Chapter 23 The Strange List [Part 3]
Lin Xiushui was puzzled when she first heard the name Da Chunling.
The two sisters are surnamed Yao, so why is one called the elder sister and the other the younger sister?
Until she saw Da Chunling, she was no longer confused.
Xiao Chun'e is short with a round, small face, while Da Chunling is tall with a somewhat square face, a black mole on her right cheek, and a very robust physique.
She thought, without exaggeration, that Da Chunling could lift Lin Xiushui up with one hand.
Xiao Chun'e tiptoed up behind Lin Xiushui, poked her on the back and said timidly, "See? Even if there were two more of us, we still couldn't beat her."
Lin Xiushui still couldn't quite believe it, her fingers circling over the two women. "Are you really sisters?"
"No," they both said in unison.
Xiao Chun'e said, "They were enemies in a past life."
Da Chunling replied curtly: "Nonsense."
Lin Xiushui laughed heartily, "It's my fault, it's my fault. Sister Ling, why don't you help me fix your wrinkles first?"
Since Da Chunling was sixteen years old, older than Lin Xiushui, she couldn't call her by her full name directly.
Xiao Chun'e stamped her foot, "A Qiao, why don't you call me Sister E? Ugh, that sounds awful! How about Sister E?"
She gave up, saying, "Forget it, I'll just continue my great fire-making project."
Lin Xiushui chuckled and then asked Da Chunling, "Ling-jie, have you ever ironed cloth before?"
“Does grilling meat count if it’s not ironed?” Da Chunling said. “The meat I grilled was the same color on both sides.”
“That’s delicious,” Lin Xiushui blurted out. Realizing what she had said, she coughed. “I mean, ironing cloth is similar to roasting meat. Neither the meat nor the cloth should be burnt. Burning it would be a real sin.”
As Lin Xiushui walked, she said, "Of course, before you roast meat, you must first select it, then wash it, then cut it, and finally roast it. The same goes for ironing cloth. First, select the cloth or clothes to be ironed, touch it, and you'll know what kind of cloth it is."
She walked up to the pleated skirt that needed ironing, pinched the hem and rubbed it. "This kind of skirt is made of fine linen, which is light and absorbs water easily. So when you're working on the pleats, you have to be gentle. If you press too hard, it's easy to leave marks. Of course, it's okay if you leave marks. Just use another cloth dampened with water to iron it flat."
"Moreover, the pattern of the kudzu cloth has obvious raised lines. When pleating, you have to pay attention to aligning these horizontal raised lines. If they are not aligned, they will be crooked when ironing."
Lin Xiushui wasn't worried about the things beside her, but she was most worried about Da Chunling's strength. She needed to iron the cloth gently and carefully, not with heavy hands or feet.
Da Chunling has her own way of asking questions: "How light? Is it as light as peeling chicken shreds when making chicken skewers, or as light as rubbing salt and red yeast rice on the surface when marinating fish, or as light as kneading dough when making chess pieces?"
"I peel chicken with the lightest touch, but I knead dough with a heavier touch."
It's no wonder Da Chunling asked that question. She was her mother's cook and assistant, and her mother often complained that she was too rough and wasted things. So every time she cooked something, she would ask her mother for her opinion.
Lin Xiushui swallowed hard. "Then try peeling chicken like you peel it, and smooth out the wrinkles."
"Oh dear, that's too light," Lin Xiushui shook her head. "Look at how heavy your hands are when kneading the dough!"
She quickly said, "Oh dear, Sister Ling, it's too heavy. Bring something like pickled fish. Oh, right, it's this light." Lin Xiushui found Da Chunling to be quite remarkable. The remarkable thing was that she could completely control her strength, with consistent pressure and placement. When the pleats needed to be re-pleated, she could align the horizontal ridges of the fabric perfectly.
She was truly envious, but Da Chunling said, "It's from practicing knife skills." This was another peculiar thing about Da Chunling; she could always steer the conversation back to cooking.
Of course, Lin Xiushui couldn't resist her curiosity and asked, "Then why don't you continue cooking?"
Because if Da Chunling wanted to help in the kitchen, Madam Gu wouldn't force her to come.
