Chapter 76 Passed the exam for the Candle Bureau
There were about twenty orders, half of which came from acquaintances, and the other half came from people who were attracted by the scene.
Even the shopkeepers at Wang's Rental Shop and Liu Sanjie's General Store stopped doing business and came out to watch the excitement.
Liu Sanjie, the owner of the general store, stepped out. She knew quite a few characters. Holding a fan to her eyebrows, she looked down at the eaves in the middle of the house and saw a bright plaque hanging in the center. She read aloud the four characters "Shui Ji Quan Yi" (Water Memory Clothing).
Then I shifted my gaze to the left, where a signboard hung under the eaves. It featured a pink vest, a light yellow blouse, a white silk skirt, and a light blue apron, not too big, at most reaching the thighs.
But then they saw a wooden sign hanging down from the shop, which read: "Beizi, Shangru, Shan, Waistband, Hundred-fold Skirt, Hundred-pleat Skirt, Outer Pants." On the left doorpost, an orange paper read: "For women and children, make clothes for all four seasons."
The long beige strip on the right says that it can make clothes for all body types, regardless of height or weight, for everyday wear or formal attire.
Below that was a piece of moon-white paper. Liu Sanjie squinted and took two steps forward. It read: "Good clothes for all four seasons, all in Shui Ji."
After reading it, she covered her face with her fan, laughed several times, and found it somewhat interesting. So she went around to her own door, passed by the pillar, and went into the shop.
The room was filled with a rich fragrance. Several women were selecting fabrics from the table in the middle, while a few young women on the left were looking up at the fabrics hanging from the high shelf, lifting them with their hands to examine the patterns closely.
On the right wall was a row of wooden racks with clothes hanging on them: blue silk jackets, pink blouses, purple gauze skirts, red satin vests, and various collars, ribbons, and so on. Liu Sanjie took down a piece of clothing and looked at the fabric, and found that the pattern of the garment and the fabric were the same.
She touched the fabric; it was smooth and comfortable. Looking down, she saw no wrinkles, loose threads, or seams. For some reason, it gave the impression of fitting perfectly and looking very upright when worn, probably due to its meticulous workmanship.
Moreover, the fabrics are common materials, such as silk, cotton, and fine linen, but the patterns and colors are not common. There is a gauze fabric ranging from pink to light white, similar to the color of the recently popular lotus-patterned short-sleeved fabric. It is fashionable and beautiful, and many people wear it.
Liu Sanjie had come to watch the excitement, but once she arrived at the shop, she blurted out, "How are the clothes made?"
She secretly regretted it. She was round-faced and had a slightly dark complexion, but that didn't matter. The key issue was that her shoulders had a relatively obvious difference in height, with her right shoulder being higher than her left. She didn't go to tailors to make clothes; at most, she would go to ready-made clothing stores to try on clothes and buy them if they fit.
Lin Xiushui was standing beside her, tidying up the scattered pieces of cloth. Hearing this, she walked over and asked, "Wife, do you want a proper dress, or something else?"
"How do you make the whole garment? What about the other prices?" Liu Sanjie put down the jacket she was looking at and continued the conversation.
"The price of the whole garment depends on the fabric. Fine linen is cheaper. If you're making a jacket, a tube top, and a pleated skirt together, it'll cost around four strings of cash. But if you're making a skirt out of lotus pink gauze like this, it'll be a bit more expensive, around three strings of cash."
Lin Xiushui explained carefully, "This material is currently in fashion, and the price of dyed sappanwood has gone up. Plain gauze is not cheap to begin with, and a bolt of cloth now costs over three strings of cash."
It was still based on the fact that the tailoring workshop itself had a dyeing workshop, and that dyers could dye their own clothes. Due to the popularity of short petals, the price of sappanwood, madder and safflower used for dyeing red skyrocketed, and the price of raw silk in shops selling plain gauze rose by two to five hundred coins.
The price Lin Xiushui mentioned was much cheaper.
One woman wholeheartedly agreed, “That’s right. I go to the fabric market and pick out the fabric myself. This kind of pink gauze costs five strings of cash, enough to make a dress. It’s like they’re robbing me of money.”
"Only five strings of cash? The shop I asked last time wanted six strings. Guess if I bought it or not?" the woman said through gritted teeth. "I didn't buy it at all. I just squatted there to see if anyone would complain about their selling price."
