HSS Chapter 53
Translated by Novice Translations
Proofread by Yserieh
Chapter 53: Cares About Family
The next morning.
After breakfast, when everyone was about to leave for work, Mu Xiaoya suddenly called out to everyone:
"Mom, dad, older brother, please wait a moment. Xiao Chuan has something to say."
"Xiao Chuan has something to tell us?" This was unexpected. They looked at Bai Chuan, who was opposite of them, with great interest.
Bai Chuan stood up under Mu Xiaoya’s encouraging eyes, and looked at the three people opposite of him and began to apologize: "I'm sorry, but... I still don't want you to come to our housewarming."
"..." The smile on Mu Xiaoya's face froze. I wish I could yell at Bai Chuan, what do you mean by this sentence?
"..." The Bai parents: Is this an apology or a second provocation?
"Got it." Bai Zheng’s expression didn’t change. He wiped his hands with a napkin, got up and left. It wasn’t known whether he forgave him or not.
"Hehe, it doesn't matter, Mom and Dad aren’t angry." After Li Rong stiffened for a moment, she decided to ignore the second half of the sentence and only listen to the first three words.
"Yes, Xiao Chuan, don't worry about it." Bai Guoyu also comforted his son. This was the first time that Bai Chuan apologized to them.
"En." Bai Chuan, who was forgiven, looked happy and turned to his wife for praise. "I'm sorry."
"Yes, yes?" Mu Xiaoya didn't know what else she should say.
After coming out of the dining room, Bai Zheng tidied up his cuffs and walked to the parking lot, then started his car to go to work.
He exit the villa’s gate, then turned right going down the asphalt road. This was the same route Bai Chuan and he ran together every day. This one-way distance of 2.5km was exactly 5km. Every time they run to the traffic light in front of them, they will turn around and run back.
Bai Zheng stopped the car and looked at the road behind him with the rearview mirror. The road remained motionless for a long time. The traffic lights changed several times in front of him but was unable to attract his attention. Fortunately, there were not many vehicles on the mountain road of the villa and Bai Zheng’s stagnation didn’t cause congestion on the road, but it attracted the attention of the sanitation workers.
"Sir, is there something wrong with the car?" The uniformed sanitation worker came over with a broom and asked.
"No." Bai Zheng returned from his thoughts, subconsciously glanced forward, and saw the green light.
"Then go quickly and be careful not to be late for work."
"Thank you." Bai Zheng nodded and released the brake to proceed. After the sanitation worker left, he swept with the broom vigorously. His task this morning was only this last part of the road. Just now, the car stopped him from sweeping all the garbage this morning, now that the car was gone, he has to pack up his dustpan quickly or he won’t be able to make it to breakfast at home.
Bai Zheng's mood seemed particularly good. He opened the sunroof and allowed the sunlight and shadow to fall into the car without hindrance. His smiling face was satisfied in the flowing light and shadow.
You know how to apologize. You have some conscience.
The Bai parents were also in the same mood as Bai Zheng, but they weren’t as calm as Bai Zheng. As soon as they left the dining room, Li Rong rushed directly into her husband’s arms: "Lao Bai, Xiao Chuan... Xiao Chuan has us in mind, right?"
“Of course, Professor Feng said not too long ago that Xiao Chuan just didn’t know how to express himself, but in fact, he understands everything.” Bai Guoyu’s eyes were also a little hot. Although Professor Feng said this, over the years, apart from anger, they have never seen the smallest exposed emotion on Bai Chuan’s face, nor that he cared about them. Now that they clearly felt that Bai Chuan cared about them, Bai Guoyu could only feel happier than when Yifeng was publicly listed.
"In Xiao Chuan's heart, there’s not only Xiaoya, but also us." Li Rong was very relieved and happy.
"En."
"Good!"
Mu Xiaoya didn't know that Bai Chuan's awkward apology would have such a big impact on the Bai family. She took Bai Chuan to the car and went to work directly. When she arrived at the studio, Mu Xiaoya went straight to the workshop. The leather shoes she made for Bai Chuan were almost finished, and she wanted to be done with them today.
Mu Xiaoya was busy at work until noon and finally completed the last process. She admired them for a while and wanted to find a shoebox to pack them in. She will wait for Chinese Valentine’s Day in two days to gift Bai Chuan. But after searching for a long time in the workshop, she didn’t find a suitable box for the leather shoes.
