Chapter 263: Unhealthy Cat

Compared to Liu Man’s happiness, at this moment, Tao Zhiyao was feeling very gloomy.

The method Yu Zhan taught her, which required her to feed her cat goat milk, did not work at all. No matter what she fed Pear, he wouldn’t stop barfing. Now, he couldn’t even drink water, and he was very feeble.

Tao Zhiyao, feeling pained, took the cat into her arms and told her driver to immediately send her to Yu Zhan’s pet clinic.

The pet clinic was at its peak of receiving customers during the afternoon. Even if one had to reserve a spot, customers still came one after another.

These past few days, Ye Ziliang, who had lost his job, had been voluntarily helping Yu Zhan in his clinic. He would be playing the front desk role as a desk and welcome the customers, helping the nurse do a part of her job.

Firstly, he would be making up for the film payment he owed Yu Zhan. Secondly, he wanted to find the inspiration for the second episode of “Vet’s Cuties” by whelming himself in the nurse’s busy assisting work.

Tao Zhiyao’s car parked at the entrance of the clinic, and she hurriedly rushed in with the cat in her arms. Her driver, who was worried about them, followed closely behind.

Ye Ziliang saw her, and she also saw Ye Ziliang. Not having the time to ask Ye Ziliang why he was here, Tao Zhiyao said to him, “Is Yu Zhan busy?”

Tao Zhiyao had always had a look on that read: “I have money, so I’m calm”. This was the first time Ye Ziliang had seen her be so flustered and anxious. He had also noticed the kitten in her arms, looking pained and weak; obviously, something was wrong.

“I’ll go urge him,” Ye Ziliang checked the time. The last customer had already been in for more than half an hour. Ye Ziliang remembered this customer deeply; she was a millionaire’s wife, who was here with her Ragdoll cat, and she wore all kinds of expensive items. When she reserved a spot, the sign-in chart said her pet was not having a good appetite and was barfing. She had already been here once yesterday, and Yu Zhan had examined her Ragdoll cat. He told her that there wasn’t a big issue, and she just had to be careful of what she feeds the cat.

As a result, she came again today. Yu Zhan invited her and her cat into the consulting room, and their discussion went on for more than half an hour. Fifteen minutes ago, the nurse also went into the consulting room. The door was tightly shut, so the conversation between the trio was unknown to the others.

Ye Ziliang walked to the entrance of the consulting room and could hear the faint conversation from inside. He knocked on the door, and the voices stopped talking. The nurse opened the door, and before she could hide the impatience in her eyes, she helplessly asked Ye Ziliang,

“What? Is the next customer here?”

Ye Ziliang glanced at the rich woman inside the consulting room. She was glaring at him with an unfriendly look, and the Ragdoll cat was in her arms. He then looked at Yu Zhan, who was sitting opposite her. Yu Zhan still looked calmed and unhurried, but the entire room’s atmosphere was not so well.

Ye Ziliang told the nurse and Yu Zhan, “Peach is here. Her cat seems to be in a critical situation.”

Yu Zhan heard his words, immediately stood up, and said to the rich woman, “Mrs. Qian, my results for your cat’s body check says that she is not sick. If you don’t believe me, you can go to other pet clinics to examine her again. Now, I have to welcome other customers. Xiao Jie, see Mrs. Qian out.”

TL’s Note: Xiao Jie is the nurse, although the author has never said it before.

The nurse silently rolled her eyes somewhere the rich woman couldn’t see her. She must’ve stepped on dog poop to meet such a great customer. This woman came to their clinic today just to argue against her boss!

Her boss had too much of a high-tiered style. How could he possibly argue against women? And so, he called the nurse in to help him argue… She gained one more responsibility.

The rich woman felt even more unsatisfied, “I was the one who reserved this time first. My baby’s still sick; how can you go care about other pets? This is your issue, and you have to pay full responsibility. You are not allowed to leave!”

Yu Zhan had already been sick of her. He was resisting his impatience before, but now that Tao Zhiyao’s cat was obviously sick, he could no longer tolerate this woman and waste his time.

“I admit that my medical skills are too low-tiered and that my level is not enough. My hospital has very bad conditions, and we don’t have enough staff or equipment. We cannot see what disease your cat has. Please go to a better pet clinic.”

Yu Zhan’s tone was gentle as always, but it was full of mockery at the same time.

Ye Ziliang felt surprised. What was wrong today? First, it was Tao Zhiyao, and now it was Yu Zhan. Every one of them was not like their usual selves.

He also realized that this woman was here to make a farce today. A bright idea flashed through his head, and he took out his phone from his pocket, sneakily turning on the filming feature.

Yu Zhan’s words instantly made the rich woman explode. She criticized him angrily, “I’m doubtful that you are even qualified to be a vet. You can’t even see this simple disease my cat has, and you wasted so much money of mine, giving my baby both injections and medicine. My baby has been in pain because of your quackery, and her treatment has been delayed for one day. She’s in an even more critical situation today, being lethargic and not having any appetite. If you don’t give me an explanation now, I will report your clinic for cheating money!”

The rich woman’s voice was very loud, and Tao Zhiyao, who was waiting outside, heard her words.

She walked over with the cat in her arms to see what was going on.

When Yu Zhan saw Pear, his expression froze, and he completely ignored the rich woman as he walked up to Tao Zhiyao. He said, “Give me your cat.”

Tao Zhiyao saw there was something wrong with Yu Zhan’s expression and immediately handed Pear over. Unexpectedly, the rich woman stepped in, planting her feet on the ground in between them to block the action, “I’ve said it just now. I reserved this time first! Why can she cut the line?”

The rich woman’s bossy look pissed Tao Zhiyao off.

As a wealthy daughter, nobody had ever dared to talk to her like that.

Before Tao Zhiyao could act out of infuriation, Yu Zhan told the nurse, “Calculate the total sum of Miss Qian’s consultation fee, medical fee, and medicine fee.”

The nurse intentionally used a very loud voice, “I remember it even if I don’t calculate it! Miss Qian has spent a total of 270 RMB today and yesterday, including the consultation fee of 20 RMB, the gastroenteritis test paper examination fee of 80 RMB, the antiemetic injection fee of 120 RMB, and the amoxicillin and probiotics fee of 50 RMB.”

This was the supposed “you wasted so much money of mine” that the rich woman had mentioned, and the rich woman looked a bit embarrassed. Yu Zhan said, “We are not going to cheat your money, and we are refunding you right now. Can you please step away? The blue cat this miss carries might have the Parvovirus. We will not be found responsible if your Ragdoll gets infected.”

The rich woman, as if stepping onto dog poop, immediately jumped to one side and avoided any contact with the blue cat out of fear, hugging her cat tightly as soon as she heard the word “Parvovirus”.

And Tao Zhiyao’s face instantly paled.

Yu Zhan finally took Pear from her hands. He quickly examined the cat with just his eyes. Tao Zhiyao asked him helplessly, “Does he have Parvovirus?”

Yu Zhan sighed, “There’s a huge possibility.”

Tao Zhiyao, as if the sky had collapsed, felt her legs weaken. Ye Ziliang immediately helped her so she could stay on her feet.

The Parvovirus was referred to by many as the cat plague. It was acute contact enteritis of cats, and the average death rate was as high as sixty percent. The smallest the cat was, the higher the death rate was.

“Let me further examine him.”

Yu Zhan said, then immediately walked into the examining room with the cat in his arms.

The nurse told Tao Zhiyao, “Don’t be too nervous. My boss is a really good vet. There was a cat with Parvovirus before, and he cured it.”

The rich woman smirked, “That’s a swank. He can’t even cure my baby.”

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Translated by: Sydney

Chapter 262: Hanfu Exhibition

Young girls were different from vulgar tycoons who didn’t pay the slightest attention to fashion. Young girls were at the time of their prime and they should wear the very best clothing! After all, their youth only lasted so long; if they didn’t dress nicely now, what other time would they get to dress up?

That was a viewpoint Zhong Jiangnan had always strongly believed in.

After he saw that Liu Man’s clothing were all cheap and bought from low-quality Taobao stores, Zhong Jiangnan felt pained because the cheap clothing discounted Liu Man’s beauty!

But this could also prove that Liu Man was indeed struggling finically, which would explain why she wanted to make money as a cyber star. Being a cyber star was not exactly the most high-tiered profession, but it did make quick money.

The truth showed, the older one gets, one’s perceptiveness and experience grew as well. Zhong Jiangnan was right; after Liu Man moved out of her original house, she did not bring the clothes of the former owner with her. So all her latest clothes were bought on Taobao.

Besides, she basically had no money left in her pocket at this time. Her most recent income had been spent on the makeover of the new warehouse. The weather was hot and she had to pay the workers’ cooling fee. Last week, she transferred the remaining 50,000 RMB to Lawyer Sun’s account and finally paid off her debt. Too much spendings and expenses required in every aspect of her life, and she couldn’t save any money. She didn’t have any time to go shopping and buy her clothes like other girls, and online shopping was the money-saving and time-saving alternative.

However, Zhong Jiangnan did not show his disgust for the cheap clothing. He patiently led Liu Man on a tour in his workshop.

