TRCT_33

Chapter 33: Formal Attire

The next day was once again a clear day with gentle breezes and bright sunshine.

Having not reported to the shop for two days, Ji Qingzhou rather missed his tailoring business, so this day he rose early, leaving for work half an hour earlier than usual.

He had assumed that at this hour, Zhu Renqing might not yet have arrived, but as soon as he got off the tram, he saw that his own shop's door was wide open, the banner-curtain at the entrance fluttering gently in the wind, gleaming with brilliant white light under the morning sun.

"Good morning!" Ji Qingzhou strode into the shop with big steps. "I thought I'd arrive before you, but it turns out you beat me to it after all."

Zhu Renqing was cleaning up inside the shop. Hearing the voice, he immediately turned to look, and saw the boss dressed in a snow-white shirt walking briskly toward him.

He wasn't sure if it was because they hadn't seen each other in a while, but upon seeing Ji Qingzhou's clean, refreshing smile, he suddenly felt a kind of dazed sensation, as if the other man seemed even more radiant and dazzling than before.

The drowsiness of waking early vanished in an instant. He couldn't help but pause his movements, the corners of his lips lifting as he greeted him: "Good morning, sir."

"Mm." Ji Qingzhou walked over to the sewing machine, removed his cross-body bag, and asked: "Have you eaten breakfast?"

Zhu Renqing looked at him and said: "I have."

"Then have a bit more, pine nut candy I brought from Suzhou."

As Ji Qingzhou spoke, he took a paper bag out of his bag and handed it to him, then deliberately put the cross-body bag away into the wooden crate where the fabric was stored.

Nowadays, besides the usual scattered odds and ends, his bag also held a holstered Browning pistol, so he no longer dared to casually toss the bag around or leave it lying anywhere.

Zhu Renqing accepted the paper bag, somewhat embarrassed, and while Ji Qingzhou took the moment to sit down in a chair and flip through the order ledger, he opened the bag's mouth and peeked inside.

Inside were some sweets cut into small pieces; though they were a cold treat, they gave off an enticing sweet fragrance.

He couldn't help but swallow involuntarily. After a moment's hesitation, he leaned the broom against the shelf nearby, wiped his hands, took out a piece of the candy, and bit into it.

This rich pine-nut candy was made by selecting top-grade pine nuts mixed with white sugar and ground together; besides the granulated nutty sugar frosting on the candy's surface, it was also dusted with bits of red rose petals.

The texture, upon first taste, was delicate and crisp, while the aftertaste was rich and sweet—one could say it had everything: color, fragrance, and flavor all in full measure.

Zhu Renqing had never eaten such a delicious treat before; in just two bites he swallowed the candy down.

"Does it taste good?" Ji Qingzhou asked, looking up.

"Mm." Zhu Renqing nodded, licked the crumbs at the corner of his mouth, rolled up the bag's opening, and said: "I'd like to bring the rest back for my mother to try."

"Sure." Ji Qingzhou replied casually. Hearing him mention his mother, he then asked, "What I talked to you about last time, taking your mother to see a Western doctor, have you discussed it with her?"

At the mention of this matter, Zhu Renqing's expression immediately turned downcast: "I told you, she won't agree. My mother is somewhat afraid of foreigners."

"There are also hospitals run by our own countrymen, I could introduce you to one."

Such as that Renai Hospital run by Shen Nanqi's brother.

Zhu Renqing fell silent for a moment, then still shook his head.

"All right then, you two think it over carefully yourselves." Ji Qingzhou didn't press the matter further.

As an outsider, he didn't want to interfere too much in someone else's major life decisions—otherwise, should something go wrong, the blame might well end up falling on him in the end.

He promptly changed the subject: "Was there any business the two days I was away?"

"There was. Two orders." When it came to actual business, Zhu Renqing's spirits picked up.

He took out two notebooks from the drawer—one was the notebook Ji Qingzhou had given him, the other was a sketchbook specifically for drawing qipao designs.

He flipped the sketchbook back a few pages, then spread open the notebook, and said while deciphering the writing on it: "There's a customer named Yang Xinzhi who came yesterday to order a qipao, this one."

Ji Qingzhou glanced at his notes; the handwriting was crooked and uneven, mixed in with a few symbols Zhu Renqing had invented himself, which presumably only he himself could decipher.

"I told her, as you instructed, which measurements would be needed. She said she'd come by again this afternoon, and would pay the deposit then."

