The Qinhuai River is not so much a river as it is a heaven and earth that allows you to forget all the troubles in the world.

At this time, it was ten o'clock in the morning, and it was deserted on Wende Bridge, and the people who had stayed up all night were sleeping deeply, so the world was peaceful. The bright moon in the sky is still a complete full moon, and it sprinkles the light on the world without reservation.

However, there was a handsome boy still standing on the bridge, looking forward, backward, left and right, as if he was thinking about where to go......

"Eh~ Xie San, the gentleman is just Wendeqiao......" It turns out that there is another son who never sleeps next to him.

It took a while for this handsome boy to reply: "Then I can be considered a gentleman when I go down the bridge?" ”

"Down the bridge?" The young man was stunned: "What are you doing down the bridge?" ”

"Stupid! To take a boat ......, of course."

The Qinhuai River is still as bright as day, the air is filled with the aroma of fat powder, and the ambergris on the man's body are all mixed together and then sink into the water, and when the sun rises, it evaporates into water vapor and condenses in the air, so the Qinhuai River is also a fragrant river.

The waterway was not wide, and the boats were almost close to the river, and the young man stood at the stern of the boat and looked at the river, and he could see it at a glance, as if he wanted to identify which of the river houses with blue bricks and tiles belonged to which.

When the boat reached the vicinity of Wuding Bridge, he saw the only unlit river house by the river, and finally smiled, and this scene was seen by his companions.

The young man of the night showed a trace of doubt: "Xie San, I felt that you were wrong just now...... Let me guess, you're looking for a beautiful woman? ”

Pianpian smiled without saying a word......

Until the boat sailed over the Wuding Bridge for a long time, the bright moon in the sky still cast its light on the Qinhuai River, and the river house without lights was a little dim at this time, which was a lit sheep's horn lamp.

Zhang Xiu deliberately got up early today because she had to pick safflowers. This is the late safflower, planted in May and picked in July, the color of the late safflower is the most vivid, better than the spring safflower, and it is suitable for dyeing the most positive red.

The safflower is prickly, and it is necessary to take advantage of the morning to cool it in the open air when picking, at this time the sharp thorns of the safflower are softer, and the flowers are not closed, so you can quickly pick the petals of the corolla part without hurting your hands.

The backyard of Zhang Xiu's house is facing the Qinhuai River, and the front door is on the banknote street, there is no banner, only a plaque, called Embroidered Buddha Zhai. The backyard is not built with a high terrace like other houses, but is surrounded by a one-person high flower wall, and there is a plum blossom wall hole in the wall, through which you can enjoy a different kind of Qinhuai night view.

There are three saffron books, several peach trees, a well, a pergola, an embroidery frame, an old lacquered square table, several round stools, and several clay jars of various sizes.

There are not many fresh safflowers that are picked, so they should be killed immediately to remove the yellow color. Zhang Xiu poured the safflower into the stone mortar, smashed it with a stick, washed it twice with water and millet rice slurry and vinegar, and then put it into a cloth bag and wrecked the yellow juice. In this way, after killing the flowers, it needs to be left to ferment for a day before making the dyeing solution.

She was still a little worried, because there were too few late saffrons, even if she made a red dye, at most she would dye one or two silk threads, and she would have to be dyed many times before she could get a bright red. If you want to dye more, you have to get more safflower, but the safflower cakes sold in pharmacies and dyeing shops are not very satisfied, how can this be good?

I looked up unintentionally, and found that the sky was slightly red, and then I was shocked: "Ah, it's dawning so soon?" ”

"Girl, oops, where are you ......" A voice passed through the front door, like a gust of wind blowing into the backyard.

Zhang Xiu turned around and saw that it was a little maid, carrying large and small packages to the backyard, so he hurriedly greeted: "...... here"

She has a maid and an old servant by her side, these two are grandchildren, and she has been with her since the Zhang family.

"Girl, the Li Pharmacy has finally delivered something," Juan'er let out a sigh of relief.

"Open it and I'll take a look...... Is that all? ”

"Not only that, Guangchuan saffron has 200 catties, and grandpa is still moving it in front. These are three catties of black plum and fifteen taels and nine coins, seven catties of safflower cakes and fifteen taels and eight cents, alkali twelve taels and eight cents, as well as raw silk and cooked silk...... That's all the little maid can move. ”

"Well, it's almost enough to dye twelve taels of silk thread, and those saffrons can be used to dye little red."

