TRCT_41

Chapter 41: Changing Clothes

On the morning of the agreed day to pick up the clothes, Ji Qingzhou arrived at the shop half an hour earlier than usual, worried that Jin Bao'er might arrive early again like last time.

For someone running a business, letting a customer wait in the shop for the owner to open up was simply not polite behavior.

Events proved his decision correct—though they had agreed on nine o'clock for her to come to the shop and collect the clothes, Jin Bao'er arrived at the shop at eight fifty, riding in on the morning breeze of the rising sun.

"Boss Ji, are my clothes ready?"

Jin Bao'er, wearing a large-sleeved inverted-collar jacket and skirt set, still had her hair done in a single glossy black long braid today. What was different from their previous two meetings was that her makeup was much heavier.

He didn't know what cosmetics she'd used, but her face was powdered a flawless white, her lips painted a brilliant brocade red, and two patches of rosy rouge were smeared on her cheeks—it looked fine from a distance, but rather frightening up close.

As Ji Qingzhou handed her the clothes wrapped in bamboo-hemp paper, he couldn't help asking: "Is there some happy occasion today? Your makeup is done so heavily."

"A sister of mine told me that if you're going to take a photograph, you need to put on heavy makeup, otherwise it's as if you hadn't put on any at all." Jin Bao'er took the package without much concern, set it on the sewing machine table, and unwrapped it right there on the spot.

Ji Qingzhou was somewhat surprised: "You're going to take the photo today?"

"Mm, at the Mingying Photo Studio on this very street, they say it has the best photography skills in all of Shanghai, and the prices aren't expensive either.

"Actually I hadn't originally planned to rush like this, but there's just not enough time, isn't there—if I go today to take the photo, it'll still take about a week before I can get the prints, and they said registration closes on June fifth, so I have to hurry..."

Jin Bao'er spoke quickly and cheerfully, but the moment she opened the paper package and fixed her eyes on it, she was instantly struck speechless with astonishment.

The dress, identical to the design on the sketch, lay there neatly folded and squared away—aside from the fine texture of the fabric, nothing else about it stood out at first glance.

But above the dress, where the white lace gloves sat together with the vivid red rose hairpin, it truly caught the eye.

Though the rose was made of fabric, it was crafted with extreme delicacy—not the kind of flat rose made by folding and winding ribbon corners, but a red rose made petal by petal, sewn together to give it a three-dimensional, lifelike appearance.

Looking closely, each petal even had a different shape, size, and degree of bloom—truly a display of exquisite craftsmanship.

The petals overlapped and embraced one another, with a narrow red lace bow sewn at the base to conceal the stitching, after which fine copper wire was used to firmly wind the flower onto a small gold bobby pin.

The whole thing was a completely handcrafted, custom-made work of art.

As for the hand-sewn lace gloves, they too were exquisite and delicate—the lace pattern seemed plain and unremarkable at first glance, but on closer inspection turned out to be rose after rose, clearly chosen to match the theme.

These details truly delighted her; in that moment, Jin Bao'er felt as though she'd received an unexpectedly beautiful gift, and for a moment she even felt a flicker of the kind of touched emotion one gets from being earnestly cared for and cherished by family.

She could hardly wait to pick up the gloves and put them on, and after confirming they fit just right, she picked up the rose hair ornament again and admired it carefully for a while.

Then she lifted the dress, walked to the mirror to hold it up against herself, and turned her head to look at Ji Qingzhou: "Boss Ji, can I change clothes here?"

She gestured with her eyes toward the curtained-off compartment at the back.

Ji Qingzhou hesitated for a few seconds, then said, "If you're in a hurry, that's fine too."

"I trust your character." Jin Bao'er smiled gently, then lifted the curtain and slipped inside with the clothes.

Such behavior, not to mention in this era, would be considered somewhat bold even in later generations—after all, the partition leading to the back compartment was nothing but a curtain, without so much as a lockable door, and the shop owner and his assistant were members of the opposite sex who could hardly be called well-acquainted.

Ji Qingzhou shook his head, tidied up the odds and ends on the cutting table, and took out a robe that a customer had left in the shop the day before, requesting it be shortened, spreading it flat on the tabletop.

After measuring with a ruler the length that needed to be shortened from the hem, he folded the hem inward and pinned it in place with a large-headed pin, preparing to sew it later.

