Three days later, on the steps in front of King Rui's mansion, Gu Ruyi changed into a full woman's outfit: two heads, light blue cheongsam. Not glamorous or ostentatious. Since you come to the house to recognize your relatives, you have to be full of people like "relatives".

"This military master, the little woman is a relative of Mama Xi in the garden of the house, if you have something to find her, can you pass it on? This bit of silver is used by the military master for tea. Gu Ruyi was already accustomed to this way of interacting with people in the palace, so he familiarly talked to a personal soldier standing guard.

"Master Jun" blushed, took a few steps back and said, "This sister, don't make me have nothing to eat." There is a rule in the government that no one is allowed to collect money. ”

"I'm sorry, my sister didn't know that your house was so clean, so forget it. Sister, I came step by step from Andingmen, you can take pity on me, let my sister see Mama Xi, and will not delay her errand. "Well, you don't need a primer to lie.

The soldiers standing guard listened to Gu Ruyi's pitiful words, so they moved their hearts of pity and said, "Then you wait for me to talk to my father-in-law who is in charge of communication." ”

"Okay, well, there is Master Lao."

After waiting for a while, Mama Xi came out. Seeing that it was Gu Ruyi, I was a little surprised.

"Sister Xi doesn't know Ruyi?"

"It's not that I don't know, it's your change of clothes, and I'm not used to it. Come in the concierge and sit down, it's hot outside. ”

"No, no, Sister Xi, Ruyi only has a few words." Gu Ruyi pulled Mama Xi to the bottom of the steps and spoke: "I heard that the cross-stitch of Yulong Buzhuang was made by the maid and grandmother in your house, then you must have learned it, teach it to your sister, I won't let you teach it in vain." As he spoke, he handed over a silver ingot of ten taels.

Xi Mama's heart jumped "don't": this temptation is too great: ten taels of silver is enough for a family of five to spend half a year. But Mama Hi is very sensible. She hasn't learned cross-stitch yet, and the prince Fujin has repeatedly emphasized that the skills that Fang Fujin learned from foreign lands are for the emperor to make money and send them to the treasury, and even the recipe for making cold drinks is not allowed to be passed on. This is the rule set by the Queen Mother, whoever violates it will go to the prison of the Criminal Department to eat. You can't smash your future job for a small profit of ten taels of silver. So he said very sincerely: "It stands to reason that my sister has begged my sister, and my sister can't refuse, no matter what, we are all people who have been suffering in the palace for ten years, and we are friends in trouble." Since you know that cross-stitch is from our house, you know someone who has hands and eyes to the sky. Yes, cross-stitch is a skill in our house, but it can only be learned by the girls and grandmothers around the hostesses of the front and back courtyards. This skill was brought back from abroad by my prince and Fang Fujin, and they learned this skill in order to make money for the emperor and send it to the treasury. It is the Yulong cold drink, and the recipes of those cold drinks have been issued by the Queen Mother, and no one is allowed to reveal a little. Whoever revealed it in the house went to the prison of the Criminal Department for dinner. Even if your sister may have the opportunity to learn the embroidery method of cross-stitch in the future, you won't let your sister lose her job and go to the prison of the Criminal Department, right? ”

"I'm sorry Sister Xi, Ruyi didn't know that the matter was so serious, it was too presumptuous."

"My sister knows that you are a reasonable person and will not embarrass my sister. In fact, my sister thinks that you still have to manage your Suzhou embroidery well, Suzhou embroidery is a serious embroidery, don't lose your skills because you want to learn new things. What's that saying? 'Handan toddler', don't be someone else's not learning well, and forget your own. Moreover, the needles and threads that do cross-stitch are not even embroidered in our Qing Dynasty, you just learn it, and you can't do it without tools and materials. ”

"What my sister said, it seems that this side Fujin in your house is really capable, he must be the person favored by the prince, right?"

Xi Mama didn't dare to talk about the hostess, and there was a eunuch and father-in-law in the gatehouse. Diverting the topic, he asked Gu Ruyi's business. Who is Gu Ruyi? also said about her embroidery workshop: "Don't mention it, it could have been maintained, but half a year ago, the painter Lu in the store returned to his hometown in Suzhou in the south, and he left without the draft, my sister and I embroidered okay, but I can't paint, and the design sketch is a duck listening to thunder." But we have more than a dozen people there, don't we eat? That's why I fell in love with cross-stitch. I don't know if Master Lu will come back, and he won't even bring a letter, what do you say is this? If you don't do it, you won't do it, how can there be no news for half a year and half a year? ”

Mama Xi covered her mouth and smiled: "I think my sister treats others badly, right?" ”

"Not really. The salary of the painter Lu is the highest in our embroidery workshop, as if he wants to participate in the scientific examination, and he already has a reputation for showing talent. But you should say hi to us. ”

"This Master Lu is too, if you don't want to do it, just talk, how can you delay others?"