Ji Qingzhou picked up the sketchbook and looked it over. The new customer had chosen an indigo-blue ramie qipao, straight-cut silhouette, with a half-open front and low side slits; the trim was light blue, with lace appliqué designs at the hem and sleeve edges.

Overall, it was a qipao with a simple, conservative style that carried a touch of understated elegance.

The fabric and lining needed for this order were both available in the shop. Ji Qingzhou nodded and asked: "What else?"

"There's also one where the trouser seam came undone and needed mending. I sewed it up using this sewing machine, and charged two copper coins for it."

As he finished speaking, Zhu Renqing took out those two copper coins from the change box in the drawer, his light brown eyes looking toward Ji Qingzhou, faintly carrying a trace of anticipation, like a puppy waiting for its master's instruction.

"Not bad. You can handle some small tasks on your own now, quite capable."

Ji Qingzhou adopted an encouraging style of guidance, smiled, and said, "Looks like I can slack off a little from now on."

Zhu Renqing touched the back of his neck bashfully, restraining his smile as he said: "I still have much more to learn from you."

"That's right, there's still plenty for you to learn. All right, enough chatting with me, let's get to work."

Having said this, Ji Qingzhou took out the pre-shrunk silk gauze from the box, spread it out flat on the cutting table, and also took out the qipao pattern he had replicated a few days earlier. While laying out the fabric, he said: "Hurry up and sweep the floor, take out the trash, then come help me."

Zhu Renqing immediately responded: "Yes, sir."

·

That afternoon, Yang Xinzhi came to the shop as promised, gave Ji Qingzhou her measurements, and paid a deposit of two yuan.

Through conversation with the new customer, Ji Qingzhou learned that this lady had also been referred by Shen Nanqi.

The other party hadn't originally been particularly set on having a qipao custom-made; however, during this period, quite a few voices criticizing and mocking the new-style qipao had appeared in the newspapers. She couldn't stand the self-righteous rhetoric of those 'feudal holdouts'—the more they tried to restrict women's freedom of dress, the more determined she became to support and promote modern new fashions. That was why she had specially made a trip over early yesterday morning.

To her, this was an invisible war; in order to resist the discipline and indoctrination imposed on women by social customs and traditional moral teachings, even if it meant being pointed at and gossiped about behind her back, she was willing to serve as the vanguard on this battlefield.

To Ji Qingzhou, even though he understood that under the influence of Western trends, the tide of fashion was unstoppable, that women's sleeves in the future would inevitably grow shorter and shorter, and that skirt lengths too would change along with the times, he nonetheless admired from the bottom of his heart women like her who dared to charge forward as pioneers of fashion.

To do his part for this invisible war, he promised Ms. Yang that he would finish making the qipao within half a month and deliver it to her.

And so, under this momentary impulsive decision, his work schedule became considerably tighter.

.

Two busy days passed, and in the blink of an eye it was the weekend again.

Based on past experience, Ji Qingzhou knew that Shen Nanqi usually took the Saturday afternoon train back to Shanghai.

As it happened, the formal dress he had designed for Shen Nanqi had also just finished being drawn up, so that day he got off work an hour early, intending to go back and discuss the custom-order details for the dress with Madam Shen.

The timing worked out perfectly—by the time he got home, Shen Nanqi had just finished setting down her luggage and was coming down the central staircase with Jie Yu'an, with A' You following behind them.

"You're back quite early today!" Shen Nanqi saw him entering from the front hall and raised her eyebrows in greeting.

"I happened to have something I needed to discuss with you, so I left work early."

As Ji Qingzhou spoke, he stepped forward, glanced at Jie Yu'an, and asked, "Where are you two headed?"

"Nowhere in particular. The weather's nice, so I'm taking Yuanyuan out to get some sun."

Shen Nanqi answered casually, then asked, "You said you had something to discuss with me, what is it?"

"Your formal dress design is finished. Have a look at it."

"That fast?" Upon hearing it was about this, Shen Nanqi's curiosity was instantly piqued, and she no longer felt like going out to sun herself. She had Huang Youshu take Jie Yu'an out for a walk instead.

Hearing this, Jie Yu'an parted his lips as if about to say something, but in the end said nothing at all, walking silently alongside Huang Youshu toward the front hall.

As dusk approached and the sun sank in the west, the small parlor at the far end of the East Wing didn't catch even a trace of the evening sun, and was already cloaked in dim shadow.

