It was still chilly in the early morning of March. From the shabby building came the sounds of cutting vegetables, frying pancakes, and a woman scolding her child in a high-pitched voice.
Hua Jin pushed open the door. A boy in a blue school uniform and carrying a schoolbag was standing in the hallway with his head down. He didn't even raise his head when he heard the door open. The woman who was cursing at Hua Jin smoothed her messy curly hair when she saw him come out: "Xiao Hua, are you going to work so early?"
Hua Jin exchanged a few words with her. Sister Qin would pull her hair and the curled hem of her sleeves with her hands from time to time. Her child stood silently beside her, like an inconspicuous potato.
Noticing that Hua Jin's eyes were on her child, Sister Qin stopped combing her hair and began to point out the child's shortcomings.
"Sister Qin." Hua Jin interrupted the other party's endless chatter and took out her cell phone to check the time. "I'm almost late for the subway. Let's talk tomorrow." After saying that, she quickly walked downstairs. The voice-controlled street lights in the corridor did not flicker at the sound of footsteps.
When she went downstairs, she heard Sister Qin scolding the child again.
Hua Jin finished her breakfast at a roadside breakfast shop. When she walked out, she saw Sister Qin's son walking to the side of the road with his head shrugged. He walked very slowly, like a snail that was unwilling to crawl out of its shell.
The streets are crowded with cars, and in the gray morning, there is a dull feeling of powerlessness but having to fight for life.
"Walk carefully." Hua Jin took two quick steps, grabbed the boy's schoolbag and pulled him back. At this moment, a car drove over from the corner, only two or three steps away from the child.
The little boy looked up at Hua Jin, his expression dull and blank. After a long while, he whispered, "Thank you, Sister Hua Jin."
"You're welcome." Hua Jin smiled. Which woman in her twenties doesn't like children calling her sister?
"Pay attention to the passing vehicles when walking. Safety is important." Hua Jin helped the child straighten the turned-up collar of his school uniform. After watching the child leave, he rubbed his aching kneecap, turned around and walked in another direction.
In this prosperous city, everyone can't stop their steps. They want to survive, want to take root here, and want to have a better life. Some people come, some people leave, but this city always stands here, becoming more and more prosperous, and becoming the dream city of countless people.
After getting off the crowded subway, Hua Jin saw someone performing, and the pedestrians were in a hurry, so they had no time to stop. Hua Jin felt inside his coat, took out a few coins, and put them into the box that the other person had placed in front of him.
"Thank you." The performing girl whispered her thanks.
This is a little girl with baby fat on her face and clear eyes full of hope. Hua Jin put his hands in his coat pockets and smiled lightly, "You're welcome. Many people are in a hurry to go to work in the morning, so they can't take care of other things."
After saying that, he pointed at the staff member who was walking towards this side and said: "It seems that talent shows are not allowed here. Why don't we change places?"
Although she was just performing to make a living, the other party gently called it a "talent show". The little girl smiled gratefully at Hua Jin.
Jin smiled back and followed the crowd out of the subway station.
She shivered in the cold wind outside and walked quickly towards her workplace.
"Xiao Huahua." Tan Yuan saw Hua Jin coming over, opened the door from the inside, and asked Hua Jin to come in quickly. "It's a bit windy outside today, are you cold?"
"Not bad." Hua Jin rubbed her hands, took off her coat, folded it and put it in the locker, and sorted out the things in the store. The store was full of embroidery and lacquerware, many of which were handmade by Tan Yuan's parents, and they were the store's signature to attract customers.
The two elders don't really care about the store now, so Tan Yuan is the big boss of the store, and she can barely be considered the second boss, and they get along quite well with each other.
"I received a custom order for a carp embroidery ornament last night. You know I'm not good at carp embroidery, so I'll have to trouble you to do this." Tan Yuan lay back on the table and yawned lazily. "Young people nowadays are obsessed with worshiping koi and pandas. There are so many interesting embroidery products in our Shu embroidery circle, but these two are the most popular."
After saying that, she turned her head to look at Hua Jin, and saw that she was carefully wiping the fan screen with koi and lotus flowers, as if it had mysterious power that could make people rich.
"Hush." Hua Jin put the fan screen in place, turned to Tan Yuan and said, "Little Tangyuan, the mysterious power of koi fish is something that a vulgar and ordinary person like you cannot understand."
"Yes, yes, yes." Tan Yuan nodded, "Actually, you shouldn't be called Hua Jin, you should be called Hua Jinli."
"If the police uncle doesn't mind the trouble, I would like to change my name to Hua Jinli Panda, which means cat and fish, which is auspicious!" Hua Jin walked to the chair and sat down. Although their store is small, it is exquisitely decorated and looks quite stylish.
The price of customized products is relatively high. They are all hand-embroidered, using the best colored embroidery threads and Shu brocade. Unfortunately, with the fast pace of modern life, few people spend a lot of money to customize embroidery. In order to keep up with the times and get rid of poverty and become well-off, they also sell small pendants, blessing bags, scarves and shawls with Shu embroidery style.
Some young artists are willing to spend some spare money to buy these things with traditional artistic style and sentiment as accessories.
