As Jinhua said this, her face was full of joy.
Xia Daohua's eyes widened in disbelief, and she exchanged a look with Lihua. Neither of them could understand Jinhua's mentality.
If what Liu said was true, how could Jinhua be so enthusiastic about pleasing her mother-in-law since she had suffered such a great loss in her husband's family?
Lihua paused and asked, "How many days is your mother-in-law's birthday? With so many designs, I'm really worried I won't be able to finish them in time! Otherwise, why don't you go to the embroidery workshop and hire some embroiderers to do it?"
Jinhua's eyes turned red with grievance:
"Lihua, are you not going to help me anymore? Don't worry, I won't ask you to do everything. Just help me embroider this one, this one, this one, and this one."
Lihua saw that the paintings that Jinhua pointed at were the ones with the most intricate patterns, and she was almost laughing at her:
“So many, or in such a complicated style?
You think too highly of me!
Even if I work day and night, it will take me at least one or two months to embroider it. By then, I'm afraid I'll miss your mother-in-law's birthday party.
Jinhua, if you really don't want to change the pattern, you should just hire a few embroiderers.
It would be better to hire more, otherwise I’m really afraid I won’t be able to catch up.”
The so-called birthday gift was just an excuse. Jinhua's real goal wasn't the embroidery, but to keep Lihua. How could she listen to Lihua's advice?
She was embarrassed and smiled bitterly:
"My family has already spent a lot of money on my wedding. How can I shamelessly spend more money to hire an embroiderer just to please my mother-in-law?
If you're really worried about missing time, why not try this one, this one, and this one? It won't take a month, will it? I can handle those first few pieces myself.
We don't have to work day and night.
Otherwise, if there is a mistake in the embroidery, you have to take it apart and start over, which will only waste more time."
Lihua shook her head: "There are so many, and with just the two of us, we can't finish embroidering them if we don't hurry up."
She carefully looked through the pile of patterns and picked out two more:
"These two have very auspicious meanings too, 'blessings as vast as the East Sea, and longevity as great as the Southern Mountains', so fitting! Let's use these two to replace the one about a hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix and the one about a beauty and heavenly fragrance!"
"Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix" means many birds are surrounding a phoenix, with hundreds of birds chirping, green feathers and red clothes, and all kinds of charming poses; "The Beauty of the Country" means a garden full of peonies, with flowers clustered together, crowded together, and stacked layer upon layer.
Both of these designs fill the entire canvas, requiring hundreds of colorful embroidery threads. For example, in the painting "Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix," the phoenix's tail feathers are embroidered with gold and silver threads.
Besides, although the meanings of these two are quite auspicious, they are really a bit far away from the theme of birthday celebration.
As for "May you be as blessed as the East Sea and live as long as the Southern Mountains", the composition is simple and elegant, with a large area of white space on the screen. It does not require so many colors of embroidery thread and is much simpler to embroider.
The only difference is that the colors of the picture are cold, with more blue, black and green colors used, and it is far less bright, dazzling and magnificent than the previous two.
If you really want to celebrate a birthday and are in a hurry to finish the work, Lihua's suggestion is naturally reasonable.
However, Jinhua's original intention was to keep Lihua as long as possible, and the embroidery matter was just a cover. How could she agree to this obviously simpler and more efficient plan?
Jinhua shook her head repeatedly:
"No, no. Lihua, you don't know my mother-in-law. If I use this kind of embroidery pattern, I might offend her..."
Xia Daohua and Lihua couldn't help but look at each other again.
Judging from Jinhua's attitude, it is obvious that this matter is definitely not that simple.
Seeing that Jinhua was determined, Lihua stopped trying to persuade her:
"Sister Jinhua, since you've made up your mind, I can't say much. But whether you live a good life or not, the most important thing is not your mother-in-law."
Jinhua couldn't help but sneer, thinking to herself, "You're just a young girl, what do you know?"
However, she quickly calmed down and put on a sorrowful look, sighing, "Alas, Lihua, you don't know, my mother-in-law is not an ordinary person..."
Seeing Jinhua's behavior, Lihua stopped talking and simply asked:
"These pictures require quite a few colors. Do you have all the embroidery thread?"
Jinhua had many kinds of colorful embroidery threads at home, but they were far from enough to embroider these patterns.
However, Jinhua had not originally planned to prepare all the embroidery threads.
The main reason was that she had no idea when Dai Sanlang would come to pick her up, so she had to do her best to keep Lihua at home for a few more days.
The uneven embroidery thread can also be used as an excuse to delay time.
But she absolutely couldn't tell Lihua these words, so Jinhua could only smile awkwardly and say:
"Most of it is ready, we can start embroidering first.
I'm still missing a few rare colors, and the embroidery workshops and silk shops in town don't have them either...
But I have asked my father’s good friend to bring it to me from another place!
I estimate that it will arrive in about two or three days."
As Jinhua spoke, she saw Lihua's beautiful eyes, clear and bright, fixed on her, not blinking for a moment. This made Jinhua break out in a cold sweat.
"Lihua, why are you looking at me like that? But is there something wrong with my face?"
Lihua shook her head and said nothing. She sighed helplessly, lowered her head, and began to select embroidery thread from the basket that Liu had just brought.
Jinhua quietly covered her mouth with her hands and let out a light breath.
Xia Daohua saw this and felt that Jinhua's every move was becoming more and more suspicious.
She made up her mind to keep a close eye on Jinhua and find out what she was up to.
Lihua worked very efficiently and without reservation. Since she had agreed to help, she began to seriously think about how to match the colors, how to divide the wires and so on.
Seeing that Lihua was seriously preparing to embroider, Jinhua didn't feel like finding any more topics to talk about, so she also started to work on the foundation - she had already started her first embroidered screen, but she had only roughly embroidered a few stitches.
Xia Daohua enthusiastically helped Lihua divide the lines and match the colors. She was very well-behaved. The two of them were in tune with each other and cooperated naturally and tacitly.
When Jinhua and Zhu saw this, they couldn't help but show a bit of envy.
The women worked all afternoon. Xia Youcai came over once, Liu came over twice, and Zhu brought them tea and snacks twice...
Zhu has been very busy recently because Liu fired her as the kitchen maid. When she came over, she just greeted her sisters and said a few words before going back to her own business.
At other times, it was just Jinhua, Lihua and Daohua busying around together.
After an afternoon, Xia Daohua felt her neck was sore, her hands were numb, and her eyes were very sore. She looked in the mirror and found that her eyes had become rabbit eyes.
It can be seen that embroidery only looks leisurely, but it is actually not an easy job.
That night, Lihua and Daohua lived in the same room with Jinhua.
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