The Jiangning Weaving Workshop was terrifyingly quiet in the early morning.
Usually at this time, the sound of looms here should be deafening. Thousands of weaving girls would be busy, working desperately for the wealth of the Wang family.
But today, only the draft was howling through this huge factory.
With a bang, the gate was kicked open.
Lao Liu, the chief steward of the Wang family, rushed in with a fierce look on his face, holding a rattan whip that was still dripping water.
"What time is it?! Why aren't you working yet?"
"Where's that damn girl who tried to run away yesterday? Hang her up for me! Today we'll kill the chicken to scare the monkeys, and let these cheap wretches know the rules of the Wang family!"
Lao Liu's roar was quite intimidating.
The echo bounced around the empty factory several times.
However, the only response he got was a few frightened mice on the beams, squeaking and scurrying into a pile of cotton yarn.
There was no one.
The thousands of looms that used to run day and night were now lying there quietly, covered with a thin layer of dust.
Lao Liu rubbed his eyes, thinking he hadn't fully woken up yet.
"Where is everyone?"
His usually arrogant lackey Xiao Wu crawled out of a pile of waste yarn trembling, holding a crumpled piece of paper in his hand.
"Sixth... Sixth Master..."
Xiao Wu's face was deathly pale. "They're gone... They're all gone..."
"What do you mean gone? Speak clearly!"
Lao Liu snatched the paper, his eyes instantly widening.
On the paper, written in a very wild cursive font, was a single line:
The world is so big, I want to go eat meat.
The signature was "Respectfully yours, all the weaving girls of Jiangning."
This was certainly not written by the weaving girls. The flamboyant handwriting clearly belonged to that County Princess Xu who was cracking melon seeds in the Lingering Garden.
Lao Liu's hands began to shake violently, and the rattan whip dropped to the ground with a thud.
"Rebellion... This is rebellion!"
"They've pulled the rug right out from under the Wang family!"
...
An incense stick's time later, in the Wang family mansion.
With a crash, a glazed cup that had just been replaced last night shattered into pieces again.
Wang Ruhai stood barefoot amidst the shards, his chest heaving violently. His fleshy face had turned the color of pig liver, and the veins on his neck were bulging.
"What did you say?!"
Wang Ruhai pointed at Lao Liu kneeling below, his roar loud enough to shake the tiles loose from the roof.
"Three thousand weaving girls! That's three thousand people!"
"They all ran away overnight? What are you good for?! Are all the guards at the gate dead?!"
Lao Liu lay on the ground, his forehead bleeding from kowtowing, crying out his grievances with a mournful face.
"Master! It's not my fault!"
"That Xu family... That Xu family is too insidious!"
"They took advantage of last night when we were all focused on that one-hundred-copper cotton cloth. They sent that fiend named Xu Wuyou, who brought a bunch of men in black and directly tore down the back wall of the workshop!"
"Our guards had just tried to stop them, but that Xu Wuyou smashed a stone lion to pieces with a single punch! Who would dare to make a move then!"
Wang Ruhai was so angry his vision went dark. He slumped into the grand armchair, panting heavily.
"Good... Good for you, Xu Qinghuan! What a fine trick of pretending to advance along one path while secretly taking another!"
"She's not selling cloth; she's pushing my Wang family to a dead end!"
Suddenly, as if remembering something, Wang Ruhai sat up straight, a vicious glint in his eyes.
"No! They can't run away!"
"Their deeds! The indenture deeds of these cheap wretches are still in my hands!"
Wang Ruhai slapped the table and sneered.
"Run? Without their deeds, they are runaway slaves! According to the laws of the Great Qian Dynasty, runaway slaves are to have their legs broken and be exiled to the frontiers when caught!"
"Lao Liu! Take all the deeds and come with me to the county magistrate's office!"
"I'm going to file a lawsuit! I'll make Xu Qinghuan spit out everyone she's swallowed, skin, bones, and all!"
Lao Liu remained kneeling there, trembling even more violently, and even shrank back a little.
"Ma... Master..."
