Chapter 118 The Material was thrown out by the Young Lady
“What’s going on here?” Qin Wanru’s gaze fell on the brocades held by the two old women behind. The brocade which was supposed to be flat seemed to be wrinkled. Although it was not very obvious, Qin Wanru noticed it.
“Just now… The Young Lady accidentally knocked it off.” The supervisor of the sewing room answered while trembling with fear.
Meeting the masters and having offended one of the masters, she dared not make any more mistakes. Otherwise, she would no longer be the supervisor of this sewing room.
The servants in the mansion were also well-informed. They knew it was Madam Shui who was in charge of the mansion, not Madam Di. Qin Wanru was the daughter of Madam Shui, so she needed to offer better service than the Young Lady.
“Thrown out by big sister?” Qin Wanru looked at the awkward face of the supervisor and smiled gently.
“Yes!” After having eye contact with Qin Wanru’s clear eyes which seemed to see through people, the supervisor lowered her head and dared not to lie. This Second Miss looked young, but her behavior was much better than that Young Lady. She actually thought Qin Wanru looked generous.
The supervisor of the sewing room had just sold herself to the mansion. She used to work in some big embroidery workshops and had seen many young ladies. She felt that the younger Second Miss had good bearing. She was comparable with the misses from those families with hundreds of years of history. For a moment, the supervisor started to respect her.
“Why did she throw it away?” asked Qin Wanru as her slender fingers fiddled with the teacup in front of her.
“She said… that these materials are not what she wanted!” The old supervisor said with a tremor.
“Let me see!” Qin Wanru said gently.
The supervisor immediately let two women behind her send the brocade to the square table in the middle and spread it so that Qin Wanru could choose carefully.
Because it was winter, this season’s material was relatively thick. The patterns were also well-picked. There were minimalist and baroque styles. The supervisor was prepared to take care of everyone’s preferences.
Qin Yuru liked to show her temperament as a talented woman in front of people, so she preferred plain and white materials. But in winter, this kind of material was in short supply. The few materials in front of her were elegant and beautiful, but apparently Qin Yuru did not care for them.
Qin Wanru reached out her hand and touched a light yellow cloth with some faint mei flower buds. She placed her hand on the cloth. The cloth matched her skin color very well and made her snow-like skin even more snow-like.
Then, Qin Wanru picked a light pink cloth with a small piece of green bamboo leaves. This material looked good and alsomatched her skin very well. It was also suitable for her age.
After winter was the Chinese New Year. In New Year, everyone wanted the young people to wear beautiful and celebratory clothes. As for those plain and white clothes, people wouldn’t like those in a banquet with elders.
Qin Wanru picked four pieces of cloth which fit her skin color well. Four clothes for one season was the rule in Jiangzhou.
“Miss, Madam Shui said that each miss would make two more clothes,” the supervisor said.
Qin Wanru remembered that they had just arrived at the capital, and there might be a lot of banquets to attend.
So, she picked another two pieces of cloth.
After picking the cloth, her measurements were taken. Qing Yue, who was beside her, helped the supervisor to measure. After it was finished, Qing Yue looked at the numbers and looked at Qin Wanru with a gloomy face. “Miss, you still haven’t grown taller!”
From last year to this year, Qin Wanru had hardly grown.. However, Qing Yue was much taller than last year.
Qin Wanru smiled slightly. She didn’t worry about her height. When the time came, she would grow very fast. In her last life, although she was not very tall, she was no shorter than other Misses.
After the measure was finished, Qin Wanru sat down and asked, “you only have these pieces of cloth?”
The supervisor hesitated and said, “umm… Yes, for the time being.”
Qin Wanru smiled and asked, “did Big Sister like plain materials which you don’t have?”
“Yes… The Young Lady said that our materials are too flashy and flamboyant. It is really bad.” The supervisor lowered her head as she spoke.
Qin Wanru reached out her hand and knocked on the table. She thought for a moment before asking: “has she finished picking yet?”.
“The Young Lady chose two sets and ignored the others. She let us pick up some more materials for her to pick from.” The supervisor’s brow twitched. She did not know what to do about this, and she could only go back to report Madam Shui.
When thinking that she had failed the first job from Madam Shui, she wondered if she would be allowed to manage the sewing anymore. Shecould even be fired. She felt depressed.
“There’s a New Year and some holidays to come, and we, of course, will pick some festive cloth. What kind of materials else does she need? Have you asked Madam Di?” Qin Wanru pursed her red lips.
“I first went to Madam Di then the Young Lady.” The supervisor said.
