Chapter 39 Xiaohe's Two Wishes
Just then, Xiao Chun'e sat on a bench in the courtyard, wiped her smudged face with a towel, washed her hands, and told Lin Xiushui that she was going to sweep up the charcoal dust.
"Sweep away the dust?" Lin Xiushui reached out and handed her a mirror. "Take a quick look at your face."
Xiao Chun'e took it, stood up and greeted Wang Yuelan, then smiled and patted Xiao He's head. She also greeted Mao Xiaoye in a friendly manner before saying, "The big business I found for you is related to sweeping charcoal powder."
Lin Xiushui called her inside and brought her a plate of fruit. After closing the door and opening the window, she asked with concern, "What are you doing? Instead of resting after work, you're going to get charcoal powder? Are you going to burn charcoal powder?"
“I’ve only been there twice,” Xiao Chun’e said, looking around the house with curiosity before pulling up a stool and sitting down. “You don’t understand, do you? Even if I wanted to do the burning, I wouldn’t get a chance to do it. Those are all jobs that are in high demand.”
Xiao Chun'e talked about what she had been doing after work these past two days, sweeping up charcoal dust on the charcoal transport boats in Qinghewu.
Regarding coal, Lin'an Prefecture used a lot of coal, especially in the cold winter when every household would make coal briquettes. But on ordinary days, coal was also used a lot, for making charcoal cakes, incense charcoal balls, and for iron smelting.
However, there was a shortage of coal in Lin'an, so it was purchased from Pingjiang Prefecture and other prefectures in the east. The coal-carrying boats would transfer to official boats at Qinghewu to reach the inner city, leaving behind a pile of broken coal and coal powder at the bottom of the boats. This became a hot commodity for the incense and medicine shops and coal merchants in Sangqing Town, who all hired people to sweep up the coal powder.
Of course, Xiao Chun'e wasn't after twenty or so coins. There were many kinds of charcoal on the market, all kinds of bamboo and wood charcoal, pine charcoal, incense charcoal, and so on. She herself said that she could burn many of them with her eyes closed. This time, she took the opportunity to see how other people made charcoal balls. In just two days, she managed to get into the charcoal business through her own skills.
"Back then, we just bought charcoal to practice burning. We also had fire tongs, bellows, and fire pokers, so our hands didn't get too dirty," Xiao Chun'e recalled her time in the charcoal shop. All that was flying around was charcoal ash. Regardless of age or gender, everyone had a blackened face, and their hands were as black as charcoal, constantly soaked in it and impossible to wash them clean.
She thought the people there were like burnt charcoal, like ashes from a burnt-out ember.
"I worked there for about half an hour, and I thought that making charcoal balls wasn't too difficult. If I had gloves, it would definitely be much more comfortable."
Xiao Chun'e put her hand on Lin Xiushui's shoulder and asked her with a forced smile, "Is selling gloves to the charcoal dealers a big business that no one has done before or since?"
“Yes,” Lin Xiushui patted her back gently and said confidently, “there is no bigger business than this.”
"I have a batch of gloves; let's go take a look together tomorrow."
Xiao Chun'e hesitated, "Then you'll have to wear the clothes you least want, put on a cloth, and cover your face and head."
The charcoal shop is near the charcoal bridge. It's easy to spot; just look for the place where the black smoke rises. Even the river is covered in a layer of black ash. The path there is marked by black footprints. The men and women who pass by all wear black cloth shirts, have bare, blackish-gray hands, and their heads and faces are covered with black cloth. They either carry loads or charcoal baskets on their backs, and they hurry along.
Lin Xiushui's nose was filled with a stuffy, sour smell. The piles of burning charcoal and coal gave her a headache. But the children born in Tanqiao could run around barefoot and play with charcoal balls in their hands.
Many families lived along the charcoal trade road, each relying on charcoal for a living. Some pulled mulberry branches to make firewood, some made charcoal jars, and some sold last autumn's water chestnut shells to poor families for charcoal. Most of them made charcoal balls using rice paste and charcoal powder.
