Su Wantang was originally a well-known embroiderer in Suzhou City in the 1980s. Her double-sided embroidery skills stunned everyone. However, because she married a Phoenix man by mistake, she was trapped in the strife between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, cold treatment by her husband and widowed parenting for half her life. When she was reborn at the age of forty, the wrinkles in the mirror and the countdown to her daughter's college entrance examination made her sober - she couldn't survive this life any longer.
Memories from past lives are golden fingers: the evidence of her husband's cheating is hidden at the bottom of an old wooden box. The account book showing that her husband's family misappropriated her dowry to buy out her years of service is buried in the mezzanine of the box. Even the truth about her daughter being targeted by her class teacher is still vivid in her mind. She first tore off the "good wife and loving mother" façade: exposed the scandal between her husband and his mistress in public, and used the embroidery order contract to force her husband's family to return the property; then she picked up the ancestral embroidery fabrics and set up the "Wantang Embroidery Workshop" at the entrance of the alley. Su embroidery techniques were mixed with modern designs. Orders were queued from villages and towns to provincial capitals, and even foreign trade companies rushed to cooperate.
On the way to start her own business, she met Gu Chen, a designer who had returned from China - a man who understood the mountains and rivers in her stitching and praised the pride of peonies in her paintings. The two had a secret affection during the embroidery drafts and business negotiations. He had seen her fierceness in arguing with others to protect her daughter, and he also cherished the tiredness in her eyes when she stayed up late to catch up on work. The dangerous and charming attraction made Su Wantang understand: true happiness is not something that can be endured, but after tearing up the mess with your own hands and weaving a new tapestry with evenly matched people.
When the double-sided embroidery "Birds Paying Attention to the Phoenix" stunned the audience at the International Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition, Su Wantang touched the silver thimble on her chest and smiled: In this life, she wants to be her own light and embroider the fiery life of a middle-aged woman.
(The article contains hidden emotional tensions such as "taboo bondage" and "power reversal", which coexist with excitement and depth.)
