Chapter 48. I've never seen such purely handmade lace before. ...
On the day of the family feast, Li Jianzhi got up early to prepare. This was Chef Li's first time cooking a banquet, and he was in high spirits. He had already planned the menu and written down the steps. He had also borrowed tables and chairs from the neighbors in advance. Two tables would definitely be set up in the corridor on the second floor, and one table would be set up in the living room. The men would eat in the corridor, and the women and children would eat in the house.
If there isn't enough room, the first floor should also be utilized.
My neighbor, Mrs. Huang, is kind-hearted. A couple of days ago, she asked my family if they needed sugar coupons. She's pregnant, and pregnant women and postpartum women belong to a special group. She got a certificate from the hospital that she can receive an extra pound of sugar coupons every month as a nutritional supplement.
Sugar coupons were a precious commodity in those days, and some people even got pregnant and had children just to eat more sugar.
Sister Huang couldn't bear to eat a pound of sugar a month to supplement her diet, so she painstakingly saved up some sugar coupons. The new family next door had just moved in and was preparing for a banquet, so she was worried that they might run out of sugar coupons.
"No need, it's not fair to take up your pregnant women's share. You should take good care of yourself, sister-in-law."
At this moment, Sister Huang realized that although her two neighbors on both sides spent money on food and drink extravagantly, the two families had different attitudes. Li Jianzhi and Qin Xiangxiang, the couple, were generally the type to "eat only what they had" and did not take advantage of others. Qin Xiangxiang and her son were registered residents of Shanghai, so their rations were slightly higher than others, and they heard that their parents in Shanghai also gave them subsidies.
On the other side, Zhou Lu's family is "hidden wealth." Zhou Lu's family seems to eat and drink extravagantly and spend money recklessly. However, Zhou Lu is shrewd, knows how to play the victim, borrow money, and even put on a show by eating a few meals of coarse food. As a neighbor, Sister Huang suspects that Zhou Lu has saved a lot of money in secret and that many of her expenses are borrowed, which makes people a little uncomfortable.
She guessed that Qin Xiangxiang spoke to Zhou Lu like that with her son because she probably got the information from Sister Gao, the head of the intelligence department, and knew Zhou Lu's personality, which is why she acted that way.
Sister-in-law Huang saw all this but didn't say anything. She let her child interact with the Li family's children next door. Li Jianzhi and his wife were quite generous with food and drink. Last time, they even shared some fried yellow croaker with the two children, so she wanted to share some candy coupons with them.
Neighbors interact and visit each other.
They didn't ask for it directly, but when they were making the sweet soup, they would call Little Fatty over and give him a bowl.
At home, Xiao Pang marveled at how generous his two neighbor aunties were. They used to live in an old apartment building, next to the Qin family's house, and the Xu family was usually very stingy and frugal. They wouldn't even put sugar in their own porridge.
When I came to stay with my father, the two aunties next door were very generous; one gave me chocolate beans, and the other gave me sweet porridge.
Li Jianzhi watched as the chubby boy, who had just finished drinking sugar water from next door, went to the toilet to brush his teeth and rinse his mouth. This "fat son from the South" was so lucky; he moved to a new house where there was a pregnant woman next door. When would he ever be able to lose weight?
...Don't end up gaining more weight while trying to lose it.
Li Jianzhi rushed to pick up the pork knuckle he had ordered and two hens, which cost him nearly ten yuan.
First, prepare the ingredients to make the main dishes, such as braised pork knuckle, ham and chicken stew, and tomato hot pot base. Other seafood such as shrimp, crab and shellfish also need to be processed or purged of sand in advance.
Lai Yiu-wai said he would come to help. He came alone and didn't look very happy. He was carrying a lot of things, including bayberry wine, pickled fish, and some raw marinated dishes like snail sauce, drunken crab, and jellyfish salad that his wife's family had prepared in advance.
“Your sister-in-law has something to do today and won’t be coming.” Li Yaowei pursed his lips. He tried to persuade his wife, Liu Xiaoyun, to come over, but she was reluctant, and the two even had a big argument.
She's willing to go back to her hometown to see her brothers and sisters-in-law on the island, but she's not too keen on it. I can't understand this woman's mentality.
