Chapter Eight: The Red Sedan

  Madam Fan looked at Xu Mingjin in surprise. Kai Embroidery House?

  Xu Mingjin nodded firmly.

  Mrs. Fan lost her smile; "Jin'er, you're still young, and you want to open an embroidery shop?" Xu Mingjin replied seriously: "I'm not little anymore. After the new year, I'll be twelve years old, mother. You can't always protect me and my brother. I also want to share some of your burdens." Xu Mingjin coquettishly said: "Mother, I remember that our ancestors in father's family started out with an embroidery shop, which developed into such a large scale, but it ended up in uncle's hands. Don't you want to see it flourish again?"

  Mrs. Fan burst out laughing and patted her head, saying: "You're so young and yet you have such big ambitions! You may be small in stature, but your aspirations are not, and you're not afraid to speak loudly and boldly!" Xu Mingjin stuck out his tongue and said: "Mother, just agree already, it's not like I'm going to embarrass you. First, let's rent a storefront, find some seamstresses, and then have Auntie Xu be the face of the business. I'll only be in charge of the embroidery part." Mrs. Fan listened and felt slightly relieved, but then thought about how her daughter was so clever and talented, yet had to do these mundane business things. Her daughter was someone she had raised herself, a true lady. Although they were currently living in this small city of Liu, one day they would return to the Xu family in the capital. Mrs. Fan was both happy and worried at the same time, but forgot to respond to Xu Mingjin's question. It wasn't until Xu Mingjin asked again that she snapped back to reality. After thinking about what Xu Mingjin had said earlier, she nodded and said: "Since you've made up your mind, Mother will support you." Looking at Xu Mingjin, who was overjoyed by her words, Mrs. Fan's emotions were also affected, and she smiled slightly, saying: "Mother agrees to it."

  Xu Mingjin let out a cheer and pulled Granny Xu's hand to leave. Madame Fan smiled and shook her head, "In the past she was so gentle and quiet, how did she become so lively now?" She waved her hand to signal the maid to go and spread the news.

  Madam Fan thought to herself, with the private silver she had accumulated over the years, she now had almost two thousand taels. She could take out one thousand taels and still have more than enough to set up an embroidery shop. So when the steward came, she ordered him to go find a suitable storefront. After negotiating the price, he would come back to see her. Then she instructed him to hurry up with the task.

  Xu Mingjin pulled out the permit and ordered her to find that kind of water-soluble dye. He himself hurried back to the Quiet Garden.

  Xu Mingjin made a concerted effort to recall the "Clear and Bright River" painting she had seen in her previous life. She had looked at that painting many times, and her best friend's family even had a cross-stitch version of it hanging in their home. Every time she visited, she would take a look. Even with her eyes closed, she could recall about 90% of the image. Now, what she needed to do was paint a "Clear and Bright River" painting and then use the ten-needle cross-stitch method to embroider it. Although in her previous life, she had only embroidered one piece of cross-stitch, and that was less than a third complete. But this didn't mean she couldn't embroider at all. Thinking about this, she felt that she should teach a few maids the ten-needle cross-stitch method, which didn't exist in this era yet. She would have to go herself to teach them. Also, the threads used for the ten-needle embroidery were three strands per thread, and the embroidery needles used were slightly thicker than usual. All of these things needed to be prepared ahead of time; otherwise, when she started embroidering, it would be chaotic.

  No mention of Xu Mingjin's side, who was busy preparing everything needed for the embroidery of "Along the River During Qingming Festival". Let's just talk about Li Guanshi, who was sent by Madam Fan to find a suitable shop. After a day of hard work, he still couldn't find a suitable storefront. Either it was too small or too dirty, and there was only one that had an average size, but because it was also an embroidery shop, the decoration was elegant. It was a three-room storefront with a courtyard behind it. This met Madam Fan's requirements. However, although the owner agreed to sell the shop, he said that he would only sell it together with the unsold embroidered goods inside. The owner seemed to be in a hurry because of some urgent matter. As for the furniture and other items, the owner was willing to give them away as a gift. The price of the shop was only 200 taels, which was relatively cheap compared to other shops. However, including the embroidered goods, it would cost a total of 1,000 taels. Li Guanshi didn't dare make a decision and promised the owner that he would give him an answer in two days before hurrying back to report to Madam Fan.