Lin Xiushui was truly at a loss. The purchasing manager had been cursing her repeatedly, saying that all these people should be in jail and that she should just whip them to death with a cloth.
The dyers had already decided to switch to sappanwood. At Lin Xiushui's suggestion, they chose loquat leaves or turmeric to dye the yellow first, and then used sappanwood for over-dyeing. One was a light pink, and the other was an orange-pink, both of which were quite good. All the new fabric was given to her so that she could try making new clothes.
Amidst the chatter of the crowd, Liu Sanjie said, "We need to make the top first."
She took two steps to the door leading to the second floor, where a curtain was hung. Lin Xiushui noticed her unspeakable trouble. Since they were neighbors with shops on either side, she spoke to the tailor, Jin, and lifted the curtain, asking her to come to the back to talk.
"I want my shoulders to look flat, not uneven like a mountain peak that suddenly drops down," said Liu Sanjie, a straightforward person to others, but she was very annoyed by her shoulders.
Lin Xiushui told her to stand still, took two steps back and looked at her. Indeed, the difference in their shoulders was quite noticeable. Then she said, "Liu Niangzi, I'll remember this. Come to the shop this afternoon and I'll take your measurements properly and figure out what to do."
Liu Sanjie was busy at her shop, so she immediately nodded in agreement, "Think it over carefully."
In a short while, five or six people came to have clothes made. After looking at the fabric, they decided to have a complete set of autumn clothes made.
Lin Xiushui wrote it down. The clothes they wanted to make were very clear. For example, they wanted straight-sleeved shirts made of yellowish-brown cloth, with green collars, gardenia-yellow tube tops, orange pleated skirts, or lotus-root-colored tube tops, and light blue narrow-sleeved jackets, etc.
After finishing her sentence, one of the women said with a joyful expression, "We make a living by harvesting water chestnuts. We just harvested about a hundred boatloads of water chestnuts in the summer and made some money. We were planning to have clothes made in Sangling Lane, but we didn't expect yours to be even cheaper."
"I want to make one for my daughter too. She's only three years old and isn't here right now, so what kind of clothes can I make?"
When the tailor Jin took measurements for another woman, Lin Xiushui noted it down and said, "We can make matching mother-daughter outfits."
"What?" asked Cai Ling's wife.
Lin Xiushui stood behind the stage, leaning forward. "Mother-daughter outfits are clothes that adults and children wear the same, with identical colors, styles, and patterns."
Cai Ling's wife was clearly tempted. Who could refuse to have their child wear the same clothes as her? She immediately said, "Make them, I'll make two sets of the same. Write them down first, and I'll bring my child over tomorrow."
“What kind of mother-daughter outfits are these? Can you make a set for both of us?” A girl who looked about fourteen or fifteen years old pulled over another young woman who looked about the same age.
"Stop being shameless, I'll be your mother."
"I'm older, I'm the older one. Have you forgotten that I watched you grow up?"
The two were bickering when Lin Xiushui coughed twice and interjected, "Actually, we could also make matching outfits."
“You should have said so earlier. Actually, I’m her older sister,” the young woman said first.
Another woman reached out her hand and said, "Sister, give me the money."
After watching the excitement to her heart's content, Lin Xiushui suppressed a laugh and wrote it down. She was busy all morning, collecting seven or eight strings of cash in deposits and promising to deliver the clothes in seven days.
At noon, the crowd was still large. Wang Yuelan whispered a few words to Lin Xiushui, then hurriedly went out and found an old couple who sold various kinds of steamed buns at the second bridgehead of Sangshukou.
There are shrimp and fish buns, crab meat buns, river fish buns, jujube and chestnut fillings, and honey and chili fillings. The most expensive one is only five coins. They are also wrapped in oil paper and can feed dozens of people.
Since everyone is here to support us, we should naturally make it as presentable as possible.
After everyone had said goodbye and left, Lin Xiushui rubbed her arms and said to the people standing in the room, "Shall we have noodles for lunch?"
Xiao Chun'e pulled a fan from the corner of the counter. It was hot and crowded all morning. She sat on the embroidered stool and said, "Wait a minute, I'll rest for a bit."
"Save it for me tonight," Sang Ying said with a steamed bun in her mouth before walking outside. She had given Lin Xiushui a bolt of light blue silk cloth worth more than two strings of cash, which cost her a month's salary. She didn't have much money left in her pocket, so she had to give rice to several more families.
