Scholar Shang did not respond to that, for after all Mrs. Cui was a woman, and as a man, it was not proper for him to discuss a woman.
Ms. Jiang then took out the embroidery made by Gu Jinxiu and spread it out for Scholar Shang to see: "Husband, look at this picture."
Scholar Shang looked at the embroidery and saw that on a double-layered gourd cloth the size of a compass, more than a dozen figures were embroidered. Some were chopping wood and setting up straw huts, others cooking by the fire, and some were foraging for food and water in the mountains. Each figure was vivid, as if alive on the cloth.
Scholar Shang was somewhat amazed: "This picture is really vividly embroidered."
Although it was on cheap gourd cloth, and the colors of the embroidery threads used were quite basic—just grey, white, black, and blue—the exquisite embroidery skills did not make the piece seem cheap at all, but instead added a sense of simplicity and profoundness.