After speaking, Juan'er had unwrapped the packages one by one, and Zhang Xiu picked up a piece of safflower cake and carefully identified it: "Well, this time it's okay." ”

Juan Er couldn't help but be curious and asked, "Girl, is there any difference between this red flower?" ”

"Of course, there are differences, one is the difference between drying and killing flowers, and the other is the difference between killing flowers. Some safflowers are dried directly after picking, and it is not easy to dye them bright red without killing the flowers, but it is still okay to use turmeric, barberry, reed wood and sumac wood as the base color to dye it a small red, or orange-red. ”

"Oh, I see...... Now the little maid has seen a lot of things," Juan'er couldn't help but praise.

"It's not like I haven't told you before, you don't have a long memory?"

"Hehe, isn't that still young, I can't remember, I just eat ...... all day long"

Zhang Xiu couldn't help laughing: "Which meal did you eat less?" I wanted to train you to be an embroidery girl, but accidentally you became a foodie girl? What a mistake. ”

Juan'er grinned and smirked: "It's all to blame girl, your cooking skills are too good, and you have raised Juan'er's mouth." ”

When it came to cooking, Zhang Xiu sighed slightly: "Grandmother is the Gu family...... It's a pity that I haven't inherited the Gu family's craftsmanship completely, and there are some things that even I haven't had a chance to taste again. ”

Juan'er's eyes lit up when she heard this: "Girl, what other good things are there at Old Madam Gu's house, even you haven't eaten them?" ”

"Hehe, have you ever eaten the Gu family's peaches?"

"Peach...... The maid wants to eat the ......."

During the chat, Grandpa Juan'er had unloaded all the things, sent the coachman away, and moved them from the front door to the backyard.

"Girl, here are two hundred catties of Sichuan saffron, one bucket and five liters of charcoal ash, fifteen catties of black plum, ten taels of silk, and ......" After a pause, he took out two more packages from his arms, opened them and continued:

"Ten taels of turmeric, four taels of Sumu, one tael of yellow dan, one tael of alum, and two taels of acacia flowers, which are used to dye small red. In addition, Sumu also has one catty, four taels of yellow dan, four taels of alum, and three taels of gardenia, which are used to dye alum red, which are all prepared according to your requirements. ”

"Hmm~ Yes, thank you for your hard work, Uncle Zhang."

Uncle Zhang smiled and said, "It's not hard, then ...... Girl, is this going to start preparing? ”

"Yes, sumac, locust and gardenia must be extracted in advance, and these dried safflowers must be soaked for at least six hours, during which the water must be constantly changed, and the lye and acid solution must also be prepared in advance...... So, you may have to work hard these days......"

After Zhang Xiu finished explaining, the three of them went their separate ways to prepare. The plum should be soaked in advance, and the lye should be made into two lye, and the lye can be made at the same time as the acid. Then there is the extraction of the base color...... was so busy, and before I knew it, I was busy until the afternoon.

In the meantime, there are two embroidery girls to join, and after the five of them have lunch, they continue to work in the morning.

When the sky darkened completely, the embroidery lady left, but she was finally ready. At this time, looking through the plum blossom wall hole in the courtyard wall, the Qinhuai River became lively again, and there was a faint warbler in the ears, which was clearly audible at first, and gradually disappeared with the distance of the building boat painting boat......

During the busy break, Zhang Xiu sat down to rest for a while, drinking a pot of herbal tea to relieve fatigue and heat.

Juan'er was also tired, humming and chirping on the table and not moving, Uncle Zhang's body was tough, and he still had the energy to observe those peach trees at this time.

He took the claw lamp and observed it for a while, and couldn't help but shake his head and said, "Girl, if this peach tree can't survive this year, I'm afraid don't think about the peaches next year and the year after." ”

Zhang Xiu also regretted it, and said: "Hey, I'm afraid that it won't adapt to the water and soil, so I finally found the seedlings ......."

When Juan'er heard the peaches, she came to her senses again: "Grandpa, could it be that these are the Gu family's peaches?" ”

"Bah~ You girl will come to the spirit as soon as she says to eat! This is a tree, and it hasn't set peaches yet! Uncle Zhang glared at her and ignored her, continuing to pick up the lamp to observe.

"Yes, it's not easy to find the seeds of peaches in Luxiangyuan now, you have to go to the area of the yellow mud wall to find it, and you can't find the relict seeds at the small north gate."

"Dew Xiangyuan peach? Sounds delicious...... Are peaches from Nanjing delicious? Juan'er couldn't help but answer again.

"Cut~, what do you know! Our Gujia peach is thin and sweet, melts in the mouth, no sourness, the best one is every thunderstorm, there is a red halo, it is for Lei Zhenhong. ”

"Ouch, hey......" Zhang Xiu laughed when she heard this: "This girl is going to drool." ”

"I really hope that the little sapling will grow taller soon, and the silk can also eat Lei Zhenhong!"

When you have enough rest, you will continue to work at night......

