Chapter 31
Mu Yunyao gladly accepted Yang Shi’s kindness, but after five to six days, she called her over and gave her a silver . When she saw Yang Shi’s face darken, she quickly explained .
“Auntie, I know that you were not sending food to us just for silver, but we can not possibly eat for free . Everyone in the village is having a tough time keeping up with the daily expenses . ”
“Haaa, little girl, fine, since it’s like that, then I will use this silver to buy better ingredients for you and your Mother . Just look at yourselves, you two are so thin, a single gust of wind can blow you two away . ”
“Alright, thank you Auntie . Oh, right, I have some thread here, some of them have become useless to me and there also some left overs . I’ve already arranged them properly . Auntie, if you are free, I can teach you a thing or two?”
“Oh, that embroidery technique of yours is way too difficult for me,” Yang Shi quickly rejected her . She really did not believe that she could ever do that .
“There are many embroidery techniques . The technique I was using is indeed way too complicated, but I also know some simpler ones . Auntie has a clear mind, you can definitely learn it . You can take advantage of your break times from the field work and stitch up things like handkerchiefs . You can even sell them to earn extra revenue for your family . ”
“I can really do it?” Yang Shi was very unsure .
Mu Yunyao smiled and nodded her head, “Of course you can . ” Yang Shi’s sincere kindness towards her and her Mother is something that she will never forget .
Mu Yunyao took some time out to teach Yang Shi some simple embroidery techniques . She then drew out some flowers for Yang Shi to practice on . Although Yang Shi was quite slow in learning, she was extremely focused . Thus, her work was quite refreshing and the quality was not low .
Yang Shi was very happy . She brought along her work and went to Yan City for Market Day . When the shopkeeper from Spring Embroidery saw her handkerchief, he also thought that it was quite good and bought it at twenty wens . He told Yang Shi that Spring Embroidery can provide her with handkerchiefs and threads, while she would be in charge of just the embroidery . For every handkerchief done, she would get five wens .
(T/N: I got this from online: 5 jiao = 1 wen . 1000 wen=1 silver . 1000 silver=1 gold . )
(T/N: As you can see, 1 silver is quite a lot . Stupid Li Shi hmph!)
When Yang Shi told Mu Yunyao all about it, Mu Yunyao immediately knew that the shopkeeper was trying to get on her good side . “Auntie’s handiwork has been recognised . ”
Yang Shi was incredibly grateful . She knew that nowadays when people find a way to make money, that would keep their skills to themselves . But Mu Yunyao sincerely taught her some of her techniques . Yang Shi had only sewn on a flower at the corner of the handkerchief . The flower was not even big . If she was quick, she could make quite a few of these in one day . This way of earning money was a bit too easy .
On a particular day, Mu Yunyao finished laying out the foundation for the mountains and rivers . She carefully rolled up her art piece and used a pure white cloth to cover it . Again, Su Qing and Yang Shi accompanied her into the city .
The moment they reached the entrance of Spring Embroidery, the shopkeeper immediately rushed out to welcome them and brought them to the tea room upstairs . “Miss Mu is here, are you lacking anything else?” As he spoke, his eyes were glued onto the fabric that Yang Shi and Su Qing were carrying .
Mu Yunyao did not find it weird when the shopkeeper said out her surname . She would have instead found it weird if he had not gone to do a background check on her . “I thought about it very hard, and I did think that shopkeeper’s words from the other time made a lot of sense . If I did just depend on myself to earn the money for the thread I want, it would take way too much time . It would be much better to just use the materials provided by shopkeeper . But, I wonder how much silver shopkeeper is willing to pay?”
“Wouldn’t this purely depend on Lady’s handiwork? Embroidery has never had had a fixed price . If one likes it, one would even give tens of hundreds of silver . But if one does not like it, even two wens would be way too expensive . ” When the shopkeeper finished speaking, he searched Mu Yunyao’s face for any signs of uneasiness, but he realised that she was very calm, even calmer than him, who had overcome many obstacles .
“I used the thread to somewhat stitch out the outline of the picture . Shopkeeper can take a look at this . ” If she wanted to reel in a large fish, she had to be very careful .