Chapter 13 Embracing Life
Lightning flashed and thunder roared at night, and torrential rain poured down. Even in the early morning, a light drizzle continued, creating a refreshing atmosphere.
Li San Niang sat at home waiting for Chen Ya Lang, thinking that with the rain continuing, she didn't know if she could get the two things—buying and renting a house—done this morning.
The rain drizzled incessantly until lunchtime was over, at which point it finally stopped.
Alright, forget about it today. At noon, our boss Chen Yalang sent someone to tell us that the owner of the second house is in the outer city. He noticed that it's raining and the price isn't cheap, so we'll arrange to complete the formalities tomorrow.
As soon as the rain stopped, Li Sanniang went to a house in the next alley and spent ten copper coins to bring back a little mongrel puppy that was just a month old.
Well, last time I was thinking that little dewdrop had no one to play with, wouldn't it be fun if she had a puppy to keep her company?
Li San Niang had heard from Li Da Sao that this family had a female dog that had given birth to eight or nine puppies. The family simply couldn't keep them all. They weren't the kind of fast-running hunting dogs that wealthy families preferred, nor were they the long-haired lion dogs that rich ladies loved. They were just a simple, honest yellow dog kept to guard the house. So, they only spent ten copper coins to bring one home.
The puppy I brought home was tan-colored, with its little tail sticking up. The way it clumsily circled around me was just too cute!
Little Dewdrop was overjoyed at the sight of the puppy! She could barely walk on her own, yet she insisted on holding it. Li Sanniang was really afraid that if she dropped the dog, she would drop herself too.
Finally, they temporarily used an old straw mat from Li San Niang's house as the puppy's bed, and found a porcelain bowl with a broken corner to cook in, and placed the puppy under the jujube tree.
Thinking it over, I decided to go back to the carpenter and have him make a small house out of scrap wood to serve as a doghouse, and then make a cushion out of old clothes for him to make him more comfortable.
She had planned to take Luzhu and Sister-in-law Li to the gold and silver shop in the afternoon to buy a gift for Xiao Wulang's full moon celebration, but the puppy had stolen all of Luzhu's attention. She decided to stay home and take care of the puppy herself, and let Li San Niang go out by herself.
“Mother, the puppy just arrived. Pearl will stay with him for now, and Pearl will accompany you to the shop next time.”
"Good, good, good son of your mother, be good at home."
"Good girl, Pearl! Good puppy too!"
Haha, watching Little Dewdrop petting the short-haired mongrel was so funny that Li San Niang couldn't help but laugh out loud.
In the end, it was Sister-in-law Li and Li Sanniang who went out together.
This time when she went out, the first thing Li San Niang wanted to buy was cotton. Yes, cotton. However, nowadays it's not called cotton, it's called white cotton. In the past, it was used by wealthy families as flowers for appreciation.
Later, when Emperor Wu ascended the throne, he needed clothing to protect against the cold during the winter when he was fighting in the south and north. That's when he found this thing, because there was a native plant called kapok that didn't have as good a warming effect as this.
However, artificial cultivation has only just begun, and it is still quite expensive. It is first supplied to the military, then to wealthy families, and only a small amount can flow into the hands of ordinary people.
Therefore, if the price was too high or she couldn't buy it, Li San Niang had no choice but to buy kapok to make menstrual belts.
Following Sister-in-law Li, we first went to the fabric shop. A plump and beautiful female shopkeeper stood on the high platform.
After inquiring, I learned that there was no cotton in stock. If I wanted some, I would have to pre-order it, and it would take another two or three months before I could get any, and it wouldn't be cheap.
Li San Niang gave up after hearing this and instead asked about the cotton tree.
"Madam shopkeeper, do you have any kapok trees here?"
"We do have kapok trees, they were just harvested in May this year, the seeds have all been picked out and dried, would you like to take a look, my lady?"
The shopkeeper's wife found a bundle of kapok from the room behind the counter. Li San Niang touched it and found that it was indeed seedless, dried, and quite soft.
She asked if a hundred copper coins could buy such a small bundle. Li San Niang thought about making ten or twenty menstrual belts for herself, Li Da Sao, and Li Er Sao. So she asked the shopkeeper if there would be a discount for buying more. In the end, she spent one tael of silver to buy two large bundles of cotton.
Sister-in-law Li turned her back and asked Third Sister Li why she was buying this, since it was still early and she was preparing winter clothes.
Li San Niang didn't feel embarrassed at all. After all, modern thinking couldn't be changed in a month or two. She directly told the shopkeeper's wife that she brought it for her menstrual period.
The shopkeeper's wife was indeed a merchant. Didn't she see that Sister-in-law Li blushed bright red because Li San Niang had talked about such a shameful thing about girls in public? The shopkeeper's wife even asked Li San Niang what to do.
Li San Niang then explained how much she disliked the menstrual belts made from reusable wood ash, and how she wanted to replace them with cotton, making them wider so she could change them more frequently, and also keeping them cleaner, less smelly, and easier to move around in.
The shopkeeper's wife nodded in agreement, saying it was a bit expensive.
Li San Niang said, "A woman's affairs are not simple. This matter needs to be taken seriously, so as to reduce the chances of her having a chronic illness."
The shopkeeper's wife didn't disbelieve it. After all, they lived in the same neighborhood and knew that this was the lady from the Yitang Herbal Medicine House. She was a lady who could diagnose and prescribe medicine, and she was not comparable to ordinary ladies. This was because Li San Niang was really talented when she was young, and her father often took her to the medical house to see patients.
