Chapter 38: The Big Business of Gloves
"My donkey is named Laifu. It can't speak human language, but it understands everything."
"He's very capable, he can pull the watermill for a long time without stopping. Why is his leg lame? Well, ahead of us, we not only conscripted laborers to dredge mud, but also donkeys to transport it. With all the rain, the road was slippery and he fell and broke his leg."
The donkey herder, whose hearing was poor, had to bring his right ear close to hear Lin Xiushui's words. He smiled indifferently, "So what if I'm lame? At least I'm still alive."
“Then you should go to a veterinary clinic,” Lin Xiushui shouted in his ear. She glanced at the donkey’s legs and saw that one of its front legs was atrophied, which was why it walked with a limp.
“There’s no need to shout so loudly, I can hear you,” the donkey herder stroked the donkey’s head, somewhat angrily. “I went there, applied medicine, clamped it with bamboo strips and tied it up tightly, it was in so much pain that it cried day and night. He’s so mean, he treats it like a donkey, it can’t even speak human language, he’s really ruthless.”
“I also raised three or four donkeys. Those donkeys always made fun of them. I thought to myself, if a lame person can wear shoes and use crutches, a lame donkey can also wear a leg cover to hide it.”
“That makes a lot of sense,” Lin Xiushui said, rubbing her forehead. “Why don’t you do it yourself?”
The donkey breeder spoke frankly: "I've done a really bad job. I asked many shops the other day, but no one paid any attention to me. Someone on the road told me that it didn't work anywhere else, so I should come to you. You must have a solution."
"Who got me this job?" Lin Xiushui was genuinely puzzled.
There are a lot of people.
There's a group of people who love to watch the drama unfold, and without even checking what kind of work it is, they just take it all on for her. What a bunch of bastards!
"Let me take a look first. You've come all this way, so even if I can't make it, I'll sew you a leg cover."
Lin Xiushui had never ridden a donkey before, but she touched the donkey's leg first. The leg had shrunken flesh hanging down, which looked really uncomfortable. The donkey was uncomfortable, but the person who raised the donkey was even more uncomfortable.
After examining the shoes, Lin, the "veterinarian," sat down to think it over and gave a "prescription": "Make a donkey shoe to try first. If it doesn't work, then you'll have to go to another shop."
As she drew paper patterns, she began to cut out squares one by one. "The uppers of the shoes should be made of linen, which is breathable. I'll make them in the style of boots, with the soles made of half wooden blocks and half cloth, with straps in the front and two wooden strips inserted along the sides for support."
After Lin Xiushui finished speaking, she pushed the paper pattern of a boot she had drawn in front of the donkey herder, nodded and said, "There's no problem. I'll do it this way. You'll have to pay 55 coins for the medicine."
"Too expensive?"
"No, it's a four-legged one. I see Laifu with only one shoe on his leg, and it makes me feel so bad." The donkey herder still has money, but he has a problem: he can't stand things that aren't in pairs. He raises four donkeys and wears eight pieces of clothing. If he can't get all the pieces, he has to wear an extra pair of socks and aprons.
The shoe covering his leg was even more distressing than the day the donkey was lame and it rained heavily.
Day after day, what's wrong with her? Lin Xiushui wants to raise a donkey, while Zhang the carpenter thinks the same way about her.
Carpenter Zhang took the paper pattern, put his hands behind his back, and sighed: "I've been doing serious woodworking for over twenty years, and only two years ago did I get one job, asking him to carve a big-bottomed chicken for his son. I remembered that for two or three years. But you, you haven't had many proper jobs in over a month."
“Uncle Zhang, you have to think about it. Whatever the job, as long as you make money, that’s all that matters. Tell me, did you make any money from the big-butt chicken you were asked to carve before?” Lin Xiushui asked back.
“You must have made quite a bit of money,” Zhang the carpenter said, speechless. He stopped thinking about it and went to the corner to get his saw.
According to Lin Xiushui's suggestion, the wood was sawn into the shape of a donkey's hoof. While sawing, he thought that it was all for the purpose of making a living.
Lin Xiushui squatted down, picking through the timber, and chatted with him, "Uncle, where's your son?"
