Chapter 156 Advantages and Disadvantages
Once she consummates her marriage and has a child, she can teach the child from a young age, just like her mother, and pass on her mother's Cui Fang business.
Xie Qi was handsome and physically strong. Apart from his occasional unusual behavior that worried her, he was otherwise fine.
Shen Yuanzhu counted on her fingers, muttering, "He's handsome, not stupid, has some ambition but isn't arrogant, that's good enough."
He had a mental illness and abnormal behavior, which Chen Yuanzhu had forgotten about.
Xie Qi's strange ailments are mostly due to the Xie family, but her children won't have such problems.
Her child only needs to inherit her and Xie Qi's beauty, intelligence, and wit.
At that time, she will teach all that she has learned, just like a mother, so that one day there will be a sweet and soft little girl just like herself...
Thinking this, Shen Yuanzhu couldn't help but feel happy.
Her good mood made her no longer feel disgusted by the glaring sun.
With that thought in mind, Shen Yuanzhu quickened her pace.
When they returned to Qianxiang Courtyard, Xie Qi was taking a bath.
He had been sweating profusely from his previous intimate encounter with Shen Yuanzhu, and was now soaking in a cold water pool to cool off.
Hearing the sounds inside, he knew that Shen Yuanzhu had returned. He hurriedly stepped out of the bathtub and quickly wiped the water droplets off his body...
Just as she was about to leave, Xie Qi thought for a moment, took off her plain-colored thin gauze inner shirt, curled up in a ball, and walked out with her upper body bare.
When he entered the room, he saw Shen Yuanzhu sitting in front of the dressing table, fiddling with something, applying it to her face little by little.
He walked up behind her seemingly casually and stopped in front of the bronze mirror.
Xie Qi casually raised his arm to wipe away the water droplets running down his hair. As he moved, his arm tensed, the smooth, powerful lines extending all the way to his shoulder and neck.
Looking at himself in the bronze mirror, Xie Qi turned slightly to the side, revealing his suddenly narrowed waistline and firm abdomen.
He had broad shoulders, a wasp waist, and well-defined abdominal muscles.
Shen Yuanzhu looked up and saw the person in the bronze mirror, feeling satisfied.
Xie Qi's body was beautiful; he was strong but not like a martial artist with intimidatingly bulging muscles. Instead, he possessed a restrained yet refined agility.
Now his expression is indifferent, showing neither hostility nor foolishness, only a hint of noble languor.
It looks great, it's beautiful, and she likes it very much.
Their eyes met in the bronze mirror, and an indescribable ambiguity spread through the room.
Shen Yuanzhu looked down at her face, which was covered in white pearl cream, and blinked blankly.
This seems a bit...
Out of step with the times?
Before she could make a move, Xie Qi walked behind her, leaned down, and supported himself on the edge of the dressing table with both hands, encircling her in his arms.
"What's this?"
Shen Yuanzhu's face was covered in smears, looking like a cat's, with patches of white and yellow. Xie Qi bent down and approached Shen Yuanzhu, who was tilting her head back.
A faint fragrance wafted by, and he lowered his head, bringing his nose close to Shen Yuanzhu's face.
Xie Qi's Adam's apple bobbed slightly, and Shen Yuanzhu, somewhat curious, couldn't help but reach out and gently stroke it.
"Don't……"
He turned his head to the side, his face and one ear turning red.
People are strange like that. When two people are together, one is extremely shy, while the other seems less shy.
Shen Yuanzhu playfully pinched it lightly, and when she heard Xie Qi whimpering like a dog, she couldn't help but laugh.
"You help me."
After teasing him mischievously, Shen Yuanzhu pushed the pearl cream in her hand to Xie Qi.
"What is this for?"
Shen Yuanzhu said, "The Compendium of Materia Medica says that applying pearls to the face makes one's complexion smooth, radiant, and white."
"It's hot outside, so I applied this pearl cream to nourish and protect my skin."
Xie Qi hummed in agreement, then dipped his slender fingers into the porcelain bottle, scooped out a little, and smeared it on Shen Yuanzhu's face.
His movements were devout, and his eyes were earnest, so Shen Yuanzhu closed her eyes with peace of mind.
After applying a layer of pearl cream to his face, Xie Qi pondered for a long time before finally nodding: "What is the value of this?"
"It's not valuable, why are you asking about it?"
She has several boxes of sea pearls and South Sea pearls. The pearl paste made from them are all of poor quality, or even just seed pearls that are not good quality at all, so these things are not very valuable.
