Chapter 119 Chapter 119 Making Winter Clothes
The last time they made clothes, they didn't have much money, and Pei Ying said she already had clothes to wear so she didn't make any.
This time, the whole family made winter clothes together.
The housekeeper calculated the bills, and Lin Chuntao said, "Madam, please remember this. We still have one more person to do. We'll come and measure the dimensions later."
Lin Chuntao took Lin Chunxing and the others to the fur shop, but it was not open yet.
Lin Chunxing said, "Sister, I'll go back to the stall first and ask my brother-in-law to come over and measure my size. I'll look at the shoes later."
"Let's go back together." Lin Chuntao said. Lin Chunxing waved her hand and said, "Why make two trips? You guys wait here for brother-in-law to come. I'm going first."
With that, he ran off in a flash. Lin Duoer chased after him, "Second sister, I'll go with you to look after the stall."
Lin Chunxing paused and waited for her when she heard the voice, but the two sisters disappeared after turning a corner.
Lin Chunhe pursed her lips and smiled: "I guess Duo'er will ask my second sister to buy her something."
Lin Chuntao smiled and said, "Mutton pie?"
Lin Chunhe raised her eyebrows slightly, and Lin Chuntao said helplessly: "It's as if I won't buy it for her."
Lin Chunhe smiled and said, "She might like you and my second sister to buy one for her."
Listening to Lin Chunhe's words, Lin Chuntao suddenly remembered that she was in charge of the money, Lin Chunxing always had money in her hands due to her business, but Lin Chunhe was busy at home and seemed to have no money at all.
Lin Chuntao said, "I'll talk to your second sister in a couple of days. From now on, all the money we earn will be shared, but each of us will take some money every month and keep it for ourselves."
Lin Chunhe: "Well, then you can help me take care of my share."
Lin Chuntao: “…”
"If I help you manage it, wouldn't my previous words be in vain? Now you have your own room, put it away yourself."
Lin Chunhe listened to Lin Chuntao's words and said, "The money in the family is earned by you and my second sister. I can just tell you what I want to buy."
"Nonsense," Lin Chuntao interrupted her, her expression rather serious. "We're a family, and we all work. You can't say whoever does the work gets paid for it earns it. I often go into the mountains and come to the county town to run errands, but aren't you responsible for the household affairs? You also get a share of the money from selling the sauce, including Duo'er. She's young, so I'm not sure I can assign her any work, but she cuts grass for the pigs and feeds the chickens and pigs every day, so she's also making money for our family."
When Lin Chunhe heard what Lin Chuntao said, her eyes became watery.
Lin Chuntao said, "You have a calm temperament and can handle all the tedious household chores. When you learn how to make sauce in the future, I'll leave this to you while I'm doing other things. Duo'er said she wants to learn tailoring, so let her try. I'll be relieved that the three of you will each have your own skills to make a living."
After hearing what Lin Chuntao said, Lin Chunhe felt uneasy.
She watched Lin Chuntao teach Lin Chunxing how to make noodle soup and braised eggs to make money, and watched Duo'er prepare to become an apprentice to learn the craft. She also wondered if she should learn to do something too, but she tossed and turned and seemed to have no idea what to learn, and she fell asleep while thinking about it.
I didn't expect to hear Lin Chuntao say today that she wanted to hand over the business of making the sauce to her.
Seeing her like this, Lin Chuntao asked doubtfully, "You don't think I've made arrangements for your second sister and Duo'er, but only left you out, do you?"
Lin Chunhe shook her head slightly, "No."
Lin Chuntao patted her head. "Yes, yes. Blame me for not telling you clearly. If we sell our sauce to other places in the future, we might have to make a lot. We'll have to collect beans, chilies, spices, manage the workers, and make the sauce. I think you're the most stable and do things properly, so I thought about it a long time ago and will leave this matter to you."
Lin Chunhe nodded, "Don't worry, sister, I will definitely do it well."