The large space on the first floor of the villa had no internal walls. There was a fairly large table in the center. The tabletop was very clean, and the design drafts were placed in their respective folders based on their different types, clear at first glance.

Behind the table was a row of wooden shelves standing upright against the wall. The wooden shelves were covered with a dazzling array of fabrics. There were several plastic dummy by the left side of the table, which were covered with half-finished clothes. On the other side, there was a row of hangers with all kinds of clothes on them.

Zhong Jiangnan pointed at the black and red hanfu on a plastic dummy and said to Liu Man, “This is the fourth edition of ‘Autumn Moon over the Han Palace’, and it is very close to the sample clothes I am making. I only had to adjust the color and neckline. The actual color requires the red part of the clothing to be slightly darker, which will make it the deep jujube color.”

Among all the hanfus in the studio, this hanfu was, indeed, the most gorgeous and luxurious one; in Liu Man’s perception, these two colors were the colors worn by the queen.

Liu Man walked closer and saw that dragons and royal birds were embroidered with gold threads on the placket and cuffs. She whispered to herself, “It really is the queen’s Hui Yi, and it really is the true color of the ‘Han Palace’.”

TL’s Note: Hui Yi = an ancient kind of traditional Chinese coat.

Zhong Jiangnan heard her and was surprised that Liu Man actually knew about Hui Yi. This kind of technical term was unknown to people who had not studied the culture of the the Han Dynasty in depth.

He felt even more fond of Liu Man. This was the case with artists. Whether it was music or clothing, they had worked hard to create the resulting pieces. So they always hoped to meet people who understand their inspiration and intentions. Even just a few words could make them feel joyful and surprised.

Zhong Jiangnan asked his assistant to bring the contract to Liu Man.

So far, Liu Man had already signed a lot of contracts. She had signed three housing rental contracts, not to mention her contracts with the Westland Company, Galaxy Film and Television, and Xinchen Albums.

She was very experienced and quickly read though the content of the contract. Zhong Jiangnan signed the contract with her in his own name, and he would paid her the money directly. There were no problems, so Liu Man signed her name in the column of the second party.

Zhong Jiangnan also wrote down his own name, then, as if he had suddenly thought of something, he said to her,

“In addition to the cash of 25,000 RMB, I will gift you two sets of hanfus.”

Liu Man hurriedly waved her hand, “No, no, it’s alright,” she really liked Zhong Jiangnan’s hanfus, but she couldn’t take advantage of him by taking them for free. Zhong Jiangnan’s hanfus were too valuable, and any set of them exceeded 25,000 RMB, “We are already set on the prize of 25,000, so just paying me the money would be fine.”

The assistant to the side looked at Liu Man as if she was an alien. His boss rarely took the initiative to gift clothes. In the other few occasions, the receiver had always been extraordinarily happy to accept the present.

Liu Man was the first to refuse, and her solemn expression did not seem to be hypocritical and courteous; she only wanted to recognize the agreement between the two.

Zhong Jiangnan laughed. This girl had strong principles, and he liked that!

“I kept a lot of samples of my previous designs, and they are all piled on the second floor. The clothes have been left there for a long time and without anyone wearing them, the fabric easily decays and becomes garbage. I plan to do a big cleaning tomorrow to clean up these samples.”

The assistant was surprised. Right in the morning, Mister Zhong had told him that he shouldn’t be caring about anything else now and should focus on completing “Autumn Moon over the Han Palace”. Why was it that, in only a blink, Mister Zhong changed his mind and decided to do a big cleaning? Besides, the samples his teacher made in person were all delicate products and would never get out of fashion. They could even get put into museums as collections. How were they garbages?

Zhong Jiangnan glanced at his assistant, dignified. The assistant shrank his neck and immediately added on, “Mhm, these samples take up too much space. Coincidentally, your stature fits them. Rather than leaving them shelved and forgotten on a long-termed basis, it’s better to give them to you.”

The duo’s words were very cooperative and completely had Liu Man fooled. She thought of how such good clothes would possibly get thrown away and felt very unfortunate, so she accepted Zhong Jiangnan’s good intention.

Zhong Jiangnan told his assistant, “Go to the second floor and bring us ‘Xiama’ and ‘Sulian’.”

Every one of the haute couture he had designed had a completely unique theme.

Liu Man felt a bit diffident when she heard that these clothes had their own names. When she saw the assistant coming downstairs with the two sets of hanfus in his hands, she felt even more perplexed. Did Zhong Jiangnan really want to throw away these clothes?

Zhong Jiangnan didn’t give her the time to consider more. Picking up one set of hanfu in each of his hands, he showed the clothes to her and said, “‘Xiama’ and ‘Sulian’ are all tenuous designs for summer, and I designed them a long time ago, when I was younger. Now, you won’t be able to buy them in the market. They are called hanfus, but in fact, they are more leaning towards the daily modern era style but with some hanfu elements. They are made with boehmeria nivea, which is a breathable and cool material. Gudu, at the end of summer, still has a sweltering weather. The dress’s length is moderate, and if you wear it, it will probably reach your ankles and will not touch the ground. Next week, when you participate in the exhibition, wearing these two sets of hanfus will be the best choice.”

Zhong Jiangnan attached much importance to clothings. People relied on their clothes, just like how horses depended on saddles. He thought a piece of clothing was like the second face of a girl. Wearing cheap clothings during casual times was nothing; after all, Liu Man was naturally pretty, and nothing she wore could influence her beauty. However, Zhong Jiangnan didn’t wish for her to attend formal occasions with cheap clothes. Liu Man was his model; every action and word of hers also represented his taste.

This was why he insisted on giving Liu Man two sets of hanfu. He considered for Liu Man on all aspects. The atmosphere of the calligraphy exhibition would be serious and elegant, so wearing exaggerated and trivial clothings or gaudy and blooming clothes would not be fitting. Only a simple and austere dress would not violate the solemn atmosphere, keep a low-profile picture, and even give the judges a novel feeling.

When Liu Man saw the dress, she couldn’t say anything to refuse it at all; the dress was too pretty, and no woman could ever decline pretty clothes.

She continuously thanked Zhong Jiangnan.

Zhong Jiangnan laughed, “I hope my clothes can bring you good luck so your calligraphy works can get admired by the experts. I’ll meet you again in Gudu.”

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Translated by: Sydney & Isabella

Chapter 261: Professional Designer

Before they called Liu Man, Zhong Jiangnan first made one of his subordinates collect her information from the internet. This dig into her background surprised him.

This girl’s resume was too extraordinary!

From playing the piano to playing the Guqin.

From Capital Music University to Capital Uniersity.

She completely overturned everyone’s general knowledge of a cyber star. Now wonder her temperament was so fitting for “Autumn Moon over the Han Palace”; she, herself, was a super outstanding girl.

Zhong Jiangnan became more and more thirsty after this talented human being.

Like Tao Zhiyao, Liu Man was very shocked when she received the call from Zhong Jiangnan.

She had only knew Zhong Jiangnan’s full name from Tao Zhiyao and from netizens’ comments. When they introduced him, they usually referred to him using the “master” title. She had always thought Zhong Jiangnan was a character too far away from her.

But he lowered his posture and called her in person, inviting her to become his model.

Just another part-time job, coming at her unexpectedly.

In the past Liu Man’s memory, back in twelfth grade, Liu Man had considered choosing a major related to being a model, too. Her grades were barely enough to get into Capital Music University, so she was worried that she wouldn’t get in, and she must find a backup major.

At that time, she searched online the keywords: How to become a model.

As a result, she discovered that when people choose models, there was a hard requirement: One must be over 170 centimeters tall without wearing shoes.

If their stature didn’t satisfy this requirement, nobody would even look at their resume.

Liu Man was exactly 2 centimeters shorter than 170. Among the normal people, she counted as a tall one, but if she stood among professional models, she would still be a huge chunk shorter.

She immediately gave up on being a model.

Liu Man said honestly, “But I’m only 168 centimeters tall.”

Zhong Jiangnan, at the other end of the call, laughed, “You only need to wear my hanfus and take a set of photos, so you won’t need to be on the runway. There will not be any other models comparing statures with you, so 168 is enough.”

“May I ask how much the payment will be?”

“25k in one day. I think one day is enough. If you are not satisfied, we can still discuss about it.”

Liu Man felt that this price was very reasonable. After all, she only needed to take some photos. She said, “I am qualified for this job.”

Zhong Jiangnan loved Liu Man’s straightforwardness!

Sure enough, his foresight was accurate as always. Liu Man, unlike some young and charming girls, did not lift the price she was worth only because he needed something from her.

He, himself, was also a straightforward person, and he didn’t want to waste anytime on entangling about the price. He disdained these tricks and schemes, so naturally, he hoped the other side wouldn’t try tricking him, either.

“If you have anytime today, come to my workshop. We will sign the contract,” Zhong Jiangnan said.

Liu Man was just about to say yes before she thought of another point, and she asked, “May I ask, when will the photo-shooting time be?”

“The sample is still being produced. It will probably have to be next week.”

Liu Man immediately thought that it was unfortunate. Her regular script work had already successfully passed the second round, and she was about to enter the face-to-face testing phrase. Professor Su had already helped her buy the plane tickets so they could fly to Gudu next Monday.

