I played as an assistant in ancient times

Lin knew that she was expressing her intention to go to Wuzhong Mountain, so she smiled and said, “You can harvest a lot of red flowers from the ones you planted, it would be better if you add more flowers to dye the color darker.

The Cui family sent two feet of cloth. Can you tell me when to dye it and let them take a look at it so they can feel at ease? "

"Okay, I'll go to the slope to pick red flowers tomorrow morning." Shen Xiaoye knew she couldn't go, so she nodded repeatedly. Huang chuckled twice, "First take care of your hands, I'll go pick them tomorrow morning."

"Aunt..." Shen Xiaoye stretched out her voice and acted coquettishly, but it no longer worked.

While she was still pestering him, Liao Dujuan, the eldest granddaughter-in-law of the head of the village, walked into the gate carrying a basket and shouting "Xiao Ye".

"Sister-in-law, I'm in the main room." Shen Xiaoye had no choice but to let go of her aunt's arm and come out to greet her.

Liao Dujuan followed her over to greet the two elders and said, "I want to ask Xiaoye to dye a piece of cloth. Can Grandma Lin take a look?"

“If there’s anything wrong, go to her room and discuss it.

Old lady, did you iron Xiaoye's dress yesterday?" How could Lin not know what the young woman was thinking?

Huang naturally understood, "It's ironed. It's in my room. I'll send it to Xiaoye later."

"Thank you, aunt." After the skirt was cut last year, the weather turned cold and Shen Xiaoye only tried it at home. The skirt looked good, but the color of the half-jacket was a little dark.

She led Liao Dujuan to the first room in the west wing. Although it had earthen walls, they had been painted and separated into inner and outer rooms by a bamboo screen with various dried and fresh flowers on it.

"Sister-in-law, please come in and sit on the kang in the inner room." Due to load-bearing and safety considerations, adobe houses usually do not have rear windows, which is just right for not being exposed to the west sun shining in.

Shen Xiaoye is used to sleeping on a kang. She often fumigates with mugwort or atractylodes to prevent mosquitoes. Her kang is built under the front window. In addition to a small kang table and a wardrobe, there is also a desk with drawers and two high stools next to it.

Liao Dujuan stared at the book on her desk for a few seconds before she sat down and said, "It would be great if my son Jin could concentrate on his studies. Unfortunately, he always falls asleep when he recites."

"My great-grandfather said that Brother Qian Jin was very good at arithmetic. He was the one who did the calculations for our village's grain tax payment. He could even estimate the amount of grain that the officials would weigh each time, quickly and accurately." Shen Xiaoye took the cloth she handed over.

It looked like new cloth. "Sister-in-law, did you weave this cloth yourself? It's such a dense and smooth fine cotton cloth. It must weigh about three pounds."

"I woven it last winter. It's two feet and five inches wide and forty feet and one inch long, not less than that, but it doesn't weigh that much. Take a look." Liao Dujuan helped her open it, as the whole kang could not be fully opened.

In the north, wide cloth is usually woven, and she told the Taoist priest that it was impossible to only charge standard cloth, so her aunt-in-law offered 200 wen for dyeing a piece of cloth, which was really not expensive.

Shen Xiaoye took the pieces while she was unrolling them, after all, they were to be dyed here, "Sister-in-law, do you want to dye this piece of cloth all red, or do you want to cut it and dye it in different colors?

In addition, fabrics dyed with safflower cannot be placed together with musk and other aromatic materials, otherwise they will fade in a month; they cannot be washed with alkaline water or wood ash water, otherwise the color will fade after washing.

Normally, you can only wash it with cold water with salt. Are you sure you want to use safflower to dye it? Actually, you can use other dyes."

“Dye it all red. I want to make a red dress and wear it with Jin Ge’er to go to Lingshan Temple to burn incense.

I dyed it with safflower, and I didn’t wear it when I was working, so I rinsed it with clean water.” Liao Dujuan wanted to have a child, either a boy or a girl.

Shen Xiaoye nodded and said nothing else. She understood that for a woman getting married at this time, the first priority was to have a child.

