Quick Wear Dream Qiqi

Amid the first chirping of cicadas in summer, Meng Qiqi was demonstrating a new spinning wheel model to Concubine Yi.

The small wheel on the sandalwood base had just turned twice when the butler suddenly announced from outside the door: "Fujin, President Wang of the Embroidery Workshop Guild wishes to see you."

Concubine Yi paused, clutching the handkerchief. "This old fellow usually doesn't even come to festivals, why is he suddenly here?"

Meng Qiqi noticed the gold powder on the model gears - it was rubbed off on them when Eunuch Li came to deliver silk this morning.

She winked at Concubine Yi and deliberately raised her voice: "Please come in quickly. It's a good opportunity for President Wang to see how much less effort this spinning wheel saves."

When Wang Youde came in, he had his back hunched. His brocade jacket was embroidered with dense lotus flowers, and half of a mutton-fat jade ring was visible from his cuff.

He stared at the spinning wheel for a long time, then suddenly coughed twice: "Although this thing is ingenious, if it gets out that a woman is fiddling with a machine, I'm afraid it will cause gossip."

Meng Qiqi poured Concubine Yi a cup of tea. "What kind of gossip could there be? It's just that my family is opening a girls' school and is stealing someone's business."

The tea rippled in the fine porcelain cup. She deliberately let the sunlight pass over Wang Youde's clenched fist - there was a fresh whip mark on the back of his hand, exactly the same as the scar on the security guard's hand she saw in Yanzhi Hutong last time.

Concubine Yi suddenly slammed the table and said, "I thought someone was behind this, but it turns out to be those parasites who made their fortunes by cheating the embroiderers!"

She turned to look at Meng Qiqi, "That... Crafts School you mentioned the other day, can it really allow girls to just sit and make money?"

"Mother, please look at this account book," Meng Qiqi unfolded the yellowed rice paper that recorded the income and expenditure of the embroidery workshop's female workers. "The average embroiderer earns two hundred coins a month, but if they can design patterns and manage the accounts, their monthly salary can triple. Chairman Wang's embroidery workshop must have made over a thousand taels of silver just from selling fake gold thread, right?"

Wang Youde's face instantly turned the color of liver, and his finger ring scraped against the edge of the table, making a harsh sound: "Fujin, you need evidence for what you said!"

"Evidence?" Meng Qiqi chuckled and pulled out a small cloth bag from a drawer. Inside was several pieces of broken gold thread. "Yesterday, an embroiderer came to report that you had people wrapping brass wire in gold powder and selling it as gold thread, and even mixing fish glue into the silk thread to make it look better. If these are sent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for inspection..."

Concubine Yi frowned in disgust: "Take it out quickly, don't dirty my room!"

Wang Youde stood up trembling, his brocade jacket stained with gold powder from the corner of the table, like a layer of ironic frost.

Three days later, when Emperor Qianlong was reviewing memorials in the Qianqing Palace, Eunuch Li, the chief steward of the Imperial Household Department, suddenly knelt down.

He held a copy of "Illustrated Explanation of Women's Rings" in his hands, the pages rustling. "Your Majesty, this is terrible! The Fifth Lady wants to open a craft school. Not only will she allow women to be seen in public, but she's even teaching them how to operate machines. This, this is simply breaking our ancestral rules!"

Qianlong put down his red brush and his eyes fell on Eunuch Li’s new jade ring - the quality of the jade ring was from the same shop as Wang Youde’s mutton-fat jade ring.

Before he could speak, the Minister of Justice knelt down beside him and said, "I second your opinion! Women should stay at home to take care of their husbands and children. How can they be seen in public?"

The leaves of the sycamore trees outside the palace rustled, and Qianlong suddenly remembered the scene he saw in the imperial garden last time: Meng Qiqi was squatting on the ground explaining the principle of gears to the little palace maid, and the sunlight filtered through the ends of her hair, casting a piece of fine light on the blue bricks.

He twirled the jade ring on his thumb and spoke slowly, "Eunuch Li, how come this school is immoral?"

Eunuch Li knocked his forehead against the gold brick and said, "Your Majesty, think about it. If those women learn to manage accounts and run business, how can they stay at home peacefully? What if the rumbling of the machines disturbs the dragon veins?"

This made Qianlong frown.

----

"Lafayette is here."

When Qing'er helped the old Buddha in, Concubine Yi was accompanying Meng Qiqi to change the flowers in the Buddhist hall.

Agarwood was burning in the coral incense burner. Meng Qiqi deliberately chose an extra-large mutton-fat jade vase, which contained pine branches, black chrysanthemums and a few ears of wheat - this was the "abundant harvest" shape that she specially asked the greenhouse to prepare.

"I heard someone impeached Xinrong in the court." The old lady sat down on the couch, her eyes fixed on the offering bottle. "Xinrong, tell me, what is the purpose of setting up this school?"

Meng Qiqi took off her gloves, revealing faint traces of ink on her fingertips—they'd gotten them this morning while helping Concubine Yi with her accounts. "Your Majesty, I'm here to help our family, not for anything else. Look at this offering of flowers! If we could make a spinning flower basket, how dignified would it be to place before the Buddha? Besides, the Jiangnan weaving factory pays tribute every year. If a girl from our family could design a new pattern, the Emperor might even praise you for your good household management."

