Chapter 9 The "Medical Skill" of Sewing is Superb
Grandma Baimen said that as long as a needle can sew, everything can be mended.
The more she thought about it, the more she realized the logic in those words.
This morning, the sky was foggy, and the stream seemed to be shrouded in a layer of mist. Lin Xiushui set up her stall and called out as usual. When no one passed by, she sewed oilcloth gloves. Only when she heard footsteps on the bluestone slabs would she look up.
There were many people coming and going, and she didn't recognize every face. But when she asked Zhang Niangzi, who was in the pillowcase, she had to put her needle and thread on the table, pat herself and stand up.
"Madam Zhang, Madam Zhang,"
Zhang Niangzi was holding a large oilcloth umbrella in her arms. Hearing the sound, she quickly turned her head. Upon seeing Lin Xiushui, she held the umbrella horizontally and took a few steps forward.
Lin Xiushui struck up a conversation with her, "Was that pillowcase method okay before?"
Previously, when Madam Zhang came to Lin Xiushui to make a pillowcase for her young daughter, Lin Xiushui gave her an idea: put the original cloth and the pillowcase together, let them absorb the same scent, and then cut them to make a new one.
“Oh, Xiu’er, I was just about to come and thank you,” Zhang Niangzi put down the umbrella again and leaned against her waist. “I never expected that she wasn’t picky about pillowcases, but only about the smell. I made a new one, and she was very happy with it.”
Lin Xiushui chatted with Zhang Niangzi for a few more minutes before pointing to her oilcloth umbrella and asking, "What are you going to do with this umbrella, Madam?"
“That’s true, my husband smashed a hole in the umbrella,” Madam Zhang said, both angry and annoyed. “I was just thinking of going to the other side to find someone to fix it.”
Lin Xiushui first tried to persuade her, then asked, "How much money would it cost to repair the umbrella?"
Madam Zhang truthfully said it was seven or eight coins, and Lin Xiushui then said, "If you trust me, Madam, I can make up the difference."
"Ah," Madam Zhang exclaimed in surprise, "You can even make this a tonic?"
Lin Xiushui, aside from anything else, is actually a master at mending umbrellas, because she has two broken umbrellas, one made of oiled paper and the other of oilcloth. The oiled paper umbrella is often torn, to the point that the whole umbrella is covered with various colors of oiled paper.
Needless to say, she sewed the broken seams and fabric herself when the thread broke, and she sewed the torn parts herself, making it into a patchwork umbrella. She used one umbrella for five years, patching and mending it.
Even though Lin Xiushui said she wouldn't charge if it couldn't be fixed, Zhang Niangzi gave her the umbrella with some skepticism. Still feeling uneasy, she chuckled and said, "Why don't I go outside to get it fixed, so as not to delay your work?"
Lin Xiushui was opening the umbrella. She wasn't annoyed at all, and just smiled and said, "Don't worry, my wife. If it can't be repaired, I'll buy you a new umbrella."
She first looked at the hole and compared it to the oilcloth of the glove. The color difference wasn't significant. People only need rain protection, not to patch it so that it's completely invisible.
To mend the umbrella, she needed paste, persimmon lacquer, hemp thread, oilcloth, and oiled paper, and she took them out one by one and laid them out. To Zhang Niangzi's astonishment, she placed the oilcloth under the hole in the umbrella, threaded a thick needle through the hemp thread, and used a needlework technique that was invisible on the surface of the cloth; the stitches were all hidden under the back of the umbrella.
Lin Xiushui then coated the oiled paper with paste and stuck a piece of oiled paper the size of her palm onto the reverse side. Actually, silk paper would be better; by applying several layers of tung oil, the cloth would become the same color.
I took a brush, dipped it in some persimmon lacquer, and applied it along the edge of the seam. After it dried, I applied several more coats. I then splashed a basin of water on it to test it, and it didn't bleed through at all.
