Educated Youth in the Countryside: She is the Village's Embroidery Queen!-Chapter 94: The Duet

"Don’t pay attention to them, come here to get your stuff."

Yi Chichi waved them over.

Dunzi was the first to run over, "Happy New Year to uncle and sisters!"

"Happy New Year."

Yi Chichi handed over a piece of Cuban sugar and a small handful of sunflower seeds and peanuts. The kid swiftly opened his pocket, "Sister, put them here!"

"Alright."

Yi Chichi took a glance and realized they weren’t the first family the kids had visited for New Year greetings. There were pine nuts and malt sugar in their pockets.

"Don’t put candy in your pockets, it gets dirty easily."

"It’s okay, we’ll eat them soon."

The kids didn’t care about cleanliness; they just wanted convenience.

"We’re going to great-grandpa’s house later."

That works.

After the round of distribution, the plate was empty, and one of the kid’s pockets was nearly full.

After politely thanking them, the kids left cheering.

Watching their carefree departing backs, Yi Chichi thought of her great uncle in the cowshed and Qin Jiu, contemplating finding time to visit them for New Year greetings.

But with so many people around, it was hard to act alone.

Her eyes rolled, and she pretended to be curious, "Do we need to go give New Year greetings?"

Bai Chen and the others looked at each other.

"Do we have to give New Year greetings?"

They hadn’t done it before.

Yi Chichi, "??? You all don’t give New Year greetings to the brigade leader?"

"Never did!"

Yi Chichi was silent; that way she couldn’t sneak off to see her great uncle.

That should be fine.

"Then I’ll go back to my embroidery."

"You’re not going out for a walk?"

Yi Chichi looked at the village road, where more people were gradually appearing, knowing that the reunion dinner was almost over, and everyone was starting to stroll around.

"No, you guys can go for a walk if you want."

Bai Chen and the others discussed it briefly and decided to go out for a walk.

Thus, Yi Chichi was left alone in the Youth Corps Courtyard.

She closed the courtyard gate and the room door, took off her shoes, got on the kang, set up the embroidery hoop, organized her threads, and started working.

Her slender fingers danced with the needle and thread, gradually forming a cloud pattern.

Yi Chichi’s embroidery skills were truly of a master’s level, characterized by being "flat, neat, fine, dense, harmonious, smooth, straight, and even."

The completed cloud pattern was uniform in density, with no visible stitches.

Time flew by quickly during her busy work, and before she knew it, it was evening.

Bai Chen and the others, who had been out, finally returned.

Hearing the noise, Yi Chichi stopped working, her neck stiff from looking down for too long, and went out. Before she could ask where they had been, Bai Chen and the others excitedly said, "Chichi, there will be singing and dancing events starting tomorrow. Do you want to join in?"

"??? Where is it being held?"

"It’s organized by the Kao Shantun Team, Red Flag Brigade, and Qingshan Brigade together, at the Red Flag Brigade’s drying ground. It has singing, dancing, and stilt walking, from the first day of the New Year to the fifth."

It sounded very lively.

Might as well take a look.

"Let’s go."

So, the next morning, after having breakfast, the large group set out in full force.

It wasn’t until she was outside that she realized how many people from Kao Shan Village were participating in the event.

Liu Lan was even one of the performers.

Watching her twirl the red handkerchief endlessly, Yi Chichi was shocked, her jaw almost dropping.

"You can do the Errenzhuan?"

Liu Lan, "??? No, I can’t."

Errenzhuan has to be formally learned from a master.

It’s not a skill you can master just by watching or listening a few times.

Yi Chichi pointed to the twirling handkerchief, and Liu Lan immediately understood that she thought she had learned Errenzhuan because of the red handkerchief.

"I’m just spinning the handkerchief, it has nothing to do with Errenzhuan."

She added, "There are quite a few people who can do it in the village."

Just as she finished speaking, Liu Dongmei and the others started to show their skills with the red handkerchief one by one.

Yi Chichi watched in amazement, eager to borrow their red handkerchief to give it a try.

It wasn’t until she tried that she found out spinning the handkerchief was a skill.

And after Liu Lan and the others taught her over and over again, when they couldn’t help but tease her for being clumsy, she decisively gave up.

"I’m not learning this, I can’t pick it up."

Each field has its own expert; she should stick to her embroidery.

Yu Qingqing laughed, "Same here, you can’t master handkerchief spinning, and we can’t master your embroidery skill."

Liu Lan didn’t like hearing this. She raised her chin proudly, "That’s you folks, not me."

Her embroidery was much better than before, making great strides.

She believed that given time, she could achieve half of Chichi’s skill.

"Chichi, look at the flower I embroidered."

A cream-colored handkerchief with finished edges was thrust in her face. Yi Chichi took it and unfolded it to see Liu Lan had completed the embroidery pattern she had drawn using chaotic needle embroidery.

The embroidery wasn’t all that good, nor was it too bad. It was watchable, but not closely.

Yi Chichi focused on her layout, color matching, and stitching, then sighed.

More practice was needed.

The sensitivity to color was still lacking.

"Is the embroidery... very poor?"

Feeling that her embroidery was very good, and being praised to high heavens by her family at home, Liu Lan suddenly became uneasy hearing Yi Chichi’s sigh.

"The color is a bit off, the layout isn’t great, but the needlework has improved tremendously."

Not liking to sugarcoat things, Yi Chichi spoke frankly, leaving Liu Lan crestfallen, and Aunt Ma and the others couldn’t just watch anymore and took Liu Lan’s work to examine.

"It’s actually pretty good."

"Not quite."

Yi Chichi detailed the shortcomings of the piece, explaining it systematically.

Aunt Ma and the others were dismissive at first, but after she finished, they couldn’t help but admire her as the professional she was.

If she hadn’t pointed them out, they wouldn’t have noticed.

But—

"Is Lanlan’s lack of color sensitivity hopeless?"

"There’s hope!"

Liu Lan’s eyes brightened, "How?"

"Observe every plant and tree in nature."

Yi Chichi gave an example, "There are many shades of green. When plants sprout, they are often light green or light blue. For instance, when a willow tree sprouts, the color of the buds is yellowish up close and light green from a distance. This happens because the budding willow is surrounded by fine white hairs, letting only a faint green show through. Depending on the light and angle, it can appear yellowish..."

She then talked about the color changes of peach blossoms from bud to bloom to withering.

The air fell silent.

Everyone was shocked by Yi Chichi’s observations; it took a lot of leisure to notice the color changes in plant leaves and flower stages.

"Did you not do any work at home before, just focusing on needlework?"

Unable to contain his curiosity, the brigade leader holding the cymbals asked.

Yi Chichi suppressed the twitch at the corner of her mouth, "What does that have to do with work? The color changes in plants can be noticed if you pay a bit of attention, just like how you can tell if corn is forming kernels by the color of the silk."