Educated Youth in the Countryside: She is the Village's Embroidery Queen!-Chapter 295: Jealousy

So, Lin Qiu Ping and Qi Zhiyuan left with Qi Xiaohui.

While Yi Chichi and Wen Shi left the family area and headed to the countryman’s home.

Along the way, they encountered many wives carrying their children home, and men returning from work.

The wives chatted with Yi Chichi, and the men chatted with Wen Shi.

They talked all the way, and finally got some peace once they had left the family area.

Then, Wen Shi sighed.

"Old Qi has new clothes."

He’s jealous.

Yi Chichi was quite amused by this, "You have clothes too, underwear and vests."

"... You can’t wear those outside."

Too uncouth.

"It’s as if you have time to wear new clothes if they were made for you."

Yi Chichi sharply retorted, "The new clothes I made for you last year, besides wearing them when we went to Yangcheng, have you worn them since?"

"No."

No time, no opportunity.

"So do you want more? If you do, I’ll make two more sets for you."

Wen Shi thought for a bit and decisively refused.

"Forget it, don’t waste money. Let’s talk again when I have a long holiday."

That’s fine.

"Wife, haven’t you made new clothes for a while?"

It has been a while, but she has clothes to wear, no rush to make new ones. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Nowadays, it’s about what you can’t wear, what you can wear. If you can wear a dress, it’s considered fashionable.

Yet, she feels indifferent about dresses.

So, she’ll wait until after the opening up of policies to dress up properly.

For now, dressing neatly and cleanly is enough.

If you stand out too much, unwanted attention isn’t pleasant.

"I have clothes to wear, don’t worry I won’t let myself suffer."

That’s true, anyway, the family’s financial power is in the wife’s hands.

He gave a simple response and shared a piece of gossip with her.

"Uncle Gao has stored another batch of bird’s nests, do you want to buy some?"

Yi Chichi patted her pockets, "Yes."

However, "Why is he storing bird’s nests?"

"It’s stored for you."

Last year, when his wife bought bird’s nests, the locals saw the profit.

They don’t produce bird’s nests here, but the neighboring area does, and bird’s nests are cheap over there. It’s said that there are stacks of them in Yan Cave and no one picks them, so Uncle Gao and others go through paths over there to pick a lot and bring them back.

He mentioned this when he went to find Uncle Gao to make a embroidery frame, but he had been busy these days and delayed until now.

"How much have they stored?"

"Probably more than ten pounds."

After all, Uncle Gao and others don’t have time to go to Yan Cave to pick bird’s nests every day; they go once in a while, and they aren’t heavy, once you remove the feathers and miscellaneous items, the weight decreases significantly.

Yi Chichi understood after this explanation.

"We’ll collect it all and send it back later."

"It’s up to you."

The two talked while walking, and after about half an hour, they reached the village.

Cooking smoke rose in spirals, an old yellow dog lay at the village entrance, children were playing there, some were stringing shell chimes, others were playing shell games.

The afterglow fell on the children’s faces, making their smiles appear that pure and vibrant.

The couple’s appearance broke the village’s peace.

The yellow dog began barking, and the children who heard the noise turned to look.

Then—

"%￥#..."

A flurry of dialect came out, Wen Shi laughed and replied in dialect, while Yi Chichi did not understand; when the children looked curiously toward her, she smiled.

And then, the couple was surrounded by children and taken to Uncle Gao’s house.

This family also did not speak Mandarin, their speech was a stream of dialect, no choice, the detailed greeting process was left to Yi Chichi, who sat aside, peeling a lychee the hostess eagerly handed over.

She didn’t know the variety, the pit was a bit large, but the taste was surprisingly good.

Yi Chichi not only ate herself but also peeled some for Wen Shi.

Uncle Gao’s family saw this and smiled, the hostess teased them with words she didn’t understand, but her demeanor was unmistakably teasing.

Soon, Uncle Gao came out holding a pile of embroidery frame parts and placed them on the ground, saying something to Wen Shi.

He nodded, pulled Yi Chichi over to the pile of parts, "Wife, check them."

Yi Chichi responded, checking them piece by piece, the polishing was very smooth, no burrs where her fingertips touched, she was about to nod to accept when the burrs at the buckle connections caught her attention.

Her fingers brushed over them, slightly prickly.

She silently checked all buckle connections, then said to Wen Shi, "This part is no good, too rough, needs smoothing."

Otherwise, the silk would snag, easily ruining the embroidery.

Wen Shi nodded and turned to negotiate with Uncle Gao.

Then, Yi Chichi saw Uncle Gao taking out his carpentry tools and started sanding on site.

Because Yi Chichi had high requirements, the sanding took some time.

So Wen Shi greeted Uncle Gao and, with the hostess leading them, went to familiar homes to trade for dried fruits and seafood.

Half an hour later, the trio returned to the Gao family with a full harvest.

The secondary sanding of the embroidery frame was completed; Yi Chichi checked it again, nodded in satisfaction, saying it’s fine.

Then it was time to settle accounts and buy the bird’s nests.

The good bird’s nests picked were a bit less than expected; round up to only seven pounds.

Despite this, Yi Chichi felt satisfied.

Enough for them to consume for quite some time.

And enough to arrange for Aunt Grandfather’s family, but Qin Jiu, the little brat, isn’t old enough for bird’s nests.

He can be ignored.

No idea how Wen Shi negotiated with them, but in the end, besides taking the embroidery frame back, all purchased bird’s nests, seafood, and dried fruits weren’t carried back, instead left at Gao’s home.

On the way back, Yi Chichi asked him, "Will you send them tomorrow?"

"Yeah."

He nodded, "There’s too much stuff, taking them back wouldn’t be good, better to keep them at Uncle Gao’s place for safety."

"Do you have time tomorrow?"

"I need to go out for a while tomorrow, just in time to send them."

Yi Chichi didn’t ask what he was doing, just said, "Will you be home in the evening?"

"Hard to say, if I don’t return, lock the door yourself, don’t worry about me."

"Okay."

She nodded, reminding him, "If you send them at the post office, remember to send Mom a telegram."

Forget calling, Wen Shi probably wouldn’t have time.

As for writing a letter...

Too slow!

You better send a telegram.

The drawback is it’s a bit expensive, charged by the word.

But it doesn’t matter; their family doesn’t need to save on this.

Wen Shi nodded and agreed.

By the time the couple arrived home, it was already dark.

The family area had electric lights, not as bright as future electric lights, and frequent power outages.

But today there was no outage, turning on the light was better than candle or flashlight light.

Yi Chichi wanted to test the embroidery frame, instructed Wen Shi to assemble it.

This wasn’t his first time doing this, considered a semi-expert, he completed it in about ten minutes.

"Wife, bring the fabric to try it."

Yi Chichi, who was tidying clothes inside the room, responded, brought out the silk and installed it, dragged a chair over to test the height, felt it was a bit low, "Raise it a bit."