Chapter 36: Earning a new trade by using one's skills...
Xiaohe hired an orange cat using salt and sesame seeds.
Among the hundreds of cats in Cat Lane, she immediately picked out the small, round-headed, lazy orange cat.
After learning from the boat that most cats couldn't catch fish on their own, she changed her mind and chose smaller ones. Kittens eat less, so she could fish for them from the river every day. She didn't mind that the cat was small, and the cat didn't mind that her fish were small.
Although she fished for a month, she never caught a single fish.
“My name is Wang Xiaohe, and her name is Mao Xiaoye. We are human and cat sisters.”
Xiaohe said from inside the cabin that Xiaoye was dozing in her arms; it was a very sleepy kitten.
Wang Yuelan disliked the two cat sisters and said with her hands on her hips, "Can you take your cat sister out for a while instead of standing by the door?"
Xiaohe squatted down and scolded Xiaoye, who was huddled by the doorway, "Cat girl, let me tell you, my mother has strong feet, you'll get crushed by her. Come on, I'll take you fishing for small fish."
A person and a cat spent an afternoon fishing. Xiao He cast her line, while Xiao Ye perched at her feet, tail held high, watching the river longingly, but they couldn't catch a single fish.
Lin Xiushui would often peek out the window, laughing so hard she could barely hold her needle and thread. She would get up early and row her boat to the fishmonger's stall at the riverbank. The fishmonger's wife would be there, and she would say, "Madam, please deliver some catfish every morning and a fresh fish every two days."
"I happen to have some small bitterlings, cats love them. Two coins for a small basket. The mandarin fish in the river are plump lately, I'll pick out the best ones for you," the fishmonger said, squatting at the dock, deftly gutting the fish. She smiled and asked, "Do you have a cat at home?"
Lin Xiushui handed over the money, "We just hired a cat, it's an orange tabby. When you come to deliver the catfish, just call it Xiao Ye."
She asked curiously, "Are there fish in this river?"
"There were only some small fish and shrimp, but they insisted that there were a few large live fish that had fallen into the fish market on the west side of the Shangsi Festival."
Lin Xiushui finally understood; no wonder Xiao He couldn't catch any fish every day.
She sailed forward, brushing past the colorful clothes drying in the sun on both banks, and entered a clothing shop. Xiao Chun'e ran over to greet her, "Have you hired the cat yet?"
"You've hired me?" Lin Xiushui stepped across the threshold, somewhat puzzled. "What, do you want to come to my house for a look?"
“What are you looking at? I have three cats at home, and the old one is already ten years old,” Xiao Chun’e straightened her hair and waved to Da Chunling, “Hurry up and bring it out.”
Da Chunling brought out two ceramic jars and placed them on the table, saying, "These are for you."
Lin Xiushui glanced at them and burst out laughing, "You two are really funny."
After hiring the cat, instead of giving her anything else, I gave her a ceramic jar called "Cat-Killing Pot." This kind of jar has two small openings on the lid, which can be used to marinate fish and meat. The cat can smell the aroma but can't steal the food.
Wang Yuelan was even funnier. The day after hiring the cat, she bought two bamboo cats from a small broker, which were for catching mice.
"I was hoping to hire a big cat that could catch mice, but this little cat is smaller than a mouse. I'm worried it will snatch the mouse away."
Xiaohe shook her head. "Mice don't eat cats."
“Go earn the money you used to buy catfish, A-Qiao. Let her pay two coins a day herself,” Wang Yuelan tapped her head. “The cat has been hired too, so don’t slack off.”
“I didn’t! I even helped my sister tie tassels these past two days,” Xiaohe stamped her foot. “I’m the most diligent one.”
Lin Xiushui made a cat bed for the cat, and when she came over and heard this, she was too lazy to expose her. She tied up the two cats who needed to rest for a while, drink water, and play with the Qianqian car.
In the evening, Xiaohe took Xiaoye for a walk, and a small orange cat ran beside her. Lin Xiushui stayed at home, with a lot of work to do.
Most of her business comes from referrals. If someone gets their clothes mended and they like it, they'll bring their relatives who need mending to her. Even people who don't usually go for mending will come over to try their luck, hoping that by sheer chance they can get their clothes mended and save some money.
As a result, Lin Xiushui had seen quite a lot of things. Wang Yuelan said that the peddlers who collected small scraps in the market probably didn't have as many things as she did, and told her to take fewer other jobs and only take sewing and mending jobs.
“You take on any job you want, and you can’t earn all the money in the world. It also takes away from your own skills and craftsmanship. You’re too busy to handle it all and you’re sleeping so late every day,” Wang Yuelan said, turning to tidy up some messy things for her.
