After rounds of bidding, the statue of Avalokitesvara was finally bought by the admiral's wife for 20,000 taels of silver. It's not that there are no noble ladies and merchants present who are richer than her, but her status is the most valuable. The Japanese pirates have been invading for years, and it is only because of the navy that peace can be maintained in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Who would have the courage to offend her?
After bringing the portrait home and hanging it in the Buddhist temple, all the women of the Xu family gathered together and looked at the Bodhisattva Guanyin with pious expressions.
Suddenly, the door of the Buddhist hall was rudely kicked open, and the tall and strong Admiral Xu walked in angrily and cursed: "Wang, you stupid woman, I heard that you spent 20,000 taels of silver to buy an embroidered painting? I worked hard all day to earn this fortune, and you spent 20,000 taels with just a wave of your hand! Where is the embroidered painting? Return it to me quickly, or I will let you go immediately!"
"Who are you, father?" Before Mrs. Xu could react, Old Lady Xu could no longer sit still. She slammed the table and stood up, angrily saying, "If you dare to have your eyes on this embroidery, I will never let you go!"
Admiral Xu's face froze slightly. He was about to say something to comfort the old lady, but suddenly he saw the embroidery on the wall clearly. He gasped, reached for his waist, and almost drew his sword to defend himself. There was no other reason. It was just that the golden-haired beast was too realistic and scary. At a quick glance in the dark Buddhist hall, it seemed as if it was going to pounce on people and eat them. But at another glance, he was calmed by the kind-looking Guanyin Bodhisattva and became calm again.
"This, is this the embroidery?" Admiral Xu was stunned for a long while before he spoke in disbelief. No matter how he looked at it, he felt that this embroidery did not look like a painting, but more like a mirror. On the other side of the mirror was a passage leading to the realm of gods, inadvertently reflecting the characters in mythology.
"That's right." Mrs. Xu didn't even look at him. She just held her two-and-a-half-year-old grandson in her arms and pointed at the embroidery to coax him: "My dear grandson, look, that's Guanyin Bodhisattva. She will protect you in the future."
The adorable child was so frightened when he saw the lifelike golden-haired lion that he burst into tears and quickly buried his head in Mrs. Xu's arms.
"Don't look at the monster, look at the Bodhisattva." Mrs. Xu turned around and asked her grandson to continue looking at the embroidery. She pointed at the face of Guanyin Bodhisattva and said, "Look, the Bodhisattva is smiling at you."
The little boy looked at the embroidery timidly, and then was mesmerized by the kind-looking and peaceful smile of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. After a while, he stretched out his hand and chuckled, as if he wanted Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara to hug him. The child's cognition is still in its early stages and he or she cannot tell that it is just an embroidery and not a real person. But this is enough to prove from the side how exquisite and magical the workmanship of this embroidery painting is.
Admiral Xu looked at his grandson's reaction and couldn't help but sigh in amazement. He then looked at Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara and took a few steps back in surprise. He then walked around the Buddhist hall a few times and said in doubt: "Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara and that golden-haired beast have been looking at me! What's going on? There is still light on the top of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara's head. Did you see it, mother?" He rubbed his eyes repeatedly, fearing that he was hallucinating.
When embroidering the Buddha's light behind the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, Lin Dan combined more than a dozen needle techniques, including mixed needle, willow needle, giving needle, flat needle and scattering needle. She also split the silk thread into extremely thin threads and then rubbed it smooth to express the scattering and softness of the Buddha's light. The smooth and dense embroidery surface looks like a mirror, which not only makes the golden silk thread more dazzling, but also reflects the light in nature.
Therefore, when other people stare at Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, they will have the illusion that he is really emitting light. This would be impossible without extremely sophisticated embroidery skills.
"We saw it a long time ago. Don't make so much noise in the Buddhist temple, be careful not to offend the Bodhisattva!" Old Lady Xu was very dissatisfied with her son.
Madam Xu chuckled and said, "Master, I haven't paid you the twenty thousand taels of silver yet. I didn't bring enough banknotes at the time, so I brought the embroidery back on credit. If you think this embroidery is not good, I will ask the housekeeper to return it immediately."
"Don't!" Admiral Xu waved his hands quickly: "Don't retreat! Send someone to deliver the banknotes quickly, otherwise the embroiderer will come to ask for it." He had worked his way up in the military camp and had escaped death more than once. The most dangerous time was when he fell into the sea and was swept away by the waves. In a daze, he vaguely saw the Buddha's light and heard the sound of Sanskrit. Then he was carried ashore by a dolphin and placed safely on the beach. He was accidentally picked up by several subordinates and saved his life.
After he came back, he learned that his mother had knelt in the Buddhist temple and recited scriptures for three days and three nights because she had a premonition, praying to the Buddha to bless him with a safe return. The mother and son sat together and discussed it, and they both believed that it was the Bodhisattva who appeared and was blessing their Xu family. From then on, Admiral Xu changed from an atheist to a Buddhist believer, and the old lady also had a stronger faith in Bodhisattva. Now, Mrs. Xu has brought back such a brilliant and spiritual Buddha statue. They are so busy worshipping it day and night that how can they bear to return it?
"You really won't retreat?" Mrs. Xu teased her husband.
"Whoever dares to touch this Buddha statue will be punished by me!" Old Lady Xu pounded her cane so hard that it made a deafening noise.
Mrs. Xu then smiled and said, "Mother, Master, shall I send someone to deliver the banknotes to Danyan Embroidery Shop?"
