Traveling through the mountains and farming

After the three of them dried the ice jelly seeds, Lin Wan and the brother and sister told her that they would be going out later.

The two siblings were busy burning hay in the wasteland in the backyard! The eldest sister-in-law had not asked them to take away the hay they had pulled from the backyard, but had piled it up on the wasteland to dry. She had just asked them to burn the hay, saying that the ash could nourish the land.

Li Chongle also ran to dig out the peels of the ficus carica fruit that he had buried in the backyard and prepared to burn them together.

After that, they will be responsible for watching the fire and preventing it from burning to the back mountain and the flower and plant nursery next to it.

Lin Wanze went into the room and took out a piece of raw linen, then went to the yard and folded the two pieces of cloth that had already dried, put them in the backpack, and went out to Uncle Li's house carrying it on her back.

As soon as she walked into Uncle Li's yard, she saw Aunt Lin and second aunt Wang Yu Niang spinning hemp in the yard. When the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law saw her come in, they stood up and greeted her with smiles.

Aunt Li came over with a smile and said, "Wan'er, why are you here? We were just talking about you setting up a stall with everyone."

As he said this, he took Lin Wan's hand and took her to sit at the table next to them.

To be more precise, after Wang Yu Niang came back from the county town and gave her the 132 cents she had earned from selling ice jelly that day, she was so happy that she would mention from time to time that Lin Wan was a great kid who didn't forget to take them with her even though she had a way to make money.

Wang Yu Niang brought a glass of water from the room and handed it to Lin Wan, smiling and saying:

"What mother said is absolutely true. She has been thinking about you all the time."

"I'm here just now. I want to ask you if there is any reliable bricklayer in the village to recommend. I want to repair the house. I mainly want to renovate the original three rooms and then expand it to a bedroom and bathroom."

Lin Wan took the cup of water, took a sip, and continued: "You know, if it rains, our house will be uninhabitable. Fortunately, it hasn't rained in the past few days. After all, we are at the foot of the mountain. We want to build a wall to keep out small animals. It will be safer at least."

If she had not been afraid of being affected by the war, she would have demolished her house and rebuilt it with bricks and tiles. Now she can only make repairs to ensure basic living safety so that she can have more money to store food and deal with future emergencies.

The purpose of building a wall is to prevent people passing by from the back hill from seeing the ice jelly they are drying. It will also allow for a certain degree of privacy if they make other fresh things in the future.

At the same time, for her own safety, she also planned to install something with spikes on the wall.

Aunt Li said, "It does need to be done. You don't need to find a special mason. Your cousin Changyi has helped relatives build houses before. Let him take the lead, and then find people in the village to help build it together."

"That's fine. I know that hiring someone to repair a house requires providing meals, and I'm not good at cooking for a big pot. I want to settle it with money. Forty-five cents per person per day. What do you think?" Lin Wan asked tentatively.

She had previously inquired about odd jobs in the city, and found that they paid 40 cents a day. She gave 5 cents more in order to encourage people to work more diligently.

Aunt Li nodded and replied, "Definitely no problem."

Then, rolling her eyes and calculating the time carefully in her mind, she continued:

"When your uncle Changyi comes back, I will tell him to organize everyone tomorrow. If the day after tomorrow is suitable, we can start construction. Now is not the rainy season, so we can finish the construction before the autumn harvest. This time arrangement is just right."

Lin Wan was also thinking secretly with her head down. She knew that she would not be able to pick Thunderbolt fruits while the house was being built. Although they had stored a lot of ice powder seeds, they still had to get as many as possible tomorrow.

Moreover, during the period of building the house, I could save some more money from selling ice jelly, so that I could go to the county town to buy food and store it. The house happened to be built by that time, so there was a place to store the food.

Lin Wan smiled and said, "That's good. I'll leave the building to you."

"There is one more thing I need to trouble you with, Aunt Yu. I'm not very good at sewing, so I would like to ask you to help make clothes for Xiaole and Xiaoke." Lin Wan said as she stood up and took out the cloth she brought from the backpack, smiling a little embarrassedly.

"Of course I will pay for this. Twenty-five cents for two sets of clothes." Lin Wan placed the cloth on the table next to her.

The original body knew how to make clothes, but if she had to rely solely on memory, she would not be very skilled and it would take her about two days to make two sets of clothes.

But if you give it to someone who is good at it, it can be done in less than a day or half a day.

Wouldn't it be more valuable if she used these two days to do other things?

"I can do it, but my third sister-in-law's skills are better." Wang Yu Niang recommended her sister-in-law Chen Lian to Lin Wan.

When the family was selecting people to go to the city to set up a stall, her sister-in-law humbly gave the opportunity to her. She knew that her sister-in-law felt guilty about Li Chongran being conscripted to serve in the military and not returning, so she usually took care of her emotions at home.

Today, her sister-in-law saw her setting up a stall to make money for the family. Although she was very happy for her, she saw the envy and disappointment in her sister-in-law's eyes, and she felt very uncomfortable at the time.