She also checked the seams where the fabric and the frame were joined. There were a few loose stitches, so she repaired them with thick hemp thread. After fiddling with it several times, the umbrella, which used to open and close very tightly and required a lot of effort, opened very smoothly after she did it.
Zhang Niangzi, who often used this large umbrella, was a bit plumper than Lin Xiushui and not very strong. Every time she set up her sweet porridge stall on a rainy day, she would struggle with this umbrella for a long time. When asked to have her husband repair it, he would only say that it was fine for his own use, while the umbrella repairman would say that it was tight and not easy to break, and tell her not to waste his time.
This caused Zhang Niangzi to feel annoyed whenever it rained, as she had to listen to her husband's nagging even when she opened an umbrella.
"Oh my, this is a great repair!" Madam Zhang said with a joyful expression, opening and closing the large umbrella several times before letting out a long sigh of relief: "I don't have to ask anyone else to open the umbrella anymore."
Seeing her happy, Lin Xiushui smiled sincerely, "Apart from the broken umbrella rib, which I can't fix, if there are any other problems, my wife, just come to me."
Madam Zhang counted out ten coins and placed them on the table, nodding repeatedly as she said, "I won't ask anyone else, I'll only ask you. I have two more umbrellas at home, I'll pay the same price for them. Please repair them for me later."
“Okay,” Lin Xiushui quickly agreed, a small smile always on her face. She could feel the joy in others, the satisfaction that came from fixing something and relieving someone’s worries.
Wang Yuelan came out carrying a bowl of red bean porridge. Seeing Lin Xiushui grinning foolishly in front of the stall, she asked, "Why are you laughing like that? Did you find some money?"
"No," Lin Xiushui took the porridge with both hands, shook her head, and said with some pride, "I took a job repairing umbrellas and earned ten coins."
"How did you make it?"
Lin Xiushui blew on the piping hot porridge and explained everything in detail. Wang Yuelan first praised her a couple of times, and then said, "Make it here, don't go to the other side. There are many umbrella repairmen over there, and they're bound to harass you."
Lin Xiushui nodded. She didn't intend to take over other people's work. Taking advantage of the fact that no one was around, she slurped down her porridge and was about to hand the bowl to Wang Yuelan when she wanted to stay a little longer.
Then she heard a baby crying, not loud, but low and hoarse. She looked towards the alley entrance and saw two people holding a baby in swaddling clothes, their faces hurried.
Wang Yuelan stepped forward and asked, "Madam Chai, Mr. Chai, where are you going?"
Upon seeing Wang Yuelan, Chai Niangzi immediately poured out her grievances, "You live far away from me, so you probably don't know, but other people's children at most cry at night, while I gave birth to a child who cries day and night."
“He cries every day and can’t be left alone. It’s made it impossible for us to even do our firewood and charcoal business. His voice is hoarse from crying. We went to see a doctor ahead and it cost me a string of cash. We heard there’s a doctor from Lin’an who treats children. Let’s go see him.”
Wang Yuelan knew all too well that this child was famous throughout Sangqiao Ferry, crying day and night because of this matter. The Chai family had a very tense relationship with both sides of the neighbors, and they were almost going to the town government.
While the two were talking, Lin Xiushui was carefully examining the baby that Chai Niangzi was holding. The baby was crying and sobbing, and its little feet were kicking inside the swaddle blanket. Even though it was tightly wrapped, you could tell that it was struggling.
Lin Xiushui became suspicious and brought over a stool for Chai Niangzi to sit down. She said, "It's windy up ahead, and he's crying so hard. Why don't you sit down and cover yourself with the blanket first?"
When Chai Niangzi heard this, she thought it made sense and immediately sat down. As soon as she sat down, she struggled even more fiercely in her arms, crying and making a fuss, trying to tear off the whole swaddling blanket. Chai Langjun scolded from the side, "Stubborn brat, you don't even wrap him in swaddling clothes, you kick him every day."
“It’s not that he’s being stubborn,” Lin Xiushui couldn’t help but say, “This isn’t how you wrap a baby.”
