Qiuhua's family has been raising four chickens and ducklings for a month.
When I first bought them, they were fluffy little guys with tender yellow fur. Now they have lost their fine down and grown hard brown feathers. It makes them less cute, but Qiuhua is happy that they are growing well.
It was a holiday, so Qiuhua was embroidering at home. She wanted her mother to leave Chunhua at home that morning, saying it was too tiring for her to carry Chunhua on her back while working in the production team. She thought it would be easier for Qiuhua to take care of her at home, but her mother refused.
"You are busy embroidering now. If you leave Chunhua at home, how will you have time to embroider?"
Qiuhua said nonchalantly, "She has to sleep anyway. I do my embroidery while she's asleep. When she wakes up, I let her sleep in the rocking tub. I rock it and she stops crying, and I can still do my embroidery."
Her daughter is really a hardworking and considerate child, but as a parent, how can she let her child bear so much for her? Qiu Zhen naturally refuses to do that.
"It's not as easy as you think. Chunhua is at home, so you can forget about getting a single shot. I'd better let you carry me to the team. Your father, brother, and other people in the team will help carry me when they're free. It won't be that hard."
Qiuhua couldn't persuade her mother, so she had to give up.
She first scooped a bowl of bran, added some water to it, stirred it, and poured it into the chicken feed bowl. The little ones were already very familiar with this owner. When they saw her coming, they ran over. Before she put down the bowl, the two chickens flapped their wings and flew up, stretching their necks to peck at the bowl, splashing food everywhere, and Qiuhua's clothes were not spared.
"Ouch! My clothes are dirty! You two just wait, I will kill you and make soup for New Year's! One for soup and one for braised!"
The two little chicks didn't understand anything and just buried their heads in the bowl to look for food.
After feeding the chickens and washing Chunhua's diapers, Qiuhua was finally able to sit down. During holidays, she would sit at the embroidery frame for about ten hours a day, often from morning to evening, and then continue after cooking and eating dinner until everyone went to bed.
Her parents felt sorry for her and were even more worried about her eyes, so they always advised her not to do it at night. Qiuhua agreed verbally, but closed the door and continued to work at night. It was not until the next day when her mother asked Xiaohua that she found out that she had gone to bed late again.
The embroidery has been completed on the third frame. After this frame is completed, there is only one frame left. Qiuhua calculated that the time is just right, exactly two months.
There are two patterns on this lace, one in the upper left corner and the other in the lower right corner, each with two flowers. The color matching is a bit special, not the commonly used red and pink, but various greens.
It's a light green embroidery, with a second layer of tender green, and a dark green at the innermost layer, progressing from light to dark. While the color combination is unusual, it's refreshing and beautiful. Qiuhua asked her mother what this embroidery would eventually be made into, and she said it would be sold abroad to be made into clothing.
The two flowers she embroidered were exactly on the shoulders.
Qiuhua had never actually seen foreigners, and wondered how they could afford such beautiful clothes. She had only seen two foreigners printed on a calendar at Zhao Meiying's house, and they wore very little, their clothes lacking even sleeves.
There were flowers on the skirts of those foreign women, but when she looked carefully, she found that they were not embroidered flowers, but looked like they were painted on, so she couldn't imagine what foreigners looked like wearing embroidered clothes.
Lunch was simple. To save time, she asked her father to steam two sweet potatoes while he was cooking porridge that morning. She didn't eat properly, just taking a bite when she was hungry and drinking a sip of water when she was thirsty. Stopping to eat two sweet potatoes was a waste of time for her.
After embroidering for a long time, one will inevitably feel neck pain and eye fatigue. At this time, Qiuhua has to close her eyes and rest for a while.
Just as she closed her eyes to rest, there was a noise in the yard, the chickens cackled, the ducklings quacked, the corners of her mouth curled up slightly, she knew who was coming, and continued to close her eyes and pretended not to hear.
Two short legs came over the threshold with a clattering sound from outside. Qiuhua seemed to smell the scent of her grandmother. As soon as she opened her eyes, a pair of chubby little hands pounced on her.
"Sister...sister..." This chubby little guy can't speak much yet. He is Uncle Xu Guoqing's youngest son, Xu Jianqing.
Xu Jianqing was just two years old, and his short legs stomped along as he ran incredibly fast. His grandmother couldn't catch up with him, so she could only scold him as she chased him. When she caught him, she couldn't bring herself to hit him, but just waved her hand to scare him. The little monkey wasn't afraid at all, and laughed non-stop.
Look, he came to Qiuhua's house alone again, and Qiuhua just needed to take a break.
"Jianqing, why are you alone? Where is your mother-in-law?"
The chubby little hand pointed at the gate and said, "Good mother-in-law."
It means that the good mother-in-law is coming behind!
"You're running so fast again. If your mother-in-law comes and catches you, she'll beat you up. Jianqing, how are you going to beat someone up?"
The little fellow imitated the adults and raised his hands to slap Qiuhua's thighs several times, shouting "Hit! Hit!"
Qiuhua smiled and pinched Jianqing's chubby cheeks. The little brat put his whole fist into his mouth and took it out again. Qiuhua was afraid that he would touch the embroidery frame with his sticky hands, so she quickly took a piece of cloth to wipe his hands.
The good mother-in-law finally arrived after rushing for a long time.
"Qiuhua, is my little monkey here with you?"
"Good mother-in-law, here I am, playing with me."
Haopo rushed in, grabbed Jianqing's armpits with both hands, and lifted him up with force. Jianqing's whole chubby body flew into the air. He twisted his body unwillingly, and his two short legs kept shaking in the air.
"Down! Down!"
"What are you doing? My sister is busy embroidering, why are you making trouble?"
Good mother-in-law took Jianqing's arm and walked out. Qiuhua laughed and said, "Good mother-in-law, it's okay, it's okay. I just want to take a break. Let him play for a while. You sit down for a while too."
Jianqing couldn't persuade his mother-in-law, so he started crying loudly. His mother-in-law had no choice but to let him go. The little monkey broke free from her hand and staggered to the chicken and duck fence.
Haopo pulled a stool and sat down next to Qiuhua, squinting her eyes to carefully examine her embroidery, while observing the movements of the little monkey with her peripheral vision.
"Oh, Qiuhua is so hardworking. She even does embroidery while attending school. This embroidery is really beautiful. I see you usually do the housework too. It's not easy. Whoever marries you as the mistress of the house will be very blessed!"
Haopo has liked Qiuhua since she was a child. She herself has no granddaughter, and Qiuhua has no Haopo, so both of them feel regretful.
"Good mother-in-law, please stop praising me. I don't even do any housework right now. I'm just going to finish this embroidery."
"Why aren't you doing anything? Are you feeding the chickens and ducks?"
"Where's lunch? Didn't you eat again?"
Qiuhua hurriedly explained, "I ate it, I ate two sweet potatoes."
After hearing this, the good mother-in-law shook her head and said, "Can this be called eating? Just eating two sweet potatoes, can this be called a meal? You little bitch, you are too compromising!"
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