Quick Wear Dream Qiqi

At the first quarter of the hour of Xu, candlelight flickered in the warm room of the Cining Palace.

When Qianlong took off his court beads, he smelled the familiar aroma of venison hotpot - that was the flavor from outside the Great Wall that the Empress Dowager had specially prepared for him.

The soup in the bronze hot pot was bubbling, and the aroma of sauerkraut and wild pepper mixed with the tenderness of the mutton reminded him of the time when he was a child hunting with the old Buddha in Rehe.

"Your Majesty, do you know why I prefer this venison?" Empress Dowager Cixi picked up a paper-thin slice of mutton with her silver chopsticks and gently dipped it in the boiling broth. "Among the deer, the females are the most alert. They will give the alarm at the slightest sign of trouble. People say 'hens crowing at dawn' is bad, but I think it's not a bad thing for women to be more alert."

Qianlong heard the hidden meaning in her words, but he just smiled and poured more soup for the old Buddha. "Mother, your teachings are correct. But now there are some things... that have made me a little confused."

The Empress Dowager glanced at the palace maids serving beside her and signaled them to leave.

Only the grandfather and grandson were left in the warm room. Amidst the steam from the hot pot, the old lady suddenly put down her chopsticks and said, "Tell me, what are you worried about regarding Xinrong's school?"

Qianlong stared at the fat floating on the soup surface and suddenly reached out to scoop out a piece of lamb ribs. "My son's concern isn't about the school itself, but about the uncertainties surrounding 'women's handheld game consoles.' Look at this lamb rib, every bone is connected by tendons. If any one bone grows crooked, the whole thing will fall apart."

The Empress Dowager chuckled softly, picked a candied cherry from the porcelain plate, and poked it with a silver skewer, swirling it around in the soup. "Does the Emperor still remember the chiming clock the British delegation sent last year? The pendulum has been swinging back and forth for a year, and the sun in the Forbidden City still rises and sets as usual. That girl Xinrong has only traded her embroidery frame for a spinning wheel, but deep down she's still doing a respectable job for the royal family."

The cherries were dyed dark red in the soup, looking very much like the three-dimensional embroidered petals designed by Meng Qiqi.

Qianlong recalled that when Eunuch Li was impeaching him in the court, the Empress Dowager had specially asked Qing'er to bring out the painting "Paying Homage to All Nations" - in the painting, one could vaguely see the figure of a Western woman in a long skirt, which was obviously added later.

"Mother, are you talking about...respectability in the eyes of foreigners?" He pinched the button on his cuff, and the twelve emblems embroidered on it rose and fell with his breathing.

The Empress Dowager placed the cherries in the sauce dish and turned it three times clockwise. "Last month, the wife of the British ambassador requested an audience with me. The first thing she asked was if we had any 'female craft masters' in the palace. Xinrong's fluorescent embroidered handkerchiefs are now fetching more than official porcelain in London. Your Majesty, this isn't a 'handheld game console,' it's the face of our Celestial Empire."

Qianlong looked up suddenly, only to see Empress Dowager Cixi pointing at the vermicelli in the hot pot with a silver skewer. "Look at these vermicelli. They may seem fragile, but they absorb all the flavors in the pot. Whether a woman is studying or playing video games, as long as they can bring money and prestige to the court, isn't that a good thing? Besides..."

She suddenly lowered her voice, "Jiangnan Weaving's revenue has increased by 30% in the past six months. Do you really think those woodworms have suddenly become more diligent?"

The sound of night watchmen was heard outside the window, and Qianlong suddenly remembered the design of the hidden pocket in the purse presented by Concubine Yi. It contained not only silver bills, but also a thank-you letter written jointly by the Jiangnan embroiderers.

He reached out to fiddle with the charcoal fire in the hot pot. The sparks splashed onto the blue bricks and went out instantly, but a glimmer of enlightenment ignited in his eyes.

"But according to our ancestors' rules..." His voice no longer had the previous firmness.

The Empress Dowager put the cherry dipped in the sauce into her mouth, and the sweet and sour flavor exploded on her tongue. "Rules are dead, but people are alive. Back then, Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang even allowed Su Malagu to participate in state affairs. As long as things are done well, rules are not a stumbling block."

She pointed to the jade pendant on Qianlong's waist and said, "Besides, Xinrong was conferred as your wife by you personally. Isn't her dignity also the dignity of the royal family?"

Qianlong was silent for a long time. Suddenly, he picked up a piece of frozen tofu and put it into the soup. "Then, as mother wishes, we'll try it out here at home first. However..." He stared at the tofu soaked in the broth, "They must submit a monthly album of patterns. If anyone dares to promote something like 'women ruling the country'... I will not forgive them."

The old lady smiled without saying a word, and scooped up the oil floating on the surface of the soup with a silver spoon.

