Chapter 115 A Piece of Double-Sided Embroidery
Dr. Sun nodded and sighed, "Hope it will get better soon."
"I'm here to get the prescription filled. Please have a look if you have these herbs," Liu Cuihua said and showed him a piece of paper from her sleeves.
Dr. Sun looked at it, "You are so lucky. I just have these herbs carried from another place yesterday. I'll ask Fushun to get it filled."
Liu Cuihua took the prescription back and said, "Thanks a lot."
They bought ten doses, and Su Jiuyue put them in her bamboo basket. These herbs were heavy, but she felt at ease.
Su Jiuyue hoped Wu Xiyuan would recover soon, and he wouldn't need to take medicine anymore. Her heart ached for him.
"Let's go to see where we can get the relief grain."
There were not many people lining up in front of the government office, but it was more than yesterday as Mrs. Wang said. It was probably because more people had got the news.
Liu Cuihua and Su Jiuyue stood at the end of the queue and patted the shoulder of the person standing in front of them. She asked, "Hello, is it the place to get the relief grain?"
"Yes, I asked the officer. Just stand in line and wait."
It was their turn fifteen minutes later.
Liu Cuihua showed them her number and registered her household. Finally, they got thirteen catties of grain very smoothly.
People couldn't buy any grain even if they had money now. Thirteen catties of grain cost a lot of money, so it made her day.
Su Jiuyue put the grain in her bamboo basket, but Liu Cuihua didn't allow her to carry it. She grabbed it back.
"Mum, let me carry it. There's something wrong with your feet, and the grain is too heavy," Su Jiuyue said.
Liu Cuihua pressed the bag, "You are growing now and can't carry heavy things, otherwise it will badly influence your height. Besides, you may become hunchbacked. You'll look ugly by then."
Su Jiuyue frowned at the thought of the hunchbacked man in their village. She didn't want to be like that.
"But..."
Liu Cuihua carried the grain, "I'm not old, ok? Thirteen catties is a small case for me. I can carry heavy things including you."
Su Jiuyue was about to speak but was stopped by Liu Cuihua, "Forget it! Let me carry it. We'll buy some threads, and you carry them."
Su Jiuyue knew Liu Cuihua asked her to carry threads so that she would not feel guilty, so she agreed. And then, they left.
Next, they went to a clothing shop. The business was poor there for people didn't have food to keep living. How did they have extra money to make new clothes?
There were few people making new clothes. When they entered, the shop owner was serving a young girl.
The young girl was richly dressed with a gold pin on her head. She apparently was a daughter of a wealthy family.
However, a girl of this kind of family actually didn't purchase in a clothing shop because they usually employed women to embroider.
The shop owner's eyes brightened as soon as she saw Liu Cuihua, "Miss Cui, the handkerchief you want was embroidered by her."
The young girl turned around, and Su Jiuyue saw her appearance clearly. She wore arched eyebrows, applied red lipstick in the middle of her lips, and crossed her hands with a handkerchief in it on her abdomen, looking as graceful as the girl of a painting.
Su Jiuyue was entranced when staring at the girl not because she was beautiful but she might have seen her before somewhere.
She tried to recall but failed.
Miss Cui looked them up and down. A maid beside her held a handkerchief and asked, "Madam, can you embroider this kind of pattern?"
Liu Cuihua glanced at it, "May I have a look at the reverse?"
The maid turned over the handkerchief. It was a double-sided embroidery.
Liu Cuihua shook her head, "Sorry, I can't. I'm a rural woman. I'm not that capable."
The shop owner said, "But the handkerchief is a double-sided embroidery you brought here last time."
Liu Cuihua said with a wry smile, "If I'm so capable, I don't need to do farm work. I can earn a lot only by teaching apprentices. I worked in an embroidery workshop when I was young. There was a girl who was capable of it. I learned it from her secretly when we worked together. I keep trying to embroider when I'm free these years. But I can only embroider some small things like a handkerchief. I can't embroider such a big one."
The maid beside the girl asked, "Do you know where the girl is?"
Liu Cuihua shook her head, "Sorry, I don't know. I haven't seen her for many years. She is not a local. Besides, it's said that she went to the south. She is older than me, and I'm not sure whether she is alive. It's hard to find her."
Miss Cui was a little disappointed after hearing it, but she still asked the maid to pass the handkerchief to Liu Cuihua.
"How about embroidering a small one?"
Liu Cuihua frowned and was not sure if she could do it. However, Su Jiuyue, standing beside her, gazed at the patterns for a while and said, "I can."
Both Liu Cuihua and Miss Cui looked at her with much astonishment.
Liu Cuihua said, "Jiujiu, are you sure? You may cause trouble to Miss Cui."
Su Jiuyue nodded, "I think I can. I learned it when I was a child. But I haven't embroidered for a long time, so I'm not sure whether I can do it now."
"You learned it? From whom?"
"Mrs. Jiang. She lived next door to me. She always embroidered at the gate when I was a child. I liked her embroidery and saw beside her. So, she taught me some skills."
Liu Cuihua's eyes lit up when hearing she said it was Mrs. Jiang. She asked, "Does she have a beauty spot on her chin?"
"Yes. Mrs. Jiang was good-looking and tender. Children in my village liked her very much."
"She's the girl who taught me. It's said that she went to the south. Why did she live next door to you?"
"I...my grandma hasn't talked about it"
"Where is she now?"
"She died three years ago. It was an extremely hot summer and she didn't bear up against the heat," there appeared some tears in Su Jiuyue's eyes when mentioning her death.
Cui Ruyun and Baozhu looked at each other. Baozhu said, "Why not let her have a try? We have no other ways anyway."
Cui Ruyun frowned and nodded, "Ok."
She then looked at Su Jiuyue, "Please embroider a handkerchief like this one, and I'll give you the pattern. You'll have to finish it in a month. I'll pay you two taels of silver if you succeed, and you'll get two hundred coppers even if you fail. Anyway, you won't work for nothing. Would you like to try it?"