She said apologetically, “Sorry, Mister Zhong. There is no way for me to be your model. I have something that directly collides with this job of yours.”

It was a bowl of cold water, pouring suddenly onto Zhong Jiangnan’s head. Just now, they were about to come to an agreement, and they were about to sign the contract. Why was there suddenly another thing happening?

Zhong Jiangnan didn’t want to give up on inviting such a good model. He used a negotiating tone, “We can change the time. You can take the photos after two weeks or even in the evening. We will do this quickly. Do you think that will work?”

Zhong Jiangnan was already fifty-years-old and was an elder, but he was begging her right now. Liu Man could not bear this scene and said honestly, “Next Monday, I will be at Gudu, participating in a calligraphy exhibition. I do not know either how long I will be staying in Gudu, and I’m afraid I will postpone your work.”

Zhong Jiangnan had just returned to the capital from Gudu, so he naturally knew that the National Calligraphy and Seal Cutting Exhibition was about to get hosted in Gudu. He also knew Liu Man was the famous calligraphist, Su Yi’s last apprentice.

Although costume designing was not industry-related to the calligraphy circle, Zhong Jiangnan still knew a little about calligraphy. At least he knew how much quality was in this exhibition. If she was able to get into the exhibition, it meant that her calligraphy level was almost professional. No wonder Su Yi would publicly support her and care for her on the internet, and he even transferred her to Capital University.

This girl was an angel descended from heaven.

Zhong Jiangnan originally thought letting her wear “Autumn Moon over the Han Palace” was glorifying her. Now, he realized that the truth was completely the opposite. She did not need to make herself seem more worthy with his expensive clothes at all. She could make any mediocre clothes on her body feel expensive, for she, herself, was unspeakably expensive and unique.

It was the hanfu and his honor if she was willing to wear “Autumn Moon over the Han Palace”.

Zhong Jiangnan believed she would definitely increase the value of “Autumn Moon over the Han Palace”, and so he said, “When the sample comes out, I will come over to Gudu with the clothes. We can tkae the pictures in Gudu. Luckily, the buildings in Gudu are very fitting to be the background.”

Liu Man didn’t expect that the other side was willing to step back so much for her. Where could she find some other reason to decline this offer?

On that afternoon, she came to Zhong Jiangnan’s personal workshop as promised.

His workshop was located in the artistic area of the capital. There was a gathering of large numbers of artistic workers in this place, mostly including painters and other types of professional designers. The entire environment was full of an atmosphere of literature, art, and petty bourgeoisie.

Zhong Jiangnan owned a two-floor redbrick mansion here with a super large yard. His assistant stood outside the building and had been waiting for her since a long time ago.

As soon as she entered the yard, Liu Man’s sight got stuck on the bouquets of flowers and piles of brocades here.

The assistant said, “These roses and hydrangeas have all been planted by Mister Zhong himself.”

“Are the petals on ‘Kuian’s’ hem from this pagoda tree?” Liu Man pointed at the huge pagoda tree in front of her.

The assistant was just about to answer when Zhong Jiangnan’s voice came from behind them, “You guessed right. Every ethnic group, no matter which kind, have always been decorating their costumes with flowers since ancient times. When I design clothes, I’ve always been used to drawing the shapes of the flowers by observing and taking ideas from real flowers. Excluding pagoda trees, I also have peach trees, pear trees, and cherry trees here. They look prettier in the spring.”

Liu Man turned around and saw a middle-aged man full of an artistic temperament. What attracted her attention the most was the ponytail he had put up on the back of his head. He surely was no longer young, and the black ponytail was mixed with some white strands, but his hair was put up very meticulously, like his designs; they were both constantly being optimized.

Zhong Jiangnan, smiling, reached out a hand towards her, “Hello, Miss Liu. I’m Zhong Jiangnan, and I’m very glad to meet you.”

Liu Man shook hands with him, “Greetings, Mister Zhong.”

After meeting Liu Man in person, Zhong Jiangnan was more than ever sure that she was the very incarnation of “Autumn Moon over the Han Palace”. Standing beside the flower bushes, her soft and charming posture looked exactly the same as the ancient beauties in cave paintings.

It was really unbelievable that a modern girl could have this temperament.

The only thing was, the clothes she was wearing were too cheap…

In Zhong Jiangnan’s entire life, he had been studying clothes. Out of his instinct that he developed because of his job, he would first study a person’s clothes when he met them first. Naturally, this was already not an era when one judged another based on their appearance. A piece of clothing’s value would never decide a person’s value. Some of the noveau riches with hundreds of millions of RMB would still wear sleeveless garments and slippers while walking on the streets.

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Translated by: Sydney

Chapter 260: Business Cooperation

Lin Zhi told Zhong Jiangnan when the sample comes out, he should remember to send Lin Zhi a few pictures of a model wearing it, for he wanted to see the final effect. If it looked fitting, he would make the female lead wear this set of hanfu in the end scene of the movie to bring out the theme of “Autumn Moon over the Han Palace” with the “Autumn Moon over the Han Palace” hanfu.

Zhong Jiangnan felt very honored seeing how the famous director attached so much importance to his design. Therefore, his supposed model was different from how people usually thought “models” were. This model was referring to a model that was only for Lin Zhi himself to look at.

Of course, with Zhong Jiangnan’s picky mind, a mediocre model would not be able to meet his expectations. His “Autumn Moon over the Han Palace” drew the essence from Western Han culture and was the largest result from his two years’ worth of researching about hanfu. Every single detail from his clothes could be published in papers.

He originally thought it was almost impossible to find a model that could be matched with this set of hanfu, unless this model came from the Western Han dynasty. This Western Han woman could not be a mediocre person as well; she had to have royal blood. It would be enough even if she came from an aristocratic family. Her temperament would be the most important thing. Secondly, she had to have a good stature and good looks. If she couldn’t meet any one of the requirements, she would not be a match.

Wasn’t this an expectation that would only come true when pigs learn to fly? Zhong Jiangnan could only think about it inside. He was initially planning on putting “Autumn Moon over the Han Palace” on plastic dummies. Compared to those flirtatious models nowadays, plastic dummies were more reliable! Then, he would send the pictures to Lin Zhi, and that would be enough to work.

As a result, God sent this girl to be in front of him.

It was so incredible. She actually fitted all of his requirements!

Oh, no, excluding the one that stated she must be a royal from the Western Han. She was a modern woman, but she was born with a Western Han royal aura. Magical! Zhong Jiangnan believed that if she wore clothings from any other dynasties, she would not look so brilliant.

Hu Jie saw that her husband was a little excited. This expression often appeared on his face when he gets inspired. Hu Jie did not object to his yearn to find Liu Man as a model. After all, she had to find this girl and the person in charge of this “The Sisters” because she had already noticed a huge business opportunity.

“How do we contact her?” Hu Jie asked.

Zhong Jiangnan looked at his notebook with the three names again. These three people had all bought all the sets in the “Fenghua” series, and they all had significant identities. Whatever he did, he could not suddenly call them and ask them one by one.

The technology department head said, “‘The Sisters’ have an official Wei Bo account, and they listed a way to contact them. I will try calling this number and asking them.”

Hu Jie nodded, “Okay. Call them now.”

The technology department head tried to find the number in his laptop files, but he accidentally clicked onto Liu Man and Li Xiaoru’s duet video. This video had already been played on the meeting room’s screen just now.

The technology department head smiled apologetically and was ready to turn it off.

Zhong Jiangnan said, “Let it play. We can treat this as a meeting intermission, and everyone can relax while listening to ‘Jasmine’.”

And so, everyone watched the video again. When they reached the end, a list of the producing staff appeared. Zhong Jiangnan spotted a familiar-looking name at first glance.

Tao Zhiyao.

He then immediately looked at the name in his notebook.

So it’s her!

Zhong Jiangnan told his wife, “I know who the hanfus belong to. I’ll contact her now.”

The technology department head found the number on Wei Bo, and he asked, “Do I still need to call them?”

Hu Jie said, “Yes. These are two different matters! Go schedule a time with the manager in ‘The Sisters’, which I prefer to be today or tomorrow. I want to meet her in person and discuss our cooperation.”

And so, Tao Zhiyao and Sun Weiwei each received a phone call.

Meanwhile, Tao Zhiyao was in her house, feeding her cat, Pear. Pear had been in her house for four days now, but he was only in a good mental state on the first day. Later on, he got worse day by day. This morning, when he had his cat food, he actually barfed. Tao Zhiyao was in a terrible fix, calling Yu Zhan for help despite that it was early in the morning and he might be disturbed from resting.

Because the cat was not in front of him, there was no way for Yu Zhan to be sure what issue it was. He could only deem from his experiences whether it was because the cat was too young and couldn’t digest cat food. He told Tao Zhiyao to buy some goat milk or some goat milk powder and try feeding him that. If that did not work either, then she would have to bring the cat to his clinic.

Tao Zhiyao did not have anything such as goat milk or goat milk powder in her house, and the shops outside rarely sell these things. She made her driver run through all the supermarkets nearby before he finally got two cans of goat milk powder.

Tao Zhiyao had just brewed her goat milk and had only fed Pear one mouthful before Zhong Jiangnan’s phone call came.

