Chapter 56 Chapter 56 The Amazing Us
In this day and age, string puppets and rod puppets are very popular.
The head, abdomen, arms, hands, legs, and feet of the suspended puppet are all flexible, moving with the specially made floating beams, allowing the puppet to raise its head, bend its knees, and flex its legs. The staff puppet, which is two feet tall, is large even without legs, and its eyes can move and its lips can open and close slightly.
The glove puppets that Su Qiaoniang liked were still rejected by the puppet troupe and were not widely accepted in the market.
For a while, she made two new outfits for the puppets, saying she wanted to take the puppets to other public places to show them off, and she also wanted her apprentices to see them.
Few people showed her any interest; she could only give about ten coins a day. The other people who frequented the area around the public school were all quite skilled, whether it was comedy, acrobatics, cockfighting, or insect handling—each of them was far superior to her.
She traveled to many places without stopping, only to be repeatedly turned down. On the worst days, she performed from morning till night and only earned five coins. She was disheartened and even swallowed her pride to take on puppet-making jobs from other companies. She had to take on apprentices to earn a living first.
Lin Xiushui was well aware that there was no other way before. Those who could make it to the top were all capable and talented. The puppet show lost out because it wasn't novel enough.
But Lin Xiushui had an idea. She got up early and went to Su Qiaoniang's house when she hadn't gone out yet.
The breakfast vendors had just started work when Su Qiaoniang was already sitting inside carving wooden puppet heads. When she came out to open the door, she had dark circles under her eyes and several cracks in her lips.
She had initially thought it was her apprentice who had come to visit, but when she saw Lin Xiushui standing by the door, she quickly put the wood carving knife in her other hand, patted the wood chips off her clothes, and asked, "Ah Qiao, why are you here at this time? I thought it was Xiao Yu."
Lin Xiushui bought two cakes, handed them to her, and said, "I came to see you. It's so early, and you're already carving puppets?"
“There are some things I want to do sooner,” Su Qiaoniang greeted her and led her into the room where she carved wooden puppets. There were rows and rows of the many new wooden puppets she had carved in the past few months.
Lin Xiushui bent down and looked at each of them one by one before turning around and saying, "Aren't you with Xiaoyu and have nowhere to perform your puppet show? Why don't you come to our place?"
“We’ve built a covered walkway in Sangshukou. It’s quite spacious. Now that it’s getting hot, it’s too hot to stay at home, so the walkway is full of people at night. You’re busy carving puppets during the day, but you can go there at night. There are a few lanterns lit up, so I reckon you can earn more than before.”
She had asked the street office, and they said that taxes were collected at night as well. At night, the menders on the covered walkway couldn't see clearly, and there were no stalls. At most, there were people selling salted duck eggs, sitting there and selling a few jars. Most of the others only had free time at night to come out to the night market to buy things, or to sit under the covered walkway and chat.
Su Qiaoniang nearly stabbed herself in the table with her wood carving knife, then put it away and asked, "Can I go too?"
She had seen the covered walkway many times when she went to the southern goods market, and wanted to go and take a look, but there were too many people inside. She would walk up to it, take a few glances, and then leave in a hurry.
Lin Xiushui put down the puppet in her hand and replied, "Why not? I've already asked around. Everyone is eager for things to be more lively at night. Although Sangshukou is close to Nanwazi, it's always crowded there, and you can't really see anything interesting."
Su Qiaoniang didn't have high hopes for how much money she could make. She had previously worked with puppets in Sangshukou, and thanks to Lin Xiushui, more people came to see them, and she even took on an apprentice.
However, since there was somewhere to go, she packed her things early, arranged various items, belongings, and figurines, and went to the covered walkway under the mulberry tree. Lin Xiushui said that while the day was long and the light was good, she would put them out for everyone to see.
Although glove puppets are small and can be moved by being put on the hand, they still need a stage. Usually, a narrow table that reaches the waist is placed on the table, with wooden sticks inserted in the front corners and a piece of cloth with a hole cut in the middle hung on it. The person stands behind and the glove puppet is in front.
Su Qiaoniang didn't have much money; she had spent it all on buying camphor wood to make puppets, otherwise she could have ordered a nice table. Seeing such a simple table made her a little uneasy; she should have prepared it more carefully, as she hadn't been out for a while.
Even on such a simple platform, the benches under this covered walkway were full of people, and some even brought their own stools to watch the excitement.
Most of them are children. They don't compare whether a string puppet is better, a cane puppet is better, or a gunpowder-spraying puppet that spews gunpowder on a ship or in an open space. They just shout that it's good and fun!