“You don’t have to go to my mother first. Go to Madam Di and talk about Big Sister. In Chinese New Year, you have to choose some festive materials. You can say that these materials are chosen by father, and father had seen them and liked them very much!” Qin Wanru said.
“Go to Madam Di?” The old supervisor did not respond at the moment. But her eyes suddenly brightened as she kept nodding. “Yes, yes, yes. I will go to Madam Di. Thank you so much, Second Miss!”
As a Madam, Madam Di had no power. It was obvious that she had lost the general’s favor. If she knew that these materials were chosen by the general’s men, she would choose not have a conflict with the general and would definitely force Young Lady to choose something. If this matter was settled properly, the supervisor would certainly be appreciated by Madam Shui.
Qin Wanru smiled slightly and said, “don’t thank me. I just remembered that these materials had been chosen by the supervisor sent by my father!”
They just came to the capital yesterday, and the materials were here today. If Shui Ruolan had no time to do this, then the supervisor who went to the capital in advance had prepared all this.
“Thank you so much, Second Miss!” She was very impressed by this Second Miss.
After that, Yujie told them the patterns and buckle styles for the clothes, and the supervisor recorded them one by one. When they left, she carefully asked a woman to take the materials that Qin Wanru selected and the patterns back to the sewing room first, for fear that Qin Yuru would deliberately choose the materials picked by the Second Miss and cause some troubles.
The woman of the sewing room even thought that the Young Lady who looked graceful was a real hypocrite.
After the supervisor talked about this with Madam Di, Madam Di immediately took them to Qin Yuru’s Yalan Pavilion. The mother and daughter talked in the room for a while and then let the supervisor bring the people into the room.
Qin Yuru reluctantly picked four pieces of materials and then waved her hand impatiently to tell the woman leave.
The supervisor and the other women of the sewing room saluted respectfully and left.
“When the supervisor left, Qin Yuru sat down with an angry look. “Mother, I don’t like these materials. Did Shui Ruolan deliberately give me these materials to pick? I looked for a long time and failed to find anything good-looking I don’t like these clothes. They look too flashy and not graceful enough. The sisters in Duke Yong’s Mansion wear plain and graceful clothes.”
Madam Di comforted Qin Yuru. “Yuru, please don’t hate them. These are the materials your father’s people picked. If you don’t like them, just don’t wear them. I will take you out of the mansion tomorrow, and you can pick other materials to make some clothes. Don’t do things that upset your father. It’s different now. Even if I want to let the woman of the sewing room find some other materials, I’m not able to do that.”
In previous years, although there was this custom in the mansion, Qin Yuru was always different from Qin Wanru. Qin Wanru just did not know this because she didn’t think about it!
Qin Yuru was very angry. “Mother, I hate Shui Ruolan. I hate Qin Wanru. I also hate grandmother!”
Madam Di sneered, and a coldness flashed through her eyes. “Yuru, be patient. They can only stir things within this small mansion. It is difficult for Shui Ruolan and Qin Wanru to enter the aristocratic circle without me. Soon, they will have to ask me for favors.”
She also hated them, especially when she saw Qin Huaiyong went to the courtyard of Shui Ruolan yesterday. She even wanted to kill Shui Ruolan. After the incident at the Jingxin Monastery, Qin Huaiyong had not set foot in her yard.
Originally, she thought that though there would be issues in the capital city, at least Duke Yong’s Mansion was nearby. So Qin Huaiyong had to give in. Who could have thought that things would remain the same? Even though he went to Duke Yong’s Mansion with her, he left early as if he had something more urgent.
But he did not have urgent issues to attend to. The rumors in the mansion suggested that Qin Huaiyong came back to help Shui Ruolan. When Shui Ruolan first met the supervisor, he sat on her side to keep people in awe. Everyone present was so respectful to Shui Ruolan and dared not to defy her.
When they lived in Jiangzhou, Madam Di had managed to cultivate many trusted subordinates over a long time. But when they moved to the capital, most of her people were left in Jiangzhou. Many of them were dismissed. Having lost so many trusted people, Madam Di knew that she did not have enough people here.
Fortunately, she had talked to her sister-in-law today and told her send a few people to the mansion to help her deal with her affairs. As for Shui Ruolan and Qin Wanru, she would let them know who the real master of Qin’s mansion’s backyard was.
“Mother, they are not willing to go to the party with us. You shouldn’t bring them!” Qin Yuru pursed her lips and mocked. “They have not seen things. They don’t have the confidence to go out!”
“No. I want to take them, and I’ll let them beg me!” Madam Di said in a sinister way as if there were ice shards between her eyebrows! It happened that there was news from the sister-in-law. Soon, things would change.