Da Chunling lowered her head and straightened the cloth. She was a little embarrassed to speak, but finally told the truth: "I ate too much, so my mother told me to come here for a full meal."
Lin Xiushui, however, thought that it was truly a sin. The food here was so unpalatable, yet they still had to eat their fill; it was more torturous than torture.
As the two were chatting idly, Madam Gu stepped in and asked Lin Xiushui, "How is Chunling's work?"
Lin Xiushui said sincerely, "He is smart, quick to understand, and works efficiently and quickly. My wife, you have made a very good choice."
Madam Gu smiled and said, "Then let Chunling take care of the pleats first. You come with me for a while and get to know the fabric."
Upon hearing this, Lin Xiushui nodded first. After Gu Niangzi left, she said to Da Chunling, "I will definitely be back later. You just need to finish making the four pleats in the morning. Take your time. If you make the pleats too quickly, I won't have time to iron them."
She practically shook Da Chunling to tell her, "Don't overwork yourself, you need to rest. You're working too hard and you'll exhaust me."
After giving her instructions, Lin Xiushui jogged out. Madam Gu was waiting for her at the door. When she saw her, she said, "Today I'll take you to the fabric shop to see the fabrics. I've asked an experienced craftsman to explain it to you. You can iron fabric now, but I want you to be able to tell the difference between good and bad fabrics."
Actually, the purpose was to prevent clothing stores from mixing good and bad fabrics together when purchasing materials. The purchasing staff would not lay out all the fabrics to check, but would examine them inch by inch and only find the ironing fabrics.
On the way, Madam Gu gave Lin Xiushui some advice, "Listen to her carefully when you arrive. If you want to sew, you need to learn more about what kind of fabric is suitable for what kind of clothes."
Lin Xiushui nodded. This was her first time visiting a cloth shop. The shop smelled of soap and smoky aromas, a mixture of sour and pungent scents.
Inside, there were rows of wooden shelves, each rack filled with cloth, and in the middle, there was a long table piled high with cloth. Occasionally, tailors carrying large scissors would walk back and forth.
Lin Xiushui was dazzled by the sight. She had never seen so many fabrics before. Hundreds and thousands of pieces of fabric were laid out in front of her, with so many colors and patterns that she couldn't tell what kind of fabric they were.
Madam Gu led over a well-dressed old woman and said, "Ah Qiao, call her Granny Bu. You should learn from Granny Bu."
Bu Po was a matchmaker in the cloth business. Because of her excellent eye, the cloth she bought was never bad, so the cloth shop invited her to take a look.
Lin Xiushui spent the whole morning with her checking whether each piece of cloth had been properly sized. In the cloth industry, sizing is of utmost importance and is known as "tiger's mouth".
A well-sizing fabric is stiff, smooth, and not easily wrinkled. A poorly sized fabric has its own problems. If there are clumps of fuzz on the fabric, or if the sizing is done in a strong wind, the fabric will definitely be loose and airy, like a bundle of straw in an embroidered pillow.
Actually, there's a lot to learn about fabrics. Even without considering sizing, just the warp and weft threads, weaving techniques, and fabric color alone are enough to keep many people learning for five or six years.
Lin Xiushui spent most of the day examining the starching of the fabrics, touching and looking at each piece, comparing them carefully. She was dizzy and her eyes were blurry. The old woman told her to learn for half a month first.
So much so that when she returned to the clothing shop, her eyes darted around, and she said, "Anyone who can work in a fabric shop must have an exceptional eye for quality."
Xiao Chun'e stuffed a steamed bun into her mouth, saying, "You'd better eat it quickly, it'll be too cold to eat now, but you can still eat a bite while it's hot."
Lin Xiushui took a bite and froze, speechless. The kitchen staff then began their specialty: bread and noodles.
As for Da Chunling, she silently got up and walked all the way to the kitchen. She returned after a long time, bringing back a bowl of steaming hot noodles.
Lin Xiushui exclaimed in surprise, "Good heavens, where did you get this?"
Xiao Chun'e remained expressionless, "It must have come from the kitchen."
