Chapter 49 Having More, Going Further
In the courtyard, Sang Ying saw Xiao Ye, the cat, curled up on the ground, slumped limply beside Xiao He's legs. She exclaimed, "Big fat cat!"
Looking at Xiaohe, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of dried dates. There were mountain dates in Shanglintang. He held a handful in both hands and handed it to her, saying, "Xiaohe, here you go."
Xiaohe couldn't hold it all in her hands, so she quickly pulled her clothes to stuff it in. Her eyes were on the dried dates, and she said, "Sister Sangying, you're so kind, and the dates are so good."
When Sang Ying met Wang Yuelan, she first greeted her, trying to appear composed. She carried a basket of things, saying she was conveying her parents' greetings. However, with her disheveled hair, bright eyes, and lively expression, Wang Yuelan said she was still just a child.
Wang Yuelan asked Sang Ying to sit down, made her some tea, and then asked her, "Going to work in a rice shop? Which rice shop? When are you going?"
There wasn't just one rice shop, but many. Sangqing Town mainly grows mulberry trees and raises silkworms, so it doesn't produce rice itself. It relies entirely on rice from Suzhou, Huzhou, Changzhou, Xiuzhou, and Huainan. There are five or six rice shops and dozens of rice stores at Mishiqiao.
Sang Ying accepted the fresh fruit handed to her by Lin Xiushui and replied, "In a couple of days, it's the early rice market. I only know how to come to Zaozhancheng. My brother said the work there is easy. The new early rice will be harvested around the beginning of autumn, and what's being sold is last year's. All I need to do is recognize the grain and measure the grain."
"They say you can earn 800 coins a month just by going in, which is more than I earned last month farming in Shanglintang, peeling bamboo shoots, drying bamboo shoots, and picking mulberry leaves."
Sang Ying was content. She had no special skills and had never liked learning anything since she was a child. She loved running around in the wild, catching fish, shrimp, and crabs, and then asking Chen Jiuchuan to cook them for her and Lin Xiushui.
So when they entered the rice shop, even Lin Xiushui said it was good. The rice grown in Shanglintang was early Zhancheng rice, which is early indica rice and matures in sixty days. Other early rice matures around the beginning of autumn, while late rice matures around the end of summer.
Wang Yuelan thought about the place. It wasn't close to Sangqiao Ferry, but it was similar to the tailor's workshop where Lin Xiushui worked. She immediately said, "Then I'll get up early and have A Qiao row the boat to take you there."
"That's great, I can take turns rocking with A-Qiao."
Later, Sang Ying went to the room where Lin Xiushui was sleeping upstairs. She looked around the room, her footsteps making the floorboards creak, before she said, "I came by my cousin's boat. My cousin is still in Shanglintang. Before I came, my mother chased and beat him."
"Hmm, I don't really believe it," Lin Xiushui muttered, opened the window, and leaned against it to look at Sang Ying. Would Chen Jiuchuan really get beaten up? No way.
“Really,” Sang Ying said, hands on her hips. “He had a fight with my mother, saying that I was useless working in the fields and that she should stop thinking about finding a husband all day long and come to town to save more money. He also hired several helpers for the fields, which cost him a lot of money. My mother said she wanted to beat this unfilial son to death. He said he didn’t even laugh, which made my mother even angrier.”
She told Lin Xiushui the truth: her mother thought that since she didn't have much ability, it would be better for her to get engaged first, get married and have children in a couple of years, since she didn't have much talent. But she didn't like Zhang Langjun, who had mulberry trees, or Li Langjun, who had a lot of land.
In Shanglintang, there are women who marry as young as fourteen and are buried at fifteen, along with her and her unborn child. New graves and old graves appear every year, and Sang Ying is afraid of becoming one of those buried.
She knew everything and envied others who were cooks, able to work in various trades and earn money with their skills. She often thought that she was not capable and could not learn anything well, so she could only keep it to herself and let it fester inside.
She was happy to be able to work at the rice shop, but after her initial joy, she worried that she wouldn't do a good job; there were too many things she couldn't do well.