"Go ahead, go ahead, otherwise people won't get paid and will come to you to ask for a refund." Admiral Xu waved his hands repeatedly, looking anxious. Others were scrambling to buy such a good thing, and he had finally gotten it, so he couldn't lose it again.
…………
Ever since the sale of the painting of Avalokitesvara, Lin Dan's name had spread throughout Lin'an Prefecture. Nowadays, when people talk about the embroiderers with top embroidery skills, the first person they think of must be her, followed by Meng Si, Yao Huiyun, Fang Wenqi and others. If a ranking list of embroiderers were written in black and white, Lin Dan would definitely be number one, and no one else would dare to compete with her.
On the opening day, Danyan Embroidery Shop earned 21,000 taels of silver, a profit that was simply staggering. Among them, 20,000 taels came from the sale of embroidery paintings, and the remaining 1,000 taels were all deposits for the ladies and young ladies to customize their dresses. After all, the end of the year is approaching, and every household is busy making new clothes for the New Year. Du Ruyan took this opportunity to contact the fabric merchants again, and eventually bought a lot of expensive fabrics, thus solving another troublesome problem.
On the other hand, Meng's Embroidery Shop is not having such an easy time. Eighty-nine out of ten customers are snatched away by Lin Dan. Meng Zhong can only watch helplessly as customers flock to the opposite side every day, while his own embroidery shop is deserted. Fortunately, Danyan Embroidery Shop had just opened and was still small, so it could not take on too many jobs. Meng Zhong picked up some leftovers from other people, but when he counted the accounts at the end of the year, he found that the turnover had dropped by 70% to 80%. It was no exaggeration to say that "business was terrible."
In the past, there was an endless stream of customers coming to Meng Si to customize embroidered screens and paintings. Now, they would rather spend several months waiting for Lin Dan. With such a good thing in front of us, who would be willing to settle for inferior goods?
Meng Si, who was demoted to a "substandard product", felt extremely upset and locked herself in the room and refused to come out. Finally, Meng Zhong kicked the door open, walked in, and poured a bucket of cold water on her head, which woke her up. The brother and sister cheered up and went to the street to buy New Year's goods and relax. When they saw Lin Dan and Du Ruyan coming towards them, their faces darkened.
Lin Dan pretended not to see the two people and walked past them without even glancing at them.
Meng Si cried out, "Lin Dan, wait a minute. Your father caused my family to be destroyed, and all my brother did was to avenge his father. Since your father's death, the grudges between our two families have been settled, and my brother has not attacked you again. Why are you so aggressive and want to retaliate against me? I don't think I have done anything wrong to you."
Du Ruyan raised her eyebrows and was about to retort, but Lin Dan gently held her shoulder.
"First, if you can avenge your father, I can also avenge him. We can't say we are even." Lin Dan turned around and said word by word: "Second, I didn't take revenge on you. I was just reviving the family business. Does this bother you? Have I ever used despicable means to steal your family's property like your brother? Have I ever used insidious methods to destroy your reputation? Everything I have now is earned by my own strength, and my future is also embroidered by me stitch by stitch. I didn't win unfairly, nor did I harm others for my own benefit, and I didn't use any means to do so. Where did your accusations come from? Am I wrong to say that I am better than you? Looking at the entire Lin'an City, and even the Great Zhou Kingdom, there are countless people who are better than you. Are they all wrong?"
Lin Dan turned back and waved his hand, saying, "If you really think so, then Miss Meng, I advise you to see a doctor as soon as possible. Narcissism is a disease, and I think you are seriously ill."
Du Ruyan was trying so hard to hold back her laughter that she almost died. She never expected that Lin Dan's words were even more poisonous than her brother's. She turned around and rolled her eyes at Meng Si with a look of disdain. What kind of people are these? They come here to curse others when they can’t beat Dandan. They really can’t afford to lose!
Meng Si looked embarrassed and realized that passers-by were looking at her. She quickly hid behind her brother and secretly wiped her tears with a handkerchief. She really shouldn't have run to question Lin Dan on impulse. Now that she thought about it, Lin Dan had never used despicable means to deal with her. Instead, he had always been upright. Even if he deliberately targeted her, he did it openly and relied on his own strength. She lost to Lin Dan because she was not as skilled as him.
The more Meng Si thought about it, the more frustrated he became. He choked up and said, "Brother, let's go back. I don't want to go shopping anymore. I always feel like everyone is laughing at me. Jiarong hasn't come to see me for a long time. She probably thinks that someone like me is not worthy of playing with her. If I hadn't lived up to my expectations, the business of the embroidery shop wouldn't have plummeted. After the New Year, Zhejiang Province will select the imperial merchant again. What will you do if you lose the imperial merchant qualification? It's all my fault. I ruined you."
"What nonsense are you talking about." Meng Zhong's tone was gentle, but there was a hint of sinisterness in his eyes. "The end of the year is approaching, and every household is busy preparing for the New Year gifts. Jiarong naturally has no time to come to see you. Send her an invitation some other day and ask her out. I will definitely be the imperial merchant next year, don't worry. Lin Dan is just a little embroiderer. If I want to kill her, it's as easy as killing an ant. Just wait and see, after the New Year, I will make sure that her business will no longer be able to continue. I have an embroidery book here, which Li Xiudian found specifically for you. It is an ancient artifact from the previous dynasty. You should study it carefully. Once you learn this, what is Lin Dan?"
After taking the embroidery pattern handed to her by her brother and taking a quick look at it, Meng Si's depressed expression was immediately replaced by ecstasy.
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