For many ordinary people, they don’t care whether the embroidery they buy is Sichuan embroidery, Hunan embroidery, Suzhou embroidery, Guangdong embroidery, etc. As long as it is beautiful and the price is right, they are likely to spend money on it. Hua Jin and Tan Yuan are well aware of the current situation. In order to run this store well, they must not only keep up with the times in terms of aesthetics, but also try to preserve the characteristics of Sichuan embroidery.
Tan Yuan's parents are relatively traditional craftsmen. They don't understand what it means to "keep pace with the times," but as more and more young customers come to the store, they don't say much.
Hua Jin sat down next to the embroidery frame, embroidering the unfinished picture of fame and wealth. Tan Yuan lit some incense and placed it in the shop, which barely gave the shop a bit of ancient charm.
Embroidering samples in the store can not only arouse the curiosity of customers, but also make them more confident that the things in the store are all hand-embroidered, rather than embroidered by machines and then sold at a high price under the banner of hand-embroidery.
In recent years, as some young people have become interested in traditional art, some unscrupulous merchants have begun to sell sentiments. They take ordinary machine-embroidered embroidery and claim it to be hand-embroidery, thus misleading some deceived customers into thinking that the so-called traditional embroidery art is nothing more than that.
Tan Yuan's mother, Hua Jin's master Gao Shulan, often sighs helplessly because of these things. However, the world is so big, many things will not change because of personal will. The only thing they can do is not to change their original intentions and let every object in their hands have its own characteristics.
There were basically no customers at around eight or nine in the morning. After Hua Jinxiu had been waiting for a while, she heard footsteps at the door. She looked up and saw a middle-aged man in a gray and white coat standing outside the door, looking inside. His neck was shrunk and his arms hung awkwardly behind him, looking a little embarrassed.
Putting down the needle, Hua Jin stood up and walked to the door: "Welcome, if you need anything, please come into the store and take a look."
The man forced a smile at her, and Hua Jin noticed that he secretly wiped his hands on the edge of his pants twice before stepping gently into the door. His movements were cautious, as if he was afraid of damaging the floor under his feet and scratching the things in the store.
He looked around the store, and when he saw that Hua Jin was not staring at him, he continued to look. The store had fashionable and retro handbags, exquisite and beautiful Shu embroidered high heels, round fans, ornaments, capes, hats, and even a set of miniature phoenix crowns and bridal robes.
"Do you have any quilt covers for sale here?" The man spoke in unstandard Mandarin and turned to look at Hua Jin. "I think the red quilt cover with a dragon and phoenix pattern on it."
Nowadays, there are many styles of quilt covers, and machine embroidery can meet various requirements. Hand-embroidered quilts like the Dragon and Phoenix are not only time-consuming and laborious to embroider, but also outdated and old-fashioned in the eyes of many people. Now even newlyweds don’t like to use this kind of quilt in their wedding rooms, so naturally the store will not prepare it: "Sorry, we don’t have the Dragon and Phoenix quilt in our store."
Hearing Hua Jin's answer, the middle-aged man didn't seem surprised at all. He nodded and was about to walk out.
"Please wait a moment." Seeing that the man was sweating even in the March weather, Hua Jin turned around and filled him with a glass of water from the water dispenser. "Do you really want to buy the dragon and phoenix quilt?"
The man was dressed a little shabbily, and he couldn't move freely in such a small shop with exquisite decoration. When he saw the beautiful shop owner pouring water for him, he thanked her again and again. There was sadness between his eyebrows and wrinkles on his dark forehead. The rough hands holding the paper cup were shaking slightly.
Perhaps he had been depressed for a long time, and when he saw a strange young girl, he wanted to talk to her.
"More than 20 years ago, I married my child's mother. At that time, I told her that when I had money in the future, I would definitely buy her a red quilt with dragon and phoenix patterns. But over the years, we have been running around to work for our child's tuition, house repairs, and the elderly's medical treatment. Now that she is seriously ill, I remember that many of the promises I made to her have not been fulfilled." The man in his 40s squatted on the ground, covering his face with one hand and crying bitterly. He looked very ugly when he cried, and even the long-sleeved shirt with frayed edges inside his coat was exposed.
"I'm a worthless person, useless and cowardly..." the man said in a hoarse voice, "I finally managed to scrape together some money to send her to a big city for medical treatment, but the doctor said she had terminal cancer. That's how it is, that's how it is."
With a weather-beaten face, he enumerated the good qualities of his wife and talked about how useless he was. He said that he had looked in many places in the city but could not find the dragon and phoenix quilt that his wife wanted.
Seeing a grown man crying like this, Tan Yuan looked up at Hua Jin helplessly, but unfortunately Hua Jin lowered her head and she couldn't see Hua Jin's expression clearly.
"From your accent, you should be from a city in the southwest. Maybe we are from the same hometown." Hua Jin raised her head and handed the tissue to the man. "If you really need it, I can make a set for you."
The bright red wedding quilt with dragon and phoenix patterns was once a very popular item among customers of Shu embroidery.
There are always various unfortunate things happening in the world, and it is common sense for many ordinary people to treat illnesses. However, ordinary people certainly don’t know how difficult it is for a poor family to send a seriously ill family member to a big city for treatment.
Feelings and human nature are sometimes vulnerable to money. This is why pure feelings are so precious.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
