As they walked along, Yu Jiao didn't buy anything else. In her arms, she held a bunch of food, including various snacks, stuffing her cheeks so full that Yu Qizhe was afraid that she would choke, so he went to buy some soy milk.
The soy milk is cold and served in a bamboo tube. It has a sweet taste with a hint of bamboo fragrance and is very refreshing.
Sweets make people happy. Seeing a street vendor selling candy figures, Yu Jiao bought two candy figures for Xiao Jiegeng, and then the two went home.
After returning home, Zhao couldn't wait to ask about the recommendation. Yu Jiao said that Mr. Lin had not agreed and that she would ask Mr. Lin again, and sent Zhao away.
She did not take out the letter of recommendation directly because she wanted to let the third house know that it was not easy for her to ask Mr. Lin to do something for her. She wanted to prevent others from thinking that it was easy after seeing her go to the Lin Mansion and get things done, and not knowing the hardships of asking others to do things for her.
Yu Jiao gave the candy man to Little Platycodon. The little girl held it and drooled while chewing on it, giggling at her.
She told Zhang the whole story. When Zhang heard that Yu Zhizhou's marriage was settled, she thanked Yu Jiao profusely and started to arrange Yu Zhizhou's engagement.
A few days later, it was already the third day of August. The rain, which had stopped for a few days, started again. Seeing that the day to pay tribute to the hometown was getting closer, Zhao was getting anxious and angry. A circle of blisters appeared at the corners of her mouth. She tried to please Yu Jiao in different ways every day, wishing she could worship her like her grandmother.
During this period, Yu Jiao used the excuse of going to the Lin family, but actually took Yu Fuling for a stroll in the town. After returning, she still said that Director Lin did not agree, but her attitude softened a little.
There will be three examinations in the autumn examination, and the venue is in Qingzhou. The first one is on the eighth day of the first lunar month. It takes more than half a day to get from Changkui County to Qingzhou, so one must arrive in Qingzhou two days in advance to find a place to stay.
Song had already packed Yu Qizhe's luggage, and because she was worried about him, she discussed with Zhang about letting Yu Qiaoshan go with him.
Seeing that the list of county students was about to come out, Yu Jiao stopped delaying. Early in the morning, Yu Qiaoshan and the others went to the town to buy an umbrella. Yu Jiao, holding the umbrella, walked around the city with Yu Fuling for a long time. They also found a blacksmith shop and ordered a scalpel.
Yu Jiao didn't know whether the blacksmith could do it, so she just drew a blueprint and asked the master to give it a try.
Even if it can be made, with the current iron smelting technology, it is probably far from the modern scalpel.
But something is better than nothing. She was afraid of encountering another patient with difficult labor. Lin Shuang was indeed lucky. It was just that her cervix was not dilated due to exhaustion. Not all women can give birth by relying on acupuncture to restore the force like her.
Finding a blacksmith shop to customize a scalpel was also for the sake of being prepared. Yu Jiao hoped not to see a pregnant woman who needed a scalpel for a caesarean section.
The old master asked Yu Jiao to come back five days later to pick it up, because the scalpel she drew was delicate, thin and small, and it was really not easy to forge. The old master was not sure whether he could make it, so he only accepted a deposit of thirty coins.
After leaving the blacksmith shop, Yu Jiao and Yu Fuling returned to the town and went to the place where Yu Qiaoshan and his team sold umbrellas.
Yu Qiaoshan and his friends placed the umbrellas outside the porch of their shop which was closed due to poor business on rainy days. The shop was in a very remote area and there were not many pedestrians on the street on rainy days. There were still a dozen or so oil-paper umbrellas left that had not been sold.
"Sister Fuling, please pick up a few umbrellas and let's go out and sell them." Yu Jiao squatted down, picked up three oil-paper umbrellas, and said to Yu Fuling.
Yu Mengshan stopped her, saying, "How can a girl walk around the streets shouting? You guys should take a rest under the eaves."
"Uncle Mengshan, the people who buy flower umbrellas are all women, so it's easier for Sister Fuling and I to sell them." Yu Jiao said with a smile.
