CHAPTER XIV

Shanniang's courtyard has a very poetic name, called "Spring Deep". It was given by the fifth master, and he personally mentioned that two quaint seal characters were engraved on the lintel of the small courtyard. But the people in the house are accustomed to calling this place "Embroidery Building" - too, the residence of the young lady.

This embroidery building does not occupy a large area, only one bright and two dark rooms. Upstairs is where Shan Niang sits and lies; In the middle of the downstairs is a bright hall, and there is a wing room on the left and right. There is also an ear chamber on the left and right sides of the courtyard wall next to the building. Under the three steps in front of the building, there is a small courtyard, and the ground is paved with blue bricks and fine tile pebbles with some auspicious patterns. The courtyard door is open in the southeast corner, and there is a cluster of exquisite strange stones more than one person high next to the door, which is just enough to block the eyes of idlers peeping into the small building.

Xu is Shanniang in the previous life lived too depressed, and in this life she particularly likes to be bright, so she ordered someone to remove all the partition doors on both sides of the thing downstairs, and planned to replace it with something like a screen Bogu frame. It's just that there is no ready-made one in her small courtyard at the moment, so Fang's mother asked her to look for it in the warehouse. Shanniang thought about it, and she responded.

The day before, Mrs. Ma had spoken, and now Ma's mother didn't want to say anything more for the time being, so she happily gave the pair of cards.

Shanniang followed her mother who was in charge of the warehouse into the warehouse, but before she could go deeper, she was tripped by a box cage piled up randomly at the door of the warehouse. Suddenly, a roll of silk fabric rolled out halfway out of the cage that had never been closed.

Shanniang looked down and saw that the scattered fabric was actually a small embroidery.

Thinking that Mrs. was a lover of embroidery, she guessed that eight or nine out of ten of them were Mrs. things, so she ignored the unhappy eyes of the mother-in-law who looked at the storeroom, and picked up the embroidery before the mother-in-law stretched out her hand.

This is a monochrome embroidered ink bamboo drawing. Although it is called "monochrome embroidery", the color of the embroidery thread used is by no means a single color, but from light gray to jet black, with a variety of shades of black ingenious combination of an embroidery. Even when you look at it up close, it can give people the illusion of an ink painting.

"This ...... Is this jade embroidery? Shanniang couldn't help but ask.

In her previous life, when Shanniang was still in good health, she often went in and out of the palace with Yuan Changqing. She remembered that there was such a similar embroidered screen ornament in the Queen Mother's palace, which was the Queen Mother's favorite thing. Later, Shanniang learned that it was the famous "jade embroidery".

It is said that this "jade embroidery" was originally created by a jade surname embroidery girl in the previous dynasty, because of the unique technique, the color requirements of the silk thread are extremely high, and the embroidered embroidery can be the same as the pen and ink painting, so it is highly sought after by literati and ink writers. It's just that, because this embroidery method not only requires the embroidery girl's superb skills, but also requires the embroidery girl to have a very high cultural accomplishment, otherwise it is difficult to reflect the unique bookish atmosphere of "jade embroidery", so this skill is extremely difficult to inherit, so that in contemporary times, it seems to have been lost, and the real "jade embroidery" has not been seen on the market for nearly a hundred years. It is the small screen in the Empress Dowager's palace, which is only more than a foot long, and it is also a collection in the palace of the previous dynasty.

Although Shanniang is not good at embroidery, but she has studied hard since she was a child, and she knows everything about piano, chess, calligraphy and painting.

"It's a lady's thing!"

The mother-in-law who guarded the treasury did not hide her displeasure at all, reached out and took the embroidery from Shanniang's hand, re-rolled it and stuffed it back into the cage, and said without raising her head: "Two days ago, there was rain leaking from the wife's warehouse, so I temporarily moved these boxes of things here, and Ming'er moved them away." And he said, "These are all Mrs. Treasures, and if the girl wants to move, please tell Mrs. the prophet." ”

The mother-in-law's stiff tone immediately provoked Wufu, who was not very good-tempered, "You ......"

Shanniang stopped Wufu, who wanted to rush up to theorize, and smiled politely at the woman: "It's me who is rude." He turned back to Wufu and said, "Mom is just doing her duty." ”

She didn't mean to pretend to be tolerant and generous, but she could see that this mother's temper was like this, and she didn't mean to target her alone. In this case, she is too lazy to worry about people.

