Seeing that Du Rusong highly praised his embroidery work, Lin Dan's serious little face finally showed a smile. She waved her hand and was about to jump off the wall to go home for dinner, when she saw Du Ruyan dashing in with a horsewhip, sweeping away the flowers and plants on both sides along the way, her beautiful face was tensed, and her eyes were full of anger.
"What's wrong?" Du Rusong frowned.
"Brother, I'm going to be mad at me today!" Du Ruyan, who had endured for a long time to see the person closest to him, finally shed two lines of tears and said aggrieved: "Faxing Temple will hold a Buddhist meeting in half a month. At the convenience of the Buddhist meeting, all the young talents in Lin'an Mansion will gather. You know, I am already so old, if I don't get married, I will become an old girl, shouldn't I communicate more?"
Du Ruyan was originally the daughter of the Hou's mansion, so she was not worried about getting married, but she had an abolished aunt and her mother was abandoned. How could such a life experience be worthy of the son and brother of a wealthy and giant family? So naturally, her fiancé broke the engagement with her and married her. Now that she is 19 years old, the girls from other families have probably given birth to a few children, but she is still wasting her time.
Recalling the past, Du Ruyan felt even more bitter in his heart, gritted his teeth and said, "In order to participate in the Buddhist meeting, I want to make a new set of clothes. Today at Mengshi Embroidery Village, I saw a piece of satin with hibiscus from clear water and hibiscus flowers on the satin. Swaying and colorful, it was embroidered by Meng Si himself. I immediately took out the money to buy it, but was snatched by Li Jiarong, who arrived later. I said it was me who came first, and I paid first. , this silk and satin should be sold to me, but the shopkeeper ignored it, returned the money to me, wrapped the embroidery cloth, and sent it to Li Jiarong's carriage. When Li Jiarong left, he kept laughing at me as a phoenix with no hair. It's not as good as a chicken. I smashed my palms so I didn't take out the whip to teach her. Brother, I have changed my temperament, so I didn't cause you trouble this time."
Having said that, Du Ruyan stretched out his hand and let Du Rusong look at his palm, only to see that there were many bloody crescent moon marks on it, mottled and shocking.
Du Rusong's eyes were dark, and his face showed pity.
Du Ruyan wiped her tears and said again: "That piece of cloth was stolen, so I wanted to buy another one and asked the shopkeeper if he had any fabrics that Meng Si had embroidered by himself. The shopkeeper told me that their young lady now only has Embroidering the screen, not the fabric. I asked him what Li Jiarong took away just now, and the shopkeeper said, unless I am also the daughter of the governor, I don’t want to wear clothes embroidered by their lady, and she also said that their lady now only Embroider clothes for nobles, what am I?"
Du Ruyan raised her head, her eyes full of unwillingness: "Brother, can you think that we will have today? Can you think that on this day, we will be pointed at the nose and scolded by others?" Speaking of which, she said He slowly lowered his head again and covered his face to prevent his brother from seeing his almost collapsed look.
Du Rusong took his younger sister, who had lost a lot of weight, into his arms and patted it, his face was still as calm, but his heart was turbulent, and it was difficult to calm down for a long time. After all, he was too incompetent to let his mother, aunt and sister suffer these humiliations. What does it mean to join the army, and what does it mean to fight with his life? As long as he can gain power and protect his most important people, he is willing to do anything.
After listening to the gossip, Lin Dan tentatively said, "Miss Du, do you still need embroidery?"
Du Rusong's eyes lit up, and he immediately said, "Of course I need it."
Lin Dan rubbed his hands, feeling a little excited in his heart, but without showing any sign on his face, he said earnestly, "Then you give me five taels of silver as a deposit first, I have to buy embroidery threads and fabrics. After embroidering me You can also make ready-made garments for you directly, but the price will be higher.”
"Five taels of silver? No problem." Du Rusong immediately took out a silver ingot from his purse and handed it to the little girl sitting on the wall.
"It's ten taels." Lin Dan weighed the silver ingot, jumped off the wall without saying a word, turned into the small garden of Du's house, picked up the big knife that Du Rusong had thrown aside, and split the silver in half.
Du Ruyan was frightened by her brother's emergency medical treatment and Lin Dan's sturdy behavior. She was full of grievances and forgot her tears. She just stared at the little girl with a big knife in one hand and silver in the other. .
"Don't," Du Ruyan hurriedly grabbed her brother's sleeve and said embarrassingly, "I'll find the fabric myself, so I don't need to bother Miss Lin." She still has a fresh memory of Miss Lin's "world-shattering work", but she doesn't dare to Wear that stuff on your body.
Du Rusong, however, ignored her pleas, took half a silver ingot with a smooth cross section, and smiled: "Please ask Miss Lin to measure the size for her sister. You can decide what pattern to embroider, and we can discuss the price."
Lin Dan waved his hand generously: "When the clothes are made, you can give them a look. If you are not satisfied, give a little less, and if you are satisfied, give a little more. Anyway, this is the first time I have taken over the job, and I am not very familiar with the market price, so it is fine. In the future, when I become famous, the price will go up."
Du Rusong had long been accustomed to Lin Dan's character, and the condensation on his face slowly receded and was easily replaced. He can get along with this little neighbor without any burden, and he doesn't need to speculate on the motive behind her voice, and he doesn't need to deliberately distance each other to avoid getting into trouble. Come and settle here, it's the right thing to do.