“They said if I was capable, I could burn it myself,” Da Chunling said, putting down the basin. “So I burned it myself.”
"He said if you're capable, you can burn everything yourself from now on. I said I'm capable."
Lin Xiushui was stunned; this was truly impressive.
After eating the noodle soup cooked by Da Chunling, Lin Xiushui was completely won over by her.
Xiao Chun'e was also impressed by her, but only under duress. When the bells and drums rang, she would obediently go home after work.
With a helper today, Lin Xiushui ironed the fabric much more smoothly. She no longer had to spend so much time on various small things and could iron three pleated skirts in one go.
After saying goodbye to the two sisters, Lin Xiushui crossed the bridge and returned to Sangqiao Ferry. When she arrived at Sangshukou, there was already a large crowd gathered there.
She muttered to herself, "They couldn't possibly be looking for me, could they?"
Sure enough, it was true. As soon as she showed her face, her sharp-eyed wife stood up and said, "Ah Qiao is back. Go quickly and ask her to take a look and see if she can fix it."
"Ah Qiao, you're finally back! Old Zhang has been waiting for you here for a long time."
Lin Xiushui was about to go back for a drink of water, but she had no choice but to stride over and ask, "What clothes do you need mended?"
The gray-haired old man, Zhang, trembled and could barely speak. His wife, Chen Huapo, chimed in, "Tell me about this old man. He went to a secondhand clothing store to buy clothes for cheap. As for how many days he could even wear those clothes, let's leave it at that."
"But it turned out to be quite good," Granny Chen said, shaking the black satin garment in her hand. There was a large hole in the embroidery on the back. "She said it was from the place that sold secondhand clothes. It was dark and my husband said it felt like silk. He felt it from top to bottom, but there was only a half-hole and no tears."
"When I got home, I touched it and found that the back was thin and transparent. When I looked at it against the light, good heavens, it turned out that a paper pattern was used as embroidery cloth to patch up this big hole!"
Granny Chen was furious. "Tell me, are these merchants heartless? They spent five hundred coins on a tattered garment, and when they went to reason with someone, the person had long since disappeared. This old man was so angry that we went to the Taiping Pharmacy and spent most of the money on medicine."
"I've already spent the money, and my wife advised me to come here to get some repairs. It's not worth getting upset over a piece of clothing."
The others offered kind words of advice, and the silk dress was handed to Lin Xiushui. She reached out and touched it; the material was of good quality. She pulled it forcefully to both sides and up and down, and found that the threads were not torn.
So the problem with this silk garment is that it has holes burned through both the inner and outer layers; otherwise, even if it were an old garment, it wouldn't be so cheap.
Fortunately, after the establishment of the prefecture in Lin'an, the clothing and uniforms were in disarray. Originally, commoners could only wear black and white and were not allowed to wear clothes other than hemp, linen, or silk. Women and children were not subject to these restrictions, but now they openly violated the rules and their clothing was chaotic. There were quite a few commoners who bought satin clothes to show off.
As Lin Xiushui was thinking, she heard someone say, "Not only that, those who sell secondhand clothes make money without any conscience. I have a relative who bought a satin garment. It was perfect in every way, but after wearing it for two days, all the seams tore. Only after it tore did they realize that it was all pieced together from scraps of cloth. Can you believe how unscrupulous they are?"
She then added, "Not all those who sell secondhand clothes are unscrupulous. To see if they're deliberately deceiving people, look at their stalls and sheds. If it's dark or you can't see clearly once you're inside, then the clothes are definitely problematic."
“Any minor flaws in ordinary fabrics and clothes can be seen once they are exposed to daylight.”
After Lin Xiushui finished speaking, she turned to Chen Huapo and her husband and said, "I know it's understandable that you're upset about being cheated, but it's not worth getting sick from it."
“If you come to me for mending, it won’t be enough to mend it to look completely new. The inside will definitely be noticeable. I can only mend the outside to make it look decent.”
Granny Chen waved her hand, "Don't say that. We'll be thanking our lucky stars and burning incense if we can fix the outside."
“Grandma, this garment of yours is so bad that we have to rob Peter to pay Paul. I mean I have to take the sleeves in half and patch them up to the hole in the back. If I don’t take the bottom half, this garment is already short, and taking it apart will make it even shorter.”
