Chapter 167 See You Later
Lu Yao sat on the windowsill of the inn, swinging her legs and playing with her copper wire.
"I'm heading south tomorrow, what about you?"
Song Sha was straightening the embroidery threads one by one when she heard this. Her fingertips trembled slightly, and the embroidery needle gleamed silver in the sunlight.
These past few days she has been going to the embroidery shop in the west of the city, using the copper coins she earned from selling handkerchiefs to buy rice and grain.
She must be self-reliant and not become a burden to Lu Yao.
“I heard from the people at the embroidery workshop that,” Song Sha thought for a moment, “that Granny Leng, the inheritor of Shu embroidery, has announced that she wants to take on a last disciple.”
Lu Yao tossed out a copper coin and calculated the result.
“That old lady has a strange temper. Last year, someone offered her a fortune to embroider a picture of Guanyin, but she thought the person was not sincere and chased them away with a broom.”
“But her double-sided embroidery…” Song Sha took out a plain handkerchief from her bundle, on which a hibiscus was just beginning to bloom. “I tried to imitate it.”
Lu Yao leaned closer and suddenly exclaimed "Eh!"
As the handkerchief was turned over, a lifelike koi carp appeared on the back, and the stitches were so fine that they were almost invisible in the ripples of the water.
When did you learn that?
"I've stayed up for three nights in a row." Song Sha curled her bruised fingers. "We're still a long way from there."
Lu Yao clapped her hands and laughed.
"This embroidery needle truly shines in your hands."
One month later.
The spring rain in Shu Road has been falling steadily for a month.
When they stood in front of the Leng residence, Song Sha's embroidered shoes were already worn through.
The embroiderers who came to be selected were dressed in fine silks and satins, and the gold threads on the embroidered screens they held were dazzling.
She was the only one carrying a coarse cloth bundle, inside which were neatly folded squares of plain handkerchiefs.
"That's it?" The head maid lifted the bundle and snorted.
Suddenly, a "thump" sound of a cane came from behind the bamboo curtain.
Granny Leng came out, her silver hair as white as snow. She squinted as she took the handkerchief and examined it. "It's really rough. But she does have some talent."
She squinted at Song Sha and said, "Hold out your hand."
Those calloused hands brushed over the needle marks on Song Sha's fingertips.
"Come at 5 a.m. tomorrow, or you're fired."
The spring breeze of Sichuan carries the fragrance of magnolia blossoms, and the vermilion gate of the Leng family embroidery workshop slowly opens in the morning mist.
Sixty-four embroiderers stood with their heads bowed under the corridor.
Grandma Leng strolled slowly, leaning on her sandalwood cane: "First, practice splitting the thread. Silkworm silk is divided into nine grades, and the finest silk must be split into sixty-four strands that can pass through the eye of an embroidery needle to be considered good."
For the first three days, Song Sha's fingertips were always bleeding, staining the silk threads red.
Every day before dawn, she would sit by the window and practice dividing lines by the light of a tiny oil lamp.
Finally, they were able to split a thread as thick as a thumb into thirty-two strands, each thinner than a human hair.
At dawn on the seventh day, an embroidery hoop fell at her feet.
On the incomplete painting of a hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix, the phoenix's tail feathers are scattered like withered leaves.
Grandma Leng uttered just one word: "Embroidery!"
In five days and five nights, Song Sha completed the embroidery of seven types of tail feathers, using seven different stitches to complete the phoenix tail feathers.
When she was handing in the work, everything went black and she collapsed onto the embroidery frame.
In her hazy state, someone poured ginseng soup into her mouth, which was so bitter that she frowned.
When I woke up, Grandma Leng was stroking her embroidery under the lamp.
"Girl," the old lady said without looking up, "go and get the wedding dress from the head of my bed."
It was an unfinished wedding dress, missing a peony on the front.
Granny Leng took the wedding dress and pulled out a small portrait hidden inside the lining. It turned out to be Granny Leng when she was young.
"Fifty years ago..." the old lady suddenly began, "I also ran away from an arranged marriage. I used the freedom I gained by running away to embroider for sixty years."
Later, when Lu Yao came to say goodbye, she saw Song Sha with her hands wrapped in gauze, learning gold embroidery from Granny Leng.
The old lady scolded her fiercely for being clumsy, but secretly saved the best silk thread for her.
