In the early morning of March, it was still warm and cold. From the dilapidated small building, there was the sound of cutting vegetables, the sizzling of fried oil cakes, and the voice of a woman shouting at her child in a high-pitched voice.
Hua Jin pushed open the door, and a boy in a blue school uniform with a schoolbag was standing in the corridor with his head down. He didn't even raise his head when he heard the door open. But the woman who was yelling saw Hua Jin come out and gathered her messy curly hair: "Xiao Hua, did you go to work so early?"
Hua Jin greeted her a few words. Sister Qin pulled her hair and the curling of her cuffs with her hands from time to time. Her child stood beside her in a sullen voice, like an inconspicuous potato.
Realizing that Hua Jin was looking at her own child, Sister Qin stopped her hand holding her hair and began to count down the child's shortcomings.
"Sister Qin." Interrupting the other party's babble, Hua Jin took out her mobile phone to check the time, "I'm going to miss the subway, let's talk tomorrow." After speaking, she walked downstairs quickly, the voice-activated street light on the corridor was kicking There was no flickering in the sound of tapping footsteps.
Walking downstairs, she heard Sister Qin start scolding the child again.
Hua Jin finished breakfast at the roadside breakfast shop. When she came out, she saw Sister Qin's son shrugging his head and walking to the side of the road. He walked very slowly, like a snail that didn't want to crawl out of its shell.
The streets were crowded with densely packed cars, and in the gray morning, there was a dullness of being powerless but having to fight for life.
"Walk carefully." Hua Jin took two quick steps, grabbed the boy's schoolbag and pulled him back. At this moment, the car at the intersection of the street came over, only two or three steps away from the child.
The little boy looked up at Hua Jin, with a dull and blank expression on his face, before whispering for a long time, "Thank you, Sister Hua Jin."
"No thanks." Hua Jin smiled. What woman in her twenties doesn't like children calling her sister
"When walking, pay attention to passing vehicles, safety is important." Hua Jin helped the child straighten the collar of the school uniform that was turned up. After watching the child leave, she rubbed the painful kneecap, turned and walked in the other direction.
In this bustling city, everyone can't stop, they want to survive, they want to take root here, and they want to have a better life. Some people come and some go, only this city will always stand here, become more and more prosperous, and become the dream city of countless people.
Getting off the crowded subway, Hua Jin saw that someone was performing arts, and the pedestrians were in a hurry, and had no time to stop. Hua Jin felt in the coat, took out a few coins, and put it into the box that the other party put in front of him.
"Thank you." The little girl who was performing arts whispered her thanks.
This is a little girl with baby fat on her face and clear and hopeful eyes. Hua Jin put her hands in the pockets of her coat, and smiled lightly: "You're welcome, many people are rushing to work in the morning, so they don't care about other things."
After finishing speaking, he pointed to the staff member who was walking towards this direction: "It seems that talent shows are not allowed here, why don't you change the place?"
It was obviously just a show for a living, but was gently called a "talent show" by the other party, and the little girl smiled gratefully at Hua Jin.
Jin Hui smiled and walked out of the subway station following the flow of people.
When the cold wind blew outside, she shivered from the cold, and walked quickly to the place where she went to work.
"Xiao Huahua." Tan Yuan saw Hua Jin coming, opened the door from the inside, and asked Hua Jin to come in quickly, "It's a bit windy outside today, are you cold?"
"It's okay." Hua Jin rubbed her hands, took off her coat, folded it, put it in the locker, and sorted out the things in the store. The decorations in the store are all embroidery and lacquerware, many of which are handmade by Tan Yuan's parents, which are the signboards in the store to attract customers.
The second old man doesn't care much about the store's affairs now, so Tan Yuan is the big boss in the store. She is barely the second boss, and they get along quite happily with each other.
"I received a custom carp embroidery ornament last night. You know I've never been good at carp embroidery. It can only be hard on you." Tan Yuan lay back on the table and yawned lazily, "Young people today, it's okay. Addicted to worshiping koi and sucking pandas. There are so many interesting embroidery items in our Shu embroidery circle, but these two are the most popular."
After speaking, she turned her head to look at Huajin, and saw that she was carefully wiping the koi lotus fan screen, as if it had a mysterious power on it, which could make people win gold every day.
"Shh." Hua Jin put the fan screen in place, turned to Tan Yuandao, "Little Tangyuan, the mysterious power of koi, a vulgar and ordinary person like you cannot understand."
"Yes yes yes." Tan Yuan nodded, "Actually, you shouldn't be called Hua Jin, you should be Hua Jin Li."
"If the uncle of the police is not too troublesome, I would like to change the name to Hua Koi Panda, there are cats and fish, auspicious!" Hua Jin walked to the chair and sat down. Although their store is small, it is better than the exquisite decoration. Look It's pretty stylish.
The price of customized products is higher, and they are all embroidered by hand, using the best colored embroidery thread and Shu brocade. It's a pity that the pace of modern life is fast, and few people deliberately spend high prices on custom embroidery pieces. In order to keep up with the times and get out of poverty and go to a well-off society, they also sell small pendants with the style of Shu embroidery, blessing bags, scarves and shawls.
Some literary youths are willing to spend some spare money to buy these things with traditional artistic style and feelings as accessories.