Xiao Chun'e walked in front of Lin Xiushui, turned around and said, "Many people don't like this place. My mother doesn't allow me to stay here often. My brother and sister say I'm being foolish, but I think this place is really nice."
"What's so good about it?" Lin Xiushui asked her.
Xiao Chun'e didn't rush to take her to do business. Instead, she took her to a small workshop near the water. It was actually just a shed made of bamboo and wood, with a group of children around it. Lin Xiushui could smell the gunpowder burning.
She also tiptoed over to take a look and saw a large stone on the ground with something burning on it, spewing sparks upwards. It wasn't very dazzling, but it made a crackling sound and burned very quickly. The children cheered and shouted for another one to be lit.
The couple inside laughed, and the woman wearing a black cloth came out and said, "We'll show you again tonight. Go and make charcoal balls."
The children ran off laughing and joking with their little baskets on their backs, but Lin Xiushui learned from Xiao Chun'e that this wasn't a gunpowder shop. They had just learned how to make fireworks called "Fire Bayberry" to amuse the children here.
The woman said, "There's a lot of charcoal here. I mixed it with jujube pulp and added some wire, and I can make fireworks. I'm showing the kids how to make them. They won't catch fire. I've poured water on the sides."
"It's just for fun."
There are quite a few things to enjoy here. There are people who specialize in charcoal carving, using black coal to carve black crows with white rice for their eyes, which are very delicate. They also make various kinds of animal charcoal, with incense powder added, making each piece lifelike. There are also teachers who use twigs and charcoal ash to write and draw on the ground, teaching children to draw characters.
What Lin Xiushui saw was also the Tanqiao people's life as seen through Xiao Chun'e's eyes.
The two strolled around for a while before heading to the charcoal shop to sell gloves. Xiao Chun'e had helped a woman in the charcoal shop the day before, and the business had gone very smoothly.
Xiao Chun'e was very honest. She put on gloves and, under the watchful eyes of a group of people, took charcoal ash, rice paste, and various other materials, and shaped a very neat charcoal ball. As she shaped it, she said, "I told you yesterday that it would definitely work well."
She took off her gloves, her hands were clean. "See? There's really no dirt on them."
“This is my friend who is a top-notch tailor,” she said, pulling Lin Xiushui aside with a boastful expression. “She has never made me feel cheated when buying her products, otherwise I wouldn’t be telling you all this.”
"Why do you talk like you do it yourself?" an old lady laughed at her. She went to wash her hands and prepared to try them on, but found that her hands were not clean enough. She laughed and wiped them on her body, but they were even dirtier. She simply said, "Look, this kind of work is very dirty. There's no way to be clean. Give me two pairs to use."
“I’ll take two pairs too,” another woman said, patting the black grime off her hands. “Let’s try them out first. We won’t lose anything anyway. If they work well, I can recommend them to you guys.”
Others, thinking they might find them useful, bought a few pairs and said to Lin Xiushui, "It doesn't matter if we use them or not. Are there any for the little ones? If so, the price doesn't matter. Our children are also making charcoal balls."
"These past two days, I've only made the large ones out of so many people who wanted them," Lin Xiushui said. She didn't know much about the charcoal trade before she came here, but she found out that children also helped make charcoal balls in the charcoal trade.
"I need three small pairs."
"I'll take two pairs first."
When I was buying them for myself, it was a sparse affair. But when I said I had gloves for children, a bunch of people crowded around, pulled out their wallets, and said they wanted to buy them.
Lin Xiushui wasn't using oilcloth gloves, but rather thick linen gloves, which were just right for making charcoal balls.
There are always five or six hundred people in the charcoal shop. With Xiao Chun'e's hard work and shouting, she received orders from 125 people and collected more than 800 coins in deposits. Moreover, these coarse cloth gloves were only 10 coins a pair, which was indeed a big business.
