Chapter 16 The Strange List [Part Two]...
It's not that high-heeled shoes don't exist. In Lin Xiushui's memory, there were ingot-shaped shoes and flowerpot-shaped shoes, all with extremely high heels. Wearing them would instantly make you tall. Apart from the fact that it was easy to twist your ankle, in her opinion, they were no less cruel than foot binding.
Of course, there are other methods. You must use boots that can cover your feet up to your calves, with thick soles, and sew on several pairs of insoles that are lower in the front and higher in the back to support your feet.
Lin Xiushui couldn't help but wonder if this was feasible, and then suddenly remembered something. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she questioned, "Wait a minute, are you making fun of me? Your mother and your grandmother are both in the tailoring industry, and you're hiring an amateur tailor like me to make shoes?"
She can't even make shoes properly herself; at most, she can make soft-soled shoes and cloth shoes. As for the more difficult boots, the ones she makes are completely unusable.
Zhang Musheng was truly wronged. How could he dare to seek pleasure from others? Don't be fooled by the fact that his mother and grandmother work in the double-thread workshop; they are at the very bottom of the trade. They used to make hemp shoes, straw shoes, and palm shoes. Now, his mother makes shoes with upturned toes, and his grandmother makes shoes with flat toes.
He had nothing to do with boots. He said he wanted to make platform shoes, and his mother told him to get out of the way and throw the flower on his head as far as possible when he did.
Zhang Musheng explained the situation, pointed to himself, then looked at Lin Xiushui, overcome with sorrow, "You are a year younger than me, yet you are already taller than me."
Why compare height with her? Lin Xiushui is just thin, but she's not short, after all, her parents are both tall.
However, looking at Zhang the carpenter's family, none of them are tall, especially Grandma Zhang, who is short and hunchbacked, so it's quite normal that Zhang Musheng is short.
Lin Xiushui said, "People aren't very tall these days, and you're still growing."
The custom originated from Lin'an Prefecture, and the people of Sangqing Town also eat three meals a day.
But for these three meals, they eat bean porridge in the morning, millet rice and rice mixed together at noon, and steamed buns and dumplings in the evening. The most common dish is pickled rice, which is leftover rice from the previous night that has been soaked in water and then cooked.
It would be strange if he were tall.
The people in the town are not very tall. If you meet a tall person, they are most likely from the north.
But Zhang Musheng was indeed quite short. The long bench she set up was as long as his legs. He was only four feet seven inches (1.5 meters). The minimum height for the Imperial Guards was a little over five feet four inches (1.7 meters).
“You don’t understand at all,” Zhang Musheng wiped away non-existent tears. “I wanted to join the conscription team, but they wouldn’t accept someone as short as me. They said I wasn’t even qualified to be a local soldier.”
Even worse, from a distance, you might think an old man is coming, but upon closer inspection, you'd find he's not even as tall as an old man's cane.
He gestured angrily, "I want to be this much taller."
Lin Xiushui took a look and saw that the length of the cutting ruler was 31 centimeters. It was truly a dream.
She said, "I heard that some recruits have to have their faces tattooed, and the Imperial Guards have to guard the borders. You just have to try to get into that kind of place."
"Have you ever seen the Imperial Guards?" Zhang Musheng asked with longing. "They wear helmets, long armor, and long boots. They look so imposing, always shouting and yelling."
Lin Xiushui had already envisioned a grand ambition for him: to grow tall and guard the border, protect the country, and quell the enemy. But this is what happened.
“Don’t even think about getting that much taller with shoes,” Lin Xiushui really couldn’t do it, but she still wanted to make the money. “Give me ten coins, and I’ll make you a pair of insoles. I guarantee you’ll be a little taller, and then you can buy a turban to wear.”
If you're not tall enough, a hat will do the trick. Actually, Lin Xiushui wanted to say that you could also wear a gauze hat, which has a very high top and is usually worn by scholars.
Zhang Musheng was suspicious, but Lin Xiushui continued to deceive him, "You can't grow taller just by using shoe insoles. There are two ways. You make them for a month, and if you don't grow taller, come find me."
"What method?" Zhang Musheng's eyes lit up.
"First, you have to get up at 5 a.m. every day, eat a full meal, put on a pair of thick-soled shoes, and then walk south across the waterway from Sangqiao Ferry. After crossing two bridges, you will arrive at the Silkworm Flower Bodhisattva Temple. There is a temple wall next to it, with a red cloth rope hanging from the top."
"You can jump up and reach the red rope, but you can only jump for half an hour. When you can reach it with both hands, I guarantee you can go higher."
Lin Xiushui was really doing it on purpose. At this hour of Mao (5-7 AM), the boy was already downstairs by the river sharpening his knife, making a racket that was incredibly noisy. She couldn't stand people being so idle.
Also, the Silkworm Flower Bodhisattva Temple was a place she had to pass by on her way home from work. The temple walls were extremely high; even she couldn't jump that high, let alone Zhang Musheng.
Zhang Musheng pondered carefully, then felt something was amiss, and asked, "Then what's the second one?"
