After spending a long time with Lin Dan, Du Ruyan knew that she was a very down-to-earth person. She said what she thought, would not lie, and would never promise things she could not do. She said she could use an embroidery needle to embroider a piece of fabric more beautiful than the Phoenix Fire, and Du Ruyan believed it without a doubt.
"How do you plan to embroider?" Du Ruyan asked excitedly after returning home. If Lin Dan could really embroider Cloud Cloth or Moonlight Cloth, even if the Shu brocade of Meng's Embroidery Shop was very good, it would not be able to seize the weaving market in Zhejiang Province, let alone the position of imperial merchant. The nobles in the palace have always used only the most beautiful and expensive fabrics. With Lin Dan's Yunxia cloth and Yuehui cloth as precious as pearls and jade, they would never settle for inferior fabrics. In this way, even if Danyan Embroidery Shop is not large in scale and has a low output, it is not something Meng Zhong can easily touch.
"Just use the reeled silk to embroider," Lin Dan walked into the backyard. Cuilan, who was reeling silk, immediately stood up and happily called her "Miss." She was used to doing rough work as a maid, and her fingers were covered with calluses, making it difficult for her to do delicate embroidery work, so she came to learn weaving. But so far, she has only learned the first step of weaving - reeling silk, and she still has to slowly figure out the following steps.
Lin Dan nodded to Cuilan and encouraged her a few more times before picking up a bunch of silk and carefully picking out one of them. She said to Du Ruyan, "Look, embroidery thread is made by twisting these silk threads together one by one. Even the thinnest embroidery thread is made up of dozens or even hundreds of silk threads. If you hang a silk thread in the air, it is almost invisible to the naked eye, but when the sun shines on it, it will reflect a crystal light, allowing you to discover its existence. What I want is this feeling of seemingly non-existent but actually faintly glowing."
She raised her hand and let the silk drop into the air. The extremely thin silk was hard to spot if you didn't look closely. However, when you change your angle and look towards the sunlight, you will find a faint beam of light in the sky. It is these strands of shiny silk that make up the silk that is as smooth and transparent as a mirror.
Du Ruyan suddenly realized: "Dandan, I understand what you want to do. But how thin a needle must be to penetrate this silk? How much time and energy will it take to embroider the silk threads one by one onto the cloth to form intricate patterns? Isn't that too hard?" Only then did she understand why most embroiderers went blind before they were fifty years old. Embroidery is a very delicate and massive job!
"My eyesight is fine, don't worry." Lin Dan waved his hand nonchalantly. Because she practiced internal skills secretly, her eyes could see in the dark night, so she didn't have any worries in this regard.
After thinking about it, she said firmly: "No matter how much time and energy it takes, we must make better fabrics. Only in this way can we survive. Once a store has a flagship product, when others come to attack, we can strike hard and crush their plots."
She has always believed that offense is the best defense.
Du Ruyan was moved and said, "Dandan, you are so right! We must make things that others cannot make in order to become irreplaceable. Dandan, how come you are so amazing? When you encounter difficulties, you never panic, but actively try to find ways to solve them. No wonder my brother always asks me to learn from you."
Du Ruyan stayed in the palace for five years, and all she learned was intrigue and deception. Those things made her look at life more and more negatively, but after being with Lin Dan, she suddenly realized that those things that made her feel disgusted, disgusted, and even afraid in the past were nothing! The real strength lies not in appearance but in the heart.
The dark cloud hanging over her head immediately dissipated. She followed Lin Dan like a follower, watching her dye silk into various colors, watching her use sand and stones to grind the already extremely fine embroidery needle even finer, her eyes full of admiration.
Lin Dan is the most powerful person she has ever met, no doubt about it.
…………
While Lin Dan was still embroidering the cloth stitch by stitch, Meng's Embroidery Shop successively launched a series of cloths similar to Phoenix Fire, including green, blue, purple, etc. Due to the low production, only five pieces could be produced per month, so the ladies and celebrities in Lin'an Prefecture were almost fighting for it.
Gradually, fewer and fewer people went to Danyan Embroidery Shop to order custom-made embroidered clothes, until later, when the shop did not receive a single order for two consecutive months. Meng's Embroidery Shop would put a piece of new Shu brocade on the shelf every six days, and the ladies and socialites of Lin'an Prefecture would also visit his shop every six days. Even if they could not buy the Shu brocade, they would buy other fabrics as well. The new Shu brocade boosted the sales of other fabrics and also allowed Meng’s Embroidery Shop to take away business from surrounding shops.
Cloth merchants kept coming to Meng Zhong to seek cooperation. If they could pay a price that satisfied him, business would naturally be done. Gradually, Lin Dan found that her shop could no longer get any goods, and even the few embroiderers she had just hired left one after another to find other ways to make a living. If this continues, Danyan Embroidery Shop will collapse sooner or later.
However, she was not in a hurry at all and just stayed at home embroidering peacefully. Du Ruyan went to inspect the store every day, sometimes sitting in the empty hall drinking tea, sometimes leaning against the window to look at the scenery, eating and drinking as usual, without any of the panic that some people had expected.