Little did he know that Liu Xiaoyun was hesitant, timid, and insecure. Although she now had a job as a teacher in a city like Mingzhou, she still remembered that she was a fisherwoman from a poor family, and there was always a fishy smell in the air.
She wasn't afraid of going to her husband's rural hometown, but she was more afraid of meeting women from Shanghai. She had heard that these women's parents were respectable workers in state-owned factories and that she had grown up in the big city. She was really afraid that these city women would look down on her or look at her with strange eyes.
Liu Xiaoyun works as a primary school teacher in Mingzhou. Many of the teachers at her school come from wealthy families, know how to dress well, and have talents. They sometimes laugh at her behind her back, saying that her clothes are unfashionable and that she has a special accent.
Several teachers were from out of town and couldn't accept raw marinated food like snail sauce. They would look at her with strange eyes as soon as they saw it, as if they were surprised that she would eat such things, like primitive people eating raw meat and drinking blood.
Liu Xiaoyun harbored an undeniable sense of inferiority and was reluctant to go out with others. She married a military officer, finding him to be down-to-earth and a good person at managing a household.
Sometimes I envy other teachers who dress up beautifully, look glamorous, and can sing and dance. Women sometimes want to dress up too. I finally wear a new dress and buy a pair of nice leather shoes, but then I get laughed at for being unfashionable, and I wear the same pair of shoes over and over again.
But her husband was never considerate, always saying that there was no need to waste money on clothes. He wore several military uniforms from head to toe, and even if the inner shirts were patched, no one could see them, so why bother?
In the village, the children's clothes are passed down from the eldest to the second eldest, then the third eldest, and so on... It's good enough if they have clothes to wear, let alone be picky about what they have.
The man's salary as a military officer was good, and her teacher's salary was also decent. The family's burden was not heavy; her parents were fishermen who often sent her dried seafood. After deducting daily expenses, their combined salaries often left them with a surplus. Clearly, the couple had the ability to live a better life, but they still couldn't make ends meet.
She has the means and the money to buy nice clothes, but when she buys them, her colleagues laugh at her and her husband complains that she buys things recklessly.
"Brother Li? They've arrived?"
Qin Xiang thought to herself that Li Yaowei, the "good brother who always brings food," had indeed brought a whole bunch of delicious food. Oh my, this bayberry wine looks so beautiful, and the bayberries are so big! It must taste really good!
On this island, bayberry wine is a folk remedy. Bayberries soaked in the wine can cure diarrhea and cool you down in the summer.
When children are short of snacks, they might secretly eat a few bayberries soaked in alcohol.
Qin Xiangxiang couldn't accept the other dishes, such as drunken crab with snail sauce, but she really liked the pickled fish, which tasted delicious when steamed. The other dish, cold jellyfish salad, was also super delicious.
Qin Xiangxiang nodded secretly with satisfaction, "Big brother, it's a pity that sister-in-law didn't come. I made some gifts for her, but she couldn't come in person, so please take them back and give them to her."
In Qin Xiangxiang's memory, this sister-in-law was also a simple and honest person who let her husband send so many things. Anyway, she had already eaten their food. When she was making detachable collars for Xiaomai, she also made a few for this sister-in-law.
Making these kinds of "false collars" is as easy as drinking water for Qin Xiangxiang.
Qin Xiangxiang also has a special little hobby: she never wears patched clothes. As a result, she learned to "repair clothes" by using a unique sewing technique to hide the holes in the damaged clothes, repairing them to the point that they are almost invisible to the naked eye.
Because patching clothes is just too ugly, so ugly that she can't wear them out, this little drama queen can't accept it. But she doesn't have the means to just throw the clothes away. Qin Xiangxiang grew up in a textile factory, so she had to take matters into her own hands and became a master at "clothes repair".
If she were the kind of pampered young lady who would throw away her clothes after wearing them, she would definitely not do this job. But since she was in poor circumstances and still wanted to maintain a respectable appearance, she had no choice but to secretly put in some effort.
