Ze'er thought to himself, "Since I've already admitted my mistake, Mother will probably go easy on me when she hits me!"
However, he was ultimately disappointed because the person who punished him was Lu Chuan, who showed no mercy to his mischievous son.
He picked up the ruler from the side and struck her hard. Xu Han saw it and felt pain in her heart, but in the end she didn't say anything and secretly turned away to wipe her tears.
After hitting him, Lu Chuan didn't punish him further, and waved him off to go out and play.
Xu Han sighed and said, "When will this child ever stop causing us any trouble?"
Lu Chuan comforted him, "Fortunately, he's still young. Although he's a bit mischievous, he's not a bad person at heart. He'll be better when he gets older and more sensible."
Xu Han didn't want to continue the topic. Now that the crisis was over, she turned around and went to the backyard to see what Dan Niang and the others were busy with.
Xu Han hadn't seen any of them come out all morning, so she guessed they were probably all inside doing needlework.
When she entered the house, she saw everyone doing needlework, gathered in twos and threes, some making shoe soles, some making clothes, and some cutting fabric.
She asked, "How's it going? How much is left to finish?"
Granny Zhao said, "It's almost finished. The fabric for the second set of clothes has been cut out. All that's left is to sew them together."
We've made several pairs of soles. It's been raining these past few days, so we're all working on them to keep things in order. As soon as the weather clears up, everyone will be able to wear their new shoes.
Xu Han smiled and said, "That's good. Make two new sets for each of you to change into first. There's no rush to make the rest. You can make them when you have time."
Zhou chuckled and replied, "Autumn is just around the corner, and the temperature in the mountains is low, so you can't wear many light clothes. These two sets of light clothes are enough for you to change into, and there's no need to make any more."
"Well, that's enough. I also bought some cotton and linen, I'll bring those to you later."
After you finish making these clothes, you should start preparing to make warmer clothes! Otherwise, if the temperature suddenly drops, you won't have any clothes to wear, and you'll definitely get sick.
Sister-in-law Li asked, "How do you make thick clothes? Are we going to make two sets for each person? We don't need that many, do we?"
Xu Han thought for a moment and realized that it didn't seem necessary for everyone to have two sets of warm clothes, but she still asked, "What do you think? How many sets would be appropriate?"
Moon Lady replied, "Madam, I think one set of thick clothes and one set of thin cotton clothes for each person is enough. They can alternate between the two sets of clothes due to the different temperatures, so they won't get cold."
Winter cotton-padded clothes are difficult to wash, so we can just wear an overcoat over them. This way, if the outer clothes get dirty, we can easily change and wash them, and the inner cotton-padded coat won't get dirty easily.
Zhou also said, "That's right, we always dressed like this in previous years. Every ordinary farmer dressed like this. Cotton fabric was so expensive, how many people had two sets of cotton clothes?"
In my opinion, a thick cotton-padded coat is enough. When the temperature isn't that cold, wearing several layers won't make you cold.
Sister-in-law Li chimed in, "Yes, yes, yes. In previous years, we managed to get by without cotton-padded clothes. Cotton and fabric are so expensive now. We've just made single-layer clothes, and now we're making two more cotton-padded ones. It's really too much of a waste."
Xu Han watched the group argue and smiled helplessly. "Alright, stop trying to save money for me. It's decided then. This is the first year, and everyone is short of warm clothes. I'll decide that each person will have one thick cotton coat and one thin cotton coat this winter, and then we'll make two overcoats. Sister-in-law Li, come with me to the front yard storeroom to get the fabric in a bit."
Before the others could say anything more, Xu Han quickly waved her hand to interrupt, saying, "I know what you're going to say, but this year is an exception. Isn't this the first year you haven't had any clothes to wear? Don't worry, there definitely won't be as many next year."
If you really feel bad about it, then wait until spring and help clear a few more acres of wasteland for your family.”
Seeing Xu Han say this, the others stopped talking and changed the subject.
This year, the servants couldn't even make their own clothes, so Xu Han stopped asking them to help make clothes for their own families. Besides, her own family members already had clothes to wear. In previous years, when she had nothing to do, Xu Han made a lot of clothes for everyone.
Xu Han has made a lot of clothes for all four seasons, but she doesn't want to make any more now.
Even now, everyone still has several new outfits they haven't worn yet, but shoes still need to be made, mainly because Lu Chuan and the Taoist priest wear out shoes too quickly.
So for the next period of time, whenever Xu Han had time, she would help them make shoes. Partly because she was bored and wanted to lend a hand, and partly because she wanted to make more shoes for Lu Chuan and the Taoist priest. Of course, that's a story for another time.
After everyone finished their simple lunch, the rain outside stopped.
Because it had just rained, the air outside was very fresh. As soon as the rain stopped, the Taoist priest directed everyone to carry baskets on their backs and go into the mountains to pick mushrooms.
In an instant, everyone set out. Apart from Granny Ma staying at home to take care of the four children, the rest of the family carried baskets on their backs and headed up the mountain together.
A large group of people, all with the same goal, headed up the mountain, leaving no mushrooms growing where they went.
The servants only recognized some common mushrooms, and dared not pick or eat other mushrooms. In order not to waste such a good resource, Xu Han led the Taoist priest, Lu Chuan, and Grandpa Zhao to teach everyone to recognize new mushrooms.
The group dispersed and went in different directions, teaching them about new mushrooms while searching for newly sprouted ones. They picked any mushrooms they saw, as long as they were edible and non-poisonous.
The mountain was rich in resources, and in no time, the group had picked several baskets of mushrooms. Lu Chuan directed everyone to pour the mushrooms into a basket, and then asked Li Si and Wang Lin to take them home first, while the rest of the group stayed in the mountain to continue picking mushrooms.
More than twenty people continued harvesting until sunset, finally covering all the hills near their homes.
Of course, everyone had a great harvest, with their baskets filled with mushrooms, more or less.
Xu Han glanced at the sky and said, "It's getting late, let's go home first. We can't go any deeper; it's not safe to go into the mountains after dark. If we go too far, we won't be able to come back."
The Taoist priest said, "Alright, let's go back then. We've picked quite a few mushrooms this afternoon, and we'll need to sort them when we get back, which will take a lot of time."
If they still want to gather more, I'll take them deeper into the mountains tomorrow. It's too late to go today, so let's skip it.
Lu Chuan shared the same thought, so he shouted loudly into the mountains, "I'm going home."
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