Chapter 3 A small stall under the mulberry tree
Today's work was urgent, so Lin Xiushui worked quickly. She spread out a piece of linen, and the copper iron seemed to be in her hands, as if it were a natural part of her, she held it everywhere.
Xiao Chun'e chatted with her during a break, "A Qiao, do you know what this batch of cloth is for?"
"This linen is in its natural color. It needs to be cut after ironing. I reckon it'll be used to make some clothes that aren't too difficult to make."
Xiao Chun'e immediately showed a smug look, stopped burning the fire, and said to her, "No, this is for making oilclothes and hats."
Lin Xiushui didn't respond and just kept working. Given Xiao Chun'e's tendency to keep things bottled up inside, she didn't need anyone to chime in.
Sure enough, Xiao Chun'e rattled off everything, saying, "They said it's going to rain heavily in a while, and there might be floods, so we need to make a batch of oilcloths and hats first."
"Don't you believe me? Madam Gu asked around. She consults the gods and fortune tellers every year, and those very accurate fortune tellers all say the same thing. She's had many divinations done."
After hearing this, Lin Xiushui felt that she was lacking water in her destiny, but she couldn't possibly chase after her from Shanglintang to water her.
But when it came to fortune telling and supernatural beings, she was skeptical. She had been burned by sorcerers before, and she might believe it a little more if she heard it from the gatekeeper.
But what she really wanted to know was: "Are there enough people to make these oilcloths? Do you need a tailor?"
"That should be enough. We have plenty of tailors. There's a dedicated workshop with over twenty people."
Lin Xiushui pressed down the creases with an iron, feeling a little disappointed. She knew how to make oilcloths; she could even cut clothes for her.
Unlike the straw raincoats and bamboo hats used by farmers, the oiled paper umbrellas sold the most in Sangqing Town, followed by oiled clothing. Tung oil is applied to silk or fine linen, washed with soapberry water, and then reapplied until it can no longer be soaked in water.
There was also an oiled hat for protection from wind and rain, which was a hat with an oiled cloth lining it, similar to the veiled hat of the Song Dynasty.
At this moment, Xiao Chun'e comforted her, saying, "You're not afraid of not having work to do. This is fine linen that needs ironing. I heard there's also a batch of white ramie cloth that needs ironing too. We'll cut out patterns to make the lining."
"How do you know everything?" Lin Xiushui asked, puzzled.
Xiao Chun'e tilted her head back, swaying it back and forth, "My mother cooks for those seamstresses, so naturally she knows everything."
"I even know what we eat for lunch, it's bamboo shoot steamed buns."
"And who is the cook for you?"
Xiao Chun'e quickly shook her head, "Don't talk nonsense, I went to ask this morning."
“My mother said that we should pay attention to what we eat, and eat more of the good food, so that we won’t lose out.”
Lin Xiushui was already hungry. The millet porridge she had drunk in the morning was not filling at all. She forced herself to finish ironing two and a half bolts of cloth.
The bamboo shoot buns she received contained only bamboo shoot strips and dried vegetables. The dough was particularly thick, and each one was as big as her palm. Lin Xiushui took a big bite, but she had only just reached the filling.
Each person gets two, and even if she eats three, she still won't be full. But she's already used to being hungry, so she keeps one to take back to Xiaohe and her aunt.
“I don’t like bamboo shoots,” Xiao Chun’e said, handing her a half-eaten steamed bun. “You eat it, look how thin you are.”
Lin Xiushui wasn't embarrassed. She took the food and said before eating, "I'll treat you to a meal when I get my monthly salary."
“Treat me to a meal,” Xiao Chun’e laughed. “You’re so silly. I have a big appetite. You’ll definitely lose out.”
However, before that time came, a little later Lin Xiushui received a hot oil paper package. Even though she knew she had something to eat, Wang Yuelan still brought her a meat fritter, which she bought from a shop. It was very oily, with only a thin layer of meat.
