When Aunt Xu heard that Shen Xiu wanted to become her teacher, she just smiled and said, "It's not impossible if you want to learn hair embroidery, but I want to test you. As long as you pass the three levels I set, I will
I’ll teach you hair embroidery.”
"What three levels?" Shen Xiu asked.
Aunt Xu said: "These three levels may be easy or difficult. Don't think I'm making things difficult for you. These three levels were set by the Patriarch, and I'm just following the Patriarch's rules."
"This first level is to test your embroidery skills. Our hair embroidery is no better than ordinary embroidery and requires very high embroidery skills. If you can embroider what I specified within an hour, then this level will be considered a test.
pass."
This is not difficult, Shen Xiudao: "Then ask Aunt Xu to come up with the question!"
Aunt Xu said: "Seeing that spring is here, I remembered that last spring, I planted a hosta tree in the yard. Just embroider the hosta flower!"
Hosta flower, Shen Xiu recalled it, and the appearance of the hosta flower appeared in her mind.
As an embroiderer, the things you carry with you must include embroidery tools.
Shen Xiu was no exception. She took out the needles, threads and embroidery fabrics needed for embroidery from her bag, and started embroidering hostas directly in Aunt Xu's yard.
It was already afternoon when she came.
In spring, the sky gets dark a little early. After an hour, it has already darkened.
Fortunately, Shen Xiu had already finished embroidering the hosta flowers at this time. After smoothing the embroidery, she handed it to Aunt Xu.
Aunt Xu's eyes are not very good, but she can still see things vaguely. She held up the embroidery cloth and looked at it, then showed a satisfied look, "Okay, this hosta flower is well embroidered. You have passed this level."
Shen Xiu wanted to know what the next two levels were, but it was getting late, so she followed Aunt Xu's invitation and decided to stay here for one night.
Aunt Xu originally wanted to be the host and cook a meal to entertain the guests, but Shen Xiu saw that her eyes were really inconvenient, so she took over the cooking job.
She came to the kitchen and only glanced at it to find that Aunt Xu's food supply was running low.
There wasn't a grain of rice in the rice vat, but there was some multigrain noodles in the jar next to it. Apart from the multigrain noodles, the kitchen only had a few eggs and a handful of green onions.
It has been a long time since Shen Xiu experienced the days when she couldn't even eat whole grains. Now seeing Aunt Xu's kitchen, she seemed to have returned to the Wei family when she first time traveled.
She couldn't help but take a breath. When she first arrived at Wei's house, she had no choice but to eat whole grains with pickles because she had no money. Now that she has money, she naturally doesn't want to eat coarse grain noodles that are hard to swallow.
In order not to embarrass Aunt Xu, Shen Xiu said she was going to the backyard to pull out some green onions, but quietly slipped out of the yard.
There were several houses near Aunt Xu. Shen Xiu knocked on the door one by one and came back with money in exchange for a lot of things.
Shen Xiu worked in the kitchen for half an hour and finally prepared a sumptuous meal.
When she came to ask Aunt Xu to eat, Aunt Xu smelled the aroma of chicken soup.
Shen Xiu smiled and said, "I was greedy, so I spent money to buy a big rooster. I heard from the old man next door that this big rooster weighs five or six kilograms and can feed a whole family."
In addition to stewed chicken soup, Shen Xiu also made scallion pancakes with eggs and white flour.
Just eating chicken soup and scallion pancakes was a bit boring, so Shen Xiu made a dish of tofu mixed with green onions and a dish of fried bacon with garlic sprouts.
When these delicacies were brought to the table, the aroma wafted uncontrollably towards Aunt Xu.
Aunt Xu didn't move her chopsticks, but just asked: "Don't these things cost a lot of money?"
Shen Xiu smiled and said: "Actually, it didn't cost much. Just think of this food money as the rent I give to auntie!"
She was afraid that Mrs. Xu would not use her chopsticks, so she said, "Don't worry about money, Mrs. I am also an embroiderer after all. If the money is gone, I can just make more."
Aunt Xu sighed and said, "I thought the same way when I was young. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to leave a way out for myself at that time. Only when I had nothing to lose did I start to regret why I didn't buy some property back then."
"You must not learn from me. When you have money, don't spend too much money. Buy some land. This way you can survive by collecting rent when you get old."
This is Aunt Xu’s experience and her sincere words.
Shen Xiu felt warm in her heart and responded, "I've taken note of what Aunt Xu said." After saying that, she gave Aunt Xu a chicken drumstick.
Aunt Xu didn't refuse, she just smiled and said, "Thanks to you, my old lady can satisfy her craving."
After the meal, Shen Xiu took over the task of washing dishes and boiled a pot of hot water for Aunt Xu.
While Shen Xiu was washing the dishes, Aunt Xu took out an old quilt and laid a mattress for her in the next room.
The quilts and mattresses were old, but they had been washed before, and they still smelled like soap locust.
Shen Xiu lay on it, not sleeping soundly for a long time. She was thinking about the remaining two levels and didn't know if she could pass them.
Probably because she slept a little late, when Shen Xiu woke up, it was already broad daylight, and Aunt Xu also went to the river to wash clothes.
Shen Xiu didn't see Aunt Xu, so she thought she might have gone out, so she cleaned the yard and went to the backyard to plow the ground for a while.
She was very good at these tasks. When she was an apprentice to her master, she not only had to help him clean the house, but sometimes she also helped him pick up and drop off the children.
This is also the reason why she can stand out from the crowd of apprentices. To be an apprentice, you must not only be diligent, but also have a good eye.
When Aunt Xu came back from outside, she saw that the yard was not only clean, but even the ground in the backyard had been plowed.
At the same time, the aroma of food also wafted from the kitchen.
Aunt Xu lived alone for a long time, and then she lived with the old Orion for a short time. Therefore, she had long been accustomed to living alone. Now that someone was helping to dig the ground and cook, she couldn't help but feel
A hint of warmth arose.
After lunch, Aunt Xu called Shen Xiu to her side, "You have passed the second level, let's move on to the third level!"
Shen Xiu was a little puzzled and didn't understand how she passed the second level.
Aunt Xu said with a smile: "This second level is actually very simple. What matters is your character. But I don't think there is a need to test it. Your child has a good character. I think people can't do anything wrong."
"The next step is the third level. This level will test your eyesight." Aunt Xu waited for a moment at Shen Xiu's place. She went to the house to get a handkerchief.
Aunt Xu unfolded the handkerchief in front of Shen Xiu, "There are three strands of hair in it, from people of different ages. If you can find the girl's strand of hair, I will accept you as my apprentice."
The skill of hair embroidery is relatively unpopular among embroidery.
When Aunt Xu was young, it was not that she never had the opportunity to recruit apprentices, but hair embroidery had higher requirements for embroiderers, who were both good at embroidery and patient, and had good temperament and vision. There were simply very few of them.
However, Aunt Xu followed the rules of her ancestor and refused to relax her requirements, so she has not received a suitable apprentice yet.
This time Shen Xiu came to the door, Aunt Xu was actually a little hesitant. She was about to be buried. If Shen Xiu was missed as an apprentice at this time, hair embroidery would really be lost.
Aunt Xu thought about it all night last night, but she still couldn't make up her mind. If Shen Xiu couldn't pass the third level, she should break the rules of the ancestor.
When she hesitated, Shen Xiu had already carefully picked up three strands of hair and looked at them, and even touched them.
Finally, she picked up a strand of hair and looked at it for a long time before finally confirming: "It should be this strand of hair."