The shortening of this robe was something its owner had prepared specifically for the coming summer; once deep autumn arrived, it would need to be let back down to continue being worn, so it couldn't simply be cut off.

Just as he finished securing the hem, Jin Bao'er also came out having finished changing, walking toward the mirror as she said, "How strange—why did you even add a bust lining in front? It felt thick and soft to the touch, gave me quite a start when I first felt it just now, though it's actually quite comfortable to wear."

What else could it be for—if not for the fact that her bust measurement really wasn't quite enough, and he'd worried she wouldn't be able to carry off the presence this dress called for, he wouldn't have bothered with this extra step.

Ji Qingzhou sighed softly, set aside the work in his hands for the moment, and looked at her: "The waist was made a few centimeters larger for you. If it's too loose, it can be altered now."

"No need to alter it. The waist is a little loose right now, but once I've eaten a proper meal, it won't be loose anymore. Besides, there's still the sash, isn't there."

As she spoke, Jin Bao'er pulled the sash tight and casually tied a loose knot at the back, looking at her own figure in the mirror with growing satisfaction.

Originally, her figure was rather flat, her chest sparse, her shoulders narrow—none of it showed when wearing thick clothes, but once summer arrived and she put on thin garments, she truly looked skin-and-bones, as if she might sway with a gust of wind, making her head seem especially heavy in proportion.

The shoulder pads added to this dress, as well as the gathered puff sleeve design, both worked to conceal her figure's shortcomings—not only improving her head-to-body ratio and making her face look smaller by contrast, but also greatly enhancing her bearing and presence.

As for the two bust pads sewn into the inside of the dress, though Jin Bao'er called them "strange" with her mouth, when she actually looked at herself in the mirror, she felt herself instantly much more upright and full, finally possessing a touch of the radiant allure of the girl in the sketch.

But out of the entire dress, what she liked most had to be the full, naturally pleated skirt hem.

The hem, with its excellent drape, swayed back and forth as she walked, making her feel as though she'd transformed into one of those gracefully swaying modern beauties from Western paintings, and her confidence grew tremendously.

In short, she was thoroughly satisfied and couldn't pick out a single flaw.

However, after putting on this fashionable Western-style dress, Jin Bao'er looked at herself in the mirror and felt that her long braid and cloth shoes had suddenly become especially out of place.

"Boss, how was the hair styled in that picture of yours?" Jin Bao'er immediately picked up the rose hairpin and held it up against her hair to compare.

How would I know that? The hairstyle in the sketch was just something dashed off casually.

Ji Qingzhou thought to himself silently, wondering whether this young lady thought his shop was some kind of costume-changing parlor or something, what with all this changing clothes and doing hair.

Might as well, once he opened his fashion shop, set up a styling studio right next door too—and best have a photo studio nearby as well, clothing, styling, all in one, and could shoot advertisements on the side while he was at it.

"I'd recommend you take the sketch to the barbershop next door and have the owner there do it for you, his skills are quite good." Ji Qingzhou said evenly, tearing the page of the hand-drawn sketch from his notebook and handing it to her.

Hearing that she needed to go to the barbershop, Jin Bao'er furrowed her brow, her expression showing a hint of hesitation.

Ji Qingzhou could tell at a glance that she was hesitating over the matter of price, so he simply withdrew the sketch and said, "I'll take you over there myself. Since it's an introduction from someone he knows, he should give you a few cents off."

At this, Jin Bao'er broke into a smile: "Boss Ji, you really are a good person."

He then escorted his customer next door.

Boss Ge was at that moment cutting a customer's hair, so Ji Qingzhou took the opportunity in the lull to show him the sketch.

Even Ji Qingzhou himself couldn't quite make sense of the orderly-yet-chaotic updo in the sketch, but Boss Ge remained entirely calm and composed, studying the sketch for a good ten-odd seconds before turning to look at the long braid hanging down Jin Bao'er's chest, and said, "This updo isn't difficult. Once I finish up with him, I'll do her hair next."

"How much will it cost to get this hairstyle done?" Jin Bao'er quickly asked.

Boss Ge said leisurely, "Since you're a customer brought in by Mr. Ji, five cents will do."

"That works out fine." Hearing the price was so cheap, Jin Bao'er immediately relaxed.