Lin Xiushui put the needle in the cloth bag, cut the thread and said, "It's not that I want to make more money, but also to make things easier for everyone. If I don't take some jobs, I have to travel a lot to other alleys. I'll do whatever I can find conveniently."
"When I make a lot of money in the future, I can hire people to come and sleep before dark and not get up until dawn. Aunt, just wait for me to take care of you and let you live such a life as soon as possible."
"Stop spouting nonsense."
Lin Xiushui smiled at her. Right now, she didn't care about being picky about the work; she would take whatever job was available.
But when she first looked at the yard, it was indeed a mess. There were two bamboo poles lying across the yard, with a row of baskets hanging on them. There were many baskets for sale in Sangqing Town, including vegetable baskets, rice baskets, incense baskets, and small flower baskets for selling flowers. They needed to be lined with cloth at the bottom. She asked her to sew the cloth and the bottom of the basket together.
She took the job and earned thirty-eight coins. The person even gave her two large baskets to put scraps of cloth in.
Another bamboo pole was hung with handkerchiefs, wrapping cloths, waist towels, door curtains and other items. Several wine flags and two lanterns were stuck on the ground. Lin Xiushui didn't take them. Some of them were replaced with new ones and the old ones were thrown away. She thought that she could mend them for others and make money at the same time. The things could still be used after being mended.
She was busy mending something when someone called to her from outside the door: "Ah Qiao, Ah Qiao, could you come to my house for a bit? My bamboo curtain has fallen apart, and I can't sew it back together with thread. It's all scattered and hard to carry."
Lin Xiushui looked and saw that it was the family living in the middle of the alley. The woman was in a hurry, her hands were still covered in flour, and she looked up at her with a smile, "I don't know who to ask. Without this bamboo curtain, my old lady who is bedridden at home will throw a tantrum. I'm asking you to mend it for me."
"Don't worry, my lady, let me go take a look first," Lin Xiushui called inside again, "Aunt, I'm going out to visit Madam Cai's house to get some supplies."
Lin Xiushui packed her things. She prepared a bag for herself with several compartments, which she carried on her body like a doctor carrying a medicine box when going out to see patients. She would go out to examine objects to see if they could be saved, and if so, she would sew them up with needle and thread.
These days, more and more people are coming to her door, treating her like a doctor and asking for a small fee of two coins for their "treatment."
When Lin Xiushui arrived at the woman's house, the bamboo curtain on the ground was half-fallen. Inside the house, the old lady was groaning and pounding on the bed. Cai Niangzi quickly went in, but she ignored her and just squatted down to look.
This bamboo curtain used to be made by wrapping bamboo sticks with thin hemp rope, pulling them taut one by one to form a bamboo mat. The rope had been used for many years, but it broke in the wind. She took out a whole bundle of thin hemp rope and small scissors from her bag, put on the apron, sat down, and gathered the bamboo sticks together, wrapping them around her from side to side.
He said to Cai Niangzi inside, "Madam, this bamboo curtain is easy to mend. I'll put it back on. Give me ten coins."
"Thanks to you for being here in this alley, otherwise I don't know when it would have been repaired," Cai Niangzi breathed a long sigh of relief, wiped the cold sweat from her forehead, took out twelve coins and gave them to her, two coins for the walk fee, and thanked her repeatedly.
Lin Xiushui put it in her small bag, wrapped the hemp thread around the bamboo sticks one by one, tied it with her right hand, and lifted it with her left hand to pull it tight. Before long, the bamboo curtain was tied up and hung back in its original place, as if it had never fallen apart.
She washed her hands, and Cai Niangzi saw her out. Lin Xiushui walked along the long alley with her bag slung over her shoulder. On one side were the eaves of houses, and on the other side were high walls. She skipped along, her embroidered shoes lightly and quickly stepping on the bluestone slabs.
A woman carrying a vegetable basket and leading a child bumped into her from a distance. They all recognized her and couldn't help but ask, "Where did Ah Qiao go?"
Her daughter chimed in with a grin, "She must have gone to get some mended clothes. Sister Qiao can mend a lot of things, Mom. She mended my clothes, they have cat patterns on them."
"I went to mend a bamboo curtain," Lin Xiushui stopped and smiled at the child, bending down slightly. "Then don't climb trees anymore."
"I'm never climbing again."
After Lin Xiushui finished speaking with the two, she walked in the shadow of the wall. Two children ran past her, holding kites in their hands, laughing and scattering their laughter all over the ground.
But joy turned to sorrow. A child's kite string broke and got caught on the eaves. He cried and jumped to reach the kite, shouting, "My mother will kill me! I'm only six years old. I don't really want to die yet! Waaaaah!"
