Chapter 65 I Want to Do Business with You
At the end of June, various Qixi Festival trinkets were sold on the streets. Some floated on water, while others were made of yellow wax in the shape of ducks, geese, and mandarin ducks. Some people held a melon in their left hand and a knife in their right hand, carving it in various shapes on the street, calling it "flower melon".
Xiaohe loved two things the most. After leaving the private school, whenever she passed by the floating stalls, she would take a few steps, then immediately turn her head to look at them, slowing down her pace as she walked and looked at them.
One is a grain board, a large board with soil piled on it, and chestnuts planted on it, which grow into a patch of lush green seedlings. On the seedlings are small wooden houses with carved farmhouse figures placed on them.
The second method involves planting seeds. In a small white bowl, seeds of mung beans, red beans, or wheat are placed and left to soak in water to sprout slowly, growing inch by inch. They are then tied with red and blue ribbons and sold.
Lin Xiushui only bought her rice cakes. As for growing seeds, she could easily grow them herself by going home, putting some seeds in a bowl, and spending fifteen coins on this would only make people feel cheated.
Xiaohe loved the rice cake. She asked Lin Xiushui to hold it for her while she rummaged through her bag, pulled out three coins, and ran to the old woman's stall by the roadside to buy a bowl of sugared mung beans.
She didn't drink it herself, but held the bowl in both hands and, with the grace of a cat, brought it over to Lin Xiushui to drink, saying with her head tilted back, "Sister, you drink it. This is just reciprocity."
I was afraid of getting my saliva in.
Lin Xiushui, unaware of what she had learned in a day, praised her with delight, "Dabao, you've made great progress!"
“I’m better than my mother,” Xiaohe said, completely lacking in humility.
The two shared a bowl of sugared mung beans. There were vendors selling "Mohele" (a type of sweet bean drink) everywhere along the roadside, shouting, "Mohele, Mohele, two strings of cash for a pair!"
Lin Xiushui put down the bowl, turned her head and looked to the right. The Mohele on the wooden shelf was carved from wood or sculpted from clay. It wore a hat, held a lotus leaf, wore a green gauze skirt and a red vest. This item was most popular around Qixi Festival.
One is always cheap, but many people buy it. This round-headed Mohele is very popular. Even the townspeople praise the cuteness of their children by saying that they are born looking like Mohele.
Whenever Lin Xiushui sees Mohele, she thinks of the silk dolls. The silk dolls she sells sell well, and she can sell quite a few every day. She still wants to earn money for Qixi Festival.
With the money she had recently earned from various odds and ends, such as making money from gauze bags, drawing thread embroidery, and mending, her possessions had increased from twenty strings of cash to forty strings of cash.
In the past, she would have been overjoyed and needed money to sleep on her pillow. But now, she is both happy and wants more money to buy cloth and shops. She doesn't mind having too little money.
Lin Xiushui wanted to have a shop first, take on more clothing-making jobs, and become a tailor who could make all kinds of clothes. She needed to save money, so she wrote down achievable goals, such as how much money she could earn in a month, how to learn some new skills, etc., and hung them on the wall to look at them over and over again.
In her spare time, she would learn tailoring techniques from Jin, as well as various clothing styles and how to match them better. The two were not master and apprentice, but rather confidants or like-minded people.
From the end of June to Qixi Festival, besides gauze bags, she will be selling silk dolls.
Silk dolls are a long-standing business. Compared to the exquisite craftsmanship of Mohele, whose hands and feet have embedded mechanisms that move, silk dolls are far inferior. Their hands and feet don't move; they are small and filled with silk floss. Their faces aren't very pretty either. Silk Granny can only make human figures, not paint human faces.
The reason they were able to sell was because the clothes Lin Xiushui made for the silk children were unique and exquisite, which gave them a market. However, they earned far less than those made from gauze bags, as they required more effort and money, and thus sold only so-so.
Because his face was so ugly, Lin Xiushui looked at it for a long time but still couldn't get used to it.
She decided to let Granny Silk focus on making the dolls without drawing the faces, as she had a suitable candidate.