After obtaining consent and agreeing on a price of thirty-two coins, Lin Xiushui set up her stall, placed a stool, and immediately began cutting sleeves. She had already measured the distance with a cloth ruler, which was about half a finger's width.
The thread had to be pulled from the bottom edge. After pulling the thread and sewing it back, she first patched the hole in the outer layer. She cut a slit on all four sides of the hole, folded a section of the edge in, and then threaded the same color fabric cut from the cuff through the hole in the inner layer to pad the inside.
The padding is very obvious; even if the same color and the original thread are used, you can still see that the dent is there.
While the others watched anxiously, Lin Xiushui remained calm. She took an embroidery hoop and fixed the dent in place. She then repaired it with embroidery. She actually suspected that the embroidery was done by someone who sold secondhand clothes, as the black satin with green bamboo embroidered on the back looked very out of place.
Actually, when she was doing the patching, she was thinking that if the couple could accept it, it would be best to just patch it up. She couldn't restore it to its original state, so she could only try her best to make them feel less pain from being cheated out of money.
"Grandpa, Grandma, you two take a look."
After Lin Xiushui finished sewing the lining, she handed the garment over.
The elderly couple examined it carefully. The inner layer had very obvious stitch marks. Anyway, it didn't matter if it was worn inside. As for the original obvious hole, upon closer inspection, they could see that the stitches were different, the colors were different, and there were still raised marks on the edges.
But from afar, no one could see that Granny Chen only cared about having clothes to wear. As long as she could go out and look presentable, then the money wasn't wasted.
She asked Old Man Chen to put it on so everyone could see. The onlookers were all speechless. One woman said, "You can't even see it from a step away. It doesn't look like it's been mended at all."
“I’m only two steps away, so I can’t see it at all, old man. Don’t worry, just dress properly, you look very presentable.”
Old Chen sighed, "I... I'll never try to take advantage of others again."
“There are ways to get a bargain,” Lin Xiushui said, taking the money from Granny Chen and thanking her. She turned to her and said, “If you buy cheap clothes, I’ll cover the difference if you ask for the lowest price.”
This drew laughter from everyone, who said she was just bragging.
After the clothes were mended, not long after Granny Chen and Granny Chen left, a young man rushed over. He was just taller than the table, carrying a book bag on his back. His eyes were red, and he handed over a copy of "The Complete Admonition to My Son." He sobbed and said, "Sister, please mend this for me. My mother will beat me if she finds out."
A familiar woman asked, "Isn't this the youngest son of the He family's dessert shop, just back from his elementary school days?"
The young man bowed respectfully, then, his body trembling, said, "My book is torn. What will I do if I can't mend it for the lesson the teacher will be teaching tomorrow?"
He couldn't hold back his tears, which streamed down his cheeks. It was all his fault for not putting the book in his book bag properly.
Lin Xiushui gave him a handkerchief and couldn't help but find it amusing; the child was so small, and so were his worries.
“How could it not be fixed? You’ve come all the way to me, I’ll fix it exactly the same for you,” Lin Xiushui patted his shoulder and then asked him, “What books have you read?”
He Xiaolang wiped away his tears, "I read 'Elementary Primer,' 'Seventeen Histories for Beginners,' 'A Thousand Poems,' and 'Elementary Learning Pearls'..."
As he read, Lin Xiushui flipped through the book, which was broken in two. The densely packed words hurt her eyes and were very difficult to read. It was really not easy for a child to start learning.
To be honest, she hadn't even read the book yet, but she had already started catching up on it. After flipping through the butterfly-shaped book several times, Lin Xiushui understood how it was bound.
Fold the side with the text inwards, then fold each page in half, and glue about twenty sheets of paper along the center seam onto a thick sheet of paper. There is also another thick sheet of paper on the outside as the cover.
Therefore, Lin Xiushui only needed to use paste to glue the torn parts of the book back together, seal the middle seam, and press it down with a heavy object.
When the paste dried, Lin Xiushui laughed and said, "Don't swing the book around like that next time."
