Others enter the palace hoping to marry into power. I, a daughter of the Gong family, arrive clutching Shu brocade, ready to build a career. So what if my elder brother once served under Liu Huanghou, the former empress of Emperor Zhenzong of Song? I refuse to rely on connections. Instead, I make a name for myself with moisture-proof document storage and by auditing records on refugees!
A fellow female official dumps a mess of files on me to make things difficult? I use my "Shu Brocade Classification System" to sort out the refugee weavers, then get the Empress Dowager to declare, "We'll do it her way." I uncover officials and merchants colluding to claim subsidies fraudulently, tracing the numbers to expose how 1,200 became 800. I team up with Han Qi from the outer court to investigate, and when we recover 100,000 strings of tax silver, I realize my "paperwork partner" has been silently matching my rhythm for years through the brocade's repeating patterns!
The Empress Dowager's choice of a husband for me is even more unexpected: no gold or jade, just a padded brocade coat for keeping warm and old case files. Even the silver hairpin is engraved with a refugee pattern. "You two make a much better match through practical work than anything else!" After our wedding, Han Qi and I divide our duties: he investigates disasters outside, while I audit the accounts at home. The warm blankets and wrist guards we send each other carry no romantic yearning, only a promise to "safeguard the Empress Dowager's final wishes together."
From records officer to retirement back in Shu, I never once relied on the emperor's favor. Instead, with red circles in ledgers and patterns woven on looms, I protected refugees and helped academies flourish. Want to know how Shu brocade helped fight corruption, and how a female official in the Northern Song made a legend through "practical work"? Come see the hard-earned growth of a Northern Song working woman!
