HSS Chapter 41
Translated by Novice Translations
Proofread by Yserieh
Chapter 41: Irresistible Itch
In a blink of an eye it was the weekend.
The two were going to see the house. When they left the house, Uncle Li hurriedly packed two umbrellas for them, saying that today's weather forecast had rain, and placed them in the car as spares to be used so they can avoid being caught in the rain.
Mu Xiaoya thanked him, took the umbrellas and drove away with Bai Chuan.
Half an hour later, the two arrived at the parking lot outside the workplace. Mu Xiaoya found Fang Hui's car parked there. Knowing that Fang Hui had arrived, she took Bai Chuan straight to the studio.
"Xiao Chuan, look, that's where I work." When approaching, Mu Xiaoya pointed to the direction of the studio and introduced it to Bai Chuan.
Bai Chuan seriously looked at the studio’s door where Mu Xiaoya pointed at, then replied: "I remember."
"Let's go in, Fang Hui has been waiting for us." Mu Xiaoya held Bai Chuan's hand, quickly walked a few steps, stepped up to the door and pushed it, and shouted loudly inside, "Fang Hui, we’re here."
"I'm in the materials room." Fang Hui's voice came from inside.
"Let's go inside." Mu Xiaoya led Bai Chuan to the material room, which wasn’t big. As soon as they entered, they saw Fang Hui, who was sorting leather.
"Yi, the materials and tools for customized leather shoes were delivered? When did they arrive?" Mu Xiaoya looked at the material room, which was more substantial than the previous two days, and was surprised. In addition to selling shoes online, their studio also included customization of high-end leather shoes, but the tools and materials for customization weren’t fully prepared.
"It was delivered yesterday afternoon." Fang Hui replied.
“Then why didn’t you ask me to come and organize them together.” Preparing the studio for opening, most of the work was done by Fang Hui alone. She didn’t do much except drew a few designs and felt embarrassed for a long time.
“Didn’t you go back to see your uncle and aunt yesterday? Anyway, I'm also idle, so I won’t hinder the couple from going home to visit their relatives.” Fang Hui placed the last piece of leather in place, turned around with a smile and saw Bai Chuan standing at the door at a glance.
"It's a hundred times better to see than to hear ah." Fang Hui sighed suddenly.
"What?"
"A real person is more handsome than a photo." Fang Hui quietly winked towards her friend.
Mu Xiaoya returned a proud look, then waved to the door for Bai Chuan to come over. She smiled and introduced the two to each other: “Xiao Chuan, this is my good friend and partner Fang Hui. Fang Hui, this is Bai Chuan, my husband.”
"Hello ah, Xiaoya’s husband." Fang Hui understood Bai Chuan’s situation and knew he wasn’t good at connecting with people, so she actively reached out to express her friendliness.
Xiaoya’s husband?
Bai Chuan's eyes brightened: "Hello." Bai Chuan raised his hand and touched Fang Hui's hand, then quickly put it down.
Bai Chuan's handshake was very short, instead it can be said it was a touch, but his action still surprised Mu Xiaoya: "Fang Hui, this is the first time I saw Xiao Chuan shaking hands with others, it seems he likes you very much."
"Really?"
"Really, last time we went to the cherry orchard, Nuonuo’s hand was raised for several minutes, and Xiao Chuan ignored her." Mu Xiaoya explained.
"It seems that I'm more charming than Liang Nuonuo ah." Fang Hui jokingly asked Bai Chuan, "Right?"
Unfortunately, Bai Chuan didn't answer her this time, just kept a light smile and stood quietly at the side.
Seeing Bai Chuan ignored her, Fang Hui wasn’t angry, and didn’t continue to ask. As Mu Xiaoya said, Bai Chuan was able to take the initiative to shake hands with her, she was already surprised. Fang Hui changed the topic and said: "You take your husband to tour our studio. There’s still a little bit of leather left to be organized. When I'm done, I’ll go out and find you."
"I'll help you organize it together." Mu Xiaoya picked up a box and walked to the shelf.
"It’s okay, hurry and get out of here." Fang Hui grabbed the box, then pushed Mu Xiaoya out the door. When Bai Chuan saw his wife left, he naturally followed her.
"I will be finished in ten more minutes, wait for me outside." After that, Fang Hui directly shut the door with a “pa”.
This person... Mu Xiaoya knew that Fang Hui was worried that if she helped organize, Bai Chuan would be left out, but where was Bai Chuan so delicate?
"Then... let's go tour the studio." Mu Xiaoya smiled and began to show Bai Chuan around the studio.
"The studio is in its infancy, so there’s not many people, plus there’s four people in total. This is my desk." Mu Xiaoya first took Bai Chuan to visit her desk, "but when I draw designs, I like to go sit at the coffee bar up front, it’s over there. Sitting there, you can see the outside through the floor to ceiling window, so that you can have a wider view and your thinking will become more flexible.”
"Behind us is our warehouse, I won’t take you there. Anyway, there’s only three shoes and you’ve worn them." Since buying those three pairs of shoes and going back, Bai Chuan has alternated between them instead of touching the other shoes in his closet. As if Daji* had entered the harem and there were no other concubines that could enter the Emperor's eyes.
(TN: 11th century BC – mythical fox spirit concubine of the last Shang Dynasty to Emperor Zhou Xin)
"On the right is the material room, we were just there. On the left is our reception room. It’s dedicated to receiving high-end customers who want customization. At present, we haven’t received external customers. But now that all the materials for customization have arrived, we should begin receiving guests; one after the other." Mu Xiaoya took Bai Chuan into the reception room.
