The man's looks were one in a million, unparalleled in the world, so just a few days after he moved in, the maid in the family had already found out all his details.
"My dear young lady," the maid looked around and whispered in Lin Dan's ear like a thief, "Next door are the nephew and niece of the deposed Empress Du. Their names are Du Rusong and Du Ruyan. Their father is Xue Lie, the Marquis of Anding. When Empress Du was in favor, the two siblings were known as the two tyrants in the capital. One was a playboy and the other was arrogant. Almost no one dared to offend them. After Empress Du was deposed, their mother was also divorced by her husband's family. The two changed their names and followed Empress Du to live in Lin'an Prefecture. This place is close to the Taoist temple where Empress Du practices, so it is convenient to take care of her, so they moved here."
The current emperor ascended the throne at a young age and is quite talented. He governs the country very well and he and the empress are in harmony and very loving. Therefore, the queen's mother's family was highly valued by the emperor and gradually took control of the military and political power, becoming considered a powerful force. Unfortunately, flowers do not stay in bloom forever, and people are not happy forever. Empress Du was childless and she was so confused that she wanted to poison Concubine Min who was giving birth and take her child for herself. However, she was not careful enough and was seen through by the Emperor.
The emperor was furious and immediately ordered the empress to be confined to her house. Many censors also took the opportunity to impeach the empress's family and expose their various crimes. After a thorough investigation, the emperor found that all the crimes were punishable by death, which made him even more disappointed with the empress. When he heard that she was resentful and tried to commit suicide by hitting her head against the pillar, he finally became completely disgusted with her, and with an imperial edict, he abolished her position as empress and demoted her to Lin'an Prefecture to become a nun.
The deposed queen is now practicing in a Taoist temple not far away. I heard that her face has been destroyed and she can never go back. In order to protect themselves, her family members all distanced themselves from her, but her sister always protected her and even broke up with her husband's family for this. Unfortunately, her sister was unlucky and soon fell ill and died. Her two children came to Lin'an Prefecture with a huge dowry to seek refuge with the deposed empress.
It would be better to say that it is taking care of someone rather than seeking refuge. The deposed queen now has nothing and has to stay in the cold Taoist temple and endure misery for the rest of her life. In order to make her life better, the Du brothers and sisters spent a lot of money to renovate the Taoist temple and moved to this not very spacious house.
Concubine Min, who was poisoned by the deposed queen, turned a disaster into a blessing and was promoted to Imperial Concubine. The prince she gave birth to is now two years old. The toxins in his body have not yet been eliminated, and he is weaker than an ordinary child. The emperor felt guilty towards the mother and son, so he vigorously promoted their maternal family. Perhaps it was a coincidence that he transferred Concubine Min's father Li Ran to Lin'an Prefecture as governor.
As a result, the life of the deposed empress and the Du brothers and sisters became even more difficult. They were already ostracized and isolated by the noble families in Lin'an Prefecture. If they did not have great luck, they would probably never make it in this life, and their situation would not be much better than that of the Lin family.
After listening to the complicated struggle in the harem, Lin Dan nodded and said, "In the future, you can still interact with each other as you should. There is no need to distance yourself from each other deliberately." She did not have the ability to add icing on the cake for others, but she also disdained to add insult to injury.
"Do we really not need to distance ourselves from them on purpose?" The maid felt a little unsure. After all, the Du family was a family that even the emperor disliked, and there was always a risk in associating with them.
"No need. A distant relative is not as good as a close neighbor. Haven't you heard this saying?" Lin Dan waved his hand and said, "Go down. I want to sleep for a while."
After the maid left, she slowly frowned and looked a little worried. It is extremely difficult to change the Lin family's situation. You know, the Meng brothers and sisters are hooking up with the Governor of Zhejiang and the maternal family of Concubine Min. If Imperial Concubine Min continues to enjoy the emperor's favor, the Li family will never be defeated, and the Meng brothers and sisters will be able to rise rapidly and fly higher and higher.
The Lin family has now been trampled into the mud. Can they still turn things around? Can they still defeat the all-powerful Meng family?
Questions popped up in Lin Dan's mind one after another, but she suppressed them all. No matter how bleak the future is or how difficult the road is, she will first learn the embroidery skills well before talking about other things. With superb embroidery skills, she can open an embroidery shop. Only by opening an embroidery shop will she be qualified to compete for the position of imperial merchant. You eat food one bite at a time and walk one step at a time. Don't be impatient.
Thinking of this, Lin Dan closed his eyes and fell asleep instantly.
The next day, the two aunts came to teach her as usual, patiently explaining: "Embroidery is a skill that requires a lot of hard work. You must calm down and study hard. There is no shortcut to learning embroidery. It all depends on weaving one stitch at a time. Are you ready?"
"I'm ready." Lin Dan took out a set of needlework and nodded carefully.
The two concubines were pleased and said, "It's good that you have the intention. Embroidery is a strain on the eyes. In order to keep the color tone, you need to choose a suitable place to do it. This place cannot be too dark, too noisy, or too messy. The best place is quiet, bright, and clean. You can sit down wherever you think meets the standards, and we will learn slowly."
Lin Dan looked around, pointed to the garden outside the window and said, "Then let's embroider in the yard."
The yard is full of shaded trees, blooming flowers, dancing butterflies and flying birds, creating a beautiful spring scene. It is a good place to sit under the tree and embroider, where the light is neither too bright nor too dark, and the surroundings are neither noisy nor bustling. The two aunts were satisfied and said, "Okay, let's go to the yard and embroider."
