Lin Dan was awakened by a feather duster. When he opened his eyes, he found himself curled up in a corner. A thin woman was beating and scolding him, as if she was very angry. Lin Dan hadn't figured out the situation yet, and didn't know what the relationship between him and the woman was, so he couldn't resist. He hugged his head and shrank deeper into the corner, sorting out his memory.
Although she had no idea who she was or what she had experienced, she had already gotten used to this situation.
The original owner was named Lin Dan. His father, Lin Dafu, was originally a horse thief who made his fortune by robbing caravans. Later, he had no children. He guessed that he had done too many evil things and lost his virtue, so he donated most of the money he robbed to build Buddhist temples, Taoist temples, roads and bridges, etc., and used the other half to start a silk business. Slowly, he got on the right track.
Perhaps because he had done too many good deeds, Lin Dafu's wife gave birth to Lin Dan when he was fifty years old. Although she was male, she was the root of the whole family, so he valued her more than his own eyes. He was afraid that she would melt if he held her in his mouth, and afraid that she would fall if he held her in his hands. He spoiled her very much, and when she grew up to be sixteen years old, he planned to marry a son-in-law to inherit the whole family business.
However, the good times did not last long. When Lin Dan just turned fifteen and was about to become a young girl, Lin Dafu suffered retribution for his evil deeds in the past. The descendants of a family he had robbed set up a substitution scheme and exchanged the Shu brocade that he had bought from Shuzhou at a high price for linen, causing him to lose everything.
Lin Dafu felt that he had let his wife and children down, so he fell ill and died within two months. However, the family who had framed him made a fortune by using the swapped Shu brocade. Because of their exquisite family embroidery skills, they won the favor of a nobleman and settled down in Lin'an Prefecture. They replaced the Lin family and became the largest embroidery shop in the area.
The Lin family lost their reputation, their shop, and their money. Only orphans and their widowed mother were left, and their lives were truly difficult. The thin woman who was now beating Lin Dan with a feather duster was Lin Dan's mother, named Zhang Hui. She had just recovered from a serious illness. Seeing that her daughter was still so arrogant and willful and did not know how to restrain herself, she became angry and started beating her.
As she beat him, she cursed him, "I asked you to learn embroidery and needlework from the third and fourth aunts. What did you do today? Do you think the Lin family is still as prosperous as before and you can do whatever you want? You can't do such a stupid thing as buying a pottery jar with one hundred taels of silver! Do you know how long one hundred taels of silver can last our family? You have squandered all the expenses for a year. Are you going to starve in the future? If you learn embroidery well, you can also embroider lifelike and priceless embroidery like Meng Si. Why should our Lin family worry about losing its glory? Why should we worry about our family falling into decline? When your father was alive, he often told you to learn more so that you can support the family business in the future. But look, not long after he died, you have already spent all the last bit of the family fortune. Do you want to make him angry or make me angry to death? Do you have a conscience?"
The original owner did have a conscience, but he was simple-minded and was deceived. Someone told her that the pottery jar was an ancient artifact from the pre-Qin period and was worth a fortune, so she bought it. She originally wanted to give it to her mother to make her happy, but she almost made her mother angry to death.
"From now on you must stay at home and learn embroidery and needlework. When you can compete with Meng Si, you can go out again." The mother felt pain when she hit her son. Mother Lin hit her son twice more with the duster, then stopped, with a look of pity on her face.
The Meng Si she mentioned is the younger sister of Meng Zhong, who framed Lin Dafu. The feud between the two and the Lin family can be traced back to the previous generation. Back then, Lin Dafu led the horse thieves to rob the father of Meng Si and Meng Zhong, causing Meng's father to lose all his wealth and his wife and children to be separated. The brother and sister grew up in poverty, but they also acquired some skills. The brother was good at business and the sister was good at embroidery. They worked together to prop up the declining Meng family again. When they found out that Lin Dafu opened an embroidery shop in Lin'an Prefecture, they followed him quietly, waiting for an opportunity to take revenge.
Meng Zhong was very strategic and quickly gained Lin Dafu's trust and introduced him to a big business. At that time, Lin Dafu was the only imperial merchant in Lin'an Prefecture, specializing in providing fabrics and embroidery for the royal family. So he racked his brains to search for rare fabrics everywhere. Among all the precious categories, the Shu brocade produced in Shuzhou was the best in the world, but due to its small production, it was difficult to buy.
Meng Zhong connected Lin Dafu with cloth merchants in Shuzhou while taking a huge commission. He also bribed Lin Dafu's subordinates to get him to exchange goods. Eventually, Lin Dafu lost all his money, but Meng Zhong sucked the blood of the Lin family and took over as the royal merchant of Lin'an Prefecture.
His ability to quickly gain a foothold in Lin'an Prefecture was related to his wisdom, but it was also inseparable from Meng Si's help. Meng Si has a pretty appearance and a gentle personality. She learned the family embroidery skills since she was a child. As soon as she arrived in Lin'an Prefecture, she won the favor of the governor's daughter with her unique skills. Through the introduction of the governor's daughter, she got to know many local noble ladies, gradually made the Meng's Embroidery Shop famous, and also won the qualification of imperial merchant.