Lin Xiushui came out of the charcoal shop and asked Xiao Chun'e, "Why are you happier than me?"
“You’ve made money, and the kids have gloves now, of course I’m happy.”
Lin Xiushui laughed and said, "You didn't gain any advantage, nor did you make any money."
She really wanted to share some money with Xiao Chun'e, but Xiao Chun'e refused, saying, "We shouldn't talk about money. Money is a complicated matter that can hurt our relationship."
So Lin Xiushui spent money to buy three tubes of incense charcoal and gave them to Xiao Chun'e. Xiao Chun'e hugged them and said, "I like them so much. From now on, when I burn this incense, you will be the first person I think of."
“Then I’ll have to give you more in the future,” Lin Xiushui said. She thought that giving her incense charcoal every year during festivals would be too unoriginal. She planned to find some charcoal-related crafts for Xiao Chun’e. She felt that she had no way to repay her. What she received was very sincere affection.
She would always remember that evening in the charcoal shop.
Of course, Lin Xiushui was really too busy to handle so many glove orders. Even though Wang Yuelan helped her cut out glove patterns, no matter how fast she sewed them, there were still a pile of gloves on the table, and all three of them were exhausted.
Here's Xiaohe, she can't tell left from right anymore.
Lin Xiushui finally decided that she needed to find two helpers who could sew gloves for her, whether they were made of oilcloth or coarse cloth.
She found Mrs. Chen and Granny Zhang from the Zhang family next door and paid them two coins for a pair of gloves. You should know that the two of them worked in the double-thread workshop, and their stitches for sewing shoes were much finer than hers for making gloves.
Chen Niangzi's real name is Chen Shuanghua. She has excellent craftsmanship and has been making shoes for many years, sewing shoe uppers and soles. Lin Xiushui's stitches are not as good as hers.
Needless to say, Granny Zhang used to make flat shoes, but now she's been transferred to make upturned shoes. She can sew gloves with her eyes closed.
“If you ask me to sew it, I’ll definitely sew it well for you,” Chen Shuanghua quickly agreed. She needed to save money for her two sons’ weddings, and the family was in dire need of funds.
Grandma Zhang didn't say a word, and even added, "We two have legitimate livelihoods. Whatever you entrust to us for sewing, we won't pass it on to outsiders."
"Don't worry, we just want the money, nothing else."
Wang Yuelan laughed and said, "Grandma Zhang, how could I not trust the two of you?"
Knowing the two women's character and conduct, Wang Yuelan asked Lin Xiushui to ask them for help. They had legitimate businesses, earning two strings of cash a month in the double-line trade, and Zhang the carpenter was also a good earner. Moreover, the two women were honest and hardworking.
Lin Xiushui was more concerned about how much free time the two of them would have each day and how many things they could sew. She not only made gloves, but also sachets, cat-shaped shoes, and other miscellaneous jobs. She had managed to do it all herself in the early stages, but now she really couldn't keep up and planned to share some of the work with others.
Even if she spends a few dozen or at most a hundred coins more, she can earn more money and expand her business.
Chen Shuanghua can sew 25 pairs of shoes in one night and one morning. Granny Zhang can sew two more pairs than her. The two of them sew quickly and well, and they sewed the shoes for her according to the requirements of the double-thread sewing industry.
Lin Xiushui checked each pair and found no misstitches or other defects. She breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. She carefully arranged the pairs according to size and paid the two workers.
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law counted the money, one coin at a time, and then smiled. They only cared about the money and didn't care how Lin Xiushui's business was doing or whether it could be sold. They never inquired about it; they took any job that came their way and made money whenever they could.
Lin Xiushui then tied up the finished gloves and delivered them to the charcoal shop. The children, led by their parents, came to pick them up and washed them several times with soap.
Putting on the gloves felt novel; they grabbed and pinched at them, each trying to collect charcoal ash. Then, they secretly peered inside the gloves, only to find them still completely black.
