After Xie Mulin went to the boudoir school a few times, he quickly became familiar with the sisters in the clan, and successfully inquired about the temperament and preferences of the clansmen in the mouths of this group of little girls, and also learned a lot of gossip news by the way.

There were about twenty little girls in the school, ranging from eight to fourteen years old. At first, except for his little sister Xie Yingfen, Xie Mulin only recognized Xie Yingfang in the seventh room. The two girls in the sect, Xie Yinglian has turned fifteen years old and has already graduated from the boudoir school, Xie Yingzhi has never come to the boudoir school because of her poor health since she was a child and her family is pampered. Cousin Yang Yuan studied with his maternal grandmother Song and his mother Xie Meijun. Therefore, when Xie Mulin first came to his school, he was almost a stranger.

However, everyone is basically surnamed Xie, and most people have lived in the Xie family clan since childhood, and their personalities are relatively simple. Although some people are wealthy, none of them are extremely poor, and everyone does not have to worry about food and clothing, and there is no distinction between high and low worldly status when they get along. After knowing each other for a long time, everyone will become acquainted, and there is no estrangement in chatting, as if they don't need to be guarded at all, and they can tell their sisters everything. Xie Mulin and Xie Yingfen were a little unaccustomed to it at first.

The curriculum of boudoir learning is very loose, three days and half a day of class, and the young girls learn "Three", "Hundred" and "Thousand", and Xie Mulin and Xie Yingfen have already passed this level. At the level of arithmetic, Xie Mulin is above the sisters of the whole clan, and Xie Yingfen still needs to practice again. As for the basic etiquette, Xie Mulin had understood it completely from Xie Yingzhen's memory, and he had already practiced it in the past few months. Therefore, she skipped the elementary course directly and directly entered the intermediate female celebrity, and began to dabble in housekeeping, cooking, and industrial management in the advanced course, and occasionally had to accept the teaching of Zongfang Dushi to learn the knowledge of religious rites, pharmacology and health preservation.

The curriculum of boudoir learning is mainly practical, girls only need to be literate, can read and read accounts, are familiar with "Female Training" and "Female Commandment", know housekeeping skills, and female celebrities are skilled, which is almost the same. As for poetry, songs, piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, the requirements are not high, you can write the words correctly, and you can memorize a few famous poems, you are qualified. The current marriage partners of the girls of the Xie family are basically middle- and lower-class scholars, and just learning these is enough. If someone has talent in poetry, talent, etc., they can also be taught by the teacher.

Xie Mulin is not in this category, and she is currently stumped by the female celebrity course.

In fact, she participated in the handicraft club in college, played cross-stitch, ribbon embroidery, velvet embroidery, made baby clothes, knitted Chinese knots, made antique jewelry, and made models. She also used to make simple clothes by herself, such as skirts, vests, small vests and the like. When the Hanfu lover in the dormitory next door made her own Ming-style jacket skirt, she also helped others. She feels that her needlework is okay, the needle angle is fine and straight, and she is definitely not the rookie who can sew crooked threads in the traditional crossing woman.

However, she is really blind to traditional Chinese embroidery.

When the boudoir was assessed by an aunt who served as a female red teacher, Xie Mulin could only take out his highest level of technique in embroidering on velvet thread, and slowly embroidered half of the "small colored wildflowers dotted on the sparse green grass", and the mountain shadows and streams could be faintly seen in the distance. Because the composition is okay, it looks like that, it seems that with a little bit of effort, you can embroider a good work, plus she shyly defended: "After the accident at home, everyone has been busy in the past few months, I don't care about practicing embroidery, some are deserted......" finally passed in front of the aunt.

The other party said to Xie Mulin: "At first glance, your skills are not only rusty, but also have a good foundation. Although the composition is ingenious, the needle angles are too sparse and not neat, and the color matching is ingenious. Your family has always been accustomed to living a rich life in Beijing, and you must not need the girls in the family to do needlework to supplement the family on weekdays, and the elders who are in charge of the family are not the ones who will cultivate your little girls with their hearts, your mother...... I'm afraid that you won't be able to be the master, so no one will teach you strictly.

"But the girls of our Xie family, the ability of the side is just down, but the female celebrity must learn well, otherwise how can we be worthy of the name of our Xie family's weaving and embroidery? In the future, if you marry into a poor scholar's family, the dowry is not abundant, and you have a good craft, which is enough to support your family. But you're still young, and you still have time to study hard, so you must not slack off in the future. ”

Xie Mulin smiled dryly.

Thankfully, Xie Yingfen's embroidery skills are also very ordinary. She is the situation that the aunt said, the biological mother is not around, the grandmother is not attentive to the upbringing of the concubine, and she is born to the eldest girl of the Cao family, and the Cao family will not deliberately use needlework to rub her, let alone let her do needlework to make money to supplement her pocket money, at most she just ignores it. The things she learned in the Xie family are mainly piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, poetry and songs, as for the female celebrity? It's good that the nurses and grandmothers around me can give some pointers, but of course the level is limited.

With this sister as a foil, Xie Mulin finally fooled the fact that his embroidery level had dropped significantly. Even Xie Yingfen said: "I used to embroider better than I do now." But after the accident at home, for a few months, the family is in a mess, either this disease or that disease, the family has moved several times, where can I still care about practicing needlework? The last time I was making clothes for my family, I accompanied my aunt to sew a few stitches, and I never touched the needle and thread again, and I almost forgot about it. The second sister didn't even make clothes that time, so she was busy visiting the prison all day long, taking care of her sick brothers, and helping her wife to earn money and ask the doctor to grab medicine...... My skills have regressed, let alone the second sister who is more worried than me? ”

The elders and sisters present were more sympathetic and pitiful to her and Shemulin, and no one laughed at them, but actively taught them various embroidery skills to help them "pick up" the abandoned embroidery as soon as possible. When they want to learn textile skills, they are also enthusiastic to help and guide them.

Xie Mulin was embarrassed, but he was quite grateful to them. With everyone's help, she finally learned how to spin and weave cloth with simple and traditional tools. Of course, the technical level is still very rudimentary, and it takes a long time to practice before you can improve. But she also figured out the basic structure and working principle of Xie Jiajiao's current general loom, and then quickly used learning weaving as an excuse to escape the embroidery homework.

She would rather spend her time weaving a piece of cotton cloth than spending a few days on the most patient work of all such a day, embroidery.

When she finally weaved a piece of one-foot-three-inch-wide and three-foot-long, unevenly dense white cotton cloth, and after taking three boudoir courses, Ma Luyao finally reported the news, all the building materials needed to repair the old house have been purchased, and skilled craftsmen have also hired eight people, all of whom are innocent and reliable, and have a good history of cooperation with the Xie family. The brick kiln of the thirteenth room also brought two boats of bricks, half a boat of newly burned cement powder, and the small kiln in the mountain behind the old house is also continuing to produce cement.

Now that the weather is sunny, the autumn breeze is rising, and the climate is dry, it is a good season to repair the house. Xie Mulin, with his subordinates and hired craftsmen, finally began the renovation of the old mansion.