"Take care." Lu Yao smiled. "When you've finished your apprenticeship, embroider a money pouch for me."
"There will be plenty of time in the future, and we will meet again."
The two looked at each other and smiled.
...
The Song family after Song Sha's escape.
News of her stabbing her father and threatening her mother with a weapon spread throughout the county, and the previously promoted image of a "chaste and virtuous woman" collapsed.
Wang Po, the tofu seller, spat at the vermilion gate as she carried her basket: "Bah! You beast who trades your own daughter for a memorial arch!"
Several mischievous children followed behind her, drawing crooked turtles on the Song family's wall with charcoal.
The area in front of the Song family's gate was piled high with rotten vegetable leaves and rotten eggs.
Mr. Song was furious, but he couldn't control himself; the blood crust on his throat looked like an ugly piece of tree bark.
He wanted to yell at his servants, but could only manage a wheezing sound.
The doctor packed up his medicine box and shook his head at Song's mother: "He's injured a vital organ; he'll never be able to speak again."
While Song's mother was frantically trying to cover up the family scandal, the Li family, her enemy, had already submitted a complaint to the county government.
The magistrate's eyes lit up when he saw the four words "forced woman to commit suicide" on the petition.
With a slam of the gavel, the bailiffs pounced on the Song family ancestral hall like wolves and tigers, even bringing the eighty-year-old uncle into the courtroom.
"How dare you!" The magistrate flipped through the land deeds, his beard bristling with rage. "The imperial commendation is a grand ceremony, yet you dare to use public funds for private gain!"
Half of the Song family's property was confiscated on the spot.
After Song's father was seriously injured, the eldest son originally wanted to inherit the family business, but his uncles seized power against him on the grounds that he was incompetent in managing the family.
Taking advantage of the situation, the collateral descendants took over the shops and cornered the eldest son of the Song family in the ancestral hall, forcing him to step down, causing chaos and disorder.
Song's father's most beloved concubine, Cuiyu, took advantage of the chaos and, together with the accountant, packed up their valuables and slipped away through the back door.
As for the Yu family, things were in complete chaos.
Hong Shao, the top courtesan of Zuiyue Tower, stormed into the mourning hall dressed in mourning clothes: "You bastard! You said you'd marry me with a grand wedding procession!"
Her shout made all the guests who came to pay their respects laugh.
The storyteller in the teahouse turned this play into a joke: "It turns out that Young Master Yu didn't drown in the river, but died drunk in the arms of the ladies!"
The tea drinkers burst into laughter, and some even spat out their tea.
Those families who once had connections with the Yu and Song families scattered like monkeys after the tree fell, all busy drawing a line, afraid of being smeared by the stigma of chastity.
In the back hall of the county government office, the county magistrate squinted as he counted silver notes.
The clerk leaned in and whispered, "Sir, should we continue investigating the Song and Yu families?"
The magistrate touched his newly acquired jade thumb ring and said, "Confiscate it! I heard that there are antiques from the previous dynasty buried under the floor tiles of their ancestral hall."
Moonlight seeped through the cracks in the woodshed window, illuminating Song Sha's wedding dress.
Since the day she ran away, the Song family has been in chaos and no one has taken care of it.
Several mice were running back and forth carrying gold thread in their mouths, and the place embroidered with mandarin ducks had been chewed into several holes.
...
Several years later.
Song Sha inherited Grandma Leng's mantle and became the foremost expert in Shu embroidery.
Her beauty was renowned, and the Empress summoned her to the palace to embroider a longevity picture on the front and a Guanyin image on the back for the Empress Dowager's birthday.
In spring, willow catkins flutter like snow within the palace walls.
Song Sha held the embroidery frame and walked quickly with her head down.
Suddenly, a eunuch's shrill voice was heard, "Greetings to the Grand Preceptor."
Looking up, I saw that the man was wearing the robes of the Imperial Preceptor, and the string of copper coins from back then was still hanging from his waist.
“A-Yao?” she blurted out.
Lu Yao blinked: "Call me National Normal University student."
Her fingers brushed over the longevity character on the embroidery hoop. "This needlework... has the old woman finally taught you her most treasured skill?"
Song Sha smiled and reached into her sleeve.
There was a money bag there, with copper coins embroidered on the front and flowing clouds on the back.
After waiting for so many years, it can finally be sent out.
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