Forensic Imperial Concubine by Erika Black

"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.