Shanghai Embroidery Lady

Chapter 9
After the new year, Ye Zijin went to the tailor shop to help.Although Xiao Wu didn't want to see her, Xiaoyue treated her very well and often asked her to have lunch with her in the shop.

One day, Ye Zijin was cleaning the shop when an old man in his sixties, wearing a mandarin jacket and a long gown, walked in with a small suitcase, bypassed Ye Zijin and sat directly on the only wicker chair in the store, and then very naturally Lifting the teapot on the table next to him, he poured a cup of tea and took a sip slowly, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Excuse me, sir, do you want to make clothes or buy cloth?" Ye Zijin asked politely. Seeing that this thin man was neatly dressed and his gray hair was combed neatly, he must be picky.

The old man glanced at Ye Zijin, frowned and asked, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

Xiaoyue came out of the back room upon hearing the sound, and saw the old man sweetly calling out, "Master, you are back!"

"Well, how's the shop doing recently? Where's Xiao Wu?" When the old man saw Xiaoyue, his eyebrows relaxed a little.

It turned out that the old man was Master Shen, the owner of this tailor shop.

I saw Xiaoyue walking behind Master Shen, beating his shoulders and adding tea for him, and said with a smile: "Xiao Wu has gone out to deliver clothes, Master, the business of the shop has been good recently, thanks to this girl, her name is Ye Zijin, a needleworker The work is very good, and she is familiar with all kinds of fabrics. I want to recruit her to the shop as your apprentice, so you can relax a lot, don't you always say that your shoulders and back hurt."

Master Shen was skeptical, seeing that Ye Zijin was somewhat bookish at a young age, and he didn't look like he was proficient in needle chiseling.Pointing to Xiaoyue, she said, "Smelly girl, you're making your own claims again. I remember that tailor shops recruit people casually. To be an apprentice depends on whether you are qualified or not."

Xiaoyue curled her lips and said, "If you don't believe me, take a look at the cheongsam that Zijin sewed. I did this for your health."

Xiaoyue found out the cheongsam that Mrs. Ma had cut on purpose that day, and showed it to Master Shen. Master Shen just glanced at it lightly, "Well, the embroidery is not bad, but making clothes is not embroidery."

"Master, can't you just accept the Zijin? Xiaoyue has already agreed..." Xiaoyue said coquettishly, pulling Master Shen's sleeve.

"It's okay, Xiaoyue, if Master Shen disagrees, I'll leave right away, don't make things difficult for me." Ye Zijin said calmly.

"Master..." Xiaoyue dragged out the last word for a long time.

"Well, for the sake of your embroiderer, I will give you a chance. You can take that pile of rags back and practice cutting. If you can cut something similar to mine, you can come to my shop as an apprentice." After saying that, Master Shen got up, skillfully picked up the scissors on the table, cut a piece of cloth about an inch wide from a piece of blue cloth with a "hiss" and threw it to Ye Zijin.

Ye Zijin saw that the strip of cloth was straight and flat, and there was no fringe at all where the scissors cut it. This cutting method is simply perfect. No wonder Shen Ji Tailor Shop is so famous.

"Okay, I will practice hard, thank you Master Shen for giving me the opportunity." Ye Zijin leaned over and bowed.

However, he saw that Master Shen had opened the curtain and entered the inner room, and smelled a strong smell of tobacco behind Ye Zijin.

"Don't take it to heart, my master's temper is like this, Zijin, I believe you can practice well." Xiaoyue comforted.

Leaving the shop that day, Ye Zijin brought a lot of waste fabric back, she suddenly made up her mind to enter Shen Ji.For some reason, the more people make things difficult for her, the more motivated she is to do it.Just like when Fujin didn't allow her to go to school, she tried every means to sneak out.

If she can learn a craft of making clothes, she won't have to worry about earning enough for Zizheng's tuition in the future. Ye Zijin's motivation is boundless when she thinks about it.

For a week, Ye Zijin practiced the cutting method day and night, tying together the cloth strips cut each day, and keeping them for comparison with the batch cut the next day.

When Zizheng came home, he was going crazy when he saw the cloth strips all over the room, "Sister, are you selling mops? Cutting so many cloth strips every day is enough to tie a lot of mops."

"It's not a mop. I'm practicing scissors. When I become an apprentice in Shenji, I can make you better clothes in the future." Ye Zijin took the scissors and skillfully cut a piece of waste cloth in the middle open.

"The clothes you make are already very good. If that strange old man in the tailor shop doesn't accept you as his apprentice, he's blind." Zizheng said, slapping his injustice.

"Okay, okay, let's go to study your book. Since Master Shen is so strict, if I can get into Shen Ji, that's my ability, just like you can get into Nanyang Public School." Ye Zijin said while comparing Facing the cloth strips that I cut and those that Master Shen cut.

Zizheng took the book and said, "Sister, I have already repaired the phonograph at Xin Yu's house, please send it to her house for me tomorrow afternoon, I will stay at school for the exam tomorrow, her house is on the second floor at the corner of the alley superior."

"Okay, I got it." Ye Zijin replied.

(End of this chapter)