That was Hiroe, the street detective who had nothing to do and kept six cats, squatting by the mulberry tree.
In this sweltering heat, he's reluctant to go out. He takes his cat to sit on the bow of a boat and hides under bridges. He says he doesn't want to write tabloids, he just wants to write a complaint, accusing God of not sending rain.
He was very skilled at painting faces, and immediately tried to stand up, but his head hit the roof of the boat with a thud. He yelled in pain, grimacing as he squatted inside, saying, "What face should I paint?"
"The face of God can change in an instant, whether it's a child's big, dirty face or a donkey's face hanging up."
Lin Xiushui patted the top of the boat hard and said, "Draw a face, do you hear me? Draw a face."
“I heard that. People have many faces. I’ll draw them for you,” Guanghui said, covering her head and holding out one hand, rubbing two fingers together. “How much money can I get? At least two coins, as a token of appreciation for my skills.”
Lin Xiushui stood at the bow of the boat and said, "Here's a six-coin; draw well."
“Okay, okay, I’ll draw,” Guanghui readily agreed. He was overjoyed and wanted to compose a poem, but then stopped himself and asked Lin Xiushui, “Why don’t you draw a cat’s face? I’m best at drawing cats.”
In that instant, a gentle breeze blew, and the water murmured softly. Lin Xiushui's mind was blank, only echoing with the thought, "Why not draw a cat face? A cat face."
She stepped on the bow of the boat, and the whole boat rocked. Guanghui shouted, "Fine, don't draw then! My boat is called 'Don't Rock'!"
“If you’re going to draw, draw a cat’s face.”
Lin Xiushui quickly boarded her boat, abandoning those overly serious ideas; she wanted to be a cat doll.
She was very serious; she didn't just make the cat's body shape, but the cat's head and face, with the body upright, while still retaining the cat's paws and form.
What happens when you dress up cats with different personalities?
Like the cat Xiaoye, it was sometimes so lazy that it wouldn't even stretch out its paws, and sometimes it would jump around. When it was made into a cat doll, Lin Xiushui dressed it in an orange vest and orange pants with blue patches.
Some calico cats are gentle, meowing softly when they call out. Lin Xiushui thought that she could wear a pink top with a green gauze skirt.
Some cats go crazy, with explosive fighting power and wildness. They sometimes run around and jump around, and sometimes they ignore people. These kinds of cats could wear a female knight-errant's outfit.
Lin Xiushui has handled many cats, each with a different personality and appearance. The more unique the cats, the easier it is to create distinctive cat toys.
At least someone like Guanghui, a cat fanatic, would immediately reach out and shout, "Buy them! Give me six!" as soon as he saw a dressed-up cat doll.
He happily took it, carefully held it in his hands, and looked at it over and over again, liking it more and more with each look.
Lin Xiushui started selling them, not planning to make many. She didn't know how well these unique dolls would sell, but the people of Sangqing Town could accept even the chubby yellow-faced, big-bellied dolls. These cat-headed, upright-bodied dolls, dressed in clothes, were so eye-catching that people couldn't take their eyes off them. They were fifty or sixty coins each, and someone immediately took out money to buy six.
There are plenty of cat owners on the street, and these cat plush toys sell better than silk dolls. After deducting various expenses, Lin Xiushui can earn one or two strings of cash every three or four days.
She felt this business was viable and planned to do more, hoping to make another fortune on Qixi Festival.
She was still fifty or sixty strings of cash short of buying a shop. Lin Xiushui did the math again and realized that once she received the money for the drawn thread embroidery, she would have earned around ten strings of cash this month.
Lin Xiushui was constantly thinking about making money, while Wang Yuelan was constantly thinking about how to weave the brocade well. After coming back from work, she would eat a bite of food, fiddle with her chopsticks for a bit, and then shake her head, saying, "That's not how it's woven. I need to think about it some more."
Xiaohe, biting her chopsticks, said, "Mom, you eat first, it's kind of scary."
Wang Yuelan was lost in her own thoughts and didn't hear a word. Her weaving skills were decent; she had been praised before for her fine and dense fabrics. With this in mind, she threw herself into brocade weaving. She wanted to earn three strings of cash a month, hoping for a better future and that she, Wang Yuelan, would have some reputation in the future.
