Chapter 59: Sewing
Seeing that only a few days had passed before Lin Sanniang brought over another two catties of rice, Lin Daniang felt both joyful and worried.
She hesitated, unsure if it was appropriate to voice her thoughts.
“Sanniang, it has been three years since Taoya’s father passed away… It isn’t easy for you to raise three children all by yourself. If—if there is someone you find agreeable, you can bring him over. Your brother-in-law and I can help you look him over.”
Believing she didn’t have much time left, Lin Daniang spoke from the bottom of her heart, truly wishing for Lin Sanniang to have someone to rely on in the future.
When Lin Sanniang heard this, she didn’t catch her meaning at first.
It took a few moments before she reacted. “Oh, Eldest Sister! Where are your thoughts wandering off to? This rice and flour were earned by Taoya and me working for someone!”
Lin Sanniang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“Truly?” Lin Daniang was still a bit skeptical.
Nowadays, the price of rice was as expensive as oil. If day labor paid this well, Lin Sanniang wouldn’t have lived such a miserable and difficult life.
Lin Sanniang reassured her repeatedly, “It really was earned through day labor. We encountered a kind-hearted employer.”
Observing her expression, Lin Daniang secretly speculated in her heart: Could it be that this employer has feelings for Sanniang? Otherwise, why would they give her so many things?
Lin Daniang picked up the fabric and rubbed it between her fingers, breaking into another wave of amazement.
Lin Sanniang said, “These fabrics are all leftover cutoffs. They aren’t enough to make full adult garments, so I asked for them. I figured that using them to clothe the lit… little baby would certainly work.”
It had been two months since Lin Daniang gave birth, but she still hadn’t given the child in her arms a proper name, constantly calling him “monkey” or “little monkey.” She could call him that, but Lin Sanniang felt too embarrassed to use those names.
Lin Daniang suspected that Lin Sanniang had caught someone’s eye and felt inclined to pry further. However, seeing the boundless joy and anticipation between Lin Sanniang’s brows, she couldn’t bear to ask.
Ah, well. A person only lives one life, spanning a mere few decades, and Sanniang had already suffered enough. No matter what, as long as she was happy, that was all that mattered.
Lin Daniang stopped asking and only spoke of the fabric, agreeing that it could indeed make an outfit for the little monkey.
Taking the opportunity, Lin Sanniang brought up the matter of finding a doctor again. “Are you truly willing to leave your children behind? No matter how much money you save, if the person is gone, won’t the children suffer just the same?”
She spoke from experience. Children who had lost their mother and father were truly treated worse than wild grass.
She urged Lin Daniang, “A person must live on. Who knows when an opportunity might strike, and life will suddenly turn around for the better?”
Looking at the child in her arms and thinking of her family members who had been running around everywhere lately—looking for odd jobs, begging relatives and friends, and willing to borrow money just to get her treated—Lin Daniang finally relented.
“The children’s father will be back in two days. He should be able to bring some money home then. Once he’s back, I’ll have him call a doctor over to take a look.”
Only then did Lin Sanniang feel at ease.
After returning home, Xing and Brother Shu prepared dinner while Lin Sanniang and Taoya first washed the fabric pieces.
Once they were sun-dried, she would borrow a flat-bottomed iron pot, fill it with hot water, and iron the fabric flat.
Although these materials were excellent, they couldn’t be considered clean; touching them left a layer of dust on one’s hands. Lin Sanniang had originally thought about sewing them into garments first before washing them, but since she didn’t know if this material would shrink, she decided to just wash them first. Cutting the fabric this way took a bit more effort, but the finished garments wouldn’t end up with massive defects.
They kept washing until dinner was served, yet they had only managed to wash a little under half of the materials, all of which were hung to dry in the courtyard.
Lin Sanniang instructed Brother Shu, “Except for our own family, do not open the gate for anyone who comes.”
It would never be good if others saw that their household possessed so much cloth.
Brother Shu guarded the gate exceptionally well. “I won’t open it for anyone!”
Dinner was highly sumptuous.
Over the past few days of “working” for the Proprietress, Taoya and Lin Sanniang had brought back twenty catties of refined rice and refined flour. If they exchanged all of it with Manager Zhang, it could be traded for over a hundred catties of old rice—more than enough to feed the mother and her children.
