Forensic Imperial Concubine novel Chapter 550

"When you went back to the Chu Clan..."

"I came back to the Chu Clan to take my revenge against them," Harper interrupted. There was no trace of unease or guilt on her face. "But I underestimated my father's determination to kill me. If I hadn't asked my grandmother to come back as a precaution against him, he would have beaten me to death on the night I escaped from the execution."

Looking at Harper, who talked and smiled as if nothing had happened, Rufus suddenly felt sorry for her. She could still smile after suffering such injustice. He then realized that his own sufferings were nothing compared to hers. At least his own parents had never wanted to kill him. They only wanted to force him to do something to advance their clan's interests.

"So, you are going to open a shop. Do you need any help?" As he felt sorry for her, Rufus offered his help willingly.

"Of course, I appreciate it, Rufus."

With Rufus' help, things went very well. On the evening of the Rice Porridge Festival, Matthew and Harper went to Pearce's mansion to have dinner together with them and Alexander. After dinner, they left in a rush. Harper was too busy to have a rest.

She took over the tea house very soon after that. Rufus helped her with the renovation because she wanted to redecorate the first and second floors.

Concurrently with the renovation of the building, she also had to train the thirty female embroiderers that Matthew had recruited for her. She had to teach them a new method of embroidering. In order to outshine her competitors, she intended to use an embroidering method that had never been popular on the market.

"You are the best embroiderers in the River City, and you have all signed permanent indentures," Harper said, glancing over all the women in front of her. "From this moment, you have half a month to learn my new embroidering method. If you can master it, you can stay; if you can't, you will have to go back to wherever you came from."

"Yes, boss."

"Now we'll have a word about your wages and benefits," Harper said, smiling faintly. "For each ready-made garment you complete, you will earn ten taels of silver."

"Ten taels!" All the embroiderers were astonished to hear it. Even though they were the best embroiderers in the River City, they could earn only two taels of silver for making a garment, at most. It was extraordinary to be offered ten taels of silver for making a garment.

"Yes, ten taels of silver," Harper confirmed, still smiling. "Besides, each of you will get two taels of silver as your allowance for each festival. And you can have four days' rest each month."

"Boss, are these really so?"

"Yes. Depending on the quality of your completed garments, you will be eligible for a raise in wages after working for us for a certain period of time." Everyone found Harper's offer quite irresistible. "But there is one foremost requirement—your absolute loyalty. You can't betray your boss."

"We will never betray you, boss."

Harper smiled slightly as a response. She said, "I'm glad you understand. The next step is for you to learn the new embroidering method for half a month. If you don't want to work here after that, you are free to leave, but you must give me advance notice. Lastly, if you want to teach the embroidering method to others, you must ask for my permission in advance. All right. Do you understand?"

"Yes, we got it."

"Excellent." Then Harper took out a handkerchief. It was embroidered with a peony and several butterflies. It was a pretty handkerchief, but then something remarkable happened. As Harper rotated the angle of the handkerchief, the butterflies seemed to dance beautifully, as if they were alive. All the embroiderers present were astonished to see this effect.

"They've come to life!"

"They are not alive. They only look alive because of a unique embroidering method, and that's the skill you're going to learn," Harper said with a smile. "You have only a little time to learn it, because I won't stay long in the River City. This is the only skill I will teach you for the time being. After you master it, I will teach you other embroidering skills in the future."

"Thank you, boss." All the female embroiderers were extremely impressed. Everyone knew that this sort of embroidering technique was a very exclusive skill. No embroiderer, generally, would be willing to teach it to others except to their apprentices. And even if they taught such a skill to their apprentices, they would still keep the most critical step of the technique to themselves, lest their apprentices be able to compete with them or even surpass them.

"Well, enough chit-chat for now. Let's get started." Harper then explained to them the key points of this embroidering skill. Then she told each of them to embroider something based on their own abilities and methods, so that she could customize her instruction for each of them. By doing this, she found several female embroiderers who were particularly good learners. She was quite satisfied with them.

Meanwhile, Rufus was busy redecorating the shop for Harper. She required that the shop be redecorated as a truly high-end, splendid emporium. The redecoration plan she gave him certainly looked splendid.

After having speaking frankly with each other, Rufus and Harper now got along very well. She even gave him a considerable amount of advice. After he got the advice, he regretted that he had not listened to her more in the past. He talked with her as often as possible in the hope that he could learn everything she knew. As a result, Matthew became quite jealous of him, so he warned him repeatedly, but he continued talking often with Harper. In the end, Matthew lost his patience. He grasped Rufus by the collar, opened the door, threw him out, and closed the door. He did all of the movements in one breath.