And this woman is right, the things were originally stored here by the wife, so she has the responsibility to take care of them.

Shanniang couldn't help but glance at the mother-in-law again - sure enough, the five rooms are really not all crooked-necked willows.

I'm afraid that the only ones who are crooked are the Ma mother and daughter and the handful of her subordinates.

Speaking of which, before Shanniang came to the treasury, Ma's mother ordered someone to send the crying Cui Qiao as the "culprit" of the second master's offense against the girl this morning. However, Shanniang confiscated it, and only said that it should be her mother's duty to be the housekeeper, and let Ma's mother watch it. Then Ma's mother ordered someone to drive Cui Qiao out.

*・*・*

Later that day, the fifth wife, Yao, was in the embroidery room with a few colors of silk thread on the embroidery frame to compare colors, when she suddenly heard a low voice outside the door.

Mrs. didn't care, she just thought that her personal maid Minglan was back, so she didn't look back and said, "Lan'er, come and help me take a look, why don't I think this color is right." ”

There was a sound of thin footsteps, and then a small figure was cast on the embroidery stand.

The figure tilted his head and glanced at the embroidery stand, and said, "Madame wants the effect of the shadow under the stone, right?" In this case, you don't have to stick to the color of the ground or stone, why not try a little green or purple gray? ”

This unfamiliar voice surprised Mrs. Grandi, and when she looked up, she was stunned before she remembered that the girl in front of her, who was not tall, with snow-white skin and croscent eyes, was her "daughter", Shanniang, who had just returned home.

"Yo, why are you?" Mrs. smiled and wanted to put down the silk thread in her hand, but suddenly paused, looked back at the half-embroidered stone orchid on the embroidery frame, turned her head and asked Shanniang, "With a little green or purple gray?" ”

Shanniang pointed to the embroidery, "Isn't it bluegrass next to it?" The leaves of the orchid grass are green, the flowers are purple, and sometimes the shadow of the human eye inevitably carries the color of the things next to it. ”

Fifth Mrs. Yao tilted her head and pondered for a while, then raised her head and smiled, "Try it." ”

As she spoke, she put aside the thread in her hand, turned around and walked to a tall cabinet, and pulled out a drawer. Shanniang looked over and looked over, and it turned out that the small partitions in the drawer were all arranged according to the shade of green silk threads, ranging from almost white water green to almost inky dark green.

After Yao picked out two strands of color, he pulled out another layer of purple silk thread of different shades, and then picked out two colors from it, turned back to Shanniang, who was still curious and poked her head, and smiled: "Let's try." ”

Shanniang nodded with interest, followed Yao back to the embroidery frame, and watched her put the silk threads she picked out one by one on the embroidery and compared. Then, almost in unison, the two said, "Purple is good." "Purple fits."

Yao Shi held the selected silk thread, looked back at Shanniang and said, "You also love embroidery?" ”

Shanniang shook her hand and smiled: "Madame, don't make fun of me, I'm clumsy, so I can only tie a peace knot." ”

Yao Shi looked at her and suddenly smiled: "I can embroider and tailor clothes, but I can't tie the peace knot." ”

The two looked at each other and couldn't help but smile.

Shanniang said: "Although I don't know how to embroider, I have studied painting for so many years, and I still have some experience in how to use color." I just saw my wife's embroidery in the warehouse, and the things that my wife embroidered were the same as those drawn with a paintbrush, which shows that her skills are extraordinary. By the way, Mrs., isn't this 'jade embroidery'? ”

Yao was surprised, "You actually know 'Jade Embroidery'?" ”

"I've heard of it." Shanniang smiled, "I just haven't seen it." I've only heard that jade embroidery can make a painting as if it were a real ink painting...... But I see that my wife is embroidering this stone orchid now, why is there no pattern? ”

"Yes." Yao smiled and pointed to the embroidery sample of the stone orchid that was sandwiched above the embroidery frame.

The embroidered artwork looks like an ordinary printed product that is common on the market. Shanniang had seen similar patterns in those embroidery albums collected by Sanhe. But such a clumsy pattern, embroidered by Yao's hand, is a completely different atmosphere.

