Brocade is renowned for its vibrant colors. Shu brocade has over two thousand years of history, and together with Guangxi’s Zhuang brocade, Nanjing’s cloud brocade, and Suzhou’s Song brocade, they are known as China’s Four Famous Brocades.
The rose-red Shu brocade that Aunt Qing reluctantly parted with had brilliant patterns—various brightly colored silk threads woven into clustered flowers and flying birds, with rose-red as the dominant color.
Making such brocade into garments to wear in winter… Zhao Hanzhang tilted her head and thought about it, finding it rather attractive.
Especially in the snow, it would look quite good made into a pleated skirt.
This thought had barely flashed through Zhao Hanzhang’s mind when Aunt Qing moved her hand from the rose-red Shu brocade to another plain brocade beside it, saying, “This one is good.”
This was also one she had favored from early on.
This plain brocade had a moon-white base with large floral patterns woven on it. The center featured small flowers and auspicious clouds intertwined, with silk threads in three shades of pale yellow outlining the color differences.
Wang Shi initially hadn’t paid much attention, but upon seeing this plain brocade, she couldn’t help but glance at her daughter.
She also liked this one, and moreover, the color of this plain brocade matched her daughter well.
She kept looking at Zhao Hanzhang.
However, Zhao Hanzhang had no intention of making new clothes. Seeing that no one was competing with Aunt Qing, and they had each selected the colors they wanted, Zhao Hanzhang asked the clerk, “How much are these Shu brocades and silks priced at?”
The clerk solemnly inflated the prices, quoting a different price for each bolt, and said, “These are all the prices the county office paid to acquire them.”
After all, he wasn’t as thick-skinned as Changning and Zhao Hanzhang. After speaking, he felt somewhat guilty, so he added an extra explanation, “These high prices are because the journey from Shu to here is very far, the roads are not very safe, and we have extremely few merchants from Xiping.”
Zhao Hanzhang glanced at him, and the clerk also realized he had said too much, immediately closing his mouth.
Fortunately, the aunts didn’t have much experience haggling, and what he said was also true—currently there were very few merchants in Xiping. Even if there were, they mostly sold grain and ordinary cloth, all having come after hearing that goods were being purchased in large quantities here. There wasn’t a single bolt of valuable silk or brocade.
How would small merchants dare to transport such precious goods at this time?
If they were robbed on the road, it would mean complete bankruptcy for their families.
So now good fabrics were very expensive in Xiping.
Although the price the clerk quoted was indeed too expensive, it was still within their acceptable range, so everyone bought them without batting an eye.
Zhao Hanzhang smiled faintly and had the clerk collect the money. Seeing that it was getting late, she simply stood up, “Let me escort you aunts back.”
Aunt Qing and the others laughed and declined, “You’re busy, no need to see us off.”
Wang Shi also said, “We still want to browse around some more.”
“Very well,” Zhao Hanzhang had the young maidservants take them out to enjoy themselves, and she also gave Wang Shi a money pouch, “Mother, if you see something you like, buy it, and also buy some things on my behalf as gifts for the aunts. I won’t accompany you further.”
Wang Shi accepted the money in front of everyone, very pleased, “Good, good, good, you go attend to your business.”
After Zhao Hanzhang had walked far away, Aunt Qing and the others dared to speak freely, “Sister-in-law, how is it we haven’t seen your excellent son-in-law?”
Wang Shi said calmly, “People like them are all busy.”
Fu Tinghan was indeed busy. As soon as Zhao Hanzhang left, he took up his brush and contemplated among a pile of disassembled wood pieces.
By the time Zhao Hanzhang returned, his diagram was nearly complete.
“You’ve come back at just the right time, take a look at the diagram.” Fu Tinghan showed her the completed drawing.
“I’ll have the carpenters brought over, and we’ll try making it first according to this.”
“Good.”
The two became absorbed in making the loom. When Wang Shi returned with everyone after shopping and saw this, she hesitated but decided not to disturb them, and took Aunt Qing and the others back to the clan settlement first.
Xiping County received Zhu Chuan’s eight carts of cotton wadding, which increased the winter clothing and bedding filled with cotton.
The finished winter clothing and bedding were gradually distributed, first to the orphans and elderly in the Charitable Hall, then to severely damaged households in the county town—children’s and women’s portions came first, then to children and women among the refugees who had come seeking shelter…
By the time it was the men’s turn, most had changed to winter clothing and bedding filled with reed wadding and willow catkins, and some hadn’t received theirs yet.
But no one was dissatisfied. Everyone waited quietly and gratefully accepted the county office’s gifts.
The county office was still having people rush to sew more, so the refugees all understood—everyone would get theirs.
Ji Yuan sent people to deliver five carts of winter clothing and bedding, all surplus from Shangcai.
The steward who came to deliver the items bowed and reported, “Master Ji says the manor can safely pass through winter this year.”
They had also gathered many refugees there, but because the rebel forces hadn’t reached that area, they hadn’t stopped working and kept building houses. By now, the brick houses they built were basically enough to settle everyone.
Although ten or so people needed to crowd into one room, but… it was still quite warm.
Zhao Hanzhang envied them briefly, then remembering that Shangcai Manor was also her territory, her envy transformed into gratification.
After the last batch of people also received winter clothing and bedding, the temperature began to drop sharply. The north wind howled, and the improved loom that Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan had worked on together was also completed.
The two circled around the enlarged loom, and finally Zhao Hanzhang flexed her fingers and said, “Let me try it.”
Fu Tinghan also watched expectantly.
Ting He helped her hang and arrange the threads, and Zhao Hanzhang stepped on the loom and pulled it a few times. Swish, swish—a finger’s length of cloth was woven. Zhao Hanzhang’s eyes lit up brightly. Before she could rejoice, there was a clang, and the roller in the middle of the loom fell off.
Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan’s smiles froze. They quickly squatted down, half their bodies burrowing under the loom to look.
Fu Tinghan said with a headache, “This position isn’t stable.”
Zhao Hanzhang: “Looks like we still need to modify it.”
However, looking at that finger’s length of cloth, Zhao Hanzhang was still very happy, “Just now I only pulled it a few times and cloth was formed, clearly we’ve succeeded.”
Fu Tinghan said, “Unfortunately the time was too short, I wonder if there are any other deficiencies?”
Zhao Hanzhang thought for a moment and said, “It’s not light enough, requires a lot of force.”
She continued, “I have great strength, so I could pull it down very smoothly, but if it were another woman, I’m afraid it would require great effort to pull it.”
Fu Tinghan pondered thoughtfully, “So we still need to find a way to reduce the force…”
Zhao Hanzhang let him think. After he finished writing and drawing on paper and came out of his focused state, she said, “Today is Minor Snow, my mother asked us to return to the fortified village for dinner. Let’s take Erlang back with us in a while.”
Improving this loom wasn’t something that could be accomplished in a day or two. Fu Tinghan nodded, “Alright.”
So in the afternoon, Zhao Hanzhang called for Zhao Erlang, and the three of them rode horses back to the fortified village.
It was just too cold. The wind scraping against their faces was painfully sharp, so all three rode their horses at an unhurried pace, slowly jogging forward.
There was hardly anyone on the streets. Once it got cold, everyone huddled at home and didn’t come out. The shops only opened half their doors, and seeing no customers coming, they simply closed their doors completely, even though it was only the Hour of the Monkey.