CTF 0013

Xu Yin laughed. “Don’t worry! I won’t let you get beaten up by your sister over this.”

“I’m serious!”

“I’m serious too! If you don’t believe me, I’ll draw the design for you now. As long as I can draw it, my sister-in-law can make it.” 

Hearing this, Tong Guihua could finally feel relieved. “Then hurry, draw it.”

Xu Yin returned to the classroom and took her sketchbook out. She drew two designs for a dress that would suit the soft chiffon fabric. 

The styles that were popular nowadays were similar to each other.

Almost all of them had a white-trimmed collar with a V-neck, narrow sleeves, and a row of fake buttons on the chest. They all had a cinched waist, a large and thick skirt that’d allow them to look like a princess as they twirled and spun around in it. 

The first design that Xu Yin drew featured an off-the-shoulder neckline, ruffled sleeves, a natural waistline, and an irregular hemline with ruffled edges It’d make the wearer look youthful and beautiful.

The other design featured a small standing collar and three-quarter sleeves. It had no defined waistline, but had a paired red leather waist belt. 

“Woah! I like both of them!”

Tong Guihua propped up her cheeks with her hands. There was a lovesick expression on her face. 

“What a pity that I don’t have any chiffon. Xu Yin, this skirt design is only suitable for chiffon, right?”

Xu Yin nodded. “It’s better if it has a bit of texture. But if you have silk, the design can be altered to something like this. ”

As she spoke, Xu Yin picked the pen up and began drawing again. 

This time, she drew an improved version of the cheongsam, which was suitable for occasions such as engagement and wedding ceremonies. 

Tong Guihua held the sketchbook up and couldn’t bear putting it down. “Gosh, it’s so beautiful! Now I want it for myself!”

“…”

Finally, Tong Guihua chose the first design for her sister. 

She said, “My sister has a short neck, so her neck will disappear if she wears a stand-up collar. A flat collar suits her better—at least she’ll look like she has a neck. And if she uses the second design, but doesn’t wear a belt with it, won’t the dress look ugly, then? She’ll look like a pregnant woman wearing maternity clothes…”

The corners of Xu Yin’s mouth twitched. Did Tong Guihua get beaten up a lot by her sister at home? Why was she speaking about her sister so ruthlessly?

The orders that Xu Yin received this week amounted to far less than last week. Perhaps the tailors Tong Guihua mentioned had really taken away her customers. 

Except for the dress that Tong Guihua ordered for her sister, she only received orders for a total of four pairs of work pants and two white shirts. 

Two of the work pants, and the two white shirts, were ordered by two boys.

They said they were preparing for work after graduation. They complained that the tailors were too slow in processing orders, and they were afraid that they wouldn’t be able to wait for their orders to be completed.

Their orders were made because they were in a hurry, but they also helped her. Without considering that, though, Xu Yin simply accepted their orders.

From the depth of her heart, she gave them a suggestion: instead of work pants, they should order suit pants instead, and she’d give each of them a black bow tie as a bonus gift. 

Such a combination wouldn’t only be suitable for their first day at work, but also for future engagement and wedding days.

Xu Yin put even more thought and effort into Tong Guihua’s sister’s dress.

Xu Yin told her sister-in-law how to make the dress, and she did it. The two of them worked together on the dress and stayed inside the house for a day and a half during the weekend to make it.

Their efforts paid off when the dress was finally finished. Not only did it please the members of the Xu family who looked at it, even Xu Yin herself thought that the dress was absolutely gorgeous. 

On Monday, when they arrived at school, Tong Guihua heard that the dress was ready and couldn’t wait to take it out and show it off.

As soon as she did, half the class’ attention was immediately drawn to it.

The other half of the class were all boys. It wasn’t that they didn’t like the dress, but they were too embarrassed to stare at a girl’s dress.

“Wow! It’s so beautiful!”

“Xu Yin, your sister-in-law made this too? She’s so talented!”

Xu Yin was not jealous of the praises they sang for her sister-in-law. On the contrary, she felt proud about it.

“Of course! My sister-in-law’s needlework is great, right?”