"What now?!" Wang Ruhai had an ominous premonition.
Lao Liu swallowed hard, his voice very low.
"Early this morning, the county office posted a notice..."
"It said that to respond to the imperial court's new policy of incorporating the poll tax into the land tax, County Princess Xu paid out of her own pocket to redeem all the involuntary laborers in the city..."
"Those boxes of deeds we had... have already been forcibly invalidated by County Princess Xu under the pretext of some... illegal employment and malicious wage arrears."
"And... and she even threw a pile of silver notes into our accounting room, saying it was our... severance pay."
Wang Ruhai completely froze.
Illegal employment? Malicious wage arrears?
What kind of nonsense terms were these?
He only understood one thing: According to the audience's understanding, Xu Qinghuan had not only stolen his tower but also conveniently destroyed his crystal, and finally tossed him two bucks, calling it repair fees!
"Pfft—!!!"
Wang Ruhai felt a sweet taste in his throat and sprayed a mouthful of old blood directly onto the yellow rosewood table.
"Xu Qinghuan! I will not share the same sky with you!!!"
...
Meanwhile, in the west of Jiangning City, at the Jiangning First Cotton Mill.
The massive factory had a high roof. Sunlight streamed down through the skylights, shining on rows and rows of spinning jennies.
Three thousand weaving girls, who had once worked like beasts of burden for the Wang family, were now crowded together. They huddled nervously, their eyes filled with both fear and uncontainable curiosity.
Most of them wore shabby clothes, their hands covered in calluses and scars—the marks left by years of hard labor.
What were these huge wooden lumps?
Was this bright and clean place really where they were supposed to work?
On the high platform, Li Sheng still held that tin megaphone in his hand.
He cleared his throat, that air of a petty man flushed with success rising again.
"Stand straight! No whispering!"
"Since you've entered the doors of our Xu family, you are people of the Xu family! Put away that bad habit of slacking off you had in the Wang family!"
The crowd instantly fell dead silent; a few timid weaving girls even shivered in fear.
Li Sheng was very satisfied with this effect. He waved the rulebook in his hand and announced loudly.
"Our factory operates according to the rules set personally by County Princess Xu."
"That is, start work at the hour of Si (9-11 AM) and finish at the hour of Xu (7-9 PM)! You get one hour (two hours) off at noon for lunch and rest!"
"Every seven days, you also get one day off!"
As soon as these words came out, the previously quiet crowd instantly exploded.
The weaving girls looked at each other, all thinking they had misheard.
A slightly older weaving girl named Aunt Zhang gathered her courage and raised her hand.
"Um... Sir Manager..."
"Start work at the hour of Si? The sun would already be baking our behinds! In the past, at the Wang family, we had to get up and work at the hour of Yin (3-5 AM)..."
"And... one day off every seven days? What does that mean? Are you letting us go home?"
Li Sheng rolled his eyes, looking as if they were a bunch of country bumpkins who had never seen the world.
"Nonsense! If you're not resting, what else would you be doing? Should we keep you in the factory and raise you?"
"But! Since you're given time off, when it's time to work, you have to work yourselves to the bone for me! If anyone fails to meet the quota, don't blame me for docking your monthly pay!"
Aunt Zhang's tears instantly fell.
In the Wang family, they were like donkeys tied to a millstone; as long as they had a breath left, they had to keep turning.
Let alone resting, even taking too long at the latrine would earn them a whipping.
Now, not only did they no longer have to work from dawn to dusk, but they could also go home to see their children?
"Thank you, County Princess Xu! Thank you, Master Manager!"
Thousands of people knelt in unison, the sound of their kowtowing echoing all around.
Li Sheng was startled by the display and quickly waved his hands to tell them to rise.
"Alright, alright! Enough with these empty formalities!"
"Hurry up and get up! Back to work! Miss Huang, please take them to weave!"
Jenny Huang, covered in grease, popped out.
"Stop dawdling! Come over here, everyone!"
"This thing is much simpler than those broken-down looms of yours! See this handle? Turn it!"
