When Aunt Li first received Mrs. Yuan's request, she was full of confidence.
The third Miss Li was well - known in the capital. She was an excellent businesswoman and had such a beautiful love story with the heir of the Prince Ning's Mansion. She must be a truly talented and charming young lady!
Even if she had been out and about a lot and was not good at needlework, with the guidance of an experienced embroiderer like Aunt Li, she was sure to improve and make a great change.
Even if Miss Li were a pig, she would teach her to twist a twist with her hooves!
What...?
Just embroider a wedding handkerchief?
Oh, this was an insult!
A young lady as clever and brilliant as the third Miss Li...
Just you wait! Aunt Li was determined to teach Miss Li good needlework skills. She would let Miss Li embroider her wedding dress, skirt, wedding handkerchief, jade belt and embroidered shoes all by herself, and make the whole capital gasp in admiration!
It was not until she entered the Li Mansion that Aunt Li found that the one who gasped in amazement was herself.
She had been an embroiderer for over twenty years, and she had never seen such clumsy hands!
Those were not hands at all!
They were more like chicken claws tied with weights... No! Chicken claws were more flexible than these!
Miss Li couldn't hold the needle steadily or pick up the thread. When told to go east, she went west; when told to go left, she went right.
After an entire afternoon, she had just managed to stick the needle into the cloth!
Aunt Li's inner clothes dried and got wet again, and she was sweating profusely. All she could manage to get Miss Li to embroider on the red cloth were two irregular big eggs.
"It's... it's okay. At least our mandarin ducks have taken shape, right?"
Aunt Li forced a stiff smile. She was really ashamed to call those two eggs mandarin ducks. If the sisters in the Weaving Bureau knew about this, they would laugh at her to death!
Her lifelong reputation was ruined...
Li Wanming sucked her finger and looked up at Aunt Li with a pitiful face, on the verge of tears.
What could she do?
She was just as helpless!
Back in Fujian, when their great mother, Mrs. Yuan Jinqiu, taught the sisters, she only said that they should pay attention to physical exercise and not become weaklings who couldn't even carry a thing. She never mentioned that they should learn embroidery!
Li Wanming still remembered that at that time, Mrs. Yuan had stood with hands on hips and told them authoritatively:
The three of you sisters probably won't marry into high - ranking families in the future! So you must build a good physique. Only in this way can you manage the household and run the family business for your husbands in the future without any panic. Moreover, if your husbands don't listen, you can beat them up!
Who would have thought that one of the three sisters would marry the director of the Imperial College, one would marry into a count's mansion, and one would marry into the Prince Ning's Mansion.
Regardless of their ability to manage the household and run the family business, the families they married into were all of higher and higher status...
As a result, now she had to worry about a tiny embroidery needle.
Was this her fault?
If anyone was to blame, it was Mrs. Yuan's educational approach that had deviated greatly!
Wanxin sat beside the lamp stand and gave a gentle, shy smile. "Little sister, don't be in a hurry. I think this wedding handkerchief is not difficult to embroider. You just need to relax and embroider one stitch at a time slowly."
In front of her were three embroidered patterns.
One was mandarin ducks playing in the water, one was a phoenix flying through peonies, and the other was twin flowers in bloom.
Now the frameworks of all of them were completed, and she was just waiting to learn how to change the thread and add color from Aunt Li.
Wanxin had never really learned embroidery.
When she was young, her parents were busy with their work, and her two younger sisters were naughty. So she taught herself how to mend clothes for her sisters and thus learned a little bit of needlework.
After she married into the Chen family, she found out that needlework was a necessary skill for a well - bred young lady.
There was nothing she could do. She had to secretly learn a little from the embroiderers in the Chen family.
It was not until this afternoon when she came to accompany Li Wanming that she learned some basic embroidery skills from the great embroidery master, Aunt Li.
Unexpectedly, it was like a sudden enlightenment. Wanxin immediately grasped the essence of embroidery.
Her fingers fluttered, and the needle danced. She could embroider a complete pattern in just an hour!
By the time Li Wanming pricked her fourth finger, the mandarin ducks on Wanxin's embroidery hoop were vivid.
While Li Wanming gritted her teeth and struggled with the "eggs", the peonies in Wanxin's hands were delicate and well - shaped.
While Li Wanming wished she could poke out her own eyes, the twin lotus flowers in Wanxin's palm stood gracefully.
"Elder sister, just kill me..." Li Wanming said.
Aunt Li held the silk handkerchief embroidered by Wanxin and greedily looked at it again and again, constantly clicking her tongue in admiration:
"The eldest young lady's hands are really dexterous. These fine stitches and this skillful technique are probably better than many embroiderers in our Weaving Bureau..."
"Of course!"
Wanmo put two freshly peeled chestnuts in the small dish in front of Wanxin and said proudly, "Our elder sister is so clever and dexterous that she was well - known in the whole of Fujian back then!"
Aunt Li looked at Wanxin's "Mandarin Ducks Playing in the Water" and then at Li Wanming's "Egg Party". She couldn't help but sigh with emotion: How could there be such a big difference between sisters of the same mother?
Wanxin was so smart and dexterous that she was almost self - taught. Aunt Li only needed to give her a little hint, and she could draw inferences from one example. Her dexterous hands were like swallows under the eaves, and in no time she could embroider delicate patterns.
On the contrary, there was Li Wanming...
Aunt Li heaved a long sigh.
Forget it.
Even the sons of a dragon are all different.
She couldn't expect all sisters to be good at embroidery.
It was just that the third Miss Li's hands were too clumsy.
Thinking that the wedding would be in two months and this embroidered wedding handkerchief would be seen by all the nobles in the capital...
Aunt Li felt a great deal of pressure. She even wished she could find a cave to hide in.
"I say—"
Wanmo clapped the chestnut skins off her hands, walked over while chewing on a chestnut kernel, and stuffed one into Li Wanming's mouth. "There's no need to worry about this. We can just use the embroidery of our elder sister instead."
Aunt Li was greatly shocked. "No! This wedding handkerchief is used for the wedding. All the nobles in the court will see it. If someone finds out..."
"It's okay." Wanmo waved her hand indifferently. "As long as you don't say anything and we don't say anything, who will know that it wasn't embroidered by her? It's just a veil. No one will pay attention."
"But..."
"Do you really want her to get married with this veil on her head?"
Wanmo picked up Li Wanming's embroidery with her little finger, and the disgust on her face was almost overflowing. "Those who know will think it's a messed - up mandarin duck. Those who don't know might think it's a broken - boned turtle fished out from somewhere..."
"Second sister..."
Li Wanming felt insulted and wanted to refute, but she couldn't find the words.
On her embroidery, there were only two crooked and shapeless circles. It was actually a compliment to call it a "broken - boned turtle".
"Aunt, are you really going to let my little sister wear this on her head on her wedding day?"
Wanmo hooked the veil and moved it in front of Aunt Li's eyes, saying seriously, "I'm actually thinking about the reputation of your Weaving Bureau. Once this veil is shown, I'm afraid the century - old reputation of the Weaving Bureau will collapse in an instant."