Secret of a Thousand Beauties Read Online Free PDF Page B

when I desperately need another pair of embroidering hands, I’ll take you in. If you prove to be a good embroiderer, you’ll embroider to bring in money. Do you accept?”
    I nodded emphatically. I liked the idea of being an embroiderer, but anyway had no alternative. As she desperately needed help, I even more desperately needed to be housed and fed.
    She cast a pitiful look at all of us. “I accepted you all as my students because I took pity on your dire situations—no money, no family, no husband. So besides being a teacher, I’m also your adoptive mother, you all understand?”
    We all emitted a loud, “Yes, Teacher Peony!”
    She turned back to me. “Now let me see your hands again.”
    Nervously I placed my hands on Aunty Peony’s smooth-skinned, long-fingered ones. She flipped, squeezed, kneaded, and bent my hands as if they were two slabs of pork for New Year’s dinner. Her hands kept harassing mine for several moments until a relaxed expression bloomed on her face.
    “Good. Your bones are perfect for doing the different stitches and complicated patterns.”
    As I was about to thank her for this compliment, she spoke again. “Wait, Spring Swallow, don’t be happy too early.” She looked at me with her penetrating eyes. “Do your hands sweat?”
    “No, Aunty Peony.”
    “Good. But don’t lie to me. If I find out later that they do, you’ll have no place here. Sweaty hands, no matter how pretty and skillful, cannot embroider. The threads will stick to them so they can’t move smoothly. And the work will be stained and ruined.”
    Some silence passed before she threw me another harsh question. “You’re not color-blind, are you? Can you tell the difference between colors?”
    Before I had a chance to answer, she signaled Leilei to hand her a small basket filled with threads.
    “Tell me quickly all the different colors.”
    I did. There were many subtle shadings of one color, but since I could tell the difference between the major colors, I passed Aunty’s test.
    “Good. But besides colors, you also have to learn the different threads like silk, cotton, fleece, gold, silver. Now, watch me.”
    She randomly pulled out one thread, then used her thumbs and index fingers to split it into four, eight, sixteen, then thirty-two miniscule filaments. My eyes protruded and my jaw dropped. It was like magic; how could she do that?
    “See how my hands can produce rainbows thin as hairs?”
    I nodded eagerly. “Indeed. It’s beautiful, Aunty Peony.”
    Some silence passed, and she asked, “Can you do housework?”
    It was a strange question because doing housework doesn’t require much brains or even good eyesight. But I understood that the question was actually a statement telling me that I was not going to live here and consume their food for free.
    So I nodded again. “No problem, Aunty Peony. Before I was wedded to my ghost husband, I waited on my aunt and my other relatives including my Popo.”
    “All right, but if you don’t prove yourself worthy to be my student, you’ll still have to leave.”
    My heart skipped a beat. “Then where would I go?”
    “I can send you back.”
    “Oh, no, please, Aunty Peony, please don’t!”
    “Then you better work hard. Normally a student has to wait on me at least six months before I’ll decide if I accept her. But since I just got a big order and we have to hurry, I’ll shorten your trial period to one month.”
    She paused to clear her throat. “You’re lucky. Before I was accepted by my teacher, I had to live with her and do all her errands for a whole year. But no one who is lazy and sloppy stays in this house, you understand?”
    “Of course I do, Aunty Peony.”
    “All right, now let’s start,” she said, looking at Purple.
    Purple immediately poured a cup of hot tea and handed it to me. “Spring Swallow, offer this tea respectfully with two hands to Aunty Peony and declare that you’re willing to be her student and obey her.”
    Gingerly