... The screen scrolls forward...
The dead Bai Yunjin appeared before them. He was sitting at the table, holding a water-soaked talisman in his hand, staring at the woman kneeling on the ground with a sinister look in his eyes.
" Xiaju... You entered Cloud Brocade Workshop when you were eight years old. I provided you with everything—food, drink, lodging—and even taught you embroidery. Why are you treating me like this?"
Xiaju, her hands and feet bound, stared intently at Bai Yunjin with bloodshot eyes, and spat fiercely at him.
"You beast in human form! I bought this skill with eight taels of silver every year. My food and lodging are the result of ten years of sleepless embroidery!"
Other embroidery shops would pay one tael of silver for a complete set of bed curtains, but you only give us fifty coins. If we make a mistake or stain the embroidery cloth, we'll be fined twenty coins.
After a month, we haven't earned a single penny, and instead owe you thirty coins! How am I supposed to treat you like this?
Bai Yunjin frowned slightly, and spoke in a flat, emotionless tone, " Xiaju... one should know how to be grateful. A benefactor doesn't just appreciate your embroidery, but recognizes the Cloud Brocade Workshop brand."
Without Cloud Brocade Workshop, who would know who you are? And what important person would use your embroidery patterns? Being able to use Cloud Brocade Workshop's name to deliver embroidery to someone important is an opportunity that others would kill for. How can you not understand my good intentions?"
Bai Yunjin sighed softly, "If you don't want to embroider, there are plenty of people who can... As long as you pay back the money you owe the embroidery shop, you can leave anytime, and I won't stop you."
He tossed the mushy talisman paper on the ground, pulled out a handkerchief, and carefully wiped his palms. "I'm sentimental and can't bear to hurt you, but I'm not someone to be trifled with. I taught you your skills, so naturally I'm taking them back."
Bai Yunjin slowly stood up, his hand outstretched in mid-air. His servant, Jixiang, quickly handed him a stick. He walked step by step towards Xiaju Xiaju, who trembled with fear.
Bai Yunjin poked the stick into her fingers. "What beautiful hands... They bring in a lot of profit for the embroidery workshop every year, but they just don't know their own limitations... They touched something they shouldn't have."
" Xiaju... I'm asking you, who else was involved in this charade? Just tell me, and I'll let you go." As the stick pressed down little by little, Xiaju was in so much pain that she broke out in a cold sweat.
Her face was deathly pale as she stubbornly retorted, "What nonsense! I don't understand... Could it be that Yao Yuniang has come back to find you?"
Bai Yunjin's face suddenly turned cold. "Your hands aren't clean, and your eyes aren't honest either..." He suddenly raised his hand and struck Xiaju's hands hard with a stick.
All ten fingers were severed instantly, held together only by skin and flesh. "I'm asking you... who else knows about this?"
Xiaju was in so much pain she couldn't straighten up. Curled up on the ground, she said fiercely, "Everyone knows... the whole city knows you, you heartless killer!"
Jixiang stuffed the rag into her mouth.
Bai Yunjin swung his arm wide, and bang... another blow landed hard on Xiaju's back, the sound of bones cracking was particularly deafening in the quiet courtyard.
Xiaju rolled her eyes and fainted. Bai Yunjin shook her arms twice and ordered, "Splash her to wake her up."
Jixiang didn't dare to delay and quickly grabbed a bucket of cold water, pouring it over Xia Ju's head... Bai Yunjin squatted in front of Xiaju, watching her weak and feeble-eyed, and a wicked smile crept onto her face.
Tell me, does anyone else know anything about Yao Yuniang?
Xiaju slowly gathered her strength, then suddenly slammed into Bai Yunjin. Even if she died, she would bite off a piece of this beast's flesh.
But she was bound and already beaten to the point of near death. As soon as she tried to fight back, Bai Yunjin took the opportunity to push her to the ground.
He casually pulled out an embroidered thread from his waist, wrapped it around Xiaju's neck, and tightened it tightly.
"If you won't talk, then die!"
Jin Shanyao watched helplessly as Xiaju was strangled to death and buried by Jixiang under the peach tree. It turned out that she was the new corpse.