He Xiaolang nodded vigorously; he dared not do it again.
Once the book was completely repaired, He Xiaolang's burden was finally lifted. A smile appeared on his tense face as he was about to give Lin Xiushui a deep bow, but Lin Xiushui stopped him, saying, "Hey, hey, don't do that. Go home right after school."
"I won't charge you. It's just a little trouble. Go back and do your homework."
He Xiaolang could get two coins a day from his mother. Today, he didn't splurge on the preschool pastry dumplings. Instead, he took them out of his bag, put them on the table, bowed, and walked away happily.
That's great, I don't have to get whipped with bamboo sticks anymore.
Lin Xiushui couldn't handle the child, so she just smiled and watched him skip away.
The requests from those who came to the stall later were much simpler. Some wanted their shoe soles repaired because they were cracked. Lin Xiushui couldn't repair them, but she said, "Go to Sangshui Bridge to get your shoe soles repaired. It's the third shop from the front. There's a black shoe-shaped sign hanging above it. That old man there can repair thick soles. He has all kinds of soles. Yours should cost about three to five coins."
When a monk came to mend his robes, Lin Xiushui was a little dumbfounded. She asked the monk if she should recite Amitabha Buddha's name before mending. The monk laughed and said that he would recite a few more sutras for her while she mended, so that she could mend with peace of mind. If it really didn't work, he would knock on the wooden fish to perform a ritual while she mended, but Lin Xiushui refused.
There were also people mending the curtains. These curtains weren't gauze or cloth curtains, but paper curtains. It took four people to pull a paper curtain out, and the tear was in the middle. Lin Xiushui first glued it together with paste to make sure it was tucked in, then drilled holes on the side with a thick needle, took two strands of thread, crossed them on the left and right, and tied them up like tying shoelaces.
After she finished sewing, the rest of the onlookers stared in disbelief. A plump woman said, "I've never thought of such a method. My paper curtain was cut too early, otherwise it would still be usable."
"I suffered because I was brainless."
Lin Xiushui accepted the ten coins, wiped the paste off her hands, and said, "What do you mean by 'brainless'? Everyone has their own skills. I'm good at mending, but I'm clueless about everything else."
"Go home and come back tomorrow."
Anyway, she was tired. She was jumping around while mending a paper account, but she didn't lose money. She just made over 100 coins today, and she really, really wants to save a lot of money.
Thinking this to himself, he said to Wang Yuelan, "Aunt, I think I should buy some meat to nourish myself."
Wang Yuelan handed her an egg, glancing at her sideways, "I'll slaughter a pig for you."
"You can't get fat in one bite," Lin Xiushui said as she peeled an egg. She called for a stick from the back door and a small lotus plant that wasn't using any bait other than a broken rope. "Come eat the egg, don't mess with fish that won't bite."
"What should we get?" Xiaohe asked humbly.
Lin Xiushui pointed to her back and said, "Come and give me a massage, and I'll tell you something."
Xiaohe dropped the stick and ran over, lightly tapping the ground before asking, "Sister, what are you putting down?"
"At least get a hook."
Lin Xiushui said, "Alright, you should go play with Xiaohua. Here, I made you a cloth tiger. Go take it for a walk. Don't ask me for any more work, I'm out of cloth."
Xiaohe happily hugged the cloth tiger, tilted her head, and said, "Then think of a way."
Wang Yuelan waved her hand, "Go play somewhere else, and coax Xiaohua to come and play in our yard."
She then said to Lin Xiushui, "You said last time that you wanted to dye the cloth. Bring the cloth here. Tomorrow, a woman I know well will be dyeing blue cloth. I told her to mix some scraps of cloth into her dye vat."
"Only a soft blue can be dyed."
Lin Xiushui thought about the soft blue color, which was dark and bluish, and thought it would be suitable for use as a collar band, as it would tone down the color.
She went up and took half of the white cloth off, put it in a bag, and asked, "Auntie, is this troublesome? If it is..."
“It’s troublesome, what isn’t troublesome?” Wang Yuelan replied while scooping up the soup. “It’s only right that you trouble me. Go sew your sachet.”