Shanniang couldn't help but say: "I have also seen people embroider this pattern, but none of them are so vividly embroidered by my wife." ”

Yao pursed his lips and smiled, "It's not different, it's just that I'm more careful with the colors here." ”

"My wife has learned this 'jade embroidery' from a teacher?" Shanniang asked curiously.

"How can I have any teacher to worship me," Yao said with a smile, "but I liked this when I was young, and then I saw two jade embroideries elsewhere, so I pondered and learned it." As for whether this is considered a 'jade embroidery', it's really hard to say. ”

"Definitely!" Shanniang said. She even felt that with the skills of the fifth wife, it might be even better than the jade embroidery in the Queen Mother's palace that she had seen. "I can figure it out like this just by thinking about it, my wife is really ingenious!"

Her praise made Yao uncomfortable for a while, and said with a smile: "What kind of ingenuity, it's just a thing to pass the time." ”

"It's just to pass the time, and it's great to be like a wife." Shanniang said.

Yao smiled: "It's not necessarily that others can't do it." Even if I look different from others, it's just that I put a little more thought into the color scheme than others. ”

Shanniang's heart moved, and she suddenly remembered that when her daughter couldn't learn her homework well in her previous life, she often used to teach her daughter a lesson, "There is nothing bad to do in this world, there is just a ...... to do it with your heart."

In the previous life, even when the children were young, she was always strict and picky everywhere, and she refused to say a "good" word. If only she could learn to praise the strengths of others like she does now, wouldn't ......

She shook her head vigorously, shook off those impossible "ifs", pointed to the patterns on the embroidery frame and smiled: "In fact, it can be said that others paint with pen and ink, and my wife is painting with needles and silk threads here." ”

Regardless of whether the praise is sincere or false, the person who is praised will always feel very happy. Even the Yao family, who has been shrinking in the embroidery room all year round and has not seen anyone, can't escape this vanity. So she smiled and shook her head, and suddenly reached over and twisted Shanniang's cheeks, and said, "Little pony, as soon as you come in, you keep talking, but what is there to ask me?" ”

At this time, Yao's personal maid Minglan happened to come in, and when she looked up, she happened to see her own housewife who didn't like to be close to people, and reached out to twist the cheek of the big girl who had just returned home, and she couldn't help but be surprised.

Over there, Shanniang smiled and said, "It's not all sycophancy." But I did come to ask my wife. My wife's things are really good, so I took a fancy to them, and I wanted to ask my wife for two treasures, but I don't know if my wife is willing to cut her love. ”

"What baby? Let's talk about it. Yao simply put down the silk thread in his hand and pulled Shanniang to sit on the couch by the window.

Shanniang deliberately pretended to be tender and stuck out her tongue and smiled: "I just saw two good things in the warehouse, but the mother-in-law in charge of the warehouse said that it was Mrs.'s baby, and it was not easy to move, and I was so greedy that I had to come to Mrs. I took a fancy to two of my wife's embroidery, which were...... Hehe, I'm a little embarrassed to speak......"

"What do you like?"

"One is the double-sided embroidered cat picture, and the other is the Luo Shen picture of Wei Jiuding...... Shanniang said embarrassedly. Both of them are very large, and I don't know how much effort it took my wife to embroider.

Sure enough, Yao's eyes widened a little. After being stunned, she smiled and said, "You have a good eye, and I think I can see those two paintings." ”

"Is my wife willing to cut her love?" Shanniang turned around and lay down on the small table, looking at Yao's with a smile like a child-she was really not patting Yao's sycophants, but really fell in love with those two embroideries.

Yao Shi was curious, tilted his head and asked, "What do you want my two embroideries to do?" ”

Shanniang said, "Mrs. also knows, I am cleaning up the house." I was going to go to the storeroom to look for a screen or something, but I accidentally saw my wife's embroidery. I just thought, I just lack a middle hall there, if my wife is willing to cut love, I will use that Roselle picture as a middle hall. ”

"Make a thin frame of wenge wood and cover it with glass, so that it will not only protect the painting from dust, but also keep the painting for a long time." "Maybe it's going to be a family heirloom in the future.

"As for the double-sided embroidery, I thought it would be wonderful to make a base of rosewood and glass on both sides to make a large screen."