When Shen Nanqi entered the room, she reached over and switched on the light, then sat down in the single black chair set apart from the others.

Ji Qingzhou sat down on the long sofa near her chair, took the sketchbook out of his bag, flipped to the page with the dress design for Shen Nanqi, and handed it to her, saying:

"Have a look. If there's anything you can't accept, feel free to point it out. If you don't like the overall design at all, you can just tell me directly, no need to be polite about it. I can give you a different design instead."

"Aren't we being formal." Shen Nanqi said with a smile as she took the notebook.

The moment she looked at it, she was drawn in by the garment drawn on the page.

It was still the same graceful, slender-figured model she'd seen before, but this time what she was wearing was no longer a qipao with a Chinese aesthetic, but rather a fully Western-style, waist-cinched dress.

It was a two-piece design with an "X" silhouette; the inner layer was a fitted-top, full-skirted strapless slip dress, made of what appeared to be a white satin with an excellent sheen.

The outer layer was a more everyday shirt-dress style, with sleeves made of double-layered sheer gauze, in what appeared to be a thin gauze material scattered with irregular prints or embroidery.

The puffy, gauzy lantern sleeves were neither too long nor too short, falling just past the elbow, and on her hands was a pair of white short gloves that fully showcased a lady's mysterious elegance.

The umbrella-shaped skirt was light and hazy, revealing the pure white pearlescent sheen of the satin underskirt beneath, which matched perfectly with the wide-brimmed straw hat adorned with cream-colored ribbon on the model's head.

At first glance, the silhouette and color scheme of this outfit leaned more toward youthful beauty, yet the round collar with its small V-shaped opening added a touch of mature, capable composure to the dress.

This gave it a style that was fresh and bright, while still retaining dignity and elegance.

Add to that the exaggeratedly styled hat and the pearlescent satin design woven throughout as a unifying theme, and wearing this outfit to attend a banquet would likely leave an unforgettable impression on all who saw it.

"This..." Shen Nanqi parted her lips, momentarily at a loss for words.

She found it hard to point out any flaws in this formal dress, yet she also felt she lacked the courage to wear something so fashionable and tinged with a sense of extravagance.

After a moment's contemplation, she finally said: "It's lovely, it really is, but with such a full skirt, wouldn't it be too grand for the occasion? And besides, with such a pure, clean color—is it really suitable for someone my age to wear?"

"Isn't your age exactly right for it?" Ji Qingzhou tilted his head slightly. "Mature, elegant, and beautiful. As long as you avoid colors and styles that are too childish or too aged, you can wear anything. There's no need for so many reservations."

Shen Nanqi was used to his mouth that praised her the moment it opened, and she sighed helplessly: "But this is, after all, the Lu family girl's birthday banquet, I can hardly go and steal someone else's spotlight..."

Ji Qingzhou didn't press the point further; instead, he picked up the sketchbook again, flipped two pages ahead, and said: "I designed an outfit for Lu Xueying as well. Would you like to see it?"

"You can show me that?"

"Of course I can. You're not my competitor in the trade, after all— what, are you going to steal my creative ideas?" Ji Qingzhou said with a light laugh, handing the notebook over to her.

The moment Shen Nanqi saw the dress drawn on the page, she let out a soft, sharp breath.

She immediately understood why Ji Qingzhou had told her she could feel free to wear her own dress without worrying about overshadowing anyone else.

In this sketch, the model was shown from behind, hand on hip, glancing back over her shoulder.

She wore a small black silk hat adorned with gemstones and feathers, with a veil that half-covered her eyes in front.

What she wore on her upper body appeared to be a fitted bodice, with a medium-gray silk triangular shawl draped from the front left side around to the back, tied in a casual loose knot behind her right arm and fastened with a pin.

Beneath where the shawl covered, was a dark gray, full skirt long enough to cover the tops of her shoes—its voluminous shape clearly formed from multiple layers of sheer gauze stacked together, with lotus-petal-shaped sheer gauze in a black-to-gray gradient overlapping asymmetrically at the back, all the way down to the hem.

And yet Ji Qingzhou seemed to feel this was still too plain, adding scattered star-like flecks across the gradient sheer gauze—likely intending to embed beadwork or sequins into the fabric.

Shen Nanqi studied the details on the sketch closely, her gaze drawn now to the black long gloves that covered the model's elbows, now to the veil that half-covered the model's face, marveling at how all these details could come together so perfectly.

