The Female Supporting Role Shows Out

Chapter 80: Embroiderer (2)

The boy's appearance was one in a million and unparalleled in the world. Yet, a few days after he moved in, the servants had already found out his background.

"Miss," the servant looked around, got close to Lin Dan's ear, and whispered as if she was a thief, "The neighbor next is the former Empress Du's nephew and niece, named Du Rusong and Du Ruyan. Their father is Xue Lie, who was a nobleman. When the Du was favored, the brother and sister were known as the double bullies in the capital. One was a playboy, and the other was arrogant and domineering. Almost no one dared to provoke them. After the Du was abolished, their mother was abandoned by the husband's family. The two of them changed their surnames and followed the Du to live in the Lin'an mansion. This place is very close to the Taoist temple where the Du family prays, so it's convenient for them to take care of it. So, they moved here."

The current emperor ascended the throne when he was a child. He was pretty talented and governed the country very well. He and the empress were very loving with each other. Therefore, the empress's maternal family was highly valued and gradually controlled the military and political power. It could be regarded as an influencing family. It was a pity that the good times didn't last long. Empress Du had no son. She was so reckless that she was tempted to poison Concubine Min, who was in labor and take her child as her own. However, due to her lack of prudence, her intention was caught by the emperor.

The emperor was furious. He immediately ordered to ground the empress, and many officials took the opportunity to impeach the descendants and expose their crimes. After the emperor's thorough investigation, His Majesty found that all the crimes were capital crimes. He couldn't help but feel more disappointed at the empress. Hearing that she was resentful, she tried to hit the pillar and commit suicide. He eventually detested her. He issued an imperial edict to abolish her empress and demote her to the Lin'an mansion.

Since then, she had been cultivating in the Taoist temple not far away. It was said that her face had been disfigured and could never be returned. In order to protect themself, her maternal family distanced themselves from her. Only her sister helped her throughout; she even broke up with her husband's family. Unfortunately, her sister had a bad life, and she soon died of illness. Her two children fled to the Lin'an mansion with a considerable dowry and find the former empress.

It was more like taking care of her instead of escaping. The former empress had nothing now and had to stay in the cold Taoist temple and endure hardship for the rest of her life. In order to make her feel better, the Du's brother and sister spent a large sum of money to repair the Taoist temple and moved to this not spacious mansion.

Concubine Min, poisoned by the former empress, got a blessing in disguise and was promoted to the imperial concubine. The prince she gave birth to was now two years old. Apparently, the poison in the child's body had not been cleared. He was weaker than ordinary children. The emperor felt guilty for the mother and son, so he vigorously promoted the maternal family. Perhaps it was a coincidence that Li Ran, the Concubine Min's father, was transferred to the Lin'an mansion as the governor.

This caused the life of the former empress and the Du brother and sister to be even worse. They had been alienated and isolated by the noble families of the Ling'an mansion. If it weren't for the great fortune, they might not be able to live a good life, where their situation was no better than the Lin family.

After listening to the treacherous imperial strife, Lin Dan nodded and said, "We just treat them as to how we normally treat others. There is no need to deliberately alienate them." She was indeed incapable of icing on the cake for others, but she disdained to add insult to injury.

"Are you sure we don't need to deliberately alienate them?" The servant was uncertain. After all, the Du family was a family that even the emperor despised. So there would always be a risk to deal with them.

"Not necessary. It's better to have a good neighbor than a distant relative. Haven't you heard that?" Let's go downstairs. I want to sleep for a while.

After the servant went out, she frowned and seemed a little worried. It was challenging to change the situation of the Lin family. After all, the Meng brother and sister were connected with the governor of Zhejiang province, Imperial Concubine Min's maternal family. If the emperor always favored Imperial Concubine Min, the Li family would never be defeated, and the Meng siblings would be better and better.

Now that the Lin family had been trampled into the mud, could they still turn over? Could they defeat the powerful Meng family?

One question after another appeared in Lin Dan's mind, but she suppressed all of them. No matter how vague her future was and how tough it would be, she would first learn up the embroidery, then only talk about other things. Then, finally, she could open the embroidery shop with her exquisite embroidery skills, and only then was she qualified to compete to be the imperial merchant. As the saying goes, progress can be made slowly, one step at a time.

Thinking of this, Lin Dan closed her eyes and fell asleep in an instant.

The next day, the two aunts came to teach her as usual and patiently explained, "Embroidery is a painstaking skill. You have to be calm and learn it carefully. There is no trick or shortcut to learning embroidery. It's all embroidered stitch by stitch. So, are you ready?"

"Yes, I'm ready." Lin Dan took out a set of needle and thread and nodded cautiously.

The two aunts were relieved and said, "It's good that you're willing to learn. Embroidery requires a lot of eyesight. In order to see clearly, we need to choose a suitable place to work. This place can't be too dark, too noisy, and too messy. The best four words to describe are unoccupied, quiet, bright, and clean. You can sit wherever you like, and we will learn it slowly."

Lin Dan looked around; she pointed at the garden outside the window and said, "Let's do it in the yard."

The yard was full of shady trees, blooming flowers, and butterflies flying around. That was beautiful spring scenery. It was an excellent place to sit under a tree and embroider. The light was neither too bright nor too dark, and the surroundings were not noisy. The two aunts were satisfied and said, "Okay, let's go to the yard to embroider."

