Huaihua's distant cousin lives in Qiaojia Village, dozens of miles away from the county seat.
When the carriage arrived at the entrance of Qiaojia Village, Huaihua pointed to the east of the village and said, "My cousin's family lives there. It's just that the place where he lives is small, and my cousin and aunt are powerful, so I'm afraid I'm neglecting you."
Shen Xiu smiled and said, "It's okay. Anyway, I'm just here to meet someone, not a guest. I won't be able to stay long."
"Then you wait for me in the carriage for a while." Huaihua said, "This is a country place after all, and the house is a bit messy."
So Shen Xiu waited in the carriage for a while. When she entered Qiao's house, the yard and house had been cleaned, and the chair in the middle of the main room had been wiped.
Huaihua's cousin Qiao Tiezhu initially believed that a distinguished guest was coming, but it was not until Shen Xiu walked into Qiao's house that Qiao Tiezhu believed what Huaihua said.
When Shen Xiu came, she dressed up specially, especially wearing two pieces of jewelry. These two pieces of jewelry were not expensive, but in Qiao Tiezhu's eyes, they were clearly distinguished guests.
He quickly winked at the woman beside him.
Qiao Tiezhu's daughter-in-law understood and hurriedly stepped forward to greet her: "Madam, please sit down quickly."
Shen Xiu smiled and said: "I don't dare take the word madam seriously, you should just call me Mrs. Shen!"
When Shen Xiu and Huaihua sat down, Qiao Tiezhu's wife brought some snacks like fried peanuts and melon seeds.
"There is nothing good to eat in the countryside. You sit down for now, and I will make some brown sugar water for you to drink."
Shen Xiu said hurriedly: "Sister-in-law, there's no need to be busy. I'm not thirsty."
But Qiao Tiezhu's wife still went to the kitchen and asked her daughter to light the fire.
Shen Xiu only saw the profile of a girl, which was indeed somewhat similar to her own.
After the brown sugar water was boiled, Sophora japonica's cousin Qiao Meier brought in two bowls of brown sugar water.
Taking this opportunity, Shen Xiuzai looked at Qiao Meier carefully.
As Huaihua said, Qiao Meier is indeed very similar to herself, but her skin is not fair enough, and she has not seen much of the world, so she is a little timid, and her temperament is inferior.
If the skin is not white enough, it can be cultivated. If the temperament is not good enough, it can also be cultivated.
Shen Xiu immediately decided that this was Qiao Meier.
In order to test Qiao Meier's character, Shen Xiu took off a silver-inlaid turquoise bracelet from her wrist on the spot.
"I felt destined as soon as I saw you, so I gave you this bracelet." Shen Xiu put the bracelet into Qiao Meier's hand.
Qiao Meier's eyes immediately lit up. She has never seen such a beautiful bracelet in her entire life.
But she still looked at her mother's face, and after Tiezhu's wife nodded, she took the bracelet.
Shen Xiu saw everything clearly. The Qiao family was greedy for money. Qiao Meier was better off, but she didn't have any independent opinions.
In fact, it is easy to deal with such a family, as long as they have enough money.
Shen Xiu had an idea, and then she said bluntly that she wanted to invite Qiao Meier to her home.
Huaihua promptly took out the ten taels of silver originally given by Shen Xiu and said that this was the money Shen Xiu used to make clothes for Qiao Meier.
When Qiao Tiezhu and his wife saw the twelve taels of silver that Huaihua took out, their eyes immediately became glued to it.
However, Qiao Tiezhu was still worried. Ten taels of silver was a lot, but what if Shen Xiu just took his daughter away and didn't send her back later.
Selling a daughter for ten taels of silver is a huge loss.
Fortunately, Huaihua was there to guarantee that Shen Xiu would definitely send Qiao Meier back in the future. And he might even be able to help her find a good marriage.
In order to reassure the Qiao family, Shen Xiu gave them another five taels of silver. Only then did Qiao Tiezhu no longer object.
Qiao Meier said nothing and followed Shen Xiu into the carriage in confusion.
She didn't know where she was going yet, so she felt a little uneasy and was a little timid in the car.
Shen Xiu was thinking about how to transform Qiao Meier all the way, and almost didn't talk to her.
Fortunately, there was Sophora japonica nearby. With Sophora japonica's explanation, Qiao Meier knew that their group was going back to the county town.
After the carriage drove for more than half an hour, it entered the county town. When the carriage stopped at the door of the house, Huaihua helped Qiao Meier out of the carriage.
Shen Xiu did not expect that things would go so smoothly, so she did not clean up the room for Qiao Meier.