Another little girl was also wiping away tears, saying anxiously, "What should I do? I don't want you to die. Where can I find you to play with? Why don't you hide in my house? My mother only hits people, she won't kill them."
Lin Xiushui laughed out loud. Whose child is this? She glanced at the eaves and saw that the kite was hanging right there. She jumped three times before her right finger finally touched the kite and managed to take it down.
The little girl jumped up, "Ah Niu, you won't die!"
"But my kite is dead, waaaaah, it can't fly anymore," Ah Niu cried even louder, holding up the broken string in his hand.
Lin Xiushui took out thread and needles from her bag. "Don't worry, it will be able to fly again in a little while."
She wound out the hemp thread and carefully sewed one end to the kite. She reached out and tugged at it, but it didn't fall off. Two children surrounded her, their eyes wide, especially seeing that the kite could actually fly, and cheered around her.
Lin Xiushui patted the two of them on the head and walked home. The kite flew high behind her, and she turned around to look at it a few times.
During her days of mending, there were many times when she thought that she would continue in the tailoring profession.
It seems that it's no longer just about money.
Of course, right now she's mainly after money; she's only managed to make ends meet.
Without money, how could she afford to buy oilcloth and make gloves, especially when faced with the fat woman who came to ask her questions?
Of all the sewing jobs she had done, Lin Xiushui hadn't forgotten her. "Wife, are you the one who said she was going to work outside Qiantang Gate to raise goldfish? Why are you back? How are the gloves I sold you before?"
The plump woman was overjoyed, her cheeks puffing out. Someone still remembered her! She nodded repeatedly, "Young lady, you still remember me? Those gloves were so useful. The pond outside Qiantang Gate is very deep, and the river water is cold. I used to turn over stones and catch shrimp every day. My fingers would go numb terribly at night, and I couldn't even hold anything in the morning. They were so stiff, like they had been soaked in ice water in winter."
"After using these gloves, I caught shrimp for more than ten days, and my hands didn't hurt as much when I got up in the morning. I'm not afraid you'll laugh at me, but my period has also improved a lot since I started using these gloves."
The fish-raising woman was outspoken; she couldn't keep a secret. With a simple, honest smile, she said, "I regret only buying one pair before. It cracked after being in the water every day. This time, I'll buy more, ten pairs. I still have quite a few sisters who work with me."
“No job is easy, so take good care of yourself. Gloves alone aren’t enough; you need to eat things that keep you warm,” Lin Xiushui said with genuine concern.
The fish farmer smiled at her, "We all know that. We're just trying to earn some money to make a living. We should try to earn as much as we can while we can still work."
Lin Xiushui didn't say much. She took out gloves from the basket and asked her which kind she wanted. One kind had tung oil applied to the edges, while the other had silk floss lining. Each kind had its own advantages.
"This one is lighter and sells for twenty coins, while this one is heavier and costs thirty coins. Even if it is soaked in cold water for several hours, it won't get too numb. I sell it to the laundry shops that starch hemp thread, and everyone says it's good."
"We just buy what works well, and we buy a lot, so can you give us a discount?" The fish farmer took out her purse, preparing to count out the money for Lin Xiushui one coin at a time.
Lin Xiushui said, "I can't give you a cheaper price. At most, I'll give you two extra thick ones for free. If you like them next time, come back to me to buy them."
“If I’m going to do business in this line of work, I’ll definitely be doing repeat business with you. Here are five hundred and forty coins. You can count them behind people’s backs. Aren’t you afraid someone will try to steal them from you?”
"I'm leaving now. If you ever come to Qiantang Gate and want to buy goldfish, just mention my name, Li Sanya, and I'll give you a discount of at least twenty or thirty coins. Where are you going? I have to go now, I can't miss my work tonight."
Lin Xiushui watched as she hurriedly disappeared into the crowd with her basket. After collecting the money, she realized she still had to deliver some gloves. Although it was more than 540 coins, she could only earn 80 or 90 coins at most.
But she thought that since there were so many different jobs and everyone had their own needs, there would always be someone who could use them. She wouldn't lose money selling them at a loss. As long as everyone said they were useful, she wouldn't lose money.
She sat down and thought about it. She had sold thirty or forty pairs of tung oil to the tung oil workshop to apply tung oil to oilcloth and oil paper umbrellas. They all said that the tung oil did not drip on their hands, and even if it made them feel a little stuffy, they did not get rashes as much.
Yu Liu Niang introduced her to the people who mixed lacquer, but Lin Xiushui had never even stepped inside the door. These workshops didn't allow people to enter, for fear that the smell of raw lacquer would bite and cause skin irritation. However, when the lacquer lady inside came to buy gloves from her, she said that wearing them had helped a lot, at least it didn't itch and cause skin to break. Everyone was able to deliver the Guang lacquer and cooked lacquer that the government was urging them to do day and night.
