Chapter 550 You Must Be An Illegitimate Daughter (Part Two)
"When you went back to the Chu n..."
"I came back to the Chu n 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 toe 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 n''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.
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"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 herpetitors, she intended to use an embroidering method that had never been popr on
the market.
"You are the best embroiderers in the River City, and you have all signed permanent indentures,"
Harper said, ncing 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 youplete, 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 yourpleted 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 d 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''vee 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
topete with them or even surpass them.
"Well, enough chit-chat for now. Let''s get started." Harper then exined 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 particrly 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 n 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 cor, opened the door, threw him out, and closed the door. He did all of the movements in one
breath.