Chapter 101 – There’s Still a Teacher

Chapter 101 - There's Still a Teacher

Wu Xia's little finger vibrated slightly, just like Tang Fei's, causing the silk thread to part in her hand as smoothly as a sliced stream of water.

Upon closer inspection, both Wu Xia and Tang Fei's techniques were almost identical. Before splitting the silk, their movements were minute, making it difficult to distinguish them from other embroidery masters.

After dividing the silk into 256 strands, Wu Xia immediately switched to splitting the threads without being influenced by Tang Fei at all.

Simultaneously, Tang Fei was relying on her sense of touch and vibrations to find the gaps between the silk proteins in a 10-micron strand.

Wu Xia had overtaken Tang Fei's initial lead.

Suddenly, Tang Fei's ring finger stopped vibrating.

Both the spectators and those following the live-stream on Weibo involuntarily paused along with her, even holding their breaths! The chatter of the tightly-packed crowd in the outer rings gradually subsided.

Could it be that she succeeded?

The silk thread in Tang Fei's hand snapped under her movement, and she let out a sigh.

Others sighed in unison, disappointment etched on their faces. Indeed, it was impossible, too difficult.

Tang Fei's fingers trembled in the air, retracing the force she had exerted to sever the thread. As the silk broke under her touch, she sensed a vertical pull along the filament, the direction of the protein bundles.

She could, in fact, not completely separate them but rely on the force of the break to cleave the silk along the protein bundles, much like plucking and tearing apart vegetables.

Still absorbed in her exploration, Tang Fei's skill list underwent a subtle transformation.

"Embroidery - Splitting Silk, Proficiency 100.001%"

The Splitting Silk skill was incrementally improving? Skills could be elevated through practice, even beyond 100%!

As Tang Fei pondered, Wu Xia had already finished handling the threads and was preparing a pale golden hue.

Upon seeing Tang Fei's thread snap, a collective sigh of relief brought a shared smile among them. Though they regretted it, they also found it quite normal.

If Tang Fei were to genuinely divide the thread into 512 pieces, that would be terrifying. Anyone could then casually shatter the world record – wasn't that scary?

The mere act of dividing silk was horrifying enough, let alone the ability to tear it by hand!

It's like tearing apart a piece of Wenshi Tofu with bare hands! This is beyond human capability!

"Young people nowadays are truly impressive. They dare to experiment during competitions."

"Respect! Both Tang Fei and Wu Xia have such strong mental resilience. Tang Fei dares to conduct experiments on stage, making our hearts skip a beat just watching her. Meanwhile, Wu Xia can remain focused on her own rhythm right beside her."

"This is truly a clash of titans."

Despite her failure, Tang Fei didn't give up. Instead, she picked up another thread, determined to continue her trial.

Recalling her previous failure, Tang Fei touched the silk with her vibrating little finger. The structure of the silk seemed to be magnified in her mind, revealing a cross-sectional image of the silk.

Wu Xia combined the orange and white threads to blend with the pale golden base color of the Akhal-Teke horse. Next, she aimed to create a metallic gradient from this very light orange tone.

As she prepared to blend the threads, her hands began to tremble slightly. Countless memories from her childhood unexpectedly flooded her vision and ears.

It seemed that even without a needle, she had an instinctive aversion to the threads, as if it was a bodily self-defense mechanism.

Back in primary school, Wu Xia had whimsically created a gradient color on silk threads. She even embroidered a small rabbit together with her teacher.

That day, she returned home with her beautifully embroidered rabbit, placing it meticulously on her bedside table.

With her teacher's endorsement, her parents wouldn't object, she thought.

Full of confidence, she began to work on the thread, planning to tell them about the teacher's praise when they returned from work.

Yet, upon seeing her silk thread creation, her parents flew into a rage.

"You insisted on doing this despite my warnings! You treat my words as if they're mere whispers in the wind, deliberately defying me, isn't it?"

"Stop pouting and put it away. You've got no right to cry."

"And you say the teacher likes it? She praised your creativity? You've even learned how to lie now? I'll call the teacher immediately to verify if she asked you to do this."

"What creativity? How old are you? You can't even walk properly, and you want to run!"