Meng Zhong stood on the second floor and looked down with a sinister look on his face.
Li Xiudian poured him a cup of hot tea and said with a smile, "Du Ruyan was raised by the deposed queen after all, so she has a very good character. I'm afraid it's impossible for you to see her in such a state of distraught."
"What does her miserable state have to do with me? She has never been my opponent." Meng Zhong felt a little uneasy as he couldn't find Lin Dan, but he suppressed it. This time, he wanted to see how Lin Dan would turn things around.
…………
Three months later, Lin Dan finally finished embroidering the Yunxia cloth and Yuehui cloth. She was preparing to take a good rest for a few days when she heard a noisy sound coming from next door. She was just about to climb up the wall to take a look, but she saw Uncle Sun running into his backyard in a hurry with red eyes.
"Miss Lin, something has happened to the young master. Please go and see him for the last time."
"What did you say?" Before Lin Dan could ask, Zhang Hui, who ran in behind Sun Bo, was already stunned. She never expected that Uncle Sun insisted on seeing her daughter for such a thing. How could a good person just disappear like that?
Lin Dan immediately took off her sleeves and walked out, "Where is he? I'll go see him." No matter why Sun Bo made such a strange request, she had no choice but to do it.
The two of them walked out of the gate quickly and saw Du Ruyan already waiting in the carriage. Her eyes were red and swollen, obviously she had been crying, and her hands were shaking as if she was about to collapse. Lin Dan immediately hugged her in his arms and patted her gently, saying firmly: "Let's go see your brother first, maybe the situation is not that bad. Crying is useless. The more critical the moment is, the more you need to stay calm. Otherwise, how can you find a way to save people?"
Du Ruyan quickly wiped away her tears and nodded vigorously. As long as Lin Dan was there, she was not afraid.
While driving the carriage, Sun Bo explained, "In order to save the eldest prince, the young master was shot by the Japanese pirates. The arrow head pierced his left chest, very close to his heart. Now the eldest prince has taken the young master back for treatment. The young master said he wanted to see you, so he asked me to take you there." At the end, Sun Bo's voice was choked with sobs and he could hardly continue.
Du Ruyan clenched her teeth to prevent herself from crying.
Only Lin Dan was the calmest. He said slowly, "It's very close to the heart meridian, which means it hasn't been really injured? The person can still be saved. Don't worry, go and check the situation first."
"Okay, okay, we're not in a hurry. There's hope, there's definitely hope." Du Ruyan slowly regained her composure, and when she looked at Lin Dan's peaceful profile again, she felt a lot more at ease. If it weren't for Lin Dan, she would have no idea what to do now.
At the same time, Du Rushong was pointing at the arrow on his chest and spoke with difficulty: "Doctor, Miss Lin and my sister are about to come. Please cut off the exposed arrow and put an outer robe on me. I am afraid of scaring them."
"If you cut off the arrow shaft, how am I going to pull out the arrowhead later? I think you don't want to live anymore." The doctor shook his head and refused, his expression somewhat angry.
The eldest prince said with red eyes: "If you can pull out the arrow successfully, you can survive. Don't think about those things now."
Du Rushong shook his head and smiled bitterly, already knowing what he would face. The arrow head had a barb, so when it was pulled out it would definitely tear out a layer of flesh and blood. His wound was only half an inch away from his heart, so if it was pulled out, his heart would definitely break, so how could he survive? Unless the doctor can not pull out the arrow, but directly insert it deeper, then pierce the skin on the back and pull it out. However, this operation method is more difficult than pulling it out, and no one can guarantee that the strength and stability of the hands can be maintained during the process of inserting the arrow. If the force is sometimes strong and sometimes weak, and the hands shake left and right, the arrow will also shake inside the body, causing a larger wound. If it deviates even a little and hits the heart or other blood vessels, it will also be a death sentence.
Thinking of this, Du Rushong looked at the eldest prince with a very self-blaming expression: "Am I too selfish? I shouldn't have let Ruyan and Miss Lin see me like this. Forget it, send them back. If I die, please take good care of them."
The eldest prince gritted his teeth and said, "If you die, I won't care about them, so you'd better stay alive! The people are already here, why send them back? With them watching you, are you willing to die? Cheer up!"
The doctor shook his head with regret: "If the arrow had been more powerful and shot directly through Mr. Du's body, the wound would be much easier to treat. I see that the arrow did not injure the heart meridian, but if we insist on pulling out the arrowhead, it will accelerate the deterioration of the injury. Alas, I have been practicing medicine for decades and have never seen such a difficult situation. It is difficult to pull out the arrow or not pull it out!"
Du Rushong wanted to wave his hand but found that he had no strength left. He could only close his eyes and smile bitterly: "Then keep it. I'll talk about it after I meet Ruyan and Miss Lin." He shouldn't have called Lin Dan over, but before he died, he longed to see her again, so longing that his heart would continue beating whenever he thought of her.
He silently told himself in his heart: Never mind, I'll be selfish this time, since it's the last time anyway...
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