The Empress Dowager raised an eyebrow and glanced at her. Concubine Yi quickly interjected, "Your Majesty, you don't know how shady those embroidery workshops are! Not only do they deduct fees from the embroiderers, they also use fake gold thread to deceive people. The school Xinrong mentioned is actually to teach the girls to distinguish the real from the fake and learn skills. In the future, when we use embroidery in our mansion, we won't have to worry about the opinions of those unscrupulous merchants."

The ears of wheat in the offering vase swayed gently, and the Empress Dowager suddenly remembered the birthday peach screen embroidered by Meng Qiqi with three-dimensional embroidery at last year's birthday banquet, which even the foreign envoys praised highly.

She tapped her cane. "I don't care if it's a machine or not, as long as it doesn't bring shame to the royal family. If the emperor asks, I'll just say... I'll just say this is a new needlework method for women in the boudoir."

Meng Qiqi breathed a sigh of relief, but a worried look remained on her face. "I'm afraid someone will tell the Emperor that the school is taking away men's jobs. Actually, I've calculated that if the school opens, we can make a lot of money just by selling pattern drawings, and we can also bring in more fresh items as tribute to the palace."

The Empress Dowager's gaze fell on the ink marks on her fingertips, and she suddenly chuckled, "You girl, you're even better at calculating than men. Okay, I know what's going on. Tomorrow, have the Emperor come to pay his respects to me, and we'll talk this over."

The next day, in the pavilion of the Imperial Garden, Qianlong accompanied the Empress Dowager to drink tea, while Concubine Yi and Meng Qiqi stood far away beside the rockery.

The Empress Dowager stirred the lotus seed soup with a silver spoon and suddenly said, "Emperor, I heard that you are making things difficult for Xinrong?"

Qianlong quickly put down his teacup and said, "Mother, what are you talking about? I'm just worried that it's inappropriate for a woman to be seen in public."

The Empress Dowager scooped a spoonful of lotus seed soup and said, "I want to ask you, was the three-dimensional embroidered screen that Jiangnan sent as tribute last year designed by Xinrong? Was the foreign envoy's praise of our Celestial Empire's ingenuity due to that screen?"

Qianlong nodded, and suddenly remembered that the revenue from Jiangnan weaving was indeed 20% higher than in previous years according to the national treasury account book.

The old lady continued, "I've also heard that those embroidery workshops and guilds are secretly hoarding a lot of fake gold thread, cheating the common people out of their money. Xinrong's opening of a school is, to put it bluntly, cutting off the profiteers' path. If you listen to them, won't that just dishearten good people?"

Concubine Yi came over at the right moment, holding a brocade box in her hand. "Your Majesty, look, this is a new purse designed by Xinrong. It uses double-sided embroidery techniques and can hold banknotes. If all the young ladies learn this craft, we can save a lot of money in the palace."

Qianlong opened the brocade box and found a secret pocket inside the purse embroidered with auspicious beasts. The stitching was so fine that it was almost invisible.

He suddenly remembered what Meng Qiqi said last time: "Women can also govern the country." He thought it was ridiculous at the time, but now looking at the secret pocket in his purse, he inexplicably felt that there was some truth to it.

"Well," he closed the brocade box, "the school can be run, but it can only be held in the mansion and not advertised. In addition, all pattern drawings must first be submitted to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for inspection."

Meng Qiqi heard this behind the rockery and finally loosened her hand that was clutching the handkerchief.

The system interface flashed across his retina: "Qianlong's decision-making instability increased by 20%, triggering the 'Institutional Breakthrough' event."

She looked at the pomegranate flowers blooming in the imperial garden. In this deep palace, any change had to be like the fruiting of a pomegranate, first wrapped in layers of calyx before the seeds inside could be revealed.

That night, in Concubine Yi's room, Meng Qiqi was oiling a spinning wheel model when Concubine Yi suddenly shut the doors and windows and said, "Tell me the truth, did Eunuch Li accept money from Wang Youde?"

"It's more than just money," Meng Qiqi turned the gears, listening to the smooth sound coming from inside. "Wang Youde promised to find a manager position for Eunuch Li's nephew in the embroidery workshop, and also said that if the school fails, he will give him two boxes of South Sea pearls."

Concubine Yi spat, "These termites! But then again, how do you know that the Empress Dowager will help us?"

Meng Qiqi paused her work, her gaze fixed on the folding screen depicting the "Female Precepts" on the wall. "Because the Empress Dowager knows best what 'respectability' means. As long as the school can gild the imperial family's reputation and give her something to say in front of the foreigners, she won't really object. As for 'female handheld game consoles'... Mother, look at this spinning wheel. Doesn't it resemble the beads on a phoenix crown when it turns?"

Concubine Yi stared at the rotating gears and suddenly laughed out loud: "You girl, you're the only one who dares to think of dismantling the phoenix crown and making a spinning wheel."