Chapter 1087 - 025 Old Acquaintance_3
This turned out to be quite similar to what Xia Zheng had guessed.
As the two were whispering, they suddenly heard the crowd stir, and someone shouted, "It’s starting, it’s starting!" Upon looking up, they indeed saw two young and beautiful matrons walking out with smiles brimming on their faces.
A familiar person called out loudly, "It’s Embroiderer Ru and Embroiderer Qiao!"
Men mostly took little interest in fabric shop matters, so Xia Zheng did not recognize these two. Among the people at the Red Smoke Pavilion, he had only met the proprietress, Madam Cheng, a few times.
Speaking of Madam Cheng, she was considered a legend among the women of the Capital city. With her parents deceased early and her siblings gone too, she managed, with her grit alone, to transform the small embroidery shop inherited from her family into the now famous Red Smoke Pavilion in the Capital city; her hardship was evident.
What astonished people even more was not just her business but also her lifelong unmarried status. While she was addressed as Madam Cheng, she had in fact never married. It’s just that age had caught up with her, and no one could bring themselves to call her Miss Cheng anymore, so gradually everyone started calling her Madam Cheng.
As Madam Cheng had never married, she naturally had no children. However, Xia Zheng had heard that during the two years he was not in the Capital city, Madam Cheng had adopted a foster son, probably to have someone to care for her in her old age.
Embroiderer Ru and Embroiderer Qiao boasted the finest needlework skills in the Red Smoke Pavilion, even the Imperial Concubine and princesses often had them embroider their clothing.
Embroiderer Ru looked the more dashing of the two, while Embroiderer Qiao appeared more reserved. They started with some polite words, then explained the rules of today’s competition in detail.
Just as Lin Yuan had guessed, the ribbons on the tree represented different points due to their varying heights, the lowest giving one point, the middle three points, and the highest ten points.
Therefore, if one could claim the highest points, one wouldn’t need to worry about the lower ones and could win the competition.