She gave half to Xiao Chun'e, and ate it herself, chewing it bite by bite until her stomach felt sore and bloated.
In the afternoon, she stopped joking and focused intently on ironing the cloth until her back was too stiff to straighten and her elbows remained bent. As she stood up, the cloth creaked and groaned.
It was getting late, and Xiao Chun'e had already left. Lin Xiushui finished packing up her things and, thinking that she could get some monthly pay first, skipped around with joy.
The accounting office was still there; he had long forgotten about the matter. He glanced at the ledger and said with a forced smile, "Although there's no such thing as advance payment, you're really diligent, so my wife asked me to give you some money first."
Madam Gu suggested giving him one day's worth first, but he felt that wouldn't do. What if he gave it to her and she came back the next day? He absolutely couldn't start that.
Lin Xiushui didn't listen to what he said at all. She only looked at the three coins on the table. She worked from day to night for just those three coins.
I'm short one coin even if I buy two steamed buns.
"Can or cannot?"
Upon hearing her speak, the accountant got up and walked into the room.
Lin Xiushui secretly glared at the accountant, snorted, and walked away, her hand still hurting.
She held the three coins, trying to put them in her pocket, but after searching high and low, she found that she didn't have a pocket at all.
Lin Xiushui held it in her hand as she walked along the path in Sangqing Town. She encountered a vendor selling candy on a bamboo tray. He caught up with her and asked, "Young lady, would you like a bag of ten-colored flower candy? Five coins."
She stopped and didn't leave. The vendor immediately smiled and tried to give her the goods, but Lin Xiushui asked, "Uncle, do you need someone to help you sell these? I'll help you sell them, and you can give me two coins, no, one is fine too."
The vendor's expression changed, and he turned and left, as if afraid that if she said a word to him, he would try to steal a handful of candy from his plate. He must be desperate for money.
Lin Xiushui wondered why he was running so fast.
Earlier, people in Shanglintang Village said that Sangqing Town was a tough place to live, and that if you went there, someone would be eyeing your pocket and trying to rob you. Lin Xiushui didn't believe it at all.
It wasn't until she came out of the needle shop that she believed it.
A regular coarse needle costs thirty coins, while a needle from Suzhou costs at least ninety coins. The needle is sharp but the eye is blunt, making it very useful for sewing fine cloth.
The scissors came from Lin'an City, costing anywhere from a hundred coins to a string of cash. Not to mention the thread—hemp thread, kudzu thread, silk thread—all were priced beyond her reach.
Let alone the fact that Lin Xiushui only had twenty-seven coins in her entire fortune, no, even with these three coins, she only had thirty coins at most, not even enough to buy a needle to make a sound.
As Lin Xiushui walked, she calculated that it would cost at least a string of cash to gather all the tools. She knew she couldn't wait a month, so she decided to find another way and go home first.
"Soaking scissors in vinegar, you really have a way of thinking about that," Wang Yuelan poked Lin Xiushui's shoulder with her finger. "If this doesn't work, the scissors will be unusable, and you'll have wasted some rice vinegar, which costs several coins."
"The scissors are unusable anyway," Lin Xiushui muttered. "They're covered in rust, and the needles are rusty too. They should be wrapped in oil paper when not in use."
Wang Yuelan was stubborn but soft-hearted. She lit a sesame oil lamp with a candle, squatted down to look for her unused rice vinegar, and muttered, "I'm telling you, if you're useless, I'll beat you."
“You can’t hit my older sister,” Xiaohe said, as she was eating a bamboo shoot bun. She told her not to hit her.
"Get over here, I'll give you a good beating with a bamboo broom first, and you'll spill all the candy in my jar."
Xiaohe covered her face with her hands, "Then Mother, please don't hit my face."
Lin Xiushui laughed out loud. She was looking for a small basin, putting the needle at the bottom, laying the scissors flat, and pouring a thin layer of vinegar, just enough to cover the scissors.