She felt a bit surprised when she saw the caller ID, and at the same time, she also felt a bit annoyed. Now, her entire heart was on the cat, and she didn’t want to answer anyone’s call.

However, she still picked up, “Miss Tao, hello. I’m Zhong Jiangnan.”

“I know it’s you; I saved your phone number. Is there a problem, for you are suddenly calling me?”

Zhong Jiangnan could hear the impatience and the urge in Tao Zhiyao’s voice. He felt strange. In his impression, this young miss was a meeting-expectations rich lady, and she had always been very polite and cultivated.

Noticing that, Zhong Jiangnan didn’t small talk with her and got straight on topic, “I want to ask you, young miss, if you know a cyber star named Liu Man.”

Excluding the fact that she bought clothes from him, Tao Zhiyao did not have any other relations with Zhong Jiangnan. She didn’t expect at all that he would contact her for Liu Man.

“Yes, she’s my friend. I’ll send you her phone number now, and if you have any problems, you can directly go to her.”

Without waiting for Zhong Jiangnan’s reply, Tao Zhiyao hurriedly hung up.

She knew that her action just now was very impolite, but Pear had just spat out the goat milk she had fed him just now. How could she be in the mood to continue calling Zhong Jiangnan?

Zhong Jiangnan was stunned as he stared at his phone after she hung up. What was wrong with Miss Tao?

After approximately one minute, Zhong Jiangnan received the number sent by Tao Zhiyao.

At the same time, Sun Weiwei’s call ended, too.

She felt very surprised and glad. From “Happy Guo Guo” to “The Sisters”, it had been half a year since she started managing and operating internet team accounts, but she had not received any benefits at all. This was the first time she received a phone call from a business corporation, asking for a meeting, and it was Mister Zhong Jiangnan’s company. It was a huge company!

Obviously, this company wanted to cooperate with them.

A cooperation meant that there would be gainings.

How could Sun Weiwei not feel happy?

It was all because of this fake Liu Man, wearing hanfu! They attracted an investor.

Liu Man, ah, Liu Man. Do you know that this ancient miss who has replaced you is much more skillful?

Where are you now? Are you dead or have you exchanged bodies with her?

This was the question Sun Weiwei would contemplate about every night before she went to sleep before she guessed the truth.

If she died… When Sun Weiwei thought of this, a hint of sadness flashed through her eyes. She could only hope Liu Man, in heaven, could chose a smarter life to go to in her next life. Never act so naive again.

If they had exchanged bodies, then she hoped Liu Man would never come back.

She liked the fake Liu Man. If Liu Man returned, then she would lose this friend.

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Translated by: Sydney

Chapter 259: Asking Her

Apologies for not posting anything yesterday D: Today we are posting two chapters, enjoy!

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They had two main topics to discuss in their meeting:

Firstly, they needed to discuss how they were going to fasten their clothings production line.

Among the hanfus their company made, no matter which series it was, the sales had never increased so much, but nor had it dropped. They were also difficult to make. Therefore, there was a limited supply, and the products they had already made would never satisfy the number of orders they received. At this moment, the hanfus that were very popular on their website were either taken off the shelves or had unavailable sizes.

The manager that was responsible for managing the productions said that he had already told the factory, telling them that they needed to work overtime this week to fasten the process. By the latest, they would be able to make a batch of products on Monday.

Next, they were going to find out why there was a sudden exploding increase on the website orders!

What was more incredible was, until this exact moment, the traffic of the website was still increasing.

The technology department head that was responsible for the website’s operation came to the meeting with his laptop. He organized the website backstage data into a chart so it would be more convenient for them to objectively understand the situation, and he found the starting point when the traffic started to increase. It was at 8:02 p.m yesterday.

With the help of the buyers’ comments, the technology department head found that long Wei Bo post gossiping about hanfus, and he also found the Tik Tok account named “The Sister”. He watched the duet video of Liu Man and Li Xiaoru, and tracing to the origin, he also found the previous videos and pictures of Liu Man wearing the other hanfus in the “Fenghua” series. He showed all of these files to his boss, Hu Jie, along with the other middle ranks.

“This girl is a very popular cyber star among the youngsters, and her nickname is ‘Hanfu Goddess’. She has worn hanfus in the “Fenghua” series in front of the camera five times in total. The first time she wore one, she was wearing Xianjin and acted in a Tik Tok student drama show; The second time, she was wearing Xuange and Yuehua for a personal photo shoot, and she posted her photos onto Wei Bo; The third itme, she was wearing Kuian and was performing Guqin in a graduation concert for Capital Music University. The fourth time, she was wearing Coral and filmed that Tik Tok video I’ve just now showed everyone.”

“This netizen on Wei Bo that’s passionate about hanfus posted a passage to give a detailed description, introducing Chairman Zhong’s design, only because she wore all the hanfus in this series. With the trend going on because of this new video, the Wei Bo post went viral, bringing lots of netizens coming over to browse on our website.”

Hu Jie listened attentively and took notes. In her notes, her bullet points were all about “Wei Bo”, “Tik Tok”, “Hanfu Goddess”, and “The Sisters”. She surely was getting old and could no longer follow the trend nowadays. She hadn’t realized she could use such a marketing method to advertise the clothings her husband design and to increase the company’s benefits.

She said, “In fact, Zhong became viral because of the trend they created.”

She had just finished speaking when Zhong Jiangnan pushed open the meeting room’s doors and walked in. Excluding Hu Jie, all the staff involved in the meeting immediately stood up, looking at him respectfully, but also surprised.

Zhong Jiangnan had the “chairman” title in the company. In an entire year, he only appeared here on the day of the annual work meeting. Usually, he would either be in his workshop or traveling all over China. After all, designing costumes was art and required inspirations.

Zhong Jiangnan gave his wife the designing drafts and the sample clothes. He did not care about any other things.

Hu Jie once joked with her friends that her husband was like a an immortal fairy. He did not care about benefits and titles, rarely socialized, and drowned in his designs, unable to pull himself out.

Therefore, Hu Jie was also very surprised when Zhong Jiangnan suddenly arrived without notifying them beforehand.

Zhong Jiangnan said gladly, “Continue your meeting. I’m just here to spectate.”

Hu Jie hurriedly told her secretary to add a seat beside her.

It was only after Zhong Jiangnan was seated did the others dare to sit down.

Hu Jie exchanged glances with the technology department head, and he quickly continued talking about the materials he had collected, “Before we went out of these popular products, the number of orders we’ve received is equal to the total of one month worth of orders in normal circumstances. Even unpopular products are almost all out.”

The manager who was responsible for sales said excitedly, “According to feedbacks from our bouquets and shops, the sales in our shops in reality increased 60 percent, and our customizable products increased 20 percent. The product that is the most popular among them is ‘Coral’.”

Zhong Jiangnan smiled, “Before, ‘Coral’ was very hard to sell. Everyone complained about the color being too gaudy, and only three sets were sold until today. This girl showed her own style when she wore it, and it’s exactly how I had imagined it would look like when I designed ‘Coral’.”

It was not restrained to only ‘Coral’. Zhong Jiangnan thought his hanfu came to life because of her. People chose their clothes, but clothes also picked their owners. Magically, every set of hanfu absolutely fitted her. She perfectly mixed the classical elegance with the modern comfort and casual style.

She was like the model God delicately made for his hanfu designs!

Zhong Jiangnan asked the technology department head, “What’s this girl called?”

The technology department head said, “Her real name is Liu Man.”

“Liu Man…” Zhong Jiangnan said it out loud once, “She’s an unfamiliar face to me. I haven’t not met her.”

“Did you remember it wrong? All of the customers who buy our customizable products all logged in with their real name,” Hu Jie said. She wanted to contact this girl.

For all the orders that required personal customizing, Zhong Jiangnan would personally measure the customer’s body type to make the clothing size. Those tens of thousands of RMB also included the master’s service fee.

Zhong Jiangnan kept a record of all these customers’ sizes and data. He flipped open his notebook to see. In the buyers’ information for ‘Coral’, there had only been three buyers, and Liu Man was not one of them.

Zhong Jiangnan naturally wouldn’t think Liu Man was wearing a fake one. He had lots of confidence that nobody could ever fake his clothes. Then, her hanfu must’ve belonged to one of these three buyers.

Hu Jie, seeing that her husband was pondering about something, asked him, “What thoughts do you have?”

Zhong Jiangnan said, “I would like her to be my model.”

Hu Jie was shocked, “Haven’t you always disdained to use models?”

Zhong Jiangnan’s newest design, the “Autumn Moon over the Han Palace” series, was about to face the world. For the first half of this year, he had been living in Gudu, going to all kinds of museums and ancient ruins, talking to all kinds of archeologists and history experts, and scrolling through all related ancient records just to find his inspiration. Therefore, although half of this year had already passed, there had been no new hanfu products coming out in their company.

Before, Zhong Jiangnan had never tried to find a model. He had stable customers, so every time his samples come out, there would naturally be people willing to buy it with a huge amount of money. He was never worried about the sales.

However, this time, he attached lots of importance to “Autumn Moon over the Han Palace”. Excluding the huge amount of energy and painstaking effort he had put into “Autumn Moon over the Han Palace”, another reason was that his design coincidentally had the same name as the new movie the internationally well-known director, Lin Zhi, was filming in Gudu right now.