"Secondly," Lin Xiushui pointed to the shallow river beside her, "you should go to this river to catch fish and shrimp when the sun is at its strongest. You should eat the shrimp shell and all. It's best to go every day and eat them every day."
This is how Lin Xiushui observed the mourning period: she didn't eat pork, duck, or chicken, but she ate shrimp and fish, and bought tofu to stew. So, although she was thin, she didn't have any major health problems, continued to grow taller, and didn't experience menstrual pain.
Shrimp and fish are scarce and small in this river, so it takes some effort, but this method is the cheapest compared to buying meat and eggs.
"Can this really work?" Zhang Musheng was full of doubt.
Lin Xiushui said, "Then let's make a bet. If you don't grow taller in half a month, I'll give you a hundred coins. If you do grow taller, you give me a hundred coins. But you can't tell your family about this. If you do, don't blame me if you don't grow taller."
"Okay, I promise I won't tell."
The two actually made a bet. Zhang Musheng took off his shoes and slid high under the mulberry tree, then gave Lin Xiushui ten coins and asked her to bring him a shoe last the size of her foot so they could make a pair of insoles.
As Lin Xiushui watched his departing figure, she thought to herself, "Finally, I don't have to listen to this kid sharpening his knife so early in the morning."
As for these height-increasing insoles, they are made of cloth scraps coated with paste, also known as "mounting," but they are different from normal flat insoles. They are lower in the front and higher in the back, and there is also an arc of the sole of the foot in the middle.
Lin Xiushui applied the paste, then wrapped the insole horizontally around the curve of the shoe last, tied it securely, and then made it.
However, these insoles are extremely hard and uncomfortable to wear, especially the heel, which feels like stepping on a piece of iron. Lin Xiushui tried them herself and found them so uncomfortable that she couldn't move her legs.
She pondered and pondered, changing the fabric scraps and stuffing them with silk floss. Later, she discovered that adding knotted silk floss to the insoles, on both sides, made them much more comfortable to wear.
As for height, it's about the height of a little finger; any taller and it's easy to hurt your foot or sprain it.
She just wanted to make money, not harm anyone.
Anyway, Zhang Musheng wasn't very satisfied with the insoles. They were much shorter than he had expected, but after wearing them, he actually looked a bit taller. He was especially pleased when others commented that he looked like he had grown taller.
Then, in a moment of joy, he replaced the forsythia in his hair with a bright red silk flower, and walked from east to west at the alley entrance. His dark appearance, short stature, and bright red silk flower made people laugh and cry at the same time.
Lin Xiushui later heard only clanging and banging from next door, as well as Zhang Musheng's cries of being beaten. Her mother later complained to Wang Yuelan that she had given birth to such a stupid son. She didn't know where he heard the remedy, but he went to the temple every day and went to the river to catch fish every day. She wanted to find a fortune teller to see if he had hooked up something.
Anyway, she pretended not to hear it. This happened several days later. On this day, Lin Xiushui was finishing up the oilclothing.
After each oilcloth was sewn, Xu San Niangzi had to unfold it one by one, carefully examining it from the armpit seams to the slits at the hem, and then to the placket. She would feel it to see if there were any knotted threads hidden inside, and there couldn't be any loose threads around the neckline. She also had to compare the sleeve lengths.
While she was watching, no one could leave, even when the drums sounded at 5 pm, when the craftsmen next door who were pounding silk to make oilcloth stopped working, when the people who were painting paper umbrellas and oilcloth umbrellas finished their work, and when the hawkers selling soap pods outside started calling out, she was still there.
“You did a good job sewing this batch,” Xu San Niangzi said, pinching her brow, putting down an oilcloth, and standing next to Lin Xiushui. “If you really don’t plan to stay here, I still have a lot of work to do.”
Although Lin Xiushui liked oilcloth making, it was mainly because she could find scraps of oilcloth. Since arriving here, she had been able to piece together two oilcloth garments (one large and one small) and two pairs of shoes with tung oil soles by relying on others to make oilcloth gloves and snatching up scraps of oilcloth. Her oilcloth glove business was also making progress.
But she still had to go back to work, because she couldn't bear to give up her daily thirty coins.
Hearing her refuse again, Madam Xu was a little disappointed. Ever since Madam Gu sent this batch of linen to the oilcloth workshop, Madam Xu had known about Lin Xiushui. In fact, the linen was ironed too smoothly and had very few wrinkles, so the oilcloth workshop didn't need to worry about it at all.
After all, oilcloth cannot be ironed. However, before making an oilcloth, whether it is silk or fine linen, it must be ironed flat. Otherwise, when ironing it after it is finished, the sleeves will be uneven in length and the edges will be uneven. Most importantly, wrinkles will definitely appear after applying tung oil, which is simply troublesome.
The fine linen ironed by Lin Xiushui was the one that Xu San Niangzi was most satisfied with, and it was rare for her not to be annoyed. Every time she received cloth from other shops or government offices, she would see the crooked marks when she laid it out flat, and her anger would rise to her head.
So when Madam Gu sent someone to tell her, she quickly agreed. After looking Lin Xiushui over, she found that Lin Xiushui was quite good at ironing, tailoring, and sewing, and she was really tempted.
