Chapter 13

She embroidered slowly to let the two girls observe. The sisters already had a foundation in their embroidery skills, so she only needed to give them some pointers.

One taught seriously, while the other two learned.

“Alright, you guys find a piece of cloth to practice on first. You can’t bite off more than you can chew.”

“Yes, Auntie Qiao!”

Shopkeeper Lu wiped her eyes with a handkerchief and sighed emotionally.

“Why are you so generous? You teach them like it’s nothing. With such good craftsmanship, they should at least give you a master’s salute. If you teach them so casually, it will make us look petty.”

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“If you feel bad about it, I can take them as my disciples. Ruxin and Ruyi are good children, and it’s not a bad deal. However, I’m a married woman who was divorced. I’m afraid it’ll be bad for their reputation if they take me as their master.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong. What’s there to lose your reputation about? What does learning embroidery have to do with your reputation?”

Shopkeeper Lu quickly got up and went to the inner room to prepare tea. She called the sisters in and gave them some instructions before the family of three came out.

The two formally bowed to Qiao Mai, and Qiao Mai gladly accepted these disciples.

She liked embroidery, but it was only her hobby. She couldn’t make a living by doing it for years. She accepted them so they could carry forward the embroidery she had learned and repay Shopkeeper Lu’s kindness.

Shopkeeper Lu was so happy that tears welled in her eyes when she saw Qiao Mai take in her daughters as disciples.

“Sister, I don’t even know how to thank you.”

“Sister Lu, there’s no need to be so polite with me. Compared to my life, this is nothing.”

“I’m not a fool. I know what’s light and what’s heavy. In short, I sincerely thank you.”

“In front of you three, I won’t say anything else. The fact that you acknowledged me as your master needs to be kept to ourselves. Don’t spread it. In the eyes of outsiders, I’m just a worker learning embroidery in the shop.”

“I know. I’ll definitely keep it a secret for you.”

After a while, customers came to the shop. Shopkeeper Lu started to get busy. Qiao Mai lowered her head and was embroidering in the innermost part of the shop.

The people who came here were all girls and women from the nearby villages. Customers came every day.

The news that Qiao Mai worked in the shop had been spread far since Madam Zhou Du recognized her.

At the same time, Qiao Mai’s matter was also discussed as an interesting piece of news in the town and villages.

In addition to Madam Zhou Du’s big mouth, some people who came to the embroidery workshop for a commission all looked inside.

Usually, there were only three people in the embroidery workshop. Now, there was a fourth person, and it was a young woman. They could guess who this person was.

“Hey, is that Madam Qiao, who was almost tortured to death by the Tian family?”

“It must be. Didn’t someone say she was working in Shopkeeper Lu’s shop? Shopkeeper Lu only had her two daughters here. That person was her, right?”

After a while, a woman from Peach Blossom Village came. Qiao Mai didn’t know her, but someone did.

Everyone immediately pulled her and asked,” Hey, Zhang. Look, is that person from your village?”

The Zhang family member scratched her head and curled her lips.

“Who else could it be? The news has spread in our village that Madam Qiao has won the favor of a benefactor and is now working in the embroidery workshop.”

“Oh, she’s really lucky.”

“Look, tsk tsk. She looks like a proper human now. She’s sitting there pretending. Why did this good fortune go to her? Pfft!”

Some were jealous; some were mocking; some were disdainful; some were resentful.

They thought Qiao Mai got lucky with a good deal. It should have been them. God was really blind.

They didn’t dare to say anything in the shop and stood outside. Even so, Qiao Mai heard their conversation.

Qiao Mai ignored such blatant abuse. She just lowered her head and did what she should do.

There were all kinds of people who liked to gossip. If she got mad about this, she would have died of anger long ago.

Shopkeeper Lu also heard it at the counter. She coughed heavily and said loudly to the door.

“Someone is still not poor enough. The ones starving and looking for food won’t talk behind people’s backs. If you don’t want to get a job, say it. Stop talking about my people. I don’t welcome you!”

When the women outside heard Shopkeeper Lu’s words, their faces all turned red. If it were a villager, they would have turned hostile long ago.

They couldn’t afford to offend Shopkeeper Lu and didn’t dare to offend her either. Therefore, when they heard this, they immediately dispersed and went back to doing what they were supposed to do.

Watching them leave, Shopkeeper Lu rolled her eyes and spat outside.

“A bunch of village women who love to gossip. I’m not afraid of them nagging, but I’m afraid they will turn white into black. There are even people who jump into the river because of these people. It’s not an exaggeration to say that they can kill people. I hate people like this the most.”

Qiao Mai smiled but did not raise her head.

“Suicide is too fragile. Other people have mouths. We can’t seal them all, right? It’s enough to know I am innocent.”

“You have a generous heart, but I don’t. If I find out which bastard dares to frame me, I’ll definitely smash their head.”

Qiao Mai smiled and didn’t say anything else. She didn’t want to talk. She rarely talked about things that could be solved with her fists.

Therefore, she would not argue with those who were vile. If she were angered, she would only quietly settle the other party so they would never be able to bully her. She was not a good person.

Before she came here, she had killed countless people. Some were good, and some were evil. Although she had no choice, she still killed them.

Therefore, she would kill whoever touched her for Ling’er and herself in this place. If someone wanted to kill her with their mouth, she would not be polite to that person and use her hands to finish them off.

A trace of killing intent flashed in Qiao Mai’s eyes. This type of person was not worth her taking action. She had to focus on the present and wait until she had a firm foothold here.

In the blink of an eye, another ten days flew by. She had been here for nearly a month.

In this month, she had gained nearly 20 pounds of meat. Her face had also swelled up, and her hands were no longer like chicken claws.

It was easier to gain weight than to lose weight. After a month, her body had basically returned to normal.

Qiao Mai’s little face was ruddy. Her eyebrows were thin and curved, and her single eyelids were especially lively.

She smiled at everyone she met, making people involuntarily have a good impression of her.

Her loose clothes covered her petite body. If it weren’t for her hairstyle, people would think she was a little girl.

One day in the middle of March, she cut the embroidery thread, took a pair of scissors and cut it along the outer circle of the embroidery, and used a thread to sew the outer edge of the cloth neatly.

Just as she was gesturing on the fan frame to see how to stretch the cloth, a couple came in from outside the shop.

The counter was at the door, and Shopkeeper Lu was inside checking out today’s accounts. She felt that someone had entered the shop, so she looked up. It was not an important customer, so she would let her daughter handle it.

However, she felt something was wrong. She raised her head again and looked at the couple.

“Excuse me, are you here to buy embroidery or to take on a job?”

“We, we’re looking for someone!”

The angry couple looked as if they were looking for a fight.

Shopkeeper Lu was a smart person. She looked at Qiao Mai and raised her head.

When she saw the Tian family couple, she placed the embroidery work on the table and immediately walked over.

“So it’s you guys. Are you here to look for me?”

“Yes, you black-hearted person. What did you say when you left the Tian family?”

When Old Tian and Madam Tian Li mentioned this, Qiao Mai immediately understood what was going on.

“It’s really the same as always. You can’t wait to blame everything on me. There are so many people in the village who know about this. Why did you only look for me?”

“If I don’t look for you, who should I look for? You’re the one who’s spouting nonsense outside.”

Shopkeeper Lu was unhappy when she heard that. She immediately stood up and walked over to stand beside Qiao Mai.

“Go inside and do your work. I’m here.”

Qiao Mai smiled at her and lowered her head to continued working.