Lin Chuntao smiled with gentle eyes.
"Well, I believe you."
As soon as the two sisters finished speaking, they saw Pei Ying appear around the corner.
Lin Chuntao waved her hand, and only after Pei Ying came over did they go back into the cloth shop together.
The housekeeper called the tailor to take Pei Ying's measurements. They were old acquaintances. After the measurements, Lin Chuntao explained the style details. Pei Ying also tried on two pairs of new cloth shoes and recalculated the cost.
Two sets of clothes for each person, the cloth and cotton, the tailor's wages, and six pairs of cloth shoes, all together cost more than six taels.
The last time I made a quilt, there was a lot of fabric and cotton, so the tailor's wages didn't seem high. There wasn't that much fabric needed to make clothes, but the seaming fees were not cheap. Plus, it was double-layered and cotton-padded, so the tailor's fees for a set of clothes were 220 cents, and that was after Lin Chuntao bargained.
The cost of building the house was within Lin Chuntao's budget as they cut down trees themselves, saving a lot of money on wood. So after the house was built, they still had quite a bit of money left over. Five or six taels of silver was not a lot to use to make clothes, but perhaps because they had been poor for so long, Lin Chuntao felt dazed and thought the clothes were quite expensive.
Pei Ying looked at her and smiled, "It's not like I make clothes every day, so it's not expensive."
Thinking of the silver note from yesterday, Lin Chuntao felt that it was indeed not expensive compared to the remaining money she had.
The clothes had to be picked up in five days. Lin Chuntao paid the money and took the deed. She then went to the fur shop to check, but it was still closed. The man next door saw them wandering around and asked, "Miss, are you looking for the fur shop owner?"
"Yes, ma'am. What time does he open?"
The old lady said, "Don't wait any longer. He's been out collecting hides these days. He probably won't be back for three or four days."
After hearing what was said, Lin Chuntao smiled and thanked the old lady, then returned to the stall with Pei Ying.
There were more and more people at the market, and all kinds of shouting were heard constantly.
Lin Chuntao bought ten pounds of pork belly. Even with the skin and bones, she could see two whole ribs. Looking at the large piece of meat, Lin Duoer asked, "Sister, why buy so much meat?"
Lin Chuntao frowned and glanced at her, then said, "You are going to learn crafts from Madam Fan today. This is for Madam Fan."
Lin Duoer opened her mouth, as if she didn't expect so much meat. In fact, there was more than just this much meat, and some rice, flour, dried vegetables and the like were also wanted. However, there was food at home, so Lin Chuntao didn't buy any of it, only some meat.
After buying the meat, Lin Chuntao took Lin Chunhe and the others home first.
The sun came out before they left the county town.
Lin Chunhe looked at the sun and breathed a sigh of relief. "It's sunny now. We can go back and dry the beans."
Lin Chuntao nodded.
When they got home, Aunt Guizhi and Meng Yun were already waiting at the door.
Lin Chuntao opened the door, Lin Duoer went to feed the chickens and cook potatoes, Lin Chuntao and Lin Chunhe put the things in the kitchen, and went to the backyard with Aunt Guizhi and the others.
Everyone was busy moving the covered beans to the bamboo racks to dry.
Lin Chunhe went to get the money for Lin Jiahui, and Meng Yun went to keep the accounts.
When they came over, Lin Chuntao had already lit the stove. Lin Chunhe went to check on the beans that had been soaked yesterday, and brought the steamer over to start steaming.
Lin Chuntao stirred the jar of soy sauce and called Aunt Guizhi and the others for help. Together they moved the jar of soy sauce out to dry in the sun.
After the sauce was dried, Aunt Guizhi, Mengyun and Grandma went together to help wash the soaked beans and steam them.
Although Lin Chuntao asked them to pick beans and peppers at first, these two jobs were done quickly, and they picked up so many beans and peppers that they didn't need several people to do it.