Through some referrals, he met with Lin Zhi in Gudu and had a meal together. After Lin Zhi had a look at his designing rough drafts, he showed a high approval of Zhong Jiangnan’s hanfu.

Lin Zhi said that if he had known Zhong Jiangnan earlier, the female lead’s costumes would definitely be his hanfus in “Autumn Moon over the Han Palace”. Unfortunately, the movie had already started filming, but his designs were still unfinished.

TL’s Note: The title is too much of a spoiler. It was supposed to be “Asking Her to Become Their Model”. :’)

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Translated by: Sydney

VSROWDC Chapter 2 Part 2

Ji Zeyu changed into his Shining Future’s British-style uniform. The color of the jacket was light blue with low saturation and he wore a pure white shirt inside. This uniform made him look more polished, combined with a sense of luxury and youthfulness.

If one only focused on his looks, one would have thought he would have no problem getting third place in the popularity polls.

Yun took Ji Zeyu into a nanny car. Sitting in the car was another handsome, chestnut-haired boy with clear skin and delicate features. His single eyelids added a touch of coldness to his looks.

Seeing Ji Zeyu get in the car, the chestnut-haired boy greeted him.

Ji Zeyu searched the information in his head and guessed that this person was probably named Qi Aodong, the strongest one among the five people sent by Starworld Entertainment. If it wasn’t for Ji Zeyu dragging him down, he would definitely be a member of Class A right now.

In the original, Qi Aodong deeply disliked Ji Zeyu but had to obey him because of the pressure from the company. In the end, he chose the path of justice and revealed all of Ji Zeyu’s dirty secrets.

Ji Zeyu greeted him with guilt: “Good morning, Aodong.”

Qi Aodong was slightly stunned, and Yun, who was sitting on the passenger seat, looked at Ji Zeyu through the rearview mirror in shock.

In the past, Ji Zeyu never even recognized Qi Aodong’s existence. Why did he suddenly change his attitude today?

“Well, it seems like you’re feeling good today, Zeyu.” Yun said softly, “Keep it up, and smile more in front of the camera as well!”

Being in control of their facial expression was the very fundamental principle of being an idol. Having his agent coax him to do it made him feel ridiculed.

“Yeah, I know,” Ji Zeyu nodded his head.

A hint of surprise flashed through Yun’s eyes—How is this kid so obedient today?

Outside the “Star Way Shining” program value marketing summit hall, fans were suppressing their excitement, waiting for the arrival of their idols.

When Ji Zeyu arrived, screams from his fangirls and supporters came from the audience.

Though Ji Zeyu had a bad reputation on the internet, his looks suppressed all the negative information about him. He had over 20,000 reposts with just one business photo, and it attracted a large number of fans before the show even started.

If one had looks, then their talents didn’t matter.

“Yuyu’s so handsome!”

“Yuyu, look over here!”

Ji Zeyu had already mastered the skill of facial emotion management. He maintained a sweet smile under the spotlight and casually walked into the room. In comparison, Qi Aodong had a pathetic amount of fans.

“How is it possible to stay in Class B with shitty talents like Ji Zeyu?” A Wei Yichen fan whispered in the audience.

Wei Yichen was the original bottom of this novel; he and Lu Nanyun were classmates. Even though they weren’t in the same company, their small interactions on the Wei Bo platform still attracted people into making them CPs.

TL Note: CP means couple.

Because of this, Wei Yichen became a target in Ji Zeyu’s eyes and was constantly picked on by Ji Zeyu. One could even see hints of their bad relationship in the show. There were even employees who said that the two did not get along well.

Wei Yichen was number 1 on the popularity poll, and he was also the center dancer in the theme song, so obviously, he had more fans than Ji Zeyu, not to mention his fans all thought that Ji Zeyu was bullying their idol. The two fan groups were already intolerant of each other.

Thankfully, her words were not heard by any Ji Zeyu stans, or else a battle would’ve sparked.

Ji Zeyu finished his makeup backstage and walked outside to see that there were stairs-like benches on the stage.

Qi Aodong had already found a space to sit in the corner, not wanting any more affiliation with Ji Zeyu.

Ji Zeyu looked around and saw two empty spots.

One of them was right next to Lu Nanyun. Ji Zeyu glanced at him and immediately walked to the other empty seat.

Lu Nanyun didn’t have much of a reaction, but an unnatural feeling flashed through his eyes.

After Ji Zeyu sat down, the whole place quieted down as everyone’s gaze settled around Ji Zeyu.

Qi Aodong silently stared at his back.

Wan Long, who was in the same company as Lu Nanyun, whispered to Lu Nanyun: “Did Ji Zeyu take the wrong medicine today?”

Ji Zeyu didn’t notice the tension. After he sat down, he suddenly realized that the boy next to him felt familiar; the boy was the person he walked into in the hallway.

“What a coincidence,” Ji Zeyu greeted him, “It’s nice to meet you again.”

The boy looked at him and said calmly: “Yeah, what a coincidence.”

Ji Zeyu could feel that everyone was distancing themselves from him, and their eyes all showed hints of fear; however, this boy was different. He might become his first friend in this world.

“I’m sure we all can’t wait for this,” The host walked up onto the stage for the opening, “Please wait a moment. Our live-stream is going to start very soon.”

“Wow, it’s even live-streamed,” Ji Zeyu poked the boy next to him, “then we really need to perform well!”

The boy nodded silently.

After the marketing summit started, the host introduced the sponsors enthusiastically, praised the ratings of “Star Way Shines” as well as complimented on the class A and class B students that were present.

“Then, next up, let’s have all the contestants show off their talents,” The host said while looking at where everyone was seated, “Let’s invite the current number 1, the most popular contestant — Wei Yichen!”

Claps roared from the audience, and Wei Yichen’s fans started screaming.

Ji Zeyu clapped along as he suddenly remembered. This name was the bottom main character in the original story. He was bullied by Ji Zeyu in the early episodes and held a great grudge against him.

Ji Zeyu planned to see who Wei Yichen was to avoid him in the future.

In the next second, the boy right beside Ji Zeyu stood up and smiled at the audience, bowing. He slowly walked up to the host.

Ji Zeyu’s face abruptly froze.

“Yichen, do you have any talents to show us?” The host asked.

Wei Yichen held up the microphone and said softly: “As the first contestant, I’ll perform a part of the theme song.”

“You’re only doing the theme song?” The host was skeptical, “Wouldn’t it be too simple?”

“Then… I’ll call on someone to dance with me. Is that all right?” Wei Yichen smiled, his tear-like mole seemed more and more charming.

“Sure,” The host nodded in delight, “I’m guessing you are choosing Lu Nanyun, since you guys have been classmates before.”

In the original story, Wei Yichen did actually choose Lu Nanyun. The pair finished the theme song fabulously, making Ji Zeyu jealous.

“You guessed wrong~” Wei Yichen smirked and looked at the contestants, “The person I’m choosing is…”

His sight was set on a certain someone.

“Ji Zeyu.”

The stoned Ji Zeyu suddenly felt as if he was split apart by lightning.

The theme song dance? He didn’t even have a chance to listen to the theme song since he just skipped over it.

He felt completely clueless! What was he supposed to do now?!

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Translated by: Puppxteer/Yutong & Jennifer

Edited by: Sydney

Chapter 258: Popular Hanfu

Music that could get in the Tik Tok background music leaderboard were all cyber songs that were viral in the status quo or cyber songs that had potentials to become viral. Coco’s songs, such as “The Untrammeled Traveler” and “Thinking About You”, had been ranked top ten in the leaderboard for a long time before. However, Coco was now on the path of becoming a mainstream singer. Her new songs had already been made into albums, so she hadn’t been posting her songs first on the internet.

And “Jasmine” was obviously not a cyber song. It was too formal, and it was more fitting to play it in large dinner parties at TV stations or in international friendship symphony concerts. Therefore, when the song squeezed onto the leaderboard and even won first place, some youngsters that did not know the truth and didn’t like listening to these old-fashioned songs thought there were bots spamming “Jasmine”.

However, the song name that was ranked first place still intrigued these youngsters, causing them to subconsciously click in. They wanted to see how magical this “Jasmine” was. If it was suspicious in any ways for being spammed, they would report it at any time!

And this glance made their hands couldn’t resist but uncontrollably clicked on the heart on the top right part of their screen.

How could this video be filmed so awesomely!

They felt embarrassed for their previous suspecting thoughts.

The quality of the video was HD, and it was very original. They did not use any filters, and the camera was set to one spot, aiming in one direction the entire time.

In the camera, the girl wearing a white dress sat on the piano stool while the girl wearing a peach-colored hanfu sat on the carpet. The styles were completely different, but it didn’t look contradictory at all.

“Hey, look, these two girls’ fingers can dance.”

“This is the first time I hear the Guqin version of ‘Jasmine’ and my first time hearing a duet version of ‘Jasmine’, with the Guqin and the piano playing together. It’s very refreshing.”

“Hahaha, same. I’ve always thought this is a godly Chinese song. When I went to school, it’s the music that gets played in exercise times between classes. When I started working, it became the music that gets played whenever work time’s over. When I go out on vacation, it’s the music that gets played when we board airplanes… My ears are growing cocoons from hearing this; however, now that I’ve listened to it again on Tik Tok, it sounds completely new to me.”