"How could that be? I've missed you so much," Lin Xiushui turned to look at her, completely affirming her. "I'm very busy right now. When I get busy, I think, if Sang Ying were here, she would help me cut the fabric and wind the thread. She would cut the fabric well and wind the thread well."
“Xiaohe can do whatever you say,” Sang Ying said, but her lips curled up slightly. She used to help A Qiao with her work.
Lin Xiushui held her hand and shook it up and down, "But I just want your help, you did a good job."
At night, the two of them would squeeze into one bed, chatting about everything under the sun, reminiscing about their days playing around in Shanglintang. When Lin Xiushui went to work as a seamstress, if Sang Ying finished her work in the evening, she would walk across many fields to meet her, bringing her roasted salted beans or some candied fruit to share. In their spare time, they would go together, helping her with tasks like pulling fabric, threading threads, and cutting cloth. They would work together, but always until late at night, walking side-by-side along the dark paths, tapping the paths with sticks.
Sang Ying mumbled in her sleep, "I thought you had someone else to help you and didn't want me anymore."
Lin Xiushui turned over and replied, "How could that be?"
On the two days that Sang Ying didn't go to work at the rice shop, she stayed and ate with Lin Xiushui, and Wang Yuelan cooked stewed meat for them.
She assisted Lin Xiushui morning and night. She was actually very diligent, but she always felt that farming was clumsy and she would only make things worse for Lin Xiushui.
But not at all. When Lin Xiushui needed an embroidery hoop for mending, she would find it and hand it to her. She would watch as Lin Xiushui mended, wiping the scissors with an old piece of cloth to test if they were easy to cut, carefully winding back the used threads on the table, tidying up the cloth scraps, or putting the needle back in.
Many people passing by said, "Hey, Ah Qiao, you've found a great helper!"
“That is, but it’s not a confession,” Lin Xiushui put down the repaired items, looked up and smiled, “This is my younger sister, Chen Sangying, just call her Sangying.”
Sang Ying was very open with Lin Xiushui, but when talking and laughing with others, she would just smile and not say anything, appearing a bit shy. She had just arrived in town and didn't quite know what to say.
But then she thought, maybe Ah Qiao was like this when she first arrived. She had to muster up her courage and say a few words, but usually it was just nodding and smiling, so she wouldn't make a mistake or embarrass herself.
They also had to row the boat for Lin Xiushui and take her to the tailor's workshop. Lin Xiushui also wanted to encourage her to be bold and familiar with the river, so she asked her to take her there.
At present, silk boats and mulberry boats are still coming and going on the river. Mulberry leaves must be picked before and after the Grain in Ear (芒种) period. This is the first mulberry. The second mulberry is next to the Summer Solstice. You can't pick too many, just some to feed the summer silkworms.
Mulberry leaves are picked only on sunny days. They are not picked on rainy or foggy days. If it is necessary to pick them, the leaves are put in a cloth bag, dried, and then given to the silkworm farmers.
This year, the silk production in Sangqing Town is quite good. Although it hasn't reached the 20th of the silkworm season, apart from those who pay the silkworm and mulberry taxes, the silk industry is currently extremely busy. The silk industry's boats are going everywhere to collect new and waste cocoons, weavers are working to reel silk, and old craftsmen who repair looms are carrying all sorts of things, going from street to street to repair looms.
The families living on both sides of the river were up early, boiling silkworm cocoons, peeling silk floss, and drying snow-white nets. A woman poked her head out from the wooden railing and asked, "Where's A-Qiao? Isn't the boat being rowed?"
“Here it is,” Lin Xiushui poked her head out of the small window and waved her hand, “My sister Sang Ying brought me here. She’s better at rowing than I am. She’s a real expert.”
"To be honest, I'm not afraid you'll get angry. Hey, Sang Ying really does row better than you. She's so much more stable," the young woman by the second-floor window laughed. "I still remember the last time you rowed your boat, you bumped into the stern of someone selling oil. They were really angry and wanted to pay for the paint repairs, but when they saw it was you, they said, 'Never mind, never mind, just give them a few more gauze bags.'"
Lin Xiushui felt a little embarrassed, so she pulled her head back and moved her bottom to the window. There was no need to publicize such a shameful thing.