"The younger one came back from rolling in the mud pit and his mother beat him up. The older one," Zhang the carpenter snorted, pulling the saw heavily, "was sent to work for the lumber company. All day long, he has so much energy but nowhere to use it. It's really infuriating."
Lin Xiushui shouldn't have asked so many questions. She cursed her own loose tongue for bringing up the very thing she shouldn't have asked.
She took the things and quickly slipped away to go back and think about the donkey shoes. Shoes are all pretty much the same; you draw shoe patterns and make soles and uppers.
First, they made shoe soles, half of which were made of wood. In fact, Lin Xiushui had also thought of nailing iron shoes to donkeys and using iron for the soles, but that would be expensive, costing Zhang the carpenter two or three coins.
She pasted cloth scraps onto the soles of the insoles, took out black linen to cut shoe pieces, and sewed two layers of cloth onto the lame shoe, one of which could hold a wooden stick.
Lin Xiushui was mediocre at sewing shoe soles, but Wang Yuelan helped her. Wang Yuelan was strong and her stitches were meticulous. She was also a skilled shoemaker, but while sewing, she kept muttering, "Where did you learn that? You have to make so many small openings in the front to tie the left and right sides together. If you weren't in a clothing shop, I would have thought you were working in a double-thread shop."
Unable to respond to that, Lin Xiushui pretended not to hear. With Wang Yuelan's help, the four oddly styled boots were finally finished.
Xiaohe wanted to see the donkey put on its boots, and thought Xiaoye wanted to see it too. So, early in the morning, with her hair all messy, she grabbed the cat that was snoring and sleeping soundly, and stood at the mouth of the mulberry tree to watch the donkey put on its shoes.
Not only her, but also a group of "kind-hearted people" who had previously pointed out the way to the donkey breeder and led him here.
The old woman selling fresh flowers yawned and said, "We've lived half our lives and never seen a donkey wear shoes. I couldn't sleep last night, and I woke up before the dawn monk arrived."
"I still have two birdcages to repair, so I can't bother with them right away. I just wanted to take a look first. Here, Ah Qiao, these are my eldest son and youngest daughter. You haven't met them yet, have you?" the man repairing birdcages on the street said, tugging at his two children in front of him.
Lin Xiushui had long understood this group of people. Some of them rarely showed up, but whenever there was excitement to be had, they would jump around more and more eagerly than the last.
The donkey herder was startled when, just as dawn broke, so many people suddenly appeared, staring intently at him. He felt uneasy, and one of them, clutching a tall, wooden-soled linen boot, cautiously said, "Then I'll wear it."
"Put it on, put it on, we're waiting."
"Hurry up, I have something stewing on the stove at home."
The donkey breeder nodded repeatedly, fed Laifu some tofu residue, told it to lie down, and with trembling hands untied the shoe straps and carefully put them on its legs.
There was nothing he could do; a bunch of heads crowded around, and even Laifu snorted in fright, let alone him.
After it put on its shoes, the black shoes weren't very noticeable on its legs, as its fur was black.
But everyone was very excited and urged the donkey handler, "Quickly lead it and walk a few steps."
After putting on the shoes, Laifu walked unsteadily, as if he had drunk fake alcohol, especially his lame leg, even though the bamboo on both sides of the shoe shaft was supporting his feet and his soles could touch the ground.
Lin Xiushui touched her chin. It seemed that Fu was walking with his shoes clattering, completely absorbed in his own thoughts. Were his shoes not tied properly? Were they uncomfortable? She had wrapped his lame leg with soft silk padding, so walking shouldn't be so uncomfortable.
“I think the shoes need to be softer,” a woman said, squatting down to examine the donkey’s legs.
Everyone offered suggestions. They didn't actually want to see the donkey wearing shoes; they just wanted to see if it was lame.
Another doctor who treats birds said, "Look at its legs, they're like a person using a cane to support themselves. Ah Qiao, get me a rope, I'll tie it to its body and see."
He threaded the soft rope through the boots and tied it to Laifu's body, one in front and one behind. His wife tied the boots tighter and stuffed some things inside. After some fiddling, the donkey herder patted Laifu's head and said, "Good Laifu, take a few more steps and let everyone see."