“I love listening to these old songs but remade creatively. It sounds very cool.”

“Never knew that you can play ‘Jasmine’ on loop for one whole day…”

…

Excluding the music itself, a four-minutes-long video was enough to let the viewers discover many details. For example, everyone could see that the background of the video was very luxurious. They were obviously in a mansion. People who knew pianos realized the white grand piano Li Xiaoru was playing was a very expensive Steinway limited edition.

“This white piano is worth 1,500,000 USD!”

“Wtf. Are you joking?”

“I’m very certain it is. I specially went on the Steinway official website to compare it with the images. It’s definitely a real one.”

“These sisters spent so much to film their video.”

“Didn’t you guys look at the list of producing staff at the end of the video? The videographer’s name is ‘Tao Zhiyao’. Someone on the internet has found that she’s a Bai Fu Mei. It’s possible that the piano and the mansion are pertinent to her. Oh, yes. Her Wei Bo username is ‘Peach is a fairy’. If you guys are interested in a rich miss, you can follow her.”

“Eh, making a rich miss become their videographer… Surely, they are a group of unique sisters…”

There were also audiences paying attention to that set of hanfu Liu Man was wearing. The peach color was too outstanding and shiny that people could not ignore it. Experienced hanfu fans who had been in the hanfu circle for a long time naturally recognized that the dress was Coral in the “Fenghua” series. Until now, Liu Man had worn all the hanfus in this series publicly.

To help the viewers who didn’t know hanfus well understand better, some hanfu fans posted on Wei Bo, carefully diagnosing the five sets of hanfu in the “Fenghua” series. The photos attached for each set were all Liu Man wearing them. After all, the prices for these five sets of hanfu were not quite affordable for everyone, and the seller only accepted private customizing. Normal people couldn’t buy them, and they couldn’t afford to buy them… There weren’t many pictures online featuring them, and most of them were advertisements, There were some buyers who uploaded pictures of them wearing the hanfus, but only Tao Zhiyao had managed to get all five sets, and Liu Man wore them in front of the camera.

To be fair, the public was very curious about all kinds of luxurious items. Bags, clothings, makeup, and skincare products were chased upon by women in all their lives. Or else, there wouldn’t have been so many chains of posts digging deep about those famous brands.

Therefore, this post from a hanfu fan gossiping about the hanfu instantly got followed by many people, and there were tens of thousands of people commenting.

“Every set of hanfu is very good-looking. I love Coral’s color the best.”

“I think Yuehua, with a plainer color, fits me the most.”

“They are too expensive… Even the cheapest one costs 58,000 RMB. I can’t afford any of them. =.= ”

“You can buy counterfeits.”

“I’ve searched through the entire Taobao, but I still haven’t seen a shop selling counterfeits of these.”

“Hehe. Zhong Jiangnan’s hanfus are not those shoddy hanfus on Taobao that only cost 99 RMB and do not require any transportation fee. When you wear those shoddy products, it seems as if you’re in a full-scale drama. The fabric materials are hard enough to defeat ninety-nine percent of the fabric factories, not to mention the designs and the working process. It’s not possible to counterfeit it. They sell it at an expensive price for a reason.”

“‘Fenghua’ is only for customers who want advanced customization. You can always buy Zhong Jiangnan’s other series that are already done. Yesterday, I went to their boutique and bought a set. It costs about five thousand, but it looks super good, too.”

“I can accept it if the price is five thousand, but I live in a third-tiered city. There are no boutiques that sell such unpopular clothes in the malls.”

“Zhong Jiangnan has an official website. You can directly order already-made sets online.”

And so, the top-tiered personal and official website of folk costume designer, Zhong Jiangnan, which was usually only visited by a small group of people, welcomed a huge wave of customers for the first time ever. The staff responsible for the website’s backstage management, surprised, watched the traffic increase on an exponential scale.

With the traffic growing, it also meant that the orders would be increasing.

On the day the hanfu Wei Bo post appeared, the official website had five times the number of usual orders. 

Even Zhong Jiangnan himself was stunned. 

Zhong Jiangnan was a man in his 50s. He spent most of his life overwhelming himself in the designing of folk costumes. When he was young, he designed 56 sets of dresses based on 56 folk costume unique characteristics. He was praised a lot by his superior ranks, and his dresses were used in all kinds of official international occasions and state visits. Thus, he was also well-known internationally and was specially invited as a designer to many luxurious brands. 

Zhong Jiangnan had only started studying hanfu in the past two years. He was a very earnest and discreet man. He had read through much ancient literature as well as checking cave wall drawings in Gudu and Xibei. He recorded hanfu details, and just these details could fill three whole notebooks!

Most importantly, Zhong Jiangnan had an open mindset and was not restrained to the tradition. He did not just try to recreate hanfu, but he designed new versions of hanfu according to the modern trend and habits.

Even if one walked on the streets in his new hanfu, they would only astonish the others and would not appear to be eccentric. This was a master’s level.

Zhong Jiangnan himself had already been very accomplished and won lots of titles, so he did not care much about his benefits. Him designing a hanfu was like a scholar, finding a topic to do research on. Therefore, he never cared about whether his clothes had lots of sales.

The costume company that was named with his name had been operated by his wife, Hu Jie. Hu Jie was a standard businesswoman that always put her benefits in the first place. 

On the second day after the sales of hanfus on their official website had an exploding increase, Hu Jie called over all the management staff in her company for a meeting.

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Translated by: Sydney

Chapter 257: Huge Increase in Popularity

After the fan count of “The Sisters” got over 10k, Sun Weiwei immediately requested permission to post long videos. Verification was going to take two weekdays, and in these two days, the fan count of “The Sisters” went over 200k.

Of course, the fan count grew so quickly because of outside support. After all, the fifteen-second video could not show anything else except their faces.

Firstly, Liu Man posted on her “Princess Man” Wei Bo account the introduction for “The Sisters”: “A few of my friends have made a Tik Tok account together named ‘The Sisters’. @The Sisters, this is an account that belongs only to us, girls. This account will regularly post content pertinent to girls. We hope we can gain support from everyone.”

Not only that, but Liu Man also filmed a short video in the Hanfu Goddess’s Tik Tok account. She filmed herself in person, and in front of the camera, she directly said the lines above while adding another sentence as an announcement, “The videos of Xiaoru and I playing together will only be posted on ‘The Sisters’ from now on.”

Now, Liu Man counted as a popular cyber star. Her words were very appealing to her fans, especially to the ones who had liked her for a very long time. They would do whatever Liu Man told them to do.

Besides, Liu Man got popular on the internet back then because of her astonishing performance with Li Xiaoru at the ensemble concert. After that, not a single other duet came from them. It could be said that this “Jasmine” meant some celebrations for many netizens that purely loved their instrumental performance.

Li Xiaoru reposted Princess Man’s post using her own Wei Bo account, “HeheHaha”. The supposed “exclusive video” was not to fool around with.

Yu Zhan also reposted Princess Man’s post with his Wei Bo account, “I’m a vet”, “Sorry to trouble everyone, but follow ‘The Sisters’ and give them a like.”

Because of “Vet’s Cuties” going viral, “I’m a vet”s’ fan count had gone over 700k now. Many new fans followed him because of his good-looking eyes and his handsome-looking stature.

Well, one’s appearance was the most important thing nowadays.

On the evening Princess Man announced her in-love relationship with “I’m a vet” in her live-stream, Yu Zhan revised his Wei Bo description: “Professional vet, pet clinic boss, Paul’s owner, Princess Man’s boyfriend.”

Mhm, pulling out haters straightforwardly like this… Those male fans who had sexual fantasies about the Hanfu Goddess were furious, but Yu Zhan had also resolutely stopped the other females from fantasizing about him.

His new fans were already complaining about Vet Yu already having a girlfriend. It was so difficult for them to become fans of a new male god, but this male god didn’t even give them a chance to fantasize about him. He announced to the entire world that he was no longer single. He was such a responsible and obedient boyfriend, willingly putting a “already has a girlfriend” tag on himself. What was more unfortunate was, his girlfriend was a publicly-recognized goddess! The new fans couldn’t even bring themselves to feel jealous, envious, or hateful…

“Ugh, I’ve already scrolled through my Male God’s entire Wei Bo account. This is the first time he puts an ad on his account, and he did it for his girlfriend!”

“I know you are a new fan at first glance. Us, the old fans, all know that his Wei Bo has always been revolving around Princess.”

“God Vet has always been spoiling his wife mightily. He acts cutely when he should act cutely, and he pours out money when it’s time to pour out money. He never hesitates.”

“They have only been in love for a short time, right? My Goddess hasn’t gotten married to him yet!”

“You, don’t bother to even daydream.”

“Luckily, I like Vet Yu because I enjoy this kind and warm feeling instead of him as a person, or else, I would definitely be crying myself to death right now.”

“I’m already on the brink of dying as I cry…”

“Same as the comment above me. (laughing to the point that I’m crying)”

No matter how upset the fans were feeling, they still obediently listened to “I’m a vet”s’ order and followed the official Wei Bo account of “The Sisters”. They also went on Tik Tok to search for “The Sisters”, followed their account, and dropped a like on their video.

