At night, it rained heavily in the town, lightning and thunder were loud, and the strong wind seemed to tear off the roof.
The small town was like a weak child, trembling under the power of nature.
Another bolt of lightning struck, illuminating the dark room for a moment. The two Xu Yue sisters who were huddled in the quilt immediately covered their ears.
The next second, "Boom!" there was a loud thunder, as if the whole room was going to be blown away. Even if they covered their ears, the sisters' hearts were still shocked and jumped.
This ancient thunderstorm seemed to be wilder than the modern one. While Xu Yue reassured herself that it was okay, she couldn't help but think in her mind: There were no lightning rods in ancient times. What if this thunder struck directly at her body?
"Are you okay?"
A burst of lightning and thunder passed by, and Wang, who was making a bed on the ground, asked with concern towards the bed.
Xu Yue and Xu Erniang shook their heads and said in unison that it was okay.
It was just such a loud thunder that the whole family of five was woken up. Five pairs of eyes stared in the dim room. From time to time, a bolt of lightning flashed across, and the five pairs of eyes lit up at the same time. The whole family was almost frightened by each other.
This is very embarrassing.
"..."
"Ahem!" Xu Da coughed twice, and the whole family looked in his direction.
"You have a cold?" Wang asked with a frown.
Xu Da asked in confusion: "What kind of cold?"
When Mrs. Wang heard this, she said "oh" and said calmly: "It's nothing."
Xu Da suddenly felt that cold was not a good word, but that was not the point. The point was that he had something to say!
After coughing twice more to attract everyone's attention, Xu Da opened his mouth and said:
"Today I inquired about something with the steward of that noble family. The governor of Jizhou ordered all counties and counties in Jizhou to open cities to take in the refugees going north, and provide them with houses, land, and household registration. It sounds like a good place, what do you think?
"
Wang asked distrustfully: "Are you sure the manager didn't deceive you?"
Xu Yue, lying on the bed, thought of what happened in Puyang and expressed doubts about such a good thing.
Looking at the suspicious faces of his cheap wife and children, Xu Da felt suffocated for a moment.
Who is he asking so hard for?!
As if sensing the resentment in Xu Da's heart, Xu Erniang sympathized: "If what the steward said is true, then we will find the nearest county in Jizhou to settle down."
Xu Da finally felt a little warm in his heart, "There is no need for the steward to lie to me. The news should be true, but I don't know if each county can strictly follow the orders from above."
Hearing this, the whole family fell silent, but no matter what, since they had a direction, they had to give it a try.
An autumn rain and a cold.
When she woke up in the morning, the moment she opened the door, a cold wind hit her. Wang, who was only wearing a shabby singlet, couldn't help but shiver violently.
Afraid of the cold coming to the children in the house, she hurriedly closed the door, turned back to the room to get a piece of cloth, and went out again. She called Tong next door, and they went to change the linen and come back to make clothes.
The weather was getting colder, and wearing tattered single clothes would make you sick from the cold, so Wang decided to make two pairs of new clothes for adults and children to wear on top of each other.
One bolt of silk can be exchanged for four bolts of linen. Tong helped estimate the materials needed for the Xu family of five. Four bolts of linen were enough. If there was extra, they might be able to make two pairs of shoes.
Ordinary peasants are not as particular about dressing as nobles, and they mainly dress for convenience.
The woman wears a middle coat on the upper body, a narrow-sleeved, cross-collared gown on the outside, and wide trousers on the lower body.
Those who are a little more sophisticated can wear dark clothes with curved trains or Confucian skirts.
Men also wear similar clothes. To make it easier to work, the cuffs will be made larger and the hem of the clothes will be shorter. They only need to wear trousers and a belt on the lower body.
So when walking on the street, people can basically tell who the other person is based on their clothes.
Wang and Tong changed the cloth and bought needle and thread. The needle and thread at this time were also expensive. Tong always cut the length to be used before buying it, for fear of spending an extra dollar.
She was busy calculating her own thread, thinking that Wang was an experienced hand and didn't pay attention. It wasn't until they returned to the inn and Tong was about to ask Wang to thread together that she realized that Wang didn't buy any needle and thread.
Without needlework and only cloth, how can we make clothes?
Mrs. Tong was surprised at first, and then tenderly said that she could lend her needles to Mrs. Wang.
Wang refused awkwardly and got up to buy some more needles and thread.
Unexpectedly, the rain that had just stopped started falling again, blocking Wang's family under the eaves.
"You'd better use mine. I'll cut the cloth. Sister-in-law of the Xu family, you sew first." Mrs. Tong came out, took Ms. Wang into the room, and handed the fabric she had just cut to Ms. Wang to sew first.
Mrs. Wang stared at the piece of cloth in her hand for a long time. Under Tong's surprised gaze, she asked awkwardly: "How should I sew the clothes?"
Mrs. Tong was dumbfounded. For a long time, she couldn't organize the words to answer Wang's question. She just silently handed her a handful of her own needlework.
Perhaps the atmosphere was too awkward, so Wang smiled and put down the cloth, picked up her four pieces of linen and returned to her room.
As soon as they entered the house, they saw a father and son building a piece of wood in the house.
Xu Yue exchanged a piece of millet cake for the wooden board with the waiter at the inn. It was thick and large, and her sister and brother could write and draw on it as much as they wanted. She was asked to move it into the research room and light up the apple tree.
When the board was full of paintings, Dad would use a hatchet to open it up, and the board could be used again. The scraped shavings could also be used to make fires, killing three birds with one stone.
The four father and son were tacitly brushing up knowledge points on Xu Yue's apple tree. Seeing how focused they were, Wang opened her mouth, said nothing, and silently sat down in front of the table beside her with the cloth in her arms.
Soon, the four father and son noticed her depressed look.
The four father and son looked at each other in disbelief and thought: Is this still my powerful lady in front of me?
The four of them involuntarily stopped what they were doing.
Xu Da asked softly: "Ms. Xu Wang, what's wrong with you?"
Wang glanced at him, feeling angry for no reason and too lazy to respond.
Xu Yue remembered that her mother-in-law and Aunt Tong went to change linen and prepare clothes early in the morning. Aren't the two women supposed to be cutting and making clothes at this moment?
Why did you come back with four pieces of cloth in your arms?
After thinking for a moment and looking at Wang's depressed look, Xu Yue suddenly understood.
"Don't you know how to make clothes?" she asked in a low voice.
Mrs. Wang froze immediately. The words "Tong Yan Wuji" came to her mind, and then she resisted the urge to block her little daughter's mouth.
When the four father and son took a look, they immediately understood.
Xu Da wanted to laugh a little, thinking to himself, isn't your wife very arrogant? She knows everything about astronomy and geography. Are you in trouble now?
But she was afraid of being beaten to death by Wang, so she tried her best to step forward with a straight face and patted her shoulder to comfort her:
"It's normal that you don't know how to do it. I don't know how to do it myself. In the past, my family used to spend money to find people to help make clothes."
Wang glanced at Xu Da suspiciously, and suddenly thought that the general couldn't do it, but he could leave it to his soldiers!