You Must Be Good 44

Chapter 44

After shouting the slogan, Qiao Xiaoxiao really went all out.

The silver needle flew across the silk surface. Besides a quick trip to the bathroom, she didn’t even have time to touch her water cup. The hair on her forehead was soaked with sweat and stuck to her flushed cheeks, but she was completely oblivious.

“Jiejie, look here—” In the first half, she taught her hand-in-hand, her fingertips pointing at the joint of the fan frame. “The stitches should go like this. Yes, the thread goes through here.”

The serious atmosphere was contagious.

Chu Xinrou was unconsciously drawn into the rhythm. Through the translucent fan surface, she cautiously asked for confirmation, “Is this right?”

Qiao Xiaoxiao looked at her sister’s focused profile and smiled to herself, but her face remained serious. “Oh my god, whose sister is this? How can she be so smart?”

Chu Xinrou was indeed exceptionally talented. Although she didn’t have a photographic memory like Qiao Xiaoxiao, her innate meticulousness and patience were exactly the qualities needed for Suzhou embroidery.

The first fan took a full half-hour. By the second one, her movements were already as smooth as flowing water.

“Jiejie, you’re learning so fast!”

The corners of Chu Xinrou’s lips lifted slightly. “It’s not that difficult.”

The colored threads flew between her fingertips, and the stitches gradually became as dense as woven fabric.

“So amazing! Jiejie, you’re really good at everything you do!”

Amidst Qiao Xiaoxiao’s praises, Chu Xinrou gradually lost herself and willingly walked into the trap.

Every time Qiao Xiaoxiao finished a fan, she would count it, creating a fiery atmosphere of “compete, learn, catch up, and surpass.”

“First one done.”

“Second one is also done.”

…

“Eighth one finished!”

After all, Chu Xinrou was the “Jade-faced Shura” who had once struck fear into the hearts of the business world. Even after being retired for many years, how could the competitive spirit in her bones be so easily extinguished?

When the clock struck ten, Qiao Xiaoxiao rubbed her sore wrists and asked, blinking, “Jiejie, are you tired?”

Chu Xinrou immediately stopped her needle and nodded vigorously.

—Yes, yes, yes! I’m exhausted!

She was just waiting for these words.

Qiao Xiaoxiao smiled and took out her phone, a cheerful melody flowing out. “Then let’s listen to some music and rest for ten minutes before we continue?”

She still believed in a balance between work and rest.

Chu Xinrou: …

The embroidery thread from the first night was still wrapped around her fingertips when Chu Xinrou fell into an absurd dream. She was in a daze, in a textile workshop from the 1970s. Dozens of old-fashioned looms were lined up on the concrete floor, the “clatter” sound like some kind of mechanical heartbeat. The hunched backs of the female workers were a continuous line under the dim yellow light, and the air was filled with the salty smell of cotton and sweat.

“If you don’t work hard today, you’ll eat air tomorrow!” the foreman’s voice pierced through the noise.

Chu Xinrou found herself mechanically repeating the action of threading the needle, her fingertips raw from rubbing. Suddenly, someone patted her shoulder. “Comrade Chu, hang in there! At this rate, the quarterly model worker will be you!”

She looked up in a daze and saw the foreman walking over with his hands behind his back—that familiar face, blurred with sweat, was clearly Qiao Xiaoxiao’s, wearing an octagonal cap. But the lips that usually loved to smile were now pressed into a stern line, and even the mole at the corner of her eye exuded an impartial meaning.

At dawn, the sky was not yet fully bright.

Chu Xinrou was woken up by Qiao Xiaoxiao. Not only had she not had insomnia, but she had also slept almost “unconsciously.”

In the past, whenever Xu Keqing had come to see her, she would go to the rooftop at night and count the stars all night. But now, she had been weaving cloth in her dream all night.

When she came out, she saw Qiao Xiaoxiao energetically greeting Yang Feitang and eating wontons. When she turned her head, the ends of her hair lifted in a bright arc. “Jiejie, good morning. Did you rest well?”

Chu Xinrou looked at the foreman from her dream resentfully. They both worked, so why was she so energetic, not showing any signs of fatigue?

Not only was she not tired, but Foreman Qiao had even had the energy to get up four times last night, secretly listening for sounds, coming to the living room to see if her sister was drowning her sorrows in alcohol.

Yang Feitang scooped up the wonton soup and couldn’t help but size up Chu Xinrou. When she had heard from Qiao Xiaoxiao this morning that Chu Xinrou had slept through the night, she hadn’t believed it. She had thought that she must have locked herself in her room, suffering, not wanting anyone to know. But looking at Chu Xinrou’s sleepy appearance and her skin condition, it really didn’t seem like she had had insomnia.