The reception room’s theme was industrial style. There were many designs of shoes hanging on the gray walls. They were designs drawn by Mu Xiaoya and Fang Hui while they were in University. There were also samples published by some internationally renowned designers. There was a double sofa in the center of the room and a sand road around the sofa which was about 60 cm wide and covered with sand. There were pebbles embedded on both sides of the sand road and several cacti were planted in the middle.
In the room full of design sense, there was suddenly sand, which was very abrupt. As soon as Bai Chuan came in, he was attracted by the circle of sand.
"Do you know what the sand is for?" Mu Xiaoya asked deliberately.
Bai Chuan shook his head, his face a little curious.
"Come on, take off your shoes and go for a walk." Mu Xiaoya pointed to the sand road.
Following his wife's words, Bai Chuan took off his shoes and socks on the spot and walked barefoot on the sand. The sand road wasn’t long, and soon he was finished. When he walked one lap and returned to his initial spot, Mu Xiaoya held a pair of slippers and placed them at his feet.
Bai Chuan put on his slippers and looked at the circle of footprints he left behind.
“Did you know that everyone's walking posture is different, and the footprints you leave on the sand road will truly reflect your walking posture and the strength used by your feet while you walk. Look, the footprint of your left foot is deeper than your right foot, which means that your center of gravity is focused towards your left foot. When you drop your foot, the sole had a slight outer imprint, so the outer side of the sole is usually more worn than the inner side.” Mu Xiaoya analyzed Bai Chuan's footprints seriously.
Bai Chuan never knew that there would be so much information from his footprints.
"How was it, am I awesome?" Mu Xiaoya looked up proudly.
"En." Bai Chuan sincerely praised. He always knew that apart from memory and mathematics, he was inferior to Xiaoya.
Mu Xiaoya’s analysis just now was based on simple knowledge of human ergonomics, and even if you don’t know human ergonomics, as long as you’re good at observing people with some life experience, you can also analyze it. But Bai Chuan wasn’t the same. In some ways, Bai Chuan’s incompetence was like Mu Xiaoya’s understanding advanced mathematics. However, Mu Xiaoya enjoys the feeling of being adored by Bai Chuan and immediately felt that Bai Chuan’s incompetence was very cute.
"Sit down." Mu Xiaoya pressed Bai Chuan on the sofa, then ran to the tool cabinet on the side. She took out a flexible ruler, paper, and pen before then return to Bai Chuan and squated down.
"Can I measure your feet and make a pair of shoes for you?" Mu Xiaoya asked with her head raised.
"I have." Bai Chuan pointed to the shoes that were besides him that he had taken off earlier, indicating that he already had shoes designed by Mu Xiaoya.
"It's different." Mu Xiaoya explained, "I'm going to make a pair of customized shoes for you. I will customize this pair from start to finish. It’s not the kind of shoes that are mass produced by the machines in the shoe factory. It will be the only pair in the world."
"The only pair?" Bai Chuan likes this phrase.
"I'll measure you." Mu Xiaoya held up Bai Chuan's sole with one hand and began to seriously take measurements. The length, width and even the thickness of the sole were measured, as well as the measurement at every point, these were carefully recorded on a white paper besides her. After measuring the left foot, she worked on the right foot. Although the size of the left and right feet of a pair of shoes were the same, in fact, people’s left and right foot weren’t the same, so when customizing shoes, the left and right feet must be measured separately.
During the measurement process, Bai Chuan sat quietly on the sofa. He lowered his head and gazed gently at Mu Xiaoya's hands holding his feet. Xiaoya's hands are very soft and warm. While measuring, her fingertips will rub against the soles of his feet, which caused a tingling itch, like a burst of static electricity ran up to the top of his head along the backbone of his spine causing all his muscles to become tense.
Bai Chuan wanted to hide, but he was reluctant. He was greedy for this warmth, as if the whole person was held in Mu Xiaoya’s palm, tenderly and wholeheartedly loved.
"Relax the instep." Mu Xiaoya saw that Bai Chuan's instep was tense and subconsciously raised her hand and patted him gently. After Bai Chuan relaxed, she continued to measure until the measurements for the right and left feet were measured. She looked up and realized that Bai Chuan's face had turned red.
"Why are you blushing?"
"Itchy." Bai Chuan whispered.
"Are you still itchy?" Mu Xiaoya quickly put down Bai Chuan's feet.
"En." Bai Chuan still felt itchy. Even though Xiaoya’s hands had left the sole of his feet, the crisp numbness still haunted his heart, lingering, intolerable and reluctant. The ten toes in the slippers were tightly curled.
"Are your feet so sensitive? I was very careful just now." Mu Xiaoya muttered a few words. "Then you relax for a while, and I’ll put things back."
Bai Chuan nodded obediently and didn’t dare to look at Mu Xiaoya, because as long as he looked, he couldn't help but look at Xiaoya's hands, and when he saw her hands, the numbness of his heart would become heavier.
Before Xiaoya said to not touch her waist, was this why? No, it shouldn’t be, because I… don't hate this feeling.
Although itchy, he didn’t resist.
—
Author’s Notes:
In junior high school, Mu Xiaoya was addicted to shoujo manga.
"Ah ah, the man is so handsome, killer face, killer face, I'm going to have a nosebleed." Girl Ya screamed in the study holding the manga.
Youth Chuan, who read a book seriously, looked over nervously and found that the girl Ya was covering her face with a manga.
Youth Chuan was anxious, threw the book in his hand, and walked over and picked up the girl’s face
Maiden Ya: "Tear Man*!"
(TN: Internet buzzword that refers to a beautiful man who came out of the comic and the man looks like the protagonist of the comic – used to describe very handsome men)
Youth Chuan: "What about a nosebleed?"