As for the largest laundry shop in the area where she sells gloves, those who have used it generally praise it highly. With more clothes that can be washed, they earn more money than before. Their line of work is all about hard work and earning money, so more money can buy more food and have more meals.
Lin Xiushui doesn't want to change her gloves lately, unless she spends a lot of money to buy oilcloth and tung oil, or to put good paper and silk floss inside, so that they won't leak even after several months of use. But that's pointless, as people can't afford things that are too expensive.
However, she learned to read and practiced writing every day, and her monogram was starting to look good. She planned to carve a seal and print the character "water" on the inside of the gloves she sold, so that everyone would know that the items came from her.
However, this method was not very suitable for the sachets she sold, so she made a bunch of cloth tags with the character for "water" embroidered on them and hung them under the sachets.
Not only the sachets, but also the doll clothes she made for Su Qiaoniang, and the clothes she made for Chun Da Niang's little girl Xiang Sheng Jiao Sheng She, all had her monogrammed labels sewn inside.
This is her own name.
Lin Xiushui will take responsibility for what she sells and earn whatever she can.
While counting her money at night, she was pleasantly surprised to find that, through her hard work day and night, she had finally stopped owing herself money after buying oilcloth, thread, and other items. She had saved a string of cash, which was truly a cause for celebration.
It was precisely because she had made money that Lin Xiushui had the confidence to say to Wang Yuelan, "Aunt, why don't you change your profession and stop being a dyer?"
Today, Wang Yuelan returned from the dye shop with a red and swollen forehead and many blue marks on her face. She slowly washed her hands and didn't tell Lin Xiushui the truth: "I wasn't watching where I was going and bumped into that dye rack. I've seen a doctor, and some ointment will do."
“What kind of business can you switch to? What business can earn two strings of cash a month? This money is for food and drink. Do you expect me to carry the load all by myself?”
She was very stubborn and insisted that she had bumped into the dyeing rack, but in fact, her small dyeing shop didn't have blue cloth dyeing work every day. If she wanted to earn more money in a month, she would carry the heavy dyeing rack and dyeing sticks. She would also carry the cloth that was being transported to the dock.
Even though Wang Yuelan was strong, the dyeing rack was really heavy. She accidentally bumped her head, and quite badly at that. Her stray hairs couldn't hide it, which is why Lin Xiushui noticed it at a glance.
"Let's find something easier, like working with silk floss," Lin Xiushui said softly as she applied the medicine.
Wang Yuelan laughed at her, "There are so many capable people in the town who can do this kind of work, how could it be my turn? Even if I could do it, I would only earn a few coins a month, how could I earn two strings of cash?"
“I’m sure I can find one for you, Auntie,” Lin Xiushui said confidently, her face serious as she demanded that Wang Yuelan assure her. “If I find one for you, Auntie, then you can stop working, okay?”
“You’re just a little kid,” Wang Yuelan nodded, looking at her expression. “If you can really find it, I’ll quit my job at Ran Si right away.”
In fact, she knew that there were many silkworms in the town, and many people were in the silk industry. There was a lot of work and little money, and it was hard to find good jobs. This was to comfort Lin Xiushui. She still wanted to earn more money in the dye shop so that she could help Lin Xiushui get married in the future.
Lin Xiushui didn't sleep well all night, tossing and turning. Even the mice were at work, squeaking and chirping, but she was still awake.
On the second day, she took her bag, stuffed all her money into her pocket, quietly opened the door and went out. She sailed to the courtyard at the east end of the bridge, where Liu Ya Sao lived.
It was Lin Xiushui who came to Sangqing Town earlier and found her a job at Gu Niangzi's clothing shop. Liu Ya Sao had a wide network of connections in the cloth industry.
She squatted by the door, feeling sleepy from waking up too early, but Liu Ya Sao, who opened the door, startled her. "Knock on the door, do you think I won't open it?"
“I recognize you. You work at Madam Gu’s clothing shop.”
Liu Ya Sao has an excellent memory; there's nothing she doesn't know about anything she's handled. She always goes back to ask her master about it because she knows Lin Xiushui's abilities.
Lin Xiushui explained her purpose, and Liu Ya Sao looked at her and said, "I do have work involving silk floss, at most one guan, but if you want two guan, I can do it too. This job isn't about how much money you give me; you have to earn it from me."
“I run a secondhand clothing shop, and there’s a very tricky job there. See if you can do it.”
Author's Note: It's a new month! I'm giving out two red envelopes in this chapter. First, wishing everyone a smooth and healthy new month [heart emoji]. Second, I've finally gotten through this incredibly unlucky month; I hope things will turn around for the better! *sobs*
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