It was quite the rare day where Su Tang was willing to call him a Divine Beast, so when he heard it he immediately puffed up and became arrogant. Meanwhile, Su Tang just felt that it was both her birthday and the start of the Spring Festival, so there was no need to argue with this silly cat.
In fact, the birthdays of the Su Dani of this world and the Su Tang from the previous world happened to fall on the same day – both on the first day of the Lunar New Year. However, neither of them had ever experienced any sort of big birthday celebration. Su Dani went without saying, and Su Tang had always lived alone, so she was more used to just not celebrating her birthday at all.
But when she saw the orange cat acting cutely and wishing her a happy birthday first thing in the morning, a part of Su Tang was touched and her mood immediately improved. Su Tang quickly clambered out of bed, and she happened to see that there was a fresh set of clothes sitting there.
“This is?” She murmured.
The Grand Divine Beast smugly replied, ‘Master Song personally sent it over earlier this morning.’
Although Su Tang was still a loli, she was a girl after all, so it was inconvenient for male servants to tend to her. Thus, Song Yi had personally sent the clothes over.
Su Tang reached out and picked up the clothes. There was a light gray blouse and a black waist skirt, along with a pair of thick cotton trousers to be worn underneath. Although it was all still made of cotton, the workmanship was exquisite. There was also a finely woven grey belt, and a large white cloak to go over everything. The neck of the cloak was lined with soft fox fur, and there was also a fur-lined hat and a pair of fur-lined gloves.
In addition to all this, there was also a small pair of finely crafted white flowers made from flannelette, and a pair of gray cotton-padded shoes. It was all neatly placed on the pillow, clearly representing Song Yi’s careful care for his disciple.
Su Tang was still in a mourning period, and there were strict requirements for what kinds of clothes she could wear. As for jewelry, don’t even mention it, she absolutely couldn’t wear it, and any clothes she wore could only be made from cotton or from coarse cloth, and they could only come in either black, gray, or white. In addition, none of her clothes could be adorned or extravagantly embroidered.
Moreover, she also needed to always wear white flowers in her hair, either real or crafted. This was to clearly express her situation to outsiders and to prevent anyone from saying anything inappropriate because they didn’t know she was in a mourning period, which would just make things awkward for everyone.
Most peasant farmers didn’t have to worry about any of these rules because they didn’t have the money for fine clothes, jewelry, or adornments anyway. However, Su Tang was different. Though she already had money now she still couldn’t dress up and could only wear simple clothes, even though she was already a proper young lady in the eyes of society.
After all, when she was younger it was fine for her to run around in her thick-cotton padded clothes, but it was a bit different now.
That was because, from today, Su Tang would already be nine years old, and a girl that old would already be considered a young lady in the capital. Typically, her mother would already be teaching her etiquette and how to manage a household at this age.
It made sense if you thought about it. Most girls in the capital would already be talking about marriage before the age of 16, so they would start learning from the age of nine. If they started any later, then there wouldn’t be enough time to teach them everything they needed to know before it came time for them to marry out, and they would disgrace their families in front of their new in-laws.
Back then Song Yi’s daughter had died she had been 13 years old so, although Song Yi wasn’t as good as his wife at raising a daughter, he still knew some of the rules. He was aware that for girls, their ninth and fifteenth birthdays were both especially important.
Of course, because she was in her mourning period, Su Tang couldn’t have any sort of big birthday celebration, and because she was a peasant girl and not a girl from the capital she might not even be aware of these things, but Song Yi still wanted to do right by her. Thus, he had sent Pengmo out to find the most experienced embroidery house in Qinghe Town and ordered a set of clothes for her. Incidentally, he knew that Su Tang was currently doing business outside, so it would also be good for her to have some more presentable clothes.
Su Tang understood Song Yi’s kind intentions so, after she got up and washed, she picked up all the clothes and put them on carefully. She found that they fit very well. Although there was a skirt, there was still a pair of thin cotton pants to be worn underneath, so the outfit was both good-looking and warm.
She put her hair up into the usual simple double bun and then added the two flannelette flowers to either side. Like this, her clothes were still plain, but she was beautiful in a simple sort of way. Happy with the look, she draped the cloak over her shoulders and then opened the door to step outside.
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