Rebirth to the Eighties to Get Rich

Chapter 6: Master Level Embroidery

“Okay, you live alone, so it would be better to have a dog to protect the home. I’ve told you to get one before, but you didn’t like it and you were unwilling," Mother Ji answered with satisfaction. She realized that after Lao San’s wife tried to hang herself, she matured.

In the end, she chose her son’s wife. Mother Ji was willing to forget about the things Su Danhong committed in the past as long as she was willing to learn and take good care of her son.

Mother Ji went back with a smile and a plate of dumplings.

It was to the extent that Father Ji felt a little odd and asked, “Did you quarrel with Lao San’s wife?”

When his wife went over there just now, she was spitting with anger because she went over several times and did not see Lao San’s wife. He thought there was going to be a scene. He did not think that his wife would return with a good mood. She also brought back a plate of dumplings from Lao San’s wife.

“Danhong wasn’t running around. She saw that Jianyun didn’t have any clothes to wear when he returned this time, so she went into town to buy pieces of cloth to make two new sets of clothes for him. She also bought yarn to knit Jianyun a sweater. She said it took a while to learn to knit from the sister who sells cloth,” Mother Ji said with a smile.

Father Ji heard her and nodded.

“Danhong asked me to take this. I told her no need, but she insisted on it,” Mother Ji continued.

Father Ji said, “Then let’s add dumplings to our meal for dinner tonight.”

"I'll take the pancakes to her first," Mother Ji said.

Mother Ji put the dumplings on their own plate, and then she put pancakes on Su Danhong’s plate to give it back to her. When Su Danhong came, Mother Ji brought her a bowl of seaweed egg drop soup1.

Mother Ji was very efficient. Soon, she brought over a puppy. The puppy was one month old and easy to raise.

After Su Danhong thanked Mother Ji, she gave the dog something to eat and the little black dog settled down at home.

Su Danhong took out the cloth and started to make the clothes. She already knew Ji Jianyun’s size, and she could not even pretend to not know it after getting to know it during those late night time matters.

Su Danhong shyly began to sew new clothes for her man with a needle and thread while she thought about him and if he would like the new clothes she made for him.

Ji Jianyun was still on the train. Before he got on the train, he bought the usual two fried dough twists2 to cope with the two day journey. It wasn’t only him, the other men that work outside did it too. Food could be bought on the train, but it was really expensive. He could gnaw on the two fried dough twists instead.

After he finished gnawing on the two fried dough twists, his stomach was empty. He had to make do for the rest of the journey.

However, Ji Jianyun's mind was on his wife who gave him a bit of warmth during his return this time.

Before, he would feel relieved to leave home after he went back. This time, Ji Jianyun found that he was homesick.

Su Danhong did not have time to think about it anymore. She was going to do her best to give Ji Jianyun clothes and a sweater.

It was getting colder now. She had to hurry up and make it, and then send it to Ji Jianyun so that he could wear it earlier.

This was not a big deal for her. In ten days, she made two sets of clothes and a sweater. After talking to Mother Ji, she took them to the town’s post office and sent them to Ji Jianyun.

The last time she was there was the first time she went to town, so she couldn’t take in anything. This time, she decided to have a good look around the shops in town. Anyways, the clothes were sent to Ji Jianyun. She had a lot of clothes to wear and nothing to do. She should find a way to make money.

In her previous life, she had an embroidery shop and business was good. Even though her older brother helped her open it, she ran the business operations.

She planned on going back to her old job, but she gave up on that idea because she realized that she did not like any of the goods in the town’s only embroidery shop.

If she did embroidery herself, the business would certainly be overwhelming. But she didn’t have any help, so how could she manage an entire embroidery store by herself?

In her previous embroidery store, she hired four embroiderers. Here, where could she hire someone? If the embroidery was the same as those sold in the shop, she would not look at them.

Moreover, she thought she had better be careful.

When she came to the embroidery shop again, Su Danhong came up with what she was going to say. She thought she could make a bit of money to support her family after taking a closer look at the embroidery and price.

“Shopkeeper, do you accept embroidery here?” Su Danhong asked.

The female boss smiled, came over and said, “You can call me sister Hong. Calling me a shopkeeper is the old feudalistic way.”

Su Danhong followed her advice, “Sister Hong, I can embroider better embroidery than this. Will you accept it?”

“I will.” Sister Hong heard this and looked at her and said, "But meizi, do you really know how to embroider?"

Su Danhong understood what she meant. She really didn't have the slender figure that an embroiderer should have, and her fingers were rough and not delicate at all.

“Sister Hong, do you have a sample? I can embroider a little for sister Hong to see,” Su Danhong replied.

“I do,” Sister Hong nodded and skeptically brought her over to a half finished product. Sister Hong showed it to her and said, “Meizi, look at the embroidery.”

Su Danhong nodded. She touched the embroidery and slightly frowned. The quality of the embroidery was ordinary.

But Su Danhong didn't say anything. After all, sister Hong could not show her the best embroidery and she had to see if she was capable.

Su Danhong quietly sat and quickly entered a state. Sister Hong wanted her to embroider a picture of birds and flowers. It was not very complicated. She did this for practice when she was six years old.

Thus, her speed was very fast. In less than an hour, she finished embroidering a bird.

Sister Hong's eyes lit up a little when she looked at the vivid and lifelike yellow oriole bird3. She examined Su Danhong and asked, “Meizi, did I see correctly? How many years have you been studying this?”

“To tell you the truth, sister Hong, I do this in my spare time. I’m learning on my own and learning just to learn, that’s all,” Su Danhong got up, and answered with a modest smile.

In her previous life, she started going to school when she was six and studied for a full ten years, but she had talent in embroidery. Other long time embroiderers needed charcoal to draw, but she did not. She only needed a few glances before she could embroider it. Her speed was fast too.

This was also the last thing that she let her mother worry about.

However, sister Hong was surprised and didn’t believe it. Did this meizi really learn by herself? An embroidery master might not even be at her level!

1. Pic from my favorite Chinese food blog, The Woks of Life
2. 麻花 (máhuā) – Pic
3. Bird pic