Transmigration: A Farm Girl’s Brocade
Chapter 134 - 127: Drawn Out_2

Chapter 134: Chapter 127: Drawn Out_2

Between December and February, one simply cannot go, as the mountains are too cold for her frail body to withstand.

So, the best time to visit Cave Sky Pool is from early March to the end of April, and from early July to the end of August, when the climate is suitable. Although the weather gets a bit cold in late October, it’s still somewhat manageable.

But at the end of this April, her own frail body wasn’t up to it, and from July to August, the house was too chaotic, without a chance to find an excuse to be away for two days. A major event had recently happened at home, leaving no room to consider such a trip.

After such delays, it had come to this, and now she could only wait until next year.

Another thing was that the round trip to Cave Sky Pool would take two days. She needed to find a reason to leave home for two days and two nights; if she disappeared, it would scare her family to death.

As she was musing over this, Qian Manxia’s voice came from behind, "Yixiu, why are you still foolishly standing there? It’s getting late, come back inside and don’t catch a chill." She had just chased the chickens back into their coop in the courtyard.

Qian Yixiu gazed at the slanting sun in the west, the red fiery ball devoid of any warmth, casting a golden sheen over the vast wasteland. She agreed and closed the courtyard gate, then turned to the eastern wing. Qian Yixiu had arranged for a table and embroidery frame to be set up in one of the rooms there some days before.

Their current residence in the left wing had small windows which let in poor light, and the particularly wide eaves of the roof further blocked the light. So she suggested that her mother should go to the eastern wing to draw and embroider.

During the refurbishment of the eastern wing, Qian Yixiu made sure to have the windows enlarged to improve lighting.

As soon as she entered the room, her mother motioned to her and said, "Yixiu, come see, Mother has drawn her favorite flower." Her mother busied herself every day with painting flowers in the room; Yixiu had given it a cursory look previously, but then stopped, as it was too agonizing to watch. Her naive mother, in pursuit of perfection, would deliberate over every stroke. It was no wonder that scientists and scholars were somewhat eccentric – their extreme dedication was hard for ordinary people like her to comprehend.

Her mother’s "favorite flower" was depicted on several large sheets of paper joined together, approximately four feet in length and two in width. There were two paintings, and she likely wished to embroider a double-sided piece.

When Qian Yixiu saw the two paintings, her first reaction was not of astonishment or admiration, but tears flowed from her eyes.

Poor mother, she must have been so deeply in love with Father to be able to draw such images and write such poetry while her mind was clouded.

She didn’t know that her longed-for Brother Jiang had died two years ago, far away, and had long since become a mound of yellow earth.

Qian Yixiu hugged her mother, rubbing her face against her chest and whispering repeatedly, "Mother, my poor mother..."

Cheng Yue was frightened and said anxiously, "Yixiu, what’s wrong? Don’t you like this picture? But what can we do, Mother really likes it."

Qian Yixiu wiped away her tears and said, "Yixiu loves these two pictures, loves them dearly. The flowers in the picture are so beautiful, just like Mother. And though this beauty in the picture is only seen from the back, one can tell it’s Mother, right? I cried because I love them too much."

Cheng Yue then relaxed and smiled, "It’s good that Yixiu likes them."

Qian Yixiu added, "Mother, these two pictures are really, really beautiful. But such complex pictures are not easy to draw, let alone embroider. Moreover, some effects cannot be replicated in embroidery. Let’s forget about embroidering; we can frame them just the same."

"No, these are Mother’s favorite flowers; I want to embroider them myself, and they will definitely look better than the drawings. If Brother Jiang saw them, he would know how much I miss him and come home sooner," Cheng Yue insisted stubbornly.

Upon hearing this, Qian Yixiu hugged her mother a while longer, saying, "If Mother truly wishes to embroider them, then do it. But don’t embroider for too long each day; it’s too taxing and hard on the eyes."

"Mm, alright." Since her daughter had agreed to her embroidering, she readily accepted her other concerns.

That night, Dashan and Monkey Brother hadn’t returned.

Qian Yixiu grumbled that they had taken to wild wanderings, and she carried Benben and Tiaotiao into their small cabin in two baskets. Now that they had grown a bit, Monkey Brother’s small bed could no longer fit both dogs at the same time.

The next day, Qian Yixiu gave Huang Tie, who was preparing to go to the county for shopping, two silver coins, instructing him to buy twenty pounds of half-lean, half-fat meat, two sets of small intestines, and some seasonings.

With the weather turning cold, she wanted to make sausages to help her aunt’s family earn some silver, and she herself was eager for a taste. Also, she had heard that Shopkeeper Cui was heading back to the capital to deliver New Year’s goods and had been looking for rare items to take with him.