Sang Ying suddenly burst into laughter. Lin Xiushui, who was in the cabin, patted the deck and said, "Stop laughing, or I'll be rocked out of the boat."
Sang Ying rocked the boat at the front, looking at the scattered houses, and said softly, "But suddenly I feel that this place is not what I imagined."
Sang Ying originally thought that Sangqing Town was close to the inner city of Lin'an, and it would be difficult to get by here. Her mother repeatedly told her not to come, saying that the people in the town were more powerful and ruthless than tigers in the mountains.
Of course, that's not the case.
For example, many people were still asleep the next morning.
Wang Yuelan went to the silk shop early in the morning. Lin Xiushui and Sang Ying set up their stall together. Other people who were sewing and mending came over one after another, asking each other if they had eaten.
Just then, a man darted over like the wind. Seeing that he had gone too far, he quickly stopped with his foot, swaying and spreading his arms to try to steady himself.
He took a long breath, bowed to Lin Xiushui, and pointed to the gauze hat on his head that was half his head high. "Young lady, it's over, look, my hat is doomed!"
"Losing my hat is a small matter, but I'm going to meet someone today. The matchmaker said I was guaranteed a spot, but I tripped over my head this morning. My hat, which was hanging on the carriage frame, has a big tear in it. This must be telling me that my chances are slim, and that means there's no hope."
Lin Xiushui interrupted him, "How did the hat incident turn into a precarious situation, and then into a hopeless situation?"
“You don’t understand,” the man in the tall hat said with a pained expression, “this hat is also called a crown. If the crown is not secure, how can he be a groom? If it doesn’t work today, we’ll try tomorrow. And tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, it will happen sooner or later.”
"However, I'd still trouble you to help me fix this. I'll go buy a hat right away. With this crown on top, who knows, I might still have a chance. Should I go change my clothes too? And could you give me that lottery ticket container? I want to try my luck."
"If I draw red, it means I have a chance; the other party takes a liking to me. If I draw blue, it means I'll have to change into a blue robe; the other party has taken a liking to me today."
Lin Xiushui only said one sentence, which meant that he had said everything himself, turning bad things into good things, and he didn't need anyone else to comfort him.
She said helplessly, "Should this hat be repaired?"
"Of course I'll make up for it. A marriage between people from a thousand miles away is tied by a single thread, and I'm counting on the thread in your hand."
Lin Xiushui replied, "If you want to find the Old Man Under the Moon, you have to go east to the temple of the Old Man Under the Moon."
She was a seamstress; pulling the rope and connecting the threads was the job of the matchmaker. She could only pull and tug at the thread, no wonder he failed nine out of ten times and didn't succeed in the end. He said, how could this not be considered a sure thing?
Lin Xiushui was already used to it, but Sang Ying was dumbfounded and quietly asked Lin Xiushui, "Why do the people in this town look so interesting? My mother said they are scary, like everyone has three eyes and six legs, and they can eat a person with a single bite."
“Yes, I’ll come and eat you in a bit,” Lin Xiushui winked at her.
"Who are you going to eat? Speaking of food, I made some tofu pudding, do you two want some?" The woman selling tofu came over with two cloth bags and asked. "Ah Qiao, you go scoop some out later, and help me replenish these two bags first. It's so infuriating, the tofu fell apart while I was wrapping it up, and now it's turned into tofu pudding."
Her daughter came over and said, "I said I'd come early to replenish it, but it's perfect timing. My mother has realized that her tofu doesn't sell as well as her tofu pudding, so she's venting her frustration on the bag."
The tofu lady raised her slender eyebrows and frowned, saying, "Stop talking nonsense. Who's taking their anger out on the bag? I just don't have this bag. I can't even make tofu pudding properly. Ah Qiao, hurry up and get me some. I still need it for another three to five years. You two come and eat later. Bring a bowl for Xiao He too."
Lin Xiushui took out the thread, took the bag and prepared to mend it, and said with a smile, "That's perfect, mend the bag and exchange it for tofu pudding, I'll get a big bowl."
She said to Sang Ying, "Isn't it scary? The tofu has been turned into bean curd!"
