The winter thunder rumbled, and sleet began to fall intermittently. The sleet pellets were hard and sharp, stinging painfully against one's face.
Jin Niang wiped her face roughly with her sleeve and walked into an alley. She stopped at the third door, knocked, but received no answer. She had no choice but to sit on the doorstep and wait.
A furtive-looking old man emerged from next door. He held out two sesame and red bean paste balls, feigning kindness as he said, "Good child, have something to eat."
Jin Niang stood up, placed her hands on her hips, and scowled. "You old lecher, how dare you come looking for trouble with me? Who wants your food? Get lost! If you don't, I'll beat you to death with a big stick." When she had first arrived at her aunt's house, they hadn't given her a key. This old man had once offered her a melon, and she had thought him kind. Unexpectedly, he had tried to grab and hug her. She had broken free, and only then did she understand the wickedness in people's hearts.
She had actually encountered such situations twice before. This old man was cowardly and scurried away when scolded, but a relative had also acted similarly before. These men weren't drawn to her looks; they were simply beasts.
She was born into an ordinary soldier's family. In her childhood, she followed the army, and her family's circumstances were once quite comfortable. However, after the army downsizing, they returned to their hometown. Life was alright at first, but after their money ran out, they were even dragged into a lawsuit because of her aunt's family. Her parents had no money left and had to go to the more prosperous Jiangling nearby to earn a living. But they had no particular skills, so they could only work for relatives without pay, learning some trades along the way.
Perhaps out of guilt, her aunt took the initiative to bring Jin Niang to the city of Anlu Prefecture. Her aunt's husband, Uncle Zhong, worked as a minor clerk in the yamen and arranged for Jin Niang to study and learn some characters at the home of a Tongsheng (a candidate who passed the imperial examination at the county level). Her parents paid five strings of cash per year for tuition and board.
The first year, she lived with the Tongsheng and his wife. Since meals were provided there, her aunt only gave her twenty copper coins a month, which was never enough.
Then, last year, two merchants from Lin'an Prefecture opened a weaving workshop in Anlu Prefecture. The tuition alone was seven strings a year, not including food.
But Jin Niang knew her opportunity had come. When her father had money before, she was naive and oblivious. Others knew how to weave, embroider, and cook, but she was already ten years old and couldn't do anything.
So, during the New Year last year, she told her parents she wanted to learn a trade. They said if she passed the exam, she could learn. She went to nearby weavers' homes to secretly observe, and fortunately, she passed the exam. Her aunt was unwilling to have her stay at home, so she lived at the weaving workshop. Because she spoke the rural dialect of Anlu and her parents weren't around, she was bullied as soon as she arrived. Verbal taunts were one thing, but they even pushed her so hard she fell, nearly fracturing her tailbone. From then on, she began to toughen up.
Now, she had been learning for a year. She picked up weaving almost intuitively and learned it very quickly. In fact, she was also quite capable at dyeing threads. Others had family techniques passed down, yet none seemed as deft at dyeing as she looked.
However, in the end, she wasn't prepared for the year-end exams for the Brocade Weaving Institute and the local Patterned Brocade Institute. She didn't even have the money to submit her application documents, so naturally, she didn't take the exams.
Thinking of this, she realized the sleet had frozen in her hair. She heard lively noises from inside the house and realized they were home. Perhaps they were unwilling to open the door for her, or maybe they hadn't heard. She knocked again.
This time, someone finally opened the door. It was her aunt's son-in-law, her cousin's husband, Lu Si'an.
Her aunt's family was well-off. Cousin's husband was handsome and talented, but his own family was poor, so after marrying her cousin, he also lived with her family. Her cousin had been arranged by Uncle Zhong to become a "female tax collector," a secure official position for women, a virtual iron rice bowl for life, making their days particularly comfortable.
Now that they had moved back in, Jin Niang had to sleep on the floor in the main hall. Uncle Zhong also had a guest—his niece, who was two years older than Jin Niang. This niece had even secretly pinched Jin Niang while she was asleep. Jin Niang kicked her hard, satisfied to hear her muffled groan. How she wished she had her own home, her own room.
But it seemed unlikely. It was already difficult for her parents to scrape together her tuition.