“Vet’s Cuties” had brought Vet Yu viral. In comparison, Ye Ziliang, who was the director and the producer, was a lot less popular. However, because he had shown his face in the documentary and he was also quite good-looking, many viewers still followed him. 

His Wei Bo, “Leafy Breeze”, only had a few dozen fans before the documentary got released, but now he had more than 50k. After he resigned, he revised his description on Wei Bo: “Independent producer on the internet, director of ‘Vet’s Cuties’.”

Ye Ziliang wrote on Wei Bo: “@The Sisters is the Tik Tok account of the original behind-the-scene producing team. If you enjoy ‘Vet’s Cuties’, then you mustn’t miss ‘The Sisters’.”

A part of Ye Ziliang’s fans had closely examined the list of producing staff at the end of the documentary. Compared to the cute animals and the handsome vet, they paid more attention to the documentary itself’s quality and the behind-the-scenes staff.

“Then, aren’t they the same people as the ‘Happy Guo Guo’ people?”

“Not all of them. It’s obviously a new account made by the scriptwriter, Sun Weiwei, after she left ‘Happy Guo Guo’ and became independent.”

“This girl is very aspiring. She gave up on a huge account with hundreds of thousands of fans and is willing to start over again.”

“Just for this, even if I don’t use Tik Tok, I will download this application only to follow them.”

“Why do I feel like everyone today is talking about this ‘The Sisters’.”

“That’s because you are coincidentally following people all in one circle.”

…

Princess Man, Li Xiaoru, and I’m a vet’s guarantees fully promised the authenticity and officialism of “The Sisters”, bringing it huge amounts of fans and popularity.

Sun Weiwei saw that it was the right timing and posted the first Wei Bo post ever on the official account of “The Sisters”: “Here, we have a group of cute sisters. We are versatile and have lots of diverse tricks up our sleeves. One of them will definitely fit you.”

This Wei Bo post received tens of thousands of likes along with thousands of comments.

“I came here from Vet Yu’s recommendation post.”

“I want to watch Miss Princess’s performance!”

“I’m curious about the contents for your next video.”

“I used to be ‘Happy Guo Guo’s’ fan. Since ‘The Sisters’ came from the same stem, I’m definitely going to follow them.”

…

No matter if it was on Wei Bo or in Tik Tok, the fan count for The Sisters kept on increasing furiously, especially the fan count on Tik Tok. It almost reached the same fan count number as “Happy Guo Guo”s’ fan count now.

“Happy Guo Guo”s’ updating schedule had been paused the entire time. After school ended, it seemed to be completely dead. When it was at its best times, it only had a bit more than 650k fans. After Sun Weiwei quitted, half of it was cut down so it only had 350k. Now, only a bit more than 230k was left.

He Qisi seemed to have completely given up on this account, letting it die on its own.

Sun Weiwei had never contacted him ever again.

After receiving the permission to post longer videos, Sun Weiwei, in the first instant, uploaded the full version of Liu Man and Li Xiaoru’s duet.

The piano and Guqin version of “Jasmine”, which lasted 4 minutes, instantly went viral on Tik Tok. Not only did it had as much as more than 4 million likes, this version of “Jasmine” got chosen by many Tik Tok users to act as the background music for their short videos. Many of these Tik Tok users were well-known cyber stars.

And so, an old folk song that was not trendy at all and was out of fashion surprisingly got ranked first on the Tik Tok background music leaderboard. 

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Translated by: Sydney

Chapter 256: Exclusive Video

Liu Man and the others did not expect that Tao Zhiyao, who seemed to be in an argument with her brother and was in a bad mood, was resurrected with full HP on the next day. At 8 a.m, she sent messages in “The Sisters” group chat and woke everyone up.

“Hahahahahahaha, I have a cat now!”

She then sent dozens of pictures in a row featuring the cat from all different perspectives.

This was a blue cat that seemed to be just two to three months old. Because he was still too young, his hair was sparse. He had a pair of round eyes similar to Daylight and Moonlight’s eyes, but his pair of eyes was in a different color. Daylight and Moonlight had green eyes, and his eyes were yellowish-brown. They were all British Shorthair and had similar-looking five sense organs, but they had different hair colors.

“Wow (heart-eyes), the kitten is so cute!” — Li Xiaoru

“Your family permits you to have a cat?” — Liu Man

“Mhm. My brother probably gave it to me.”

There was nothing written on the box, and Tao Zhiyao came downstairs with the kitten in her arms. Tao Zhiwei was used to waking up early in the morning and had already left the house to head to the company. The butler said he didn’t know where the box came from either.

There were so few of them in her house. The only one who dared to quietly put something in front of her bedroom’s entrance would be her bro.

This apology was very sincere. She accepted it!

“I didn’t expect your brother to have a gentle side even if he looks so strict.” — Jiang Chengfeng

“Of course. In this world, only your blood-related family treats you the best!” — Sun Weiwei

When Sun Weiwei sent this message, she was intentionally testing Liu Man.

And she reached her goal. When Liu Man recalled Liu Chengyu’s disliking for her, she didn’t want to send anything in the group chat anymore. She actually really admired Tao Zhiyao for having a brother that loved her so much.

“Is the kitten male or female?” — Li Xiaoru

“Male.” — Tao Zhiyao

“What’s his name?” — Li Xiaoru

Tao Zhiyao had only started considering this question when Li Xiaoru mentioned his name.

“I’m Peach, so he’s Pear.”

“Eh, that’s a great name. Hello, Pear.” — Jiang Chengfeng

“Why do I feel like it’s a eunuch’s name.” — Miao Xiaomei

“Pear is definitely going to go through a sterilization operation in the future. He’s a to-be eunuch cat.” — Tao Zhiyao

After introducing everyone to her adored pet, Tao Zhiyao started officially working. She sent her video files from yesterday to both Jiang Chengfeng and Sun Weiwei for the later editing stage.

Because it was now summer break, Jiang Chengfeng and Sun Weiwei were able to put all their energy into the project. Therefore, in the late afternoon that day, they finished their respective tasks.

Sun Weiwei was responsible for uploading the final version of the video onto Tik Tok.

Because “The Sisters” was an account they’ve only recently signed up for on Tik Tok, they only had 8 fans, which were the six of them in the team, Yu Zhan, and Ye Ziliang. Tik Tok had a rule: Only when an account reached 10k fans could it receive permission to post long videos. Before that, they could only post short videos that lasted only 15 seconds. Sun Weiwei edited out the most outstanding duet part, the climax, that lasted 15 seconds. Jiang Chengfeng arranged subtitles for it according to her request.

Sun Weiwei was just about to post the video when she realized the fan count increased by 1 and turned into 9.

She subconsciously clicked open. This fan’s name was very arbitrary: “Wei(唯) Wo Du Zun”, and it was a Tik Tok account that just got made today.

TL’s Note: Wei Wo Du Zun = I am the most superior one

Sun Weiwei had no idea Tao Zhiyao’s brother was called “Tao Zhiwei”, so she didn’t connect the name to that man. She thought someone in their team convinced a friend to follow their account.

The phone page showed that the video was successfully posted.

Tik Tok recommended video types based on its viewers’ likings. The first episode from “The Sisters” was in the “musical instruments’ performance” type. Therefore, this short video was soon recommended to phones of users who liked this type.

Tao Zhiyao filmed from far away. Two silhouettes, one peach-colored and one white were the first to enter the viewers’ view. Everyone hasn’t even had the chance to see them clearly before they all got attracted to the “Jasmine” performed by the piano and the Guqin together.

The piece, “Jasmine”, was even more well-known than “Butterfly Lovers”. No matter one’s age or gender, everyone in the nation had heard of it. It could be said that this song was so popular in the country it was old-fashioned.

Sun Weiwei intentionally picked “Jasmine” out of all. She wanted a song that was so popular it was old-fashioned.

Because Sun Weiwei had the experience of making “Happy Guo Guo” become popular, she knew the viewers’ characteristics in this kind of short video application more than anyone else. People watched videos on Tik Tok to pass time, and they loved the content that was closer to life and easier to understand. If they had played those western ABCDE major concertos or ancient Chinese elegant music, fifteen seconds would be too short. Nobody would understand it to listen to it and watch it, and they wouldn’t want to think more to examine the video. They would quickly scroll to the next video.

To put it easily, what was prevalent meant elegance.

It was why “Shi-Senpai” from before would get so popular; He Qisi’s performance lacked too much sophistication and good taste.

Sure enough, as Sun Weiwei had expected, the “Jasmine” that everyone was so familiar with caught the viewers’ attention in an instant. As soon as everyone heard the familiar melody, they would fall into a trance and thought, Hey, it seems that I haven’t heard this piece in such a long time. Why don’t I spend fifteen seconds to review it once? I can also see what’s special about the performers in this video by the way.

As a result, when they watched it more closely, they realized that the two girls in the video were very familiar-looking.

Soon, someone commented: “Isn’t this the Hanfu Goddess and her roommate, Li Xiaoru?”

“I had to watch it a second time to discover that it’s really them two.”

“I had to especially click into this account that posted the video. It’s called ‘The Sisters’, and it’s a new account. ‘The Sisters’ has never posted any other video before. This is their first video.”