Laifu took two more steps, initially unsteady, then circled the tree twice, kicking its hooves as it gradually walked more smoothly, shaking its head. Then, its lame leg suddenly regained its strength, and it could take a step or two without the limp becoming severe. Once it adapts, it might be able to walk as smoothly as before.
The children cheered, and the others smiled broadly. It was early in the morning, and instead of going to work or sleeping, they were celebrating that a donkey could walk.
The donkey herder led his donkey over and thanked everyone, including Lin Xiushui. Lin Xiushui shook her head and said, "I'll just make a pair of shoes. Thank you all for your help."
"Thank you all, thank you all," the donkey herder said loudly. He had originally thought that some people would laugh at him for making leg covers for donkeys, but he did not expect everyone to be so enthusiastic.
Someone patted the donkey and said, "Don't make it pull the millstone anymore, let this donkey rest too."
The donkey herder said, "I'll take good care of it. I'll raise it until it's old. The donkey can live for many years. Even after I'm gone, my son will take care of it."
Wearing shoes, in the eyes of the donkey breeder, he was almost like a human being; his son Laifu just couldn't speak human language.
Of course, later on, Laifu's legs were no longer so lame, and he could walk long distances. He went back to the mountains with the donkey herder, and the next time I saw him was when he was making new shoes.
Anyway, Lin Xiushui will be able to see it again many years later.
After that, Lin Xiushui always wanted to learn a thing or two from the doctor who treated birds, cattle and horses, but she was persuaded to leave by several doctors who only told her one thing: "Every profession is like a mountain to climb."
She didn't believe it at all. At most, it was separated by a river, not a mountain. She said it was just a small river behind her door, and she could row a boat there. People said it was West Lake or the Qiantang River, which really dampened her spirits.
Of course, some people said nice things, saying that she really had the ability to control animals, and that she was quite skilled. When Lin Xiushui asked, she said that she could control paper kites, clay cats, and cloth tigers, and that she could control them all perfectly.
Upon hearing this, Lin Xiushui thought, according to their logic, wouldn't she also be able to control people—dolls, silk dolls, none of which are human?
But to be honest, she really wasn't cut out for animal husbandry, especially when she was asked to catch geese; she turned and left.
After returning home, Wang Yuelan packed her things and went to work. The silk industry was busy in March, as all the lower-grade cocoons harvested the previous year had to be boiled, peeled, and used to make cotton quilts to make room for the new silk.
She worked for two days, and even though she was tired, she walked with a brisk pace. She always went to work early, saying that the people in the silk industry took good care of her.
March and April are the busiest two months in Sangqing Town. During the silkworm season, most of the boats that come and go carry mulberry seeds and fertilizer. On the streets, people sell silkworm flowers cut from red paper, clay cats, silkworm cat pictures, and bamboo cats. People offer incense day and night at the Silkworm Flower Bodhisattva Temple.
People passing by, whether they raise silkworms or not, would all say: "May your silkworms bloom for twenty-four percent."
Silkworm flowers are the harvest of silkworm cocoons. Currently, the silkworms raised in the town are molting silkworms, specifically four-molting silkworms, which are the best silkworm breeds. One pound of these silkworms can produce eight pounds of cocoons. The twenty-fourth branch hopes to produce even more cocoons.
During these times, most of the jobs Lin Xiushui took on were related to silkworm farming.
For example, early in the morning, two women came rushing over, one of them holding a picture of a silkworm and a cat, and shouted from afar, "Ah Qiao, I have a chore to do for me."
"Could you carefully sew these two silkworm cat pictures onto the back of my clothes, without tearing them?"
Lin Xiushui was puzzled, "It's fine as long as it's pasted on the wall, why do we need to sew the back of the clothes?"
“You don’t understand. Today is an inauspicious day. The best painting is a silkworm cat. It can scare away the rats and make them stay far away.” Jin Niangzi carefully put down the silkworm cat painting. She had been queuing for this for a long time. The cat painting shop at the city gate was doing very well today.
Jin Niangzi complained in a low voice, "I have two younger sisters who married into the silkworm-raising families in Sanglinpo. They are hoping that the silkworms will be plentiful in the next few months so they can earn some money to pay off the debt for buying silk."
