Chapter 44 – Cutting cloth
Oldest brother and fourth brother were working together to bully him! Half-collapsed on the table, Li Shu thumped his chest as he continued to cough. He felt as if his brothers were horribly tornting him.
Seeing this sight, Li Man was slightly worried. But, since Li Hua had already assured her that Li Shu was fine, she didn’t ask any more questions.
Fortunately, Li Shu quickly recovered and resud eating lunch with gusto. He simply treated this experience as his oldest brother and fourth brother being jealous of him.
After lunch was over, the brothers each went their own way to do their work. Little Five was the only one that stayed to help Li Man clean up the plate and bowls.
Very quickly, Li Man finished washing the pots and bowls, and Little Five also finished with wiping down the table. The two of them left the kitchen together and decided to go to the backyard to see how Li Shu’s construction of the pigpen was coming along.
Seemingly by chance, Li Hua ca out of from the eastern hut at this ti. Seeing Li Man and Little Five, he waved at them and shouted, “Co over here for a second.”
“What’s wrong?” Li Man walked over to him. Seeing that he was holding a scissor, she couldn’t help feeling curious.
Li Hua smiled. He had just been about to cut the cloth to make her clothes. After all, he could guess her overall asurents just by looking at her. But, when he was about to cut the cloth, he lost his confidence. She wasn’t the sa as his brothers. Girls usually care more about beauty, and clothes had to fit well to look good. It wouldn’t be good if he made a mistake with the asurents. Just to be safe, it would be better to have her co over so that he could get her asurents. As a matter of fact, as soon as he heard movent from the neighboring building, he hurriedly ca out of the hut without rember to put down the scissors first.
Li Hua went inside the hut first, put down the scissors on the heated bed, and took out a asuring tape from a bamboo basket. “Co over here.”
Seeing the newly purchased cloth and then the asuring tape that Li Hua was holding, Li Man imdiately understood. Very pleasantly surprised, she asked, “Are you making clothes for ?” She straightened her body and very cooperatively opened her arms of her own initiative.
Looking at her happy appearance, Li Hua pursed his lips and smiled too. Holding the asuring tape, he took her asurents: neck circumference, shoulder width, arm length...
Seeing that he was only asuring without writing anything down, she mimicked writing with her hands and reminded him, “Don’t you need to write down the numbers to rember them?”
Li Hua pointed at his head and said with a slight smile, “I can rember them here.” He continued to take her other asurents.
Li Man didn’t say anything else. This didn’t take very long; Li Hua was very quick with taking asurents. After this was done, he unrolled the snow-white fabric onto the heated bed that been cleared of clutter and started cutting.
“You know how to make clothes? Do you just use needle and thread to sew the clothes?” Li Man curiously picked up the needles and colored threads that had been prepared and placed on a flat basket-tray in advance. Looking at his skillful technique in cutting out the fabric, she felt even more impressived with this teenage boy.
He was good-looking, a scholar, had an extrely good mory, knew how to sew quilts and how to cut out fabric to make clothes without a pattern....
Li Hua put down the cloth he had cut out, turned around to pick up the needle and thread from the flat basket-tray, and happened to et Li Man’s large, limpid, black eyes that were glimring with little starts. Feeling uncertain, he asked, “What’s wrong?”
Li Man sincerely raised a thumb up at him. “You’re so amazing. Can you teach this too?”
Li Hua slightly smiled and nodded. He would love it if she wanted to learn from him.
Li Man just felt happiness in her heart. She silently decided that she would learn the dialect for this place as fast as possible. Otherwise, it really would be too difficult to communicate with the people here.
Thinking of this, her thoughts slightly turned to a different direction. Li Man charmingly smiled and wrote on the ground, “Thank you for your hard work. How do you say that?”
Li Hua curved his lips into a smile and chuckled. Then, he cleared his throat and seriously taught her how to pronounce that phrase.
Li Man very seriously listened to his pronunciation. After quietly repeating what he said and feeling as if she had got the pronunciation correctly, she curtsied at Li Hua, astutely smiled at him, and said, “Thank you for your hard work.”
Before Li Hua had ti to respond, Li Man had already scurried out of the hut. Seeing that Li Mo had already finished erecting a bamboo fence and was using a knife to carve the remaining bamboo into thin strips, she carefully walked over, crouched down by him, and softly said, “Oldest brother, thank you for your hard work.”
T/N: I’m not sure if this was already ntioned in the novel? They’re just speaking a different dialect than her, so there’s going to be similar sounding words that she already knows, and the grammar is the sa. It’s not like she’s trying to learn a totally new language.
P.S. I’m surprised that Li Hua didn’t feel awkward when he was asuring her bust size.
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