During the New Year, her father finally returned with her mother. It turned out her mother was pregnant. Jin Niang remembered her mother had been pregnant last year or sometime before, with a fully formed male fetus. She had had a miscarriage with heavy bleeding.
"Mother," Jin Niang called out.
Her mother, Luo Yu'e, looked at her daughter, who was growing into a graceful young lady, and quickly said, "We'll take you to Jiangling with us this year."
Jin Niang was somewhat incredulous. "Really?"
"I just visited your aunt's house. There are too many people there; it must be inconvenient to live there. Your father and I have spent money to take over a noodle shop. Our family will surely live better and better from now on." Luo Yu'e knew it wasn't the most opportune time to bring her daughter, as she and her husband could live in the shop, but there wouldn't be space if their daughter came.
But her daughter had been living under someone else's roof for so long, and they were starting to show their displeasure.
And so, Jin Niang went with them to Jiangling Prefecture. Her parents opened a noodle shop at the Jiangjin ferry crossing. Their living quarters were about two li away from the shop. Leaving Anlu Prefecture made Jin Niang happiest, but she couldn't neglect her weaving skills.
Fortunately, she had learned from a weaver from the Brocade Weaving Institute. In this dynasty, weavers working outside generally fell into three categories: government-run, private, and government-hired civilian weavers on contract. Government-run positions were extremely hard to get into, while private ones offered little security. After Luo Yu'e said she had contacted the largest local labor broker, Jin Niang went through two rounds of screening and entered a local silk weaving workshop, with a monthly wage of one string and three hundred copper coins.
This wage was beyond her expectations. Two strings of cash was no small amount!
Jin Niang felt almost light-headed.
However, weaving was arduous work. Jin Niang often returned home at night drenched in sweat. One day, an uncle visiting their home remarked, "You're a young girl, how come you smell so strongly of sweat?"
Jin Niang pursed her lips.
The uncle was holding forth in the main hall: "My daughter has been sent to study with a Xiucai (a scholar who passed the imperial examination at the county level). She knows Suzhou numerals and can keep accounts—she's very sharp."
"Surely she won't go take the exam to become a female tax collector?" Wei Xiong said bluntly.
Uncle Luo gave an evasive laugh.
After he left, Wei Xiong looked at Jin Niang and said, "Jin Niang, didn't you also study with that Tongsheng for two years? Why don't you try the exam for the tax collector position?"
Jin Niang was speechless. "Father, Cousin Luo is learning calculation methods and those Suzhou numerals. I only learned a few characters from that Tongsheng—it's far from the same. Besides, even Cousin, who took the internal exam for the female tax collector position, spent three years preparing. I don't have that kind of free time."
Now that her mother was pregnant, she could only greet customers at the front. Her father had hired an assistant, and the two of them managed the work. Although the location was at the ferry crossing, it was at a side gate, so foot traffic wasn't heavy. They only made about three to five strings of cash a month.
During the Dragon Boat Festival, her mother gave birth to a younger brother. Her parents wanted her grandmother to come help care for the baby, but Grandmother had always been biased and stubbornly refused. She came twice during the postpartum month to cook meals and then wouldn't come again.
Jin Niang, in her spare time, often helped by carrying her younger brother. Although she was a weaver, those fine silks and satins were far beyond her reach. She always bought the cheapest cloth for her clothes. Yet, even in such simple, homespun dress, she was still considered quite pretty, so much so that her father felt the need to escort her daily.
After working for a year at the silk weaving workshop, she was utterly exhausted, and the wages never increased. However, having this experience as a stepping stone, it was only natural for her to move to work at another establishment, the Chu Luo Workshop, where the pay was two strings of cash.
After two years at Chu Luo Workshop, the silver she had earned amounted to only twenty-four strings of cash. In the third year, her parents' noodle shop finally saw more customers. By then, the family had managed to save around sixty-five strings of cash. There was no helping it; since her brother was born, household expenses had grown, and there were all sorts of oppressive taxes and levies, an endless nuisance.
Jin Niang had a bold idea. Nowadays, the government often contracted out unfinished work to weaving households who owned looms. She thought it would be wonderful if she herself had a loom. But the price was prohibitively expensive. One must understand, the drawloom at Chu Luo Workshop even required a specialized drawboy. She certainly couldn't afford that.