"The money borrowed to buy silk in recent years has been a huge loss for those who use it to raise silkworms. The price of silk cloth has been rising every year, but the money the government lends to silkworm farmers hasn't increased at all. They have no choice but to raise silkworms."
Lin Xiushui certainly knew that buying silk was originally a good thing. The government would give everyone money in advance so that they would have the capital to raise silkworms. After the silkworms produced cocoons, they would weave silk to offset the money. This was also known as pre-purchasing silk.
The price of silk could rise to several strings of cash per bolt, but the government would only provide less than half of that amount. As a result, the silkworm farmers lost money, while the government made a steady profit.
The silkworm and cat pattern sewn onto the back of the garment is just for good luck. Lin Xiushui took it and said, "I guarantee it will be sewn perfectly."
“This garment is sewn inside and out. Does that mean the mice aren’t going into the silkworm rearing room? My sister’s silkworms didn’t hatch well last year, and my mother was so worried,” Jin Niangzi said again.
Lin Xiushui took out a thin thread and said, "How about I sew a cat inside for you?"
“Okay,” Jin Niangzi frowned and recalled, “You used to sell cat head cloth patches, cat head sachets, and cat shoes. Give me six of each. Money is no problem. Also, give me some of those cat toys. Two hundred coins. No problem, just take them.”
While other families were doing well selling silkworm flowers, Lin Xiushui's business with anything related to cats suddenly improved. In particular, whether it was Yao Niangzi's cat-head shoes or Sai Da Niang's cat-head sachets, they were selling better than last month, and she earned at least five hundred coins in just a few days.
She sewed the paper carefully, afraid of tearing it. After finishing, she said to Jin Niangzi, "I don't want money for this sewing, but I have a friend in Sanglinpo, Yu Liu Niang's family. I have some clay cats and silkworm cat pictures at home. Would you mind taking them over for me?"
"If it doesn't work out, I'll definitely take it to you."
After seeing off Jin Niangzi who had finished sewing the clothes, Lin Xiushui set up a small stall next to herself, specializing in selling all kinds of cat-related items: sachets, pouches, cat-head shoes, simple cloth patches, handbags, and a bamboo tube of cat toys.
She asked Xiaohe to help the cat Xiaoye attract customers, and in return, she gave Xiaohe a raise, giving her six coins and a bag of candy. As for the cat, she gave her an extra serving of cat food.
The two, a woman and a cat, worked very hard. When Xiaohe called out, Xiaoye the cat would meow back. Passersby were always attracted and couldn't help but buy a few portions.
Lin Xiushui was quite surprised when she counted the money that night; she had earned two hundred more coins, and her little money jar was almost full.
Therefore, Lin Xiushui made a major decision: she was going to spend money to buy a large jar, no, a large vat.
First, he wanted to earn that much money; second, he thought no thief would know that someone had hidden money in a large vat.
Of course, I didn't buy one. The large tank was too expensive, and it would be silly to put a tank in a nice house.
The silkworm season not only brought Lin Xiushui business, but also troubles, as she had too much work to handle.
“With this embroidered cat on the sock, what mouse could possibly see it?” Lin Xiushui held the sock in both hands, raised her face, and couldn’t understand it at all.
The old woman pointed to herself and said, "I was born in the Year of the Rat, so I'm just looking at myself."
"Then why not embroider a mouse? Embroider a cat instead."
The old lady said seriously, "I like cats."
"But then again, cats are said to be a nemesis to mice, and I don't want cats to be a nemesis to me, so after thinking it over, I decided to just embroider socks."
Lin Xiushui hesitated, her fingers twitching slightly, unable to utter a single word. Finally, she said, "Twenty coins, here's the money."
"Wow, that's really expensive. Looks like cats are a bit of a jinx to me."
“Auntie, are you done? It’s my turn,” a young woman hurriedly squeezed in. “I’m different from this auntie. Young lady, could you embroider a silkworm flower here for me? It’s twenty-four cents.”
"This is an image of the Goddess of Silkworm Flowers. You want me to embroider words on it?" Lin Xiushui looked at her with a face full of doubt.
