Quick Wear Dream Qiqi

In the 25th year of the Qianlong reign, during the plum rain in the south of the Yangtze River, Meng Qiqi stood in front of the reed marsh by the Yangtze River, watching the steam engine drawings unfolded by Yongqi wrinkle slightly in the mist.

Written in tiny calligraphy on the edge of the blueprint was a system prompt: "Watt improved the steam engine in 1760, five years before this event. Localization modification is recommended."

"Do we really want to put this iron thing in the embroidery workshop?" Xiaoyanzi kicked away a pebble, and the splash of mud landed on the flywheel of the blueprint. "This thing seems to be ten times more complicated than a clock!"

"That's why we have to start with 'semi-mechanization.'" Meng Qiqi pointed to the water-powered spinning machine on the blueprint. "First, use the Yangtze River water to drive the axle, and then gradually replace it with steam power. Chuntao, bring me the loom model."

Chuntao walked forward holding the bamboo model, and the gears made a crisp "click" sound as they turned.

In the distance, the black-sailed boat of the Suzhou Embroidery Guild was slowly approaching, and standing at the bow was Wang Youde, who had impeached the school.

"Mrs. Xinrong is so generous," Wang Youde said, his silk jacket wrinkled by the rain. "I heard she wants to let machines take away the jobs of embroiderers?"

Meng Qiqi gestured to Chuntao to rotate the model. Twenty embroidery needles simultaneously rose and fell on the silk, creating butterfly wings even faster and more evenly than by hand. "This isn't about stealing jobs; it's about letting the embroiderers become the masters of their machines. President Wang, look at these stitches. How do they compare to the 'flying needlework' you use in your workshop?"

Wang Youde's face turned pale, and he suddenly pointed at the reed marsh. "No matter how good the machine is, it can't weave a human heart! Do those country girls you tricked into coming here even know what 'proper needlework' means?"

He was answered by a clear singing voice. Thirty embroiderers came out from the reed marsh. They were wearing modified short embroidery skirts and had tool kits hanging around their waists. The leader was Chuntao, who had been whipped by him.

"We know," Chuntao said, holding up her work badge with fluorescent embroidery. "Making money based on your own abilities is better than working like a slave for you."

In the hottest July, the water-powered spinning machines in the embroidery workshop are officially put into operation.

Meng Qiqi stood at the attic window, looking at the scene below: Chuntao and others sat on high stools, stepping on the pedals to control the looms, and on the wooden shelf next to them was the "Safety Manual for Textile Workers". Next to each machine was a copper kettle filled with mint water.

"Fujin, this machine really won't eat people?" The young embroiderer Aqiao touched the cold iron axle, her eyes filled with fear and curiosity.

"No," Meng Qiqi demonstrated how to oil the gears. "Just like you need to comb your horse's hair, you need to take good care of your machine. Look, it will turn smoothly now."

When the system interface displayed "Industrial Revolution Awareness +20%", she heard an argument downstairs - Xiaoyanzi was competing with the workers to see who could pedal faster, Yongqi was recording the data, and Ziwei was holding the "Female Workers' Night School Textbook" and reading a passage from "Jane Eyre" to everyone.

"The girl in this book is so amazing. She dares to tell the master 'We are equal'!" Aqiao's eyes lit up.

Meng Qiqi smiled and shook her head, and suddenly saw Wang Youde rushing into the yard with a group of guild members holding sticks.

She took out the butterfly whistle from her waist, and three long and one short whistle sounds pierced the sky.

"Protect the machine!" Chuntao picked up a wooden barrel filled with lubricating oil and placed it in front of the spinning machine.

Xiaoyanzi knocked down the thug in front with a flying kick. Yongqi arrived in time with the guards, holding a modified butterfly crossbow in his hand.

"You are plotting a rebellion!" Wang Youde was pressed to the ground, his eyes full of fear.

"No, this is self-defense." Meng Qiqi unfolded the Jiangnan Weavers' Mutual Aid Charter. "According to the Women's Safety Act, we have the right to protect our own tools."