“I think the most important aspect of the dress is the design, though. Those old tailors at the tailor shop aren’t bad at sewing, either, but they definitely can’t make a dress that’s as fashionable and unique as this one, can they?”

“Yeah. I bet even the department stores in Haicheng don’t sell this style.”

“It’s a shame that chiffon is really hard to find.”

“There are other fabrics that aren’t as difficult to find, but they don’t look as good as the chiffon does.” 

“Hey! You guys can talk all you want, but don’t touch the dress, alright!?” Tong Guihua painedly tucked the dress into her backpack. “You’ve all wrinkled it by touching it.”

“Hehe, Guihua, don’t be so stingy! You can still borrow the dress from your sister and try it on when you get home. We only get to touch it a bit.”

“As if. This is my sister’s new clothes for her engagement day. You can’t touch it anymore!”

“Okay, okay. By the way, that reminds me, my sister’s going to get engaged later this year. Why haven’t I heard her talk about making a new dress? This won’t do. I’ll have to go home and ask her.”

“I wonder if my brother has made a new dress for my future sister-in-law…”

“…”

Xu Yin only listened to them talk. When they suddenly fell silent, she looked up and found so many pairs of eyes staring at her. 

She subconsciously touched her face and asked, “What? What are you staring at me for?”

“Xu Yin, if my sister’s going to get engaged and wants to make a dress like this, can your sister-in-law make it?”

“Xu Yin, Xu Yin, I want to get in line too. My brother hasn’t found someone he likes yet, but my mom is already on the hunt on his behalf. When the time comes, I’ll definitely ask you to make a new dress for my future sister-in-law. I’ll find you then, alright?”

Xu Yin: …

Was it really okay to sell out your own family like this?

“Ahem. You should discuss it with your family first, then come and talk to me again if you really need it. Also, not all materials are suitable for this style. This dress needs textured fabric. If you want to use cotton or linen, it’d be better to make this style…”

Xu Yin had made a few new designs after the sketches that she’d made for Tong Guihua’s sister’s dress. These new designs were more suitable for fabrics like cotton and linen.

The girls were thrilled to see these designs. They liked it so much that they began to praise Xu Yin. 

“Xu Yin, you are amazing!”

“Xu Yin, how did you draw it? It’s so realistic!”

“How beautiful would the dress be if it really got made!”

“Aaah, I really want to go home now!”

“What’s the use of going home now? It’s not like you have those fabrics in your home.”

“My family does. My mother hid some fabrics and said that she’d make a dress for me when I graduated.”

“That’s for you to wear on a blind date, right?”

“Pfftt, hahaha…”

“By the way, Xu Yin, are you going to take the fashion design major in university?”

The question took Xu Yin aback. For a moment, she paused. Then, she smiled bitterly and said, “It’s hard to say whether I’ll even get admitted. It’s too early to talk about majors now.”

She wasn’t actually too worried about most of her study subjects, except Russian.

She always got a headache everytime she opened her Russian textbook. She knew the words on their own, but as soon as they were composed into sentences and paragraphs, they became as unfamiliar as alien languages to her. 

What troubled her more was that the next class was Russian!

She fully expected to have to struggle through the Russian class again, with a stern teacher who loathed her for not being good enough at the language, until an explosive news came. 

“Students, I’ve just received a notice from the higher-ups that Russian will no longer be included as a required subject for the college entrance exam for your grade—” 

“Woah!”

Even before the teacher finished speaking, the classroom exploded.

The students who did well in the subject and relied on it to boost their average were unwilling to accept this news.

Meanwhile, students like Xu Yin, who struggled with the subject, were overjoyed. “Aaaah! No more Russian on the exam? That’s great! We’re free!”

Tong Guihua looked even more excited than Xu Yin was.

“Why are you so happy about this?” Xu Yin asked. “Don’t you usually at least get 70 or 80 in Russian?” 

“Why wouldn’t I be happy? I’ll get to take one less exam! Only those who relied on Russian to boost their grades would be as unhappy right now. As a stone in a cesspool!” 

“…”