“That was scary, really scary. I’ll tell my mother when I get back,” Sang Ying said, holding the bowl and nodding repeatedly. “She’ll definitely say, ‘That was terrifying!’”
After spending two days there, Sang Ying rowed the boat to pick up Lin Xiushui in the morning and evening, and spent the rest of the time playing with Xiao He and cooking for her. She no longer felt shy or apprehensive about the town.
Chen Jiuchuan returned late at night, rowed a boat, and got up early to send the two to work. He first sent Lin Xiushui to the tailor's shop, and then sent Sang Ying to work at the rice shop, spending half a day with her.
When you first enter the rice shop, a master will guide you and teach you to identify rice, where different kinds of early rice come from, and then you will be given a scraper. You need to scrape each liter of rice evenly and neatly. Each rice bag contains one liter of rice, no more and no less. At the beginning, there is only this requirement, and it is not difficult.
Sang Ying said she could do it after a day's work, which finally put my mind at ease for a while, but the other half of my worries depended on when she received her monthly pay.
Lin Xiushui didn't care too much; the more she cared, the more frightened she became, and she had to take a few steps forward on her own.
She simply affirmed Sang Ying, "Of course, nothing is difficult in this world. The more you think about it, the more frightened you become. We can all farm, so how could we not know how to thresh rice? This is what you call never having eaten rice before, but never having seen rice before."
Sang Ying said, "Now that I'm here, I'll definitely do my best."
After that, the two went to work as usual. Sang Ying would row the boat early in the morning to take Lin Xiushui to work, and Lin Xiushui would row the boat later in the evening. The two gradually took turns rowing the boat.
While the tailor was having lunch, Xiao Chun'e said to her, "Early rice is good, and rice making is also good. Plus, it's less busy in the morning and evening, so you'll have a helper."
“Each has its own difficulties. You have to know the rice to pound rice, and you have to know the charcoal to burn incense,” Lin Xiushui said, not ignoring either one. “But each has its own advantages. Once you get the hang of it, everything is fast.”
"Didn't I mention last time that I recently met someone from the Accounting and Setting Department? I asked them if it was easy to get into the Oil and Candle Bureau," Lin Xiushui said to Xiao Chun'e, looking up. She was in charge of the table curtains at the Accounting and Setting Department and had been visiting them quite frequently lately. The four departments and six bureaus were all adjacent to each other, so she always had to ask them a few questions.
Lin Xiushui said, "It's easy to get in, since these are run by influential people in the community. It's easy to get in and do odd jobs. It's just harder to get into the government."
She took a piece of paper out of her bag and waved it at Xiao Chun'e, "I asked them for you, what kind of charcoal they need to burn, I think you'll definitely need it."
Last time, Zhang Xiaosi asked her to fix a lampshade. It was a large, very colorful silk lampshade, which he said came from the oil and candle workshop. It had a small hole burned in it, and he asked her to mend it. After she finished mending it, she specifically asked a question.
Zhang Xiaosi didn't know either, and said he would ask her. The Oil and Candle Bureau was quite a niche department among the four departments and six bureaus. People with connections would go into the Accounting and Kitchen Departments, and no one would want to go into the Oil and Candle Bureau. It was very hard and tiring.
Lin Xiushui wrote down everything she needed to order: candles, candlesticks, lanterns, various types of charcoal, mulberry, locust, paulownia wood, or even less desirable woods like cypress, cassia, and juniper, as well as other miscellaneous incense charcoal.
Xiao Chun'e was stunned. She even took the food that was in her mouth and looked at it carefully. She knew how to cook it. Then she said with a mournful face, "I can't read."
"I'll teach you."
Xiao Chun'e wiped the food stuck to her mouth, feeling both touched and curious, "Have you been busy these past few days? How did you manage to find time?"
"I can't just be concerned about both sides when it comes to something I can easily say," Lin Xiushui patted her chest. "I'm like a pocket, I can hold anything."
"Then I'll ask my mother to send me a pig."
Lin Xiushui was pleasantly surprised, "Then let's hurry up."
The higher-ups said they'd send her a pig; it was something Chen Guihua mentioned while boasting.
After the two finished eating, they chattered away for a while. When they returned to the collar, everyone turned to look at her.