Wang Yuelan was annoyed by the smell of vinegar. She shouted, "Less, less! Oh dear, I should have told you to put some on and wipe it off."
If it weren't for that rain, Lin Xiushui would have had all her tools ready: a pincushion, a peach wood ruler, scissors, a thread board, a scraper, a sewing kit, and so on. Now she would have to buy them all again.
There was no rest at night. Wang Yuelan soaked beans to make bean soup for breakfast. She put firewood in the stove and muttered, "I have to buy firewood again. It will cost about ten coins. These days, firewood and rice are so expensive, and the price of rice keeps rising."
Firewood was bought by the handful, rice by the liter; this was generally how life was for poor families.
The rice that Wang Yuelan used to eat was brought to her by Lin Xiushui. The rice grown in Shanglintang was called Zaozhancheng rice. Although it was hard and of poor quality, it produced a lot of rice.
It's February now, old rice is cheap, but new rice is very expensive. Sangqing Town doesn't produce rice; it relies entirely on rice from Suzhou, Huzhou, Huai'an, and Guangdong. At the rice shop, a liter of rice can cost more than twenty coins.
Lin Xiushui thought that after work she could become a mender. Even if she earned less, it would still be more than three coins, and she could supplement her family's income.
If she can't earn three coins, she'll have to beg for food.
However, as midnight approached, Lin Xiushui couldn't sleep. Her hands were trembling with pain. She went downstairs, lit the stove, poured boiling water, added some dried mugwort, and soaked her hands in the mugwort soup until the water was no longer scalding. The pain was relieved the next day.
Ever since she could remember, she has taken great care of her hands. She works in the fields in spring and autumn, and in winter she takes care of them by soaking them in rice water every day and then applying a thin layer of lard. That way, she won't get frostbite or crack, and she won't snag the fabric.
After soaking the scissors and needles in the mugwort-scented water, Lin Xiushui took the basin to her room. She got up early the next day and wiped the scissors with an old cloth. The rust was mostly gone, but they were still difficult to use and were dull.
The needles are still usable, though.
It was so early, before even the sky had cleared up, that Lin Xiushui began sorting through her old clothes. Some were so tattered they were practically falling apart, and had even gotten moldy from being soaked in the rain, but she didn't throw them away.
She chose a linen garment in azure and apricot colors, cut off a section, and began to unravel the seams along the warp and weft. Lin Xiushui straightened the loose threads, looping them around a short wooden stick.
It doesn't matter if the thread is good or bad, since she knows the hidden needle technique and many other needle techniques. She can just hide it and it will still work, no matter if it's bad or broken.
For things like sleeves, she would take them apart, pick out the threads, and then cut them open to mend torn clothes. If the clothes were really badly torn and she had no other choice but to cut them, she would have to do it.
If you don't have money, there are ways to make up for it and a way out.
"What are you busy with so early in the morning? What about that pair of scissors that got covered in rice vinegar? Is it still usable?" Wang Yuelan called to her from the doorway. Lin Xiushui said as she walked in, "It's usable, just a little dull."
"Give it to me, and I'll have that Zhang family kid next door grind it for me."
Lin Xiushui gave him the scissors and said, "Auntie, why don't you tell the neighbors that I only charge one or two coins for mending clothes?"
She wasn't very familiar with the neighbors on either side. She only knew that the family next door worked in the shoe business, and that the family on the right, Wang Yuelan, didn't get along with anyone and they rarely interacted after a quarrel.
“These families around here would rather go out in tattered clothes than spend a single penny,” Wang Yuelan said frankly. “All their belongings are tied up in pawnshops. By March, a batch of unredeemed items will be released from pawnshops, and everyone is eager to redeem them.”
A note from the author:
The author's notes are a bit difficult to turn pages on; the content and explanations will be written in the paragraph comments. [Let me see][Exaggerated praise]
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