Skilled people are sought after everywhere. Xu San Niangzi knew that Lin Xiushui wouldn't come, so she didn't make things difficult for her. But she couldn't help but ask, "A batch of fine silk will be transported from Lin'an Prefecture in a few days. See if you can find some time then to come and see how everyone irons. I'll definitely pay you."
Lin Xiushui laughed and said, "No problem, my wife, just come to me when the time comes. I'll come over before dawn or before midnight."
She quite liked ironing cloth, especially since the cloth transported from different places was different. For example, silk cloth from Lin'an Prefecture was often heavily sized, making it look smooth, but it was easy for the cloth to shrink when ironed. Other prefectures preferred lightly sized silk cloth, which was thinner and more troublesome to iron.
Of course, after Lin Xiushui returned to the clothing shop the next day, she never said again that she liked ironing cloth; she hated it.
That morning, I first met Xiao Chun'e at the door. She was dressed in bright colors and had a bunch of apricot blossoms in her hair. She ran over and smelled of flowers.
She said, "Ah Qiao, do you know how I've been without you these past few days?" with tears streaming down her face.
"I can't eat or sleep well. My sister sends me home every day, and I can't go shopping even for a day. Look at me, haven't I lost weight?"
Lin Xiushui glanced at her, her face still round, and said without any falsehood, "You've lost weight..., haven't you?"
“I knew it,” Xiao Chun’e laughed, then added, “Ah Qiao, I’ve realized that the clothing shop can’t function without you. Without you, I don’t even have anyone to talk to…”
Lin Xiushui's ears hurt, and she wondered if Xiao Chun'e's mouth hurt too. How could one person have so much to say?
Xiao Chun'e concluded by saying, "We'll have shrimp and fish buns for lunch today."
"We're eating so well today," Lin Xiushui said, somewhat incredulous. "Could it be dead fish or shrimp?"
Xiao Chun'e patted her and said, "What are you thinking about? I brought you something to eat."
"I knew it!"
Just as the two finished speaking, Madam Gu arrived. She had been busy these past few days and looked somewhat haggard. She only wore a small apricot blossom in her hair and had no makeup on, so her face was thin and pale.
She looked at Lin Xiushui, and without exchanging pleasantries, simply said, "Come to the back."
In the back room, there was a long table with a light blue silk skirt on it. It had many pleats, and Lin Xiushui could roughly tell from the width that it was a pleated skirt.
There weren't many styles of skirts for women in the Song Dynasty. They were mostly pleated skirts, aprons, thousand-pleated skirts, three-pleated skirts, and swirling skirts.
A pleated skirt, also called a pleated skirt or a folded skirt, has a lot of pleats. Lin Xiushui glanced at it and saw that it was a 12-panel skirt, which was quite wide.
"Why are you standing so far away?" Madam Gu beckoned. "Come in and take a look. See if you can iron out these wrinkles?"
Lin Xiushui stepped forward, first opening the window to let in some light, then walked back and looked down. From a distance, the dress appeared blue, but up close it had intricate patterns. She could only make out peony and chrysanthemum patterns, but what was more noticeable were the creases and various tiny wrinkles.
She reached out and touched it, twisted it, and tugged at it, confirming that it was a permanent wrinkle, which was not easy to iron out, especially since it also had patterns.
Madam Gu asked, "Can you iron it?"
“Yes,” Lin Xiushui replied, saying she was going to find something.
First, water; second, vinegar; third, a soft cloth; and fourth, a damp cloth.
She first turned the entire skirt inside out, making sure the reverse side was facing up, placed a soft cloth under the silk skirt, covered it with a damp cloth, and then pressed it with an iron.
The stains were too deep, so water wouldn't work. She switched to vinegar, diluted it with water, and applied it to the wrinkles, giving the room a sour smell.
Madam Gu was full of doubts but did not interrupt her. Lin Xiushui put the iron back on and the deep indentation slowly flattened. After repeating this several times, the indentation disappeared completely, and the smell of vinegar gradually dissipated during the ironing process.
Lin Xiushui turned it over for Gu Niangzi to see, and she carefully explained, "These wrinkles are easy to remove with vinegar. Rice vinegar and aged vinegar are both black, so you need to add water until the color is not visible, otherwise it will leave a mark when ironing. The soft cloth is to prevent the silk fabric from being damaged."
“Then you can iron this dress,” Madam Gu said with a smile. “The reward for ironing it is also yours.”
This dress passed through several tailors in clothing shops, all of whom said it couldn't be ironed properly. Gu Niangzi originally didn't want to take it, but when she thought of Lin Xiushui, she inexplicably felt that she could do it, so she accepted it.
She certainly didn't disappoint.
Upon hearing the thank-you gift, Lin Xiushui's eyes widened in surprise. "You're paying for it?"
People say that money is too vulgar, so you should give something different.
Lin Xiushui was stunned. It was simply outrageous that someone would complain about money being vulgar.
She muttered, "I like things that are tacky, the tacky the better."
Her lifelong wish is to become richer day by day and year by year through her own efforts.
A note from the author:
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