She turned to look at the trembling Aqiao, "Go hang up the sign for the night school literacy class. Let everyone know that this is not only an embroidery workshop, but also a school."

That night, the first electric light was lit on the roof of the embroidery workshop - it was a micro generator exchanged for system points.

Chuntao and the others sat around the loom, pressing their red fingerprints on the "Charter" in the light of the lamp. Fireflies flew in from outside the window, interweaving with the light of the electric lamp to form a dazzling scene.

In the 26th year of Qianlong's reign, snow fell in the Forbidden City on the golden bricks of the Hall of Mental Cultivation. Qianlong stared at the "Income and Expenditure Statement of Craft Workshops of Each Banner" sent by the Ministry of Revenue, and his fingers repeatedly stroked the column of "Taxes of Jiangnan Embroidery Workshops".

"Xinrong, what exactly do you mean by 'female household accounting'?" He looked at the memorial submitted by Meng Qiqi, which contained the tax receipts of the female workers in the embroidery workshop.

"Your Majesty," she deliberately circled the word "household" with a red pen, "Currently, the women's craft workshops in each banner are raking in huge sums of money, but because they lack independent accounts, their income is recorded in the names of their fathers and brothers. If a 'female household system' were established, they would be able to pay taxes independently, purchase property, and even... participate in the imperial examinations."

"Imperial examination?" Qianlong's red brush drew a sharp angle next to the word "female". "How shameful!"

Meng Qiqi was well prepared. She pulled out the "Collection of Women's Craftsmanship Achievements" compiled by Ziwei and said, "Your Majesty, please read this. The book 'Grassland Pharmacology' translated by a Mongolian woman saved three thousand cattle and sheep. The textile machines improved by the women workers in Jiangnan increased the national treasury's silk revenue by 40%. Their talents are no less than those of men."

Qianlong flipped open the book and saw the fluorescent embroidered map inside. He suddenly remembered the "secret letters with butterfly patterns" that suddenly appeared in the palace during the Sino-Russian border negotiations last year. Those flower and bird pictures embroidered with fluorescent silk threads actually concealed the Russian troop deployment.

"Let's try it out first," he finally wrote on the memorial, "you can try it out, but only women of the bannermen, and they can't be in the same place as men."

When Meng Qiqi was bowing, she noticed the butterfly wristband exposed on Qianlong's cuff - it was a birthday gift from Xiaoyanzi, and it contained a miniature compass.

Outside the Imperial Examination Hall in mid-spring, willow catkins danced like snowflakes.

Meng Qiqi watched Chuntao walk into the special examination room wearing a red veil. The fluorescent embroidery on the edge of the veil was faintly visible in the sunlight - that was the "safety signal" they agreed upon.

"Do you really want them to take the exam like this?" Yongqi held her hand, his palms full of cold sweat.

"It has to be this way," she said, looking at the officials from the Ministry of Rites watching from a distance. "Traditional etiquette doesn't allow women to be seen in public. The red veil is both a disguise and a symbol—it covers up worldly prejudices, but it can't conceal her talent and brilliance."

In the examination room, Chuntao lifted a corner of her veil and saw the exam question on the table: "On the role of women in Jiangnan weaving."

She pulled out a miniature loom model from her sleeve and began drawing a flow chart on her answer sheet. Next to it, in tiny calligraphy, she wrote: "Machines are not a scourge. When used wisely, they enrich the people and strengthen the nation."

Meanwhile, Ziwei was translating a Russian treaty in another exam room. Her answer sheet had a note in fluorescent ink: "Russia's request to open up the 'women's embroidery trade' is actually an attempt to pry into our craft secrets. Be vigilant."

On the day the results were announced, the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City was bustling as never before.

When Chuntao's name appeared at the top of the "Technology" list, the crowd erupted in deafening cheers.

She walked up to the city wall wearing a riding and shooting skirt, and hanging around her waist was not a phoenix coronet and bridal robe, but a tool kit and a butterfly whistle.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for giving women a chance to prove themselves!" Her voice resounded through the sky. "But what we want is not charity, but the same examination room and the same dignity as men!"

