Chapter 58 Climbing the High Branch
Konjac cleared his throat and said, "I accepted Qi Yuan as my apprentice. We agreed on an annual stipend of ten taels of silver, various apprenticeship gifts, and festive gifts."
Having said this, Kong paused for a moment before continuing, "I don't care whether there are any apprenticeship gifts or festival gifts, nor do I care what they are.
Even a handful of fresh chives from the vegetable garden would be great.
The annual stipend of ten taels of silver is a must."
The annual stipend of ten taels of silver was decided by Konjac and Cui Qingyi after comparing the situation in Dongping County.
After all, embroidery is not as good as studying for a scholar. The annual stipend for a student at Dongping Academy was thirty taels of silver, plus gifts for festivals. Learning embroidery for a year was just ten taels of silver, and the price they had agreed on was quite suitable.
To put it bluntly, the families who are really willing to spend money to let their children learn embroidery are those who value daughters. They are willing to spend ten taels of silver a year for their daughters to have a good future.
For those families who do not value their daughters and only want to get something for nothing, ten taels of silver is enough to make them stay away.
Ten taels of silver!
Sister Li felt bitter and secretly calculated the family's annual income. She gritted her teeth and said:
"I'll pay the ten taels of silver as tuition. Master Konjac, when will our Xiao Miao come to become your disciple?"
Afraid that any hesitation would cause the other party to change their mind, Mrs. Li spoke quickly and confidently.
Cui Qingyi raised her eyebrows while concentrating on drinking tea. She really didn't expect that when they came to Dongping County, they would meet so many families who cared about their daughters.
Could it be that she was just unlucky, or that she had done too many evil things in her previous life, so the parents she met in both lives only cared about their sons.
"There's no rush to become my disciple. Wait until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is over, and you can come on the sixteenth."
Qi Yuan will also be sixteen and will resume classes. By then, the two sisters will get to know each other and have each other as companions.
After getting the accurate information, Mrs. Li solemnly stood up and took Li Miao to thank him, and then left without staying any longer.
After everyone left, Cui Qingyi smiled and gave Konjac a thumbs-up: "Our Konjac is really becoming more and more like a teacher. It seems that he will have many students all over the world in the future."
Konjac grinned happily. She always took Cui Qingyi's jokes as the most sincere compliment and never showed false modesty.
Of course, Cui Qingyi was indeed praising her.
Konjac's change also proved that her decision to leave the Chen family and sever ties with the Cui family was correct. In this small county town, in this home that belonged to them, both of them ushered in a new life.
"Girl, let's have old duck soup tonight. After eating the duck meat, we can cook some rice porridge in the duck soup and drink some to warm our stomachs."
When you are happy, you have to eat something delicious. Cui Qingyi thought about it and realized that it had been a long time since she had eaten old duck hotpot. Cooking rice porridge in the old duck soup and adding some finely chopped mustard greens was a delicious experience.
…
Li Miao held Sister Li's hand and looked up cautiously: "Mom, do we have money at home? Will Dad and Grandma let me go?"
Sister Li smiled brightly, "Don't worry about that. Just promise me that when we get to Cui's house and follow Master Konjac, you must study diligently."
As for her husband and mother-in-law, Sister Li understood them. Although she also loved Xiao Miao, she was definitely reluctant to spend ten taels of silver on her every year.
But the same thing goes, after so many years of getting along, Sister Li has long found the skills to get along with the Li family.
No matter what, she was determined to let Xiao Miao learn embroidery.
As for what the Li family went through because Sister-in-law Li wanted to send Li Miao to learn needlework and had to spend ten taels of silver a year as tuition, Cui Qingyi and Kong Ru were not aware of it and would not deliberately inquire about it.
Just like what Konjac said, they could just waive the apprenticeship gift and festival gifts since the Li family was not wealthy, but the tuition fee was not an option.
There are so many families living in Huaihua Lane, and there are actually no secrets between them.
Cui Qingyi believed that most people in this alley would be tempted if they knew that Li Miao could learn from the Cui family for free, and that he could make a profit after learning this skill for more than a year.
Anyway, it is the Gu family and the Lin family who have conflicts with the Cui family, not them. At worst, they can learn from Sister Li and shamelessly lower their posture to interact with the Cui family. Face is not worth much, but the rewards they get are real.
When my daughter is old enough to get married, maybe her value will be raised because she studied under the Cui family. This is a very profitable business.
The reason she agreed with Konjac's decision to accept disciples was because she wanted to have more sincere disciples whom she could entrust to and help her find another value in life, not because it was for charity.
Cui Qingyi felt that her heart was cold to a certain extent. As long as it was not something related to her personal interests, she was too lazy to worry about it.
After the fifth day of the New Year, Konjac, who couldn't sit still, started to pick up the needle and thread again, preparing to make a set of spring clothes for himself and Cui Qingyi.
Cui Qingyi personally painted new patterns on the konjac. Pink flowers fell layer by layer on the hem of her clothes, and it felt like she was stepping on spring when she walked.
Seeing Konjac working so hard, Cui Qingyi, who had been planning to take a break, also took out her own embroidery frame from the bottom of the sewing basket.
Start stitching from the middle and slowly recall the double-sided embroidery tutorial I had seen in my previous life.
The base is laid with a straight stitch to outline the general direction and pattern on the fabric; the layering is done with a loop stitch to transition the colors while keeping the progress on both sides consistent; the random stitch method is free, but it can express the texture and light and shadow of the pattern through a combination of different directions and long and short stitches. This step is also the key to making a good embroidery work come alive.
These tutorials were not very specific, and seemed like incomprehensible books to Cui Qingyi, who knew nothing about embroidery in her previous life. But now, Cui Qingyi is considered a semi-expert in embroidery.
The complicated ball of thread for double-sided embroidery in my mind slowly and spontaneously separated into strands of silk thread, and then threaded through the needle to weave into an exquisite net.
Cui Qingyi's fingers flew up and down, trying to keep up with the progress in her mind.
While Konjac was cutting clothes, he would look up at Cui Qingyi from time to time.
Perhaps it was because the girl was beaten too many times while embroidering when she was a child, or it might be because the ladies at that time always liked to give the embroidery works made by the girl to the ladies of various families.
Konjac has followed Cui Qingyi since she was a child, and no one knows better than her how much Cui Qingyi hates what Yuan did.
This disgust accumulated over time, and in the end, even picking up an embroidery needle would bring to mind bad images.
So even though it was Cui Qingyi who took the initiative to say that she wanted to try to do some double-sided embroidery, Konjac was still worried that it would bring back bad memories for her.
Things turned out just as Konjac had worried. When Cui Qingyi looked at the plum blossoms on the embroidery, she suddenly thought of Yuan.
She was eight years old that year, and she embroidered the plum blossom that she was most satisfied with for the first time. She placed the plum blossom in her hand on the branch and seemed to be able to smell the fragrance of winter plum blossoms.
She liked the painting of winter plum blossoms very much.
But a few days later, Yuan took her to attend the birthday party of the county magistrate's wife. Yuan took the painting of winter plum blossoms and walked among the ladies, nonchalantly promoting her daughter to everyone.
Cui Qingyi can still remember the looks those ladies gave her: sympathy, pity, and ridicule.
As if to say, Look! That's the girl from the Cui family, her mother is trying hard to marry her into a rich family!
(I searched a lot for double-sided embroidery tutorials, but I just couldn't understand them. Please forgive me if I'm wrong.)
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