  Xu Mingjin heard this and said to Mrs. Fan: "Let's take this shop then!"

  Mrs. Fan heard this and asked with a smile, "Why did Jin'er choose this house?" Xu Mingjin said, "Choosing this house, we can recruit some partners and open for business right away. With these embroidered goods, we can hold on for a while first. We won't have time to hire seamstresses even if we do it now!" Mrs. Fan said, "Since the house is being sold together with the shop, I suppose it's not top-grade. Jin'er, are you sure you can sell it?" Xu Mingjin patted his chest confidently and guaranteed, "I have a way to sell it!"

  When Madam Fan heard Xuming Jin say this, she couldn't help but laugh and asked, "What method?" Xuming Jin mischievously tilted her head and said, "I can't tell you now, it's a secret." Madam Fan thought she was just joking around like a child and didn't know how much risk was involved in opening a shop. Thinking that she had been influenced by her surroundings since childhood and knew a lot about this matter, she decided to take the risk and agreed to rent the shop. After they had finalized their discussion, Madam Fan went into the inner room, took out two 500-tael silver notes from her dresser, thought for a moment, and then took out another 50 taels of silver. She handed them over to Li, the manager, and instructed him, "The owner is in such a hurry to rent out the shop, I suppose he doesn't want those apprentices and seamstresses either. If they are unwilling to leave, you can buy them out." Li took the silver and acknowledged her instructions before leaving.

  "Mother, I'm going to practice my calligraphy." Xu Mingjin saw that everything was settled and felt at ease. He thought about returning to the Quiet Garden to see how well the preparations were going, and besides, he should start practicing today's characters anyway.

  "Go!" said Mrs. Fan gently.

  Xu Mingjin bid farewell and came out, returning to Jingyuan, where Madam Xu and others were already waiting.

  Xu Mingjin first checked the dyes prepared by Mrs. Xu, and saw that there were over a dozen colors. The six-meter-long cloth was rolled up into a volume and placed there. She nodded in satisfaction. Then she looked at Chun Xiang's embroidery needles, which she had bought back, and found them to be no different from the ones she used for cross-stitch in her previous life. She also nodded in satisfaction. Next, she went to check on Qiu Yun's work, and saw that there were twenty kinds of three-strand threads on the tray, each with a moderate amount. Although the quantity was not large, it was impressive that Qiu Yun had been able to prepare so many in such a short time. She nodded in satisfaction again. Just as she was about to say something, Hong Luo came in carrying a bowl of lotus seed porridge and said, "Miss, would you like some lotus seed porridge?"

  Xu Mingjin's face sank.

  But Hong Luo was still unaware and continued to move forward. At the same time, she glanced sideways at the things in the hands of Madam Yu and others.

  "Get out!" Xu Mingjin shouted angrily.

  Hong Luo jumped in fright, the lotus seed porridge in her hand almost spilling over. She hastily steadied it again. Then she reddened around the eyes and looked at Xu Mingjin with a wronged expression. The tears welling up in those eyes, combined with that face as lovely as a peach blossom, plus her slender yet trembling figure like a fallen flower in the wind, truly made one's heart ache!

  Xu Mingjin didn't fall for her tricks. She put on this act for her, but it was a waste of effort. Xu Mingjin wasn't the kind of man who would be taken in by such coquettish behavior. It was laughable that Hong Luo didn't even know who she had learned these flirtatious ways from, and they were wasted on someone like her who didn't even realize when she was using them incorrectly. How foolish.

  However, Xu Mingjin suddenly thought of something - in this household, there was only one adult woman, Lady Fan. Although Lady Fan was melancholic and sentimental at times, she always acted with reason and propriety, knowing when to advance or retreat. In her eyes, although Lady Fan was a concubine, she was truly a noblewoman.

  Lady Fan had also been guiding her on the path of becoming a noblewoman. Xu Mingjin expected that in the future, she would find a good match. But if Lady Fan wasn't like this, then who had Hong Luo learned these coquettish ways from? She remembered that on the day she had transmigrated, Chun Xing had told her about the origins of all the maidservants around her, including Hong Luo, who was said to be a poor family's daughter and had been sold into the household after being raised at home.

