Although it was daytime, the room covered with Korean paper was still somewhat dim. Zhou Shaojin's smooth face seemed as shiny as glazed sweet white porcelain, making the light in the room a little brighter.
So beautiful!
Zhou Chujin couldn't help but touch his sister's head and smiled, "Beautiful! I've never seen these patterns before, so I'm a little surprised." He added, "I only saw you writing and drawing in the room before, but I didn't expect you to be able to draw patterns by yourself."
She felt a little emotional, but more of it was joy.
Zhou Shaojin smiled and asked her, "Which one do you like? I'm going to make two sets of clothes for you."
In her previous life, after she went to the farm in Daxing, she had nothing to do every day. Apart from worshipping Buddha in the Jokhang Temple, she would plant flowers and plants at home and do embroidery and sewing.
What’s the point of just drawing a flower pattern
She has embroidered images of Guanyin.
Later, he gave gifts to Lin Shisheng and received praise from the nobles in the palace.
After listening to what Lin Shisheng said, she took the time to embroider a few more pieces as gifts for Lin Shisheng.
Who knew that Lin Shisheng never mentioned this matter again.
She never took the initiative to talk to Lin Shisheng, and after a few days she put the matter behind her.
I don’t know where Mother Fan put her things
Zhou Shaojin feels it’s a pity now when he thinks about it.
Zhou Chujin was very happy, but she thought it would take too much time to embroider the pattern, so she said, "Don't bother me. My aunt asked Tailor Feng to come to the house a few days ago and make me a few more clothes. If you have nothing to do, you can embroider two handkerchiefs for yourself. Or you can embroider a skirt for grandma. Grandma's birthday is in four months. You can give it to her as a birthday gift. She will definitely be very happy." As she spoke, a trace of regret flashed across her brows, and she hurriedly said as if to make amends, "Why don't you ask Tailor Feng to come to the house to make you a few summer shirts? I remember you liked that jade-white silver-striped gauze summer shirt very much. You took it out and wore it twice when it was too small. I happen to have two pieces of jade-white silver-striped gauze..."
Looking at his eighteen-year-old sister, Zhou Shaojin felt extremely embarrassed.
In the past, whenever she heard what her aunt had bought for her sister, she would be in a bad mood for several days, and her sister and the people around her would feel uncomfortable. Now it seems that her aunt was right to do so. Let's talk about making clothes. She was still young and growing taller, so she made too many clothes. Some of them were too small before she could wear them, so they had to be put at the bottom of the box. But her sister was about to get married, and even if she couldn't wear all the clothes, she could give them to the Liao family's maids and servants, which was a rare honor.
"Sister." She interrupted Zhou Chujin with a red face, "That silver gauze is a tribute, and ordinary people have never seen it. My grandmother specially asked the old lady of the eldest house to get it from the capital, and it was left for you as a dowry. If you give it to me, how can we get the 120 loads of dowry?" In order to reassure her sister, she winked at her mischievously after she finished speaking.
Zhou Chujin was stunned for a moment.
Is this still her sensitive and suspicious sister
Zhou Shaojin was happy about his changes in his heart.
Isn't this how it should be between sisters, you give in to me and I give in to you
She was ignorant in her previous life, but in this life she will never make her sister so tired again.
She pushed her sister to the side room and said, "This time, we'll use the fabric in my storeroom. Dad always sends us half of the fabric. Although I don't have any silver yarn, I do have a few pieces of azure blue that's as good as silver yarn!"
Zhou Chujin finally reacted and blushed. She stepped forward and covered Zhou Shaojin's mouth: "Little girl, you dare to say anything. Be careful or I'll let Mother Fan teach you a lesson!"
"Mother Fan is reluctant to teach me a lesson!" Zhou Shaojin dodged with a smile.
The two sisters entered the ear room.
Fan Liushi, Chixiang and others inside and outside the inner room all breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this.
This means the sky is clearing up after the rain!
Zhou Shaojin's mood also became brighter, like the clear sky.