Lin Xiushui felt a chill run down her spine. "What's wrong?"
"I just delivered a batch of masks today."
"What else could it be? You did a wonderful job," Madam Du said with a sympathetic look. "A garment was just delivered, and instead of a collar, they specifically asked you to do drawn thread embroidery directly on it. They even sent the embroidery pattern."
Xiao Huan quickly replied, "There's definitely plenty of money."
“Who would do it if there’s no money? I told you these people are so bored. Last time, she asked me to add gold and silver threads to her lower body. I asked her if she could give me some gold and silver if I could weave her whole body with them. That shut her up.” The woman who wove the gold and silver threads was furious.
Someone quickly covered her mouth, while others deliberately made some noise. Madam Gu came in from outside but didn't hear anything. She just said, "Ah Qiao, come out for a moment."
Lin Xiushui was holding a piece of paper, looking down at the embroidery pattern. Instead of being angry, she found it quite interesting. Who would draw threads on a garment and draw out a copper coin pattern? It was four round copper coins intertwined, forming a new copper coin in the middle.
She smiled slightly, and when she heard Madam Gu call her, she rolled up the paper and stuffed it into her blue cloth apron. She waved to everyone before stepping over the threshold and going out.
She returned not long after. Gu Niangzi said that it was Jin Niangzi from the pawnshop who requested it. She was obsessed with money and wanted to wear a collar with copper coin patterns one day and gold and silver brocade the next. She wanted to have all three: gold, silver, and copper.
However, it's not advisable to wear ostentatious designs with copper coin patterns or large areas of gold paint, so they have to work on the collar and lining to cover it up.
Lin Xiushui wondered what the difference was between her and the thief covering his ears. Was the difference that she was covering her eyes with copper coins?
Madam Gu said, "It's a bit difficult, I know. She said she could give two strings of cash."
Lin Xiushui just wanted to say, no need to say more, I'm going to smoke.
While others unravel complexities, she earns money by drawing threads.
This coin pattern is drawn directly onto the gauze garment. It was Lin Xiushui's first time doing it. She drew horizontal lines instead of vertical ones, counted the squares on it, and then wrapped the lines around the pattern. But actually, drawn gauze embroidery is easier when it's square, but more troublesome when it's round.
To force a square hole into a round shape by stitching it stitch by stitch is like making a difficult decision for the fabric.
She enjoys doing things like this; whether it's difficult or not, the money decides.
Lin Xiushui spent six or seven days embroidering this piece with dark yellow embroidery thread, using a pattern of copper coins that had been removed from the fabric. The openwork pattern was exactly like the design of copper coins.
When Lady Jin saw it, she was overjoyed but also extremely disappointed. "What a loss! What a loss! If I had known that drawing the veil could yield something, I would have said I wanted to draw the gold ingot."
She's even drawing gold ingots! Everyone else is using light soy sauce, but hers is practically dark soy sauce.
Of course, making dark soy sauce has its advantages; dark soy sauce cloth and yarn can generate more profit.
In early May, her April monthly allowance, along with the money she earned from drawnwork embroidery, arrived in her hands.
The monthly allowance for the cashier is 2.5 strings of cash, plus 2 strings of copper coins, and other cashiers receive a share, totaling 3.2 strings of cash, plus two bolts of silk, one bolt of yarn, and a pile of scraps of cloth.
This month, Lin Xiushui received more than seven strings of cash. The seven strings were in small silver coins, and the seven hundred copper coins were in copper coins. She felt a bit dizzy, like she had drunk fake wine. It wasn't very real. Adding the money she had earned herself, she already had more than ten strings of cash. That was a lot.
She has so much money, how should she spend it?
She wanted to find a landlord to rent a room, preferably with a large yard and a large room. Right now, her tailor's room was very cramped; she had to pull fabric against the corner of the wall, and she had to be very careful when altering clothes.
She held the money as if it were tomorrow. Before, when she came to Sangqing Town, she had nothing but her aunt and Xiaohe, and she was worried about making a living and struggling to make ends meet.
The road ahead remains long, but we will never go back to the past. We will cross many mountains and take many detours, and embark on a new path.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
