Chapter 987: Imperial Examination Essay: The Evil Mother-in-law (10)
"Madam, I only get a few cents for writing a letter, and I earn less than a few hundred dollars a month." Han Ji said with a wry smile.
"Why is it so little?" Zhang Luoyi was shocked. "It costs me more than one or two cents to buy a handkerchief! How did you get the money to pay for your studies?"
"My mother earned the money by doing embroidery. She had good embroidery skills. There was an embroidery workshop in the town, and my mother often took jobs there. Sometimes when a wealthy family needed a lot of embroidery, my mother would embroider day and night. That's how her body and eyes were damaged." Han Ji was stunned when he said this. He realized that his mother had worked very hard to support his studies. He thought that he could earn money, but it was just a psychological comfort, because if it was just the money he earned, he would never be able to afford to go to school.
Zhang Luoyi heard this and said happily: "I can embroider, too. When I was a child, my mother specially found an old embroiderer from the county to teach me. I will also do embroidery to support you in the future."
Han Ji was touched and felt guilty: "It will be very hard..."
"I'm not afraid of hard work!" Zhang Luoyi replied, "What my mother could do for you before, I can do too." She was full of confidence.
Han Ji immediately hugged her and said, "Thank you, my lady. I will never let you down in the future."
"Well, isn't this also for our future?" Zhang Luoyi felt as sweet as if she had eaten honey when she heard his words. At that time, she didn't know that embroidery was not as easy as she imagined. When she was young, her mother Zhang felt sorry for her and only let her embroider for half an hour every day. Even if she embroidered a purse of ordinary quality, she would still praise it highly. So she thought she was very talented in embroidery.
When Wu Shichu saw Zhang Luoyi holding the embroidery frame and embroidering seriously, he was very surprised: "Luoyi, why are you embroidering?"
"I want to do some embroidery to help my family." Zhang Luoyi immediately smiled and replied, "Just like my mother did before. Now my husband has to continue studying in the academy, and the family can't stop having income."
"Very good, it is a blessing for Han Ji to marry you." Wu Shichu said meaningfully, "It's a pity that my eyesight is not very good, and I can't do this kind of delicate work for a long time. I can only make you work harder."
"Not tired, not tired. For my husband, I don't feel tired at all." Zhang Luoyi shook her head and lowered her head to embroider again.
Wu Shichu watched her movements. Her embroidery technique was very ordinary. Her movements were quite skilled, but she had no advantage in speed. The patterns she embroidered were ordinary, neither vivid nor exquisite. They were just ordinary embroidery work that is very common in the market. It was far worse than the original owner who made a living by embroidery.
However, Wu Shichu would not be so disappointed as to undermine Zhang Luoyi's confidence. Anyway, when she took the embroidery to the embroidery workshop to sell, the owner there would definitely find out all the flaws in her embroidery work without any hesitation.
Zhang Luoyi embroidered with great interest for half an hour, but she felt very tired from keeping her neck lowered all the time. Her back and waist began to ache from sitting for too long. The fingers holding the needle became stiff, and her eyes began to hurt. She suddenly felt discouraged. It turned out that embroidery was not as easy as she had thought.
"Are you tired? If you are, get up and move around, otherwise your body won't be able to bear it." Wu Shichu's words scared Zhang Luoyi, and then she blushed. She felt tired after just doing it for a while, but she heard from her husband that her mother-in-law used to do it for a whole day.
If I stop so soon, wouldn't it make me look useless? So she gritted her teeth and shook her head: "No, I'm not tired, I can continue."
As she said this, she immediately acted energetically and resumed embroidering.
Wu Shichu then stopped persuading her.
However, after a while, Zhang Luoyi suddenly cried out, and then covered his index finger in panic.
"What's wrong?" Wu Shichu walked over and asked her.
"I accidentally pricked my hand." Zhang Luoyi answered with tears in her eyes. Wu Shichu looked at her finger and saw blood oozing out of it.
"It's okay, just cover it with your handkerchief for a while and it will stop." Wu Shichu said in a flat tone.
When Zhang Luoyi heard her nonchalant words, she immediately felt aggrieved. She had worked so hard on the embroidery, and just because she was pricked by the needle, didn't she deserve any concern?
After Wu Shichu finished speaking, he stretched out his hands and said, "Look, all my ten fingers are covered with small holes caused by needles. You'll get used to it once you get used to it."
Zhang Luoyi was stunned for a moment and looked at the fingers that Wu Shichu stretched out. Sure enough, she saw that her fingers were all covered with scars. Although the needle holes on her fingers had healed, there were still many tiny holes left, which looked a bit scary.
Zhang Luoyi was immediately filled with shame, ashamed of the grievance she had just felt. Compared to the scars on her mother-in-law's body, hers was just a pinhole, nothing at all? Not even worth mentioning!
Zhang Luoyi was shocked by the scar on Wu Shichu's hand. He immediately threw away the grievance and pampering in his heart, wiped the blood on his finger with a handkerchief, and said, "Such a small wound is really nothing. I am making a fuss about it."
Wu Shichu chuckled and said nothing more. If someone felt sorry for him when he was injured, he would not hesitate to "make a fuss". However, if no one felt sorry for him, then his grievance and sadness would only be seen as "affected" in the eyes of others.
Zhang Luoyi continued to embroider for another half an hour, but she could not hold on any longer. She was so tired that she had difficulty even raising her head, and her waist was so stiff that it hurt even to stand up.
She wanted to cry again, wondering how could it be so difficult? Embroidery looked easy, but who knew that when she did it herself, she realized how difficult it was.
Zhang Luoyi suddenly lost confidence in herself. Could she really support her husband's studies by doing embroidery? She had never suffered much since she was a child. The biggest hardship she had to endure was learning to wash clothes and cook. She thought that was hard and tiring, but she didn't expect that there would be even harder and more tiring work waiting for her.
She had already begun to regret the boast she had made to Han Ji.
"Please press your neck and back with your hands. Move slowly and don't be in a hurry. It will be bad if you twist your neck or waist." Wu Shichu saw her stiff movements and advised her.
"Why don't you let Sister Song massage you? It will help you recover faster." Wu Shichu suggested, then sighed and said sadly, "I used to do embroidery for a day and it took me 25 minutes to recover and walk. At that time, there was no one to massage my neck and back. You are very lucky to have Sister Song now."
Wu Shichu's words made Zhang Luoyi feel complicated. She didn't think it was amazing that her mother-in-law did embroidery to support her husband's studies until she started doing this job herself.
(End of this chapter)
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