Xiaohe ran out from behind the curtain, her face obscured by it, and waved her hands, saying, "I'm going to eat, don't forget me."
“Eating is the most important thing to you,” Wang Yuelan said, lifting the green curtain to let Xiaohe out.
The group went to eat meat noodles. Xiao Chun'e went back home and went to work in the afternoon. Wang Yuelan took Xiao He to take a nap first, while Lin Xiushui went through the written-down order with the tailor Jin. There were many people and things were chaotic in the morning. Some orders were written down and deposits were collected, but no measurements were taken. They were asked to come back in the afternoon when there were fewer people.
"Twenty-six people have had clothes made in this half-day, and some are in a hurry. Can you handle it all?" Tailor Jin flipped through the booklet. Although they were autumn clothes, the styles were not too outrageous, and the requirements were simple.
According to Jin the tailor himself, he is very meticulous and can produce a set of clothes in ten days. But if he were to make clothes for twenty-five or twenty-six people, it would take forever.
Lin Xiushui leaned back in the chair with the lamp hanging on it. She turned slightly to the side, glanced at the paper, and smiled, "Of course there's no time to do that."
“Aunt Jin, look at this simple style. She values the fabric, wants it to fit well and look good, and wants to wear autumn clothes before autumn is over,” Lin Xiushui reached for the new fabric ruler, looked down at the ruler and said, “Let’s take your measurements first to make sure the pattern is accurate and the fabric is cut well.”
She chuckled, “The rest I just pay to go to a tailor shop and have them sew it for me. Then I take it back and alter the parts that don’t fit myself. Originally, everyone would have to wait one or two months for each piece, but now I can get the clothes I want in five to seven days.”
If Lin Xiushui could normally earn 600 coins for a set of clothes, but if she hired a tailor to sew them, she could earn at most 200 coins. However, she could produce clothes quickly and take on many orders, so she could still earn quite a bit.
She wasn't rigid; what she wanted was for everyone to wear clothes that fit well and looked good as soon as possible.
When the shop was gradually empty, Liu Sanjie came over from the other side. Jin the tailor knew very well that she could tell a lot about people's figures, and Lin Xiushui had told her about it as well.
Uneven shoulders are actually quite common; it's a common problem when carrying goods on a shoulder pole.
Jin the tailor asked Liu Sanjie to go inside first so he could measure her shoulder width. He said to Lin Xiushui, "This kind of garment doesn't require you to stand on your feet or put a piece of clothing under the jacket. I'll teach you a method; you should learn it."
Lin Xiushui's eyes lit up, and she nodded repeatedly. Her initial idea was to thicken the outer garment, preferably with dark-colored fabrics such as black or brown, so that she could pad some thin pieces of clothing on the slightly lower shoulders to make both shoulders the same height.
But the tailor didn't think it was that good. If he couldn't wear thin gauze, thin cloth, or light-colored cloth, would he only be able to live in dark-colored clothes from now on?
She casually pulled out a long shawl that had been cut and was made of blue gauze tie-dyed by Lin Xiushui from Qingya, with white flower patterns on it.
The tailor lifted the curtain and entered the small room next to the stairs, which was used for ironing and taking measurements. There were two black-lacquered windows and a small door leading out to the back street.
She first asked Lin Xiushui to measure her shoulder width, waist circumference, and height difference before asking Liu Sanjie to stand up. Today, Liu Sanjie was wearing a dark blue jacket, a yellow bodice, and a green skirt.
“Actually, you would look better in a high-waisted ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress). You can try it if you don’t believe me,” the tailor told Lin Xiushui to take out the third green ruqun from the front.
Lin Xiushui went outside and counted the clothes on the hanger before taking it down and bringing it in. Liu Sanjie was a little skeptical, "Would I look good in that? I think it's all worn by young ladies. I'm twenty-eight this year."
"What's wrong? I'm fifty-three, I wear it too. Clothes don't discriminate based on age."
"You try it first."
Liu Sanjie's heart stirred, she took off her outer jacket and put on the green upper garment. Lin Xiushui pulled her skirt up a little and temporarily tied the skirt sash below her chest.
The tailor slowly tightened the shawl in his hand, letting one end hang in Lin Xiushui's palm while he held the other end and passed it under Liu Sanjie's skirt. He bent down and pulled the shawl down to her ankles, then stood up and tidied the shawl hanging on her shoulders, making some wrinkles and tightening it until it only reached a little below her shoulders. He wrapped the rest around his hands and passed it through the skirt's sash at the back.