A drawloom was out of the question, but a patterned silk loom might be feasible. With her savings, she bought two mu of mulberry fields, and the family moved near the Grass Market. The Grass Market was located on the outskirts of the city walls, close to the mulberry fields. One mu of land could hold about thirty-seven mulberry trees, producing roughly one hundred taels of silk. Two mu would yield nearly two hundred taels. If calculated at twelve taels per bolt, that meant sixteen bolts a year. If producing lighter silks of five taels, it would be forty bolts a year.
Buying this patterned silk loom nearly exhausted Jin Niang's twenty strings of cash. Her parents had to chip in another twelve strings before they could purchase the loom that had come from Hangzhou Prefecture.
Fortunately, having worked in several workshops, Jin Niang knew which cloth shops had needs. She went directly to negotiate with them. There was no other way; she had to burn her bridges now.
This year she was thirteen. Although she had excellent skills, her family was poor. Those who came seeking her hand were merely bachelors or men looking for a second wife. She naturally refused.
"Jin Niang, you know we moved to this Grass Market for you. We even had to close the business over there," said Luo Yu'e.
The money they earned from rising early and working late wasn't much, but it was a steady income. Now they were eating through their savings.
Jin Niang felt immense pressure too. "What can we do? This can still make money. We'll take it slowly. Don't worry, I will definitely work hard at weaving."
Luo Yu'e said, "I know, I know. Look at your elder cousin, that Sister Rong. How splendid her clothes are! Marrying a physician is so good, a lifelong skill to rely on. Your looks are even better than hers. It's just that we lack the means, that's all."
Hearing Luo Yu'e mention Sister Rong, Jin Niang felt a pang of envy. That elder cousin's father had originally worked at a carriage and horse service. Later, although he became paralyzed, he left her a large house and a considerable sum of money. Moreover, Sister Rong had lived in Anlu City for years and knew a different circle of people.
But envy was useless.
"Mother, although Uncle ended up that way, before that he was doing very well. Who didn't envy Sister Rong?" Jin Niang also wished to marry a good man, so she wouldn't have to struggle so hard.
However, this topic always angered Luo Yu'e, even making her curse. "What 'doing very well'? He stole other people's horses to sell! If not for your father, the whole family would have eaten prison food. What a disgrace!"
Jin Niang shook her head. "Father insisted on helping with that matter himself. What can we say? It's Third Uncle's family who went all the way to Bianjing. How dare Third Uncle go so far away?"
Jin Niang herself would never be willing to go to such a distant place. In her childhood, she had experienced a few good days with her parents, but the life of depending on others was too painful. They didn't hit or scold you, but they gave you cold looks, ignored you in everything, and made you take the blame even when it wasn't your fault.
She longed to have her own home, not needing the whole family to squeeze into a dilapidated courtyard.
Sometimes she would fantasize about meeting a good man, so she would never have to suffer again.
Clearly, in her first year, Jin Niang alone wove forty lengths of the lighter five-tael patterned silk. She knew how to dye proper red and silver-red. These forty lengths earned her forty strings of cash in total. Of course, she had to deduct the cost of hiring someone to pick mulberry leaves, the house rent, and living expenses. Even so, she managed to save thirty strings. She felt she earned no less than any man.
Suddenly, she felt that entrusting her fate to a good man was not as reliable as trusting herself.
By the end of the year she turned fourteen, she had saved a total of sixty strings of cash. She also discovered a place that sold various colored silk threads very cheaply. She bought threads of different colors and started dyeing them according to demand. Whatever was fashionable on the market, she always managed to catch on.
Women loved wearing azure-colored silk jackets, so she bought such threads. She could also weave the plain silk needed by painting and calligraphy shops for mounting, meeting their specific requirements.
By the time of her hair-pinning ceremony, she already had one hundred strings of cash in private savings. This sum could be considered a substantial asset. Her parents had also toiled for several years at her uncle's shop. Jin Niang contributed fifty strings, and her parents put forth one hundred and forty strings. Together, they bought a small house within the city walls.
The feeling of lying in her own house was utterly comfortable.
But her parents' money was completely spent on the house. Jin Niang felt too embarrassed to ask them for a dowry. Moreover, they had just rented a new shop and lacked capital, so they even had to borrow twenty strings from Jin Niang.
Without a dowry, even if one was born beautiful, it might not be a good thing for oneself.
