Feast of Flowers

Chapter 27 - Best Friend?

"Thank you very much for supporting our work," Sun Ya said, taking out a three-finger-wide gift box from her backpack. "This is a souvenir from our program. I hope you don't mind."

"You're too kind," Hua Jin said, accepting the box with both hands. She stood up and retrieved two wooden boxes from a drawer. "Summer is coming, and I don't have much to offer, so I'll give you two handkerchiefs to wipe away your sweat."

"How can we accept this?" Sun Ya knew that handmade embroidery items were expensive, and she declined politely.

"Embroidering handkerchiefs doesn't require much effort. It's just that these two handkerchiefs have a good meaning. I wish you all the best and smooth work," Hua Jin explained. "There isn't much embroidery on the handkerchiefs, and most of them were done during my leisure time. I'm not very skilled, so I hope you don't mind."

She was a simple person, and when she heard that the program might include shots of her embroidery, she couldn't help but feel excited. It would be a good thing for more people to see the beauty of Shu embroidery, both for the embroidery industry as a whole and for the studio.

In the end, Sun Ya accepted the handkerchiefs from Hua Jin. She sat in the interview car heading back to the TV station and opened the gift box. The folded handkerchiefs were placed inside, and they felt smooth to the touch. She gently unfolded one of the handkerchiefs and couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

The peony embroidery was so beautiful.

She flipped the handkerchief to the other side, and the embroidered pattern was completely different—it was a blooming red plum. The craftsmanship was so exquisite, without any flaws. It reminded her of a Su embroidery artwork hanging in her aunt's house, which her aunt's friend had gifted her on her fiftieth birthday. When she saw that embroidery at the time, she was also amazed.

After finishing work, Sun Ya returned home exhausted. Her parents were still sitting on the sofa watching TV and drinking tea, and her aunt and uncle were also there. She changed into slippers and greeted her elders.

"Has Xiaoya come back?" Her aunt saw her and smiled kindly. "Sit down and rest for a while."

Sun Ya sat down next to her aunt and casually threw her backpack to the side, leaning against her aunt and acting spoiled. "Auntie, I'm so tired." She had been close to her aunt since she was a child. When she was very young, her aunt used to weave interesting little animals for her. With those little animals, she became the envy of all the children in the neighborhood.

"I've been telling you, what's the point of being a journalist for a girl? Always running around in the wind and rain. You're almost thirty and you don't even have a boyfriend," her father couldn't help but reproach when he saw his daughter acting immature. "I told you to come back and join me in the business, but you didn't listen. Now you know how tiring it is?"

"Brother, how can you say that?" Aunt gently patted Sun Ya's shoulder, preventing her from getting into a conflict with her father. "Back then, you didn't want to learn Dad's craftsmanship either. Children have their own ideas, as long as they don't go down the wrong path of illegal activities, us elders shouldn't interfere too much. And what's wrong with girls? Women can also achieve great things."

Upon hearing his sister's words, Sun Ya's father instantly lost his tough stance. Back then, when their father wanted to pass on the craft of grass weaving to him, he was unwilling to learn. It was his sister who stood up and prevented their Sun family's craft, which had been passed down for four or five generations, from being lost. Faced with his sister's words, he didn't dare to argue.

"I'm just worried about her..."

"If you're worried about your daughter, go to the kitchen and peel some fruit. Don't bother us women who are watching TV," Sun Ya's mother looked at her husband disdainfully. "You look down on women so much, go sit by yourself."