After fleeing the famine, my older sister and I married the brother next door.

At the last market day before the autumn harvest, just as dawn was breaking, the Chen family's oxcart had already driven out of the village.

Chen Dashan drove the carriage steadily. The carriage was more crowded than usual—it was not only piled with bamboo weaving, wood carvings, hair ties, and various small items, but Su Xiaoyin and Su Xiaoqing were also sitting together, which was rare for them. The two sisters held a long bundle carefully wrapped in old cloth on their laps. Inside was a koi fish embroidery pattern that they had spent nearly three months completing.

Chen Xiaohe glanced back at the bundle and couldn't help but mutter, "Sister-in-law, Xiaoqing, do you think that woman will really come today? It's been a month already. If she doesn't come, we'll have to make another trip to the embroidery shop..."

"It's fine whether she comes or not," Su Xiaoyin said calmly. "If she doesn't come, we'll go to Jinxiu Cloth Shop. Although the shopkeeper tries to lower the price, it's still a safe option."

Even so, she tightened her grip on the bundle.

The oxcart stopped at its usual spot on the edge of the market. Chen Dashan and Chen Xiaohe quickly set up their stall, arranging the bamboo baskets, wooden horses, and hair ties neatly. Su Xiaoyin and Su Xiaoqing placed their embroidered bundles at the back and added some handkerchiefs and hair ties as decorations for their stall.

The market gradually became lively. The shouts of vegetable vendors, the haggling of cloth buyers, and the aroma of fried dough cakes mingled with the dry autumn breeze filled the air.

As usual, Chen Xiaohe raised his voice: "Selling bamboo and wood carvings! Exquisite hair ties! And hand-embroidered handkerchiefs and pillowcases too—"

People stopped to look. A young woman picked out two hair ties, an old man bought a small wooden horse for his grandson, and a woman holding a child took a fancy to a pair of tiger-head shoes... The stall was always crowded, but the "lady" that the Su sisters were waiting for never showed up.

The sun moves from the east to its zenith, then begins to slant westward.

Chen Xiaohe looked somewhat dejected, fiddling with a bamboo dragonfly in his hand, and muttered, "Sister-in-law, Xiaoqing, why don't you go to the embroidery shop first? It's already past noon, I reckon that lady won't be coming today..."

Before the words were finished, a soft tinkling of pearls and jade ornaments rang out, and a light blue skirt hem stopped in front of the stall.

"Finally found it. You guys hid this place really well."

Su Xiaoyin suddenly looked up.

It was the same woman who had stopped at their stall more than a month ago, carefully examined their embroidery patterns, and made the promise that "if the embroidery is completed in a large size, I can take a look first." Today, she was wearing a light autumn-colored jacket with a floral pattern, and a plain silver hairpin was pinned to her hair. Only a small maid carrying a basket followed behind her.

Su Xiaoyin and Su Xiaoqing quickly stood up and gave a proper curtsy: "Greetings, Madam. We've kept you waiting."

"Some things at home have been keeping me occupied, so I took the opportunity to come and see you today." The woman's smiling gaze fell on the old cloth bundle. "That embroidery... is it finished?"

"Alright," Su Xiaoyin said in a soft but steady voice. "I was just about to ask Madam to take a look."

She laid the bundle flat on the widest part of the stall, unfolding the old cloth layer by layer to reveal the pale white silk underneath.

She didn't fully unfold the embroidery, but only gently lifted a corner of the upper half—lotus leaves stretched out, pink and white lotus flowers were either in bloom or budding, and two koi carp were swimming out from under the leaves, their vermilion tails rippling with fine waves, and the scales embroidered with gold thread shimmered with a soft luster in the autumn sunlight.

The woman's gaze fell on the embroidery and did not look away.

After a long while, she reached out and very gently touched the koi's eyes—they were embroidered with seed slits, round and full, dark and bright.