However, there are many rooms in the house. With the help of Sophora japonica, Shen Xiu quickly packed up a wing room.
Although this is also an ordinary wing room, for Qiao Meier, it is already considered very good.
The room not only has a new bed made of willow wood, but also a table, chairs and a dressing table.
Qiao Meier had just finished stroking the bronze mirror on the dressing table when Shen Xiu had already brought her some clothes.
When Qiao Meier took a bath, changed her clothes, and walked out, even Sophora japonica beside her said, "Mei'er is dressed like this, even I can't recognize her."
Shen Xiu did not speak, but looked at Qiao Meier carefully and felt that something was missing.
In order to make Qiao Meier more in line with her own conditions, Shen Xiu started helping Qiao Meier with skin care and cultivating her temperament from the next day.
In order not to leak any news, Shen Xiu rarely took Qiao Meier out after taking her over.
Qiao Meier really wanted to go out for a walk, but Shen Xiu didn't mention it, and she was embarrassed to say it, so she followed Shen Xiu every day.
While Shen Xiu taught her how to read and write, he also sometimes taught her about female celebrities.
Qiao Meier didn't have much talent in reading and writing. Fortunately, Nvhong did a good job. Under Shen Xiu's guidance, she was able to embroider some complicated patterns very quickly.
Qiao Meier was reciting poems and books that day, and she was stumbling over her words. Shen Xiu would not lower his requirements for her just because she had no talent. If she couldn't recite poems, there would be no meat or vegetables for lunch.
In order to satisfy her craving, Qiao Meier could only grit her teeth and recite it over and over again.
"This time, there are still a few mistakes in memorizing the words. Let's start again." Shen Xiu was about to ask Qiao Meier to recite the words again when there was a knock on the door.
Shen Xiu asked Qiao Meier to stay in the room and not come out, and she went to open the door herself.
The person who came was actually Luo Gong.
Shen Xiu opened the door and was a little surprised to see him.
"Brother, why are you free to come to my place today?" Shen Xiu asked Luo Gong to the reception area, which was quite far away from the wing where Qiao Meier lived.
When Luo Gong came in, he looked around the house.
"Your house is quite nice." Luo Gong sat down and said, "I don't have anything else to do here. The day before yesterday was Magistrate Zhen's birthday, and I didn't have anything to give him, so I gave him an orchid booklet."
"I don't know if he likes it very much. After I heard that you can embroider on both sides, I wanted to ask you to embroider a book of orchids with double-sided embroidery. I said I would send it to the capital to please their old lady."
Luo Gong said: "I have brought you the deposit. Magistrate Zhen is very generous, and he will get a gold ingot as soon as he gets it."
As he spoke, he gently placed a gold ingot weighing about one tael of silver on the table.
Shen Xiu looked at the gold ingot, frowned slightly and said, "How did Magistrate Zhen know that I can embroider on both sides?"
Luo Gong touched his nose in embarrassment and said, "It's all my fault, I accidentally let it slip."
In fact, after Shen Xiu told Luo Gong that she could do double-sided embroidery, she had no intention of hiding it. The reason why she was really unhappy was that Luo Gong gave the orchid book to Magistrate Zhen.
But she couldn't tell Luo Gong because she actually didn't like Luo Gong doing this.
If she had known that Magistrate Zhen would threaten her on this matter, she should not have kept it from Luo Gong in the first place.
Shen Xiu took a deep breath, suppressed her displeasure, looked at the gold ingot and said, "For your sake, I can take on this job. However, double-sided embroidery is not cheap, and this deposit is not enough."
"Not enough?" Luo Gong said: "Do you want me to go to Magistrate Zhen to ask for a deposit?"
In fact, it was enough for Magistrate Zhen to take out a gold ingot as a deposit.
Shen Xiudao: "I don't care anyway. The deposit for double-sided embroidery is two hundred taels of silver. Pay the deposit first and then take the order. This is my rule. Just because he is the county magistrate, I can't ignore the rules. If you don't
If you are embarrassed to ask for it, then tell him that I am temporarily unavailable and will not take orders."
Luo Gong looked embarrassed and looked at Shen Xiudao: "For my sake, can you be accommodating?"
Shen Xiu said firmly: "No."
Luo Gong looked at her in confusion. Of course he could tell that Shen Xiu was angry, but he didn't know the reason for the anger.
Could it be that she blamed herself for revealing to Magistrate Zhen that she could do double-sided embroidery?
"What's going on between you and Magistrate Zhen?" Luo Gong thought of this, but couldn't hold back and voiced out the questions in his heart.