It was only in the three or four years since she got married that her reputation gradually faded away.
When the shopkeeper heard that she needed to make new menstrual belts, she recommended a slightly yellowed, undyed fabric suitable for making undergarments. Li San Niang thought it was good and the price wasn't too expensive, so she bought half a bolt and planned to divide it among her two sisters-in-law when she got back.
Later, on the shopkeeper's recommendation, I bought a pretty light green fabric, thinking that it would be very beautiful to make a little dress for Little Dewdrop.
Sister-in-law Li only bought three bolts of dark blue linen for her father, eldest brother Li, and second brother Li, to carefully make each of them an outfit suitable for receiving guests. The outfits she made for guests last time had faded and were no longer bright.
Of course, Sister-in-law Li used public funds, while Third Sister Li used her own private savings.
Finally, the shopkeeper's wife not only delivered the goods to his door, but also gave him a headscarf made by a scholar and a hairband for a young woman as gifts, making him feel that the money was well spent and that he would come again next time.
After spending more than half an hour in the fabric shop, we finally arrived at the most important part of today's trip: the gold and silver shop!
Sister-in-law Li and Third Sister-in-law Li discussed buying a small longevity lock for each family and a pair of life-saving bracelets for each family.
This is a local tradition. When a child is born and celebrates their one-month birthday, relatives give them a longevity lock, symbolizing a long and peaceful life. The life-saving bracelet is a pair of silver bracelets with auspicious patterns worn by children, which can ward off evil and ensure safety.
Inside the gold and silver shop was a young man without a beard. However, as is typical of business people, the shopkeeper spoke eloquently, and if Li San Niang weren't short of money, she would have loved to buy some accessories for each member of her family.
Li San Niang and Li Da Sao were dazzled by the choices, but finally selected the pattern they thought was the most beautiful.
Seeing that it was still early, Li Sanniang suggested going to Xiang Gui Ji to buy some pastries and candies, firstly to give the children sweet treats, and secondly to keep some for guests in case they came to visit.
Okay, actually, it was just that Li San Niang herself was craving something and wanted to see what new products she could buy to eat.
Xiang Gui Ji is truly a time-honored brand. Li's mother said that when she was a child, her father bought her Xiang Gui Ji candies the first time he came to Chang'an. Li's mother still misses the sweet taste when she talks about it.
Upon entering, there is a row of tall counters, with five or six young employees busy taking out pastries, weighing them, packaging them, calculating the bills, and collecting money—a complete assembly line that makes one realize that it is indeed a time-honored brand.
After all, other small shops are lucky to have one or two assistants. In many small shops, the shopkeeper has to greet customers, pack their orders, collect money, and see them off all by himself.
Besides the waiters, there were two small tables and four small stools at Xiang Gui Ji restaurant. A waiter was waiting on the side, and there were clean, empty porcelain plates on the tables.
I asked the staff and found out that this was a seating area for people to sample pastries and candies. Customers with children who couldn't easily buy things could leave their children here and get a piece of malt candy while the staff watched over them. This way, the staff could carefully select pastries and candies without worrying that their children would get lost, which was really thoughtful.
However, ordinary people would be too embarrassed to just leave their children behind and buy a few pastries. It was usually the wives of wealthy families who would come with a group of people, spending tens of taels of silver.
Li San Niang was truly dazzled by the sheer variety of pastries and candies. Common ones included jujube blossom pastries, red bean cakes, mung bean cakes, osmanthus cakes, almond cakes, and so on. There were also Hu cakes, which were often sold in shops run by Hu merchants in the West Market. They were simply oven-baked cakes with white sesame seeds on top, and came in both sweet and savory varieties.
There weren't many kinds of candy, including maltose, brown sugar, and maltose, all made into various shapes. At that time, there was no white sugar. If Li San Niang knew how to refine brown sugar into white sugar, she could probably make a fortune.
Seeing this, Li Sanniang actually had such an idea. She seemed to recall a scene in a novel where yellow mud water could be used. She thought she might try it sometime.
Xiang Gui Ji is willing to invest heavily. When Li San Niang and Li Er Sao were selecting items here, the young shop assistant not only introduced them to you, but also offered samples for you to taste. Although you could tell from the looks of the samples that they were not expensive, they were still quite good. No wonder they have become a time-honored brand. They have a whole set of business methods.
As the two women were discussing what to buy, the old woman who had come in halfway through and was taking care of the child, who was sitting at a small table to the side, suddenly screamed. The old woman put her finger into the child's mouth, as if she was trying to pry something out.
The woman next to the child, presumably the child's mother, heard the old woman's scream and rushed over. She heard that the child had eaten a piece of candy that the old woman had fed him, and it had probably dissolved part of it in his mouth without being chewed properly, and it had slid directly into his airway, blocking it.
The woman was so anxious that she reached out to try and remove the candy from the child's throat. Seeing the child's discomfort, she was extremely worried, and tears immediately streamed down her face.
The waiter standing to the side was also terrified. The other waiter quickly went to the backyard to call the manager out. The manager didn't know what to do either, and just said, "Quickly take him to the nearest clinic on the street. Don't wait until the child suffocates and there's no hope."
Seeing this, Li Sanniang immediately went over to the woman and said, "Madam, I know a little about medicine. I see that your young man has a piece of candy stuck in his airway. It might not be enough time to get him to the clinic. Let me try. I have a way to get the candy out."
Seeing the child's face turn red from holding it in, the woman nodded vigorously in agreement, and Li San Niang got permission and started working on him.
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