Chapter 8 Panda Embroidery

“Sister Qin, I hope you won’t take what I’ve got to say badly as well.” Hua Jin closed her eyes before speaking, “I believe living in this world as a woman doesn’t only mean finding a man with a car and a house.
Love and marriage may depend on fate, but living your life isn’t like that.
In order for my future self to not regret my present actions, I have no choice but to work hard now. 

“Isn’t the goal of working outside to be able to build a home for yourself?” Sister Qin didn’t quite understand Hua Jin’s point of view.
For her, if the man’s living conditions were good, and because she thought that it was too dangerous and hard for a single woman to work outside alone, she didn’t hesitate to act as a matchmaker for the two.
Taking from how Hua Jin had reacted, it would seem that she had done something wrong, regardless of her good intentions.

This made her a little unhappy.
She felt a little conflicted on whether or not to be mad at herself for being a meddlesome neighbor, or be angry at Hua Jin for not giving her face. 

“Home is where your heart is.” Hua Jin said while shaking her head.
“Being in a crowd may not necessarily make you happy, nor does being alone automatically make you lonely.
I know you have kind intentions for doing this, but I have no plans to settle down with another person yet.
Can you please just thank him for kind intentions?”

Sister Qin simply stared at Hua Jin for a while before sighing, “Alright, maybe I’m already too old to understand the mentality of young women.” 

She grew silent for a moment before blandly saying, “My ex-husband didn’t have much education, but he was tall and full of confidence.
Turns out, though he showed a good temper outside, he’d come home and beat me and our child.
That young man and my ex-husband are completely different, since the former is sensitive, caring, and also cultured.
I’ve personally heard of him having a good temper so he’ll definitely not beat his wife. 

Listening to Sister Qin, Hua Jin couldn’t help but fall silent.
She’s heard a lot of things about her from other people, but the person herself seems to very much dislike mentioning anything about her past to anyone.
It was as if she considered her divorce as a great humiliation.

“You’re a good girl.” Sister Qin raised her hand to tidy the strands of hair on her head, which showed that she was wearing a thin silver bracelet on her wrist.
It was already very dull, which begs the question of how many years has she worn it already.
“That young man is the best among the younger people I know.
The best.
I thought that a girl as good as you should have a man who is completely different from my ex-husband.
That, at the very least, you’ll have a better life than me.

For Sister Qin, getting married was a must.
The only thing was the choice of a groom, whether he be good or bad.

“Sister Qin, you… drink some water first.” Hua Jin pushed the glass of water in front of her.

Sister Qin’s expression was very complicated right now.
It seems to be a mix of hatred, resentment, and even a hint of melancholy.
Hua Jin thought she would cry, but her eyes were dry and there were no tears shed.
The fact that her eyes were seemingly numb to the huge upheaval in her life made Hua Jin fear marriage more. 

“Thank you.” Hua Jin’s spooked appearance brought a sudden smile to Sister Qin, “You don’t have to be so cautious.
I’m this way because I’ve been divorced for a few years now.”

Hua Jin simply smiled back, not knowing how to answer.

“It’s the middle of the night, so I should stop bothering you this late.
I’ll be going back first.” Sister Qin took a sip of the water, got up and walked out. 

Hua Jin also got up to send her off.
When they had walked to the door, Sister Qin paused for a bit to look back at her, “Hua Jin, have you ever thought about what you want?”

“Probably… not needing to worry about having enough to eat or drink?” Hua Jin tilted her head as she said this half-seriously, and half-jokingly. 

“That’s good.” Sister Qin nodded again and again.
“Not needing to worry about having enough to eat or drink for a lifetime.
That’s good.”

 After sending off Sister Qin, Hua Jin tidied up the glass of water and the unfinished fruit slices on the table.
She didn’t lie to Sister Qin.
Her goal in life was to be able to eat or drink without worry, and if she could spread the love of the Shu Embroidery to more people, that would be even better.

Having been made to think by Sister Qin completely drove away Hua Jin’s sleepiness.
She then remembered the comments on Weibo, so she picked up her phone to continue reading.
She finally figured out what happened.
It turned out that the dragon and phoenix quilt she did was featured by a well-known Weibo blogger.

  Following the comments of the netizens, she was able to find the original post on Weibo.
After reading the entire thing, Hua Jin felt a bit sour and speechless.
She was really moved by the article.
There were marriages like those of Sister Qin, but there were also those like the older couple who stuck together. 