For the first time in a long time, Chu Xinrou finished a whole bowl of wontons, fine beads of sweat on her forehead. Yang Feitang’s chopsticks hung in mid-air. Even on a normal day, this Miss Chu’s appetite was as small as a sparrow’s. At most, she would have two sips of soup before putting down her chopsticks. What magic had this little brat used? To make her able to eat, drink, and sleep.

You have to eat well to have the strength to work.

The moment Chu Xinrou thought of the goal Qiao Xiaoxiao had set for her yesterday, her heart trembled, and her fingertips felt faintly sore. She had worked so hard yesterday and had only finished ten. Today, she was at home alone. Qiao Xiaoxiao would be home from school at 5:30. Could she finish thirty by herself?

She pressed her lips together and was about to speak to Qiao Xiaoxiao when Qiao Xiaoxiao said to Yang Feitang with a smile, “My sister is so amazing. She helped me make ten Suzhou embroidery fans yesterday. My period cramps weren’t even that bad.”

“Really?” Yang Feitang’s teeth hit the bowl. She was a little dazed. What? What does the little brat mean?

Chu Xinrou swallowed the words that were on the tip of her tongue. She knew that she had to help today, whether she wanted to or not. She changed her mind, her eyes suddenly turning, her gaze locking on Yang Feitang.

Yang Feitang, who was holding her second bowl of wontons, suddenly felt a chill run down her neck.

???

Wait, why is she staring at her like that?

“Feitang, are you busy today?”

Chu Xinrou began seriously. Yang Feitang pressed her lips together, glanced at her, then at Qiao Xiaoxiao, her gaze darting back and forth. She asked hesitantly, “Should I… be busy or not?”

These two are both people you can’t mess with.

Qiao Xiaoxiao looked at Sister Yang with a smile, while Chu Xinrou stared deeply at her lifeline.

Finally, Yang Feitang cautiously tested the waters. “I… should be free?”

Chu Xinrou let out a sigh of relief—now she has a helper.

Qiao Xiaoxiao’s eyes lit up, and she immediately chimed in, “Sister Yang, I’ve already tilled the land in my courtyard. The seeds are in the storage room. Since you’re free today…” she smiled like a cat that had stolen a fish, “why don’t you plant the land? I’ll check on it when I get back from school~”

Yang Feitang: …

Chu Xinrou: …

The sun was blindingly bright, and the clouds were so fluffy you wanted to bite into them. Yang Feitang, wearing work pants stained with mud, brought her hoe down heavily. “Little cabbage~ the fields are yellow~” she looked at Chu Xinrou in the shade of the tree resentfully.

Chu Xinrou was anxiously rushing to embroider the fan surface, not even looking up. “Don’t look at me like that. It was Xiaoxiao’s arrangement.”

Yang Feitang wiped her sweat and gritted her teeth. “Isn’t it because I was implicated? Oh my, my old back.” She pounded her back. “I’m exhausted!”

“Tired?” Chu Xinrou looked at Yang Feitang gently and considerately. Yang Feitang nodded vigorously. What, has her Sister Chu finally found her conscience and is going to make her some floral tea?

Chu Xinrou turned her head, opened the music on her phone, and, in a tone that was infuriatingly similar to Qiao Xiaoxiao’s, said, “If you’re tired, Sister Yang, just listen to some music for ten minutes and relax.”

“Ten minutes, only ten minutes.”

“If you don’t do today’s work today, tomorrow will be very hard.”

…

Yang Feitang: …

She knew that Chu Xinrou was really tired, so tired that she was starting to get twisted, and was now swinging the great scythe of suffering at her beloved teammate.

When Qiao Xiaoxiao was in class today, she was clearly in a good mood. Especially after receiving the photo of Worker Chu and Worker Yang from Yang Feitang, the corners of her lips never came down. Her mind was full of the serious look on Chu Xinrou’s face when she was teaching her how to make fans last night.

Chu Xinrou’s long eyelashes were like little fans, fluttering. Her eyes were fixed on the stitches, and even her breathing was light. The cutest was every time she threaded the needle, she would unconsciously pout her little lips, making Qiao Xiaoxiao want to poke them.

At noon, after running a lap with Wang Tiantian on the sports field, Qiao Xiaoxiao couldn’t stay any longer. She wanted to go home and check on the two “workers.”

Wang Tiantian looked at her reluctantly. “Then… alright, Xiaoxiao, I…”

Qiao Xiaoxiao: “What’s wrong?”

Wang Tiantian pressed her lips together and, in the end, didn’t say it. She watched Qiao Xiaoxiao leave and sighed heavily. Because of Xiaoxiao’s help, her high jump talent had been discovered. After her parents’ initial ecstasy, they had been busy arranging her future. Although she had been practicing track and field for many years and had a good foundation, she was ultimately a little late in high jump. Her father was already contacting people abroad, wanting her to go abroad for further studies in her third year of high school.