“You have to take off your gloves so I can see how clean my hands are,” a child said, waving his hands and then carefully putting them back in, digging at the charcoal ash. “Now that my hands are clean, can I play with the other kids from the alley?”
"I also want to play with everyone, until my hands and body are clean every day."
The children of Tanbashi wanted to be clean, and this wish was gradually fulfilled starting with a pair of cheap gloves.
Lin Xiushui took on many more jobs from the charcoal shop, which she divided among Chen Shuanghua and Granny Zhang. She mainly focused on her own stall's business; others needed gloves, but everyone needed her help with the stall.
She was busy from early morning, sleeping, when someone called her from downstairs, she was working on fabric, when someone rowed a boat to the river and called her from outside the window.
"What should I do? Ah Qiao, can you sew this up for me? The silkworm flowers I just bought have come apart. Will my harvest this year be ruined?" The woman who sells silkworms rushed over in a panic, almost bumping into the table. She quickly stopped and showed the woman the broken paper silkworm flowers.
The silkworm lady was furious and stomped her foot angrily. "I knew I shouldn't have bought from that stall! It's full of cheap stuff. If I run into her again, I'll make her pay me back!"
Lin Xiushui had just spread out her needle and thread when she heard this and saw the tangled mess of silkworm flowers and red paper in the other woman's hand. She could sew them, so she took them with both hands, pieced them together, and asked, "What are you going to compensate me for?"
"You should at least compensate me with two silkworm flowers. I'm not trying to cheat anyone out of their money," the silkworm maiden said, bending down slightly and putting her hands together. "Ah Qiao, Ah Qiao, please sew it better for me. Please don't let it fall apart again. My heart almost stopped beating just now. Luckily, I managed to jump twice."
Lin Xiushui arranged the pattern, took out a red thread, carefully tied it into the paper, and slowly sewed it up, saying, "I guarantee that my wife's heart will come back to life."
“No need,” the silkworm lady told her. “I just ran over here and I’m jumping around so much. Let me rest.” After Lin Xiushui finished sewing, she handed the silkworm flower back to her exactly as it was. The silkworm lady carefully took it, paid the money, and ran off, calling back as she ran, “I’m in a hurry to go to the Silkworm Flower Bodhisattva Temple. I have to go and pray.”
"Take it easy," Lin Xiushui muttered. "Didn't we just say we needed to rest?"
Lin Xiushui wrapped the red thread back around. At this moment, the mulberry leaves above her head sprouted new buds, their green color perfectly matching her banner.
"Do you think this mulberry leaf green color can be achieved?"
A man dressed entirely in green except for a headscarf on his head came over, looked up at the mulberry leaves, and asked a question while standing with his hands behind his back.
Lin Xiushui glanced at it; the tender green was indeed beautiful. She glanced at the green-clad man and then lowered her head to pack her things.
The man in green circled her stall, then suddenly had an idea, "How about,"
"It can't be dyed."
“I haven’t said anything yet. Who told you to dye it?” The man in green coughed and pointed to the mulberry leaves. “I mean, how about I build a ladder, pick the mulberry leaves, and you sew them onto my clothes?”
Lin Xiushui smiled and said, "Sure, I can also go to the mulberry orchard and find someone to help you pick them, how about that?"
"Not very good."
The man in green shook his head repeatedly. The people from Sangxing would probably plant him next to a mulberry tree so he could watch the mulberry leaves day and night. A bunch of stubborn mulberry lovers, humph.
"Fine, take out the green cloth from the stall and let me choose one. I want to make a patchwork garment with all different shades of green."
Lin Xiushui looked up at him. He wasn't tall, but he was strong. Where was she going to find so much green cloth?
"I'll just make you a headscarf at most, do you want it?"
The man in green looked at her and said, "No."
He said seriously, "Everyone says I look like a mallard when I wear a green headscarf."