After a conversation, Gu Ruyi took his leave. What the Hitara clan said is also the truth, she is just a subordinate in the house, how can she have the courage to spread the confidential affairs of the house? In order to lose his job, no one wants to put it aside. Forget it, let's figure it out for yourself. Don't count on Master Lu, let's find a sketch to embroider Su embroidery.

Xi Mama also breathed a sigh of relief, even if she knew how to embroider cross-stitch, she couldn't teach Gu Ruyi, if something happened to her, the Queen Mother couldn't spare herself, and she entered the prison of the Criminal Department, and her life would be up to others, maybe add some arsenic or something to the prison meal, or she would be strangled or suffocated to death - it was the kind of rice paper dipped in wet and pasted on her face. It's all right, you can always end up with a whole corpse, but if those jailers get bad and spoil themselves, they will be killed...... Mama Xi shuddered and said in her heart: "You must not be trapped by Gu Ruyi!" ”

When Gu Ruyi was walking on the way back, he was greeted by two young women, who were not young grandmothers from large families, and they were dressed well, and they were talking about the things in their hands while walking: "

"Auntie, you said, how can there be embroidery with this kind of embroidery? What is it called cross-stitch, it's strange, I bought such a piece and want to go back to study. ”

"Cross-stitch!" Gu Ruyi seemed to have been given a "fixation method", and "Gadeng" stood up at once, then walked a few steps and met the woman opposite: "Hello two sisters!" ”

"You ......"

"I'm sorry, we don't know each other. But it doesn't matter. Sister, I just heard you talk about cross-stitch, where did you buy it, or did you learn it? ”

"Oh, that's right. On the street in front, there is a Nalan department store, which sells cross-stitch. We just bought it from him. The big ones were sold out, and the two of us bought two small ones and wanted to go back and learn how to do them. ”

"It's across the street, isn't it? Thank you two sisters. ”

"No thanks, no thanks."

Gu Ruyi rushed to the Nalan Department Store with flying steps, looked up at the plaque, and was stunned: It is actually the imperial plaque inscribed by the emperor himself! The same imperial plaque as the Jade Dragon Cloth Village! I'm afraid this one has a bigger background, right? The surname Nalan is naturally Manchurian, maybe he is related to the emperor. I entered the store without saying a word, and after entering the store, my eyes were not enough: it was full of women's objects. Hairpin rings, grease and oil, all sorts of small jewelry, sachets and purses larger than purses, then aprons, pillowcases, pillows, seat cushions, hand towels, handkerchiefs, fans, a wooden nail on the counter with translucent gauze flowers in the frame...... A feast for the eyes. Gu Ruyi's heartbeat was accelerating, and he couldn't wait to turn his two eyes into four and then into eight. Starting from the east counter closest to the door, I looked at them one by one, turned to the counter facing the gate, and then went to the west counter, and little by little I watched, admired, and speculated whether this Nalan department store was connected with Yulong Cloth Village.

"This eldest sister, what to buy?" The guy at the counter took the initiative to talk to Gu Ruyi.

Gu Ruyi replied unexpectedly: "Your department store is newly opened, right?" ”

"yes, it's only a month. What do you want to buy, and I'll get it for you below? ”

"Thank you. I wanted to see the embroidery, the little cross-stitch with a pug embroidered with a flowery idea. ”

"Okay, know cross-stitch."

"There is a Yulong cloth village on Qianmen Street that also sells this." After speaking, he observed the man's face. The guy said very casually, "Yulong Cloth Village, what they sell in the store is all related to cloth, right?" It seems that there is no such thing as jewelry, we all use women here, it is different. ”

"Can you take down that cross-stitch with a puppy and take a look?"

"Wait a minute."

"How many taels of silver is this?"

"How many taels do you use, five hundred wen."

"How much? Five hundred texts? Gu Ruyi was very surprised.

"This eldest sister seems to be surprised by this price? Is it more or less? If you think we'll go up if it's less? The guy jokingly.

Gu Ruyi is such a shrewd person, he will never say less. Busy said: "Just such a small piece of embroidery costs 500 wen, which is expensive enough." ”

"You also said that it is embroidery, have you ever seen this kind of embroidery? There is an embroidery workshop over there in Andingmen, and a larger Suzhou embroidery costs 200 taels. It was Gu Ruyi's embroidery workshop, and Gu Ruyi blushed a little. The embroidery from her embroidery workshop is first-class and high-priced, but the quality is also first-class.