But then another problem arose: mending his own clothes didn't give him a sense of accomplishment. Qin thought that as a pretty girl, even if her clothes were torn, it wouldn't be too serious.
Her secret hobby is mending clothes, especially those that are really ripped and torn. It's very relaxing to mend them.
The only joy this chubby little boy brings to his mother is probably mending his crotch.
After arriving on the island with the army, Li Jianzhi moved all his old clothes from the dormitory back home. Qin Xiangxiang secretly rummaged through his tattered military trousers and actually found out! The thought of the man with a serious, cold face, yet still wearing tattered military trousers when he went out, made her laugh.
Moreover, the patching was so bad that Qin Xiangxiang had to take it apart and redo it.
After arriving on the island with the military, Qin Xiangxiang had more free time since she no longer had to work in the workshop. She used this time to crochet a lot of handmade lace flowers. She was skillful and often played the piano, so she could crochet lace very quickly. Crocheting lace was a skill that three generations of her family had mastered; her grandmother passed it down to her mother, and then to her.
Her mother, Zhou Aodong, didn't inherit the craft well and was always scolded by her grandmother because Zhou Aodong was always greedy for speed and produced poor quality work. Unless she was in the mood to do it, when faced with special and complicated patterns, Qin Xiangxiang would rather work slowly and carefully, resting when she was tired, than force herself to speed up or work herself to exhaustion.
She liked mending clothes but was too embarrassed to tell others. However, crocheting lace was a respectable and beautiful job. Qin Xiangxiang loved beauty and liked this kind of fancy but impractical thing. She liked to see the beautiful openwork lace taking shape under her hands.
She crocheted quite a few pieces and made a lace-trimmed detachable collar for her sister-in-law, Liu Xiaoyun. As long as she wore a dark-colored round-neck dress, adding this lace-trimmed collar would be a very simple and elegant decoration.
Large areas of lace flowers cannot be used, but they are acceptable as collars and cuffs in southern coastal cities. They are very popular in Shanghai, and many families have made a living by crocheting lace for generations. Currently, most of the products made are exported.
In addition to the lace collar, I also made a ruffled false collar and a regular blue shirt collar.
If she had a daughter, she would add lace to all her daughter's clothes and dresses—how elegant that would be! But she gave birth to a chubby son, so she can only mend clothes and trousers now.
"These are the three items. Brother, you can take them back to your wife. Just wear the lace collar over the outside, and the detachable collar goes well with the sweater."
Li Yaowei's eyes widened: "Sister-in-law, did you make all of these by hand?"
"They're all very simple things."
Lai Yiu-wai: "I have never seen anything so exquisite in my life."
He hesitated to touch the lace collar, as it was a rare sight in the north and even less likely to be seen in the military. He was also embarrassed to bring it back, feeling that his sister-in-law was being too polite. He felt that his wife was not as pretty as his sister-in-law, and even if he had such respectable items, he wouldn't wear them out.
"Brother, take this back and give it to your wife as a gift."
Seeing that Li Yaowei had brought so much food, Li Jianzhi felt that this fellow villager had gone to great lengths. Although fish, shrimp, and crabs were not valuable on the island, making them into snail sauce and crab sauce was a very painstaking task.
The snail sauce is the most precious part, and you have to crack open each of the spicy snails yourself, which is very time-consuming. This sister-in-law's family also put in a lot of effort.
Of course, Li Jianzhi was also dumbfounded when he saw his wife embroidering lace.
I've never seen anything like this made entirely by hand.
In the 1980s and 1990s, lace was very popular in Shanghai. However, at that time, the patterns were all machine-made and were generally used to decorate various furniture, such as sofas, washing machines, and televisions.
If you have a TV at home, you absolutely need a lace dust cover.
However, machine-made lace looks stiff and cheap, and it really can't compare to handmade lace. Li Jianzhi had never seen anyone else's handmade lace flowers, but his wife was really skillful.
This falls under the category of high-end customization.
These days are truly amazing. Things that will be worthless in the future are valuable now, such as pork and chicken; while things that are worthless now will be valuable in the future, such as high-end handmade custom items and wild large and small yellow croakers.
With his wife's skills, her work is worthy of being exhibited at the World Expo.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