But when she plunged headlong into this industry with full enthusiasm, she found herself physically and mentally exhausted, and she was on the verge of tears.
Learning something is difficult, but Wang Yuelan gritted her teeth and continued to learn, only this time for herself, not to compete with Chen Guihua.
She finally let go of those trivial matters and began to realize that just because others are doing well doesn't mean she's doing poorly.
Their success is due to their own abilities.
Actually, she was lying, and she was still somewhat bothered by it.
After all, Chen Guihua's business has been booming lately. She has renovated the drainage system in her yard, laid new paving stones, made new bathtubs and tubs, and is selling gauze bags filled with mugwort in the porch.
She really made a name for herself in the hair washing business; she washed people's hair until it was smooth, fragrant, and shiny black in the sun.
She charges ten coins per wash. Not only do young women from the neighborhood come to her for a hair wash, but some elderly women who have difficulty washing their hair also come slowly to her for a wash. After washing and drying their hair, she can even comb their hair into a nice bun, and they will happily go out.
Signs with large water jugs, like those used in perfume shops, were hung in front of the store, and the store gained some reputation. When people mentioned the word "wash," many would think of Chen Guihua.
In the past, when people talked about Chen Guihua, they meant the family next to the little tailor's house where she would wash. Now, when they mention Chen Guihua, they mean the Chen family who washes their bodies and hair. Everyone has long forgotten what Chen Guihua's husband's family is called.
Chen Guihua also told everyone, "Of course, I work in the perfume industry, so my skills are naturally good."
She used to be ashamed to talk about this, and she would always try to hide it. Even when she went to work in the perfume shop, she would make sure that she didn't know anyone there before she went there.
For her in the past, working in the perfume industry was not a respectable job, since she was used to doing menial tasks such as rubbing backs, manicuring, and mopping floors.
Now she can speak frankly and openly about what's shameful about it; she earns her living with her own hands.
“From now on,” Chen Guihua said as she brought pork to Lin Xiushui, pointing to the signboard of her shop, “I’ll be doing this business from now on. Who knows, I might even be able to open a shop in Sangshukou.”
"I'm counting on myself to make my fortune."
Lin Xiushui said, "I believe it."
She made a dressing bag for Chen Guihua, which contained the hair combing tools that Chen Guihua had gritted her teeth and bought: a comb with stiff bristles, a long-handled hairbrush with softer bristles, two or three boxwood combs, and two bamboo combs to remove dirt from the hair.
The flat needles used to loosen or comb hair are called "binzao," and the small brushes used to apply hair oil or water are called "minzi." Various bamboo skewers are also used to scrape off any remaining skin flakes from the comb.
There are many hairstyles for women these days, and Chen Guihua probably learned them all. There are relatively simple styles such as the double bun, spiral bun, wrapped bun, double bun, multiple buns, and double hanging buns, as well as styles such as the concentric bun, tassel bun, banana bun, double coiled bun, double bun, and small coiled bun, etc.
Chen Guihua truly forged a new path for herself.
She was extremely satisfied with herself and with the business she was running.
He then said to Lin Xiushui, "Sister Xiu, I want to do business with you."
"What kind of business?"
Lin Xiushui pushed open the door and stepped inside. She casually grabbed the door, which was springing back, and felt a sense of wonder.
Chen Guihua strode in, grabbing a piece of pork with one hand and lifting her skirt with the other, pointing to her head.
"Making business on your head, huh?"
She followed Lin Xiushui's shadow, saying as she walked, "I've discovered that business on the head is much easier than business on the body."
Lin Xiushui picked up the teapot for Xiao Ye, the cat that had come close to her legs, bent down to pour some cold water, and then poured a cup of tea for Chen Guihua before asking, "Is it easy to make?"
“That’s not true. When you wash your body, you just use dried flowers, soap pods, and soap balls. But the business for hair ornaments is different. Not to mention hairpins and rings, I can’t afford those,” Chen Guihua swallowed and hurriedly said, “I’ve seen all sorts of things on the stalls lately: gold-embroidered hats, flower garlands and hairpins, small headscarves and wigs, wolf-head hats—aren’t they all for the head?”
Chen Guihua sat down next to the chair. "I've looked at them carefully, but they're too expensive! So I've been thinking, are there any cheaper ones that are also good-looking? My brain isn't as quick as my hands, so I've come to ask you, Sister Xiu."
She held up a piece of meat and said, "I didn't come for nothing. I got up early to go to the butcher shop and bought some top-quality meat. It's soaking in a basin of water. I'll catch you a chicken tomorrow morning. It's one my mother raises. I'll catch a fat one for you."
"Do you think there's any way out for this business?"
Chen Guihua figured it out while washing her hair and tying her hair into a bun. She noticed that some young women had a lot of hair, but they used very few hair ornaments in their buns. Most of them used plain-colored hair ribbons, such as blue, red, or green, or a plain handkerchief, which they tied into a bun.
The more she combed her hair, the more she felt she had found a way. She pondered it over and over for several days before finally coming over to tell Lin Xiushui.
While Lin Xiushui was washing her face, Chen Guihua said something. She put the towel on the basin stand, thought for a moment, and then said, "There must be a way, but I have to think about it."
"Oh, oh, I'll wait, I'll wait," Chen Guihua stood up, her eyes scanning the room, and asked vaguely, "What has your aunt been doing lately? She's so busy she hasn't even lit the stove."
“I got up at dawn to fetch water when I saw her cross the bridge and go out. There was no one at your house at noon either.”
Chen Guihua put it mildly, but she was actually incredibly curious. When boiling water, she would strain her ears to listen to the sounds from next door, and when pouring water, she would stand at the back door and peek to the side. But every time she looked, there was no one there. Where did everyone go?
Lin Xiushui told the truth, "I went to learn brocade weaving."
"Oh, brocade??"
Chen Guihua didn't ask any more questions. She left to make money. Damn it, she couldn't wait until Wang Yuelan became successful while she was still stuck in this mulberry tree, miserable.
That was worth more than a piece of meat for a penny, and the fact that she couldn't snatch it no matter what drove people crazy.
Lin Xiushui heard water being poured next door again and chuckled. But then she remembered what Chen Guihua had said about the hair accessories business and couldn't laugh anymore. She went to pick up Xiaohe first and took the opportunity to look at the various hair accessories.
Jin the tailor pays great attention to her appearance. She often says that what you wear on your head and what you wear on your body must rhyme and match. Others in the profession just talk to people in one way and to ghosts in another.
So when a tailor makes clothes, he can make good clothes based on the appearance of the headdress, make practical clothes based on the appearance of the hairstyle, and even make dishes based on the appearance of the hairstyle.
In families with a better financial situation, women would wear crowns on their heads, such as flower crowns, crowns with equal shoulders, crowns with drooping shoulders, round crowns, and mountain-mouth crowns, while ordinary families would usually tie their hair into a bun with a square scarf.
Lin Xiushui glanced at it and thought the gold-embroidered hats were too expensive. A hat with a little gold on it cost one or two strings of cash. Even though she had seen the best gold-embroidered products in the tailor's workshop, she still thought it was too expensive.
Not to mention the small silk flowers, one or two of which cost tens of coins, and a simple hair ribbon without any decoration sold for ten coins. Lin Xiushui put down a few rough hair ribbons and felt deeply that this was robbery.
She had plenty of scraps of cloth, and recently acquired some new fabrics: blue tie-dyed cloth she had dyed herself, brocade satin from the tailor shop, mixed-weave dyed brocade, light yellow brocade with subtle patterns, and various colored silk fabrics, among others.
Besides being used to make clothes for silk dolls, cat dolls, or cloth puppets, sachets and pouches are selling much less and less. Lin Xiushui has a lot of them that she can use to make hair ornaments.
She didn't plan to make the trendy ones on the market, but while browsing, she came up with a few ideas, such as making hair ties, specifically square scarf hair ties.
Although she had never done it before, this method was simple and easy for Lin Xiushui. While looking for cloth, she muttered, "It's a pity there are no rubber bands."
Without rubber bands, you have to thread a rope through the fabric to achieve the pleated effect.
She found two pieces of pale yellow silk cloth, turned the cloth inside out, folded it along the edges to form a square, found scissors and held them in her hand, then used a needle to apply powder, poked three points along the sharp corner, and cut it out along the curve. When she unfolded the square cloth, a bright circle was clearly visible.
After cutting the two pieces of cloth in this way, Lin Xiushui took out the needle and thread from the side of the table, wrapped them around the needle, aligned the circles in the middle of the cloth, and sewed the circles together first.
After sewing the circle, you need to make slits, otherwise it will wrinkle. Making slits all around will make it smoother. Under Xiao He's bewildered gaze, Lin Xiushui picked up the fabric and flipped it over the circle.
After turning the fabric flat, Lin Xiushui turned it over again and sewed all four sides together according to the method, leaving only a gap so that it could be turned inside out.
Xiaohe watched intently as she sewed and turned the fabric over and over. Before long, she saw a square piece of cloth with a hole in the middle. She stood on tiptoe, propped her head up with her arm, and asked, "Is this for a cat?"
"The one around its neck?"
Lin Xiushui cut a small opening, threaded a rope through the middle, and chuckled, "I brought this for you. Are you a cat?"
"I'll wait until winter to be born as a cat, when I'll have a full coat of fur," Xiaohe said, bobbing her feet. "It's too hot right now, I want to be born as a fish."
Lin Xiushui put the square scarf and hair tie on her hand, picked up a mirror and looked at herself. Xiao He's hair was styled in a three-bun hairstyle, with three braids wrapped in hair ties, which couldn't be put on with a hair tie.
It's perfect for her to wear; she was just lying to Xiaohe.
Today, Lin Xiushui wore a tassel bun. She untied the green hair tie, pulled it open, and slowly put it on her bun, since she didn't have many buns anyway.
Looking at it in the light, the pale yellow hair tie stood up, stretched out like a puff of hair.
She immediately took it down and made two smaller ones. She took Xiaohe's hair bun and tied it into two hanging buns. She tied a square hair tie on the two hanging buns, wrapped it around, and tidied it up. The hair ties hung down like several triangles, not overlapping each other, creating a sense of layering.
Lin Xiushui wasn't very satisfied, so she added two beads to the four corners of one hair tie and sewed a thin ribbon onto the other, making it smaller and prettier.
Barely satisfied, she then considered using two long cloth ropes to sew together a piece of cloth, pull out pleats, and then tie two wide pieces of cloth at the bottom to let it hang down like a bow.
Her color scheme was quite simple: pink hair ties and blue fabric pieces. She put them on her hair bun and slowly pulled them back, letting the hair ties adorn the front, while the fabric cords hung down below the bun, filling out her already sparse hair.
Lin Xiushui made further modifications, adjusting the fabric to be light, drape naturally, and have a pleasing color scheme. She also tied long ribbons, making it even more flowing than the fabric itself.
She stayed up all night making several designs, and the next day she tied them in her hair and wore them. She had come to a profound understanding of what a brand name was.
Ever since that blue dress, Qingya's dye shop has been constantly receiving orders, and they can't keep up with them all. If it weren't for the time and effort involved in making a dress, with pleating and ironing taking three to five days to finish and occupying all of her free time, Lin Xiushui might actually have taken the job.
If I can't make a business selling skirts, I can easily make a business selling hair ties.
Wang Yuelan was about to leave when she pushed the door open. She then took five steps back, turned around to look at Lin Xiushui, and exclaimed, "Hmm, you've changed your mind?"
Lin Xiushui turned her head, and the hanging ribbons swayed with her. Her hair was tied with a peach-pink hair tie and long stone-green ribbons.
"Yes, I call this self-pleasure."
She discovered that even without clothes, this kind of delicate beauty could bring joy, a kind of beauty that didn't cost too much money.
"What is this?" Wang Yuelan moved two steps toward the door. "You've finally learned to dress up. You look presentable now."
She glanced around quickly, then hurried out the door. If she didn't leave soon, she wouldn't be able to get to the front of the brocade workshop. She could only stick her head out to peek.
Sang Ying happened to come looking for her, and also exclaimed "Ah!" She turned her head to look at her hair tie, stood on a low stool to examine it, and clicked her tongue twice, "Oh dear, your hair bun is just so-so, but this hair accessory is quite pretty."
She spread her hands, "Make one for me."
"Here you go," Lin Xiushui took out the same hair tie from her bag and put it on Sang Ying's hand.
Sang Ying chuckled twice, then her face fell. These days, even with a map, she was still covered in dust every day while transporting rice. She had to go to Chen Guihua to wash her hair every other day. Her hair was never clean, covered in rice dust and powder, and her face was always stinging.
Fortunately, if I just hold on for one more day, I'll be able to receive my monthly pay. I've worked so hard all month.
She held it in her hand to admire it, then stuffed the Seven Treasures Vegetarian Porridge made by Chen Jiuchuan into Lin Xiushui's hand, and then left with the words, "I still have nineteen families to deliver to today, so I'll be going now."
Lin Xiushui was quite strange; she would make Seven Treasures Vegetarian Porridge on holidays, festivals, and the Laba Festival, with glutinous rice, lotus seeds, peanuts, red dates, red beans, rice beans, chestnuts, and ginkgo nuts.
She really felt like she was taking advantage of Chen Jiuchuan, even though she thought it was better to take advantage of a bargain.
To be honest, Chen Jiuchuan has been busy with nothing these days; you can't see him anywhere, but you can still get food. Sang Ying said he's been thieving.
Lin Xiushui jokingly said she hoped he wouldn't reach out, because if he did, he would definitely get caught.
After drinking her porridge, she called Xiaohe to get up and went to Chen Guihua's place. Chen Guihua had just finished her work when she saw the hair tie on Lin Xiushui's head. Her eyes widened, and she quickly exclaimed, "This is good, this is good!"
"Yeah, this isn't cheap, is it?"
“Cheap, I’ll sell them to you for eight coins each,” Lin Xiushui showed her the hair ties, and then gave her the smaller square hair ties. “This pair is also eight coins, or four coins each.”
"Damn it," Chen Guihua said in a broken voice, "Aren't you losing money?"
"I'm having a clearance sale at a loss, selling only, no freebies, are you in or not?"
Chen Guihua rubbed her hands together and then changed her mind, saying, "If I buy a lot, you should still give me a few as gifts. I don't mind giving you too many."
Lin Xiushui said, "I'll give you a few more. How many do you want to buy?"
"I'll buy fifty first," Chen Guihua thought carefully. She didn't have much business, and if she wanted to comb people's hair, she didn't know if they would be willing to buy. Too many would just be a burden on her.
That's absolutely unacceptable.
Of course, she didn't expect that this hair tie would be so popular. The young women from the neighborhood who came to her house to wash their hair every day had very long hair and found it inconvenient to wash it at home.
Chen Guihua offers hair washing, hair combing, and even hair styling after the hair is dry. She has many regular customers, including several young women who, upon seeing the hair ties she displays, immediately ask for a hair styling service and buy two or three.
This made Chen Guihua realize that she was ultimately too timid and should have taken a hundred.
Lin Xiushui went out to take Xiaohe to the private school. Almost everyone she met along the way knew her.
“Hey, Ah Qiao, your hair accessories are nice today. You’re not setting up your stall in this heat? You’ve switched to selling these? Give me three, no, ten. I have three daughters, three granddaughters, two nieces, and two more for myself,” the old lady said. “Make them simple for me. Look at my messy hair bun, it’s just missing a cover.”
Lin Xiushui was a little confused. She hadn't even said a word; she was just taking her child to school.
Another woman strode over, stood behind her head to look, and then fanned herself with her hand, saying, "Ah Qiao, give me two too. I just bought them from over there. It's so frustrating, I tried ten times and didn't win. I should have saved the money and just given them to you."