Besides, she was unwilling to enter another's family empty-handed. Therefore, she also rented a jacquard loom for patterned silk and had her younger brother specialize in operating the drawboy mechanism for her.
It was also because of this jacquard loom that she became acquainted with the young master of the Fang Family Cloth Shop.
Speaking of the Fang family, they were originally a well-off household. Eldest Fang studied, while Second Fang, having lost his mother young, followed his father in trade. The family owned a cloth shop, had looms, and also ran a small dyehouse.
Thus, through a matchmaker's arrangement, Jin Niang married this Second Fang.
When she married at seventeen, she entered his household with a dowry of one hundred strings of cash. Second Fang was clever, steady, and sharp beyond his years. After Jin Niang married, the couple ran the cloth shop together and were very much in love.
However, the good times didn't last long. Father Fang soon passed away suddenly. Eldest Fang and Second Fang inherited the family property, one receiving the farmland, the other the cloth shop.
"Originally, Father handled the external trade. Now that he's gone, I need to go collect some outstanding payments," said Second Fang.
Jin Niang smiled and said, "You go ahead. I'll take care of everything at home."
Now they had two looms at home. She often worked on them herself. The dyehouse had three workers. After her husband left, she had to manage meals and all the work.
Fortunately, he collected over two hundred taels on that trip. Second Fang used it to buy three more looms. Worried about Jin Niang's hard work, he specially bought a young servant to run errands and hired a maidservant to help with chores.
Both were very dedicated to their business. Second Fang planned to go to Lin'an Prefecture after the New Year to buy cloth for resale, while Jin Niang would maintain the cloth shop.
A few days after Second Fang left, her mother, Luo Yu'e, came over. Seeing her daughter busy all day, she couldn't help but say, "Why has your husband gone out again? If this goes on, how will you ever conceive a child?"
In her mother's view, her son-in-law was good in every way, except that he was often away for a year or more at a time. With the couple apart, her daughter couldn't possibly get pregnant on her own.
Jin Niang smiled. "Your son-in-law is a good man. Every time he brings money back, he lets me keep it. We both think this shop is too small. Once we save up a bit more, we'll move to a larger storefront. In the future, we'll also buy several dozen acres of mulberry fields, so he won't have to travel so far."
"Alright, alright, you always have your reasons." Luo Yu'e fell silent. She now had a house to live in, and her son had just been sent to school. In a few years, he could become an apprentice at a tavern or a medical clinic, helping with bookkeeping, with the prospect of becoming a shop manager in the future. So, she had no more worries.
Jin Niang also cut two kinds of cured pork trotters from under the eaves at home, packed a full box of glutinous rice for her mother, and said, "Take these back to eat. You need to nourish yourself."
Her natal family's circumstances had never been very good. Fortunately, Jin Niang often helped them out a little, whether with food or cloth, making life a bit easier.
Luo Yu'e smiled. "You used to never lift a finger at home, but now the soups and meals you make are surprisingly delicious. It's quite strange."
"You think I was born loving to cook? It's only because the shop assistants and weavers needed meals, and I had to do it all myself," Jin Niang said, spreading her hands.
She wasn't naturally skilled at cooking, but whenever she ate something tasty, she would remember it and figure it out herself after a few tries.
Besides selling cloth, the shop also required learning tailoring skills—cutting bed sheets and making clothes. Otherwise, a shop that only sold cloth probably wouldn't survive.
Jin Niang originally only knew how to weave. Gradually, she learned from the weavers in the shop, often working alongside them. Even though Second Fang hadn't returned for over a year, the household income, while not substantial, was enough to get by.
In the year of her twentieth birthday, Second Fang returned. He had brought back a shipment of fine goods, first selling to local major cloth merchants, then selling the rest in their own shop.
This transaction earned two thousand taels. For Jin Niang, this was an astronomical sum; she had never seen so much money before.
Second Fang discussed with her: "Let's spend one thousand taels to acquire a three-bay, three-section shopfront in the city center. I plan to use the other thousand to buy a share in the Guan family merchant caravan. It will be cheaper to travel by boat to trade cloth."
"Good. However, once we acquire the shopfront, we'll need to renovate and hire people. That's also a large expense," Jin Niang calculated.
