Re-embroidering life

In front of the spacious main room, there was a bamboo curtain hanging. Behind the curtain was someone, a man, sitting with his back to her.

"Are you here? Come in!" A beautiful voice with a jade-like texture.

Shui Qinghua hesitated for a moment, lifted the bamboo curtain, and walked in. The man turned around and looked at her.

Shui Qinghua's breathing suddenly became lighter, as if any heavier breathing would be a blasphemy to the person in front of her.

He is no longer young, he seems to be about thirty-five or thirty-six years old, wearing a plain white gown, which looks inconspicuous, but is actually made of kesi, with delicate bamboo leaf patterns embroidered on the cuffs and hem. Age, appearance and clothing are not important to him, he is just him, sitting there is a painting. The fresh rain in the empty mountain, the clear spring on the stone, the bright moon between the pines, they are all him.

Shui Qinghua recognized him almost instantly. This was Mr. Jade. The man was carved from beautiful jade, and his name was just as he deserved.

The chair under Mr. Yu turned and he was facing her. Shui Qinghua then realized that he was sitting on a chair with wooden wheels.

Mr. Yu pushed his chair and looked at her with a hint of reproach: "You are late, and the children have been waiting for a while." After that, he handed her a book and motioned her to go to the inner room.

Shui Qinghua looked down and saw a copy of "You Xue Qiong Lin". There were about ten children sitting in the inner room, of varying ages, wearing shabby clothes, and they looked like they were from a slum.

Shui Qinghua glanced at Mr. Yu in confusion, and Mr. Yu gave her an encouraging look in return: "Go ahead!"

Shui Qinghua stammered as she began to explain. When Ji Fei and Ji Rui were young, they had no money to hire a female teacher, so she taught them by herself. Teaching was not difficult. Shui Qinghua gradually immersed herself in the poems and her language became more and more fluent, and the children listened with great interest.

Mr. Yu sat outside the door and listened at first. He seemed satisfied with her performance, but then he disappeared.

When the hall bell rang, Shui Qinghua walked out of the inner room and saw a young woman hurriedly explaining to Mr. Yu: "I'm sorry, I got the wrong time and I'm late."

Mr. Yu looked at her in surprise: "You are the new female teacher, then who is she?"

The two of them looked at Shui Qinghua at the same time, and Shui Qinghua smiled awkwardly: "Well, I'm just passing by."

"Second sister, why are you here?" Shui Qinghua heard her eldest sister's voice, looked up, and saw her eldest sister looking at her with eyes wide open, in surprise.

Shui Qinghua sighed: "Eldest sister, I should be the one asking you this."

The two sisters walked out of the main room and whispered in the yard.

"Actually, I left Jiangxia partly to travel, and partly to avoid my mother." Shui Minghua said the truth helplessly.

Shui Qinghua couldn't help laughing as she imagined how Aunt Li coaxed and coaxed her daughter into a blind date.

After Shui Minghua arrived in Beijing, she felt like a bird out of a cage or a fish in the sea, truly free and unrestrained. In addition to teaching her nieces, she had plenty of time to go out for sightseeing. The majestic palace, the bustling city, and the scenery outside Beijing were all eye-opening for her.

Living in the capital was not easy. After a long time, the money she had saved from teaching at Yuquan Academy was almost exhausted. She was too embarrassed to let her sister and brother-in-law support her, so she thought about finding a teaching job. Because she was a foreigner, even though she was full of poetry and books, she encountered many setbacks. She also asked to teach only half a day and have the other half free, so no one would hire her.

One day, she was returning from a trip outside Beijing when she encountered a heavy snowfall, and her breath turned to ice. She gritted her teeth and rented a donkey cart. When she entered the city, she found a large bump in the snow ahead. She thought it was a stone, so she looked away.

When the donkey cart and the stone met, she suddenly found that the stone shook! She thought she was seeing things, but she was not sure. She kept staring at the stone until the donkey cart drove ten feet away.

Until the stone shook slightly again! Now she was sure, and she shouted to the driver, turning the car around and coming to the "stone".

She was naturally braver than ordinary women, but she was still nervous when she reached out to touch the "stone". Fortunately, the bloody or horrible scenes she imagined did not happen. Under the snow, there was a person, a handsome man. To be precise, a handsome man who was almost frozen to death.

Shui Minghua took the man on a donkey cart and went into the city, where he found a private clinic and sent him in, thus saving Mr. Yu.

"A man who can't walk, lying alone in the snow and wind outside Beijing? Sister, have you ever asked the reason?" Shui Qinghua asked.

Shui Minghua shook his head: "I haven't asked. Don't be too curious about things you shouldn't know."

Everyone she met seemed to have secrets, Shen Yi and Mr. Yu. However, she hated getting involved in other people's secrets the most, because those had nothing to do with her.

After Mr. Yu woke up, he wanted to thank Shui Minghua. He learned that Shui Minghua was looking for a teaching job and he happened to have a private school, so he hired her.

The private school was open free of charge to poor children from the surrounding area, and all expenses were borne by Mr. Yu himself. The teacher's monthly salary was not high, but Mr. Yu agreed to Minghua's request to teach only half a day, and Minghua was very satisfied.

"Mr. Yu is well-read and can see the big picture from the small details. Last time you were suddenly taken away by the yamen runners, I asked him for advice in a hurry. After listening, he was sure that you would return home safely and told me not to worry." Shui Minghua still remembered that Mr. Yu smiled and said, "If it was another family, I dare not say, but if it was the Zhao family of the Imperial Household Department, your sister would be fine. People who are not favored by the emperor will not cause any trouble. How to handle it depends on your brother-in-law's ability."

Shui Qinghua was secretly shocked. The fact that he could say such words showed that Mr. Yu knew everything about the court.

"Eldest sister, just focus on being a teacher and don't get involved in other matters." Shui Qinghua warned.

Shui Minghua rolled her eyes at her: "Don't worry, I'm your eldest sister, not a little girl who has been raised in the boudoir and knows nothing! After I have played around in the capital, I will go to other places to travel. I am just a passing tourist, so why would I get involved in things that I shouldn't get involved in?"

Shui Qinghua felt relieved.

The day before New Year's Eve, Dong Yajing's palace skirt was finally finished. Due to time constraints, Shui Qinghua overturned all the embroidery patterns she had previously envisioned and took a risk by adopting a method she had always wanted to try but had no chance to realize.

The moment the skirt was taken out of the box, even the knowledgeable Dong Yajing couldn't help but exclaim in amazement.

"Sister Shui, these bird feathers are so beautiful. It's worth my efforts to search all over Beijing for these few bird feathers." Dong Yajing stuck out her tongue mischievously.

Shui Qinghua smiled. She didn't spend much effort on making this skirt, but Yajing was quite troubled.

"When you show up, you'll find that everything is worth it. From tomorrow onwards, the most beautiful woman in the capital will definitely be you, Dong Yajing." Shui Qinghua was confident of victory.