Lin Xiushui retreated to the small doorway and stood at a distance to observe. She immediately focused her gaze on Liu Sanjie's left shoulder, remembering that the left shoulder should be slightly lower than the right shoulder.
But at this moment, her attention was not on the uneven shoulders at all. Of course, it could be seen if you looked closely, but her gaze was on the blue and white shawl on her shoulders, which seemed to have an extra embellishment.
Liu Sanjie was naturally a bit plump. Her skirt reached her chest and under her armpits, and if the color of her upper garment were changed, her natural fullness would be amplified. When her beauty was magnified, she wouldn't care about the minor flaws on her shoulders. Lin Xiushui thought about this carefully and suddenly realized.
After the tailor finished tidying up, she asked Liu Sanjie to stand in front of the bronze mirror and take a look. Liu Sanjie was initially a little skeptical that a shawl could solve her problem.
She slowly moved a few steps forward, straightened her back, and looked at herself in the mirror on the high platform. Her eyes widened, and she made the following unintelligible sounds: "Ugh, eh, hiss, ah."
Her right hand touched her left shoulder, and her left hand touched her right shoulder, crossing and encircling each other, telling her that there was no extra flesh protruding from her shoulder.
However, in the mirror, the lower part of my shoulder, even though it becomes more noticeable because of the shawl, is not noticeable because of the difference in height.
"Amazing, amazing! I thought we had to put something in there," Liu Sanjie turned and grabbed the tailor's hand, calling out earnestly, "Master, if you give me any more pointers next time, I'll definitely keep your word."
“Then have a dress made here, a Qi-Xiong Ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress),” the tailor said directly. “Xiao Lin will make it very well for you.”
"Okay, okay, I'll make two sets," Liu Sanjie said, swaying her skirt as she went to look in the mirror again.
Lin Xiushui walked over and whispered, "Aunt Jin, aren't you going to do it?"
“Of course I won’t do it,” the tailor said, putting his hands behind his back. “I can’t do it.”
"I vaguely know that other people also have to wear black. A black gauze shawl with floral patterns is fine. Think about it. I'm too old to think about it. I can't compare with you young people."
Lin Xiushui was speechless. She had just said that she was still young at fifty-three, but in less than half an incense stick's time, her eyesight had already deteriorated.
Presbyopia comes on really fast.
After seeing off the delighted, satisfied, and overjoyed Liu Sanjie, Lin Xiushui pondered what she had learned that day. Feeling extremely sleepy, she nodded and fell asleep on the table.
When the tailor saw this, he smiled and shook his head, then put a piece of clothing under her back.
The day ended smoothly. Lin Xiushui had taken on more than thirty garment jobs. She planned to send the finished garments to the tailor's shop after they were cut. She sent the tailor, Jin, back home first, and then prepared to do more work after her shift.
Autumn nights come early. She locked the door and went out. Lanterns were hanging in the shops along the street, and stars appeared in the sky when she looked up.
She lowered her head to straighten her skirt, intending to walk home. After taking two steps, she saw a swaying lantern stop in front of her. She looked up and saw Chen Jiuchuan standing in front of her.
He rushed back, but she wasn't home. Wang Yuelan gave him directions, and he followed the directions to come and meet her.
"You scared me!" Lin Xiushui said reproachfully.
Chen Jiuchuan held the lantern under his head, letting the light shine on his face. "Is it scary? I'll walk like this next time."
Lin Xiushui said seriously, "You're being ridiculous."
Before Chen Jiuchuan could put down the lantern, she suddenly leaned closer, shook her head in front of the lantern, revealed a lively expression, and looked up, saying, "Was it scary? Did it scare you? Was it funny?"
"I was scared," Chen Jiuchuan said, deliberately backing away.
Is it funny? No, it's very entertaining.
The lantern he was holding was swaying violently. Chen Jiuchuan wanted to call out to the eye drop seller who was passing by and ask him to give him some eye drops.
Before him appeared a pair of eyes, both blurry and clear, curved and round, reflected in his eyes as the roadside lanterns swayed.
I haven't congratulated you yet.
"I haven't thanked you yet."
The two voices collided.
Lin Xiushui chuckled twice, "Of course you should congratulate me."
"Why are you thanking me? You didn't ask me to lend you money," Chen Jiuchuan asked, puzzled. He had indeed wanted to lend Lin Xiushui a sum of money before, and had been going out on the boat every day for that purpose.