Compared to Lu Xueying's outfit, her own dress used a mere two layers of fabric, and the skirt didn't even reach the ankles; aside from the rather exaggerated wide brim of the hat, the rest of it could practically be called everyday wear—something one could wear even for traveling or a holiday.

"Lovely, truly lovely!" After staring at the sketch for a full three minutes, Shen Nanqi finally exclaimed in genuine admiration.

Why hadn't she met a tailor with this much creativity and such impeccable taste back when she was young?

"No more worries now?" Ji Qingzhou asked, raising an eyebrow.

Shen Nanqi flipped back two pages and looked over her own dress once more, smiling: "Good, let's go with this one then."

"Then it's settled," Ji Qingzhou said, taking back the notebook. "In a few days, have Aunt Liang come by to take your measurements. Barring any surprises, I'll probably start work around the beginning of next month, and should have it ready for you by around mid-month."

"All right, you arrange the timing. As long as it's ready in time for the banquet, that's fine." Shen Nanqi nodded, then asked, "Going by your shop's pricing standards, what would the cost be for a custom-made full set like this, including the hat and gloves?"

"Twenty yuan." Ji Qingzhou quoted her the price he'd give a friend.

After all, it was a custom-fitted formal dress, made using hand-embroidered silk gauze and white taffeta, plus the hat and gloves on top of that—altogether, the cost added up to quite a substantial sum.

If it had been any other customer, Ji Qingzhou would certainly have quoted upward of twenty-five yuan.

A dress like this, if it were made at Yuxiang, wouldn't go for less than thirty yuan.

Shen Nanqi knew perfectly well in her heart that Ji Qingzhou had certainly given her a discounted price, and said pleasantly: "All right then, I'll have Aunt Liang bring the payment over to you in a bit."

Ji Qingzhou smiled, the corners of his lips lifting: "Thank you for supporting the business, Auntie."

Having settled the matter, he had just put the sketchbook back into his bag when the glass lattice door leading from the small parlor to the garden was opened from outside, and Jie Yu'an and Huang Youshu walked into the room, one behind the other.

A gust of evening wind blew in through the opened door, billowing the sheer curtains in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows into a large puffed-out shape.

"Back so soon?" Ji Qingzhou glanced down at his watch and said, "You've only been out in the sun for ten minutes."

"The sun's gone down." Jie Yu'an said unhurriedly, and with Huang Youshu guiding him, walked over and sat down beside Ji Qingzhou.

"How do you know the sun's gone down?"

"I can't see, I'm not lacking a mouth."

"That mouth of yours would be better off not growing at all..." Ji Qingzhou muttered under his breath, not daring to let Shen Nanqi hear his grumbling.

Seeing Jie Yu'an sit down right next to Ji Qingzhou on the sofa, their arms almost pressed together, Shen Nanqi was about to make a teasing remark about how well the younger ones got along, when suddenly she noticed something and let out an "Eh?", asking: "Yuanyuan, did you get your hair cut?"

"Mm." Jie Yu'an answered simply.

"He had it cut the day we got back from Suzhou," Ji Qingzhou answered in more detail on his behalf. "I noticed his hair had grown long enough to cover his eyes, so I took him to the barber to have it trimmed a little."

"If I'd known, I should have had it cut shorter—a little crew cut, easy and simple like A' You's. That way he wouldn't need to go back to the barber for another six months."

"……" Ji Qingzhou couldn't quite agree with that.

Just then, Shen Nanqi suddenly recalled something else, and turned to Jie Yu'an: "Speaking of Suzhou—the Su family girl, Su Shiyue, do you remember her? She used to live in the house right across from us. Years ago there was even almost a childhood betrothal arranged between you two. She's studying in the liberal arts program at Jinling Women's University now. She heard you'd been injured and had returned home, and a couple of days ago she even sent a letter to me in Suzhou, asking after your health. Would you like to see it? I'll go get it and read it to you?"

"No need." Jie Yu'an refused flatly.

"Fine, then I won't bother going up to get it either."

Shen Nanqi said, leaning back against her chair—it seemed she'd known all along he would refuse, and hadn't really planned on getting up in the first place.

It wasn't until the sound of children's laughter drifted in from the corridor outside that she perked up again, saying: "Sounds like Yuchuan and the others have brought Linglong back from their outing. I'll go take a look. You two rest a bit longer, you can also head to the dining room to get ready for dinner."