Qianlong looked at the crowd below the city and suddenly remembered the "butterfly effect" that Meng Qiqi mentioned - the small wristband design at the beginning has now caused such a huge wave.

He turned to look at Meng Qiqi beside him and found that the golden swallow hairpin on her temples had changed into a gear shape at some point, flashing a strange light in the sunlight.

In the 27th year of Qianlong's reign, Sino-Russian border negotiations reached a deadlock.

Meng Qiqi saw the words "Russia rejected our request for boundary survey" on the secret report from the Military Affairs Office, and her fingertips unconsciously stroked the butterfly purse at her waist - which contained information transmitted by fluorescent butterflies.

"Yongqi," she shoved a map into his sleeve, "at midnight tonight, send the butterflies flying towards Lake Baikal."

At three quarters past midnight, thirty fluorescent butterflies flapped their wings behind the rockery in the Imperial Garden, and the secret Mongolian letters on their wings drew green tracks in the night sky.

Xiaoyanzi looked in the direction they disappeared and suddenly held Meng Qiqi's hand: "Can we really rely on these little things to change the situation of the battle?"

"Yes," she recalled the intelligence knowledge provided by the system. "Didn't Zhang Qian rely on a small wild goose when he traveled to the Western Regions?"

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in a negotiation tent, Russian representatives were studying a piece of embroidery by candlelight that had suddenly appeared. It depicted the topography of Lake Baikal, with the location of the central island marked with fluorescent thread. Next to it was a line of Russian text: "On the island are cultural relics lost by your country."

"Is this... China's 'Butterfly Envoy'?" The Russian representative looked at the flickering fluorescent words in shock. It was a development technology triggered by body temperature.

As the morning sun shone on the negotiation table, the Chinese representative produced key evidence - the Russian crown unearthed from the island in the middle of the lake. The "butterfly envoy" who provided the clue was none other than the female intelligence network of the Forbidden City.

When the news of the successful negotiations reached the capital, a celebration banquet was being held in the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

Qianlong raised his glass and fixed his gaze on Meng Qiqi. "This boundary survey was only possible thanks to the assistance of... the volunteers from the public. Xinrong, do you know who these volunteers are?"

She stood up and bowed, the fluorescent butterflies on her sleeves fluttering gently. "Your Majesty, they are embroiderers from the craft workshops of each banner. They use butterflies to transmit information and embroidery to record the truth."

As she spoke, she unfolded a huge embroidered map on which every detail of the Sino-Russian border was marked with different colored silk threads. "This is their 'butterfly telegram,' more secretive than a swift horse and more accurate than a carrier pigeon."

There was a cry of exclamation in the hall.

Xiaoyanzi took the opportunity to raise her butterfly wristband and said, "Father Emperor, since the embroiderers are able to protect the country, can we allow them to participate in more important events? For example... as secret envoys?"

Qianlong stared at the fluorescent silk thread on the map, and suddenly remembered the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" he had read when he was young. It said that there was a kind of butterfly that could carry people flying and convey oracles.

He turned to look at the Empress Dowager, and seeing her nod slightly, he finally spoke, "Approved. Establish the 'Shangyi Bureau', headed by Concubine Xinrong, specializing in women's intelligence and craftsmanship."

When Meng Qiqi knelt down to express her gratitude, she saw Chuntao holding up a textile machine model outside the hall, Ziwei explaining the principles of fluorescent embroidery to the Russian envoy, and Xiaoyanzi whistling at a group of butterflies - they were training new "intelligence agents".

The system interface displays "Historical process change value +40%". This imperial edict is not only a recognition of the woman's ability, but also a gentle shock to the entire feudal system.

That night, there were more butterflies in the Imperial Garden than usual, and the fluorescent light on their wings gathered into a river, flowing to every corner of the Forbidden City.

Meng Qiqi touched the jade pendant at her waist, and the small words on the back finally became fully visible: "When millions of butterflies learn to write, history will be woven anew by them."