Afterward, Ji Qingzhou had her sit and wait in the shop while he himself returned to his own store to get back to work.

After spending nearly an hour shortening the hem and sleeves of the robe, the task of ironing it was then handed off to Zhu Renqing.

Ji Qingzhou crossed one item off his work plan, picked up his teacup, drank a couple sips of coffee, rested for a short while, and was just about to get up and start new work when Jin Bao'er, having finished having her hair restyled, walked in through the doorway.

"Boss Ji, is this hairstyle I've got done well enough?" Jin Bao'er leaned against the doorway, deliberately angling her profile toward Ji Qingzhou, touching the red rose above her ear as she asked.

"Quite well indeed. Boss Ge's skill really is exquisite and outstanding." Ji Qingzhou set down his cup and gave his sincere assessment.

To be honest, when he first looked up and saw her new look, he too had paused slightly in surprise.

He couldn't help but sigh inwardly—indeed, aside from clothing, what could most transform a person's image was still their hairstyle.

Boss Ge truly deserved to be one of the very few hairstylists he could give his approval to; the hairstyle he'd done for Jin Bao'er was in no way inferior to those done by professional stylists of later generations.

Not only did it faithfully recreate, from the side profile, that carefully crafted sense of languid ease from the sketch, but it looked quite beautiful from the front as well.

Jin Bao'er's bangs, originally combed completely smooth and flat, were now parted four-six to the side, with the long hair divided into two strands, crossed and coiled from the crown of the head, then wound and secured at the back of the head.

Because her hair had always been kept in a braid, once let loose it carried some natural wavy curl, making it appear even more full and rounded when coiled atop her head.

And to create that romantic, carefree feeling of having just woken up without having combed one's hair, several strands had been deliberately pulled loose from the coiled hair, hanging down over her shoulders at varying lengths.

Finally, a vivid rose was pinned at the side of her left ear, and with that, a hairstyle perfectly matching the sketch was complete.

With her new hairstyle, Jin Bao'er's already striking and distinctive features suddenly became even more radiant and prominent, and paired with this boldly stylish and pretty dress, it could be said there was not a single flaw remaining.

At this moment, if she were to put on a pair of English-style high heels and don a pair of sunglasses, there would be little difference between her and a female movie star stepping out in public.

The only shortcoming was that her makeup had been applied a bit too heavily, but this hardly mattered—the camera lens naturally consumed makeup anyway, let alone the cameras of this era.

A black-and-white photograph that could capture a person's features clearly was already good enough; what mattered most was really just a sense of atmosphere.

Jin Bao'er was clearly quite satisfied with her current look as well, and afterward she counted out three yuan and five jiao from the money pouch she carried with her, placing it on the sewing machine table, saying, "It's only for the clothes made here at your shop that I pay so readily."

"Alright, I've received your praise." Ji Qingzhou smiled slightly, accepted the silver coins, and put them away in the drawer.

"I need to go get my photograph taken," Jin Bao'er said to herself, smoothing the hair at her temples, "This will actually be my first time getting a photograph taken, I'm a little nervous."

She took a deep breath, then smiled lightly at Ji Qingzhou: "Next time we meet, it'll be in the newspaper. If you happen to buy the Shanghai Daily, please do me the favor of casting a vote for me."

With that, she waved her hand and headed toward the door.

"Wait, you're not taking your clothes?" Ji Qingzhou wrapped the skirt she'd originally worn in with bamboo-hemp paper and hemp string, making it easy to carry.

The outer garment he left unwrapped, handing it to her directly instead, saying, "Drape this over yourself to block the wind."

Although the sleeves and hem of this dress weren't particularly short, he'd considered that since this was Jin Bao'er's first time going out in Western-style clothing, she might be self-conscious about the glances of passersby, and could perhaps use a coat draped over her to cover her arms.

"Thank you." Jin Bao'er draped the garment over her shoulders, raised a hand to smooth her hair again, and said with a slight press of her lips into a smile: "Once I've made it big someday, I'll introduce those wealthy people to come here to have clothes made. But, Boss Ji, if you don't want to invite romantic debts, you'd best not be too warm-hearted toward people like us."

With that, she turned and stepped over the threshold, walking briskly toward the road, and before long disappeared at the mouth of the lane.

Was simply handing over a piece of clothing really considered "warm-hearted"?

What sort of people did this girl normally run into...

