My family had already been divided at that time, and my grandparents were relatively fair in dividing up a lot of things, including a lot of old quilts and cotton-padded clothes, not to mention the new ones.
Our family is a well-known name in the village, and there are almost no particularly poor families. My parents are honest and hardworking people, and they have saved up a lot of wealth after the family split up.
My mother is skillful and can sew beautiful purses. During the New Year, some children always complain that the purses their mothers make are not pretty. They bring materials to my house and ask my mother to make them for them. I only charge two or three cents for each purse, which is enough pocket money for many children.
Because of this job, my mother was able to save a lot of money during the holidays, and our family lived a better life.
After drying the scattered cotton, my mother took apart the cloth from old clothes and sewed it again, sewing the cotton in and pressing it down. She also used the extra cloth to make thin quilts.
After they were done, my mother told my father: "It's not that cold yet, don't bring them all at once, it's easy to be exposed. Each time you send Xiaoyun over, bring them little by little. I've made these clothes and quilts look old, so they're no different from other people's old ones that have been used for many years. Let Xiaoyun's two masters use them without worry."
Yes, my grandparents took me in as their apprentice, and I started learning from them before my foot was even healed.
It’s a pity that I am dull by nature and I know nothing about my grandfather’s medical skills. I forget what I should memorize today and tomorrow, and I always recognize the wrong acupuncture points no matter how many times I try.
My grandfather said that I don’t have any talent for medicine, but I can just recognize some herbs, which will help me save my life if I encounter any problems in the mountains in the future.
I am the kind of person who is willing to accept my fate or not. Since my grandfather said so, I did not force it. On weekdays, I only learned to identify some herbs from him, and the rest of the time I learned needlework from grandma.
Perhaps I inherited my mother's skillful hands. I learned quickly from my grandmother and could embroider some simple things properly in just a few days.
But grandpa was still not satisfied. He said that compared with grandma's previous apprentices, his talent was still a little lacking.
He only said it once, and that was the only time I saw grandma being cold to grandpa, and asked him not to mention "that beast" in the future.
Grandpa could only remain silent.
From then on, I studied harder and used all my daytime time to practice embroidery.
My brother's pants were torn and my mother wanted to patch them up, but I stopped her and embroidered a gray rabbit on the hole so that it didn't look like a hole at all.
He was so happy that he went out and showed off to his friends.
As expected, he lured his friends to drool, and they followed him to our house to play and asked my mother how much it would cost to sew a pattern.
My mother said that it takes a lot of effort and is different from making small purses, so we won’t do it for the time being.
Now, when the kids returned, they made a big fuss. One wanted a little rabbit, another wanted a little tiger, and some wanted a wild boar and a big bear.
Some parents whose families are more financially comfortable would come directly to my house and ask my mother how much money she would be willing to do the job for.
My mother was a little embarrassed and made the excuse, saying that she had just made the little animal recently and was not yet very skilled at it, so she would do it later when she became more proficient.
After sending the children's parents away, my mother came to ask for my advice.
I was so focused on passing on my craft that I never thought about making money. I also wanted to help my family make some money, but I thought my grandmother seemed quite noble, so I decided to ask the teacher for his opinion first.
I had never called the word "teacher" before, because I had never been to school. There used to be a school in the village, but my family always thought that going to school was a waste of money. Not only my brothers, but none of my younger brothers had ever been to school.
Occasionally, we hear children who go to school say that going to school is just like being in the classroom, and we are even more grateful that we don’t have to go to school.
So this was the first time I called the word “teacher”.
In the evening, I went to ask the teacher for his opinion. The teacher didn't tell me whether it was okay or not, but just drew a few pictures of small animals for me.
"Fill in the colors yourself, and then try to embroider it according to the method I teach you. When you are done, show it to me. If I think it is good enough, you can take the job yourself."
She didn't seem to object to my taking the job, and said, "It's good to take the job. It will help you get familiar with this embroidery method as soon as possible. After you are familiar with it, I will teach you another embroidery method. Your hands are too rough. You can cultivate them when you have the conditions in the future."
I nodded and said okay.
But given the conditions in the village, how can I keep my hands whiter and tenderer?
There seems to be no way to solve this problem for the time being, so I put it aside. But when I do my daily work, I still try to be careful not to hurt my hands.
When my mother found out, she bought me a box of clam shell oil. I couldn't bear to use it on my face and used it all on my hands.
They even stopped me from doing jobs that hurt my hands. My parents don't have any special abilities, they are just more insightful than ordinary people.
They said that what the captain said was definitely correct. Our girls are going there to inherit the craft, and we can't let this craft be lost. We must carry it forward if there is a chance in the future.
I remembered this sentence firmly, but in the years that followed, after I got married, had children, I realized how difficult it is to pass on a craft.
This is all later.
I followed my teacher and learned the craft for several years. The teacher's health became worse and worse. My grandfather often picked some herbs for him to eat, and asked the team leader to find a pair of silver needles, and often gave the teacher acupuncture.
But it was too late. The teacher's health had been seriously deteriorating in the past few years. My grandfather said that if our family had not taken care of them frequently in recent years, my teacher might not have survived until now.
Although he said that, I was still very sad. The teacher did not survive the winter of that year. When she left, the team simply wrapped her in a straw mat and threw her on the mountain.
I asked the team leader, didn't he say my teacher was a good person? Why couldn't she be buried properly?
The captain was in a very difficult situation and kept sighing. But his son, who had just returned from the army, couldn't bear it anymore and took me to the mountain to build a grave for the teacher.
He said that when he became the team leader, he would definitely not be like his father, and he would work seriously for the people in the team.
I think he is amazing. If he hadn't already had a partner at that time, I would definitely like this man very much.
Not long after my teacher passed away, I sprained my ankle when I went to deliver food to my parents. It was Pei Qingbai who pulled me out of the ditch and took me to see a barefoot doctor to have my foot checked out.
At such a young age, I just felt my face blushing when he held me in his arms. I guess that was because he loved me.
Not long after, Pei Qingbai's family sent someone to propose marriage.
Both of our families are well-known in the village, and we both grew up in the same village, so we know each other very well. My parents agreed to the marriage without asking too many questions.
After all, his father is a well-known kind man in the village.
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