Lin Xiushui remembered the large sum of money he had owed her and said, "No, that won't do. It has to be returned."
"Don't even mention it, I'll treat you to some stuffed lotus root, both raw and cooked. It looks delicious," Lin Xiushui said, waving to an old lady's stall. "Come on, Chen Jiuchuan."
Chen Jiuchuan took a few steps. "Aren't you going to order me something else?"
Treating people differently.
“Don’t forget your roots. We used to eat lotus root around this time of year. We used to stew sweet lotus root at your house. Now I’m treating you to some stuffed lotus root, both raw and cooked,” Lin Xiushui tilted her head to look at him. “Want some?”
"eat."
Chen Jiuchuan said, "I'll treat you next time."
"Oh, then I want to eat something good," Lin Xiushui said with a smile.
"Okay, sure, go ahead."
Lin Xiushui looked at him and said, "Don't recite my lines."
“I knew it.”
Lin Xiushui didn't want to talk to him; she wanted to eat both raw and cooked stuffed lotus root.
Lin Xiushui slept well that night. The next day, she took the cut garment pieces to the tailor's shop. Just as she arrived at the door, Xiao Chun'e, who had been waiting nearby, ran over with a beaming smile. "Ah Qiao, do you know? Do you know?"
Lin Xiushui put down the cloth bag in her hand, looking bewildered. "Know what?"
"The oil and candle bureau is hiring! Thirty people! Good heavens, I didn't sleep a wink last night. I went there to check before dawn, and it's true, they really are hiring."
"Really?" Lin Xiushui's eyes widened as she grasped Xiao Chun'e's hand. "When will the recruitment begin?"
“The day after tomorrow, the day after tomorrow they’ll be recruiting,” Xiao Chun’e’s heart pounded. “Look how my hands are shaking. I’ve been dreaming that I won’t be selected this year.”
Every year in early autumn, the oil and candle workshop would recruit people. During the autumn and winter seasons, there are many places that need to burn charcoal and run stoves, and manpower is usually in short supply.
Entering the oil and candle bureau was different from ordinary charcoal burning; there it was called "charcoal burning." Even a low-level laborer would earn two strings and eight coins a month. Moreover, they would receive clothes for spring and autumn, a basket of charcoal, a box of incense cakes, two candles, and I heard there were other items as well.
After all, these were the Four Departments and Six Bureaus. Even if they weren't run by the government within Lin'an's inner city, they were still quite large in the private sector, offering a stable and good job. With ability, one could rise through the ranks, using them as a springboard to climb from various departments and bureaus all the way to Lin'an city. However, the selection process for the Oil and Candle Bureau was always very strict.
Xiao Chun'e couldn't hide her excitement and nervousness. Lin Xiushui held her hand and said with a focused and serious expression, "You can definitely do it."
“But I’m also afraid that after I leave, you won’t have anyone to eat with,” Xiao Chun’e said with a lot of worry, and her concern was quite strange.
Lin Xiushui, carrying a cloth bag in one hand, turned her around with the other, saying, "When did you start thinking about this? You should get ready to go. Take a few days off first, and I'll go with you."
Xiao Chun'e didn't tell her family that her mother didn't want her to go to the oil and candle shop. She felt that working as a charcoal burner in the tailor shop was quite good, as it was close by, she could take care of herself, and she wouldn't have to worry about being bullied.
The oil and candle bureau sounds glamorous, but only the person in charge knows the hardships involved.
Although in the tailoring industry, wages might not rise to three strings of cash in three to five years, it was at least very stable. Her family valued stability more than wealth or fame.
But Lin Xiushui would say, "If we don't go this year, we'll be thinking about it all year round. We have to give it a try. You're still young. If it doesn't work out this year, there's always next year, and the year after that."
Xiao Chun'e said seriously, "I definitely want to give it a try."
So early the next morning, Xiao Chun'e secretly slipped out of the house. Lin Xiushui was waiting for her at the bow of the boat and waved to her vigorously.
"Don't rush, let's eat first. I brought you some hot pancakes and steamed buns to tide you over. There will be a lot of people that day, and you'll have to draw lots to get in," Lin Xiushui handed her the steamed buns, which weren't very oily, and patted her chest. "You can rest assured that Xiao Lin, the boatman, will take you there. Focus your energy on burning charcoal."
