Now, the person who teaches several girls embroidery in the family is now Mrs. Yan.
Lady Yan, being from an official family, was well-versed in the latest embroidery styles in the capital. Therefore, she was far more suitable than Liu Yun to teach the girls embroidery.
Yan's full name is Yan Min.
Li Qingruo and her sisters all called her Aunt Min.
That day, Yan Min had just finished teaching several girls acupuncture techniques and told them to rest for a while so as not to strain their eyes.
But then Li Qingruo stopped her needlework, turned around, picked up a piece of cloth, and began to embroider.
"Qingruo, didn't you hear what your aunt said? Rest. The embroiderer's eyes are the most precious thing!"
Li Qingruo blushed and put down the cloth after being scolded by Yan Min.
“Aunt Min…”
Yan Min sighed. How could she possibly scold Li Qingruo in this state?
"Look closely at your eyes."
Yan Min took the cloth away directly, afraid that Li Qingruo would secretly embroider again.
She picked up the piece of fabric and examined it, noting that the stitches were fine and neat, and that it was quite good.
The pattern looks like it's embroidering facial features.
What are you planning to embroider?
“Aunt Min, when it snowed at the beginning of the year, Grandma led us to build a snowman. I thought the snowman looked interesting and wanted to make one for Qingjun to play with.”
Yan Min also remembered this incident. Qingjun had built quite a few snowmen, but later he caught a cold and developed a fever, and the snowmen melted in a couple of days.
But how do you make a snowman? Yan Min immediately became interested.
How are you going to make a snowman?
"Isn't the snowman's body white? I can embroider the snowman's features onto it using white fabric, stuff it with some cotton wool, and that will make a head..."
Yan Min immediately understood; it was indeed quite interesting.
"Then you finish embroidering this head later, and I'll make the body. Let's see if it looks like the original."
"Yes, Aunt Min."
Li Qingruo was overjoyed; Aunt Min hadn't said she was wasting her time on frivolous pursuits.
She was so worried just now, afraid that Aunt Min would think she hadn't practiced embroidery properly.
"Let's rest for a while and go for a walk outside."
Li Qingruo obediently agreed and went out to find her sisters.
Yan Min couldn't help but sigh, girls are so well-behaved and adorable, it's a pity she couldn't have one, what a regret.
After the break, the girls obediently returned.
"Let's not learn needlework now, let's help your sister Qingruo make a snowman first."
"Snowman? There's no snow."
Li Qingzhi asked the question with a bewildered look on her face.
Yan Min smiled and returned the cloth to Li Qingruo.
"Let's make a snowman, it's still a snowman. Let's see if we can make one."
Before long, a round snowman was born from their hands.
"This snowman is so cute, I want one too!"
Li Qingzhi fell in love with him at first sight.
"Okay, this one is for Xiao Liu, and I'll make another one for you."
Li Qingfei was also deeply moved.
"If I were to make a snowman as tall as my third sister..."
Yan Min, Li Qingruo, and Li Qingzhi were all stunned by Li Qingfei's words.
"That would use up so much cotton wool."
"She's the same age as me, that's kind of cute!"
Li Qingzhi thought to herself, "It really is cute. Such a big snowman, I'm sure I'd want to hug it, and it won't melt."
Suddenly the little snowman in my hand didn't seem so appealing anymore. Sigh.
After class, Li Qingruo gave the little snowman she had made to Li Qingjun and Li Qingtong.
Their mothers weren't around, so the little snowman was left to keep them company for the time being.
Wow! A little snowman!
Li Qingjun could tell at a glance that he was overjoyed beyond words.
Li Qingtong was also very happy. Although his mother was not by his side, his grandmother, uncles and aunts, as well as his older brothers and sisters all cared for him and his brothers.
Even their father would chat with them every day to find out what they did on a daily basis.
"Grandma, look at the snowman my eldest sister made for us, it won't melt!"
After Li Qingjun got a fever while building a snowman last time, he was trapped inside the house and couldn't go out. By the time he was finally able to get out, the snowman had already melted.
He was very concerned about it; otherwise, Li Qingruo wouldn't have thought of making one for her brothers out of cloth.
Pan Jinhua had already seen it, but she never expected that a doll would appear.
"Alright, alright, Grandma will secretly make your little snowman."
“Grandmother, my second sister said she wants to make a snowman as big as me, which is such a waste.”
Wow, a life-size doll.
The new brain is definitely the best.
How did you come up with that idea?
Pan Jinhua was very curious. What was she thinking when she made the doll? It was amazing that something unusual had appeared, but it wasn't her doing.
"Grandma, I just wanted to make a snowman. A snowman is round and plump. I just stuff some cotton wool in it and it puffs up. It's very simple."
"It's simple, but it's not easy to come up with it."
Pan Jinhua was generous with her praise, commending Li Qingruo for her intelligence.
She suddenly remembered the handmade dolls sold at some street stalls in modern times.
There are felted ones and crocheted ones; they're very cute, and some people buy them.
"Why didn't I think of that?" Pan Jinhua lamented.
This market is huge, but unfortunately it's too easy to imitate and it's hard to last.
Even in modern times, for dolls to sell well, they still need to be associated with a brand, and the most popular ones are characters from major intellectual property (IP). Copyright is very important; even if genuine products are extremely expensive, people will still buy them.
In ancient times, who knew what IP was? Copyright was nonexistent. What I learned was mine.
What should I do?
Pan Jinhua was very conflicted. If she hadn't remembered, that would have been one thing, but now that there was a way out right in front of her, how could she not be anxious and restless?
Pan Jinhua had always wanted to find something for the girls to do. Now the family had a tofu business, but it was exhausting.
Now it's just the family doing the work, so the wives are also helping out. But once the workshop is built and they need to hire more people, I reckon the Li family's wives will definitely have to retreat back to the inner quarters.
This is not what Pan Jinhua wanted to see. The reason why there is infighting in the inner quarters is simply because people are bored.
When the whole family is busy, who would think about how she got an extra piece of cloth today, or how I could eat one less piece of meat?
Of course, Pan Jinhua wasn't saying that women couldn't contribute anything in the inner quarters. If a woman was willing to stay at home, be a good wife and mother, that was fine too, and she didn't force her.
Like her, she just wanted to stay at home, do nothing, have food served to her, and enjoy her retirement.
The times have only given them one choice, and she just wanted to give them more choices so that they could have different life experiences.
Perhaps if this path leads to another woman in the world an opportunity to earn money, then consider it a blessing.
The more Pan Jinhua thought about it, the more she felt that this doll was indeed a good idea.
The women were meticulous, had learned embroidery, and possessed good aesthetic sense, making them well-suited for the doll business. Yan, in particular, had long wanted to earn money; had it not been for her having Yan teach the children embroidery, they would probably be making tofu every day by now.
We need to think about it carefully.
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