She understood that her sister-in-law also wanted to contribute to the family, so she wanted to give her sister-in-law this opportunity to make money so that she could also play to her strengths.

"That's better. I was worried that you might not have time to do it when you set up the stall." Lin Wan responded.

"Wait a minute. I'll call her over now and you can tell her your request directly."

Seeing that Lin Wan agreed readily, Wang Yu Niang smiled so much that her eyes narrowed, and she turned around and went in to call for help.

"It won't take much time to make two sets of clothes. You don't have to pay. I accept it." Aunt Li, who was standing nearby, wanted to interrupt and stop Lin Wan as soon as she heard her second daughter-in-law say she wanted to give money, but she didn't expect her second daughter-in-law to be so quick.

Lin Wan quickly waved her hand to refuse, "No, great aunt, if you don't give me money, I dare not trouble the aunts."

After a while, Wang Yu Niang came out with Chen Lian. After Lin Wan called people, she took out the cloth on the table and handed it to her third aunt Chen Lian.

After Chen Lian took the cloth, she was surprised and said, "Hey, one piece of cloth is yellow, and the other is sky blue. These two colors are beautiful."

Lin Wan fiddled with the fabric and told Chen Lian about her ideas, "I want to make this yellow piece into a skirt for Xiaoke, the azure piece into pants for Xiaole, and the remaining original color fabric into their tops."

Chen Lian nodded to show that she understood, and then said, "It will be ready the day after tomorrow at the latest. We still have a lot of hemp yarn to be woven into cloth at home. We must make as much as possible before the cloth merchants come to buy it, otherwise it will be ready tomorrow."

She thought she could squeeze in time to make it in the next two nights so as not to interfere with her weaving time during the day.

When Lin Wan heard her talking about weaving cloth, she asked curiously, "Is the purchase price still 100 wen per piece this year?"

Chen Lian sighed, "I hope so. A relative from my mother's side said that the price they offered for buying cloth has dropped to only ninety cents."

Then she asked, "How much did you pay for this colorful cloth?"

Lin Wan replied, "I bought the cloth from Sister Luo Fang yesterday for 100 wen a piece. I dyed it myself, but I went to the cloth shop and found that colored linen is much more expensive, 300 wen a piece."

At this moment, the eyes of the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law next to them suddenly lit up, and they all stared at Lin Wan closely.

They all had an expression of wanting to say something but hesitating, and no one was too embarrassed to speak first.

Because the three of them all had the same idea in their minds that if they dyed all the cloth at home and then sold it, they wouldn't have to worry about selling the cloth at a low price, and they could make a lot of money.

But then I thought that unique skills like dyeing cloth have never been passed on to outsiders. They are usually in the hands of big families, and there are even rules that they can only be passed down to males and not females.

Suddenly I thought, how did Lin Wan know about it?

"Wan Niang, how do you know how to dye cloth?" The straightforward Chen Lian was the first to ask.

Lin Wan smiled shyly, then replied calmly, "Oh, I saw it in an ancient book. I just wanted to give it a try, but I never thought it would work."

After hearing Lin Wan's answer, the three people thought that Lin Wan's father was a student, and felt that it was possible that she learned it by reading books. What's more, she said that she learned it from an ancient book, so it must be correct.

Aunt Li rubbed her hands, lowered her head slightly, and did not dare to look directly at Lin Wan. Then she spoke softly with some embarrassment:

"Wan'er, can you teach us your method of dyeing cloth?"

She was risking her reputation because her family had been relying on the money from selling cloth to make ends meet. But now taxes were increasing every year, and the price of linen was falling again and again, making it increasingly difficult to make a living.

Although I made some money from selling ice jelly today, I don’t know if this situation can be maintained forever.

"I can teach you, but you can't tell anyone else." Lin Wan agreed very readily.

In fact, she had considered before whether to teach the cloth dyeing method to Uncle Li's family. She had many ways to make money, and giving this one away would not have much impact on her ability to make money.

She also thought that she would make more and more money in the future, but she might become the object of envy and jealousy in the village.

Therefore, she wanted to first lead a group of people with good character and who were good to her to become wealthy. This would help build a safety barrier for herself so that she would not stand out from the crowd and become the target of public criticism.

"really?"

After hearing Lin Wan's answer, the mother-in-law, daughter-in-law and others all looked incredulous and asked in unison.

After hearing Lin Wan's affirmation again, the three of them hugged each other excitedly, and Aunt Li even cried with joy.

Afterwards, she proposed to give 25% of the proceeds from the sale of dyed cloth to Lin Wan, and also asked for a contract to ensure that it could be enforced from generation to generation.

After all, it was she who shamelessly asked Lin Wan for the secret recipe for dyeing cloth, and Lin Wan could have refused to give it to her.

Then they planned to wait for Uncle Li and his team to come back before discussing the matter to determine who would be responsible for studying and for dyeing all the cloth in the house in the future.