In Duhengi’s office, Luo Jingyu saw the initial draft of the evening gown designed for the celebrity Yun Xi. It was a strapless gown with a full skirt in pure purple, with layers upon layers adorned with a large patch of twilight flowers. Even just looking at the sketch, one could feel its ethereal quality.
Duhengi excitedly asked him, “What do you think?”
After some thought, Luo Jingyu signed to Zhan Xi, who translated: “Master Du, Master Luo asks if there might be too many flowers? It could be very heavy.”
“Really?” Duhengi picked up some sample pressed twilight flowers from his desk and weighed them, “I thought they would be very light.”
Luo Jingyu shook his head, pointed at the design draft, and signed another series of gestures to Zhan Xi. She didn’t translate immediately, exchanging a few signs with him first before telling Duhengi: “Master Luo means it’s not just about the actual weight, but also the visual effect. With too many flowers, the visual focus would be on the skirt, but a celebrity should highlight her overall beauty, including her face and upper body.”
Duhengi fell into deep thought, and after a while said: “That makes sense, but Yun Xi’s team is satisfied with this design. If we want to make changes, we’ll need to discuss it with them. Ah, Master Luo, could you give some modification suggestions? From the perspective of actually making the pressed flowers? Don’t worry, I’m not someone who won’t listen to opinions. This gown was meant to be a collaborative design with Master Luo anyway, so please feel free to share your thoughts.”
When Zhan Xi translated the words “collaborative design” to Luo Jingyu, he was quite surprised. He didn’t know anything about clothing design and thought he was just helping Duhengi make pressed flowers for the dress.
He actually had some ideas but wasn’t confident about sharing them. Since Duhengi put it that way, Luo Jingyu boldly signed to Zhan Xi, who smiled after watching and turned to tell Duhengi: “Master Du, Master Luo asks if he could have two days to make some minor modifications to your design and draw up a new version for you? He’s worried he can’t express himself clearly, so drawing it out would be easier to understand. Of course, his modifications would only be for the flower elements.”
“That’s fine! Has Master Luo studied art or design?” Duhengi asked with interest.
Zhan Xi could answer this question for Luo Jingyu: “He studied art from childhood, but only until high school. Master Luo didn’t go to university – after graduating high school, he started learning pressed flower craft professionally.”
Duhengi understood and began discussing the contract with Zhan Xi.
Regarding contract prices, neither Luo Jingyu nor Zhan Xi had experience, so they had consulted Xu Qingyan beforehand. Xu Qingyan had previously contracted with luxury brands, but since they didn’t know Duhengi and Yun Xi team’s contract price, she told Luo Jingyu to consider the difficulty and quantity of flower patterns, as well as calculate the time investment and labor costs.
Xu Qingyan told Zhan Xi: “This is Little Luo’s first job like this. There’s really no such thing as getting a good or bad deal. In my opinion, gaining experience and building reputation are more important. Don’t quote too high – you two discuss it well.”
So, Zhan Xi quoted a practical price to Duhengi based on her discussion with Luo Jingyu. The great designer agreed readily and immediately had his assistant print out the contract.
Before signing, Duhengi suddenly thought of an issue: “By the way, I checked that the Y country film festival is held during their rainy season every year. In the past decade, it has rained on the opening ceremony five times – two heavy rains and three light rains. The red carpet ceremony is half outdoors and half under canopy. Will rain affect the pressed flowers?”
When this question came up, Zhan Xi instantly felt doomed. She had known for a long time that pressed flowers weren’t waterproof. She looked at Luo Jingyu anxiously as she translated Duhengi’s words into sign language, almost wanting to answer: pressed flowers indeed fear water, we can only pray it doesn’t rain!
Unexpectedly, after seeing her signs, Luo Jingyu showed no signs of difficulty or disappointment. He thought for a moment, smiled, and began signing very calmly.
Duhengi waited for Zhan Xi’s translation, noticing her expression change slightly, her eyes widening with curiosity.
After confirming several times with Luo Jingyu, Zhan Xi told Duhengi: “Master Du, traditional pressed flowers aren’t waterproof, but Master Luo says he can try to make them waterproof. The success rate might be around 80%, which should be fine for the red carpet section.”
Duhengi was delighted. Observing Luo Jingyu’s expression, he felt confident and said with a smile, “Alright, then we’ll leave this technical issue to you. Let’s sign the contract!”
On the way home, Zhan Xi asked Luo Jingyu how to make pressed flowers waterproof.
Luo Jingyu signed to her that he had been researching a resin formula that might waterproof the pressed flowers when applied as a coating. He’d been experimenting for two years, but since it didn’t have strong practical applications, he hadn’t paid much attention to it and just did it for fun. Besides him, there were probably others researching this too.
Facing Zhan Xi, a university graduate, Luo Jingyu signed somewhat embarrassedly: [My education isn’t good, and I was terrible at chemistry in school. I don’t understand formulas, I just keep trying and adjusting ratios. Someone who studied chemistry could probably figure it out easily.]
Whether pressed flowers were waterproof wasn’t particularly important – all pressed flower accessory listings informed customers that they weren’t waterproof and shouldn’t be worn in the rain.
Luo Jingyu had never thought about what use the waterproof resin might have, but in this contract, it seemed quite important. A celebrity walking the red carpet at an international film festival – if the flowers on her dress lost color due to rain, wouldn’t that be laughable?
—
Finally, October 5th arrived. Zhan Xi had decided to return home, and after checking with Luo Jingyu, she also got into Zhan Jie’s car.
Before going to Zhan Xi’s home, Luo Jingyu told his parents about this. Luo Mingsung reminded him to buy plenty of gifts, including two bottles of good wine, and not to be stingy.