As soon as she said this, all three people present looked at her. Wang Yuelan quickly pulled her behind her and whispered, "Don't talk nonsense to me."
Chai Niangzi coldly replied, "Young lady, you're not married yet, how do you know it's not wrapped like this? This is how it's always been done in Sangqing Town. If you don't believe me, ask your aunt."
Even things passed down from ancient times have many flaws.
Although Lin Xiushui had never married in either her past or present life, she had a lot of memories of making children's clothes and knew quite a bit about such things.
In Sangqing Town, babies are swaddled not tightly at the top and loosely at the bottom, but by tying their feet with ropes and then wrapping them tightly in a blanket. This is called "candle wrapping," and it is said that this will make them tall and their legs straight when they grow up.
This method of wrapping children is quite common in families with sons in Sangqing Town. This is mainly because during the Song Dynasty, soldiers were recruited based on height. The top-ranking imperial guards had to be five feet five inches (1.75 meters) tall to be selected. The taller the child, the more military pay they would receive. Some poor families would try to raise their children from infancy to avoid paying taxes and silk fees when their sons reached adulthood, so that they could be recruited into the army later.
“Then, Mrs. Chai, let me hold him, and I guarantee he won’t cry,” Lin Xiushui didn’t argue. “I’ve also helped take care of other people’s children before.”
Wang Yuelan couldn't figure out what she was up to, nor did she really understand. But in front of outsiders, she spoke up for Lin Xiushui, blatantly lying, "She has indeed helped take care of quite a few children. Chai Niangzi, you see how badly she's crying, why don't you let her give it a try?"
Chai Niangzi and Wang Yuelan had a close relationship, and Wang Yuelan always helped her. Not wanting to offend her, Chai Niangzi asked Lin Xiushui to sit down and gave her the child to hold.
Lin Xiushui sat the child in a sheltered spot, reached her hand under the swaddle, and sure enough, found a rope. She quietly untied it and adjusted the swaddle to a comfortable tightness, so that the child still looked securely wrapped from the outside.
Her actions caused the child, who had been crying incessantly, to slowly straighten his legs, gradually close his wide-open mouth, open his tear-stained eyelashes, and reveal a toothless smile.
Then, leaning against the blanket, she closed her eyes and fell asleep, her head nodding little by little.
Since he was born, Chai Niangzi had only seen him cry and never laugh, and she was momentarily stunned.
"It turns out I was really mistaken," Chai Langjun said regretfully.
Wang Yuelan laughed and said, "I'm afraid your family is too noisy to keep you covered up. You'll definitely grow up to be a tough person."
Lin Xiushui was suddenly seen as a miracle doctor for treating children by the two men, who kept praising her "medical skills".
She didn't laugh when he praised Lin Xiushui, but she almost burst out laughing when he said he would give her firewood.
The two of them wanted to support her business, so Chai Niangzi said she would make several new outfits for her son and buy some good fabric for her to cut.
"No need for anything better, old clothes are best. They won't itch and will definitely be comfortable to wear."
She took the job from the Chai family, who asked her to alter five garments, making them shorter and narrower. They gave her fifty coins, a boatload of firewood, and some old cloth cut off as well.
If it weren't for the fact that it was almost time for her to start work, Wang Yuelan would have questioned her in detail.
This morning, Lin Xiushui was overjoyed by the two jobs and walked into the clothing shop with a brisk pace.
Just then, Madam Song entered. She was wearing a long blue jacket, her hair was styled in a topknot, and she looked down at people with her nose in the air. She glanced at Lin Xiushui and said, "You wait, I've been putting up with you for a long time."
Lin Xiushui was utterly baffled. How could she tolerate it? With that mouth of hers, she said everything that should and shouldn't have been said.
“I’m going to tell your wife to find someone else to iron the cloth. She’s been so lazy these past few days, relying on her ironing skills. How many bolts of cloth has she ironed?”
"I want her to be replaced!"
Why don't you say something?
Lin Xiushui was astonished to hear such a wonderful thing happen in the world.
A note from the author:
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