Unexpectedly, Xie Qi said seriously, "Then you can help me apply some later too."
Shen Yuanzhu let out a sound of surprise, but didn't ask anything and just readily agreed.
Xie Qi looked at it curiously, then brought it close to his nose and smelled it.
He increasingly felt that Yuanzhu was becoming more and more beautiful lately, and even a fleeting glimpse of her could make him feel her beauty.
When they first got married, he thought Yuanzhu was just pretty, but not as stunning as she is now.
After thinking for a moment, Xie Qi glanced at the pearl cream in his hand and thought to himself that this thing must be very useful.
He looked up at himself in the bronze mirror; he was in his prime, his complexion just right.
But Yuanzhu is fond of men. What if he loses his good looks after a few years and is disliked?
The ancients said that beauty fades and love wanes, and this must be true.
After thinking for a moment, Xie Qi examined it carefully: "Which shop did you buy this from?"
Shen Yuanzhu, with her eyes closed, said lazily, "Give the unfinished pearls to the wet nurse; she made them for me."
"So that's how it is."
Xie Qi nodded, a thought flashing through his mind.
Once the pearl cream on his face had dried a bit, Chen Yuanzhu pushed Xie Qi to the small couch and applied it to him as well.
"Don't move, wait until it's dry."
Seeing Luo standing outside the window winking at her, Shen Yuanzhu patted Xie Qi, coaxing him to stay still on the small couch like a baby.
Xie Qi closed his eyes, behaving very obediently: "I understand."
Just as she was about to get up, Xie Qi grabbed her wrist: "Where are you going?"
"Go cleanse your face."
Xie Qi said "Oh," and then quieted down.
Shen Yuanzhu wiped the pearl cream off her face and went to find Luo Shi.
Madam Luo took out a square roll of brocade from her bosom and handed it to her: "Miss, take a look."
"Is this a newly woven brocade?"
"That's right, look at them, are they any different from the Xie family's?"
Shen Yuanzhu examined the brocade carefully and found that it was embroidered with the most common lotus pattern on the market.
The dyeing technique used is the blending technique from the Shen family dyeing manual. The vermilion is as fresh and rich as cinnabar, and the azurite is as cold and clear as moonlight. The transitions are seamless.
The shades are just right, and the luster is warm and smooth; it is truly beautiful.
The raw silk used to weave this brocade was refined using the secret methods from the Xie family's farming and weaving charts, and its color was indeed even better.
Shen Yuanzhu examined the pearl repeatedly and was satisfied.
However, the Shen family's dyeing skills were far superior to the Xie family's.
She turned the brocade over to examine the back. Seeing this, Madam Luo took out another piece of Xie family brocade from her bosom.
The dyeing is clearly inferior to that of the products from Xiecuifang. To an uninformed person, the difference might not be noticeable, but to an expert, it would be worlds apart.
However, the Xie family brocade uses the "warp-weft break" method. This method produces threads as fine as spider silk that do not break, and the embroidered surface is as smooth as if it had been cut with a knife, without any unevenness.
The gold thread used to pierce the lotus flower's center has over eighty warp threads woven into a space only a finger's width wide.
Shen Yuanzhu watched and clicked her tongue in admiration: "Such skillful technique."
She casually flipped through the pages and sighed, "What a tacky pattern."
In order to compare with the Xie family's brocade, Luo Qing asked the artisans of Xie Cui Fang to choose the same pattern as the Xie family's. Normally, they would not weave such a pattern.
Shen Yuanzhu held both pieces of brocade in her hands and compared them carefully.
A piece of fabric from Xiecuifang can be woven with about seventy warp threads within a width of one finger. It is also smooth and flat, without any skipped threads or exposed threads.
There is almost no difference between the two in terms of the fineness of the stitches and the looseness of the thread.
The only thing that Xie Cui Fang is inferior to Xie Family Brocade is that Xie Family Brocade is skilled in traditional patterns. The lotus pattern is very complex in its weaving, yet it does not appear messy at all.
However, Xie Cui Fang rarely weaves traditional patterns, and when the entire brocade is unfolded, the pattern lacks tension.
This is understandable, though, as the craftsmen at Xiecuifang are not particularly skilled in traditional patterns.
Shen Yuanzhu looked for a long time, a smile playing on her lips: "In terms of color, I surpass the Xie family by several times; in terms of weaving technique..."
Her eyes flickered, filled with the joy of victory: "Today's Xie Cui Fang brocade is comparable to Xie family brocade, and it's hard to tell which is better."
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