Lin Xiushui turned and left. She couldn't sew sachets anymore; she had a lot of work to do and picked them out one by one to mend.
She sewed a new lace trim and a new knot on the edge of the fabric. She rummaged through her own cloth bag, sighed, and realized she hadn't bought any. She had to cut them herself from the strips of fabric and tie the knot with yarn.
Three more sacks were added, filled with flour. When they were turned over, the powder was applied to her face. Lin Xiushui was stunned, her face turned completely white. The sacks that were delivered had said they were filled with flower seeds. She had been tricked.
She also mended fishing nets. She did a lot of this when she was in Shanglintang. There was a big lake in Shanglintang that was known for its fish, and there were many fishermen there. She mended fishing nets for them, and a big net only cost two coins.
Her current worth is incomparable to what it used to be. She can earn five coins for mending a fishing net, a whole three coins more!
But looking at the work she had taken on, she sat in the courtyard, surrounded by burlap sacks, fishing nets, flour bags, and lanterns. On the table were silk flowers, cloth wraps, and headbands, and next to her were salt bags and waist towels…
Lin Xiushui felt that she was really like Chen Guihua said, so poor that she would take any job, even collecting scraps.
She is dedicated to collecting more junk; she earns money so that the junk can return to its owner instead of being thrown away.
I really want to ask the scholar who writes pretentious essays on the street to write a couplet for her, with the words "Don't throw it away even if it's worn out, you can still use it after some repairs" on the top, and the horizontal scroll: "Repair anything."
After staying up all night to finish these things, she got up early to set up her stall. She was so sleepy that she kept yawning. The later she went to bed, the earlier she woke up. So early, she would wake up to find no one around.
It wasn't entirely unheard of; the figure was carrying a small red drum, wandering back and forth on the bridge, under the bridge, to the left, and to the right. Lin Xiushui didn't think she was contemplating suicide; she was muttering something to herself.
Lin Xiushui, fearing that she might slip and fall on the road or into the river, waved from afar, put her hand to her mouth, and called out, "Wife, that young lady up ahead,"
It was still very early; it was only a little past midnight. The people running the night market had all stopped working and gone home, and any noise could be heard from a great distance.
The woman carrying the small drum slowly walked over, her makeup bright red; she must be a Luqi woman from Nanwazi.
Lin Xiushui's attention was entirely on the small drum she was holding. She pointed at it and asked, "Is the drum broken?"
The woman slowly shook her head. She had a beautiful voice, and now she said in a low, hoarse voice, "The drum isn't broken."
“I was worried something might happen to you since you’ve been walking around here so early in the morning, so I called you. If the drum is broken, I can take a look for you,” Lin Xiushui said. Then she noticed that the girl was dressed very thinly and was holding the drum very tightly. “How about I bring you some hot soup?”
Zhu Qiniang thanked her for her kindness. Lin Xiushui poured her a bowl of hot water. After drinking a few sips, she said, "I am a singer from Nanwazi. You can just call me Zhu Qiniang." Zhu Qiniang patted the drum. "It's not broken. When we sing folk songs, we play a small drum. If we don't play the small drum, we tap the cups and saucers. That's called 'beating the beat.' I'm good at both of those. I could have sung a song for you, young lady."
She shook her head. "But I can't sing well right now."
"I wander around here in the morning; I used to sing here."
Lin Xiushui asked boldly, "Why can't you sing it well?"
“I used to have a drum that I used for eight or nine years. It broke and I repaired it, then used it again. I could even clearly see how many nail marks were on it,” Zhu Qiniang began to confide. “Later, it cracked completely and I couldn’t repair it no matter what I did. After I got a new drum, the sound was wrong and I couldn’t sing it properly anymore.”
"What about changing the drum type?"
Zhu Qiniang smiled and said, "In the past, changing drums was a big taboo in our line of work. We were afraid that if we changed the drums, we wouldn't be able to sing anymore. After we came to Lin'an, we changed drums all the time. We changed big drums, small drums, and rattles. Even if we changed a lot of drums, people would know what kind of sound it was before they even played it. It was so boring."
"How about trying to make your own new drum?"
Author's Note: Updated! [Sprinkling flowers emojis]
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