Du Ruyan was taken aback by her brother's decision and wanted to shout "I don't want it, please let me go", but she didn't want to hurt the little girl's self-esteem. Well, isn't it just a waste of money? When the ready-to-wear is made, she can press it into the bottom of the box. The little girl has worked hard to learn embroidery in order to support the Linjia Embroidery Village, and she can no longer discourage her enthusiasm.
Thinking of this, Du Ruyan could only compromise and let Lin Dan measure herself with a blank face. When her brother and Lin Dan joined forces to make trouble, her unwillingness and resentment faded away without realizing it, and she was left with a mixture of laughter and laughter.
"I must bring the clothes over before the Buddhist meeting." Lin Dan silently wrote down Du Ruyan's size, then climbed up the wall and turned over. The movements should be as neat as possible.
Du Ruyan was stunned and reminded: "Brother, do you just let her go over the wall of our house? If things go on like this, won't our house become her back garden, where you can come in and go out when you want?"
If another person dared to do this, Du Rusong would have broken the other person's leg long ago. But right now, he just smiled lightly and waved his hand indifferently: "It's okay, Miss Lin has her own measure."
Du Ruyan looked at her brother for a while, then shook her head and walked away.
…
This was the first business Lin Dan received, and it was also the first step for her to reopen the embroidery shop. Naturally, she did not dare to slack off. After getting the deposit, she sneaked out of the house with Cuilan to buy embroidery threads and fabrics. But the slightly better fabrics on the market are very expensive, and only some scraps can be bought for fifty taels of silver.
"Miss, we still have some good fabrics in the storeroom, which Madam left for you as dowry. You can use the fabrics at home and ask Du Gongzi to give you the money after you finish the clothes." Cuilan suggested.
"Alright, let's go then." Lin Dan put a large bundle of white embroidery thread into the basket. She is now used to buying thread and dyeing it herself. There are too few colors of embroidery thread on the market for her to use.
Halfway through the two of them, Lin Dan changed his mind again, "Why don't we go to Faxing Temple to see." You can wear whatever you want at home, but when you go out, it depends on the occasion. She has to see it with her own eyes. Only by looking at what Faxing Temple looks like can you find inspiration for embroidering clothes.
Cuilan also wanted to go and play, so she nodded and said, "Okay, Faxing Temple is not far from here, and it takes three quarters of an hour to walk there."
The two came to Faxing Temple, visited it inside and out, and gave some money for sesame oil. When the sun was about to set, they went back without a word. Through the little novice's guidance, Lin Dan knew that on the day of the Buddhist meeting, the young talents of Lin'an Prefecture would hold a poetry meeting in the garden behind the Daxiong Palace.
Lin Dan didn't remember how majestic those Buddhist temples were, nor how compassionate those Bodhisattvas were. She only remembered that she walked into the garden where autumn was getting stronger, and was captured by a huge ginkgo tree that had survived for thousands of years at a glance. According to the little novice, this ginkgo tree was planted by the emperor of the Qin Dynasty thousands of years ago. It was baptized by wind and frost. Cover the sky.
The autumn wind has dyed it bright golden yellow, and ginkgo leaves with unique shapes are sprinkled like raindrops. When you look up, your eyes are full of dazzling colors. There are also blue clear sky and star-spotted sunlight dotted between the branches, as if separated by A kaleidoscope is spying on another world, that scene can only be described as soul-stirring.
Lin Dan was stunned, and it took a quarter of an hour before he recovered from the magnificence of nature. After leaving Faxing Temple, her mind was filled with golden ginkgo leaves, some hanging in the treetops dazzlingly, some hanging around in the air, and some laying on the ground layer upon layer, so dazzling.
When she finally got rid of this mental shock and returned to reality, the door was close at hand, and Zhang Hui was holding a feather duster and staring at her fiercely: "Where did you go today? After a few months, it sprouted again, right? I made you lazy and made you disobedient!"
Zhang Hui chased behind his daughter and beat her, both mourning her misfortune and angering her for not fighting.
Lin Dan hugged his head subconsciously, and explained as he ran: "Mother, don't worry, I took an embroidery job today and went out to buy embroidery thread."
"Just relying on your three-legged cat skills, what kind of embroidery work? Who can look up to you? San Yiniang and Si Yiniang just praised you in front of me today, saying that you are talented, and you can become a talent with just a little more effort. , As soon as you turned your head, you disappeared, and even the embroidery frame was empty! You are so slack after learning a little bit of fur, how can you support this family in the future? Look at Meng Si, she has been studying for more than ten years. Embroidery, the skill is already at its peak, but you keep practicing every day! Compared with others, what are you, do you have the qualifications to be lazy?" Zhang Hui's eyes were red with anger, but he couldn't do anything about his daughter. She was reluctant to beat her too hard, and her daughter couldn't remember anything if she beat her too lightly. She knew that the Lin family would have what it is today. She shouldn't have spoiled her daughter so much back then, and made her the wayward and lazy look she is today.
Lin Dan ran into the main room, hid behind the two concubines, and explained, "I'm not slacking off, this is my embroidery work, please read it first and then the two concubines. I think I'm ready to go to school, so I'll take it up. Embroidered alive."