In the capital, Miss Song was the epitome of what a perfect lady should be like. While she was the most talented designer in the capital and hailed from the rich noble family, her modest virtue and pure image had a wide reputation. The more she spoke, the more people felt that Bai Yu Yan, who had climbed the social ladder to reach her current position, was pretentious and she had no knowledge about design.
“Mei Lin, what are you talking about? There are so many people waiting to learn needlework from you. Why would you waste your time on someone like her?” exclaimed Roulan while giving disgusted eyes to Bai Yu Yan who wasn’t given a chance to speak. Seeing the hint of agreement in the face of other people in the room, she felt her confidence soar and smirked, “People like her don’t have the brain to learn such skills, let alone know how to appreciate your kind gesture. So it would only be a waste even if you teach her.”
Mei Lin controlled the urge to throw back her head and clap her hands. Yes, this was exactly where Bai Yu Yan belonged, under her shoes. She wasn’t going to let her go easily for the humiliation she suffered at the spring banquet.
Pushing down her stretching smile, she solemnly stepped forward and held Han Ruolan’s arms as if to stop her from saying anything more before softly reprimanding, “Ruolan, you should not say things like that. Knowledge and skills should always be shared with more people. And if Bai Yu Yan can learn it from me, I’ll be more than happy to teach her,” saying she turned to Bai Yu Yan, ” But Bai Yu Yan you should correct your attitude and stop treating customers like fools.”
Her beautiful face along with the graceful movement and soft-spoken words made her look like a goddess in everyone’s eyes.
“Bai Yu Yan, consider yourself lucky. You better be grateful to Mei Lin. Do you know how busy her schedule is and how many people want to be her students? People wait for months and even years to learn needlework and design from her,” another girl said from the back. Afterall which girl didn’t dream of becoming Mei Lin’s student?
Before Bai Yu Yan could speak a word, she had already become the special privileged student of the charitable Mei Lin from the owner of Silver Closet. It stunned her staff, especially Manager Gao and Xiao Fan who was looking at the girls as if they had dropped the screw in their brain. Are they talking about teaching design to the Boss?
These scatterbrains, Manager Gao silently thought to himself and his eyes once again fell on the dress which was the cause of the whole ordeal. As if realization struck him, his mind went blank for a moment before his eyes widened. A chill ran down his spine, making him shiver in the hot summer.
“Can I speak now?” came Bai Yu Yan’s question when everyone was done giving their opinion. After the mess that was caused in her shop, she still had an uncaring smile on her face as she looked at them with tilted head and folded arms.
When the people waiting to see her reaction didn’t interrupt her, she gave a nod.
“I am truly thankful for the offer and would love to learn design from the talented Miss Song if I have the opportunity. Not only that, to those of the customers who are not satisfied with their purchase or feel that I have swindled them, but I also promise to you that today, you will walk out of Silver Closet with the complete refund for your purchase. But before that,” said Bai Yu Yan calmly and turned towards Manager Gao, “Manager Gao, did you still not learn how to handle the mannequins properly?”
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The scared Manager prayed he would not be fired after today before he gave a sheepish smile and walked to the glass display. He opened it, held the mannequin inside by its waist and turned it hundred and eighty degrees. After which he stepped back with the glass display open behind him.
Hearing that they would get the refund, the complaining customers were relieved and started wondering what Manager Gao was doing fiddling with that human-like doll. With the mannequin positioned correctly where it faced everyone, they finally realized they were looking at its back all this while.
A gasp left their mouth when the front part of the dress came into view. It looked like a hanfu but was different from the regular hanfu at the same time. Delicate embroidery of complex pattern coiled around the collar and the sleeves of the dress with a mix of sky blue and white. Colourful finest thread patterned over the white part added a glamorous touch to the simple looking dress. But most importantly the long thread embroidery made the fabric look like coarse linen which in fact was soft silk.
The simple yet refined dress was absolutely noble-looking that people couldn't take their eyes off of it.
“Wait, isn’t that the silk of Hexi?” exclaimed a woman from the crowd of onlookers, breaking the silence in the room.
Hearing her words, some of them frowned and looked at the fabric carefully with disbelief.
“What are you talking about? How can it be the silk of Hexi?” another woman replied with a frown.
The other people had similar disbelief written on their face and they didn’t take her words seriously. Not many people had seen it but they had heard of it and knew how valuable the rare silk was. They refused to believe that Bai Yu Yan could get her hands on it. Especially not the one before them.
“You must be joking. I bet a hundred gold that it is just a cheap fabric like what Miss Song said.”
“Exactly! I don’t believe that Miss Song cannot discern the difference between a cheap and expensive fabric,” said a man who was accompanying his fiance for shopping.
Although his words were unconsciously building up pressure in Song Mei Lin in the face of the risk of being proven wrong, she refused to believe that it was something so precious. Calming herself, her pink lips gave a slight smile to the man, making him almost melt on the spot.
“But just look at its design. I had never seen such art-like embroidery. Tch..what a waste to use it in that fabric,” one of them said with regret.
No one could deny the fact that it was a top-notch design. But no matter how good it was, as nobles, they would never consider wearing cheap fabrics on their body.
When everyone was discussing it, a slightly mature woman stepped forward and pinched the fabric between her thumb and index finger. She carefully rubbed the material as if she was examining it. After that she stepped back and seriously nodded, “It is indeed silk of Hexi. And it is of the highest quality.”
The ones who were betting earlier immediately shut their mouth. They recognized the woman as the wife of an official in the capital and knew that her maiden family was in Hexi. So they couldn’t refute her words since she would know about the Hexi silk more than them.
Damn, was it real? Everyone needed a moment to digest the fact.
Han Roulan and the rest were not any better. In fact, they had publicly mocked the fabric to be a rag so right now, their face turned red with embarrassment under everyone’s gaze.
“Madame Lu, do you mind selling this dress to me?” said the woman. Seeing that the Bai Yu Yan did not reply but only looked at her with amused eyes, she hurriedly added, “I am willing to pay double the price for it. I will pay three hundred gold taels.”
Seeing the turn of events, Song Mei Lin panicked inside. Never in her dreams had she expected that Bai Yu Yan could get her hands on the silk of Hexi while she was making a fool of herself all this while.
Bai Yu Yan looked at the beautiful girl standing before her and didn’t miss the shock and panic in her eyes. Fashion is all about creativity and she respected and admired people who had the skill and passion for the profession she was devoted to. Looking at Song Mei Lin’s overall outfit, she could see that the girl was indeed a talented one if she had designed and embroidered her hanfu herself. But it did not mean that she would let her barge in her shop and demean her creation without even having a full grasp of it.