Chapter 112 A Change of Job
After examining every inch of it carefully, Madam Qin moved the item further away to admire it as a whole.
"Beautiful! So beautiful!" she exclaimed with a smile, clapping her hands in admiration. Then she called out to her two female shop assistants to fetch the frame and base that she had arranged to be made in advance.
Her husband heard the noise and helped the two men take the items out of the storeroom.
When Madam Qin saw him, she quickly sent him to deliver a letter to the rich young master.
Her husband responded, carefully put down the tray he was holding, hitched up the carriage, and went to find the wealthy young man.
Qin Niangzi and her two female assistants worked together to carefully assemble the double-sided embroidery, base, and frame.
After assembling the items, they carefully placed them at the innermost part of the room where Qin Niangzi usually kept accounts, to prevent them from being accidentally scratched or bumped by unrelated people.
"Please wait a moment, little sister, I'll pay you the money right away!"
In high spirits, Madam Qin left Jiang Yuan and Xie Wan Niang in the courtyard to drink tea and have snacks, while she quickly returned to her bedroom and took out two hundred and sixty taels of silver from where she hid her money.
With a heavy sigh, Qin Niangzi carried the box containing the money to Xie Wanniang. Breathing heavily, she patted the extremely simple-looking wooden box with a smile. "It's two hundred and sixty taels in total. Sister, check it first, and then we'll talk about other things."
Xie Wanniang didn't stand on ceremony. She opened the box and began to examine the twenty-six silver ingots given to her by Qin Niangzi one by one.
After verifying the authenticity and approximate weight, Xie Wanniang nodded to Qin Niangzi, "I've checked it all. Sister, please feel free to speak if you need anything."
Qin Niangzi smiled, "It's nothing. It's just that the lady who asked you to embroider her daughter's wedding dress and quilt cover last time wants you to embroider another picture of the Eight Immortals paying homage to the Longevity God."
Xie Wanniang raised an eyebrow slightly. "Oh?"
Qin Niangzi explained, "It doesn't matter whether you use Suzhou embroidery or palace embroidery. She's using this to give as a favor. As long as the item is good, it doesn't matter who embroidered it."
She didn't tell Xie Wanniang that her friend planned to prepare a generous gift that was both valuable and tasteful, under the guise of celebrating a birthday, to ask her aunt's son to help her husband get a minor official position in a less remote and impoverished area.
Although her husband was a successful candidate in the imperial examinations of the previous dynasty, he did so during the period when the corruption in the imperial examinations was most rampant. Even now, with the new dynasty newly established and people in short supply everywhere, it would still be difficult for someone like him, who is suspected of serious corruption, to secure an official position.
The emperor preferred to hold both special imperial examinations and regular imperial examinations together rather than give the opportunity to scholars who had obtained official titles at the end of the previous dynasty but had not made any name for themselves or achieved any significant accomplishments afterward. This clearly shows how much he disliked these people.
Fortunately, the son of that country gentleman's wife's aunt is now a fourth-rank prefect. Through his connections, her husband might be able to secure a position as a county magistrate, registrar, or instructor, as a successful candidate in the imperial examinations.
Therefore, the lady of the country gentry generously took out a large sum of money to prepare an expensive birthday gift for her cousin's sixtieth birthday.
In addition to the Eight Immortals Celebrating Longevity embroidery by Xie Wanniang, she also plans to give her aunt a jade ruyi that she has treasured for many years.
Naturally, she also prepared other carefully selected and generous gifts for her aunt's son, daughter-in-law, grandson, and granddaughter.
These matters had nothing to do with Xie Wanniang, so Qin Niangzi did not mention them. She only told Xie Wanniang about the other party's requirements and the payment she was prepared to make.
When Xie Wanniang heard Qin Niangzi say that the other party would need the goods in two months and that she would receive a reward of eighty taels, she agreed to continue taking the job without hesitation.
Although the Eight Immortals Paying Homage to the Longevity Goddess pattern is relatively complex and not so easy to embroider, it's worth eighty taels of silver, and she's willing to put in the effort for the reward.
After the two signed the contract, Xie Wanniang took the cloth, silk thread, and other items prepared by Qin Niangzi and went home with Jiang Yuan.
Now that the weather is warm, she can no longer cover her head and face completely, but she can wear a straw hat with light gauze sewn along the edges.
Many young women do this, and when others see it, they will only assume that she is like other beauty-loving young women, fully covered up because she is worried about getting a tan.
For the next twenty days or so, Xie Wanniang continued to practice martial arts in the morning, gather herbs and process them simply in the late morning, and embroider in the afternoon and evening. She was busy like this until the fifth day of the seventh lunar month, when she finally finished embroidering the "Eight Immortals Paying Homage to the Elderly" picture.
After delivering the goods to Qin's Cloth Shop and successfully receiving her payment, Xie Wanniang politely declined the new order arranged for her by Qin Niangzi, saying, "I have other things to attend to next."
Actually, she was afraid that if she continued to stare at the embroidery cloth, her eyes wouldn't be able to take it.
She didn't want to end up like those professional embroiderers, ruining her eyesight at a young age.
Not to mention that sitting still for long periods of time is also bad for other parts of her body.
So for the next few months, she was determined to become a happy, wild woman who lived in the mountains.
After leaving Qin's Cloth Shop, Jiang Yuan drove the oxcart slowly, while Xie Wanniang took the opportunity to buy a set of pig offal, ten catties of pork fat, two catties of pork belly, twenty catties of wheat flour, twenty catties of rice, twenty catties of millet, one hundred catties of sorghum rice, ten catties of soybeans, ten catties of red beans, two catties of brown sugar, a jar of soy sauce, a jar of aged vinegar, two large bags of coarse salt, two catties of lamp oil, and a catty of straw paper from the roadside stalls and shops.
A jumble of things were piled up by her and Jiang Yuan in the middle and back of the oxcart, while the front of the oxcart contained embroidery supplies provided by Qin Niangzi, wrapped in coarse cloth.
The two drove the oxcart back home. Jiang Yuan continued to work as a hardworking porter, helping to move things to the storeroom, kitchen, and main room, while Xie Wanniang rolled up her sleeves, washed her hands, and began preparing lunch.
Hearing the noise, Xiao Yang and Chen Yuan put down their embroidery frames and strode over to help Xie Wanniang.
While preparing to render lard, Xie Wanniang sent the two little ones to the vegetable garden, saying, "Pick some of each of the following: cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, spinach, and scallions."
"Okay~" The two little ones each picked up a vegetable basket and went to the vegetable garden in the backyard hand in hand.
After they finished washing the vegetables they had picked, Jiang Yuan, who had also finished arranging things, washed his hands and came over to help.
He was in charge of the preliminary preparations: chopping the vegetables, washing the rice, millet, and sorghum together, and cooking them.
By the time the rice was cooked and ready to be taken out, Xie Wanniang had also finished rendering the lard.
She put all the liquid lard into a jar, and put the cracklings in a bowl to make steamed buns for dinner.
I sliced the freshly bought pork belly and stewed it with eggplant and peppers. I made a cold salad with cucumber and spinach, and scrambled four eggs with tomatoes. These four delicious and appetizing home-style dishes were ready.
As for the pig offal, Xie Wanniang planned to braise it that evening, sending some to Hao Yu's house next door and keeping the rest to take up the mountain to eat the next day.
Add a little more salt, and since the weather in this era isn't as hot as it is in later times, the braised meat will still be fine until noon tomorrow.
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