Perhaps, Mrs. Liao wanted to fulfill her wish with a new set of clothes.

When Huang knocked on the door and came in, the two of them had already folded the cloth.

After Huang put down her dress and snacks and went out for a while, Liao Dujuan asked, "Did your aunt knock on the door before entering your room?"

"They all knocked, my mother did the same. Sister-in-law, have some snacks." She actually didn't remember whether her mother knocked on the door or not. Shen Xiaoye poured her some water and spread out her long skirt, which was the horse-faced skirt in later generations.

Liao shook her head and touched the lower half of her pink skirt. "Aunt Huang said the bird was dyed on? When I first saw it yesterday, I thought it was woven in."

When she went to burn incense in the past, she saw the various patterns on the skirts of the ladies and girls from wealthy families and was extremely envious.

By chance, I heard the owner of a cloth shop say that some of the patterns were woven, some were embroidered, and the owner never let them touch them for fear of damaging the fabric.

When you go home and want to make it yourself, adding lace to it is a luxury.

Shen Xiaoye nodded: "It is dyed, picked and dyed. If it is woven with various precious silk threads, such as kesi, it is too expensive.

Usually that kind is used by government offices and the royal court.”

“Ordinary people can’t use it, right? The owner of Yueji Cloth Shop in the county said that the patterns on their cloth are all woven with gold and silver threads.” Liao Dujuan thought that when she was a girl, she didn’t have the opportunity to visit the county town and had little experience. She could only weave cloth with different colors in the weft and warp, and she didn’t know the delicate patterns. No one taught her, and there weren’t so many beautiful silk threads for her to learn.

Shen Xiaoye thought for a moment and said, "In Jiangnan, there are multi-heald and bundled-heald jacquard looms, as well as countless silk, cotton and dyeing workshops. Their weavers can weave all kinds of patterns.

But we can't afford to buy those materials, silk, damask, gauze and satin, if they don't have patterns.

As for ordinary cotton, linen and ramie cloth, no one would take the trouble to weave patterns into them.

Only fine cotton jacquards like yours can be sold at a high price, starting at one tael of silver per piece."

"A multi-heddle or bundled-heddle jacquard machine? How much is it?" Liao Dujuan longed for it. She wanted a loom as a dowry when she got married, but unfortunately she didn't get it.

This cloth was woven by me while I was staying at my mother's house and staying up late at night.

Shen Xiaoye said: "It should be at least seven or eight taels, and the better ones can be more than ten taels."

Seeing that Mrs. Liao was deep in thought, she did not interrupt her. She took the homemade hard pen on the table and wrote two identical notes, signed the date and the artistic shape of the word "Shen".

Hard pens have existed since ancient times, and were mostly made of bamboo tubes and red willow. It was only later that brushes became more popular, but they have always been there.

Hmm? She glanced through the window and saw her uncle and someone else walking towards the main hall. The voice of the little black cat also rang in her mind: "Shen Changsui asked your aunt for money."

"?" Shen Xiaoye was frightened. She immediately looked away, but saw that Mrs. Liao seemed to have heard nothing.

And the little black cat said: "As long as you wear the pendant, I can whisper to you, and others can't hear it even if they want to.

You, cherish me! Hum..."

"I am communicating with you through my thoughts, can you hear me?" Shen Xiaoye waited for a long time but saw no response from the little black cat. It seems that I am just an ordinary person.

She waited for Liao Dujuan to come back to her senses, then handed her the note and said, "Sister-in-law, these are two identical receipts. It says that I received a piece of fine cotton cloth from you today and dyed it red. Do you want it dyed pink, water red, or lotus red?"

"Water red." Liao Dujuan was embarrassed to ask for pink.

"Okay." Shen Xiaoye wrote in a water red color and said to her, "Show it to Brother Dajin and keep it. Return it to me when you get the cloth."

"I'll take it." Liao Dujuan took it with both hands and smiled brightly, "It's the first time someone wrote something for me. It looks nice."

She put it away solemnly and said, "Xiao Ye, I brought two hundred copper coins." Then she took out two strings of money from the basket. These were her own money.