Lin Xiushui really wanted to say that it looks the same even without wearing it.
Of course, in the end, this man who loved green bought up all the fabrics that were even remotely green. He said he wanted to create a green dress that no one else would ever think of, and Lin Xiushui wished him success.
After he left, Lin Xiushui took on several sewing jobs, which were relatively easy. Most of them involved sewing silkworm trays or other silkworm-related items. At most, knowing that she could read a little, she was asked to embroider some characters related to silkworms.
The most outrageous thing was that she made a very specific wish, something like hoping that the Goddess of Silkworms would bless her family so that their silkworm harvest would be abundant this year... The believer lived in the sixth house on the banks of the Sang River at Sangqiao Ferry...
Lin Xiushui refused on the spot, feeling that the other party was trying to provoke her.
She doesn't recognize so many characters at all, and she can't write them either. She hasn't even learned all the surnames in the Hundred Family Surnames.
She vowed that she would study hard and learn to read, so that next time she had to do this kind of work, she could write it down on the spot and show it to others.
Later, after she finished mending a torn thin shirt, Aunt Chun, who had arrived earlier, came over and said, "Ah Qiao, our troupe can now perform on stage."
Aunt Chun's voice was filled with barely suppressed joy as she ran over, her hair disheveled. She carefully put down the coin she was holding and wiped the sweat from her hands.
Lin Xiushui exclaimed in surprise, "Really? Let me see, you ladies are truly remarkable."
A notice is a poster displayed in a theater to inform the audience who will be performing that day or the next.
She started reading from the top and read all the way to the bottom before finally seeing the last line of text: "Little girl with a lifelike voice, Qiao family, Qiao wedding procession, learning the local dialect."
Lin Xiushui was also quite excited, just like Aunt Chun. After all, in order to help everyone make a living as soon as possible, she went to the secondhand clothing store and ordered ready-made clothes, which were then re-cut and patched up piece by piece, making them fit properly and transform them from tattered clothes into fashionable outfits that could be worn on stage.
I also saw these children, performing on the streets, occupying corners, and a few of them were able to get into Nanwazi and perform on stage.
When the girls went on stage, Lin Xiushui took Xiaohe and Wang Yuelan to watch. There were no good seats, so they stood on the very edge, tiptoeing to look ahead.
As night deepened and many lanterns were lit, the women emerged, dressed neatly and full of energy, singing and performing. Qiao Yingqin, in particular, made the matchmaker look around, praising her on this side and that side, until finally she plopped down on the ground, shouting, "Oh heavens, why did I, a half-baked matchmaker, have to become one? I'm not good at sweet talk! Oh, my lord, you are so handsome and dashing… my wife is as beautiful as a flower, with a face as lovely as the moon!"
The laughter caused the group, who had originally intended to leave, to stop and sit down. After listening to this hilarious performance, many people remembered the story, and the girls were moved to tears during their curtain call.
With her eyes red and swollen, Aunt Chun held Lin Xiushui's hand and said, "I've managed to give them something to eat."
Lin Xiushui shook her head and said, "No, Auntie, you've already fed them a long time ago."
Long ago, when their parents didn't want them.
Right now, however, there is a better future ahead, a bright one, not a dark one, a path that has been forged through much hardship and is truly our own.
Lin Xiushui came out of Nanwazi. Even late at night, the place was still bustling with activity. Some people were practicing their singing, some were practicing drumming, and some were playing with shadow puppets. There were many people here who never stopped.
There are also many who struggle to make a living, carrying loads on their shoulders and hawking their wares along the streets, tending their small stalls while dozing off, and some even transporting mulberry seedlings by boat at night... and so on.
Life is busy and hectic, but hard work pays off.
For example, Xiaohe finally saved up about a hundred coins through her hard work and effort.
But she actually stuffed the money pouch into Lin Xiushui's hands and made two wishes very seriously.
But her second wish was for another little girl.
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