"That's five hundred words." Gu Ruyi hurriedly paid the money, took the cross-stitch puppy and went to the counter in the east.

Her eyes fell on the carrying bags hanging from the shelves. One of the pockets was black, and even the straps were black, but in the most conspicuous part of the pockets was a kitten in a short light pink skirt embroidered with a light embroidery thread much thicker than the Qing dynasty's embroidery thread, with a large red bow tied on its head. It's a very simple pattern, but you can't be mistaken, it's a cat. The cat's face has four whiskers on each side. Gu Ruyi hurriedly handed the silver to a handsome young man at the counter: "I want the bag with the cat." ”

"Okay, wait a minute, you have two hundred pieces of velvet embroidery."

"This is velvet embroidery? No wonder it's fluffy. And that, is that embroidered? ”

"yes, this one is flat embroidery."

"What is flat embroidery?"

"I'm sorry, I don't understand embroidery too well, this is what the owner said."

"That, and how is that shiny?"

"This is called bead embroidery, which is a pattern made of beads."

"And the one, the one that bulges at the edges."

"This is lock embroidery, there are no flowers on the clothes, it is a man's clothes."

Gu Ruyi was surprised: I thought I was the originator of the embroidery workshop in the capital, how did I know that there would be so many new embroidery methods on this inconspicuous street, unheard of, flat embroidery, bead embroidery, lock embroidery, and that velvet embroidery! Various embroidery methods embroider a variety of different styles of embroidery.

At this time, Gu Ruyi wanted to cry, crying that he was so lonely! Cross-stitch is already very out of line, and there are some flat embroidery, bead embroidery, velvet embroidery, and lock embroidery. She has heard of lock embroidery, but she has been operating Suzhou embroidery, and has never embroidered lock embroidery. The others are simply unknown. There is also the shopkeeper Chen of Yulong Cloth Village, a cross-stitch of roses actually asked for twenty taels of silver! This Nalan department store only costs 500 Wen, and the price is too different, right? No, I'll have to go back and ask!

Gu Ruyi only went the next day, and his anger was not so big. People didn't pull you to buy it, you did it voluntarily.

"Shopkeeper Chen, the little woman has something unknown."

"This sister, please speak."

"You know there's a Nalan department store in the east of the city, right?"

"Yes, yes. What's wrong? ”

"His family also has a royal gold plaque."

"Yes."

"Are you a family?"

"Just now, you also said that he is Nalan Department Store, Nalan is a Manchu surname, and below is Han, surnamed Chen, do you say it is a family?"

"Do you all buy from one family?"

Rui Qian became vigilant: "How do you know where his family is buying the goods from?" What's wrong with this eldest sister? ”

"I bought a cross-stitch from your house for twenty taels of silver, and I bought one from Nalan Department Store, which is slightly smaller than that one, and costs five hundred yuan."

"You said you bought the rose yesterday, right? Yes, the one in our store is a little more expensive, this is Zhengyangmen Street, which can be regarded as the most prosperous area in Beijing, so the rent is very expensive; Then the design of the embroidery is complicated, it is embroidered by stitch by stitch, and there is no space on the embroidered cloth, and it is embroidered with the painting method of Western painting, with crystal dewdrops and yin and yang sides, right? And then there are the frames, right? The picture frame on the four sides of the frame and the glass on it are also costly, right? Do we have it in the Qing Dynasty? What kind of do you buy from Nalan? ”

"It's a puppy." Gu Ruyi took out the newly bought puppy cross-stitch.

"You see, this puppy is made up of segments. There are a lot of spaces. This rose is a dense stitch, let's not say how hard to look at the picture, let's just say that these stitches have to take more work than this puppy? This kind of embroidery cannot be wrong, and if it is wrong, it will be deformed. This embroidery method is very novel, completely different from the traditional embroidery method, and the effect is completely different. Does the rose you bought feel like a real flower, with dew drops and shadows? It was embroidered using the Western painting method. Do you think I'm complimenting you on that rose? Otherwise, if you think it's expensive to buy, or don't like it, you can return it to the next, as long as it doesn't get dirty, we can't sell it again. Several ladies came to ask if there were any roses, but they didn't dare to answer her. And I will also tell you below, our embroidery is rarely repeated, what is not rare and expensive? ”

Gu Ruyi's anger was completely gone. Shopkeeper Chen is so right, isn't this the case himself? The Suzhou embroidery ordered for your lady is very elaborate, because the price is high.

"Forget it, I won't return."