"Oh dear, I took the wrong one," the confused young woman quickly pulled another piece of cloth from her pocket. "It's for embroidering on this, you know how, right?"
Lin Xiushui is really good at it. No matter how busy she is these days, she has never stopped practicing calligraphy. Moreover, the characters she embroiders are better than the characters she writes.
She immediately agreed, "I promise I'll embroider it for you. These characters are easy to embroider. Here's ten coins. Come and pick it up tomorrow."
However, the work that came in that morning was a mess. She said some of it was done out of desperation, and that people were afraid of the harvest as soon as the silkworm season arrived.
Even clothing stores were not spared.
Madam Gu rubbed her forehead and patted the pile of clothes in front of her. "They were returned. The family on the east side said they weren't very satisfied."
"What's not satisfactory?" Lin Xiushui wondered. She had sewed so carefully, checked it over and over, and there wasn't even a loose thread, not to mention the stitches. She couldn't figure out where there was a mistake.
Madam Gu was both amused and exasperated. "That family said they were willing to pay more, but firstly, they wanted a matching sachet with a paper silkworm horse inside, and secondly, the collar had to be embroidered with red silkworm flowers."
"A bunch of people are desperate for a good silkworm harvest."
Lin Xiushui only cared about one thing, "How much more money?"
Money makes things easier.
"It's a few hundred coins, I'll give you whatever you want, just take it and redo it, it's giving me a headache."
Lin Xiushui picked up her clothes and prepared to go inside, but Madam Gu called out to her again, "Aqiao, come here."
"I forgot to mention that Shanglintang, Sanglinpo, and the area around West Lake are undergoing major water conservancy construction. They're digging canals and rivers to transport soil. If you want to go back after Grain Rain and during Qingming Festival, you'll probably have to take a detour, which will take at least a day."
It's not surprising that Lin Xiushui thanked Madam Gu. Chen Jiuchuan had sent her a message a couple of days ago, so she knew about it even before Madam Gu.
Since they've been repairing water conservancy projects every year anyway, she can only wait. Chen Jiuchuan said that his mother and Sang Ying would go to the graves of her parents to offer sacrifices.
After finishing her work, Lin Xiushui rubbed her sore shoulders, said goodbye to Xiao Chun'e and her sister, and rowed the boat towards the Sanghe Bridge behind the Xiaoliu Bridge. Liu Ya's second-hand clothing shop was there, and not only second-hand clothing shops, but also silk markets, cloth markets, cotton markets, raw silk markets and so on were all in this area.
Colorful clothes fluttered in the breeze, and fabrics flew about. Every boat that passed by on the river was laden with piles of clothes and fabrics. On the banks, there were many stalls with colorful tents selling raw silk and secondhand clothes.
Lin Xiushui took out a half-human figure from the boat. These days, Su Qiaoniang had carved a human figure for her. She didn't use it to make clothes. Instead, she took it to Liu Ya Sao's second-hand clothing shop. It was made according to the size of little girls. Whether old clothes fit or not, you can find out by putting it on.
"What is this thing? It's neither human nor human," Liu Ya's wife asked, puzzled.
Lin Xiushui patted it and said, "Good stuff, I'm here to measure the child's body."
No matter what kind of clothes they were, she would take them, put them on the mannequin, and know exactly where the waist was too big, where the neckline was wrong, and which ones didn't look good on her.
Sister Liu was quite interested in these things. "How about you get me a set too, sister? It would be best if it had a headdress. I also have some crowns and such."
"Sis, it's not that I don't want to do it for you, I'm just afraid it will scare you to death."
Lin Xiushui couldn't just agree blindly; she had to see if the other party would accept the job.
After taking the old clothes back, Lin Xiushui hung them in the yard to air out. She was busy until the sun began to set when someone knocked on the door. She went out to open it and was startled. "That scared me to death!"
"Did you come back from digging coal?"
"Is there really such a good thing?" Xiao Chun'e's first reaction was, "If you can really mine coal, you can earn two or three strings of cash a month."
“Oh dear, I rarely come all this way, and you almost led me astray,” she patted her dark hands, her eyes sparkling. “I’ve found you a big glove deal.”
Xiao Chun'e said, "That's a huge business that no one has ever done before, and no one will ever do again."
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