“Can this be the Hanfu Goddess’s alternative account?”

“There’s no need for the Hanfu Goddess to make an alternative account.”

“I don’t care. I’ve already followed it anyways! I’m following every account that’s related to the Hanfu Goddess.”

“I’ve also followed it. I’ve been surfing on Tik Tok every day, and this video is definitely exclusive. It’s the second piece combining the Guqin and the piano after the Hanfu Goddess and Li Xiaoru’s ‘Butterfly Lovers’ performance.”

“Last time, when they were playing ‘Butterfly Lovers’, the Hanfu Goddess was wearing a western dress. This time, she looks much better wearing a hanfu.”

“They’ve chosen the wrong song. The artistic mood is wrong. Hanfu Goddess is dressed like a peach blossom fairy, but why are they playing ‘Jasmine’?”

“You don’t understand. This is called a unique style.”

“Yeah. Do the two girls have to wear all white to be able to play ‘Jasmine’?”

“The Hanfu Goddess’s hanfu in peach looks too pretty. I think this is the best-looking set of hanfu she has worn out of all the ones we’ve seen her wear. Unfortunately, the video is too short. I haven’t even had the chance to look in closely before it ended.”

“The video owner put a page of words that flashed quickly at the end of the video. I screen-shotted it and changed it into my profile picture. Everyone, quickly click open it. He’s saying that if the account reaches over 10k fans, they will post an exclusive long video of the full duet.”

This comment was liked by tens of thousands of users.

And this comment was written by Jiang Chengfeng using an alternative account.

Sure, at the end of the video, there were words; however, it was only one frame. No matter how fast the netizens’ hands were, they would never be able to screenshot it. It was all a scheme.

And so, after one hour, the fan count of “The Sisters” crazily flew up from 9 to over 10k.

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Translated by: Sydney

Chapter 255: Perfect Brother

The Tao’s dinner went on in a difficult silence. Such a gigantic table with sumptuous delicacies, but only Tao Zhiwei was there, eating the meal alone.

Tao Zhiwei only took two mouthfuls from each dish before he had no appetite and could not eat anymore.

The butler, standing from far away, watched him put down his chopsticks, then turned to look at the tightly shut door on the second floor. In his entire career, the two siblings had always been courteous towards each other and had never been in a farce, This was the first time they argued and the first time there was a “silent treatment”.

Tao Zhiwei went upstairs and was prepared to go back to his room. He had just got on the first step before he couldn’t help but turn his head and stop the butler. He asked, “What does Yaoyao usually do at home?”

As a brother, his question was a bit ridiculous.

But Tao Zhiwei had just realized he did not know his younger sister at all. He wished to get some approval from the butler’s words.

However, the butler said, “The young miss had bought a camera online near her graduation ceremony. I was the one who signed the package. Ever since, she has always been going out early in the morning and returning late at night,” Being afraid Tao Zhiwei would misunderstand Tao Zhiyao again for doing useless things, the butler, who had always been discreet and never talked more than he needed to, justified for Tao Zhiyao,

“Xiao Zhao (Tao Zhiyao’s driver) told me that young miss has created a group with her group of friends. They filmed cyber videos. She was in charge of filming, and she has a huge work amount. She’s very busy, and today, she invited her friends over to borrow the piano in the living room to film a video.”

The butler took out his phone. People his age rarely watched videos online. Under Xiao Zhao’s guidance, he specially went online to download the 11th episode of “Shi-Senpai”, which Tao Zhiyao had participated in, along with the “Vet’s Cuties” that was trendy online, before saving them in his phone.

“Look, this is the young miss’ work. It’s very outstanding.”

Tao Zhiwei took over the butler’s phone and clicked open the video.

In the first video, he saw the only girl that dared to stare directly at him and smile in the group of people just now. In his sister’s camera, this girl was wearing a blue dress and looked incredibly beautiful.

He could imagine that his sister must really like her because every frame in the video contained lots of effort. The entire video was full of friendship and emotions.

The second video was about pets. It had a boisterous atmosphere with all the cats and dogs.

He recalled Tao Zhiyao’s words. She liked cats.

Yes, they’ve long known that she liked cats. Tao Zhiyao surely begged them a few times, for she wanted to have a cat. Every time, her request was rejected, and she had never mentioned it ever again since.

They did not expect this to become her obsession.

Tao Zhiwei felt deeply resentful. He didn’t know his sister knew how to film, and he had never cared about her hobbies. He admitted that he wasn’t a meeting-expectations brother.

“Later on today, tell the kitchen to make some sweet porridge and send some to Yaoyao,” Tao Zhiwei told the butler.

The butler nodded.

How could Tao Zhiwei allow his sister to starve?

Under his parents’ elite education, he, as a person, was a bit hardhearted, but that didn’t mean he didn’t love Tao Zhiyao. It was why Tao Zhiyao didn’t go out and work, but she still had so much allowance she couldn’t spend all of them.

All this money came from Tao Zhiwei!

Tao Zhiyao, lying on her bed, was like a dead body. Her eyes stared at the luxurious ceiling, going into a trance. She felt depressed and dispirited.

Before knowing Liu Man and the others, this was her usual status — A non-mainstream rich daughter that was incredibly indoor that didn’t like going outside and only liked playing with her phone.

She comforted herself on the inside. This was not a big deal, and there was nothing to feel angry or complain about. She should’ve already gotten used to it. Hadn’t her family always been like this, feeling so self-righteous?

In this house, she had always felt she was the extra one. She was the sour pickle that came along when they bought the box of the meal. Sour pickles were too sour and salty to be consumed, but it would be a pity to throw them away.

From her brother’s name, “wei(唯)”, it could be seen that their parents thought her brother was “the only(唯一)”. He was the unique one that couldn’t be replaced. As a result, after eight years, it was a mystery why they gave birth to her, the extra one.

From childhood, her brother had been more good-looking than her. He had been smarter and had a better personality, and he was the recognized successor in the family, bearing everyone’s hope.

Her parents had attached more importance to males rather than females. Their eyes were always subconsciously on her brother, and they put more effort into raising her brother. Her brother did not let them down and did well in all aspects. His entire path was excellent, and he had successfully taken over the company from their father, bearing the huge responsibility.

In their family, everyone couldn’t help but smile when they see her brother, and when they see her… Hehe, she was a freak.

Was she not ladylike enough and not upper-class enough? But no matter how hard she tried, she would never be able to be compared with her brother, and her parents would never give her one extra glance of praise.

It was like she would never be able to learn how to play the piano.

Tao Zhiyao buried her face into the pillow.

At this time, a faint piano playing came into her bedroom.

She could tell that the piano was playing “Jasmine”.

Li Xiaoru came back?!

Tao Zhiyao sat up, surprised and glad. Next, her shoulders sagged as she mocked herself.

This was her villa. The security was very strict. Without her in lead, how could Li Xiaoru possibly get in?

Tao Zhiwei was the one playing the piano.

Hehe. Her brother was exhausted from his long business trip, and he was still in the leisure mood to play the piano.

Although she thought that, Tao Zhiyao still silently pricked her ears and sneakily listened.

Playing the piano was, of course, a hobby used to pass time to people in a rich family, and it wasn’t something used to earn a living. However, Tao Zhiwei’s piano level was close enough to a professional pianist’s.

This was her brother. No matter what he learned, he could be the best. If her brother was ten years younger and went back to his “fresh meat” stage if he didn’t get in the business industry and had gone to Capital Music University to learn the piano, how would Tang Tu still be related to titles such as “The Chosen Musician” or “National Male God”?

Tao Zhiwei played “Jasmine” in a pitiful mood. He was indirectly apologizing to his sister. Unfortunately, Tao Zhiyao was tone-deaf. In her opinion, Tao Zhiwei’s “Jasmine” was no different from Li Xiaoru’s “Jasmine”. It was smooth, and they were both pretty nice to listen to.

She felt very drowsy as she listened. She had worked the entire day to film the video, and she argued with her brother. Her mental state was very exhausted.

Then, under Tao Zhiwei’s “lullaby”, she went to sleep.

Later on, the butler came up with some sweet porridge. He pushed a button to ring the doorbell and woke Tao Zhiyao up, “Young miss, the young master has told me to prepare some porridge for you.”

Tao Zhiyao still wanted to sleep and didn’t have the appetite to eat a meal. She didn’t even open the door and said drowsily, “Leave the porridge in front of the door.”

She then went back to sleep.

The butler thought she was still angry.

He honestly told Tao Zhiwei Tao Zhiyao’s status.

Tao Zhiwei felt very worried. They, as siblings, had never been in a fight before, and he had never fought with any woman. He did not know anything about his sister’s temper. What if Tao Zhiyao was going to keep on giving him the silent treatment?

After all, she could pretend to be a lady for twenty years!

After some pondering, Tao Zhiwei called his assistant.

On the morning of the second day, Tao Zhiyao, who had had an extremely good night of sleep, washed and changed before preparing to get downstairs for breakfast. As soon as she opened her door, she saw a delicate small box in front of the door.

She knelt out of curiosity and picked up the box. She had just opened the lid before a furry, small head popped out from inside and meowed at her.

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Translated by: Sydney