How could Luo Jingyu be stingy? When Zhan Jie’s car came to pick them up at Qingque Jiayuan, he and Zhan Xi emerged with their hands full of items, almost filling up the trunk.
“Wow! What did you buy?” Zhan Jie got out to check the trunk, picking up the baijiu packaging, “Hey, this is good wine! You’re quite thoughtful.”
Four-digit priced wine was certainly good. Luo Jingyu smiled at him and scratched his head.
Besides the two bottles of wine, they had bought two cartons of good cigarettes, ginseng, ejiao, fruit gift boxes, seafood gift boxes, plus a box of milk and a large package of nuts.
Zhan Xi organized the trunk: “I told him not to buy so much, but he wouldn’t listen. Said it’s his first time visiting and he should follow proper etiquette.”
Zhan Jie: “…”
Was he already considering himself a son-in-law? Really couldn’t find any fault with him.
The three of them got on the highway to Tongxian County’s Fucun Town. Zhan Jie drove while Luo Jingyu and Zhan Xi sat in the back. After discussion between the siblings, they decided to have Luo Jingyu check into a hotel in town first, while they went home to assess the situation. They would find an appropriate opportunity to bring him over later.
“Let me explain,” Zhan Jie said while driving. “It’s not that we don’t want you to visit, but we’re concerned for your safety. Showing up suddenly might not go well.”
“Understood.” Zhan Xi explained their conclusion to Luo Jingyu in sign language. He understood and showed no unusual reaction, smiling and nodding, saying he would follow their lead.
When they stopped at a highway service area, there was a long line for the women’s restroom. While Zhan Xi waited in line, Zhan Jie and Luo Jingyu chatted outside.
“Huanhuan’s mother… isn’t easy to get along with,” Zhan Jie said slowly while smoking. “When I speak, if there’s anything you don’t understand, tell me. Don’t pretend to understand.”
Luo Jingyu understood and nodded.
Zhan Jie began explaining:
“Mom comes from a family of three sisters and one brother – she’s the second sister.”
“My grandfather strongly favored sons over daughters, as you can tell from how they named us. My eldest aunt was their first child, with a mild temperament, and my grandmother treated her okay. My younger aunt should have had lower status than mom, but she was sweet-talking and clever, better at dealing with people, so grandmother liked her too. No need to mention my uncle – even though he was useless, grandfather still liked him best. Compared to them, mom’s position at home was particularly awkward. She wasn’t valued from childhood and wasn’t good at talking, quite annoying to others.”
“Maybe to get attention, mom took on most household chores from a very young age, cooking and washing for the whole family. But she wasn’t the type to do things without seeking credit – she liked to bring up these things to her parents and sisters. Eventually, she somehow made herself out to be the family backbone, as if the family couldn’t function without her. She wanted to manage everything, big and small, and her personality became increasingly domineering.”
“Grandmother died suddenly, and grandfather was sick for a long time. My uncle didn’t care at all, just flattered mom, so mom arranged for the three sisters to take turns caring for him, with her contributing the most money and effort. She would tell everyone how hard she worked and how filial she was, really enjoying people’s praise. And the result? When grandfather passed away, all the money and property went to my uncle, and mom and her sisters got nothing. During that time, both aunts blamed mom, outsiders mocked her, and mom herself was very angry, but what could she do?”
Zhan Jie squinted and took a drag of his cigarette, “After my grandparents passed away, mom’s source of pride became Huanhuan. Huanhuan… as you’ve seen, is very beautiful, good at studies, and sensible from childhood, never causing trouble. Among the seven children of my mom’s four siblings, she was the most outstanding, whether in career or marriage, mom had high hopes for her.”
Zhan Jie put out his cigarette, “Mom tends to overthink things and hold grudges. I think she might have thought ‘I wasn’t valued by my parents because I was a daughter, so I’ll make sure to value my own daughter.’ So in our family, I actually had it easier, while mom was extremely strict with Huanhuan. This could have been good, but mom’s mistake was treating Huanhuan like her personal possession. Whenever Huanhuan didn’t meet her requirements, she would get very angry, falling into the mindset of ‘this is for your own good, how dare you be so ungrateful.’”
“Huanhuan was very docile when she was young, extremely obedient to mom, but since she went to university, she’s grown a lot. You can see her changes. I think these changes are good – young people should have their own thoughts – but mom definitely doesn’t see it that way, so their conflicts have gradually become more intense these past few years.”
“So…” Zhan Jie patted Luo Jingyu’s shoulder, “Little Luo, this is my warning to you. Mom won’t be easy to deal with, I hope you’re mentally prepared. I’ve been through this myself, and although my marriage failed, most of that was my own fault. My sister is different from me, I’m quite confident about her.”
Seeing Luo Jingyu watching intently, Zhan Jie couldn’t help asking, “Don’t just keep looking at me like that – did you understand all that?”
Luo Jingyu was trying hard to absorb the information. While he might not have understood everything, he got most of it. He nodded at Zhan Jie, gently patted his chest, and then gave him a thumbs up.
Zhan Jie knew this meant “thank you” and didn’t say more, just responded with a “mm.”
Zhan Xi finally came back from the bathroom, and the three continued their journey.
They reached Fucun Town at noon. Luo Jingyu checked into a hotel in town, and the three had lunch at a restaurant. Afterward, Luo Jingyu went to rest in his room while Zhan Jie took Zhan Xi home.
Luo Jingyu had brought his sketchbook and markers on this trip, as he still needed to draw the modified design for the twilight flower dress. Back in the hotel room, he didn’t dwell much on meeting the parents, instead spreading out his paper and pens to start brainstorming.
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