Ji Qingzhou mused to himself, then turned and saw Zhu Renqing ironing a robe while glancing repeatedly in his direction, and reminded him: "Stop looking, focus on your work. If you scorch a customer's clothes, I won't be covering the cost for you."

"Sorry, sir!" Zhu Renqing quickly snapped back to attention, lifting the iron to check.

Fortunately the coarse fabric of the robe was sturdy enough that no scorch mark had been left behind, and he let out a long breath of relief.

He then flipped the robe over, and as he continued ironing, asked somewhat absentmindedly: "Sir, will you be hiring models again in the future?"

Ji Qingzhou pulled a new bolt of unbleached fabric out from a box, and answered offhandedly at the question: "If there's a need, I'll certainly hire one. We'll deal with the future when it comes."

"Oh." Zhu Renqing nodded, lowering his eyelids to look at the iron in his hand, feeling a touch of disappointment.

.

After finishing Jin Bao'er's dress order, Ji Qingzhou immediately put Shen Nanqi's formal gown next on his schedule.

Considering this was a banquet gown, and he needed to preserve enough surprise for the customer's first time wearing it, there was inevitably a risk of it being revealed while being made in the busy, ever-crowded tailor shop. So Ji Qingzhou only carried out the pattern-making and cutting work at the shop, while the sewing and pressing of the garment were done at home instead.

This way, it would also be more convenient for whenever Shen Nanqi needed to come try it on.

And so, over the following several days, he spent most of his time staying at the Jie family residence busy with making the gown, only occasionally going to the shop to deal with the piled-up trivial tasks.

The days flew by in ceaseless busyness, and in the blink of an eye two weeks had passed.

As June began, the weather grew increasingly scorching hot.

The afternoon sunlight blazed fiercely, and walking along the road lined with dense shade, bursts of cicada song assailed the ears.

Ji Qingzhou had just gone to a well-known hat shop on Fuzhou Road to have a round-crowned straw hat custom-made to Shen Nanqi's head measurements, and upon returning to the shop found Luo Mingxuan, dressed in a plain cotton long robe, brazenly occupying his seat, sprawled carelessly in the bamboo armchair.

He was fanning himself with his hat while forcing conversation with Zhu Renqing just to have something to say.

"Well well, young master Luo graces us with his presence today, to what do I owe the honor?" Ji Qingzhou greeted him as he stepped through the doorway, sweeping his eyes over the table and asking, "Or is it that the fabric I wanted has finished dyeing?"

"Hey, you're finally back, I've been waiting half an hour." The moment Luo Mingxuan saw him, his face immediately broke into a delighted grin, and he lifted his chin toward the table, "There, the crepe georgette—that color of yours that's not quite purple, not quite gray, if you look closely it even has a bit of a blue tinge to it. Those old master dyers at the dye shop tried matching that shade no fewer than ten times. I originally meant to give you it at cost price, but given the circumstances, I've got to add three yuan, fifteen a bolt."

"No wonder Taiming Xiang has such high efficiency. Fifteen it is then, let me check the fabric."

Ji Qingzhou didn't haggle over the price at all—after all, the gown he was making for Lu Xueying would earn him quite a bit, so a somewhat higher cost was only reasonable.

Walking up to the table, he untied the silk wrapping the bolt of fabric, revealing inside the main fabric for the iris-flower dress.

The grayish-purple crepe georgette was covered evenly with fine, delicate crinkles across its surface, the light gauzy layers overlapping to give off a hazy, gentle sense of high fashion.

He quickly unrolled the light silk and carefully checked it for any flaws or damage, uneven dyeing, and so on, and once he'd confirmed the quality passed muster and the color was fine as well, he readily took out money and paid.

Luo Mingxuan took the money but didn't leave, still occupying his chair as before, saying, "Let me tell you about something painful—our printworks venture has run into a huge obstacle, might just collapse right here."

Ji Qingzhou patted his arm, gesturing for him to go sit on the low stool off to the side, then asked in an even tone: "What happened? Sounds so dramatic."

Chased off by his hand, Luo Mingxuan obligingly got up and went to sit on the little stool by the door.

Then, fanning himself while speaking in a heavy tone, he said, "These past while I've been running around outside every single day, been to no fewer than five foreign trading houses, worn my shoe soles nearly flat. I've gathered merchants from England, France, Germany, Japan, America, every country, and not a single one of them is willing to sell us machines.