The group sat down in the yard. First, the embroidery categories were explained, and then the patterns and colors were mentioned. Then, Lin Dan was asked to start practicing from the simplest flat needle embroidery. He said bluntly: "Flat needle embroidery is divided into vertical flat, horizontal flat, and oblique flat. There are four key points, that is, flat, even, practiced, and smooth. It cannot be uneven, overlapping, crossing, or revealing the base fabric. Only after you have mastered flat needle embroidery can you continue to practice other needlework. Flat needle embroidery is the basis of all needlework. With only this needlework, you can embroider most of the patterns in the world. Do you understand?"
"I understand." Lin Dan nodded obediently.
"We will demonstrate it to you first, and you watch." The two concubines took out their needles and threads and began to embroider. Soon, two lifelike forsythia flowers appeared on the white embroidery cloth. Although they were made with just flat stitches and the style was simple, the silk threads were dense and the color was tender, which was very cute.
Lin Dan learned it almost immediately and quickly started threading a needle.
There were not many servants in the house, and the two concubines had to do housework in addition to teaching. Seeing that Lin Dan was very serious and conscientious, they left one after another. Occasionally, they would take time to visit her and ask the maid to watch over her to prevent her from being lazy.
Lin Dan held an embroidery needle and carefully moved it across the embroidery cloth. Her expression looked very calm, but a lot of anger was boiling inside. She originally thought that operating an embroidery needle was a very simple matter, but when she actually put it into practice she realized how difficult it was! She originally wanted to insert the needle here and withdraw it there, but her hands shook and she went completely wrong. A beautiful forsythia flower was turned into a pile of bird droppings, yellow and white, all mixed together.
She stared at the pile of "bird droppings" for a long time, and her hands holding the embroidery needle were shaking. She felt that she should not take the needle, but the knife, and chop off all these messy things.
"Miss, Miss, what do you want to do?" The maid saw her suddenly get up and go to the woodshed, and hurriedly followed her.
"Miss, you can't hold a knife. Be careful not to hurt your hands!" Seeing her coming out of the room with an axe, the maid turned pale with fright.
Lin Dan silently placed a wooden block in the yard and started chopping with his knife. When she was unhappy, she always wanted to kill someone. She didn't know when she developed this habit.
"Miss, what are you doing? Stop it now!" The maid was really made to cry by her. She wanted to get closer but was afraid of being hit by the flying wood chips, so she could only stand there and persuade her.
Lin Dan ignored him and chopped the wooden block into pieces in a few strokes. She then patted her skirt that was covered with sawdust and said slowly, "Change me a piece of embroidery cloth and we'll continue practicing."
The maid looked at her calm face, as if nothing had happened, then looked at the wooden stool on the ground that was broken into pieces and couldn't help but shudder. She quickly changed the embroidery cloth for Lin Dan, cleaned up the mess on the ground, and then stepped away, not daring to get close to Lin Dan at all.
Lin Dan hid the hatchet under the tablecloth, picked up the embroidery needle and continued to practice flat stitch. After practicing for a while, the third aunt came, picked up the "bird droppings" and took a look at it, with an expression that was hard to describe. Fortunately, Lin Dan did not run away or slack off today, which was already a huge improvement. She did not dare to blame him, but instead said many words of encouragement.
Lin Dan nodded obediently and continued embroidering. A quarter of an hour later, a piece of "bird droppings" that looked slightly better came out. She held the embroidered cloth and looked at it for a long time, until her eyes were almost frozen. Then she let go of the cloth, bent down, and took out the hatchet from under the table.
The maid whimpered and stepped back hastily.
Lin Dan was unwilling to let her go, and said calmly, "Bring another wooden block over."
The maid was hesitant, but after a quick glance from her, she ran to the woodshed like a frightened bird, and in a moment she brought back a wooden stake half a person's height.
Lin Dan slowly rolled up his sleeves, slowly raised the knife, and in a few strokes he cut the half-man-high wooden stake to only two feet long. The embroidery had almost exhausted all her patience, and now her mind was filled with the desire to kill someone. Why is it harder to hold an embroidery needle than to chop someone with a knife? Why? !
Her eyes were as dark as water and her face was as cold as frost, which was really scary to look at. When the wood stakes were chopped down, her cold aura instantly disappeared and she turned back into that girl who was coquettish but a little naive.
"Okay, sweep the floor, change the embroidery cloth for me, and we'll continue practicing." As usual, she hid the hatchet under the tablecloth and instructed very calmly.
The maid was so frightened that she dared not even breathe. She cleaned the yard as quickly as possible and sent the poor wooden stake, with only a tiny bit of its butt left, back to the woodshed.
Just as Lin Dan sat down, the fourth aunt came over, picked up two pieces of embroidery cloth, looked at them, and praised: "Not bad, you have made progress! Keep practicing, don't stop."
"I will," Lin Dan nodded and suggested, "Fourth Aunt, ask the servant to bring a few more bundles of firewood later, the firewood room is almost empty."
"Okay, our Dan'er also knows how to manage things." The fourth aunt left very pleased. Lin Dan continued to practice with the embroidery needle in her hand, and her expression looked as calm as possible.
Not far away, Du Rushong quietly jumped down from the treetop, shaking his head and laughing. Why is this little girl so fierce! How interesting!
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