting worse and worse. We need to prepare some charcoal at home early. The lack of charcoal these past two days has made my wife very worried. I think you have good charcoal. If it is convenient for you, please send me another 200 kilograms in the next two days."
"200 pounds?" Chunxiao hurried to confirm in case she misheard.
"Yeah, 200 pounds isn't a lot. It'll only last about 10 days."
Chun Xiao thought for a moment and said, "Okay, if the rain isn't heavy, I'll find a way to send it to you. But if it's heavy, there's nothing I can do. If the charcoal I send is wet, you won't be able to use it."
"Then I'll wait for you."
After leaving the customer's house, Chunxiao went straight to the bamboo craftsman's shop.
Today she was going shopping, and the backpack she was carrying was dirty from having stored charcoal there, so she had to buy a clean one, a big one at that. After buying the backpack, she went to the grocery store again. She had seen cotton there before, and when she asked the price, it was 50 wen per jin. Now the weather was bad, and Chunxiao was afraid it would rain heavily, so she didn't care about the price at all. She asked the store owner to weigh out 10 jin of cotton and gave her a sack. She asked the store owner to press the cotton firmly into her backpack, and before leaving the store, she bought a straw raincoat to cover the backpack.
After buying the cotton, she headed straight for the cloth shop. Once inside, she didn't bother choosing, selecting a bolt of blue and gray coarse cotton cloth. Seeing that the shop also sold shoes, she also picked out a pair of cotton shoes. In total, she spent 1 liang (approximately 200 taels) and 680 wen (approximately 100 taels) there. Business was slow due to the rain, and the owner, seeing she'd bought so much, gave her a large supply of needlework. This owner knew how to manage business, and that's how he kept customers coming back. She stuffed all the cloth she'd bought into her backpack, nearly bursting with it.
After buying the things, she started her journey back.
It was still drizzling, and the wind made her face feel cold. Her body was fine, but her feet were wet and uncomfortable. She was now fighting for money.
20 kilograms of carbon needs to be carried at least four times. I'm afraid she can't do it in this condition. If she does it more than once, she will definitely catch a cold. In this era of scarce medical care, colds are also very deadly. Don't try your best to earn money, but end up not being able to enjoy it. I'm afraid she will have to ask her brothers for help in the end.
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