"Right! Turn it hard! Do not worry about breaking it; if it breaks, it is on me!"
The weavers approached their stations with trepidation.
Aunt Zhang hesitantly gave it a spin.
Whoosh—
Light and smooth.
There was no resistance at all.
With this single turn, eight spindles began to rotate simultaneously, and cotton yarn flowed out continuously.
Aunt Zhang's eyes widened, her mouth hanging open.
"It is... it is this fast?!"
In the past, using both her hands and feet, she would work herself to the bone all day just to weave a tiny bit.
Now, just by turning a handle, she could do the work of ten people?
"A miracle... This is a miracle!"
...
Time flew by.
In the blink of an eye, the sun rose to its zenith.
Clang— Clang— Clang—!!!
A rapid ringing of a bronze bell drowned out the noise of the machines, echoing throughout the entire factory area.
The weavers jumped in fright and instinctively stopped their work, looking up at the high platform in bewilderment.
In the Wang family, the bell was only rung when something went wrong.
Could it be that they were working too slowly and were going to be punished?
"Why are you stopping? Finish up what you are doing!"
Li Sheng yelled through a megaphone, "It is time to eat! Are you all deaf?"
Eat?
The weavers were stunned.
This early?
Before, they were absolutely not allowed to eat until it was too dark to see the threads, and even then, they only ate sour cornbread and rice soup so thin you could see your reflection in it.
While they were standing there in a daze, an incredibly savory aroma drifted in on the wind.
It was the smell of meat.
Mixed with fat and rich sauce!
Rumble—
The growling of thousands of stomachs rose and fell, merging into an awkward yet very real wave of sound.
"Go, go, go! Go eat!"
Urged on by Li Sheng, the weavers lined up and timidly walked into the massive shed next door.
As soon as they entered, everyone froze in their tracks.
Dozens of large woks were lined up in a row, their lids already lifted, steam billowing out.
What was inside was no sour cornbread.
It was mountains of white steamed buns! Each one was the size of a fist, blindingly white!
And the large vats next to them were filled to the brim with stew.
It was pork and glass noodle stew, along with large chunks of braised pork belly jiggling in the rich broth, exuding a deadly temptation.
A young weaver who looked to be only fifteen or sixteen stared at the white steamed buns, tears streaming down her face.
She tugged at Aunt Zhang's sleeve, her voice trembling.
"Aunt Zhang... is... is this really for us to eat?"
"Isn't this what they offer to the ancestors during the New Year?"
Aunt Zhang swallowed hard and said doubtfully.
"Your ancestors ate this well?"
The head chef of the cafeteria, a man with a fiery temper, banged his large iron ladle against the side of the vat.
"What are you staring at? Grab a bowl!"
"Two buns and a big scoop of stew per person! All the meat you can eat! Drink as much soup as you want!"
"No one leaves until they are full!"
This roar completely shattered the weavers' last remaining shreds of restraint.
They tremblingly accepted the large bowls.
Looking at the generous scoop of meat ladled over the buns, the rich juices soaking into the dough.
Some did not even dare to take a bite, terrified that this was all a dream and they would wake up as soon as they tasted it.
Aunt Zhang closed her eyes and took a huge, fierce bite.
The soft and fluffy bun, the rich but not greasy meat, and the savory broth instantly exploded in her mouth.
It was the most delicious thing she had ever eaten in her entire life.
"Sob..."
Aunt Zhang squatted on the ground, clutching her bowl, and suddenly burst into loud sobs.
"That bastard Wang Ruhai... I worked for him for thirty years, and I never even had a single hot meal..."
"County Princess Xu... County Princess Xu actually treats us like human beings..."
In an instant, the entire cafeteria was filled with the sound of weeping.
These were not tears of sorrow; this was the release of half a lifetime of suffering, the feeling of finally seeing the sun.
Thousands of women wept as they desperately stuffed buns and meat into their mouths, as if trying to swallow all their years of hardship along with the rich meat broth.
...
Xu Qinghuan hid behind a pillar, peering through the gap at the crowd of weavers weeping like rain below.
