Quick Wear Dream Qiqi

In the 27th year of Qianlong's reign, three inches of snow accumulated on the glazed tiles of the Forbidden City.

Meng Qiqi and Chuntao knelt under the ancient pine tree behind the Qin'an Temple. The snow water in the copper basin reflected the moonlight, like a piece of broken silver.

"Remember, you have to collect it before 3:15 PM." She dipped a silver spoon engraved with Nüshu symbols into the snow. "Our ancestors said that snow water from the winter solstice can connect the spiritual energy of heaven and earth."

Chuntao looked at the falling snow and suddenly remembered the scene when her mother dyed cloth with snow water when she was a child in the countryside.

She took out the female calligraphy copybook from her sleeve and used a silver spoon to draw a clockwise vortex in the basin according to the stroke order of the word "female" - this was the "spiritual energy guidance method" provided by the system.

"Fujin, this fluorescent powder..." Chuntao looked at the light green powder in the bottle, which glowed with pearly luster under the moonlight.

"It's taken from the tears of mermaids in the South China Sea," Meng Qiqi sprinkled the powder into the water, causing it to shimmer. "The Siamese envoy once said it was the fossil of deep-sea fluorescent algae."

What she didn't mention was that the system prompted that this was actually an ancient imitation of future bioluminescent material.

The sound of the night watchman's clapper came from afar, and it was three quarters past midnight.

Meng Qiqi took out the orchid from the imperial garden, cut off the three tenderest stems with golden scissors, and when she dipped them into snow water, the scent of camphor immediately spread - that was the Siamese tribute privately collected by the Empress Dowager, contained in an ice-crack porcelain bottle with the word "secret" engraved on the bottle in women's script.

"Grind it now, following the order of the Nüshu strokes for 'faith', 'righteousness' and 'loyalty'." She placed the ink stick into the inkstone, and Chuntao held the silver spoon and ground it clockwise, reciting a Nüshu character with each turn, as if chanting some mysterious spell.

The system interface flashed on the retina: "Ink production progress +60%. Detected that the head steward of the Imperial Household Department reported the ink production matter to the Empress. Danger level: ★★★☆☆."

At the beginning of the morning hour, Meng Qiqi had just put the scented ink into the enamel box when she heard hurried footsteps coming from outside the hall.

Chuntao quickly stuffed the Nüshu calligraphy copybook into the charcoal brazier. The flames instantly jumped up and burned the characters to ashes.

"As expected, Concubine Xinrong is here," Eunuch Li, the head steward of the Imperial Household Department, rushed in with two guards. His eyes fell on the porcelain bottle with ice cracks on the table. "How dare you take the old Buddha's camphor without permission?"

"Eunuch Li has misunderstood," Meng Qiqi bowed, deliberately flashing the fluorescent embroidery on her cuffs. "This is the 'Winter Solstice Ink Making' technique, specially authorized by the Empress Dowager, to add a touch of elegance to the women's crafts exam papers."

Eunuch Li stared at the golden swallow hairpin in her hair and suddenly reached out to snatch the enamel box: "Words are not enough, wait for us to check..."

Before he could finish his words, Chuntao bumped into his elbow, and the ink box fell to the snow, revealing the ink stick engraved with women's script inside.

Eunuch Li picked up the ink stick and saw the "Secret" symbol on the side. His face suddenly changed: "This is... witchcraft!"

Meng Qiqi secretly clenched her butterfly whistle, but suddenly saw the Empress Dowager's carriage appear. Qing'er was holding an imperial edict: "Concubine Xinrong has made great contributions to the production of ink. This ink is designated as the 'Imperial Brush for Women's Use'. Eunuch Li will assist in the grinding. No mistakes are allowed."

Eunuch Li's face turned purple and he had to kneel down to receive the order.

Meng Qiqi took the opportunity to put the women's calligraphy ink stick into the box, and her fingertips touched the mechanism at the bottom of the box - there was a miniature recorder hidden there, which had recorded all the conversations of Eunuch Li.

