Crossing Over to Yamada Love

Erlang hasn't gone to a private school yet, is it because of poverty or something else? He's already 12 years old. Shouldn't we send him to a private school?

"Grandma, my brother has learned quite a few characters. Shouldn't we send him to Mr. Chen's school?" Mo Lan asked tentatively. Mr. Chen was a scholar who passed the county-level imperial examination at their village's private school.

"Alas." Madam Wang sighed.

"Grandma, I remember Er Ya saying before that her brother's tuition is five taels of silver a year, plus three catties of meat and five catties of eggs. If we save up, could we send him to school too?" Er Ya is the second daughter of Liu Dacheng's family in their village. She's ten years old this year. In the original owner's memories, Er Ya had boasted to her friends about how well her brother was studying, and had casually mentioned how much his tuition would be the following year.

“How I wish Erlang could go to school! Even if we’re poor, we should go without food and drink to send our child to a private school. But Dalang doesn’t want to go. He thinks it’s too restrictive there.” Wang Shi said helplessly as she mentioned this.

"My brother won't go because he thinks it's too restrictive? What kind of logic is that!" Mo Lan said indignantly.

"We've talked about schooling before. Your grandmother originally wanted both your eldest son and second son to go to school together. The eldest son went for three days, but couldn't stand the discipline. He refused to go anymore. Because of this, your second aunt and sister-in-law argued every day. They said if we were to go to school, we should both go, or neither of us should go. Why should one go and the other not go? Since the eldest son didn't want to go, the second son couldn't go either. If we forced the second son to go to the private school, your grandmother would demand an extra five taels of silver from the second branch of the family every year. Otherwise, they wouldn't let the family have peace. That's how the second son ended up not going to the private school." Liu explained the reason from the side.

Mo Lan was speechless. What kind of people were they? Just because your own child didn't want to go to school, you wouldn't let others go either? What kind of logic was that? Five taels of silver plus about four taels for tuition—this family really couldn't afford it. She looked at her grandmother and Liu Shi's helpless expressions and sighed inwardly.

"No rush," Mo Lan told herself. Anyway, Erlang can already learn to read from his uncle, and once he has a foundation at the private school, he won't fall behind. She must earn money. She must ensure that both Erlang and Xiao San'er can go to school.

Mo Lan stopped worrying about the private school and looked at the handkerchief her aunt had embroidered. Her eyes lit up; it was truly exquisite. This skill was far superior to any cross-stitch from that other time. Mo Lan looked at the brightly colored fabrics in the basket, touched them—they were silk. Embroidering this must have taken considerable effort. Look at how meticulously Liu Shi embroidered each stitch. Was she embroidering this to sell?

"Aunt, how much can this handkerchief sell for?" Mo Lan asked Liu Shi.

“I take this job from a fabric shop. They provide the fabric, and I choose the thread myself. I can earn 10 coins per piece. Because the work requires fine detail, I can only produce a maximum of three pieces a month,” Liu replied.

That's only 30 coins a month of hard work, and it takes so much effort and strains the eyes. It's really not worth it. But judging from Liu's expression, she's still willing to do it. Because 30 coins is a supplement to the family. If she doesn't do it, forget about 30 coins. Where would she get 3 coins if she needed them?

"And what about these scraps of cloth? There's only a little left. Are they still useful?" Mo Lan pointed to the scraps of cloth in the basket. There were many, all different colors. Some were just scraps left, some were just small pieces. They must all be leftover scraps from Liu's previous work.

“These are all good materials, I can’t bear to throw them away. I plan to let Mei’s skills improve when she can practice on them,” Liu explained to Mo Lan with a smile.

"I see you all doing needlework, and my hands are itching too. Aunt, may I play with these for a while?" Mo Lan asked Liu Shi. Even though it's just some rags, she still had to ask the owner's permission.

"Of course you can, do you need to ask me about something so simple? Go ahead and do whatever you want." Liu scolded Mo Lan playfully.