This action reminded Qianlong of the time when he was a child and watched her tidying her dressing table and using a jade hairpin to pick away the foam on the rouge - it turns out that some things, which seem to be removing impurities, are actually doing so to make the remaining ones purer.

After dinner, Empress Dowager Cixi suddenly stopped Emperor Qianlong as he was about to leave and asked, "Your Majesty, do you know why Xinrong always embroiders gears on her sleeves?"

Seeing him shake his head, the old lady chuckled, "She said that the gears rotate like Buddhist beads, and each turn is accumulating virtue for women all over the world. Look, what a talkative child."

When Qianlong walked out of the Cining Palace, the night wind blew up his clothes.

In the distant lights of the prince's residence, a woman's laughter could be faintly heard - it was Meng Qiqi teaching the palace maids how to identify the quality of silk.

He fished out the purse in his arms, and in the secret pocket was a note written by Meng Qiqi: "Gears and Buddhist beads are all for saving people."

A system prompt rang out in Meng Qiqi's ears: "Qianlong's decision logic analysis is complete: Royal dignity (45%), economic benefits (38%), and traditional etiquette concerns (17%). Do you want to start the 'Dignity Project' side quest?"

She looked at the stars in the sky above her brother's place and ran her fingertips over the gear embroidery on her cuffs.

She had already heard clearly the conversation between the Empress Dowager and Emperor Qianlong through the system.

Three days later, during the morning court session, Emperor Qianlong gave the "Xuan Ji Embroidered Bag" designed by Meng Qiqi as a reward to the wives of officials of the third rank and above.

When Eunuch Li walked over holding the embroidered bag, Meng Qiqi noticed a new wound on the inside of his thumb - it was the mark of being scratched by the gear model.

"Fujin, this is the new pattern album sent by the Imperial Household Department." Xier came in with a purple satin box, her voice filled with suppressed excitement. "Miss Chuntao's painting of the twin lotus flowers has been included in the album!"

Meng Qiqi opened the album and saw a note in red ink next to Chuntao's drawing saying "Can try weaving", and a seal of "Inspected by the Ministry of Internal Affairs" on the lower right corner.

She suddenly remembered what the Empress Dowager had said during dinner, "vermicelli soaked in soup", and her fingertips unconsciously rubbed the imperial beads - inside this string of oriental pearls was a miniature recorder that she had exchanged with the system. It was now turning slowly, recording every discussion about "women's handheld game consoles" in the deep palace.

Outside the window, Yongqi was riding a horse through the garden, with the gear purse she had given him hanging around his waist.

The system interface showed "Yongqi's ideological awakening degree +5%", but what concerned her more was the progress of Qianlong's "Dignity Project" task: 37 letters of praise from Western nobles for Chinese embroidery had been collected, and there were still 63 letters to trigger the condition of "lifting the ban on women's trade".

"Fujin, the Empress Dowager asked you to go to the Buddhist temple to copy scriptures." Xier's voice interrupted her thoughts.

When Meng Qiqi stood up, the eastern beads on her court beads collided lightly, making a clear sound.

Suddenly, I felt that what I was weaving was not a simple embroidery, but a web woven with golden threads and gears. One end of the web was tied to the dignity of the harem, and the other end was connected to the fate of millions of women. Deep in the heart of the web, there was a power that made the entire dynasty slowly turn.

The candlelight in the Buddhist hall flickered. The old Buddha looked at Meng Qiqi kneeling on the cushion, and suddenly remembered the time when she was young and learned embroidery in Chuxiu Palace.

At that time, she also lowered her head like this, embroidering peonies on the satin with the needle tip, but she didn't know that one day she would be the one sitting on the phoenix chair and deciding whether the peonies bloomed or withered.

"Xinrong," she added a piece of agarwood to the incense burner, "let Yongqi accompany you to the Jiangnan Weaving Factory tomorrow."

In the haze, the Empress Dowager's face looked particularly gentle. "Some things look one way in the palace, and another way among the people."

When Meng Qiqi looked up, the candlelight illuminated the white hair at the old lady's temples.

She understood the old man's intentions in the palace - the so-called "respectability" is never about the unchanging gorgeous robes, but about the hem of the skirt that is constantly adjusted with time.

Just like the incense in this Buddhist temple, whether it is Buddhist beads or gears, as long as it can make people feel awe, it is good.

The system prompt sounded again, this time with a rare fluctuation: "A shift in historical figure's mindset has been detected: Empress Dowager's 'pragmatism within a traditional framework' has matured by 30%, while Emperor Qianlong's tendency to prioritize technological reform over ideological change has solidified. Attention, host: When the progress of the 'Decent Project' exceeds 60%, a 'Religious Backlash' event may be triggered."

She looked down at the words "Form is emptiness" in the scripture, and suddenly used a cinnabar pen to draw a tiny gear next to the word "emptiness".