Chapter 26 Chapter 26 Make new clothes.
After filling his stomach, Ji Xu did not forget to pick up the duck eggs.
Ji Feng was thinking about this and asked happily, "Sister, are you going to make that meal?"
The two younger sisters were very curious and followed him around.
She took a handful of pine and cypress branches from the firewood under the house, rinsed them clean, and boiled them in a clay pot, until the pot was half full of pitch-black water.
Ji Feng frowned as he watched, but the black water cooled down and was poured into the lime by Ji Xu. After a while, salt and even the wood ash from the stove were added, and after stirring it with a wooden stick, a basin of gray-black slurry was obtained.
The originally good duck eggs were wrapped in the paste, coated with a layer of wood ash mixed with rice husks, and placed in a jar.
Ji Feng was full of doubts. "Sister, can we still eat this duck egg if it's stained with lime? Will it burn my intestines?"
Lime is used to burn rotten flesh.
Ji Xu smiled and said, "It's edible. The lime has already turned into slaked lime after it came into contact with water. Lime is the key to the preserved eggs my sister is going to make."
The earliest written record of preserved eggs can be found in Zhuyushanfang Miscellaneous Book published in the 17th year of Emperor Xiaozong of Ming Dynasty: “Hundunzi: take one dou of burning charcoal ash, one liter of lime, add salt water, bring to a boil, wait until warm, and pour it on the eggs. After five to seven days, the yellow and white will be mixed into one.” The “Hundunzi” mentioned in the text is the prototype of preserved eggs.
There were no preserved eggs in the Western Han Dynasty. Ji Xu thought that this business was worth doing. His family needed to save money to build a tiled house as soon as possible, so he naturally had to find other sources of income.
"Preserved eggs?" Feng and Zhu asked in unison, their eyes wide open.
Ji Xu nodded, and saw that all the preserved eggs were wrapped in batter and placed in the jar. She went to the back of the house and dug some yellow mud to seal the jar, saying:
"After waiting for about twenty days, you can open it and eat the preserved eggs."
After hearing this, the younger sisters touched the pottery jar in the corner of the inner room again and again, feeling both curious and expectant.
Because of the autumn rain, cool air poured in through the windows of the altar. As they fell asleep, they unknowingly huddled together like cats to keep warm.
Fortunately, the next day was a sunny day. The sun was hanging in the sky, shining on the damp muddy ground.
The white jade steamed cakes in the township market are not selling as well as they did a few days ago. For two consecutive days, only forty were sold, not as many as the dozens they could sell before.
Now that taxes have just been paid, most families are living on thin skins, tightening their belts to survive, even saving rice for the winter, and living on bean rice for now. How can they have extra money to buy delicate things like noodles?
As for the steamed buns with meat filling, they were a little cold by the time they reached the market, and the price was a bit high, so only fifteen were sold, ten of which were bought by Li the butcher, who was relatively well-off.
After counting, I found that I had only 240 coins at home, which was still far from the 4,000 coins needed to buy tiles. The weather was getting colder, so the sooner I built the house, the better I could put my mind at ease.
However, Ji Xu was not discouraged. Since he could not afford to build a house for the time being, he made autumn clothes to keep warm. It was too embarrassing to have only one set of clothes, so after selling the steamed cakes, he went to Chen's house.
The courtyard door was open, and the sound of a loom could be heard from the west room. She went into the courtyard and called out, "Is Aunt Zhuang home?"
The sound of the loom stopped for a while, and Zhuang came out from the west room. She was wearing a coarse cloth jacket, with no extra decorations on her bun, and her eyes and eyebrows showed a simple smile.
"Miss Xu? Come in and sit down. The Shuiyin steamed buns you brought us the other day were delicious to our whole family."
She greeted her and brought out precious rat jerky to treat her.
People at that time ate mice, especially field mice. The Chen family plowed the fields, and as soon as the rice ears formed, the field mice came to steal the rice. Food was the lifeblood of farmers, so Old Man Chen and Old Man Chen would set traps to catch the mice. This not only saved the food, but also gave them a taste of meat.
This rat jerky is made by cutting the meat into pieces, cooking it with ginger, pepper, salt and fermented black beans, and then drying it into jerky. It is now served in a ceramic plate, piece by piece, and is somewhat similar to the beef cubes of later generations.
This was made in autumn and I kept it so I couldn't bear to eat it. I originally planned to use it to treat relatives after the New Year's Day.
Zhuang was about to pour water for her, but Ji Xu stopped her.
"Aunt, please wait. I have something to ask you first. Do you have any linen for sale? I want to buy half a piece to make autumn clothes for my three sisters and me."
"Yes, yes." Zhuang nodded hurriedly.
Now that the autumn harvest was over, she had some free time from farming and would spin cloth in the west room whenever she had time. Nowadays, every household planted japonica rice and ramie, and spun linen for their own wear. The rest was sold in the market to supplement the family income. That was why her aunt, Lady Lu, picked up bits and pieces of wild hemp from everywhere.
"I have half a bolt of spun cloth at home. I was hoping to save up enough to sell a full bolt at a cloth shop. If you want half a bolt, I happen to have some at home."
Zhuang was overjoyed. The cloth shop would not sell until it was full. Even if she was very skilled, it would take her more than half a month to spin a full piece. Now she could sell half a piece and earn some money, which would make life more comfortable for her family.
"Sell me half of the cloth from your aunt's house."
Zhuang's weaving skills are excellent in Benguli, so she took out the two hundred coins she had prepared.
