The old woman stretched out her trembling hand and handed the stack of papers to Sun Miao'er.
Sun Miao'er took the torn pages, flipped them open, and saw the words "white silk" faintly visible, which made her realize that these scraps of paper were not simple.
"Grandma, are these for me?" Sun Miao'er asked loudly.
The old woman nodded and tapped her cane a few times to indicate her agreement.
Sun Miao'er poured some loose silver from her purse and handed it to the old woman, saying gratefully, "Thank you, old woman!"
She knew that this amount of money couldn't fully express her gratitude to the old woman, but it was all she could give.
The old woman refused to accept it, instead stuffing the silver back into Sun Miao'er's hand. Her deep voice, filled with the weight of time, said, "Pass it on, this... this..."
After she finished speaking, the old woman's voice was slightly choked with emotion, but she still showed gratitude.
When the woman saw her mother-in-law handing the waste paper to Sun Miao'er, she didn't stop her. She just said, "Finally, someone wants this waste paper. Old woman, you can rest easy now."
"Aunt Sun, what do you mean by that?" Sun Miao'er asked, puzzled.
The woman lowered her voice and spoke, which the old woman could not hear. She said, "Years ago, my mother-in-law showed these things to my husband, but we couldn't understand the pictures and text on them, and they weren't complete, so we didn't take them seriously. Later, my mother-in-law went around looking for people to give away this stack of waste paper. Some people accepted it on the surface, but then threw it away. My mother-in-law would pick it up again. This went on for many people, but in the end, she still couldn't find anyone she could entrust with it."
"In all these years, you are the first person I have ever met to come to me looking for this thing."
After listening to the woman explain the whole story, Sun Miao'er understood that the old woman was probably worried that there would be no successor to the white cotton yarn craft, which is why she had gone to great lengths to find someone to inherit the craft all these years.
It was nearly noon when they returned to the Wei family home.
Wang Xueru was sitting in the courtyard waiting when she came up and asked, "Where did you go? I've been looking for you all morning, and you didn't even call me!"
"I took a walk around the village."
Wang Xueru feigned anger and said, "Didn't we agree to go together? Miao'er, why did you sneak off?"
Sun Miao'er laughed and joked, "I'm just afraid of disturbing your sweet dreams!"
After saying that, she put the stack of papers on the table and said seriously, "I have found some clues about white raw yarn, but I don't understand a lot of the things on it. I need to find someone who specializes in this to explain it to me."
"That's not difficult. We'll have Brother Jingnian find us a master craftsman in the workshop later."
Wang Xueru stared at Sun Miao'er's face for a moment, then suddenly chuckled and said, "Miao'er, something's not right with you today."
"What's wrong?" Sun Miao'er touched her cheek, trying to appear calm.
Wang Xueru stretched out a slender, jade-like finger and brushed it across her face, teasingly saying, "You're wearing rouge today!"
"I didn't!" Sun Miao'er tried to argue.
Wang Xue pressed on, holding her index finger in front of her. "You're talking nonsense! Look at my fingers, they're stained with color, you can tell I put on some! Remember, we didn't bring any rouge!"
"I saw a peddler selling them on the road, so I bought a box," Sun Miao'er argued, but she didn't want to tell the truth.
Wang Xueru opened her palm and teased, "Let me see how pretty it is. Let me apply some too?"
Sun Miao'er was about to take it out and give it to her when she looked up and met Fu Yuchi's dark eyes. She immediately understood the deep meaning in his eyes and changed her words, saying, "If you like it, I'll buy you another box."
"Hey, Miao'er, how come I didn't realize you were so stingy before!" Wang Xueru was a very easygoing person, so she naturally didn't take these things to heart and laughed.
Sun Miao'er strode into the house, saying as she went, "I'm going to study these manuscripts; maybe I can understand them!"
They didn't see Wei Jingnian until the afternoon.
Wang Xueru sat on a stone bench in the courtyard, with a pile of woven grass wreaths on the table, decorated with small flowers.
Looking up and seeing Wei Jingnian, she said irritably, "Brother Jingnian, why don't you keep your word? Didn't you say you'd take us for a walk around the village? It's so late, where can we go?"
Wang Xueru thought that if A Cui followed her, she would have to stay in her room as soon as it got dark and wouldn't be able to go anywhere.
Ah Cui even brought paper and pen to record her daily life.
Wei Jingnian looked exhausted, completely lacking the high spirits he had displayed outside. He sat down listlessly, saying, "Don't even mention it. I spent the whole morning in my grandfather's yard, and it really wore me out."
"How could it be not enough? With so many young ladies doting on you, aren't you comfortable?" Wang Xueru teased him intentionally, chuckling to herself.
Wei Jingnian's face darkened upon hearing the words "little grandmother." "Xue Ru, are you hiding something bad? Hmm?"
As he finished speaking, he was about to raise his hand to tap Wang Xueru on the head when he bumped into A Cui, who was standing next to him with a face ashen, and immediately withdrew his hand.
Ah Cui said, "Please, Young Master Wei, be mindful of your actions."
Wang Xueru became serious and put down the grass ring in her hand. "Miao'er seems to have found some clues, which are related to the white cotton yarn."
"Miss Sun was able to find this?" Wei Jingnian could hardly believe it.
"Shall we go in and take a look?" Wang Xueru asked in return.
After they finished speaking, the two of them went into Sun Miao'er's room one after the other. Sun Miao'er was lying on the table, carefully studying the pile of manuscripts.
Wang Xueru walked to the desk, glanced down at the illustrations and annotations, and thought, "This is really difficult. Do you have any clue?"
Sun Miao'er rubbed her temples. The sun had moved to the west, and the light in the room had dimmed considerably. "I can understand some of it. Here, we need to distinguish between warp and weft threads, and weaving is also divided into raw weaving and spun weaving."
"Raw weaving refers to weaving undyed cloth directly into silk, while 'cooked weaving' means dyeing the silk threads in advance before weaving them into finished products."
By this point, she had a good understanding of the weaving techniques, "but the techniques for raw yarn are still severely lacking, and I can't contact many of them."
She realized that woven fabrics are suitable for heavy materials, while Xiangyun yarn is designed to be light and thin.
However, she still didn't understand how to lay the stitching to achieve the thinnest and lightest effect.
"Young Master Wei, could you find a mentor to guide me?"
Left with no other choice, Sun Miao'er still had to ask for help. It seems that getting things done is not so easy.
Wei Jingnian glanced through the manuscripts. “Even the craftsmen in the workshop might not understand these things. They do routine work without any flexibility. But I do know someone who can definitely understand them.”
"who?"
“My grandfather’s fifth concubine,” Wei Jingnian said.
Sun Miao'er was speechless. This was already up to the Fifth Concubine—she absolutely had to go this time. "Could you take me to see her?"
"Sure, but..."
Wei Jingnian felt it necessary to let them know the situation in his grandfather's courtyard before going there, to avoid another chaotic scene. He had just barely escaped from there, and now he was going in again; most people couldn't handle that.
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