"Don't be afraid. If you are afraid, just think of me. I said Xiao Chun'e is the best at making charcoal."
Lin Xiushui recalled the past, and slowly said, "I used to ask you if you wanted to iron cloth with me, and you said you just liked to tend the fire. You could tell the quality of each type of charcoal and knew which ones burned quickly and which ones burned slowly."
She still remembers Xiao Chun'e's expression at the time; her face was covered in soot, but her eyes were still bright.
"You know how to use a lot of stoves, sleeve stoves, hand stoves, clay stoves, etc. You said it would be great if we could do one thing together. You said you most wanted to go to the Oil and Candle Bureau of the Four Offices and Six Bureaus."
"Look, the oil and candle bureau is very close to you now."
Xiao Chun'e held the steaming buns in her hands. In fact, she was so nervous that her hands and feet were trembling. But after listening to Lin Xiushui's words, she looked out the window and it was as if the huge Four Departments and Six Bureaus were right in front of her.
She breathed a long sigh of relief, encouraging herself, "I can do it."
Early in the morning, there were about two hundred people in front of the oil and candle bureau. Xiao Chun'e was completely lost in the crowd and was not noticeable at all. She followed the crowd in to draw lots, but then she heard a loud shout from outside the crowd, "Xiao Chun'e, you can do it! I'll be waiting for you at the door."
She turned her head and looked over, only to see unfamiliar faces. But she held the skewer, gradually calmed down, and then shouted back, "Okay!"
There are three tests for recruiting employees at the oil candle workshop. The first test is to separate wet charcoal from dry charcoal in a pile and light it quickly, within half an incense stick's time, the faster the better.
Charcoal burning is a slow process. People over there are waiting to use the stove, which requires a brazier and charcoal. If you say it won't light and you have to wait, the charcoal will absorb moisture in the winter and won't dry at all.
Xiao Chun'e calmly looked around, recalling the charcoal she had burned before. She took a deep breath, picked up the fire tongs and began to pick out the wet charcoal piece by piece. She quickly lit the brazier.
Many people were faster than her in this round. Her hands were wet. In the second round, the test changed from two types of charcoal to three types. The challenge was to distinguish between wood charcoal and rock charcoal, and to pick out all the rock charcoal and burn only the rock charcoal.
Xiao Chun'e burned the incense very quickly. She finished selecting the incense when it was only half-burnt, lit the brazier, and waited for the manager of the oil and candle bureau to come and inspect it.
By the time she reached the third stage, many seats around her were empty. She looked around and saw that there were only twenty or thirty people left out of the original sixty or seventy. She calmed herself down.
The third challenge is that there are four types of charcoal in the charcoal basket: bamboo charcoal and pine charcoal, which burn very well; oak charcoal, which burns very strongly; and mulberry charcoal, which burns poorly.
Regardless of the type of charcoal, it takes about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn all the charcoal to burn brightly. Among them, oak charcoal is the hardest to burn. Even if it burns with the strongest fire, it will slowly go out before the other charcoal burns brightly first.
Even though Xiao Chun'e was very familiar with these charcoal pieces, she couldn't distinguish them quickly. Sweat almost dripped from her forehead, and she wiped it off again and again with her narrow sleeve. Just as the last incense sticks were about to burn out, her brazier reached its maximum flame.
The manager gave her a token and told her to wait in another empty room. As she waited, Xiao Chun'e became increasingly anxious, pacing back and forth, her heart pounding.
Just then, a person dressed in black from the oil and candle bureau came over and called out, "Is Yao Chun'e here? She'll be working at the oil and candle bureau the day after tomorrow."
"I'm here, I'm here, really?" Xiao Chun'e's voice cracked. "Me? Am I Xiao Chun'e from the sixth house on the west side of South Street?"
Yes, it's you.
Xiao Chun'e almost fainted; she was overwhelmed with joy, and her legs went weak. Later, she learned that she was among the top seven.
She ran out again, running through the oil and candle bureau, running along the winding roads of the four departments and six bureaus, until she reached the end of the road, waved to Lin Xiushui from afar, and shouted to Lin Xiushui at the top of her lungs, "I passed! Ah Qiao, I passed!"
Lin Xiushui waved vigorously at her, her heart filled with indescribable emotions, and she wanted to cry.
It was an extremely complex emotion, like a tangled mess of threads.
But I'm so glad that after burning charcoal for so long, you've finally reached the place you wanted to go and are on the path to a brighter future.
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