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, in the dark room of the Shangyi Bureau, Ziwei unfolded a broken Tang Dynasty Xuanji picture in the moonlight.

On the yellowed silk, the four female characters "Brocade Palindrome" are faintly visible.

"According to the system, the butterfly folding method originated from Su Hui's Xuanji diagram," Meng Qiqi pointed at the star map on the silk, "These 108 folding methods correspond to the 28 constellations and 72 solar terms."

Little Swallow came closer, biting a candied fruit. "How do you remember so many folding methods? You can't bring a folding manual, right?"

Ziwei chuckled and took out a brocade bag embroidered with the Xuanji diagram. "Of course, it should be compiled into a mnemonic. For example, 'The Jiao constellation spreads its wings and is as fast as an arrow' corresponds to urgent information, and 'The Wei constellation holds the fragrance of flowers in its sleeves' corresponds to ordinary secret messages."

She demonstrated how to fold a piece of rice paper into the shape of a butterfly, with the creases on the wings forming the constellation of Spica.

Chun Tao suddenly pointed at the female calligraphy on the silk and asked, "Does the fold here look like the axle of a waterwheel in our embroidery workshop?"

"That's right," Meng Qiqi's eyes lit up. "You can use common things in life to remember things, such as 'three turns of the spinning wheel for peace' and 'crossing scissors for emergency warning'."

A new prompt popped up on the system interface: "The localization of the butterfly folding method has been successfully detected, and the efficiency of information transmission has increased by 40%."

On the third day of the third lunar month, the Shangsi Festival, thirty female students taking the technical exam were taking a folding test in the Baidie Boat on Kunming Lake.

Little Swallow, dressed as a boat girl, rowed the boat and sang: "On March 3rd, butterflies fly, I fold my wings and bring back a message..."

"Attention, candidates," Ziwei announced from the bow, "We have received urgent information and need to transmit it using the 'tail' method."

Chuntao grabbed a piece of rice paper and remembered the rhyme made up by Ziwei, "The tail star holds a flower in its mouth, and the fragrance fills the sleeves." She quickly folded the paper into the shape of a butterfly holding a flower petal.

She made three dots on the inside of her wings with scented ink - this was the secret code for "midnight in three days".

"Stop!" Little Swallow suddenly shouted, "Chun Tao's butterfly wings are asymmetrical. If it flies in the wind, the information may be lost!"

Chun Tao blushed as she adjusted the creases. This time, she folded the wings into three equidistant arcs in the shape of a mill wheel axle.

When the butterfly was thrown into the lake, it actually flew against the wind and landed steadily on a pleasure boat in the distance.

"Great!" Meng Qiqi applauded. "This is the practical application of the 'Three Turns of the Spinning Wheel' folding method. Remember, every crease carries the weight of life."

That night, the lanterns of the Hundred Butterflies Boat reflected on the lake surface. Thirty butterflies took off from different directions, and the fluorescent patterns on their wings formed a flowing secret message in the night sky.

Looking at this scene, Yongqi suddenly remembered the line "I send you the gold hairpins inlaid with gold" in "Song of Everlasting Regret". It turns out that a woman's romance and wisdom can really give words wings.

On the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, Buddha's Birthday, Aqiao was embroidering a Heart Sutra in the Shuangguan Embroidery Workshop of the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau.

On the surface, it looks like neat small regular script, but in fact, the four characters "Cao Yun Mi Bao" are embroidered with a straight needle. The stroke direction of each character conforms to the "centrality and peace" required by etiquette.

"Aqiao, when you use the stitching for the code part," Meng Qiqi instructed her as she changed the thread, "you need to gradually change from azurite to malachite green, like the changing color of the West Lake. That way you can fool the inspector."

Aqiao nodded, and the embroidery needle in her hand shuttled between the folds of the "Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva's" clothes, using the needle to embroider a route map of the canal transport fleet.

The key number "five" is highlighted with a seeding needle, which feels different from the other stitches and is convenient for the recipient to interpret with his fingertips.