How could Qiao Xiaoxiao, a straight-laced girl who only wanted to study, work, and her sister, notice these subtle details?

When she got home, she saw the two people working in the courtyard and smiled with satisfaction.

“Ah, Xiaoxiao is back! I want to eat beef noodles! I want carbs!!!”

She’s exhausted. Only carbs can make a person happy.

Chu Xinrou looked up at Qiao Xiaoxiao and pointed to the fans beside her. “I finished them all by myself. Sixteen.”

Some goals and plans, you really can’t shrink back just because they look high. Her skills had improved a lot today. It really wasn’t that difficult.

“So amazing.”

Qiao Xiaoxiao desperately resisted the urge to pinch her sister’s cheek and turned to pinch Yang Feitang’s arm instead.

“Ow!” Yang Feitang cried out, almost hitting Qiao Xiaoxiao on the head with the hoe in her hand.

Looking at the two “pitiful” people waiting to be fed, Qiao Xiaoxiao was busy in the kitchen. Fortunately, the braised beef she had prepared in advance was fragrant. The noodles she stretched were even more chewy and springy, rolling happily in the boiling water.

“Is it ready yet?” Yang Feitang was shaking her leg at the dining table, like a little dog waiting for food. “Don’t cook the noodles too soft!”

Although Chu Xinrou didn’t speak, her sparkling eyes kept following Qiao Xiaoxiao’s figure, and the way she secretly swallowed her saliva was so cute it was against the rules.

“Xinrou, you swallowed your saliva!”

“I didn’t.”

“You did, I saw it!”

…

Is there anything more direct than the joy of having a mouthful of fragrant beef soup and a mouthful of carbs after a long day of work?

Chu Xinrou felt that it had been a long time since she had found joy in food. Yang Feitang was even more so, giving a thumbs-up again and again. “Delicious, delicious, so delicious!”

She looked up and smiled at Qiao Xiaoxiao. “The planting will be done in a bit. Can I help Xinrou make fans?”

Chu Xinrou was very moved, her eyes almost welling up with tears. At the critical moment, this friend of hers was still reliable.

Unfortunately, Qiao Xiaoxiao killed all hope with a gentle smile. “I’ve observed. Your little courtyard can also grow lettuce and tomatoes.”

Yang Feitang: …

This busy schedule continued for four days.

On the last day, when they were making the last fan, Chu Xinrou rubbed her eyes and asked Yang Feitang, “Why do I feel like those threads are dancing in front of me?”

Yang Feitang looked worried. “Did you eat poisonous mushrooms at noon?”

Chu Xinrou: …

Sister Yang’s little courtyard was also full of vegetables. She was looking forward to autumn more than ever before, looking forward to reaping her results.

The last fan was finished.

Chu Xinrou’s tears almost fell. She could finally… finally rest. She had already decided. She wouldn’t do anything, just have a good long sleep.

Yang Feitang was full of momentum, turning into a zombie. “Whoever makes me plow the land again, I’ll eat their head!”

At the same time, Qiao Xiaoxiao was consulting at the school’s psychological clinic. “Teacher, you mean… for psychotherapy to be effective, it needs to be consolidated for half a month, right?”

The psychology teacher opposite her smiled and nodded, looking at her. “What, Xiaoxiao, are you still sad about failing the last placement test?”

Qiao Xiaoxiao shook her head. It wasn’t that bad. That night, she went to the market and started to pick out the red strings for the bracelets she had woven before.

This news was seen by one of Yang Feitang’s piano students, who revealed it to her.

The moment she heard the news, Yang Feitang’s face changed. The moment class was over, she rushed to Chu Xinrou’s house. “Xinrou, it’s over, it’s over!” She didn’t even have time to change her shoes and stood panting in the entryway.

Chu Xinrou was elegantly curled up on the sofa, her slender fingers holding a bone china teacup, enjoying a long-awaited leisurely afternoon.

The sunlight streamed through the gauze curtains, casting fine specks of light on her, and even the air was filled with the rich aroma of black tea.

She looked up and said gently, “How many times have I told you, don’t panic when you encounter problems.”

But Yang Feitang’s next words instantly shattered her composure and tranquility. “That brat went to get more stock again. This time it’s red strings. She got a whole bundle. There must be at least a thousand of them!!!”

The teacup in Chu Xinrou’s hand fell to the floor with a clatter, the black tea staining the pure white carpet with a glaring red.

【Author’s Note】

Chu Xinrou: In my whole life, I’ve never been so scared.