When dusk spreads over the city walls of Qingzhou, the bluestone vat of Su Ji Dyeing Shop is swallowing the last few rays of skylight. Su Wanying stood by the vat holding a piece of faded red brocade, her knuckles rubbed red by the coarse cloth - this abnormal darkening was like a thin needle piercing the bottom of her eyes. Outside the dyeing workshop, the carriage of Shen Qingyan, the owner of Yunxiangzhai, was running over the lonely apricot petals on the ground. The wind blowing up the curtains was filled with anxiety similar to hers.
The confrontation between the two businesswomen started with a vat of peacock gall. When the officer's shackles were about to be put on the Yunxiangzhai craftsman's wrist, Su Wanying's voice split the crowd: "The officer handles cases and pays attention to real evidence. You said that the banned dye flowed from Yunxiangzhai? But this peacock gall is clearly a prescription that Su Ji abandoned three years ago." Her eyes were like dyeing needles, piercing Li Tongpan's sinister eyes in the crowd. This confrontation was the prelude to changes in Qingzhou's dyeing industry.
This is a legend written with dyed cloth stitches. Su Wanying's tenacity is like madder dye, getting redder the more it soaks; Shen Qingyan's strategy is like indigo paste, which can withstand repeated beatings. The paths they forged in the guild strife and the lamps they lit in the women's school finally made the plaques of "Su Ji" and "Yun Xiangzhai" imprinted in the history of Qingzhou's dyeing industry.
Purpose: The skills of the twins in the dyeing workshop are inherited as intangible cultural heritage, and education breaks the barriers and opens a new chapter for women.