The Ancient Miss Transmigrates into a CEO’s Wife

Chapter 175

The woman's voice was shrill, even grating.

Zhengzheng was scared, never having been yelled at so loudly or seen such a ferocious glare.

Zhengzheng looked at Xu Xiuhe, pouting with a pitiful expression before burying himself into Xu Xiuhe's embrace.

"Daddy, bad person. Huahua didn't come."

The little one still remembered what he said last time about bringing Huahua to bite the bad person. But now, Huahua wasn't here, and the bad person was intimidating him with her glare.

Zhengzheng was cowed, not verbalizing his fear, but his body had already shown it.

Xu Xiuhe gently patted Zhengzheng's back, and only after the little one stopped trembling did he feel reassured.

Xu Xiuhe shot an icy glance at Qi Yan, sending a chill as if the surrounding temperature had dropped.

Qi Yan felt fear, trying to muster her courage and change her sitting posture, but still feeling the sudden coldness as if trapped in an ice cellar.

"Ahem." The woman felt uneasy, not daring to look at Xu Xiuhe.

"Purposefully venting emotions, showing off force, and provoking others without cause constitute the crime of picking quarrels and making trouble. Serious cases may constitute the crime of intimidation. According to the law, anyone who commits one of the following acts shall be detained for no more than five days or fined no more than 500 yuan; in more serious cases, the offender shall be detained for more than five days but less than ten days, and may also be fined no more than 500 yuan." Xu Xiuhe stared at the woman.

During his studies, he had read many books about law, and after having Zhengzheng, he had also read extensively on child protection laws.

Qi Yan didn't dare say a word. She wasn't afraid of the punishments Xu Xiuhe mentioned; her father was about to become a high-ranking official in Rong City. What did she have to fear?

She just hadn't expected the person who had once cared for her so dearly to now speak in such a cold manner. Although she had a feeling, hearing it still made her sad.

"The competition officially starts. Participants, please check if the tools on your table are complete."

Shen Yin glanced over them and began conceptualizing what to embroider this time.

"All contestants here today are skilled, so for this final round, we won't set a topic. Contestants, feel free to express yourselves and strive to perform at your best in this competition."

As soon as the host finished speaking, the competition venue fell silent. Often, not having a set topic was the most challenging.

With a topic, one could focus their thoughts, and all contestants would be constrained within the same scope.

But without a topic, freely expressing themselves, became more difficult. The subject matter, embroidery techniques, and needlework styles were unlimited, and everyone's strengths varied. This free expression was a tremendous challenge for every contestant present.

Everyone was deep in thought, and even the spectators dared not make a sound.

Last time, Shen Yin had embroidered a piece called "Lady Admiring Lotuses" that she had conceived herself, both decorative and aesthetically pleasing.

This time, Shen Yin wanted to embroider a famous painting. She was most skilled in Bian Embroidery at the Great Prosperity.

At that time, literati and scholars adored calligraphy and painting, achieving high artistic accomplishments. Therefore, one of the major features of Bian Embroidery was imitating ancient famous paintings.

But she knew many embroidery techniques and needlework styles. If she simply embroidered a famous painting, wouldn't that be too easy? After much contemplation, Shen Yin picked up her needle, ready to begin.

Shen Yin held the needle vertically, without piercing the embroidery thread on the back. That's right, she was going to do double-sided embroidery.

Double-sided embroidery is one of China's outstanding traditional folk arts, originating in the Song Dynasty. It involves embroidering the same outline and equally exquisite patterns on both sides of the same base fabric in a single embroidering process.

Not many people knew this technique, and even fewer could embroider it beautifully.

The paintings "Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix" and "Peony of Wealth and Nobility" were very similar.

Shen Yin had a deep impression of these two paintings. Since they were so alike, she could embroider them on both sides simultaneously.

Double-sided embroidery involves embroidering different patterns on the front and back of the same base fabric, so it requires high embroidery skills. Not only must the patterns be exquisite, but the thread colors must also be harmonious. Most importantly, the thread ends must be concealed, with no loose ends showing, and the stitches must be even.

As the canvas was small, Shen Yin could only rely on her memory to embroider the two paintings. She would cut the thread ends evenly, piercing from the top down, then lifting the needle two or three threads away and pulling the thread through, leaving a short end. When inserting the needle again, she would press the loose end down and conceal it with a few short stitches, ensuring no loose ends showed on either side.

Following this method, Shen Yin first outlined the rough contours of the two paintings with thread.

The paintings were quite large, but the embroidery cloth was limited, so Shen Yin had to proportionally reduce the size of the patterns on the cloth, even zooming in on specific portions, or what we would call close-ups today.

One side portrayed the phoenix, the other a peony.

Shen Yin embroidered for a while, then raised her head, stretching her neck. She checked the time on her phone; it was almost noon, with only half an hour left of the morning session.

Shen Yin looked towards the spectators' seats, where Xu Xiuhe was feeding Xu Yunzheng water.

When father and son noticed Shen Yin looking their way, Xu Xiuhe mouthed "Keep it up" to her.

Xu Yunzheng had just woken up and was about to loudly call out "Mommy!" when Xu Xiuhe covered his mouth.

After all, the venue was so quiet that they could hear the sound of the needle piercing the cloth.

"Mommy saw us," said Xu Yunzheng, looking up at Xu Xiuhe.

"Daddy saw that, but now it's competition time. Zhengzheng can't make noise, or else Mommy won't be able to concentrate on the competition."

"Mommy's competing. Mommy's great."

"Then encourage Mommy with gestures and cheer her on."

Heeding his father's words, the little one stood on Xu Xiuhe's legs, raising his hands over his head to form a big heart.

Seeing Zhengzheng, Shen Yin suddenly felt revitalized and full of energy.

She couldn't speak, but at that moment, she really wanted to go hug Zhengzheng. However, competition rules had to be followed.

Shen Yin also formed a heart gesture in response.

Seeing this, Zhengzheng was so excited that he almost jumped up, trampling on Xu Xiuhe's legs painfully. Not only were Xu Xiuhe's legs hurting, but he also felt envious, as his wife had never made a heart gesture for him.

He didn't care; this heart was meant for him, too.

In contrast to the father and son's joy, the envious Qi Yan didn't share their happiness, her gaze full of jealousy.

The woman clenched her fists tightly, she wanted to see if they could still laugh after the results of the afternoon competition were announced.

Shen Yin had rested enough, and lowered her head again, continuing to embroider.

She herself didn't have much confidence either, whether she could finish this double-sided embroidery piece. Being double-sided itself took more time than a single-sided one. The phoenix and peony, neither of which was a particularly simple pattern.

One feather too many, one petal too many, the patterns were inherently complex, and the colors were also numerous.

It had to be said that this embroidery work was truly a huge project.