... The screen continues to scroll forward...
The Jin Shanyao filtered out useless information, and the screen suddenly stopped. She flipped back one day and then forward one day.
Wait a minute... aren't these embroiderers sleeping???
Jin Shanyao on the day the embroiderers were working, wanting to see what was going on. He saw that the embroiderers in the room were silent and did not utter a word, embroidering from morning to night.
Even going to the outhouse was guarded. If a woman squatted there for too long, a nanny would come in with a stick, leaving red marks on the embroiderer's fingertips from the thread.
Some were already bleeding, but they dared not get the blood on the embroidery cloth. They could only carefully wipe away the blood droplets and continue embroidering with their heads down... Just after midnight, the next group of embroiderers came and sat in their places.
Then they continued embroidering their patterns. All the embroiderers were like marionettes, with identical embroidery skills, patterns, and stitches. Mass production gave no one a moment to breathe.
Jin Shanyao recognized one of them as Xiaju, who was about to die. She followed Xiaju back to her residence, where several embroiderers were so exhausted that they lay down on the kang (a heated brick bed) and fell asleep immediately.
" Qiuju..."
Qiuju heard Dongju's voice in her ear, and she whispered, "When are you going to pay back the thirty-six taels you took home this time?"
Outsiders all say that Cloud Brocade Workshop offers good treatment, but what they don't know is that every penny these embroiderers take home requires a loan agreement, and they have to repay the loan by making embroidery.
Qiuju stared at the dark roof and said sullenly, "My mother wanted to send my sister in, but I didn't agree. My life is over; I can't ruin my sister too."
"These thirty-six taels will be used to buy land for the family. Once life is better, we can find a good family for my younger sister to marry into. As for me..." Qiuju didn't continue. Perhaps she could never leave Cloud Brocade Workshop for the rest of her life.
Dongju silently hugged her, nestling her head on her shoulder, "Sister... they want me to go keep Lord Zhou..."
Qiuju's body suddenly stiffened, and then pain spread throughout her body... Dongju held her tightly to prevent her from biting her, her voice extremely suppressed.
"Just a little longer, it'll be dawn in two more hours. Things will be better then..."
Qiuju clenched her teeth, tears streaming down her face... She struggled even more fiercely, and just as Dongju could no longer hold back, Xiaju silently embraced her from the other side.
My mother died last month...
Xiaju paused, "As you all know, it's just my mother and me left at home. To send me to the embroidery workshop, she sold everything she could in the house, hoping that I could find a good husband through my own abilities."
Now that she's gone... I have nothing to worry about anymore. Let me go... If I'm exposed, death... is a kind of relief.
The embroiderers on the kang (a heated brick bed) sat up one by one, staring intently at the three men. One of them forced a bitter smile.
"Count me in... I'm too ashamed to go home now. They drew a portrait of me in bed and threatened to send it to my parents if I dared to leave Cloud Brocade Workshop. Besides, I can't leave now."
From the very first day they entered Cloud Brocade Workshop, the Bai Household secretly fed them Five Minerals Powder.
Once they become addicted, they will use this substance to control them; only those who obey will receive a daily dose of Five Minerals Powder.
When they first entered the embroidery workshop, they were just little girls of eight or nine years old, full of hope for the future, Cloud Brocade Workshop treated them very well.
Every time family members came to visit, they spoke well of Cloud Brocade Workshop. Even if they said something bad, their family members didn't believe them, thinking they couldn't endure hardship.
When they grew up and became addicted, it was too late to fight back.
Beautiful embroiderers would be forcibly sent to the beds of guests and officials to pave the way for their advancement in the Cloud Brocade Workshop; perhaps this was their fate.
"Count me in... I've wanted to die for a long time, but I don't have the courage to."
"Count me in..."
"Count me in..."
Jin Shanyao gazed at the scene, remaining silent for a long time... She had never imagined that the Bai Household would use Five Minerals Powder to control these embroiderers, training them into puppets, endlessly performing embroidery.
They even use their bodies to establish connections; they truly exploit people completely.