Girls love to be coquettish, so these flower umbrellas will definitely be popular with women. However, the umbrellas are sold by two grown men, Yu Qiaoshan and Yu Mengshan, so many women are probably discouraged by this.
Yu Fuling now listened to Yu Jiao very much. She picked up three or four oil-paper umbrellas and followed Yu Jiao out.
"What Meng girl said makes sense." Yu Qiaoshan said with a smile, "Don't run too far, don't go into the deep alleys, come back if you can't sell it."
"Okay." Yu Fuling responded, and smiled as she followed Yu Jiao holding an umbrella and ran into the sparse rain.
The two of them walked briskly into a small alley full of residents. The walls on both sides were not high, and the branches of the apricot and pear trees planted in the courtyard hung down and protruded over the walls.
Yu Jiao called out in a clear voice, "Umbrellas for sale! Beautiful and practical oil-paper umbrellas, only twenty cents, take a look, take a look!"
Yu Fuling saw that she shouted with ease and confidence, without any girlish shyness. She opened her mouth, but was a little shy and could only shout out one word. The rest of the words were as soft as a cat's meow.
She even blushed out of embarrassment.
Yu Jiao encouraged, "Don't be afraid. We didn't steal or rob. We are selling our own things. There is nothing to be ashamed of. Just shout out the first cry and get over the hurdle in your heart, and then everything will be fine."
Yu Fuling looked at Yu Jiao's little face and took several deep breaths. Yu Jiao was younger than her, but she could still shout. As an older sister, she couldn't fall behind.
"Selling oil-paper umbrellas! We have all kinds of patterns and colors, only twenty cents!" Yu Fu shouted in one breath.
Yu Jiao turned around and looked at her with a smile, her almond-shaped eyes slightly curved, and Yu Fuling also smiled.
Sure enough, after the first shout, there was nothing to be shy about. The two of them walked slowly in the alley which was filled with a thin layer of water, and the clear and laughing shouts passed through the alley.
The gate of a house opened, and a woman came out holding a child. She looked around and shouted to Yu Jiao and Yu Fuling who were about to leave the alley, "Hey, little girl, wait a minute."
Yu Jiao and Yu Fuling turned around and walked quickly towards the woman holding the umbrella.
"Auntie, do you want an umbrella?" Yu Fuling asked with a smile and showed the umbrella in her arms to the woman.
The woman looked through the patterns on the umbrella and said, "I heard you guys say 20 cents a piece just now. Is that the price for all these?"
Yu Fuling nodded and said with a smile, "They are all twenty cents. What pattern do you like?"
The noise of the few people talking attracted a family nearby to open the gate and look in.
Yu Jiao said to the girl who had poked her head out, "It's almost the beginning of autumn. It's raining a lot this year. Do you want to buy an umbrella?"
The girl who poked her head out was about the same age as Yu Fuling. When she heard Yu Jiao talking to her, she came over and stood aside to look at the floral pattern on the umbrella.
"Have any of you painted a pomegranate?" asked the woman who had just asked.
“Yes, yes.” Yu Fuling remembered that her elder brother Yu Zhixing had specially painted a few oil-paper umbrellas with pomegranate flowers. Nowadays, when a bride gets out of the sedan chair to get married, the bridesmaid will use a red oil-paper umbrella to cover the bride to ward off evil spirits. Oil-paper umbrella is homophonic with “youzi” ("having a son"), which also means having many children and good fortune.
Yu Fuling lowered her head to look for it hurriedly. Yu Jiao looked at the umbrella in her arms, found the oil-paper umbrella with pomegranate flowers painted on it and handed it to the woman.
The woman took it, opened it, looked at it, and said with a satisfied smile, "This painting is beautiful. My sister is going to get married in the fall, and this umbrella will be perfect for her to use when she gets off the sedan chair."
"I wish you good luck. Aunt, since you bought the umbrella from my family, my sister and her husband will surely live in harmony and love each other forever." Yu Jiao blessed with a smile.
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