Xia Lü bowed respectfully. "In Chengcheng County, embroidery is famous throughout the region. Many local women are skilled at it—this humble one also knows a bit."
"Oh?" Li Daoxuan raised a brow. He hadn't heard of that before, so he casually opened his laptop and ran a quick search. One glance, and he froze for a second—turns out Chengcheng Embroidery was actually listed as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage. So Xia Lü wasn't bragging after all.
(Ming Context:) Chengcheng, in Shaanxi, was already known in the late Ming for fine silk and embroidery, often sold to merchants heading west toward Xi'an and Gansu.
Xia Lü continued, "The drought lasted three years; no one had the strength or heart to do embroidery. But now that Tianzun has provided food and paid everyone for their work, women are finally eating well again—once they have strength, their hands start stitching. The pieces we make in Chengcheng sell well in Xi'an; the nobles there love our work."
Dao Xuan Tianzun—well, Li Daoxuan—grinned ear to ear. "Excellent. That's exactly the kind of intel I like. In future, if you hear of anything similar, report to me first."
Receiving praise from Tianzun, Xia Lü's eyes lit up like spring water. She bowed deeply, her heart fluttering with excitement.
Li Daoxuan leaned back, thinking to himself that brothel women were indeed different from ordinary village wives. The common women's world was too small—their lives bound by housework and propriety—but courtesans, they saw more, knew more. Yeah, low-price buy-in was the right investment. He should keep doing this.
"Xia Lü," Li Daoxuan said with a smile, "you'll be in charge of both the cloth workshop and the embroidery business. Set up a cloth house under your name—you'll be the shopkeeper. Buy cotton cheap, sell it to women in town, and then collect finished cloth and embroidery pieces. We'll ship everything to Xi'an and let the nobles there pay for their luxury tastes."
Xia Lü was stunned, then elated. A few days ago, she was just a courtesan surviving on charm; now, she was about to become a business owner. Her fate had flipped like a page in a book.
Without hesitation, she acted. With Tianzun backing her, fear wasn't even in her vocabulary. She knocked on the door of a long-closed grain store next to the bookstore, slammed down the silver that Li Daoxuan had given her, and bought the whole place outright.
Then she hired craftsmen to renovate it, turning it into the Tianzun Cloth House within just two days.
Li Daoxuan didn't micromanage—he only supplied materials and funds. But Xia Lü was sharp and fearless. She handled all the logistics herself, smoothing connections and negotiating like a pro. Soon, word spread that the Cloth House was open for business.
Cotton from Dao Xuan Tianzun filled the storerooms. Xia Lü sold it cheaply while hanging a big sign: "High Prices for Cotton Cloth!"
Women who already owned spinning wheels came quickly; those who didn't? No problem—the new looms designed by Song Yingxing were already on the way from Gaojia Village.
Within days, Xia Lü even purchased a noble's old mansion and converted it into the Tianzun Textile Workshop. She began recruiting female workers—something unheard of in those days.
At first, women hesitated. Working in public was seen as improper. But some poorer ones took the risk for the sake of their families. Soon enough, the looms began to sing.
Meanwhile, Xia Lü hung another sign: "We Buy Fine Embroidery."
And just like that, Chengcheng's women picked up their needles again.
That evening, Li Daoxuan was happily slurping a bowl of Lanzhou lamian when Xia Lü burst into the room of the Saintess, Gao Yiye. She held up a square of embroidered cloth. "Saintess, please look—this is a horse cloth I stitched myself!"
"Horse cloth?" Li Daoxuan blinked. Never heard that term before. Quick search—ah! It was decorative fabric laid on a horse's back. Only rich men or officials used it, of course. Smart girl, targeting the luxury market!
The embroidery depicted a fierce tiger's head surrounded by a ring of copper coins—bold, strong, yet still elegant.
Li Daoxuan's brain immediately clicked. Wait, that's a marketing goldmine!
He grabbed his camera and started shooting. With a bit of editing, he made a 30-second short video: clips of Xia Lü stitching, then a tiny hand in the "micro world" holding the horse cloth. He even filmed himself plucking the finished piece out of her hand with tweezers, making it vanish into the real world.
Xia Lü gasped, then laughed, realizing Tianzun was just teasing her.
Li Daoxuan ended the video with a close-up: the cloth was barely three millimeters long, the tiger's head visible only through magnification—precision embroidery on a microscopic level.
He didn't even bother adding a price tag. "Let the curious figure it out," he muttered, hitting upload.
(Trivia:) Micro-embroidery, called xiùzhōng xiù in the Ming, was often used for imperial gifts. The idea of making one "small enough for the gods" became a common joke among artisans.
Then he remembered Director Gao from Chengcheng's Bureau of Culture and Tourism—the guy had been desperate to revive local crafts. Perfect. Li Daoxuan sent him a copy too.
Within hours, both his Douyin account "Life in the Miniature Kingdom" and Chengcheng's official website featured the video.
He'd just finished that when County Magistrate Liang Shixian and his aide, the Shaoxing scholar, arrived at the bookstore.
By now, Liang Shixian already understood that Gao Yiye wasn't the wife of some rich Li clan noble—she was the Saintess, Tianzun's earthly messenger. Not a con like the White Lotus cult's "holy maidens," but a genuine link to divine will.
So whenever Liang needed to consult Tianzun, he came here to speak through her.
The assistant led them to the back courtyard. Gao Yiye came out, greeting them politely. "Magistrate Liang, what brings you here today?"
Liang Shixian looked serious. "Saintess, news just arrived—Shaanxi Governor Hu Tingyan has been dismissed by imperial decree."
Li Daoxuan almost cheered aloud. Finally! That useless fool is gone!
Liang continued, "His Majesty has appointed Liu Guangsheng as the new governor of Shaanxi, and Yang He as Supreme Commander of the Three Frontiers, overseeing both Shaanxi and Yansui. This time, the court is serious about wiping out the bandits."
Li Daoxuan leaned back, smirking. The wheel of history had started turning again—and this time, he intended to steer it.