At the same time, Ziwei used double-entendre embroidery to translate the revised draft of the Treaty of Nerchinsk in the capital. On the surface, it was a commentary on the "Female Rules", but in fact, she used a seed needle to mark the territorial dispute points next to keywords such as "Female Virtue" and "Female Words".

Xiaoyanzi is responsible for testing the concealment of the needlework and carefully checking every stitch with a magnifying glass.

"This seeding needle is like the dots in Morse code," she suddenly realized. "The raised ones are dots, and the flat ones are lines!"

Meng Qiqi smiled and nodded. Suddenly, she heard a system notification: "It has been detected that Russian spies have mastered the basic double-entendre embroidery stitches. The 'Wrong Stitch Mystery' emergency plan has been activated."

She took out a sample of her newly designed "random needle embroidery". Hidden within the chaotic stitches on the surface were the four characters "virtual and real" written in women's script.

On the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, the Dragon Boat Festival, at the reward banquet in Shou'an Palace, the Empress pointed at the embroidered screen of "Dragon Boat Races" presented by Meng Qiqi and suddenly shrieked, "Your Majesty, please look! The strokes of the character 'Qu' on the dragon boat actually look like a knife!"

Qianlong squinted his eyes and took a closer look. He saw that the vertical stroke of the character "屈" on the embroidered screen was indeed slightly long, with the end slightly raised like the tip of a knife.

Meng Qiqi knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, this character is taken from the Cao Quan Stele and is a classic Han Dynasty official script. If the Empress finds it inappropriate, I am willing to re-embroider it."

The Queen sneered: "Re-embroider? I'm afraid you want to take this opportunity to modify the secret letter!"

She waved her hand to Madam Rong, who brought over a worn embroidery. "This is the Xuanji map from the Tang Dynasty that we found in Xinrong's room. There's even a female demon talisman on it!"

There was an uproar in the hall.

Meng Qiqi chuckled and unfolded the fragment of the Xuanji Diagram. "Your Majesty, this is my research into the brocade weaving techniques of women from the Tang Dynasty. Nüshu is a secret script passed down by ancient women, not a magical talisman. Just like this double-entendre embroidery, it appears to depict flowers and birds, but in reality, it contains the essence of weaving."

She pointed to the wavy patterns on the embroidered screen. "These water patterns were created using the swift-stitch technique. The colors range from azurite to malachite green, corresponding to different water depths. They are actually a guide to canal safety."

Then he touched the needles used to make the character "屈". "This character uses nine needles, which implies the auspicious meaning of 'nine nines return to one'."

Qianlong took the fragment of Xuanjitu and saw the word "信" written by a woman on it, and suddenly remembered the same symbol on the fragrant ink.

He turned to look at the old lady and saw her nod slightly. He finally spoke, "The pun embroidery method can be used to improve palace embroidery. Women's calligraphy... is temporarily allowed to be studied in the Shangyi Bureau."

On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, under the sycamore tree in the Imperial Garden, Meng Qiqi put the last of the women's fragrant ink into the butterfly scroll.

Chun Tao folded the 108th butterfly shape, and the fluorescent patterns on its wings spelled out the four words "peace talks successful".

"This is our 'Hundred Butterflies Returning Home' folding method," Ziwei said softly, "It's a culmination of 108 folding methods."

Little Swallow placed the butterfly scroll into the pigeon cage and watched the carrier pigeons fly towards the Russian Embassy: "I really hope they can understand our beauty."

Meng Qiqi looked at the bright moon in the sky, thinking of the women's calligraphy spells when making ink, the star codes when folding, and the spy stitches when embroidering. These techniques have long surpassed intelligence itself and become an alternative writing of women's wisdom.

The system interface displays "Historical process change value +50%".

Yongqi came over, holding a newly made ink stick for women's calligraphy. "The Emperor said that next year's women's exam will include the subject of 'Craft Secret Language'."

She took the ink stick and felt the lines of women's calligraphy on it. "Because he finally understood that women's talent and knowledge are never a disaster, but rather a star that can illuminate the night."