"This color scheme..." she murmured. "The lotus leaves use four shades of green, from old to young; the lotus blossoms transition from pink at the petal tips to white at the base; the water ripples are outlined with only a few lines of the lightest moon white, yet they truly resemble flowing water... How did you come up with this?"

Su Xiaoqing pursed her lips and replied softly, "Madam, my mother used to say that the most difficult part of embroidering water is not its form, but its rhythm. Water has no color, so we borrow the color of the sky, the color of the leaves, and the shadow of the fish. We are just learning how to do it."

The woman nodded, looked at it for a while, and then stood up.

"I'll take this embroidery." She didn't ask the price, only looked at Su Xiaoyin. "Your skills are already at the level of top-tier embroiderers at Jinxiu Cloth Shop. What's your price for this piece?"

Su Xiaoyin's palms were slightly sweaty, but she met the woman's gaze without flinching.

"If Madam likes it, then this embroidery is a blessing. It is the first time my sisters and I have embroidered such a large piece, and we dare not act on our own initiative. We leave it entirely to Madam's decision."

The woman pondered for a moment.

"Thirty-five taels."

The bamboo dragonfly in Chen Xiaohe's hand fell to the stall with a "thud".

Chen Dashan's hand holding the wooden carving also paused, his Adam's apple bobbed, but he didn't make a sound.

Su Xiaoyin's heart was pounding like a drum, and her eardrums were buzzing. Thirty-five taels... She and Xiaoqing had secretly estimated the price, thinking that if they could sell it for twenty taels, they would be extremely lucky.

She did not answer immediately.

The woman didn't urge her, but just watched her quietly.

Su Xiaoyin took a deep breath, suppressing the slight trembling of her fingertips, and said in a steady voice, "Madam will pay thirty-five taels for this embroidery, and my sisters and I have no objection. However, there are a few things that need to be clarified in person—"

She unfolded the pale white silk a little more, so that the woman could see every stitch.

"Please check the embroidery again carefully, Madam. Once the embroidery is sold and the stall is closed, we are no longer responsible. Any loose threads or stains are not our responsibility."

Upon hearing this, the woman's eyes lit up with a smile. Instead of responding immediately, she bent down and carefully examined every corner, front and back of the embroidery.

"The stitches are even and neat, the thread ends are concealed tightly, and there are no loose knots on the back." She straightened up. "You are skilled craftsmen, and I trust you."

The maidservant counted out three ten-tael ingots of official silver from her purse, and added five one-tael small ingots, neatly arranging them on the stall.

Su Xiaoyin took the silver, her hands trembling slightly. Su Xiaoqing quietly clutched her sister's clothes.

"Madam," Su Xiaoyin said, putting the silver into a hidden pocket in her inner garment, and looking up, "My sister and I can embroider about three large designs like this a year. If we have any new works in the future, could we send them to your residence for your review first?"

The woman was somewhat surprised, then laughed: "You're quite the shrewd operator."

"Madam has excellent taste, and the price you offered is fair," Su Xiaoyin said neither servilely nor arrogantly. "We naturally wish to do business with straightforward people in the long run."

The woman's smile deepened, and she gestured for her maid to leave an address: "Sweet Water Well Lane, South of the City, Zhao Residence. If you have any new drawings after the autumn harvest, just send them over."

Su Xiaoyin solemnly agreed, and then took two newly embroidered orchid handkerchiefs, four or five brightly colored new-style hair ties from the stall. She also took a small wooden horse newly carved by Chen Dashan and a small bamboo basket with a lid woven by Chen Xiaohe, and handed them to the maid.

"These are free gifts from our stall, please don't mind them, Madam. My sisters and I are quite skilled at embroidery, and our woodworking and bamboo weaving are also made by our own family. They may not be expensive, but they are sturdy and durable. In the future, if you or your relatives need to add furniture or other items, you can also come and take a look at this stall."

The woman took the small wooden horse, no bigger than the palm of her hand, and saw that it was polished smooth and round, and that the horse's mane and tail were carved simply but with spirit. She nodded and said, "Your family are all craftsmen."