Si Junlin pondered for a long time. Finally, helplessly, he said, "Since it's a birthday banquet, the character 'Shou' (longevity) should naturally be used."
As he spoke, he fetched a piece of paper and, with a flourish of his brush, wrote the character 'Shou' on it.
Su Wan'er looked at the character he had written and couldn't help but sigh. As expected of the lord of a country, the characters he wrote were truly imposing.
However... "Just the character 'Shou'? Isn't it a bit too monotonous?"
Si Junlin was slightly taken aback. At first, he had only thought that since it was related to the birthday banquet, he should naturally write the character 'Shou'. But for the rest...
"If it's related to 'congratulating on a birthday', then the birthday peach is surely indispensable. Besides that, you can also choose patterns like 'pine trees and cranes symbolizing longevity' or 'the Three Immortals of Fortune, Prosperity and Longevity'..." As Su Wan'er spoke, she sketched on the paper. It was obvious that she had spent a great deal of effort practicing.
Si Junlin frowned deeply as never before, his eyes full of astonishment.
His father was right. No matter what industry it was, there was always its own knowledge. Even this seemingly small embroidery work had opened his eyes.
It was truly amazing.
"Your Majesty, are you still listening?" After Su Wan'er finished speaking, it was natural for Si Junlin to choose the pattern himself. But who knew that after she had asked this question for a long time, she hadn't heard a response. Only then did she turn her head to look at Si Junlin and found that he was deep in thought. So she had to remind him.
Only then did Si Junlin come back to his senses from his thoughts. "I've never been involved in such things before. Since the Queen knows about it, you can decide on the gift for this time."
Although he was the emperor, he didn't need to attend to every single matter personally. If he had to make decisions on everything, wouldn't he be exhausted? For those who were good at something, he would naturally entrust the task to them.
Su Wan'er let out a soft snort. "Didn't you say you would do it yourself?"
"Of course, I'll do the actual embroidery myself, but for choosing the pattern, I'll have to trouble the Queen a bit more." Si Junlin spoke righteously and didn't feel the slightest bit guilty about pushing the work onto Su Wan'er. "Besides, I'm handling your memorials for you now. Can't you help me out?"
"This is your kingdom." It should be her helping him, right?
"I lent you the Secret Agent Camp," Si Junlin continued.
When had he ever been so patient talking to a woman? Whether it was Concubine Mei, Concubine Xi or other concubines, which one of them didn't carry out his orders immediately as soon as he gave them?
He was very puzzled as to why he was bargaining with Su Wan'er like this. Was it because he had swapped bodies with Su Wan'er and thus couldn't bear to be harsh on her?
No matter what was going on in his mind, after Su Wan'er thought for a long time, she finally said helplessly, "Alright, I'll help you choose, but you'll still be the one to make the final decision."
How could she know what he liked? After all, this was a gift from him to his mother. She didn't want anything unexpected to happen.
Si Junlin nodded in agreement.
After that, in practice, Su Wan'er was in charge of designing patterns for Si Junlin, while Si Junlin carefully handled the memorials.
In order not to disgrace this body of hers, Su Wan'er designed more than a dozen sets of patterns for him very seriously. Each pattern was full of bold ideas.
By the time Si Junlin finished handling the memorials, he found that he was facing another difficult problem.
With more than a dozen sets of patterns, Si Junlin could hardly imagine that this was something a young lady who had grown up in a general's mansion could do. Didn't only those masters who had been designing patterns in the embroidery workshop for years have the ability to do this?
It was obvious how much effort Su Wan'er had spent learning embroidery back then.
Si Junlin couldn't help but admire Su Wan'er a bit. "You've worked hard." This wasn't just about the pattern - designing today, but also about everything she had done before.
At this moment, he no longer thought that Su Wan'er was unfit to be the mother of the country.
Now he felt that if Su Wan'er wasn't fit to be the mother of the country in this world, then no one else was more qualified.
Concubine Mei was naturally jealous, and Concubine Xi was ignorant...
If Su Wan'er could peek into Si Junlin's thoughts, she would definitely say, "Your Majesty, you've finally grown up..." Finally, he could treat things fairly.
It was a pity that Su Wan'er didn't have the ability to read minds and couldn't see Si Junlin's thoughts.
She just placed all the patterns in front of Si Junlin now. "There's not much time left. Otherwise, I could have come up with even more beautiful patterns."
"This is already enough," which was enough to give him a headache.
When Si Junlin left the Hall of Diligent Administration with the patterns in his arms, the concubines in the harem found out.
But they didn't take any action. They just had their maids keep a close eye on the situation in the Queen's palace.
After Si Junlin returned, it took him an entire afternoon and evening to choose a pattern. As for the other patterns, he didn't ask the maids to burn them. Instead, he put them in the wardrobe and stored them properly for the next banquet.
After choosing the pattern, it was time to start preparing for the embroidery.
Si Junlin thought it would be easy, but he didn't expect that just getting started would stump him.
To solve this problem, Su Wan'er had someone make a tracing of the pattern and then put the tracing paper and the brocade together on the embroidery frame.
"Isn't this much more convenient?" Su Wan'er turned to Si Junlin and said.
Si Junlin nodded and picked up the needle to start embroidering.
To be honest, his hands were okay for correcting memorials, but if he really had to do embroidery work, then... "Ouch!"
"Your Ladyship, you've pricked your finger again? Hurry, someone, come and bandage the Lady." Qingcao always felt that the Lady's embroidery skills had regressed. Although the Lady hadn't touched the embroidery frame for more than half a year, it shouldn't be the case that she pricked her finger every few stitches, right? Wasn't that something that happened a long time ago?
Si Junlin angrily threw the embroidery frame aside and let the imperial doctor bandage his wound.
He was extremely annoyed inside. He, a dignified and all - powerful emperor, was actually stumped by a small embroidery frame? He really wanted to tear the embroidery frame apart.
However, after the imperial doctor had bandaged his wound, he looked at the lotus flowers in the courtyard. After hesitating for a while, he finally picked up the embroidery frame again... and continued to embroider!
He had only embroidered two stitches when suddenly, a guard rushed in from outside the palace gate. "Your Ladyship, the concubines have come to pay their respects."
Only then did Si Junlin remember that he hadn't received the concubines today. He reluctantly nodded. "Let them wait in the main hall."