For many ordinary people, they don't care whether the embroidery they buy is Shu embroidery, Hunan embroidery, or Su embroidery, Cantonese embroidery, etc. As long as it is beautiful and attractive, and the price is in line with their wishes, they may spend money on it. Hua Jin and Tan Yuan are well aware of the current situation. In order to run the store well, they must not only be in line with the times in terms of aesthetics, but also try to retain the characteristics of Shu embroidery.
Tan Yuan's parents are relatively traditional craftsmen, and the second old man does not understand what "in line with the times" means, but as there are more and more young customers in the store, the second old man does not say much.
Hua Jin sat next to the embroidery stand and embroidered the pictures of fame and wealth that had not been completed before. Tan Yuan ordered incense and placed it in the store, reluctantly making the store more ancient.
Embroidering samples in the store can not only arouse the curiosity of customers, but also make them more believe that the things in the store are hand-embroidered by hand, rather than embroidered by machines and then sold at high prices under the banner of hand-embroidery.
In recent years, as some young people have paid attention to traditional art, some black-hearted merchants have begun to sell feelings, holding ordinary embroidery products embroidered by machine, boasting that they are artificial hand embroidery, which has attracted some deceived customers to think that the so-called traditional embroidery art is nothing but in this way.
Tan Yuan's mother, Gao Shulan, Hua Jin's master, often sighs helplessly because of these things. However, the world is so big, and many things will not change because of personal will. The only thing they can do is not to change their original intentions, so that every object in their hands has its own characteristics.
At eight or nine in the morning, there were basically no guests. Hua Jinxiu waited for a while and heard footsteps coming from the door. Looking up, a middle-aged man in a gray and white coat stood outside the door and looked in. His neck was drawn back, his arms were not It hangs naturally behind him, looking a little cramped.
Putting down the needle, Hua Jin got up and walked to the door: "Welcome, if you need anything, please enter the store and watch it slowly."
The man squeezed a smile at her, and Hua Jin noticed that he had secretly wiped his hand on the edge of his trousers twice before stepping into the door lightly. He moved cautiously, as if he was afraid of stepping on the floor under his feet and rubbing things in the store.
His eyes turned around in the store, and when he turned to see that Hua Jin was not staring at him all the time, he continued to look. There are fashionable and retro handbags in the store, as well as exquisite and beautiful Shu embroidered high-heeled shoes, fans, ornaments, capes, hats, and even a set of miniature phoenix crowns.
"Do you... have quilt covers for sale here?" The man spoke non-standard Mandarin and turned to look at Hua Jin, "It's the kind of red dragon and phoenix Chengxiang quilt covers."
In this era, there are many kinds of quilt cover patterns, and machine embroidery can meet various requirements. Hand-embroidered quilts like Longfeng Chengxiang are not only troublesome to embroider, but also outdated in the eyes of many people. Now even newlyweds don’t like to use such quilts in their wedding rooms. Naturally, I will not prepare this: "I'm sorry, there is no dragon and phoenix Chengxiang quilt in our store."
Hearing Hua Jin's answer, the middle-aged man didn't seem surprised, he nodded and was about to go out.
"Wait a minute." Hua Jin saw that the man was sweating profusely even in the weather in March, and turned around to get him a glass of water from the water dispenser, "Do you have to buy a dragon and phoenix quilt?"
The man was dressed a little shabby, and he couldn't let go of his hands and feet when he arrived at this delicately decorated shop. When he saw the beautiful shopkeeper pouring water for him, he thanked him embarrassingly. His brows were stained with sadness, wrinkles left ravines on his dark forehead, and the big rough hand holding the paper cup trembled slightly.
Maybe he was depressed for a long time, and when he saw a strange young girl, he also had the idea of confining.
"More than 20 years ago, I got married to Wa'er. At that time, I told her that when I had money, I would definitely buy her a quilt. , The old man's money for medical treatment ran around to work, and now she is seriously ill, I remembered that many of the promises I made to her back then have not been fulfilled." The man in his forties crouched on the ground, covering his face with one hand and crying bitterly. He looked very ugly when he cried, and even leaked the long-sleeved shirt with the frayed edges inside his jacket.
"I'm not a thing, I'm useless and useless..." The man said hoarsely, "I managed to collect some money to send her to a big city to see a doctor, but the doctor said she was terminally ill with cancer. That's it, that's it."
With a face full of frost, he counted his wife's good, and said how useless he was, saying that he had searched many places in this city, but he could not find the kind of dragon and phoenix quilt that his wife wanted.
Seeing a big man cry like this, Tan Yuan looked up at Hua Jin at a loss, but unfortunately Hua Jin lowered her head, so she couldn't see Hua Jin's expression.
"According to your accent, it should be from a city in the southwest. Maybe we are still fellow villagers." Hua Jin raised her head and handed the tissue to the man, "If you really need it, I can help you make one. set."
The dragon and phoenix red quilt was once a favorite among customers in Shu embroidery.
All kinds of unfortunate things will always happen in the world, and the idea that you need to be cured when you are sick is common sense in the hearts of many ordinary people. But ordinary people certainly don't know how difficult it is for a poor family to be willing to send a seriously ill family member to a big city for treatment.
Feelings and humanity are sometimes vulnerable in the face of money. It is also in this way that it shows the invaluable value of honest feelings.