"I finally managed to find a British Jewish merchant willing to sell a secondhand printing machine, but then his quoted price was outrageously expensive. The funds my father allotted me to buy two machines could at most buy just one from him, and not even the fully automated kind either, some so-called semi-automatic flatbed screen printing machine, which in practice isn't much different from our manual screen printing.

"I'd also asked around before, don't those foreign printworks have some kind of rotary printing machine? I heard that machine is especially suited for large-batch production, that's the kind I want, but they won't sell that either. Ugh, I truly am at my wit's end..."

Luo Mingxuan finished speaking, got up to pour himself a glass of cool boiled water, tilted his head back, and drained it in a few gulps.

Then he sat back down on the stool, let out a long sigh, and looked at Ji Qingzhou: "I've arranged to meet the day after tomorrow with that Chinese comprador from Bell & Co., wanting to talk with him again about the price of the printing machine, but I really am no good at haggling with people. You're someone who runs a shop as the boss, so you must be better at business dealings than me, come along with me the day after tomorrow."

Hearing this, Ji Qingzhou frowned; he wasn't particularly good at this either.

He was just a creative designer, wasn't he—his work in the modern era had been all about putting his head down and grinding away, where would he have gotten any experience in business negotiation!

If he'd been any good at business dealings, he wouldn't have gone to so many silk and satin shops in the first place only to fail to sell even a few sketches.

By rights, someone as glib and eloquent as Luo Mingxuan ought to be a natural at business talks—who would have known he was just as hopeless as himself!

Well, wasn't this just great—the two of them between them couldn't manage a single deal properly, and yet who knew how they'd hit it off so readily back when they'd started this venture together—truly a case of two mismatched things somehow finding each other a perfect match.

Thinking of this, Ji Qingzhou met Luo Mingxuan's expectant gaze, tugged the corner of his mouth into a helpless expression, and shook his head.

Luo Mingxuan immediately understood what he meant, and refused to let it go: "So we're just giving up like this? No way, I don't accept that. Qingzhou, you're so clever, surely you must have some special idea?"

"A special idea? Let me think." Ji Qingzhou pondered for a moment, then said with a perfectly straight face: "I've got a gun in my bag, how about tomorrow you lure him into a back lane, I'll disguise myself as a robber and hold him up, then at the critical moment, you jump out and take the bullet for him. I'll try not to hit anything vital, and with a debt of gratitude like that on him, he ought to give you a discounted price."

"?" The more Luo Mingxuan listened, the higher his eyebrows rose, staring at him with a look of utter disbelief.

Rare indeed—even he found himself at a loss for words this time.

The two of them stared at each other, neither one saying anything.

After a full half-minute of silence, Luo Mingxuan said, "Did you feel that?"

"Feel what?" Ji Qingzhou blinked, "Your deafening silence?"

Luo Mingxuan actually caught his meaning, gave him a thumbs up, and laughed helplessly: "That's way too outrageous. Is there any other way?"

Ji Qingzhou clicked his tongue: "I'll just say it straight, trying to pull off some crooked scheme like that is useless. Better to bring in someone who actually knows how to negotiate business. You've got so many friends, surely there's someone among them with the right expertise?"

"A friend who knows business negotiation... I really can't think of anyone off the top of my head. Should I ask my elder brother?"

Luo Mingxuan scratched his nose and frowned, "But this is my first time starting a business on my own. I really don't want to trouble my family over it."

"Your venture's about to fall apart as it is, what's there left to save face over? Just bring your brother along, it's settled."

"That... that's fine then," Luo Mingxuan agreed reluctantly, then immediately raised his voice again, "But Qingzhou, you have to come with me the day after tomorrow too, to help me hold up appearances in front of my brother."

"What time? I have to accompany Jie Yuan to his acupuncture appointment in the morning."

"Afternoon—no, to be precise, dinner, at Yipinxiang on Tibet Road, having a proper feast."

"Alright then, come pick me up at the Jie residence when the time comes." Ji Qingzhou agreed.

In truth, he had not the slightest interest in business negotiations, but considering that he'd have to stand on his own two feet eventually and couldn't keep relying on the Jie family's connections to develop his career forever, he decided to go and see the world a little—better to pick up even one useful trick than none at all.

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