A row of children stood up, tiptoed, and looked up intently. In their eyes were effigies with high buns, wearing crimson clothes and colorful ribbons, like fairies flying out of a storybook. There were also women in light blue narrow sleeves, carrying a sword, dancing up and down.
For the other ladies and gentlemen, without a drummer, they only relied on whistling and making a lot of noise to accompany their performances, and their plays were not very exciting, unlike the well-choreographed ones in Nanwazi.
It was a novelty for children, who would stare at it intently, refusing to move an inch, and try to get a penny or two from their parents to reward them, just like the adults.
"Just take a look, why are you so foolish?" the woman said in a low voice, frowning, refusing to give it up no matter what.
The little girl stomped her foot, "That's not how it works. I just like watching this. All that stuff in Nanwazi is just for show. I don't understand it."
"Mom, give it to me. When I'm the same age as you, I'll pay you back when I have money."
"Give me some credit, take it, I gave birth to such a stubborn brat like you."
The little girl smiled, carefully placed the two coins into the box beside her, scratched her head, wanting to say something nice but unable to, so she could only say, "I like it very much, will you come again tomorrow?"
“You’re coming, I’ll be waiting here early,” she said. “I’ll wait for you here after I’ve had lunch, before I’ve had dinner.”
"Come on, I'll be here, I'll be here soon."
Su Qiaoniang's face was flushed from the heat, and her back was soaked with sweat, but she readily agreed, for the sake of her sincere heart.
Her heart was pounding like thunder. After a long period of setbacks, she became hesitant. The firm belief she once had, the determination to keep going and slowly pass on the legacy, had quietly begun to crack.
But it turns out that the crack didn't need to be repaired; it would eventually see the light of day.
This time, when Su Qiaoniang came out to perform puppet shows, in addition to receiving a reward of about a hundred coins, she suddenly gained a group of young spectators. They would wait for her early in the morning if she said she was coming at night, and they would surround her and say that they wanted to play with the puppets, and they would openly say that they liked them.
Children don't care about authenticity; they only care that the puppets are pretty and fun. In their mouths, glove puppets are the best puppets.
Su Qiaoniang, who had suffered setbacks and frequently experienced the frustration of her puppet show where she was neither well-received nor popular, found a small world under the covered corridor this summer.
Here, the glove puppet is like a seed, slowly taking root and growing taller. Sooner or later, it will grow into a tree, like the mulberry trees in Sangqing Town, which can be seen everywhere.
Su Qiaoniang was still overjoyed, her heart pounding with excitement. She couldn't control her trembling hands as she sat in Lin Xiushui's tailor shop, just like two months ago. Back then, it was drizzling outside, but now it wasn't raining, and the rain was falling on her face.
“I, I,” Su Qiaoniang choked up, “I feel hopeful, just like my child is going to be successful and accomplished.”
"I want to make some more clothes. I want to bring better things to everyone. I can practice hard."
Unlike before, Lin Xiushui took out a notebook with many pasted paper patterns on it, pushed it in front of her and said, "Whatever style or design, I can make it for you."
Things are different now than they used to be.
Color matching is no longer a problem for her, nor is fabric or sewing.
Lin Xiushui has been learning how to match colors. Even though her matching skills are still not very good, she has made considerable progress compared to herself two months ago. She also ensures that dozens of puppets have clothes with different color schemes.
She thought for a moment and then said, "You can carve more ordinary, similar-looking dolls and sell them to me."
Firstly, it could help Su Qiaoniang alleviate her financial difficulties, and secondly, it could promote the puppet show, giving Lin Xiushui a new way to make money.
That means making doll clothes or baby clothes.
Not only do puppets wear clothes, but with the arrival of summer, there are also many Moho Lohs on the market. These clay or wooden figurines also wear various clothes.
Mohele is exquisitely crafted, and even clay sculptures sell for hundreds to thousands of coins. It is rare to find one for a few dozen coins. Lin Xiushui thought that a glove puppet could be used instead, but even if the puppet's head is carved very quickly, it can only be carved three times without stopping for a moment.
Lin Xiushui found the old woman selling silk dolls by the bridge. People called her Silk Granny. The silk dolls that Silk Granny made were very delicate from head to toe, with the head, face and body sewn entirely with silk cloth, but they didn't sell well.
The clothes worn by the silk dolls were sewn together with needle and thread, the color scheme was not good, and the material was also of poor quality. Even if they were sold for twenty coins each, no one would buy them.