  The abnormal is the strange.

  Xu Mingjin calmed down. He looked at Hong Luo with a cold gaze, who was looking at him with a pleading expression. However, he couldn't help but sigh, and his eyes were drawn to her big, watery eyes that seemed to be gazing up at him pitifully, like two springs of water enticing him. If she were a man, he would have definitely taken Hong Luo in his arms and cherished her. Unfortunately, she wasn't, so he waved his hand for her to leave, as he didn't have time to watch her put on an act here.

  Hong Luo reluctantly put down his things and walked away.

  Miss, since it's already been served, would you like to have some?" Xu Mingjin glanced at the lotus seed porridge and suddenly smiled: "Good." She walked over, picked up the porridge, and stirred it with a spoon, but didn't bring it to her mouth. Chun Xiang was about to ask in confusion when her hand was held back by Qiu Yun, who gave her a signal to be quiet. She glanced at the tightly closed door again, where faint scratching sounds could be heard. A glimpse of red was visible through the gap under the door. And Chun Xiang knew that only one person in the mansion wore red clothes all year round - Hong Luo.

  Xu Mingjin stirred the porridge with a spoon, making a loud noise. After a while, she took the bowl of porridge behind the screen again and gestured to Qiuyun to follow her. Qiuyun understood and walked carefully, not making a sound. Behind the screen, Xu Mingjin whispered in a voice that only the two could hear: "Find something to pour this porridge into." Qiuyun looked around and saw that there was nothing in the room that could hold the porridge, so she became anxious. Suddenly, her eyes landed on a bookshelf, and her face lit up. She took down a colorful vase with a wide mouth from the bookshelf and whispered back: "Will this do?" Seeing Xu Mingjin nod, she carefully took the bowl of porridge and slowly poured it into the vase. After receiving Xu Mingjin's instructions, she took the empty bowl out silently and placed it on the tray brought by Hong Luo.

  Qiu Yun walked over to the door and opened it, not surprised to find no one outside. She called out loudly: "Hong Luo, Miss has finished eating her lotus seed porridge, come take the bowl away." As soon as she spoke, Hong Luo emerged from behind the grape trellis in the courtyard, hastily walking up to take the tray. After glancing at it and seeing that the bowl was empty, she smiled and took the tray. Seeing Qiu Yun turn to leave, she quickly said: "Sister Qiu Yun!" When Qiu Yun stopped and turned around, Hong Luo immediately put on a pitiful expression and said: "Sister Qiu Yun, Miss seems to have disliked me lately, is there something I've done wrong? Please help me point it out, I'll definitely change." Hong Luo pursed her lips and said: "I don't want Miss to dislike me again."

  Miss Qiu Yun said, "You're thinking too much." She didn't bother to explain further because she knew that the day of Hong Luo's departure from the mansion was not far off.

  Qiu Yun thought for a moment, then called out loudly to summon Manzi, instructing her to sit at the door and embroider flowers. At the same time, she was to keep an eye on the door and not allow anyone to approach.

  Hong Luo gazed at Qiu Yun with a mixture of anger and hatred, stamped her foot, and had no choice but to leave.

  Back in the house, Xu Mingjin had already come out from behind the screen. Seeing her, he asked: "Does she suspect anything?" Autumn Cloud shook his head and said: "She saw the empty bowl and was extremely happy. I looked at her expression, it seems that she believes Miss drank the porridge." Xu Mingjin finally felt relieved. She took the vase with porridge, pulled out the white jade hairpin from her hair, scooped out some porridge from inside, wrapped it in a handkerchief, and fearing it was not enough, added some more. She instructed Chun Xiang to find an excuse to leave the house after a while and send it to the pharmacy to have the doctor take a look. Chun Xiang left with the order. She also told Autumn Cloud: "At dinner time, you bring a bowl of exactly the same porridge, I'll eat it, then pour this porridge back in." Autumn Cloud also agreed.

  Xu Mingjin finished instructing and went to practice calligraphy.

  Digression

  Everyone, please give more support!