Lin Chunhe knew how to steam beans at home, so she called Aunt Guizhi and Grandma to help. When Lin Shuilian first came, she wanted to wash the beans with her. Although the water was not cold in summer, Lin Shuilian had just finished her confinement, so Lin Chunhe did not let her touch the water.
After working for a while, everyone just did whatever was available first, without dividing the work into particularly detailed sections.
After drying the sauce and beans, Lin Chuntao went to the charcoal kiln to take a look. The kiln was still hot.
After a walk around, she came back and packed six pounds of rice, six pounds of white flour, six pounds of buckwheat noodles, and a bamboo tube of sauce. She packed everything and put them in a bamboo basket.
She poked a hole in the meat with a knife, twisted some straw through it and used it as a rope.
After everything was ready, Lin Chuntao went to ask Meng Yun, "Mrs. Meng, are your sister-in-law and the others home?"
Meng Yun replied, "No, my sister-in-law took Jialang and the others to the fields. They probably won't be back until lunchtime."
Lin Chuntao nodded and then asked, "Are they going to dig the ground?"
Meng Yun: "Well, my sister-in-law said we could plant some buckwheat, so we turned the land over."
"Have you bought the buckwheat seeds?"
"It seems not yet." Meng Yun replied.
After hearing this, Lin Chuntao returned to the front yard. After thinking for a while, she took back all the flour, exchanged 20 kilograms of buckwheat seeds from the system, and divided them into two small bamboo baskets.
At noon, Lin Chunxing and Pei Ying came back. After everyone had lunch, Lin Chuntao took Lin Duoer and carried some things to find Fan Li'niang.
Meng Yun had returned to work. Fan Li Niang had just washed Meng Yue's hair, which was still wet. When she saw Lin Chuntao and the others coming in, she felt a little embarrassed and hid behind Fan Li Niang.
Duo'er carried two bamboo baskets of buckwheat seeds and bamboo tubes, and Lin Chuntao carried rice and meat.
Fan Li'niang looked up and saw what Lin Chuntao was holding in her hand, and was a little surprised. Lin Chuntao said yesterday that she would give her tuition for the next half month, which was just a token of her appreciation. A red envelope of ten or eight cents would do. After all, it was only half a month, and the main thing was to see if Duo'er could have the perseverance to learn. If she didn't want to learn after just three or five days, that would be fine.
Lin Chuntao looked at Madam Fan and smiled, "Madam Fan, I'm here to pay Duo'er's tuition. I'll trouble you to take care of this girl from now on."
Fan Li Niang said, "Madam Lin, please come sit inside." As she spoke, she led Lin Chuntao and Lin Duo'er into the house, saying, "Madam, this bundle of cultivation is too much. This is just the price for becoming a disciple." She turned around and looked at Lin Duo'er with gentle eyes. After thinking for a moment, she said, "If Duo'er really likes it, why not become my disciple today?"
Lin Chuntao had no objection to this. She turned around and looked at Lin Duoer and asked, "Duoer, what do you say?"
Lin Duoer looked at Fan Li'niang and then at Lin Chuntao, feeling a little nervous, but still nodded.
Although the ceremony was simple, Lin Chuntao felt it was very solemn as she watched. In their main room, there were plaques inscribed with the words "Heaven, Earth, Kinship, Emperor, and Teacher." There was also an incense burner on the cabinet in front. Fan Liniang fetched some incense, lit it, and knelt in worship, muttering, "Today, Fan Liniang, the seventh generation embroiderer of the Fan family, accepts Lin Duoer as her apprentice. I will carry on the family tradition and will not fail in my mission. I hope for the blessings of our ancestors."
After saying this, she bowed three times and then inserted the incense into the small incense burner.
After this was done, Lin Duoer offered tea and kowtowed to her master, completing the ceremony.
After finishing the work, Lin Chuntao went home, and Lin Duoer stayed with Madam Fan and started learning the craft today.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com