Lin Xiushui squatted down and said, "Grandma, please make more silk children. Don't sew clothes for them. Sell them to me for twenty coins each as usual. I'll buy a hundred first."
"What? Young lady, are you joking?" Granny Juan asked hurriedly, then muttered to herself, "My ears have been acting up lately, could it be that I'm also having a mental problem and this is just my imagination? I'm afraid this isn't hysteria."
“No, it’s not,” Lin Xiushui said, tired of squatting. “Why don’t you pinch yourself, Mother-in-law?”
Grandma Juan immediately came to her senses and said, "That won't do."
Finally, they could start discussing business. Lin Xiushui took out the two strings of cash that others had previously used to buy the paper pattern for the puppy and used it to buy the silk doll.
In Granny Juan's hands, this was a worthless item, but in Lin Xiushui's hands, just by changing its clothes, she could sell it for seventy or eighty coins.
Each silk doll is the same size; she only needs to take the measurements and cut the clothes according to the pattern.
She rummaged through a basket of scraps of fabric, cut out a two-finger-wide strip of red cloth, which would be enough to make the silk baby's bodice. She then found the rest of the fabric and carefully cut it out according to the pre-cut paper pattern.
It was a red strapless top, an orange skirt with a persimmon calyx pattern, and an overlay of a grass-green embroidered collar with white trim, and light pink gauze.
Lin Xiushui cut out the garment pieces and placed them aside. She then cut out a green and yellow gauze skirt, a blue waistband, a light blue short-sleeved blouse with a front opening and slits, and so on.
The skirts worn by these little people are more difficult to pleat than the large, fully pleated skirts. Lin Xiushui drew the lines beforehand and then used a thin sheet of iron to bind the cloth and scrape it out.
She cut out many clothing patterns, matching them one by one. She didn't sew them herself, nor did she give them to Zhou Niangzi. Instead, she took them to the tailor's shop and gave them to the old woman in the mending department. She would take them home at night to sew them. It cost ten coins to sew a set, which was much easier than other sewing jobs.
They even asked the women at the neckline if they wanted their clothes sewn. Since Xiao Huan was young and wanted to earn more money, she was happy to take on the job of sewing the clothes. Five or six other women also said they wanted their clothes sewn.
She knew many tailors, so she could quickly pick up a needle and thread and sew a set of clothes for her.
She could make more than twenty sets of clothes in one night, and the stitches were quite good. She paid quickly, and everyone was happy to sew clothes for her.
Lin Xiushui gave the job to Xiaohe, who was very happy to do it. She carefully dressed the silk child and held it in her hands for a long time.
"I want to wear it too."
The clothes were truly beautiful, especially the layers of short gauze, which made even a puppet head and a silk doll made of silk fabric look delicate and charming.
Lin Xiushui said honestly, "You can't wear it on your body, but you can wear it on your arm."
"Alright, stop frowning. Here's one, you can change it up every day."
Xiaohe immediately flattered, "Sister, you are even prettier than Juanhaier."
Lin Xiushui wasn't buying it.
As for the other silk dolls or cloth puppets, she didn't put them on the stall to sell, but gave them to Sun Datong and Song Sanniang. She only asked Song Sanniang to sell them first in the mulberry tree area.
The two of them were good at selling things. Sun Da could describe the same thing in a wonderful way, while Song San Niang would find all sorts of ways to sell it, selling it to peddlers who went from street to street, selling it to roadside stalls, and even delivering it to people's children.
The next day, Sun Da came to Lin Xiushui's door and said, "It's all gone, all sold out. Please bring some more. Fifty is not too few, a hundred is not too many, and a hundred or a thousand would be even better."
"The family I sold to had three daughters, and I only had two left. Those who didn't get any were crying and shouting. I really had no choice."
Song Sanniang, who rushed over, shouted, "Quickly, help!"
Lin Xiushui was afraid that Zhang Musheng would suddenly appear and ask her where she needed to save someone, so she could only say, "Don't rush."
"I'm so anxious."
"I was as anxious as if gold had fallen in front of me, but I couldn't bend down to pick it up no matter what."
I'm so anxious! Even Granny Silk can't conjure up spider-like hands. Su Qiaoniang would need three heads and six arms.
Fortunately, after some time, Granny Silk had a stable livelihood and no longer had to worry about not being able to sell her silk dolls. Su Qiaoniang no longer had to worry about making a living and could concentrate on making cloth puppets.
Lin Xiushui also made money, and together with the monthly salary she received in June, she had a total of eighteen strings of cash.