Second Fang had hardly stayed home since their marriage. Hearing his wife say this, he also planned to stay put for a while. The young couple had endless things to talk about. Second Fang had studied for a few years in his youth, but as the family always needed someone to manage affairs and his elder brother was unwilling, he had to step up.
Fortunately, his wife was gentle, beautiful, understanding, clever, and capable.
"I think we should hire a master craftsman from the Brocade Academy or from a weaving institute closer to us, like in Shu. We can't always just sell homespun or printed cloth, or merely earn a middleman's profit from trading cloth. You transport so much goods but only earn the price difference," Jin Niang suggested.
She had learned from a master at the Brocade Academy as a child and knew how to weave several patterns.
Upon hearing this, Second Fang nodded repeatedly. "You are absolutely right, my wife. I won't invest in any shipping fleet. My little money isn't worth much anyway. It's better to hire a master craftsman, buy some mulberry fields, and from then on, we husband and wife can stay together."
"That's exactly what I was thinking," Jin Niang said with a smile.
Unfortunately, mulberry fields in Jiangling were exceedingly scarce. Last time Jin Niang tried to buy just two acres, the owner refused to sell. They would have to source raw silk from other regions.
Nevertheless, Second Fang managed to secure the shop. They also acquired two brocade looms and hired a master craftsman from the Brocade Academy. However, the master was only willing to teach six patterns: tortoiseshell, interlocking precious lotus, ruyi floral, meandering water linked floral, swastika-pattern ground with four combined ruyi, and lantern patterns.
To get the master to reveal more, Jin Niang personally cooked her specialty dish, Lotus Pod Fish Parcel.
In this dish, the fish was usually steamed, but she roasted it first, making it exceptionally fragrant and crispy. Pleased, the master taught her many more details, such as lantern patterns typically using a red background, tortoiseshell patterns often using indigo, and ruyi floral patterns mostly using beige or light blue.
Ordinary cloth was left to the regular weavers, but these superior brocades, Jin Niang wove herself.
With such high-quality goods in their inventory, the couple's business improved. Second Fang was humble and fair to all, young and old. Soon, the household acquired many new belongings.
Second Fang both loved and admired his wife. He specially had a black lacquer bed inlaid with mother-of-pearl butterfly patterns made for her. Hearing Jin Niang complain it was too dark and ornate, he sheepishly bought a huanghuali wood canopy bed instead.
"Why waste money on such things," Jin Niang chided him with a glance.
Second Fang laughed. "You are just too plain."
"Nonsense, I've had jewelry made too," Jin Niang replied. She was eager to reach a certain stage in their business so the couple could focus on conceiving. Her health had always been delicate, and her husband had endured years of hardship on the road. They still had no children.
This time, Second Fang went to Huzhou and Lin'an, staying away for over a year. He returned just in time for Jin Niang's twenty-third birthday. His cloth trade had netted a profit of thirteen hundred strings of cash. He bought Jin Niang a rosewood dressing table, four cases of jewelry large and small, and two trunks of the most fashionable brocade robes and gauze skirts from Lin'an Prefecture.
As a wife, having a husband who treated her so well naturally made Jin Niang happy.
Within six months, the cloth shop earned another four hundred strings of cash. Jin Niang promptly bought several maidservants and older women for household help.
Seeing that although the money was earned through hard work, they had finally laid a foundation, Second Fang smiled and said, "When spring comes next year, I will have to go out again."
"Don't go. You've been traveling far too frequently," Jin Niang said.
But Second Fang shook his head. "I want to strike while the iron is hot, for one last trip. I'll train two assistants thoroughly first. After that, I'll come back to stay with you and never leave again, alright?"
Jin Niang knew he was serious. Building up the business wasn't easy, so she had to agree.
The following spring, when Second Fang was about to depart again, Jin Niang couldn't help feeling downcast. He promised, "I've seen people wearing those hair ornaments inlaid with gold thread. I'll bring one back for you."
"Who wants that? I just want you to come back," Jin Niang said, tears finally spilling over.
Second Fang truly wanted to cancel his trip. But he knew only by earning enough capital would his wife no longer have to toil so hard, and he could stay by her side for good.
But two years passed. Jin Niang, who had originally been waiting for her husband's return, never imagined that the news she would receive was of Second Fang's death.
