In the upper room, Li Miaoer said to Shen Xiu with a smile on her face: "The scholar lady is here today. What do you want to teach me?"
Shen Xiu smiled and said: "Auntie, please stop teasing me. I came today because I really have something to ask you. My husband and I have discussed it and plan to live in Fucheng forever. We have already bought a house, but we are still missing two.
Servant."
Hearing that Shen Xiu was going to live in Fucheng forever, Li Miao'er smiled and said, "Just leave it to me. I will find you two hard-working young women."
With Li Miao'er's words, Shen Xiu knew that she had made the right choice by asking her to find a servant girl.
As soon as she felt relaxed, she asked Li Miao'er, "Who came to catch the autumn wind just now?"
Li Miao'er said: "The woman's surname is Huang, and she is a distant cousin of Brother Qian. Originally, her family was doing well, and she also ran an embroidery workshop. But for some reason, she offended an old customer, and the embroidery workshop could not continue to operate.
Already."
"I saw that she sounded pitiful and was a relative of Brother Qian, so I gave her a hundred taels of silver."
Shen Xiu was looking for an embroidery workshop that was not well run. When she heard this, she asked, "Do you know the name of her embroidery workshop?"
Li Miao'er thought about it and said with some uncertainty: "I don't know exactly. I heard her mention it, and it seems to be called Jinxinxiufang."
Due to its strategic location, Fucheng's East Street has many shops on the street. Among them, next to a dim sum shop is the Jinxinxiu Fang that Li Miao'er calls "Jinxinxiufang".
After Shen Xiu arrived at East Street, she did not rush to the embroidery workshop. Instead, she sat in the teahouse opposite for a while.
During this period, the dim sum shop next to Jinxinxiufang was crowded with people, but there was not a single customer in Jinxinxiufang.
When the waiter came to refill Shen Xiu's hot water, Shen Xiu asked him, "Why is there no customer in Jinxin Xiufang?"
"It's right that there is no one." The clerk said, "Jinxin Embroidery Workshop is too careless. When it was embroidering a statue of Guanyin for Mrs. Meng, it stained the embroidered statue. However, no one noticed it, so they gave it away like this.
Arrive at Meng Mansion."
"Old Mrs. Meng believed in gods and Buddhas the most in her life. When she saw the stained embroidery statue, she immediately got angry. It didn't matter that she got angry. Jinxin Embroidery Workshop also lost its reputation. Everyone said that their family even had Guanyin.
Embroidery like this is so perfunctory, let alone other embroidery. So no one is willing to patronize Jinxin Embroidery Shop now."
It turned out to be this reason.
Shen Xiu thought about many possibilities, thinking that Jinxinxiufang had offended someone who should not be offended, but it turned out that it was his business ability that caused the trouble.
This also shows that Jinxin Embroidery Workshop was poorly managed before. If someone had been willing to check the embroidery before sending it out, this problem would not have arisen.
There is a problem with the business ability and it can be improved. As long as it is not a big mistake.
Shen Xiu thought for a while and decided to go to Jinxinxiufang to take a look in person. If the owner of Jinxinxiufang was someone who could communicate well, then she could help him revitalize the shop.
Jinxinxiufang's store is very large, and you can tell that it had its glory days.
As soon as Shen Xiu entered the door, he saw an embroidered screen standing there.
The embroidery screen is embroidered with patterns of wealth and honor in the Yutang. The magnolias, crabapples and peonies on it are all embroidered lifelike, and the colors are rich and elegant. It can be seen that it is the work of an outstanding embroiderer.
Fan Guangzu, who was guarding the store, saw a customer coming and hurried out to greet the customer.
Fan Guangzu was Huang's husband and the owner of Jinxin Embroidery Workshop.
He and his wife fought for half a month, but he knew in his heart that it would be difficult to bring the embroidery workshop back to life.
However, when people are in desperate situations, they always hold on to a glimmer of hope, hoping that a miracle will happen.
And this Fan Guangzu is no exception.
When he saw Shen Xiu coming to his door, although he didn't know whether this guest could bring business to the embroidery shop, he finally had some hope in his heart.
With hope, there was a smile on his face and he came to greet me personally.
Shen Xiu's eyes were still on the embroidery screen. She asked Fan Guangzu on the side, "This embroidery screen doesn't look like Su embroidery, nor Hunan embroidery, nor Guangdong embroidery or Shu embroidery. I dare to ask which embroidery school this comes from.
And who embroidered it?"
There are many sects of embroidery, of course not limited to the four famous embroideries. But in later generations, embroidery has declined. Many sects have turned to extinction because they have no successors.
As a leader among embroidery masters, Shen Xiu only knows the four famous embroidery and the famous Beijing embroidery. She is not very clear about other sects.
Fan Guangzu didn't know her identity, but he could tell at a glance that the embroidery was not from the Four Famous Embroideries, and he knew she was an expert.
His tone became a little more cautious, "Young lady, you have good taste. This piece of wealth in the Yutang is authentic Bian embroidery. As for the person who embroidered it, she is my grandmother."
"My grandmother was originally from Kaifeng and learned embroidery from the elders in the family. Later, after marrying my grandfather, because my grandfather's family was poor, my grandmother used her embroidery work to support the family. Later, she saved some money and started to start a business.
I opened an embroidery shop. When my father grew up, the embroidery shop expanded into an embroidery workshop."
When Fan Guangzu said this, he couldn't help but sigh. It was a pity that he had bad luck. When the embroidery workshop came to him, something like this happened.
If this embroidery workshop really fails to open, how will he face his ancestors in the future?
That sigh extinguished Fan Guangzu's bitterness and helplessness, and also gave Shen Xiu a sense of compassion.
She comforted her and said: "Why are the shopkeeper sighing? Since our ancestors have the art of Bian embroidery, we can carry it forward."
"Young lady, you don't know. We want to carry forward this Bian embroidery, but it's a pity that my grandmother only gave birth to my father, and I don't have any daughters." Fan Guangzu said, "So after my grandmother passed away, this Bian embroidery was kept in my house.
Even if it is lost, the embroidery girls in the embroidery workshop now are still the same people who learned the embroidery skills from their grandmothers. It’s just that they are getting older and they won’t be able to do it in a few years.”
Probably because Shen Xiu is an expert,
"And the family rules passed down from my grandmother," Fan Guangzu said a few more words, "now I can only last a few days."
Shen Xiu originally speculated that there was something wrong with the steward in the store, but now that Fan Guangzu told the truth, she realized that it was because the embroiderer was old that she didn't notice the stain.
Thinking about it, the Fan family was also in bad luck. No daughter was born for two generations, so the skills of Bian embroidery could not be passed down.
It can be seen that the reason why Jinxinxiufang has reached this stage is not only man-made, but also God’s will.
It was only God's will that the Fan family had no heirs, but it also made Shen Xiu know about the existence of Jinxin Embroidery Fang.
Thinking about it this way, God's will does not want Jinxinxiufang to decline.
Shen Xiu then spoke, "Shopkeeper, you don't have to be so depressed. Actually, I came here today not to customize the embroidery, but to help the shopkeeper."