Even though she had handled a lot of money, Lin Xiushui was still happy. She would say, "Buy fabric, buy fabric, buy fabric."
Wang Yuelan chimed in, "Buy a house, buy a house, buy a house!"
Lin Xiushui said, "I want to buy it too, but I can't afford it right now."
"I'll make a wish for you. If you repeat it a few more times, you'll be able to afford it."
In fact, Wang Yuelan had a plan for her. It was good to make money, but she still wanted the money to be turned into several acres of land so that Lin Xiushui wouldn't suffer from a lack of food, and to be turned into a house to shelter her from the wind and rain, so that no one could drive her away.
This time, instead of having Lin Xiushui spend all her money on buying cloth and other things, she told her to take out fifteen strings of cash, carry a large basket, and go to the largest gold and silver shop, Li's Gold and Silver Shop, in the Gold, Silver, Salt and Paper Money Alley next to the yamen in the west, to exchange it for silver when no one was around.
To put it nicely, copper coins seem plentiful, and counting them makes you happy. The more you count, the more you feel like you have a fortune. But they're spent quickly. You spend three coins here, five coins there, and so on. When you check the accounts, you've spent several hundred coins.
Silver was a different story. Lin Xiushui didn't spend any of it, and it wasn't loose silver; it was solid, heavy silver.
Wang Yuelan breathed a long sigh of relief after changing the clothes. "You hide them well for me, whether it's in the soil, under the bed, or in the rice jar."
“But what if I keep thinking about hiding it in my pocket?” Lin Xiushui said, holding the silver. She could still handle so many copper coins, but she really couldn’t handle gold and silver; her heart would race and her hands would tremble.
Wang Yuelan was a bit better than her. She said, "You don't even shake when you're mending a football. Show some of the style you use when you're mending clothes."
"I am lacking gold and silver in my destiny, and I need them to make up for it, not the other way around."
After exchanging the money, Lin Xiushui found a safe place to hide it, telling no one. However, he always had to touch her before going to sleep to feel at ease.
She just kept thinking that in the past, she was already happy if she could save up a string of copper coins and not end up in debt. Now that she could save up fifteen taels of silver, she could only say thank goodness that she could make money.
In her dream, she vaguely thought that instead of buying land or a house, it would be better to buy a shop first. She wanted a tailor shop, but then she turned over and thought that she would save up some more money.
For the latter half of May, Lin Xiushui was busy with sewing and mending, and also had to make collars in her spare time. Although Madam Gu was satisfied with Li Jin and Xiao Qimei's drawnwork skills, she still felt that something was missing, and she still had to take care of both.
Sang Ying studied diligently both morning and night, learning to write and practice calligraphy. In the morning rice shop, she could recognize different types of rice and steadily level the rice measure.
In June, when it's time to collect the new rice, the rice merchants are short-handed and need to hire a few new junior rice brokers to deliver rice to various shops. However, these brokers must be literate.
Finally, she seized the opportunity and learned to read from Sizhen every day. She bought two candles and studied for an hour no matter how late or tired she was at night. She knew she wasn't smart enough and always made mistakes when learning characters. She would look at a character over and over again, and if ten times wasn't enough, she would write it a hundred times. She wrote it again and again without getting tired of it.
Her efforts, fueled by candlelight and tears, paid off. She rose through the ranks, from a rice pounder earning only nine hundred coins a month to a rice broker delivering rice to various shops, earning one string and eight coins a month.
She practically rushed out of the rice shop and threw herself at Lin Xiushui, saying, "I got a raise! I have one string of cash and eight coins!"
"So much money, touch my hand, my hand is shaking."
“You have no idea,” Sang Ying couldn’t help but cry, “when the old man asked who could read and recognize the shop’s name, I didn’t even think before I stood up immediately.”
“I said I can read, I know the shop name, I can write some characters, I can row a boat, I know all kinds of rice, and I can pound grain. I’m sure I can do it.”
Sang Ying cried her heart out, and Lin Xiushui wiped away her tears.
It was probably only after counting that I realized that I, who used to know nothing, had actually developed the ability to speak.
It took many days and nights to go from not knowing to being able to do it, but thankfully, the results did not disappoint the hard work of each day and night.
Sang Ying said, "I feel like I'm not so useless after all."
She harbored a small hope: "Maybe many years from now, I can become a very capable little yamen runner."
"Yes, then many years later, I might be a great tailor."
"But you're already quite remarkable right now."
Lin Xiushui looked at Sang Ying, "You are too."
May our greatness belong to us now, and to us in the future.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
