Traveling to Daliang Kingdom starts from falling into the water

Smelling the faint scent of ink, Zhou Banxia copied a full thirty sheets of rice paper that had been cut in advance for easy binding, and then stopped as planned.

Copying books like her and translating them into classical Chinese is not an easy job. It is not much easier than embroidery, and it is tiring and strains the eyes.

However, ever since she was diagnosed with pregnancy, her whole family has forbidden her to do needlework, so she can only draw, write, and play musical instruments to get her hands on it.

She doesn't know when she will be able to do needlework and embroidery again, but she doesn't want to give up. Embroidery is like learning from others and studying is like rowing against the current, if you don't move forward, you will fall behind.

She had finally mastered the advanced embroidery technique. If she slacked off and didn't mention it, she would be letting down her master who took her as his last disciple. She herself also liked embroidering things.

Looking at the artwork I embroidered stitch by stitch gives me a greater sense of accomplishment than painting, and most importantly, I can earn a lot of money.

A few days ago, Aunt Mei mentioned in a letter that she could easily earn more than five hundred taels of silver by embroidering a double-sided embroidery of the normal size of a screen.

Even at this price, her real name is not revealed, nor is her master's reputation mentioned. It is simply a price based on the embroidery skills.

It can be said that she truly did what her master said when she was alive - with her embroidery skills, even if she was not a noble lady, she had enough food and clothing.

How can I give up such a good craft? Even if I don’t do it for money, the embroidered works can be displayed indoors for self-admiration and are extremely pleasing to the eye.

As his brain power was infinitely extended, Zhou Banxia looked up at Gu Wenxuan, only to see that he was much more focused than himself. He moved his chair quietly and left the study.

Second floor, master bedroom cloakroom.

Five meters long embroidery.

What she was embroidering was a scroll of "Heart Sutra", but unfortunately she got pregnant and had to stop halfway.

Otherwise, the entire scripture has only 260 words, and if you embroider it carefully, it will take enough time to complete half a month, but there are still about 50 words left to embroider.

Zhou Banxia looked at the folded embroidery and put it back into the wooden box, then flipped through the fine materials that she had hidden in this cloakroom over the past six months.

One advantage of keeping good fabrics here is that they do not need to be packaged, and will not become old due to moisture or the passage of time. The color will still be as bright as new, and they can be taken out and used at any time.

Among them, the most valuable is a piece of glittering brocade that was just brought back from a mansion in the capital. It is said that it is a tribute brocade bestowed by the current emperor.

Looking at this brocade that glows at night and whose woven texture emits different colors as it moves, Zhou Banxia felt itchy to use it as the base fabric to embroider a picture.

She has thought it all over.

Use this piece of fabric to embroider a picture of hundreds of flowers celebrating spring, and then a picture of hundreds of filial piety. If there is any extra fabric, use it to embroider a table screen, which will definitely be worthy of her embroidery skills.

Mai Huang's voice sounded in time and saved the piece of cloth. The timely call of "Second Young Master and Second Young Madam" forced Zhou Banxia, ​​who was in the cloakroom, to put down a pair of silver scissors.

Zhou Banxia dodged and answered, "I heard it." She lifted the curtain, went downstairs and put on her soft-soled embroidered shoes. When she came out of the inner room and into the living room, the midnight snack was already on the table. As usual, she was the first to pick up her chopsticks and eat her portion of midnight snack for pregnant women. When Mai Huang Mai Dong took the food box from the maid outside and came in to put it on the table and left, Gu Wenxuan also stopped writing for a while, and just in time for her to let him out for his midnight snack.

Compared with the imperial examination, the provincial examination has a larger proportion of the classics. Tonight, Gu Wenxuan is writing two contemporary essays from the classic "Spring and Autumn Annals".

The study plan he set for himself not only required him to write a good article within the word limit, but also to improve his writing speed while practicing calligraphy.

As a result, he himself couldn't say whether he had made much progress since the college entrance examination, but the criticisms his teacher sent back after reviewing his papers were getting less and less.

At the very least, the gentleman said that his official style of writing has improved, and the introduction, development, transition and conclusion are becoming more and more refreshing, but he still needs to learn more from the works of masters in quoting from classics.

I wonder if the gentleman has collected some great works this time and asked his father to bring them back for him to study. After all, it seems that even Mrs. Qian's good books were basically given to him.

Taking this into consideration, Gu Wenxuan suddenly became eager to see his father. Calculating the time, it didn't seem like it would delay anything if he rode back alone tomorrow morning.

So, when Zhou Banxia lay down and opened his eyes again, there was already light outside. It was the light of the rising sun shining on the earth. There was no doubt that he had overslept again.

"Second Young Master went to the county school early again?" Seeing Mai Huang and Mai Dong coming in to serve, Zhou Banxia asked curiously, "Zhi Ming Ke is back, what did he say?"

Maidong is introverted, and as she was not as good as Mai Huang in arriving to serve her master earlier, she gave the opportunity to report to Mai Huang and quietly picked up the wooden comb to comb Zhou Banxia's hair.

When Zhou Banxia learned that Gu Wenxuan rode back to the village on horseback early in the morning when the city gate opened, and returned at 3:15 am to go to the county school, she was speechless.

"…The Second Young Master is worried that it will be inconvenient for you to move around, and Zhiming also told you that the Master and the Madam want you to rest here with peace of mind. They will come here to stay for two days tomorrow.

As for the master and his wife, they also asked Zhiming to come back and report that Young Master Jiang would not have to return to the village on the first day of the new year, and they would bring Young Master He here. "

This means that the earliest she can go back to the village is after the first day of November. Zhou Banxia thought that it would be okay to stay a few more days. It would be impossible for her to come to the city if it snowed.

It just so happened that the village heads from all over the country were coming to see her. After staying here for a few days, she would return to the village and move home, meet the village head in charge, and prepare New Year gifts. After finishing all these things, it would be the New Year again.

Since he didn't have to rush back to the village to meet his father-in-law who had just returned from a long journey, and his parents-in-law would go into the city again tomorrow, Zhou Banxia felt relieved.

After breakfast, seeing that it was a sunny day, she immediately asked Mai Huang to take people to help her move the easel to the yard, and asked Mai Dong to take people to clean up the main courtyard room so that her parents-in-law and others could move in as soon as they arrived tomorrow. She then asked Mai Xiang to go to the front and tell Gu Dahua to buy more ingredients.

There are four maids with their names prefixed with "Mai" (Mai Huang), Mai Dong and Mai Xiang. Only Mai Qing is left. She seems to be idle but is busy running around in the small kitchen serving cakes and snacks.

Since the three of them, including Mai Huang, had been sent by Zhou Molan to serve her closely for a short time, Zhou Banxia intended not to assign them any responsibilities for the time being. Therefore, he let the four of them discuss it on their own first, and planned to see how they performed and make other arrangements after a while.

What’s interesting is that one has to say that Aunt Lan is very good at disciplining people, and the four little girls have indeed never quarreled or fought for favor, which is a bit disappointing.

You can't just kill a chicken to scare the monkey for no reason. Auntie Lan can't blame her. It's not that she is soft-hearted, but Auntie Lan is too picky. (End of this chapter)