CHAPTER 77: CHAPTER 76: GREAT TANG MING YUE

Lin Wanwan often hears the sound of people in the Great Tang using sticks to beat clothes on bright moonlit nights. It’s not washing clothes; it’s "beating winter clothes".

The winter clothes worn by the people of the Lin Family Manor are made of kudzu hemp, filled not with cotton or sponge, but with willow catkins and coarse hemp.

Clothes made from hemp stalk fibers are tough by nature, and when filled with willow catkins and coarse hemp in the winter, they become even stiffer when frozen by the frost, hence the need to beat them with a stick to make them soft and warm.

The hardships of ancient people’s lives, Lin Wanwan has truly witnessed.

This is the Great Tang, the strongest nation under the heavens, and the lives of the commoners in the remote small countries must be even more miserable.

From what Lin Wanwan has researched, the Americas and Africa are more or less the same, with most regions still in primitive stages, only some areas have formed empire-like slave states.

And Europe is in the early medieval period of constant warfare, most regions are deeply Christianized, extremely barbaric and backward. In comparison, the Great Tang is much more stable and harmonious.

Sometimes Lin Wanwan also has the thought of flying to Europe from the modern world, and then opening the Space-Time Gate to experience it. After all, in modern historical terms, Europe almost has no history, they even have to look for history from books like the Bible.

Moreover, the West has always smeared Huaxia’s heritage, questioning that it is as unreliable as European myths simply because there are one or two otherworldly descriptions about "emperors" in the records.

Even more infuriating is that there’s a group of "experts" in Huaxia who go along with the Western narrative, striving to deny Huaxia history, calling themselves the "doubtful antiquity school," stubbornly claiming that the civilizations clearly established as native Huaxia are not locally developed, but imported.

Lin Wanwan feels that if she wants to do something in archaeology to slap the West and those in Japan and Korea in the face, she absolutely has an unbeatable advantage.

Owning the Space-Time Gate makes one truly invincible.

To test the feasibility of archaeology, she even buried a porcelain vase in Wanghai Town, then opened the Space-Time Gate to return to the modern era, secretly digging for half a day at the Houtao Mountain scenic area in an attempt to find the vase she buried, but unfortunately, she was unsuccessful.

So she’s somewhat uncertain if it’s an issue with parallel space-time or some other reason.

Luckily, the thought of rectifying Huaxia civilization’s name was just a passing fancy. After discovering its difficulty, she stopped trying. The excavation and protection of Huaxia civilization are still best left to professional archaeologists.

Rather than causing a stir in the modern era, it’s more practical to first improve the poor situation of the Lin clan in the Great Tang.

The profit from selling steamed buns brings in one and a half coins a day for the Lin clan, all put into the clan’s public account, waiting for distribution on the day of the winter solstice sacrifice.

Despite the cold weather and thin clothes, the people of Lin Family Manor are actually quite hopeful this year. As the winter solstice approaches, when they think about the money and silk they’ll receive, a touch of joy appears on their faces.

The men in the clan went to sea some days ago because the nearshore fish catch had decreased, they went farther this time, and they should return around the time of the winter solstice.

Those left on the shore look out to sea from the pier every day, wishing for the safe return of their family.

In Lin Wanwan’s school, aside from herself, she’s also invited a poor old scholar from the town, who has repeatedly failed examinations and lacks the means to gain fame, to be the teacher, teaching the older children the Classic of Filial Piety and Analects along with etiquette.

The Classic of Filial Piety and Analects are compulsory subjects for Great Tang students, and Lin Wanwan herself cannot say she fully understands them, so she entrusted this task to the new teacher. Of course, for the children of Lin Family Manor who have just started enlightenment this year, it’s still a bit advanced, but even if it’s just rote reading, it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

The old scholar’s surname is Chen, named Yang, styled Wenzhan. He has read all his life, and his learning is still decent. Initially, he looked down on Lin Wanwan, considering her just a woman, and since she neither knew how to brew tea nor could speak eloquently, he thought she was merely squandering time because of her wealth.

When one day, Lin Wanwan casually solved a mathematical problem that Mr. Chen had been pondering over for half a year without success, it immediately shocked him. Then Lin Wanwan offered a small poem by Li Bai for his correction, further devastating him beyond recovery.

He believed that despite a lifetime of reading and writing poetry, none of his poems could compare to even a fraction of the one Lin Wanwan presented.

He no longer dared to underestimate Lin Wanwan, the head of the school. The offspring of nobles indeed outshines others, and despite being a woman, her knowledge is unfathomable.

Having dealt with the obviously poor yet exceptionally proud new teacher, Lin Wanwan returned to her usual lazy and leisurely days.

Like most women in the clan, she too would gaze out at the sea whenever free, waiting for her seafaring clan members to return. With a large part of Lin Family Manor’s working men gone, people could not sleep peacefully at night.

After all, the current society still had many wrongdoers.

Lin Wanwan’s luxurious mansion hidden by the sea was known to not a few people across a ten-mile radius. Fortunately, her own abilities were strong, and she had a taser for self-defense. Even if she encountered some ignorant evildoers, she was confident in dealing with them.

She had thought of buying some guards, but felt that having too many servants would be noisy, and managing them would also be a challenge. The current household size was just right for her comfort, so she had not taken action.

One early morning, Yun Shang brought two sets of clothing, one large and one small, to Lin Wanwan.

"Mistress, these are two sets of winter clothes I made from silk. See if you like them."

"Made for me and little Qingyu?"

"Yes, please have a look, Mistress, and see if you’re satisfied."

Lin Wanwan hadn’t expected Yun Shang to quietly start making clothes for them.

Although she had bought a few bolts of brocade for the two maids in town, she hadn’t ordered Yun Shang to make clothes for her mistress. The fabrics given to them were for making their own clothes, considered extra uniforms for close maids.

As for her own and little Qingyu’s Hanfu, Lin Wanwan would just pretend to buy from a tailoring shop in Xiaoxi Town (they were actually bought in modern times). Considering how convenient it was to buy ready-made clothes from the modern-day, especially with the surge in popularity of Hanfu and numerous online shops dedicated to them.

Opening up the clothes, Lin Wanwan was stunned. The styles were not only luxurious, but the hand-embroidered patterns were stunningly exquisite, resembling art rather than mere clothing.

Sigh, one must admit, the three servants she bought in the Great Tang were loyal and top-notch, each with their own merits.