Her carefully arranged silk threads were scattered by her agitated mother, while her father relentlessly pounded the table.

"What good is winning the gold medal in the children's category? It's just a child's plaything. Only you are so shallow, always flaunting your accomplishments."

"You eat my food, spend my money, and yet you still make me angry. Am I nurturing a grudge in you?"

...

Wu Xia closed her eyes for a moment, her hands trembling more intensely than before. She took a deep breath, beads of sweat forming on her palms and forehead. As she composed herself, she lifted her gaze and saw Lu Yan through the glass partition. Upon noticing her glance, her teacher offered a warm smile, just as she always had. It was a smile Wu Xia could summon whenever she desired.

After that fateful day when her parents scolded her, she lost interest in color gradation. Her teacher, curious, had inquired.

"Big Mao, the thread combination you did last time was lovely. Why aren't you doing it anymore?"

"I don't want to do it anymore. I think I should focus on mastering the basics first," young Wu Xia said, nervously biting her lip.

"Big Mao has her own plans, that's great," Lu Yan said, her hands already in considerable pain. All her attention was on her apprentice, finding everything about Wu Xia admirable.

She gently stroked the young Wu Xia's hair.

Slowly, Wu Xia leaned into Lu Yan's embrace.

"Teacher, do you like me because I'm obedient and always follow your instructions?"

"Of course I like you because we've grown close over time, and our feelings have deepened. If I didn't listen to you, would you stop liking me?" Lu Yan tapped Wu Xia's forehead gently.

"I like Teacher."

Back then, Teacher's smile was as warm as it is now, unchanged after all these years.

...

Wu Xia regained her composure and dried her hands with a tissue. The image of the car rushing towards her still lingered in her mind.

She heard the screeching brakes, felt the searing pain as the car hit her leg, and then she slipped under the vehicle, where the spinning wheels were mere threads away from her head.

Death had been so close, and fear, like a monstrous creature, chased her relentlessly. She desperately sought a safe haven to shelter herself.

When she opened her eyes and saw her parents rushing anxiously to her hospital room, she believed she could finally bask in the warmth of their care. She thought her family would be her sanctuary, her salvation from distress.

But hope can be so fragile; the more she yearned for it, the more elusive it seemed.

"How did you get into a car accident? Are your hands injured?"

"My hands are fine, that's good, that's good."

"You too, you don't watch where you're going. If you see a car speeding, you shouldn't cross the road."

"It was a green light? Even if it was green, that's still your fault. What use is it to only look at the lights and not the cars? Thankfully, your hand is alright; otherwise, I'd like to see what you would have done."

...

"You can't embroider anymore? Your hands are shaking? Wu Xia! You're grown up now, why are you pretending to be ill? Do you think it's still when you were a child?"

"What can you do if you don't embroider? You can't do anything!"

That anxious unease was like a source of ghastly fear, floating in the depths of darkness without a place to land, casting her world into an inky blackness.

Every time she picked up a needle, her parents' harsh words echoed alongside the piercing screech of brakes from that day. The terror of a wheel skimming half a circle across her face made her hands tremble uncontrollably.

Perhaps, subconsciously, she wanted her hand to be injured once, to see if her parents would still be so indifferent after seeing her hurt.

What else could she do if not embroidery? She could do many things, for she was capable of anything, but embroidery was her favorite. She couldn't bear to part with the silk threads and needles once they were in her hands.

Her love for embroidery wasn't imposed by her parents; it was a genuine passion of hers. Every stitch was a bridge connecting her to her mentor.

Though her parents didn't dote on her as much, it didn't matter. She had her mentor, and she had herself.

She managed to reproduce the unique light golden mane of the Bactrian camel for her teacher, so she was confident she could depict the camel bathed in golden milk-like radiance in its entirety.

Wu Xia's hands gradually steadied. Lifting her head, she offered Lu Yan a simple, innocent smile, just like she used to when they were young. In return, Lu Yan gave her a gentle and warm smile, making everything feel unchanged, as if they were still children.

Wu Xia's hands picked up speed, and the corners of her mouth lifted. The obstacles that had haunted, restrained, and trapped her seemed to vanish in an instant. She felt a newfound lightness in her entire being.