Mu Xiaoya walked out of the workshop holding the shoes in her arms and asked Fang Hui: "Fang Hui, does our studio have custom shoeboxes?"
"Custom shoeboxes? Oh, I forgot about it." Fang Hui replied.
"No shoebox?" Mu Xiaoya asked stubbornly.
"No, the customized shoebox must be of good quality. I found a few of them before and wasn’t satisfied, then later I forgot about it." Fang Hui glanced at the shoes in Mu Xiaoya's hand, then asked in surprise, "Are they done?"
"En." Mu Xiaoya nodded with a smile.
"Show me." Fang Hui leaned over and took the leather shoes from Mu Xiaoya's hand, then walked outside to a well-lit area to take a closer look. Her harsh expression looked like a professional teacher correcting homework, "Your crimp line, the glue, this handiwork... are almost on par with my uncle's teacher who has worked in the factory for more than ten years."
"How can it be so powerful." Mu Xiaoya was very self-conscious and a self-learner. She had some talents in design, but she couldn’t grow this quickly without accumulating work experience for a long time. She just accumulated some experience in her previous life’s four years but compared with Teacher Fu from the factory who has more than a decade of experience, it was incomparable.
"I see your craftsmanship, we don’t need to hire an experienced craftsman for customization, just do it yourself." Fang Hui said.
"You want to exhaust me ah." It took her nearly a week to make Bai Chuan's leather shoes by herself. If she had to make every pair of customized shoes in the studio by herself later, wouldn’t she become too busy?
"I know you don't want to." Fang Hui was joking. "This is also the first pair of custom shoes in our studio. Later, I’ll ask Xiao Xin to take a picture later, then we will post it on our website. And your mother-in-law’s pair of high heels, when will you finish them? I want to post the pictures up together."
"Next week." Mu Xiaoya estimated the time.
"Such good shoes, must be equipped with a high-end shoebox." Fang Hui held her chin to ponder for a while and said, "I'll go talk to a few businesses."
"I don’t know when I’ll receive news when you go out to talk about it. I better go out and buy a shoebox myself."
"The shoebox I bought doesn't have our logo."
"It's okay, I will draw one later." These shoes are for Bai Chuan. Mu Xiaoya wasn’t persistent for the shoebox to have the studio’s logo on them, but seeing Fang Hui being so persistent, it doesn’t hurt to add it. Anyway, she has design skills, it was very simple to draw the studio’s logo on the shoebox.
"Eh, wait a minute ..." Fang Hui seemed to remember something, and suddenly turned around and walked inside. After a while, she took out four or five shoeboxes of different colors.
"These are sample boxes that I requested from a few online merchants. There is no logo on them, and they are solid colors. Check and see if they are usable." Fang Hui said.
Mu Xiaoya looked at them one by one, then finally selected the dark blue shoebox, and said: "This is good."
"OK ah, picked one of the most expensive." Fang Hui smiled.
"How much is it?" Mu Xiaoya was curious about the price of the shoebox that was the most expensive.
"One hundred."
"One hundred for a shoebox?" Mu Xiaoya asked incredulously.
"Yes ah, don’t just judge it by its paper case, the manufacturer said this shoebox is PITAILA’s special shoebox. I’m not very familiar or understand the special craftsmanship used." Fang Hui explained "However, I also like this shoebox, but it’s too expensive and I haven’t made a decision."
"It’s very expensive."
"Yes, it’s also extra to print our business’s logo on it. It’s a separate fee."
"Still more charges ah..." Have businesses nowadays always been so ruthless?
"I’ll think about it again, but this shoebox is for you first." Fang Hui gathered the other shoeboxes and put them aside. "I'll choose a few more when I look again. Anyway, we don't have any business for customized shoes yet."
"Okay." It really wasn’t urgent.
Mu Xiaoya took the shoebox, wrapped the leather shoes with a dust cover, and then carefully put it in the shoebox. The dark blue shoebox has dark lines underneath. You can feel the texture of the lines by touching it with your hands. In fact, it doesn’t need any other additional special traits, the current design of the shoebox is already beautiful. But since she promised Fang Hui, Mu Xiaoya began to work out a design. She looked at the smooth and clean surface of the shoebox, then after a while an idea came to mind. She got up and went back to the workshop to get acrylic.
