The Female Supporting Role Shows Out

Chapter 81: Embroiderer (3)

Embroidery required a lot of patience, which was precisely what Lin Dan lacked the most. Every few quarters of an hour, she would become very anxious and cannot continue. However, the Lin family had fallen, so she had no choice but to learn embroidery and revive the family business. Therefore, she had to find an effective way to suppress the anxiety in her heart and smoothen her sharp edges.

The wooden blocks and posts in the house were visibly decreasing. When the fourth aunt was cooking, she complained to the servant for being too diligent and chopping the wood into too small, making it difficult for her to control the fire. The servant felt distressed in his heart, but he didn't dare to express it. He was a little scared after seeing the young lady's fierceness while chopping the woods.

Every day, Lin Dan practiced embroidery for a while and chopped wood for a while. When her waist and legs didn't feel hurt anymore, she felt better when taking the needle. Eventually, she felt that her vile was reducing, and she was more flexible and calmer.

She had thought that violence was her nature, but it didn't seem like that. It was more like a sequela caused by some memorable experience than her nature, which just needed a little patience to shape it. Strictly speaking, her temperament was more like water, which could change with the situation. It could lubricant things silently and also surge like a raging tide.

One day, she sat for two hours before she took out the woodcutter and was about to regulate her mood, but she saw the servant, Cui Lan, walking in with a strange expression.

"What happened?" Lin Dan asked casually as she adjusted the wooden post properly.

After looking around, Cui Lan lowered her voice and said, "The Du's brother and sister have moved here for more than a month, but they have never talked to us. Today, for some reason, they sent someone to send a cart of gifts."

"What is there to be strange about? More than a month ago, they had to tidy up their new home, so naturally, they were not in the mood to make friends with their neighbors." Lin Dan split the wooden post evenly into two with a single strike. Then she placed them properly and chopped them into four pieces, followed by six, eight 

Since the servant was scolded by the two aunts, she didn't simply vent her anger. Instead, she chopped the wooden piles into strips so that they could be carried to the kitchen to use.

Cui Lan got even closer to her and asked, "You have no idea, miss. It's not surprising that they gave us gifts after more than a month. What's strange is that his family sent us a cart of wood! The wood that was a few feet long can't be used as wood, nor it's good to make furniture. It's useless except for being used as burning woods. What do you think that means? It doesn't seem that they were so poor and can't afford a gift, right? Mrs. Lin is unhappy now. She thinks that they are bullying us."

However, Lin Dan grinned and said happily, "Woodpile? That was great!" She didn't mind it at all. She could chop as much as they gave, which saved them from spending money to buy firewood.

Cui Lan was speechless.

She shouldn't have discussed this with the young lady!

The two were like dialogue of the deaf. What they didn't know was that behind a wall, Du Rusong was leaning against a tree trunk, eavesdropping to their conversation, with a faint smirk at the corners of his lips.

"Brother, brother, I heard that today you sent a cart of wood to the next-door neighbor? Let me tell you, we are no longer the son and daughter of the imperial. We can't play tricks on others like this!" A girl in a butterfly dress rushed into the yard and shouted.

The faint smile at the corners of Du Rusong's mouth immediately disappeared. When he tried to listen again, he found no sound from the next door anymore.

"Brother, what tricks are you playing? They didn't mess with us. Let's not mess with them!" The girl was still shouting, which made Du Rusong's face darkened. Then, when he was about to scold his sister, the chopping firewood crackling sounded again. It was not disturbed by their conversation at all.

Du Rusong covered his mouth and chuckled.

However, Du Ruyan seemed to have understood the warning message. She pointed at the other end of the wall and said, "Did you hear that? No one would chop wood in the garden. You must have annoyed her. She deliberately chopped wood to protest!" The two houses used to be one. After that, the owner of the house divided the house into two and sold it. The big garden in the center was separated into two small gardens by a wall. The layout was identical.

The more Du Ruyan thought about it, the more she felt like this. She lifted up her dress and climbed up the treetop, trying to see how angry was her neighbor being annoyed by her brother. But she didn't expect that it would be a little girl who was chopping the firewood. She had a round face, round eyes, and a round little nose. She looked very delicate and lovely.

Du Ruyan immediately favored the little girl who looked like a doll. She waved her hand and said, "Hey little sis, is it because my family has sent you a cart of wood, so you're angry?"

Lin Dan picked up a new wooden post and chop it in half. She shook her head and said, "No, I'm practicing embroidery."

"But you are chopping wood!" said rose with a smile

Du Rusong also leaped up to the treetop and looked at the little girl with a smile. Seeing that she chopped a wooden post into even-sized wood strips with ease, his eyes couldn't help but darken. He knew at a glance that this little girl was not just simply chopping wood to vent her anger, but it had the consistency. It was impossible for her to achieve such a chopping skill without more than ten years of hard cultivation.

As soon as he became vigilant, he suddenly realized that the family's background was indeed not clean. In the past, Lin Dafu and Zhang Hui were brigands, and they were skilled at killing people. So it was no surprise for them to teach their little girl such a thing.