The yellowed safflower is stirred and kneaded with the first lye, and then squeezed out the yellow-orange liquid by twisting it into a cloth bag, and repeating it twice to mix the resulting liquid, which is orange-red at this time; Add acid again to prepare hair color dyeing solution, wait for the liquid to turn red, and leave it for later use.

In order to purify the red again, Zhang Xiu immersed the silk in the red dye solution and dialed it back and forth until the silk was completely attached to the red, took it out and cleaned it, and then put it into the second lye solution to rub it, and then neutralized the dye solution when all the red was precipitated, and then neutralized the dye solution, and the red dye solution at this time was very pure red.

Prepare the dyeing liquid, and then prepare four stranded silk threads, can dye four color levels of red, the head is dyed water red, and the two are counter-dyed to silver red, if the yellow barberry, reed, turmeric as the background color, you can get different shades in the same color scale. Overlapping dyeing three or four can be pink, even red; Overlap and dye it several times to get a bright red.

After each dyeing, the acid solution is used to fix the color, clean, and then dry before entering the next dyeing. After repeating this many times, I finally hung the dyed silk thread on the pergola and prepared it to dry in the shade for preservation. And this time it took several people two whole days.

From picking to final completion, it took more than three days in total, although it was not the first time Zhang Xiu had dyed silk thread, but it was the first time that he had dyed such a neat red silk thread. In fact, Zhang Xiu doesn't need to dye it by himself, there are many dyeing rooms in the pigment workshop, but not all the colors are dyed. The change of hue, the depth of brightness and fastness are all related to temperature and time, which requires experience and feel.

The excellence of Gu embroidery lies in painting and embroidery, in splitting silk, in stitching, and in color matching, color borrowing, and color supplementation......

"The so-called peony doesn't need to paint rouge, just ask for a basket to pick up color silk, now the two of you all understand, right?" Zhang Xiu asked the two embroiderers with a smile.

The two embroiderers sighed: "I only knew that embroidered peonies should use the heaviest red, but I didn't know that I could also use intermediate colors to reconcile, supplemented by layers of blending. ”

"Indeed, if you want to make the peony bright and showy, borrowing dark colors to highlight it is much more brilliant than directly using heavy red."

"Yes, it is this reason, you two have excellent understanding, if you work hard to embody the charm, it will not be far from you to become everyone."

In fact, Zhang Xiu has many dreams in her heart, one of which is to reopen the Luxiangyuan embroidery workshop opened by her grandmother Gu Lanyu and set up a curtain to teach apprentices......

With the dream in her heart, she ushered in a new day.

The peach trees in the backyard seemed to be a little more alive than before, and the various colored silk threads hanging on the pergola showed dazzling brilliance in the morning sun.

"Girl...... The girl ...... "Juan'er ran from the front door to the backyard like a gust of wind.

Zhang Xiu smiled helplessly: "Juan'er, what's the matter?" ”

Zhang ...... The old Zhang family has a letter, to the girl yours! ”

Zhang Xiuyi frowned, his heart jumped violently, and he had a hint of foreboding. She took the letter and hurriedly opened it, going through it as fast as she could......

Juan'er was anxious in her heart, and she didn't know what was written in the letter, but she saw that the girl was originally a pair of deep and slighten eyes, but gradually lost her color, and the two spring mountains became more and more wrinkled......

"Girl, what's going on?"

Zhang Xiu felt that she was very messy, and it took a lot of effort to calm down, she took a deep breath, held it, and then slowly spit out: "The Zhang family wants me to be the concubine of a wealthy family......"

"Huh? How is this possible! Juan'er's eyes widened when she heard this, and she was terrified.

"This ...... Zhangjia...... How can this be! Frightened turned to anger: "Girl, you must not answer ......"

Zhang Xiu waved her hand to interrupt her words: "Don't say it, let me be quiet." ”

She sat under the pergola, looking at the rows of silk threads, how dazzling red in the sun......

For a long time, she seemed to mutter: "My grandfather Zhang Lai died of illness at the age of twenty-four, leaving only my grandmother and my father, who was young at that time, and was in a war and chaos...... It can be said that it was my grandmother who supported the family, and it was my father, mother, and me who I am today. Now that my grandmother and parents have passed away for many years, the old Zhang family now remembers me, an orphan girl......"

"Girl......" Juan'er's nose was sour, and tears actually fell.

"When my grandfather was alive, he was actually ...... with the old Zhang family."

When Juan'er heard this, she wiped away her tears and hurriedly asked, "Do you have a way to do it, girl?" ”

"Method, naturally there is a ......" Zhang Xiu paused.

Juan'er trembled in her voice: "What way?" ”

"The only way to do this is to change the female household."