Acrylic is a type of paint that can be directly applied to shoes and clothes. The colors were bright and wouldn’t become discolored. When Mu Xiaoya went to school, she liked to use acrylic to draw some small patterns on her white T-shirt and white shoes. In this way, not only was clothes’ price cheap, but also maintained her individuality.
Mu Xiaoya didn't want to paint the shoebox too fancy. She chose golden paint and painted the studio logo in the center of the shoebox. Then she simply wrote three words below:
TO: Bai Chuan
Finally, she wrote a small number 001 and her signature in the bottom corner of the box.
"Fang Hui, can you come and have a look to see if it’s okay?" Mu Xiaoya called Fang Hui over to admire her masterpiece.
"Have you finished?" Fang Hui ran over with coffee, looked at it and raised an eyebrow. "You painted with acrylic?"
"Yeah ah, the color is not bright enough with a colored pen." Mu Xiaoya explained.
"This is good, this won’t fade easily, and it gives off a high-end atmosphere." Fang Hui's eyes slid to the bottom corner of the box, then asked, "001, what does it mean?"
"001, it means that this pair of shoes is the first pair of shoes that I, Mu Xiaoya, customized."
"It also means that Bai Chuan is the first customer, right?" Fang Hui said silently, "You can also show your love with a shoebox when no one else has."
"I didn’t mean it like that." Mu Xiaoya couldn't cry or laugh, "I just want to record it."
"Just record it?" Fang Hui glanced at the number and signature at the lower right corner, and suddenly slapped her thigh and said, “This is a good idea ah, later the shoeboxes from our studio will record the serial number and signature. Let every shoebox have a serial number and the designer’s signature, like how every diamond* has a serial number? That’s right, that’s it, this is what I didn’t think about before.”
(TN: So an authentic diamond comes with a certification to tell you what the diamond “scores” are and a serial number. It’s the same concept but without the certification and only with the serial number.)
"Won’t this be too exaggerated?" Mu Xiaoya whispered.
"How is it an exaggeration. The diamonds at the jewelry stores are only ¥10,000 cheaper. Our business’s serial numbers on our shoes won’t be the same, in any case, they will only number in the hundred thousand." Fang Hui retorted.
"Okay, wait until you sell it." I'm afraid that when the company stays open for the next several years, it would be embarrassing if the serial numbers are still in the single digits.
"Are you going to gift Bai Chuan on Chinese Valentine’s Day?" Chinese Valentine’s Day was coming soon so Fang Hui could guess that without asking.
"Yes ah." That’s why she was so anxious to find a shoebox.
"It's almost time to move out after that holiday."
"Moving this weekend."
"Well, I’ve almost finished selecting all the plants I’m gifting you. I’ll send them over this weekend for your housewarming."
(TN: So, Hui means plant in Chinese hahaha so she’s sending plants as literal reminders of herself.)
"Will you... send it two days in advance?" Mu Xiaoya murmured.
"Why?" Fang Hui was puzzled.
"Hehehe... Xiao Chuan doesn't like people coming to our new house." Mu Xiaoya’s smiling face was trying to fawn her.
"...You" Fang Hui was silent, with a sullen expression on her face, "Then you tell him that I don’t like him coming to my studio."
.
.
.
Author’s Notes:
Young girl Ya rented a set of comics and pulled teenage Chuan over to read together. Teenage Chuan wasn’t allowed to read faster than her. So teenage Chuan, after reading a page had to listen to young girl Ya sighs.
"Ya, this man's possessiveness is so strong, I like it a lot."
The young man looked at the comic again in surprise, only to see the overbearing male lead’s proclamation: “You and your things can only belong to me, no one else.”
"This person ... isn’t happy." Teenage Chuan pointed at the comic book’s heroine.
"What do you know? The female lead looks like this on the surface, but in fact, she’s happy. Look ... her face is red."
Growing up ...
Bai Chuan: No one is allowed to enter our house.
Mu Xiaoya: Seems a little happy ...
==
Crab is trapped in the hotel because of a typhoon. Upstairs with a home KTV, listening to “horse pole” all night long… 555555 ~~~~
(TN: So apparently this song is low-key perverted…here’s a link if you want to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkSkuXokQSQ )