Chapter 69 A Myriad of Clever Tricks [Part 2]
During the period from the first day of the seventh lunar month to the Qixi Festival, Lin Xiushui distributed 285 pieces of Qiqiao paper in Qiqiao City, while the other tailors gave out more than 300 pieces.
Only about half of the people should have arrived. The rented academy has about twenty rooms, each classroom can seat fifty people. Lin Xiushui only hired people to clean ten rooms, and she knew that there would not be more than seven hundred people.
But the tailors were worried. Two or three people came over and whispered to Lin Xiushui, "Won't many people come?"
Xiao Huan, who was at the collar, said, "Oh, I really couldn't sleep last night. I was thinking of bringing over my two aunts' four younger sisters to make up the numbers."
"I'm worried too. If we make a big event and set up tents, what if only a few people show up?"
In the past few days, some people have been making sarcastic remarks, thinking that it would be best not to hold it, as holding it would be a thankless task. Others, however, have been asking why not to hold it, since Qixi Festival is a festival for girls, and there's nothing wrong with everyone celebrating together.
Neutral people think, "It's fine if I don't do it, it's fine if I do it; I'll help if they ask."
There are also those who just want to weave webs, finding it more interesting than spiders spinning webs.
So many people were arguing and arguing, calling it a debate, but it was like debating whether cloth was good or bad. Lin Xiushui had to go out to eat because she was afraid that other people's saliva would get into her bowl.
Fortunately, with the Qixi Festival approaching, everyone finally stopped arguing and started getting busy. The tent for the Weaving Festival was set up, and everyone took out the various colored strips of cloth they had saved, regardless of color, and put them into baskets one by one, waiting for the other women outside to come over and tie them on top.
There's a custom of tying red cloth to trees and hanging red decorations during the Flower Festival. Lin Xiushui said, "Why can't we tie colorful cloth and hang decorations for Qixi Festival?" When it comes to unconventional things, no one can beat her.
"The hairpin flowers are here!" a woman called out as she pushed her cart over. On the cart were more than a dozen bamboo baskets filled with white and purple hairpin flowers.
“My mother planted a garden this year, and the flowers started blooming gradually last month. She was worried about where to sell them, but we’ve caught this wave of opportunity,” the tall woman said with a smile. She stopped the car and carried two baskets in each hand.
The other women looked over upon hearing this, and one of them laughed, "Do we have any?"
“Yes,” Lin Xiushui waved to her. “If Madam Cai wants one, come and pick one first. Everyone can pick one. This month’s flower goddess is the jade hairpin. I’m taking advantage of Madam Li. Her mother is a master at growing jade hairpins. Otherwise, how could she get such fresh and cheap flowers?”
These women happily picked out a flower and asked someone to help them put it in their hair. While they were putting it on, a woman with a clever paper came early and greeted them warmly, "Come here, put a flower in your hair first."
"Are they giving us flowers to wear in our hair?"
The mother and daughter walked over, and the older one said, "I'm not wearing a hairpin anymore. I came with my daughter. I heard you're having some kind of weaving fair here, so I came to join in the fun."
“Why not wear it? My lady, a purple one would definitely look good on you,” Lin Xiushui said, carrying a basket of flowers. She picked out a purple jade hairpin and handed it to her young daughter beside her.
The thirteen-year-old daughter laughed and said, "Mom, lower your head, I'll put it on for you, and you can put it on for me later."
Her mother lowered her head, and after putting on the flower, her eyebrows and eyes were full of smiles.
People arrived one after another. At first, they just watched from the boat, but then they came over in twos and threes, holding hands. They asked if this was a weaving fair. When they heard that they wanted to wear flowers, they picked and chose flowers with genuine smiles, and the scene immediately became lively.
"Help me put it on, a little closer to the edge of the hairpin, it's on the left, the left side looks better."
“These flowers are beautiful. I also wore a pomegranate flower in my hair today, so I can wear another one.”
Everyone chatted excitedly as they picked out flowers and hung up colorful ribbons. After doing both, they struck up conversations and became acquainted. Then they went to the academy and found a classroom to sit down.
Around Chenshi (7-9 AM), seventy or eighty women came over. The older ones were in their thirties or forties, and the younger ones were eleven or twelve. One of the older women laughed and said, "Oh my god, my daughter is already twenty. I've come here to join in the fun with you young girls."
"Hmm," a twelve-year-old girl rolled her eyes and asked curiously, "Isn't this the Girls' Festival? Isn't it for praying for skill? Ladies, you're getting old, do you also need to pray for skill?"
“Hahaha, we used to be daughters,” the wife said gently. “Now that we have daughters, we should celebrate Daughters’ Day even more.”
Another woman said, "We're not here to be clever; we're here to be clever. Don't let my age of forty-two fool you; I've been afraid of spiders since I was a child. Every year, my mother has to open the box first, and I hide in the outer room."
“The net was always torn every year, which annoyed me so much that I wished I could weave a net myself. But after I had a daughter, we stopped doing that and just bought a net to put over it, which was considered a good idea.”
"Really? Is that even possible?" A fourteen-year-old girl asked hurriedly, then sighed and looked down, "Oh, they do this every year. I don't like celebrating Qixi Festival, and I especially dislike Qiqiao Festival, with its needlework and net-making."
"Everyone knows whether I'm skillful or not, but out of the 360 days of the year, this one day has to be chosen to show me with a spider's web that I'm not skillful. Who wouldn't be angry!"
"I really wish I wasn't born a spider."
Young people have their own troubles; they worry for half a day over a broken internet connection, lamenting and complaining about how they never seem to find a way to succeed.
Suddenly, upon hearing that they could make their own nets, they ran over one by one and sat in the classroom. Some were full of joy and anticipation, while others lowered their eyes and looked down.
There were about thirty students scattered around in one classroom. While waiting, the younger ones leaned on the table and sighed, "I've never been good with my hands since I was little. I don't think I can do this kind of trick."
“My mother said that if you’re not good with your hands, you really won’t have any future.”
"fart!"
The burly woman sitting in front of her cursed, and the chatter in the room suddenly stopped, becoming completely silent. Someone even sniffed and muttered, "No, there isn't."
The young woman who had spoken earlier blushed quickly, waving her hands repeatedly, trying to stand up and explain, but the burly woman said, "What does it have to do with your skill? If you're not skillful, you're not skillful. Do you even know what I do?"
"What?"
The robust woman said, "I'm from the Qingguo trade. My hands have always been clumsy since I was a child. I can even make two big holes in a piece of clothing when I wash it. My mother said, 'What am I going to do in the future? I'm no good at anything, from washing clothes to cooking, after I get married.'"
“So what? I’m not good with my hands, so I’ll practice my eyes and my mouth,” the sturdy woman said. “Our fruit shop has about a hundred kinds of fruit, and I can recognize them all. I know which fruit comes from which place, such as Luofu oranges, Dongting oranges, Bian oranges, Qu oranges, kumquats, honey oranges, and so on.”
"There are also persimmons, green persimmons, fire pearl persimmons, red persimmons, olive persimmons, square-topped persimmons, and so many other kinds of fruit. You can tell them just by looking at them. It doesn't have much to do with how skillful you are or how good you are at needlework. You can still make a living."
The young woman was fiddling with the knots in her skirt, feeling lost and confused. This was not what her family had told her. She was said to be clumsy and unable to even weave properly, unable to find work in town, let alone get married.
"Really?" she asked softly, always filled with worry and fear about the future at this time of year.
“How can it not be real?” Another woman walked over and sat down in the empty chair next to her. “I’m not very skillful either, but I’m not as good as this woman.”
"I'm also part of the fruit business. We're from Hezi Lane outside the town gate. Every summer, we make a living by crushing lotus pods. Some people pick the lotus pods, and we crush them to get the lotus seeds, which we then sell to the fruit vendors in town."
The woman smiled and laid her hand on the table. Her knuckles were thick, and the edges of her fingers were stained with yellowish-green stains left from picking lotus pods, which could not be washed clean.
“I didn’t want to come here at first. I told myself I’m a rough person and not skilled with my hands,” the woman said. “But the young woman at the door who gave me the paper said that I have good hands that can support myself and asked me to come and tell everyone about them.”
“I’m illiterate, and I don’t understand much about the principles, so what can I say? In the summer, we pound lotus seeds and water chestnuts, and in the fall, we go to West Lake to pick and cut lotus roots. They grow those pond lotus roots there. One section is the best, two sections are okay, and three sections are not good. If they’re not good, they say they’ll just cut them into one section, and they’ll still be good lotus roots. I think to myself, if I can pound, cut, and even make a living with my hands, how can I not be considered a good hand?”
These words elicited laughter from everyone in the room, and some immediately clapped in agreement, saying that it resonated with them. One by one, others began to share their own thoughts.
They initially talked about their children, husbands, mothers-in-law, and all sorts of infuriating things, but gradually they shifted to talking about what they did for a living, what they were like when they were young, and how many detours they took to get to where they are today.
This trend gradually spread to classroom after classroom, where more than three hundred people were discussing it enthusiastically, and the conversation could be heard from a distance. They had probably long forgotten why they came today.
Once someone listens to them, the entire classroom will be filled with their stories.
Lin Xiushui stood outside with the tools for making the woven net. She glanced at the sky and realized it was still early, so she wasn't in a hurry to go in and disturb everyone. She listened to everyone's stories one by one.
She stood by the pillar between the two classrooms and listened to a female doctor in the classroom on the left say, "You've probably heard of my profession, but you don't know how it's done. I make labor-inducing pills."
"In our line of work, it's called 'physiological instability' or 'difficult childbirth,' which is essentially a difficult delivery. Besides the midwife's manipulation techniques, the woman also needs to take some medicine, mainly to ensure that she can give birth."
“Yes, I saw that there were a lot of women here, so I came over to say a few words. It’s so difficult to conceive, and it’s already a blessing to be healthy. Let’s not worry about whether she’s skillful or not.”
When a woman in the classroom on the right opened her mouth, everyone fell silent and listened to her. She was from the Hair Cleansing Society, and she helped people comb and shave their hair, including nuns, monks, and some people who wanted to cut some hair to sell for making fake hair buns.
Listening to the women in each shop, I learned that they all had their own skills. Some made toothpaste, but the best toothpaste made with sophora flavescens was too expensive. She made toothpaste by chopping up fresh willow branches, adding water, and boiling it in a pot, then mixing in ginger juice. She spoke rather coarsely, saying that anyone with hands could make this, and it didn't matter if it was by chance or not.
There are also those who make incense and candles. To put it simply, candle makers are said to be skilled through practice, and they can make candles even with their eyes closed.
There are also those who deal with ginger, planting, harvesting, and selling ginger every year, or many other things that are unseen but useful, such as making rouge, picking mud in a traditional Chinese medicine shop, making cricket cages, and so on.
These young women usually had to stay at home, practice needlework, and only go out during festivals. They only had frequent social interactions after getting married, and usually paid most attention to cosmetics, clothes, and headwear.
Hearing these women's words, I felt a deep sense of emotion. I realized there were so many different professions out there, and women were involved in all of them.
These older women have lived half their lives, experiencing both good and bad times, and all sorts of trials and tribulations. On Qixi Festival, which is also the Daughters' Day, being able to talk about the path they have walked is a special kind of recognition for them.
This craft gathering brings together people who might otherwise pass by or never meet, like a net, bringing them together in one place.
"Shall we go in?" The tailor's wife nudged Lin Xiushui with her hand. Everyone was getting more and more excited as they talked. If they didn't go in soon, they would talk until dark.
Lin Xiushui's legs were numb from standing. She moved her feet, picked up the bucket containing the net, and said, "Let's go in."
She still had to weave the net. She casually entered a classroom, which was almost full of people. She wasn't intimidated and said with a smile, "We can talk and do at the same time. After all, it's a festive occasion. Qixi Festival only comes once a year."
“If the spider doesn’t like it, then we’ll be the Weaver Girl ourselves and weave a web.”
As Lin Xiushui spoke, she distributed bamboo frames and hemp ropes. Everyone quickly took their things and handed them out. After she finished distributing them, she took the nets she had made herself. The outer layer was wrapped with hemp rope, and the inside was a woven net. She had woven several different nets.
She knew what everyone was there for: some came for the free Qiaoguo (a type of pastry) and eggs, some wanted the Qiaowang (a type of online shopping platform), and some were invited by her to talk about their business.
Very few people want to get into the tailoring business or meet like-minded people through the skillful net. So when everyone was weaving hemp rope, Lin Xiushui said, "You can weave however you like. If you weave it skillfully, you can get skillful paper and get into our tailoring business. You can earn two strings of cash a month."
Everyone looked up at her, then silently lowered their heads to knit, mainly because they felt there was no way they could get in. No matter how well they talked, they knew their own limitations.
Lin Xiushui added, "We rarely come all this way, so the ladies will make two clever nets. One will be given to everyone after the selection process, and the other can be exchanged here. Meeting is fate, and we can chat about it."
“Oh my, Mother, let me tell you,” a woman stood up and said, “I think this weaving guild is wonderful. I’ve never encountered anything so fortunate in my life.”
“I have no other hobbies in this life except to go to the river to pick up some small stones. Some of the stones are round, some are long, and some are especially beautiful white. Other people don’t understand and say that I’m thirty years old and a mother of two, and I still pick up these things to play with. But today when I got here, the older woman in front of me also liked them. We agreed that after we leave this place, we would go pick up stones together.”
The older woman readily agreed, saying, "We call ourselves the Stone Sisters."
The others laughed heartily after hearing this, while Lin Xiushui said, "Then you two ladies, tell me where you live. I know quite a few people who frequent the river; they know where there are many beautiful stones along the riverbank. I'll tell you when I get back."
She wrote it down on her paper, and everyone was stunned by her actions. The Stone Sisters kept saying it wasn't worth it, but Lin Xiushui fiddled with the net frame and said, "Every hobby is worth it."
"Among the people I know, there are those who like chickens, those who love cats so much that they make clothes for them, those who like to wrap themselves up, those who love to watch the clouds, and those who chase the wind all day long. These are all wonderful people."
She emphasized, "Everyone can say whatever they want. Although we gathered here because of our online skills, it's a rare opportunity for us to get together, so let's treat this as a fun trip."
“Oh, can you really say that?” A woman looked up, glanced at everyone, thought for a moment and then said, “I actually quite like the work of you tailors. I live around here and often see you tailors coming and going. I was thinking if I could go in and take a look.”
“Sure,” Lin Xiushui readily agreed. “I can take you to see the entire tailor shop. I’ll be waiting for you at the door tomorrow.”
"Great! I can't sit still anymore!" the woman said excitedly, pulling the hemp rope here and there.
After listening to what these people said, others also spoke up one after another. Some hobbies are indeed niche, such as liking to collect tree bark. Lin Xiushui said, "Later we will hang our respective hobbies on the wall. If you like any of these, then we will be like-minded people."
There are many bamboo pole frames in the academy. Lin Xiushui would write her hobbies on the clever nets that people didn't give away and hang them on them if you were lucky enough to come across them.
If the original idea of creating a clever web was something to look forward to, then after this, it suddenly became about choosing clever webs and forming connections. All the things like spider-based clever webs and Qiqiao (a traditional Chinese folk activity) have been swept aside.
Everyone held their own craft paper and hung their woven nets on the rack. Some were roughly woven, but they were very satisfied with them because the nets were round. With this round net, they could deceive themselves into thinking they had skill.
Some were woven with great care, the net resembling a blooming flower, or layered upon layered, coiled together, each displaying its unique skill.
A hundred or so women admired the craftsmanship of others, strolling through the corridors, looking at the intricate nets hanging under the eaves, surrounded by many people. They would throw out their own intricate nets, while others would throw in intricate paper for their painstakingly woven nets. Suddenly, an indescribable feeling arose.
One woman kept turning around to look at everyone's faces, standing there letting her dress flutter past her. She said, "I can hardly believe I can celebrate the festival with so many people."
"I can't believe it! My God, someone made a clever net for me! I... I'm so bad at it... I... I..." The young woman stood on tiptoe, her heart overflowing with joy. But she couldn't suppress the sobs that welled up inside her. If weaving a clever net was a simple thing, but to have someone like it meant that she would always remember that she wasn't so clumsy.
Before the next Qixi Festival, she will always remember that her clever web was loved by others, and she will always cherish the clever paper she received. It will never again be a tattered web spun by a spider, nor the frustration of not being able to compare with others in needlework skills, nor the tears she shed in the dead of night.
She will no longer fear the next Qixi Festival.
Many young women were just as excited as she was. They were always keeping an eye on their online presence, eager to gain recognition from others. When they did, they would cheer and jump for joy, as if they had many happy tomorrows ahead of them.
The women who threw the slingshots laughed and said, "They're just like little kids."
They are more concerned about whether there are people with the same hobbies. It is not easy for them to put down their work and come out. They are often forced to make a living and come and go in a hurry. They have to take care of their families, raise their children, and run around under various pressures.
Everyone took the opportunity to chat, and if they felt a connection, they would talk, agree to burn incense or drink tea together. In the corner, two women sat on a bench, and one of them said, "You also like to drink? I can drink a thousand cups without getting drunk."
"What a coincidence, me too! I like the liquor brewed at Wangjia Zhengdian. I also know a distilled liquor shop in an alley that's really good. Why don't you go and buy some and try it?"
"Come on, come to my place later, I have some good wine too."
The two were complete strangers before, but they looked familiar. After chatting for a while, they became wine tasting buddies.
Lin Xiushui laughed when she heard this, and then turned to listen to the three women next to her saying, "You like to listen to zaju (a type of Chinese opera), right? I like it too. Have you seen the official zaju in Beiwazi called 'Eye Drops'? I go to see it every few days."
Another woman said, "I've seen it, and the Yongjia Zaju opera is popular right now. The songs are also very good. Why don't the three of us sisters go and listen to it together today? It's a rare opportunity to get to know someone."
The third wife agreed: "Alright, isn't this how the Daughters' Day should be celebrated? I never want to catch spiders or help with needle threading again, year after year, without any new tricks."
Lin Xiushui walked past the hanging net, then through the winding corridors, and into the crowd. She walked past and looked back, seeing everyone dancing and watching her.
They chatted for a long time, until noon, and found many kindred spirits. The tailor also finished counting the clever paper he had obtained from the clever net.
The most common one is an extremely complex entanglement, like the openwork embroidery from Lin Xiushui's drawn thread embroidery, with one thread after another, some even split into extremely fine strands, probably using thirty or forty hemp threads.
The net is only slightly larger than the palm of your hand.
The vote count was very high, with over two hundred votes. When Lin Xiushui called out the person's name, the woman in the old clothes looked up. She was silent among the crowd, somewhat incredulous, looking around until she heard her name called for the third time.
She finally mustered up the courage to say, "I'm here."
This woman had always stayed at home, making a living by pasting paper and washing clothes. After giving birth to her eldest son, she had her second son, and after her second son, she had her third son. When all three were around ten years old, her husband died and her mother-in-law passed away. Only then did she think about going out to find some work.
But she was already in her thirties and didn't have any good jobs. She happened to run into Lin Xiushui in Qiqiao City, so she came over with a try-it-out mentality, just in case it worked out.
When she was bored, she would often look at the cobwebs in the room. She would also take some broken ropes and weave them. She could weave many webs, but she never thought that she could sell them or earn a living.
Just sitting there, listening to everyone's congratulations, she recalled the other women's expressions of joy as they worked that morning, and her heart skipped a beat.
The woman said, "I'll do it, I'll do this job."
The other six ladies hadn't expected this task to fall to them. Lady Gu said the first three should be the first seven for Qixi Festival, and the last seven would receive custom-made clothes. The next sixty would receive hair ties and silk dolls, while the others would receive clever paper, clever eggs, clever fruits, and would also find like-minded people, or many other things unknown to others.
This is a unique Qixi Festival; I'm not thinking about anything else, just myself.
Will there be another meeting like this next year?
"Those women asked."
Lin Xiushui asked Gu Niangzi, who nodded and said, "Yes."
I hope that next year's Qixi Festival will be a time to break free from the so-called "net" and forge my own path.
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