[Ancient-Era Business] [Textile Dyeing and Garment-Making] [Love That Grows Over Time] [A Vivid Portrait of Everyday People]
A blackened wedding dress costs Cheng Qingluo her job at the dye house.
She unpicks a few stitches and proves the garment was fine when it was handed over, but in doing so, she also unravels her own livelihood.
When she wakes again, she has a modern life in her mind: how her family's notions shop went under, how stock piled up at the textile mill, and all the things she'd read and studied but never had the chance to make with her own hands.
Now she has only old tools and a little money for wages. She starts by borrowing a small vat and dyeing her first length of cloth to sell.
She finds a tailor, takes orders, opens a shop, then sends Chunshan's cloth south by boat. Everyone who follows her has something to hope for, and the new wharf will take business away from the old one. She must learn how to make money, and how to keep people close and say goodbye.
Wen Che was originally just an official who came to inspect things. Later, after the official business is done, he still stands with her at the fork in the road and walks a little farther by her side.
This time, Cheng Qingluo wants to ask first: Will you be free tomorrow?