Ji Qingzhou said okay, and as Shen Nanqi got up and left, the parlor suddenly grew much quieter.

Ji Qingzhou relaxed his body, tilting his head back against the sofa, then rolled his eyes over to glance at Jie Yu'an, bumped his leg with his knee, and said in a lowered voice:

"That Miss Su, your childhood friend, huh? She's even sending you letters, and you're not even the least bit curious?"

Jie Yu'an's tone was cool and crisp: "Does that have anything to do with you?"

Ji Qingzhou hissed through his teeth: "I'm just asking casually, why are you so sensitive about it, do you secretly like her or something?"

Instead of answering, Jie Yu'an asked back: "Do you care so much?"

"Me? What would I care about?"

"Then why ask so much."

"Can't I just be curious?" Ji Qingzhou pursed the corner of his mouth.

Hearing this, Jie Yu'an fell silent for a full ten-odd seconds, then said in an even tone: "No."

Ji Qingzhou didn't quite catch it: "Huh?"

Jie Yu'an took another deep breath and said: "I currently have no one I'm romantically fond of."

"Oh." Ji Qingzhou responded, not quite understanding why he felt the need to emphasize this—after all, that wasn't even the topic they'd been discussing.

"No means no, I guess," he said, stretching lazily, then stood up and turned to the other man: "Get up, let's go eat."

.

After dinner, the two of them returned to the bedroom. Ji Qingzhou prepared the hot water for Jie Yu'an, and then, while the other man was taking his bath, took out his sketchbook and began racking his brain over it.

Tomorrow was the final deadline for those two design drafts for Lu Xueying, but he'd only finished drawing one set so far; he'd been thinking about the other for several days now without any clear direction.

He sketched a few random strokes on the blank paper, and just as the outline of a mermaid-style skirt began to take shape, Ji Qingzhou closed his eyes again, sighed, turned to a new page, and stared blankly ahead in a daze.

Suddenly, his unfocused gaze began to sharpen, his eyes finally settling on the vase on the cabinet—on the two blooming blue-purple irises within it.

T/N;

1). 'an indigo-blue ramie qipao, straight-cut silhouette, with a half-open front and low side slits; the trim was light blue, with lace appliqué designs at the hem and sleeve edges' and 'it was a qipao with a simple, conservative style that carried a touch of understated elegance'. The following are sketch and dress generated by AI based on the description for reference:

2). 'a fully Western-style, waist-cinched dress', 'a two-piece design with an "X" silhouette; the inner layer was a fitted-top, full-skirted strapless slip dress, made of what appeared to be a white satin with an excellent sheen', 'The outer layer was a more everyday shirt-dress style, with sleeves made of double-layered sheer gauze, in what appeared to be a thin gauze material scattered with irregular prints or embroidery', 'The puffy, gauzy lantern sleeves were neither too long nor too short, falling just past the elbow, and on her hands was a pair of white short gloves that fully showcased a lady's mysterious elegance', 'The umbrella-shaped skirt was light and hazy, revealing the pure white pearlescent sheen of the satin underskirt beneath, which matched perfectly with the wide-brimmed straw hat adorned with cream-colored ribbon on the model's head', 'the silhouette and color scheme of this outfit leaned more toward youthful beauty, yet the round collar with its small V-shaped opening added a touch of mature, capable composure to the dress', 'This gave it a style that was fresh and bright, while still retaining dignity and elegance', and 'the exaggeratedly styled hat and the pearlescent satin design woven throughout as a unifying theme'. The following are sketch and dress generated by AI based on the description for reference:

3). 'a small black silk hat adorned with gemstones and feathers, with a veil that half-covered her eyes in front', 'What she wore on her upper body appeared to be a fitted bodice, with a medium-gray silk triangular shawl draped from the front left side around to the back, tied in a casual loose knot behind her right arm and fastened with a pin', 'Beneath where the shawl covered, was a dark gray, full skirt long enough to cover the tops of her shoes—its voluminous shape clearly formed from multiple layers of sheer gauze stacked together, with lotus-petal-shaped sheer gauze in a black-to-gray gradient overlapping asymmetrically at the back, all the way down to the hem', 'adding scattered star-like flecks across the gradient sheer gauze—likely intending to embed beadwork or sequins into the fabric', and 'the black long gloves that covered the model's elbows, now to the veil that half-covered the model's face, marveling at how all these details could come together so perfectly'. The following are sketch and dress generated by AI based on the description for reference:

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