In the market, one of her embroidery works could be sold at a high price of one thousand taels of silver, which was enough to cover the annual income of an embroidery shop. A few days ago, her carefully embroidered painting "Going to the Frontier in Wind and Snow" was bought by the son of the governor for five thousand taels of silver. The price was staggering.
Seeing that the Lin family is becoming increasingly decadent, while the Meng family is rising higher and higher by stepping on the Lin family, how can Zhang Hui be willing to accept this? Looking at the famous Meng Si and then at her good-for-nothing daughter, she made up her mind to force her daughter to learn embroidery skills. Fortunately, for the sake of his family business, Lin Dafu had taken in several concubines with excellent embroidery skills. Otherwise, with the Lin family's current financial situation, they would not be able to afford a good embroiderer to teach Lin Dan.
It’s a pity that the original owner was not ambitious enough and was unwilling to settle down and study. Instead, he pinned his hopes on getting rich overnight, and wasted a lot of money. She deserved the beating, so Lin Dan didn't struggle. She waited until Zhang Hui was tired before she tried to probe him: "Mother, learning embroidery skills takes time. Why don't I go to the seaside to fight the Japanese pirates? Once I earn military merit, I can immediately bring honor to my family."
For some reason, she felt that joining the army was more suitable for her than being an embroiderer.
"What did you say?" Zhang Hui looked at her in amazement.
"I said I wanted to join the army and kill the Japanese pirates. One hundred heads of the Japanese pirates can be equal to one level of military merit. When I have accumulated twenty levels of military merit, I will make you a royal consort." Lin Dan stood up slowly with a serious expression.
Zhang Hui took a deep breath, then suddenly jumped up and slapped Lin Dan's head, cursing as she slapped him: "I told you to daydream all day long. You bought a broken pottery jar and told me it was an ancient artifact from the pre-Qin period. You picked up an embroidery needle and told me you wanted to be a general. Why don't you go to heaven? I'm going to beat you to death today and put an end to it for both of us!"
Lin Dan, who had just stood up, immediately shrank back down with his head in his hands, feeling distressed. She is telling the truth, why does no one believe her?
But she soon realized that joining the army was not an option. The martial arts technique called "Ashura Sword" that inexplicably appeared in her mind was not suitable for practicing with this body. She could not make any further progress after practicing only the most basic breathing technique. Apart from a slight increase in strength and a slight improvement in physique, there was no obvious effect.
Lin Dan took several breaths but was unable to condense a cyclone in her dantian, so she gave up. "Mom, please stop hitting me. From now on, I will never go out to play again. I will stay at home and learn embroidery. Isn't that enough?" Since she had replaced the original owner, she had to take on the original owner's responsibilities and support the family again.
"Okay, okay, sister, stop hitting her. The child has admitted her mistake. Please forgive her this time." The two aunts hurried over to stop the fight. After Lin Dafu died, the dozen concubines he took in had no children and were still young, so they all ran away. Only the two old concubines stayed and lived with Zhang Hui and her daughter.
"If she sneaks out again in the future, you must break her legs! Beat her with this, and don't show any mercy!" Zhang Hui stuck the feather duster into the crack of the ground and warned sternly.
The two aunts nodded quickly and sent Zhang Hui, who was exhausted and gasping for breath, back to her room to rest.
After the people walked away, Lin Dan slowly stood up, lifted the messy hair in front of her forehead, revealing a small face full of red marks, looking both embarrassed and funny.
"Puchi", a barely audible laugh came from nearby, causing her ears to twitch slightly. She walked around the courtyard wall and finally found a man in the dense shade of trees. The man had eyes like bright stars, a nose like a hanging gall bladder, and a pair of thin red lips that formed a captivating curve. He was truly suave and unparalleled in the world.
He poked his head out from the shade of the tree, his voice low and hoarse, "Little girl, I didn't mean to peek here, it's just that your house is too noisy and I can't sleep, so I jumped up the tree to find out what's going on."
It turned out that the man was a newly moved neighbor, separated from the Lin family by only a wall.
The man's appearance was more noble than the bright moon and more scorching than the scorching sun, but Lin Dan just looked at him indifferently, nodded, and left. The tree originally belonged to the man, so he could climb it if he wanted to. There was no need to worry about it. Furthermore, Lin Dan seemed to be accustomed to being stared at and did not feel embarrassed or awkward.
The man stared at her back in a daze. He came to his senses when he heard his servant calling him from below and jumped down the tree. This little girl is quite interesting. She is not embarrassed at all when being seen doing such a farce, and is not bothered by her appearance.
"Whose family is across the street?" After moving in for a few days, he finally became a little curious about his neighbors.
"The house opposite is a run-down one. Sir, you don't need to worry about it." The servant waved his hand.
"A pauper?" The man's eyes flickered, his thin lips curved slightly, his expression looked very gentle, but it made the servant sweat profusely and almost peed himself with fright. He forgot that his own son had now become a pauper.
On the other side, Lin Dan was grabbing the maid and asking the same question: "Whose family is across the street and what is their background?" She could tell at a glance that the man's demeanor was not that of an ordinary person.
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