No matter what happens in the future, as long as she and her sister work together, things will definitely get better.
She concentrated on her needlework, and by the time her period was over, the only thing left to embroider her sister's jacket was the cuffs.
Zhou Shaojin combed the hair of two maids, put on a purple jacket with peach-red linked beads, and went with his sister to pay respects to Old Madam Guan.
Old Madam Guan held Zhou Shaojin's hand and nodded continuously, saying, "You look really healthy. I guess you didn't suffer any hardship."
Zhou Shaojin smiled embarrassedly.
Zhou Chujin thanked his grandmother: "Those are the pills you sent over." He then said, "Buddha's Birthday is coming soon. When do you think we should start copying the scriptures?" He sounded as if he wished that Old Lady Guan would keep Zhou Chujin right away.
Everybody laughed.
Old Lady Guan simply said, "Then Shao Jin should stay. It won't be too late to go to Jing'an Zhai to study after the Buddha's Birthday." Then she instructed Si'er, "Go and tell Aunt Shen that I left the second young lady to copy scriptures for me, and she can go to class after the eighth day of the fourth month."
Si'er retreated with a smile.
Zhou Shaojin breathed a sigh of relief.
She hadn't attended classes for nearly ten years, and she had completely forgotten about going to Jing'an Zhai. Moreover, she had already learned everything that Aunt Shen taught her, and she didn't want to go to Jing'an Zhai to attend classes in this life. Especially since there were only two female students in Jing'an Zhai, she and Cheng Ji, and going to Jing'an Zhai to attend classes would inevitably involve dealing with Cheng Ji every day. The memory of her previous life was too deep, and she couldn't be as close to Cheng Ji as before, so it was better for them to keep a proper distance from each other.
But now is not the time to talk about this.
Zhou Chujin followed Madam Mian to Hanqiu Pavilion to ask the maid in charge for instructions. She supported Madam Guan and went to the small Buddhist hall.
The small Buddhist hall was converted from a side room. Although the place is not big, it is neatly arranged with flowers, fruits, incense, candles and curtains. It enshrines a three-foot-tall statue of Guanyin in a cross-legged position, which is carved from a whole piece of red sandalwood. It has smooth lines and exquisite craftsmanship. The Bodhisattva's compassionate face is quiet and peaceful, full of love.
Zhou Shaojin liked it at first sight.
She skillfully took out three sticks of nanmu incense from the canadensis box on the incense table nearby, lit them in the incense burner in front of the Guanyin Buddha statue, and handed them to Old Lady Guan.
Old Mrs. Guan nodded slightly, took the incense with a satisfied smile, knelt on the cushion, and murmured a few prayers.
Zhou Shaojin stepped forward to help the old lady up, lit incense for her, and then offered three incense sticks to the Bodhisattva. Then he and his grandmother left the Buddhist temple, and with Si'er serving them, they washed their hands in the inner room of the old lady Guan.
"Let's copy the scriptures here." Old Lady Guan pointed to the desk by the window in the inner room, "The light is good here."
Zhou Shaojin smiled and said "yes". Si'er and others helped her prepare paper and ink. She tried the pen and calmed down to copy the scriptures. Old Lady Guan sat beside her and flipped through Buddhist books. At noon, Old Lady Guan not only invited Zhou Shaojin to have lunch, but also moved to the inner room for tea after lunch and told her about her youth to teach her how to behave and do things.
Zhou Shaojin felt warm in his heart and felt that he must find a way to warn the Cheng family no matter what and not let them follow the same path as in their previous life.
After that, every morning after breakfast, she and her sister went to pay their respects to Old Madam Guan. While her sister followed Madam Mian's example and learned how to manage the household chores, she copied scriptures in Old Madam Guan's inner room. She accompanied Old Madam Guan for lunch at noon, and they chatted after drinking tea. Then they went back to their rooms to take a nap. In the afternoon, she made clothes in Wanxiangju.
After a few days, Mrs. Fan Liu suddenly asked for leave, saying that Lu'er had caught a cold and her family asked her to go back quickly.
