Spring scenery in the fields

Shen Wenshan was weaving a bracelet at the door.

"Wenshan, I'm going to Aunt Lan's house and will be back soon."

"I understand, sister-in-law. You can go now."

Ji Wenhe came to Lan Qiuhua's house. She was hanging clothes in the yard. "Aunt Lan, I'm here to look for Xiaoya."

Shen Suya, who was inside the house, poked her head out from the door and said, "Sister-in-law, I'm in the house, come in quickly."

"Aren't Anguo and Uncle Shen at home?"

"An Guo went to town to find a temporary job, and your Uncle Shen went with him. He originally said he would go back in a few days, but then he thought about it and decided to go with An Guo."

Lan Qiuhua wiped her hands on her clothes and pointed inside the house.

"Come in and sit down. There's nothing to do in the fields today. I'll help Xiaoya make silk nets. We'll go to town the day after tomorrow."

"Hey." Ji Wenhe came to Shen Suya's room and whispered, "Didn't your brother say he would take you to the market? Why didn't he wait two days and go with you guys?"

"My elder brother was afraid that I would not be able to find a job if I went there too late, so he gave me ten cents and told me to go to the market to buy it myself."

"The day after tomorrow, you and Aunt Lan will be together, or you can go with the villagers."

"Mom said we should go with the villagers. Dad was worried about us going to town, so he asked us to go with the villagers."

With so many people, we are not afraid of encountering people looking for trouble.

Shen Suya raised her head and said, "By the way, sister-in-law, aren't you and Brother Rongshan going to the market too? Come with us."

Ji Wenhe glanced at Lan Qiuhua who came in and said, "I got up earlier than you. There is also Uncle Da Nian in Yuanshan. Let's go early and see how the bracelets are selling."

She got up late the last time she went to town because she was slow, so she had to get up even earlier this time.

"Aunt Lan, can you embroider?"

She nodded: "Yes, but the craftsmanship is not as good as the embroidery of a little girl's face. Do you want to sew clothes or do something else?"

"Not sewing clothes." Ji Wenhe took out the cut cloth from the basket.

This piece of cloth was the one that Song Danian used to wrap the silver for her, and it was cut a little bit.

"Aunt Lan, can you help me embroider two eyes and a mouth here? I want to see what the finished product looks like."

Two circles were drawn on the fabric with a charcoal pencil, representing the curve of the mouth.

Lan Qiuhua took a look and said, "Okay, I'll get the needle and thread. It's simple and I can embroider it for you in a moment."

There were bamboo leaves in the basket, but there was no straw in their village, so Shen Yuanshan went outside the mountain to pick a lot of fresh bamboo leaves.

Shen Suya looked at the shape of the cloth and said, "Sister-in-law, bamboo leaves are not as good as straw. They become brittle when dry and will break."

"I don't plan to use bamboo leaves. Let me make a finished product first and see." Ji Wenhe rolled the bamboo leaves into a ball. "If it looks good, I plan to use it on a hairpin."

"You can hang it on your keys, but there may not be many people who will buy it. It's better to use it on a hairpin, and more people will buy it."

She couldn't be sure, so she could only do a few to test the waters.

Lan Qiuhua came in with needle and thread: "Wen He, be careful when you leave the village next time. Liu Erfang is not a good person."

"Her son is the apple of her eye and she's spoiled him to death. You've frightened her this time. I'm afraid she'll forget about it after a while and come to trouble you again."

Ji Wenhe lay on the low table, watching her embroidering while rolling bamboo leaves: "I beat her every time she comes. If she makes me angry, I will go straight to her house and tear down her house."

Anyway, she doesn't dare to come during this period, so we'll talk about it later.

Shen Suya sat on the bed, tying her fingers quickly: "Sister-in-law, you really scared us today. I was really afraid that you would chop her to death."

She laughed and said, "How could that be possible? If I killed someone, I would also go to jail. I was just trying to scare her, otherwise there would be more trouble today."

Lan Qiuhua nodded in agreement: "You are right. No one in the village dares to mess with her, but she suffered at your hands."

It's so satisfying to watch and I feel happy.

Ji Wenhe reminded her: "Aunt Lan, use white thread inside this small circle."

"Okay, I'll embroider whatever you say."

"Aunt Lan, can you make shoes? Cloth shoes?"

"Yes, if you want to learn, buy it and come to me, I will teach you."

"My mother knows everything." Shen Suya smiled and crossed her legs. "Not only my mother, but also the aunts in the village know everything."

"We make clothes, shoes, straw sandals, and bamboo baskets, but none of them are as exquisite as those sold in the shops in town."

She, her older brother, and her father had never bought clothes. Her mother always bought cloth and made them herself.

Farmers will save as much as possible and will never buy things in town if they can make them themselves.

"You can buy some hemp and kudzu. They can make them in Rongshan. When the weather gets hot, cloth shoes won't fit. Save them for winter."

"When the grain is harvested, we can make straw sandals ourselves. If you want to make cloth shoes, that's fine too. But we have to work in the fields often, and cloth shoes get dirty easily."

Lan Qiuhua felt that she didn't need to buy cloth to make shoes, but it was up to her.

Ji Wenhe thought for a moment and said, "Okay, I'll make the cloth shoes in winter."

Buy cotton directly and make cotton shoes.

I don't feel bad when my straw sandals are worn out.

While she was talking, Lan Qiuhua had finished embroidering two eyes and a mouth and handed them to her: "How is it?"

"It looks good. Aunt Lan's cooking skills are not bad at all."

The two eyes are lifelike.

Ji Wenhe turned the two pieces of cloth over and aligned them together: "Aunt Lan, embroider from here to here, and when it's halfway left, turn it over and I'll put the ball in."

I rolled a ball at home before, about the same size.

"Okay." Lan Qiuhua took the two pieces of cloth from his hand and said, "Do you want to put something in the ears of the raccoon? Otherwise, it won't stand up."

"Yes, stuff some bamboo leaves in it. Cotton is too expensive. Otherwise, cotton will look better and feel better to the touch."

"If you want to buy cotton, wait until June or July. When it gets hot, the price of cotton will drop, but not by much."

Their family hasn't bought cotton for many years, and they don't know what the price is in town now.

Lan Qiuhua turned the embroidered piece of cloth over, and after she stuffed the bamboo leaf ball in, she embroidered from the outside and hid the thread inside.

Soon, a cat head was completed. It looked cute, but the fabric was not good and felt old.

Shen Suya put down the silk ribbon in her hand: "Sister-in-law, let me see it."

Ji Wenhe handed it to her: "It feels good. It will look better if you change it to a better material."

The most important part is the eyes.

"Aunt Lan, Xiaoya, how much do you think this can be sold for?"

Lan Qiuhua thought for a long time, then shook her head: "I don't know, now is different from the past. If it was in the past, the peddler would have sold it for four or five cents."

The eyes are not difficult to embroider, and anyone who knows a little about embroidery can do it well. It is not like large embroidery, which requires very detailed embroidery.

"My embroidery is a bit rough. If you want to sell it at a high price, I don't think it will work."

"Yes." Shen Suya nodded, "Sister-in-law, I think the highest price I can sell it for is three cents. If it's higher, no one will buy it."

She looked at the raccoon head in her palm and couldn't let it go.

"Sister-in-law, where should I hang this, on the hairpin?"