"It's not that much. I can sell a piece of linen at a cloth shop in the city for three hundred coins.
For half a horse, one hundred and fifty coins would be enough."
Zhuang brought out half a piece of cloth from the west room and said.
"If I go to a cloth shop, I'll have to pay two hundred coins for half a bolt of cloth."
She had gone to the cloth shop in the city today to inquire about the market and was ready to pay for it, thinking that the Chen family might have some to sell. By doing business directly with each other, she could cut out the middleman who would make the profit from the price difference.
Zhuang spun cloth every year, so how could she not know this? But she couldn't make money against her conscience, so she had to take what she was owed.
"I should have paid this money in the first place. I came to you because I wanted you to earn it. Please accept it."
Ji Xu was thinking about the kindness of the Chen family when they repaired the house in the rain yesterday. The Chen family was struggling financially, but they were able to help in such a timely manner. This made her really want to befriend the Chen family.
Furthermore, weaving is a delicate job that strains the eyes, and sitting for a long time will cause back and arm pain.
A woman could only weave two feet of cloth a day at most. After finishing her farm work and cooking every day, she would be considered a lot if she had time to weave eight pieces of cloth in a year.
Can all the woven cloth be exchanged for money? Of course not. The clothes and bedding for the whole family all year round depend on this cloth. Some families have so many people that they can't even make enough clothes at home, so how can there be any surplus to sell?
Besides, our family only has one and a half mu of land. If we plant ramie, we will plant less rice. We have to plant it in every corner.
Like the Chen family, they had many people but few hemp fields and were short of money, so they wore old clothes that were patched up to save cloth and sell them for money to supplement the family income.
"No, no."
When Zhuang saw her stuffing it into her hands, she quickly put her hands behind her back. At the critical moment, she was tongue-tied and couldn't say anything clever, so she just stubbornly refused to accept it.
Seeing Ji Xu put the money on the reed mat, she grabbed her anxiously. She was used to doing farm work and had plenty of strength, so Ji Xu couldn't leave with the cloth in his arms.
The person before her seemed like a replica of Aunt Lu. She could only laugh helplessly, took back the twenty coins, and said, "Then Auntie, will you accept the one hundred and eighty coins?"
"No, I don't need that much. The money you earn from working day and night selling steamed buns is not easy to come by. If Aunt Jun knew that I embezzled the little girl's money, she would call me heartless." Zhuang refused.
Ji Xu thought about it, and seeing the solidly woven cloth in his arms, he came up with an idea.
"To tell you the truth, Auntie, if I take this cloth back, I need to buy needlework for my family. Besides, I am not very good at needlework. It will take a lot of time, and if I don't do it well, it will ruin the cloth.
Why don't you take this money and make a set of jackets and pants for the three of us sisters?
Auntie's needlework is good. I can tell from the stitches on the clothes Sui'er is wearing."
As he spoke, he leaned over and hugged her, begging her, "Aunt, if you don't agree, it will be very difficult for me to make clothes. By the time I finish making this dress, I'm afraid I'll be shivering with cold."
Zhuang Shi didn't know that Ji Xu had a talkative side. She was amused by her and nodded.
"Okay, give me the clothes of the three of you sisters. We're from the same village. I can't give you the remaining thirty cents..."
"I'll go call my two sisters to measure the size!" Ji Xu got up and ran out of the yard.
Zhuang sighed and tucked her eyes at the extra thirty coins on the reed mat.
Feng and Zhu were weeding in the vegetable patch in the backyard. The cabbage, rapeseed, celery, garlic sprouts, ginger, onions and peppers they planted were growing well.
After a rain yesterday, a lot of weeds grew nearby, so Ji Feng brought Ji Zhu to pull them out. When they heard that they needed to make new clothes for them, they were both very happy to wash their hands.
But Ji Feng became worried again. The steamed cakes were not sold out today. She was worried that they would not sell well in the future, so she wanted to save money.
"I have two sets of clothes left to change into. I'll save some fabric and make an extra set for my sister."
After all, she was sensible and thoughtful at an early age, which made Ji Xu feel distressed. She said she had two sets of clothes, but her clothes were made by Tian two years ago. Now part of her ankles were exposed, and the material was worn very thin. She didn't dare to rub them hard when washing them for fear that they would melt. How could he not make a new set to wear?
Ji Xuyin said: "Let's make new clothes together. We should spend the money we should spend. Don't worry, Fengmei, the steamed cakes are not selling well in the market.
Shengchangli is a much more affluent place, and most people haven't tried it yet, so it must be popular."
The three of them went to Chen's house together. Ji Feng asked, "Shengchangli? The people there are quite domineering. Will they let us go in and sell things?"
"Sister has a solution. Fengmei, just put your mind at ease and make the new clothes happily."
Zhuang used her fingers to open and close their arms, waists, and legs, and soon she had the measurements correct. She said, "It will be ready in three days."
In the afternoon, Aunt Lu came back carrying a small bundle of wild hemp. Her jacket had some wet marks on it from the grass pile on Niupi Mountain, which were the remaining dew after yesterday's rain.
Zhuang went to the east room to bring her some dry clothes, while talking about Ji Xu coming to buy half a piece of cloth.
When Lü Mu heard about this, she ordered: "When making clothes, sew the seams tighter so that they will be sturdy enough to wear.
Also, save some of the cloth for her, and save two or three feet of good cloth, which she can keep to make towels or other uses."
"Hey." Zhuang Shi responded.
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