Her Weibo private message (PM) box was filled with PMs from many netizens.
Some were inquiring on how much it would cost to embroider that kind of quilt, while others were asking her if she sold embroidered bags.
Some were asking for her photos, while others were asking if she was open to advertising.
There were also people who simply wanted to cause some trouble.
She was not keen in replying to those vexing people, and for the potential orders for dragon and phoenix quilts, as for now, she couldn’t accept any as there were only two of them in the studio, her and Tan Yuan.
Even if they accepted them, if too many orders came in, they’d definitely can’t guarantee the quality of the finished product.
It took too much time and energy to even make that one dragon and phoenix quilt, so she was afraid she would prematurely age if she had to stay up late at night again.

Then a certain PM caught her attention. 

The user was called [Winter’s Not Too Cold] and he had sent her 10 straight PMs.
In his messages, he said that his grandmother was already almost 80 years old and was born in the Shu province.
At the age of seven, her mother went to the frontlines as a field nurse when the country was in turmoil.
She lost both parents in that war and was eventually adopted by a couple of kind hearted locals.

Over the years, his father had often remarked how his grandmother had a small embroidered handkerchief with a cute panda on it with certain dates stitched on it from her parents.
However, after several relocations due to wars, the handkerchief was eventually lost without even knowing where to look.

Old people would often obsess over the things their mothers had given them, and in order to make her happy, some of their family’s younger generations had bought their grandmother many panda-embroidered products, and she loved all of them.
But she would still frequently talk about her lost panda embroidered handkerchief that was given to her by her mother when she was still a child.

[Winter’s Not Too Cold] had a very good relationship with his grandma, so when he saw the pictures of panda embroideries in Hua Jin’s Weibo, he had wanted to commission her to embroider a few handkerchiefs featuring only pandas.
In order to show his sincerity, before Hua Jin had even seen his PMs, he had already sent three red envelopes* in a row.

*Note: Weibo has a “gifting” system similar to Twitch’s although they buy “emojis” to send to people they like that have a monetary value to them.
Examples like balloon emojis that are 1 yuan each, upto bigger denominations.
Very similar to how W3bn0v3l does things for their authors/translators.
It would seem that the amount is hidden until you “open” the red envelope.
The reason why they go about it in a roundabout way is to circumvent the government’s control of the flow of money between private individuals.
Weibo serves as a government sanctioned middleman.

Nowadays, as long as you are willing to spend money, there aren’t a lot of things you can’t buy.
Panda embroideries are not rare at all and they are very easy to purchase.
It seems that the old grandmother was not wholly satisfied with the quality of the embroidery and remained fixated on her lost handkerchief embroidery which was full of her mother’s love.

 In that chaotic time, those who dared to stand up in the forefront were definitely those who were strong and full of love.

Hua Jin admired such an amazing person, so she controlled the greed in her heart by not opening the red packets immediately and contacting the other party directly.

[Jin Hua]: I can try, but I can’t guarantee that your grandma will like my embroidery.

Within two minutes of her reply, the other party had replied back excitedly.
She guessed that the person had been waiting in front of their phone for her reply even after all this time.

[Winter’s Not Too Cold]: It doesn’t matter! I’m already glad that you’re even willing to try! Thank you! 

[Winter’s Not Too Cold]: You’re a Shu Embroidery master, so you should be one of the best at your craft.
I know that it may be uncomfortable for you to do this without any reference photos or any detailed description, but please rest assured that whether or not my grandma likes it or not, I’ll still buy it at a high price.

[Jin Hua]: The embroidery on handkerchiefs are relatively small, so the price shouldn’t be that expensive.

[Winter’s Not Too Cold]: You might be able to put a price on embroidery, but art is priceless.
So, please feel free to do what you want.
If time allows it, you can even try using different styles, I’ll purchase them all at a high price.

Hua Jin felt that this buyer’s words and habits were that of a spendthrift.
If they happen to encounter a black-hearted businessman, they’ll simply be like a pig to slaughter.
After she learned that the other party was in the same city as her, Hua Jin felt relieved as she told him of the address and contact information of the store.

Then the other party sent another red envelope.

Hua Jin: ……

She suddenly felt her greedy heart go restless.