The group of people sat in the yard. They first explained the types of embroidery and then talked about the patterns and the flowers' color. Then they let Lin Dan start from the simplest running stitch and said directly, "Running stitch comprised vertical, horizontal, and diagonal. There are four key points: straight, neat, uniform, and smooth; the space between the consecutive stitches cannot be unequal, cannot overlap, cannot intercept, and cannot expose the foundation fabric. After you're well-versed with the running stitch, you can only continue to practice other stitching techniques. Running stitch is the foundation of all kinds of stitching techniques. With this technique, you can embroider most of the patterns in the world. Do you understand? "

"I got it." Lin Dan nodded obediently.

"We demonstrate it to you once, and you observe." The two aunts took out their needle and thread and began to embroider. Soon, two lifelike spring flowers appeared on the white embroidered cloth. Although it was only made from running stitch and simple in style, the needlework was dense, pinkish in color. It looked lovely.

Lin Dan almost learned at a glance; She quickly picked up the needle and threaded the needle.

There were not many servants in the house, so the two concubines had to do other chores besides teaching. Seeing that Lin Dan was very serious and conscientious, so they left. Occasionally, they would spare some time to see her and let the servants look at her if she was lazy.

Lin Dan held an embroidery needle in her hand and cautiously shuttled back and forth on the embroidery cloth. She looked very calm, but there was countless anger inside her. She thought it was a simple thing to work with an embroidery needle, but she only knew how difficult it was when she put it into practice! She initially intended to insert the needle here and out from another side, but her hand shook, and it was far from expected. A spring flower was embroidered into a tuft of bird droppings; yellow and white colors were all mixed up together.

She stared at that tuft of "bird droppings" for a long time, and the hands she was holding the embroidery needles were trembling. She thought that she shouldn't be holding a needle but a knife to destroy these messy things.

"Miss, miss, what do you want to do?" Seeing that she suddenly stood up and went to the woodshed, the servant quickly followed her.

"Miss, you can't take a knife. Be careful not to hurt your hand!" Seeing her coming out of the room with a woodcutter, the servant was so scared that her face turned pale.

Lin Dan put a wooden block in the yard without saying a word; she raised the woodcutter and chopped it. When she felt unhappy, she always wanted to kill people. She didn't know when she got this habit.

"Miss, what are you doing? Quickly stop it!" The servant cried. She wanted to get close, but she was afraid of being hit by the wood chips. She could only stand there and persuade her.

However, Lin Dan didn't care about it at all. Instead, she cut the wooden block into small pieces with just a few strikes, and slowly patted the hem of the dress covered with wood chips, and said gradually, "Change me a new embroidery cloth. Let's continue to practice."

The servant looked at her calm face as if nothing had happened and then looked at the smashed wooden block on the ground. She couldn't help but shudder. She quickly changed a new embroidery cloth for Lin Dan and cleaned up the mess on the ground. Then she retreated far away, not daring to go near Lin Dan at all.

Lin Dan hid the woodcutter under the table cloth, picked up the embroidery needle, and continued to practice the running stitch. After practicing for a while, the third aunt came. She picked up that tuft of "bird droppings" and looked at it with an indescribable expression. Fortunately, Lin Dan didn't run away nor slacked off today, which was already remarkable progress. She didn't dare to be harsh on her. Instead, she said a lot of encouraging words.

Lin Dan nodded obediently and continued to embroider. Then, 15 minutes later, a tuft of slightly better-looking "bird droppings" appeared. She held the embroidered cloth and looked at it for a long time until her eyes were almost frozen. Only then did she let go of it, bent down, and took out the woodcutter under the table.

The maid cried and quickly moved backward.

However, Lin Dan refused to let her go. Instead, she said in a calm tone, "Bring me another wooden block."

The servant hesitated. After she glanced at her, she rushed to the woodshed like a frightened bird. A moment later, she took back a half-person tall wooden post.

Lin Dan slowly rolled up her sleeves and raised the woodcutter. With a few strikes, she chopped the half-person tall wooden post to only two feet long. Embroidery almost lost all her patience. Now, she only thinks of killing people. Why holding an embroidery needle was much more complex than holding a knife to kill people? Why?!

Her eyes were as dark as water, and her face was as cold as ice. It looked a little scary. But, when she finished chopping the wooden post, her cold aura disappeared in an instant, and she turned into the unruly, which seemed to be a naive little girl again.

"Well, sweep it and change me another cloth again. Let's continue the practice." As usual, she hid the woodcutter under the table cloth and said calmly.

The servant was so frightened that she didn't even dare to breathe. She quickly cleaned the yard and took the poor little wood post back to the woodshed.

As soon as Lin Dan sat down, the fourth aunt came. She picked up two embroidered cloths and looked at them. She praised, "Well done, you've made progress! Keep practicing. Don't stop."

"I will," Lin Dan nodded and suggested, "Forth aunty, please help me to ask the servant to bring a few more bundles of firewood later. The woodshed is almost empty."

"Okay, it seems that you're starting to be sensible." The fourth aunt felt pleased and left, while Lin Dan held the embroidery needle in her hand and continued to practice. She looked as calm as she could.

Not far away, Du Rusong quietly jumped off the treetop, shook his head, and laughed. How could this little girl be so valiant! That was interesting!