Wang Cuihua looked at Xia Xianxian’s hands, which were full of needle pricks, and knew she had tried her best.
She put down the cup in her hand and said, “Let’s start by learning the basics.”
She led Xia Xianxian to take some scrap cloth out of the cabinet and picked out a few pieces with similar colors.
“We’ll start with patchwork.”
Wang Cuihua and Xia Xianxian sat together. Once two pieces of fabric were pinched, they were aligned. “Look, the needle needs to come in from here and then go out along the edge. When doing needlework, the stitches must be even; they cannot be too loose, so that the finished product looks good and sturdy.”
The same needle and thread were exceptionally obedient in Wang Cuihua’s hands. One could see her hands flying rapidly back and forth through the scraps; in a short while, the pieces were joined together tightly, with the connecting seams almost invisible.
“Come on, you try.”
With a teacher watching, the pressure naturally increased, and Xia Xianxian pricked her hand on the very first stitch.
Wang Cuihua handed a piece of old cloth to Xia Xianxian to wipe her hand.
“It’s like this for everyone at the beginning; you’ll get better the more you do.”
Sunlight shone into the room through the window; the floor, the table, and the sewing basket were all covered in mottled spots, and the circular halos of light danced back and forth in the room.
The highly focused act of threading the needle made Xia Xianxian’s eyes start to ache. The scrap cloth in her hands was still stitched crookedly, but compared to the “centipede crawling on the ground” look at the start, it was already a great improvement.
Wang Cuihua looked at the sun outside and estimated the time.
“That’s enough for today. You practice with this first, and once you’re proficient, we’ll continue to learn the next step.”
Xia Xianxian nodded and exhaled carefully.
“Alright, no need to see me out.”
Wang Cuihua stopped Xia Xianxian, who was about to stand up, and went out the door on her own. Before leaving, she looked at Meng Wenzhou and said, “You have your own family now, so think things through more before doing them.”
After Wang Cuihua’s footsteps completely vanished from the room, Xia Xianxian spread out her red and swollen hand; the needle pricks on it were still stinging.
‘Slap!’
Xia Xianxian slapped the shoe insole she had completed independently onto the table.
“System, I want to submit the task!”
The system…
Such a hideous, eye-sore of an insole had been rendered by Xia Xianxian with an air of “conquering mountains and rivers.”
The blue light screen flickered in the air for a moment before the static-filled electronic voice managed to squeeze out a sentence.
【Does the host confirm submitting now?】
Can’t you save it a bit more, or practice? Oh my god! If it gets submitted like this, it will be mocked by other systems, the system thought, feeling depressed.
“Submit it. Isn’t there a time limit? Besides, my abilities are limited. Even if you gave me another day, the finished product would be about the same as this.”
“Submit, submit.”
Xia Xianxian was quite straightforward.
【…Okay, host, calculating and issuing rewards for you now.】
The system felt it was the best system in the world. It was actually willing to give a reward to the host for such worthless trash.
Oh, wait, it couldn’t be said to be completely worthless; at least, when taken out, it could be an eyesore—how is that not a form of mental attack!
【Reward issued, please check, host.】
Xia Xianxian pointed angrily at the blue light board in front of her and questioned: “Is this the reward you gave me?”
When Meng Wenzhou came over, Xia Xianxian was confronting the system, holding a piece of meat the size of half an egg in her hand.
The system’s calm voice appeared in the room.
【Yes, host.】
“I could exchange chicken feathers for plenty of sugar before!”
“My hands are swollen from making this insole; look at my hands, look quickly at my hands!”
Xia Xianxian waved her hands wildly in the air.
The system…
【The host’s completion rate for the previous chicken-feather-for-sugar task was very high; chicken feathers can be reprocessed and have recycling value.】
The room suddenly went quiet.
Xia Xianxian blushed, standing where she was, looking as if she had been insulted.
The system was a bit awkward for a moment.
【Um, does the host want to draw a prize?】
Just when the system thought Xia Xianxian would refuse, Xia Xianxian suddenly shouted: “Draw!”
Then she began to make a wish excitedly, “Ah, if I could draw a cream cake, I’d be willing not to do any tasks or work every day.”
System: (_ _)
Heh!
Meng Wenzhou, who was standing to the side, did not feel surprised at all.
As expected, if she weren’t making trouble, she wouldn’t be Xia Xianxian.
Although the system felt it had been played, Xia Xianxian still got the small cake she wanted.
She even kindly shared half of it with Meng Wenzhou.
The two of them squatted in front of the failed iron basin, holding the cream cake and discussing.
“I soaked it yesterday at a one-to-one ratio. Is the color supposed to be like this?”
Xia Xianxian swallowed the cake in her mouth, shook her head, and said, “Not quite right. I think the color is a bit dark. Why don’t we try adding more water?”
Meng Wenzhou nodded.
“By the way, there’s an open-air movie in the next village tonight. Do you want to go?”
Movie?
“Let’s watch it. But do we need to bring our own chairs?”
From her limited memories, Xia Xianxian recalled that for open-air movies, one had to bring their own chairs, and had to go early to grab a spot, otherwise, if you got squeezed to the back, you could only hear the sound.
“Yes, and it’s best to bring water, too.”
“Hmm… let’s get some food, too. What if I want a snack later? You have to have something to eat while watching a movie.”
“Sure…”
In the evening, Xia Xianxian waited at the door for Meng Wenzhou to lock up. The two of them were dressed like they were going on an outing, carrying a bunch of gear.
“Tunnel warfare, hey, tunnel warfare, ambushing thousands of elite soldiers…”
They hadn’t walked far from home when they ran into Meng Tiezhu. Tiezhu was carrying two chairs in one hand, humming a tune as he walked.
“Yo, Tiezhu, you’re in good spirits, singing the ‘Tunnel Warfare’ song.”
“You bet. It’s been a long time since they played a movie. I have to go early, otherwise there won’t be a place to stand later.”
“Tiezhu, Tiezhu!”
Auntie Li from behind hurried over to them and shoved the stool in her hand into Tiezhu’s hand.
“Tiezhu, Auntie is old and walks slowly. Help Auntie grab a seat.”
Poor stamina? That might not be it; Auntie Li was clearly just too lazy to carry the stool and wanted to use Tiezhu as a sucker.
Tiezhu good-naturedly agreed.
“Sure, Auntie, come find me when you get there.”
“Then hurry up and go, don’t dawdle behind with Auntie. It’s been a long time since they played a movie, there will definitely be a lot of people today.”
After sending Meng Tiezhu away, Auntie Li leaned toward Xia Xianxian and Meng Wenzhou.
Her eyes darted around, wondering what she was calculating again.
Seeing that Xia Xianxian and the others didn’t want to talk to her, she leaned in brazenly.
“Zhouzi, I heard your third brother is moving out of the house?”
A smell of old mothballs rushed directly into their noses, and Meng Wenzhou pulled Xia Xianxian back a step.
“Yes, there are too many people in the old house; it’s not enough space.”
Auntie Li gave a strange laugh: “Heh, not enough space?”
Auntie Li suddenly raised her voice, startling the sparrows in the tree so that they all flew away: “I heard that the third son and his wife were kicked out!”