On top of that, every time they returned, the employer would stubbornly stuff them with “worthless” wild vegetables. They were slightly wilted, but usually amounted to seven or eight catties, which was by no means a small amount.
Tonight, she plain stir-fried two dishes of wild greens and made a wild vegetable egg drop soup. A single egg was cracked into a massive pot of water, and once the egg drops were stirred and dispersed, everyone could have a taste.
Lin Sanniang even specially added a tiny hint of oil to the soup and dishes. She merely used a pair of chopsticks to dip into the bamboo tube, but when it floated to the surface of the soup, it formed distinct droplets of oil.
Looking at the droplets of oil floating atop the soup, Brother Shu and Xing were practically bursting with joy.
“Our house hasn’t eaten oil in so long! The oil smells so fragrant!”
Lin Sanniang felt both happy and heartbroken. She pulled out the lotus leaf parcel given by Manager Zhang; inside was half a plate of pickled vegetables, barely the size of her palm, but it had been tossed with sesame oil.
Since pickled vegetables could keep, Lin Sanniang couldn’t bear to finish them all in one day. She carefully divided them into four slices. “One slice per person, eat it with your rice.”
Wild greens were also added to the rice, turning it into vegetable rice.
The three children all loved eating this kind of vegetable rice. With the greens mixed in, the portion felt exceptionally substantial, and with every mouthful, they could bite into solid grains of rice. It tasted incredibly savory!
Xing, who was currently learning how to cook, had a lively mind and immediately proposed, “Mother, tomorrow let’s chop up the pickled vegetables and mix them into the vegetable rice. That will make it extra fragrant.”
Lin Sanniang looked at the children. Taoya and Brother Shu unanimously agreed, and the motion passed smoothly.
At night, Lin Sanniang lit an oil lamp and meticulously taught the three children how to sew.
Brother Shu was only five years old and couldn’t do much, so he acted as an assistant, helping thread needles, organize thread, and hand over the scissors or charcoal strips.
Lin Sanniang told him to keep his eyes on the lamp. “If the wick turns crooked or burns down, trim it a bit. Don’t strain your eyes.” Brother Shu complied earnestly.
Taoya and Xing joined forces to pull the cloth flat. Following the measurements Lin Sanniang gave, they used the charcoal strips to draw the cutting lines on the fabric.
Lin Sanniang guided them, “These three pieces of cloth need to be sewn together. Leave an extra half-inch margin on both sides.”
Taoya and Xing didn’t quite understand, so Lin Sanniang had Brother Shu go outside to pick up a piece of kindling wood and marked it with the charcoal pen. “It needs to be this wide so the thread can hold the seam.”
The two girls understood. They first used Brother Shu’s clothes to practice their handiwork.
Brother Shu was still small, and the weather would turn hot soon. He wasn’t going outside anyway, so wearing a two-piece outfit at home would be fine. It was simple to cut—just hem the edges and sew on a few cloth straps.
Throughout the night, the two sisters tried their hand at needlework, while Lin Sanniang picked up a piece of light-colored fabric and seriously set to making an undergarment for the baby.
Children wore bellybands under their clothes. First, it protected them from the wind, out of fear that their bellies might catch a chill. Second, it absorbed sweat; children loved to move around and would be covered in sweat in no time. The bellyband had to be changed frequently and could also be used to wipe the sweat off their backs.
Lin Sanniang stitched meticulously, and by the time the three children had all gone to sleep, she had finally finished one.
The material given by the young mistress happened to be the perfect size to cut out a complete bellyband pattern. With the remaining material, Lin Sanniang sketched shoe uppers for Xing.
For the next two days, the family barely stepped out the door, focusing entirely on sewing clothes and shoe uppers at home to avoid running into the idlers and thugs on the street.
By the third day, Brother Shu’s two-piece summer outfit and Xing’s shoes were fully completed.
It wasn’t quite time to wear summer clothes yet, but Brother Shu was overjoyed, absolutely insisting on wearing them under his current clothes right now. In the past, he had always worn altered hand-me-downs from his older sisters, and being young, he was never picky. But this was the first time since he could remember that he had received a brand-new outfit exclusively belonging to him, so Brother Shu remained exceptionally excited.
Compared to Brother Shu, who wanted to wear his new clothes even while sleeping, Xing, conversely, couldn’t bear to wear her new shoes.
