Re-embroidering life

"Mom, you don't have to worry about me. Xiao has been collecting herbs in the mountains since he was a child, and he has some skills." Ji Fei explained hurriedly.

Shui Qinghua didn't believe it. She thought that a half-grown kid could only perform some fancy moves at best.

"You don't need to say anything more. Now, right now, pack up your stall and go home with your mother!" Shui Qinghua had never been so strict with Ji Fei.

Ji Fei was so aggrieved that her eyes were filled with tears, but intimidated by her mother's majesty, she still walked over and spoke to the boy named Axiao. Unexpectedly, Axiao came over and bowed deeply to Shui Qinghua: "Madam, please don't blame the young lady. It was my idea to sell medicinal herbs."

After all, the child was someone else’s, so Shui Qinghua couldn’t lose her temper. She nodded, turned around and left.

After walking a few steps, she seemed to remember something and turned back to ask Xiao: "I heard that your family has been collecting herbs for generations?"

"Yes, my grandfather and my father make a living by collecting herbs. I also learned to collect herbs from my father when I was a child, but I haven't gone since my father fell." A Xiao didn't know why this beautiful lady asked these questions, but he still answered seriously.

"Has your father ever been to Northern Xinjiang? Has he ever picked snow lotus in Tianshan Mountains?" Shui Qinghua asked.

Ah Xiao shook his head like a rattle: "I've never been there, and I've never heard of Tianshan Snow Lotus."

Shui Qinghua sighed in disappointment. Well, if the Tianshan Snow Lotus was so common, the Snow Lotus Pill wouldn't be so precious.

"Madam, I heard my father tell the story of my grandfather. My grandfather went to the northern border!" A Xiao added hurriedly.

Shui Qinghua felt a glimmer of hope: "Ah Xiao, where is your home? I'll go see your father."

Ah Xiao led Shui Qinghua and Ji Fei through many turns and finally entered a low, damp and dark alley, which was an even poorer residential area than the compound where Mr. Yu lived. Shui Qinghua could hardly imagine that there was such a place under the glittering and magnificent imperial city.

Ah Xiao's house was a run-down, low-rise house. To call it a house was a little too much of a glorification. It was actually a shack with drafts on all sides, and the roof was half collapsed by the heavy snow. A middle-aged man curled up in a tattered quilt, coughing heartbreakingly from time to time.

"Dad!" Ah Xiao rushed over and patted his father on the back.

Ji Fei had never seen such a poor family, and his face turned pale.

After Axiao's father recovered, he looked in surprise at the mother and daughter in front of him who were clean and beautiful and should not be here.

"Dad, these are our family's benefactors, the Fairy Lady and Miss."

Xiaodie didn't look young anymore. Years of hard work had left deep wrinkles on his face, and his hair and beard had turned gray. His hands were particularly rough and large, with thick calluses on his fingertips from years of climbing.

"This is not a place where a benefactor should come. Is there anything I can help you with?" A Xiao's father asked while panting.

Shui Qinghua felt sorry for him, so since she was already here, she asked, "I'm looking for a precious herb, Tianshan Snow Lotus. Does big brother know about it?" Ah Xiaodie didn't answer, his eyes were blank, and he seemed to be in a trance. Shui Qinghua thought he couldn't speak anymore, so she planned to take Ji Fei away. As soon as she took a step, he suddenly said, "Of course I know, my father died because of Tianshan Snow Lotus."

His eyes were no longer empty, but filled with longing and pain. "More than ten years ago, someone from the Imperial Hospital found my father and said they wanted to collect a batch of Tianshan Snow Lotus for the nobles in the palace. They gathered a dozen herb collectors, and that time, they collected almost all the Tianshan Snow Lotus in the northern border. Tianshan Snow Lotus grows on cliffs, and it will be crushed to pieces if you are not careful. Of the dozen or so herb collectors, less than half returned, and my father never came back."

His voice trembled, tears flowed down, and slid into the grooves on his face. "Since then, no one who heard about going to pick Tianshan snow lotus would go. That's not picking herbs, that's throwing your life away!"

Shui Qinghua's heart sank. She knew that the Snow Lotus Pill was precious, but she didn't expect it to be so precious! Old Madam Chen gave her all five pills. How deep was her love for her? But fate played tricks on her. In the end, she didn't get any. Maybe this was her fate.

She said to Ah Xiao's father, "You should take good care of yourself. It looks like you have injured your heart and lungs. You should see a doctor. Don't worry about paying back the money you earned from selling lanterns last time. It's yours now. Your son is still so young, you should think more about him."

Ah Xiao's father nodded with tears in his eyes: "I will listen to you, my benefactor. When I recover from my illness, Xiao'er and I will serve you like a slave!"

Shui Qinghua smiled and shook her head, then left with Ji Fei.

On the way, Ji Fei, who was usually lively, was unusually silent, with red eyes.

"Fei'er, what are you thinking about?"

"Mom, when we lived in the old house, I always felt that our family was very poor. We had no snacks to eat, no new clothes, no maids to serve us, and we did embroidery every day. Today I know what real poverty is like." Ji Fei asked gloomily, "How can they avoid poverty? Can they do business to make money?"

Shui Qinghua thought for a moment and said, "Of course they can do business, but doing business requires capital, which they don't have yet. They can go out to work, make money and then do business, or study to take the imperial examination."

She did not tell her daughter that in this world, many people can never escape poverty no matter how hard they try, so she let her daughter have beautiful fantasies about this world.

"Mom, I know what I want to do now." Ji Fei's big eyes were full of sincerity. "In the future, my business will be very big, and I will be able to hire many people. They will earn money from their work, and then their children will study and take the imperial examinations. Then they will not be poor anymore."

Shui Qinghua felt something rising up, making her nose and eyes sore. She caressed her daughter's face lovingly: "Okay, no matter what you do, Dad and Mom will support you."

From that day on, Ji Fei stopped asking to set up a stall and studied hard, becoming particularly interested in academic mathematics and abacus. Shui Qinghua hired a teacher to teach her mathematics.

Shui Qinghua was also thinking that maybe she could open a humble shop first to earn some money and let Ji Fei practice. She had no dowry back then, which was always a hidden pain in her heart. She must not let this happen to her own daughter. Ji Fei was nine years old, so if she opened a shop now, it would be just right for her to be a dowry in a few years.

Having made up her mind, Shui Qinghua did not drag her feet. She counted the money on hand. Shuixiufang was thriving, and its embroidery products had already gone beyond Echeng and were being marketed in Jiangnan and Chu. Dou Jianzhi regularly sent dividends, which had accumulated to several thousand taels. But the prices in the capital were too high. The rent for this small house alone was six hundred taels a year, and there were also expenses for a large family to eat and drink, and to take care of the official expenses for Ji Zimo. In her heart, she did not want Ji Zimo to start selling paintings to support his family. She knew that painting was his belief and his spiritual home. Ji Zimo had protected this family from wind and rain, and she also hoped to do her best to keep a pure private plot for him.

After much calculation, there were only five or six hundred taels left to open a shop, which was enough in Echeng, but this was the capital.