Fan Liu had two sons. The eldest son was Fan Lu, two years older than Zhou Shaojin. The second son was Fan Qi, the same age as Zhou Shaojin, but only fifteen days older. He was a posthumous child. Fan Liu's family only had two mu of thin land. In order to support her two sons, she entered the mansion to be Zhou Shaojin's wet nurse. The two sons were entrusted to the children's eldest uncle.
At this time, Fan Liu mentioned Fan Lu, and Zhou Shaojin remembered that in his previous life, Fan Lu died of illness at this time, and it was because of delayed treatment that he died.
Her heart couldn't help but beat wildly, and she hurriedly said, "Go back quickly!" After she said this, she felt that this was not appropriate, so she said, "I'll ask Shi Xiang to get you ten taels of silver." This didn't seem to solve the fundamental problem, so she continued, "I'll talk to Ma Fushan and ask him to invite Doctor Zhou to go back with you. If the silver is not enough, let Zhou's Clinic find Ma Fushan to settle the bill."
Mrs. Fan Liu was filled with gratitude and said with red eyes, "Why are you so anxious? I'll just go back and take a look."
"You will be right if you listen to me." Zhou Shaojin didn't want to waste time arguing with Mrs. Fan Liu, so he directly told Shi Xiang, "Go and tell Ma Fushan's family to hire a sedan chair to send Madam Fan back."
Fan Liu knelt down and kowtowed to Zhou Shaojin, but Zhou Shaojin thought she was too nagging and asked Shi Xiang to help her out.
After Zhou Chujin learned about Fan Liushi's situation, he privately said to Zhou Shaojin: "You did a good job on this matter. If we can't even take care of the people around us, how can we expect them to be loyal to us?"
Zhou Shaojin received instruction.
Two days later, Mrs. Fan Liu came back.
She kowtowed to Zhou Shaojin: "Thank you, Second Miss, for saving my life. If Doctor Zhou hadn't gone with us, our Lu'er would have lost his life!"
Zhou Shaojin was delighted.
In other words, Lu'er is alive!
Because of her warning, Lu'er survived.
She became more confident in saving the Cheng family.
Zhou Shaojin asked what happened.
It turned out that Fan Lu had been running a fever for seven or eight days. Fan Lu's uncle and aunt were heartbroken and had been using folk remedies without hiring a doctor. Seeing that the child was delirious and refused to eat or drink, they panicked and sent someone to send a letter to Fan Liushi...
Zhou Shaojin couldn't help but frown: "The child's illness is a big deal, why don't they come to you for money?"
Mrs. Fan's eyes turned red, and she said, "When I handed the two children over to them, I agreed on how much money they would be paid per year..."
No wonder!
Zhou Shaojin thought that Fan Lu and Fan Qi were old enough to take care of themselves, and the Zhou family had no shortage of food, so he said, "Why don't you take them both with you?"
"How can that be possible!" Fan Liu shook her head like a rattle and said, "The two young ladies have been so kind to me, how can I go further and take advantage of the Zhou family again." She added, "I have already thought about it. Let Fan Lu farm at home and send Fan Qi to the silk shop as an apprentice. The two children will have a way out."
The eldest son inherits the family business, and the second son makes his own way. This is the custom in the countryside. In the previous life, Fan Lu died of illness, and Fan Qi inherited the family business. With hard work, he not only bought more than 30 acres of fertile land, but also opened an oil press in the countryside, becoming a well-known capable man in the surrounding area. Seeing that her son was able to take care of himself, Fan Liushi stayed with her until she was about to assassinate Cheng Lu. Fearing that Fan Liushi would be implicated if something happened to her, she found an excuse to drive Fan Liushi out of the farm... But she stuffed two thousand taels of silver notes into Fan Liushi's bag...
In this life, since she can change Fan Lu's fate, she can definitely change Fan's mother's fate!
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I would like to ask my sisters to cast a few PK votes and advertise "Jinlingchun" on the homepage!
Please, please!
※(To be continued)