Thinking of the little girl's background, looking at her lovely appearance, and thinking of her bold personality, Du Rusong somehow wanted to laugh.

Lin Dan didn't look at him; instead, she stared at Du Ruyan. She often heard from Lin Cui that the lady next door was beautiful. Today she saw her, and it was indeed as pretty as described. Compared with Du Rusong accentuate facial features, Du Ruyan looked gentler and more delicate. She climbed up the treetop in a dress full of the embroidered butterfly as if a fairy descended to the world, with a very attractive spirit.

Lin Dan was very patient with her; she pointed at the embroidery rack behind her and explained, "I feel uncomfortable after sitting for a long time. I always want to chop things. I will finish chopping these woods before continuing embroidery. "

"Oh, I see." Du Ruyan was suddenly enlightened. She looked at her brother thoughtfully and said, "Can you show me the flowers you embroidered?"

"Here you are." Lin Dan put down the woodcutter and picked up the embroidery frame.

The expectant expression on Du Ruyan's face froze slightly and praised, "It's quite lifelike. You did a great job." She couldn't figure out what it was, so she didn't dare to say anything more.

"Thank you. If you need anything in the future, you can come to me to buy embroidery. Sooner or later, I will be better than Meng Si." Lin Dan said earnestly.

"Yes, I will. If I need anything, I will come to you." Du Ruyan gave an awkward smile but couldn't bear, to tell the truth. With the little girl's embroidery skill, she would never be able to catch up with Meng Si, let alone one day in the future. Meng Si began to learn embroidery at the age of three. How old is the little girl? It seemed that she was fourteen years old, right? It was a bit too late.

Unexpectedly, Du Rusong, who always had a sharp tongue, nodded and said, "I believe you can surpass Meng Si in a short time. If you are short of wood, you can come to me as you wish." After saying that, he chuckled again. His handsome features shined in the bright spring day.

Cui Lan's eyes were stunned, and her mouth was wide opened as if going to drool. However, Lin Dan remained unmoved. She nodded and said, "Thank you. After I finish the embroidery, I will give one for free." She said confidently.

"You're welcome, girl." Du Rusong couldn't help laughing. Then, seeing that his sister still wanted to talk to her, he held the back of her neck and jumped off the tree. After moving in for more than a month, he had already figured out the little girl's daily routine. After chopping two wooden piles, she should practice embroidery now, and he couldn't waste her time.

"Brother, you were really good at talking just now. If you behave like this when you are at home, father will never deprive you of being the crown prince. Du Ruyan looked at her brother with an ambiguous smile. With such lovely gift and sweet words. Was her brother in love?

"I'm not lying," Du Rusong said firmly. "Sooner or later, the little girl will be able to make it. You just wait and see." Embroidery could also create such a ruthless force of killing, and she forced herself to sit day and night and practice hard all the time. With such perseverance, what couldn't the little girl do?

Du Ruyan shook her head and snorted, completely ignoring her brother's words.

On the other side, Lin Dan was already wholeheartedly immersed in embroidery. Every stitch of the embroidery was smooth, neat, and dense. Another three months had passed, she had mastered several basic embroidery techniques. She was also good at tailoring. She even made Zhang Hui and two aunts, each a dress, which fitted them very well.

One day, the two aunts finally changed the teaching and said, "You have learned all seven basic embroidery techniques. It's too bad that we are not well versed in the more advanced embroidery techniques, so we can't teach you."

Lin Dan shook her head and said, "It doesn't matter. In the first place, the person who invented embroidery also didn't know anything and relied on oneself to discover them bit by bit. Every embroidery technique was figured out day and night by the embroiderer. If they can do it, so am I."

The two concubines were relieved and said, "It's the best for you to have such thinking. There are some exquisite embroidery works kept in our house. Your father has found them all over the country. We'll bring them to you later. Maybe you will get inspiration from those works. From today onwards, we will teach you how to draw. No matter how skilled an embroiderer is, she can't do anything without beautiful drawings. If you can draw well, you will be able to gain even higher achievements. It is heard that Meng Si is very good at drawing. She doesn't even need to sketch on the embroidery cloth when she embroiders; She could easily embroider at her fingertips. The finished product is quite spiritual. Many of her embroidery works are comparable with the top masters in the world. Wu Huasheng's one painting can be sold for thousands of taels of silver, while one of her embroideries can also be sold at the same price. It is said that her embroidery works are not inferior to those peerless paintings. It can be seen that being good at drawing is very important to embroidery. "

Lin Dan nodded in agreement and didn't dare to slack off.

The two ladies took out another few more spools of thread and said, "Before learning to draw, we will teach you to identify colors. If the drawing is the foundation of the embroidery, then the color is the soul of the embroidery. Only by combining the two perfectly then only will it produce the world's masterpiece. Look, there are four colors of silk threads in my hand, deep green, dark green, medium green, light green "

Lin Dan looked at the embroidery thread, shook her head, and said, "Aunty, you're wrong. There are six colors here."

The two concubines looked at the silk thread and then at her serious face. They suddenly felt a little shocked.