Mo Lan received permission and picked out all the scraps of cloth, placing them on the kang (a heated brick bed) in front of her. "What can I do with these?" Mo Lan wondered.

The little girl next to her sister stared at the colorful fabrics in front of her with bright, sparkling eyes. Mo Lan, who happened to look up, couldn't help but laugh at the little guy's adorable appearance.

"San'er, is it pretty?" Mo Lan asked him with a smile.

"It looks good." He looked up and gave Mo Lan a shy smile. Then he stared at Mo Lan blankly and said, "When Xiao San grows up and earns money, he will also buy beautiful fabric for his sister, and for his mother, his grandmother, and his aunt."

Mo Lan has a very soft heart; she's only five years old. She's already thinking about earning money to repay those who have been kind to her. That's truly remarkable.

Both Wang and Liu looked at Xiao San'er tenderly. Liu, in particular, treated Mo Lan and the others as her own children because she had no children of her own.

Mo Lan pulled Xiao San'er over and started fiddling with the scraps of fabric with the little guy. Make a shuttlecock? No, too ordinary, nobody would want that, right? Piece it together into a handkerchief? Not very pretty either. No way. Make clothes? Even worse. Forget about not having enough material, even if we did, they wouldn't look good.

Mo Lan couldn't think of anything to do with the scraps of cloth for a moment, and just fiddled with them unconsciously. Suddenly, she looked up at Wang Shi, who was sewing shoe soles. Yes, this could be used to make shoe uppers. These materials were all silk. Although there wasn't much, shoe uppers didn't require much fabric. By piecing them together, as long as the transitions were perfect, a beautiful shoe upper could be made. If there were more scraps, then insoles could be made. Insoles could be pieced together in various patterns, as long as the seams were good, they would definitely be beautiful.

There are also sachets; those sachets were so beautiful every year during the Dragon Boat Festival back then, and you can make them here too. But I'll save the sachets for next time. There are still two months until the Dragon Boat Festival. I can make them later.

Mo Lan made up her mind and began to think about how to make the shoe uppers beautiful. She looked at the shoes of Wang Shi and Liu Shi; they were both ordinary cloth shoes because both of them had bound feet. Therefore, the shoes were not large. The uppers were not embroidered, probably to avoid wasting silk thread.

In ancient times, ladies of noble families wore embroidered shoes, right? They must have been embroidered with all sorts of flowers. So how would I make them? First, I'd make the shoelaces, then use a patchwork technique. I'd cut the red, pink, purple, and yellow silk directly into flower patterns, using green and blue as the base color. Then, I'd attach matching silk threads to the various flowers. The finished product should be beautiful.

As she was thinking, she seemed to accidentally drop a piece of cloth onto Xiao San'er's feet. Then she said with a grin, "How beautiful, Xiao San'er is wearing embroidered shoes."

“I don’t wear embroidered shoes; those are for women. Mistresses are men.”

Mo Lan looked at the little guy's blushing cheeks and couldn't help but laugh. How old is he, already acting like a man? He even knows women wear embroidered shoes, really…

"Hehe, it's a pity there's not enough fabric, otherwise we could make shoe uppers for Mei and Lan," Liu said with a smile.

"Not many? Then why don't we just put them together?" Mo Lan asked, frowning.

"Piece together? How can we piece it together? It's too messy, and it won't look good when it's pieced together." Liu frowned as she looked at the pile of scraps of cloth in front of Mo Lan.

"Oh." Mo Lan responded with an "oh."

Suddenly, as if she had thought of something, she clapped her hands and said, "Wouldn't it look better if we just cut these pretty colors into flowers and pressed them on?"

"Press? How do I press?" Liu seemed not to understand her meaning.

Mo Lan was speechless. "Auntie," she thought, "I can't be too explicit. Otherwise, you'll all suspect me. But how can I make them understand?"

"Let me see it," Wang, who was making shoe soles nearby, suddenly spoke up.

Mo Lan carried the scraps of cloth to her grandmother, Wang Shi. Wang Shi examined the pile of scraps, frowning in thought.