The Red-Clad Embroideress, Continued

Rain drizzled endlessly over the ancient town. Lin Wanqing, an embroiderer, had spent years wearing the same crimson embroidered robe, keeping to herself in the quiet Brocade Workshop. Everyone laughed at her for never taking off her bridal gown, stubbornly holding to a promise that would never be fulfilled. Little did they know that the red robe and the embroidery spread across her table concealed a heart-wrenching longing and an unyielding obsession.

Long ago, her betrothed had set off to guard the frontier. They had promised that once she finished embroidering a hundred magnificent scenes of mountains and rivers, he would return home victorious and marry her in a grand procession with ten miles of wedding gifts. But before she could finish the embroidery, the news arrived that he had died in battle at the border.

For years afterward, Lin Wanqing shut herself away, bent over her work beneath a lonely lamp, depicting the splendor of the land stitch by stitch, day and night. She poured her feelings into her embroidery and clung to the last promise they had shared. Then, one late autumn, torrential rains battered the ancient town. The river swelled and overflowed, destroying riverside villages and leaving the people homeless, while all living things suffered in the disaster. Word spread that ancient embroidery could ward off calamity and calm the river, and Lin Wanqing's unfinished hundred scenes of mountains and rivers were the only treasure that could quell the flood.

The townsfolk came to her in droves, pleading and pressuring her to hand over the embroidery. This work was the hope she had held onto for half her life, and the only thing tying her to the person she awaited. She was torn beyond measure.

But when she saw the people homeless and the children crying, she finally let go of her private obsession. She kept wearing her red robe, but Lin Wanqing set aside her longing and used her needle and thread to protect the lives of the town. Her story became a gentle, moving legend passed down through the ages.