"Your luck is so bad, and you still dare to bet? You might as well just gamble and save yourself the trouble," a passerby remarked.
The woman was furious. She rolled up her sleeves and said, "Just say you want to be beaten."
“Ah, I’ve got it! Ah Qiao, make me a red one. The master said red is lucky for me. I haven’t worn it before because it’s too eye-catching to wear red in this hot weather.”
Lin Xiushui's head was buzzing. She kept interrupting with random remarks, and what she could remember before was becoming confusing. She grabbed Xiaohe and ran away quickly, saying back, "Come find me at the covered walkway when I get off work."
It would be better to go to the tailor's shop, because the lady I met said, "This is good, but my hair is too thick, so it doesn't look very good on me."
"Yes, don't even mention you. Look at my hair bun, it's so stuffy, I'm even thinking of cutting some off," a woman lowered her head to show everyone her tightly wrapped, still very large, hair.
Lin Xiushui left silently and quietly. She was absolutely not sad, not sad that her hair was so much thicker than others'.
What can be done if her hair doesn't produce offspring or grandchildren?
When it came to drawnwork embroidery, everyone praised her.
"Manager Lin looks good today."
"Didn't you look good yesterday?" Li Jin asked.
"Yesterday was moving and deeply touched me."
Lin Xiushui said, "Did I hit your heart?"
The drawnwork embroidery was incredibly busy because Lin Xiushui said she was going to sell Qixi Festival clever nets. There were so many people crawling all over the cloth, like spiders, spinning silk and preparing to weave their own webs.
However, once the spider starts spinning silk, the embroiderers have to use tweezers to pull out the threads one by one, and then thread them back onto the needle to embroider the pattern.
It produces a maximum of seven palm-sized pieces of cleverly crafted netting a day, densely packed and truly resembling a net.
By July 7th, we should have 60 or 70 copies available for sale.
By July, Lin Xiushui had received over a hundred orders for hair ties, earning more than two strings of cash. It was time for the tailor to receive her monthly salary. Lin Xiushui received the ten strings of cash she had worked so hard to earn that month. She sat in the house for a long time, still unable to believe that she could earn so much money one day.
Back then, I was overjoyed to receive a single tael of silver, but this time I was completely dumbfounded. I weighed the bag of loose silver again and again, and touched it again and again.
I tried to stop myself from laughing too loudly, and sat there trying to calm myself down, but I just couldn't suppress the smile.
The people in the drawnwork and sewing departments also received their wages for the month from her. Originally, it was supposed to be 1.6 strings of cash for apprentices, but they received 2.1 strings of cash, which was the processing fee that Lin Xiushui had secured for them. There was also a monthly allowance, which was a bag of mung beans and a bag of lentils, totaling five liters, enough for a family of three to eat for about ten days, as well as a packet of compressed tea and a packet of refreshing drinks.
Even though the amount of stuff wasn't much, everyone cheered and jumped for joy when they received it, because it was the reward for their hard work.
Little Seven Sister rushed over and pounced on the things, saying, "I want to stay in the drawnwork embroidery forever."
"I also."
The chubby girl jumped up and shouted, "Add me! I want to go back and tell my mom, whatever, I just want to draw thread."
Drawing stitch is exhausting; my hands shake from drawing. After a break, if I don't go to eat, I can just lie on the table and fall asleep the moment I close my eyes.
The yarn they spun and the hardships they endured became wages to support their families and sustain their lives, food, and all sorts of things that encouraged them to strive for success.
This will inspire everyone to be motivated and look forward to the future.
After Lin Xiushui finished work, Sang Ying waved to her from the bow of the boat. Even though they were thirty or forty steps apart, Sang Ying's undisguised smile could still be seen.
She called out from afar, "I got my monthly pay!"
She received a full two strings of cash, with the extra two hundred coins being a supplement from the rice shop. She did a lot of work by herself, and her face became much darker from the sun. Once, she even peeled after getting sunburned. She danced and swayed on the boat, splashing water everywhere.
She laughed freely and said to Lin Xiushui, "I'm going to earn even more money next month."
Lin Xiushui raised her hand and said, "Okay, let's make more money."
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