HSS Chapter 74
Translated by Novice Translations
Proofread by Yserieh
Chapter 74: Faint
At the end of the year, it was Taobao’s peak sales season. In order to meet the expected surge of orders, Fang Hui canceled everyone’s weekend plans in the studio half a month in advance. Even with their weekend plans canceled, the Taobao store…the business wasn’t as good as expected.
Mu Xiaoya flipped the sales report in her hand and frowned in doubt: “How can we have less turnover this month than last month? Shouldn’t the end of the year be the peak season for sales?”
Fang Hui glanced at the report in Mu Xiaoya’s hand and looked depress: “You had a lot of things going on at home, so I didn’t tell you that our family’s shoes were knocked off.”
"Knocked off?" Mu Xiaoya was surprised.
Fang Hui turned over the laptop in front of her and showed it to Mu Xiaoya. She saw a dense page filled with the same shoes, it was the latest design from their studio. Their own shoe design, the search results for Taobao was ranked one, but none of these results were theirs.
"Same shoes, but half the cost of ours, who will still buy ours?" Fang Hui said with a black face.
"Is it exactly the same?"
“Except that the leather material isn’t as breathable as ours, the sole isn’t as comfortable as ours, but everything else is basically the same.” Fang Hui sighed, “I asked my uncle and he said that the Chinese market is like this. What style has sold well on Taobao. As long as you buy a pair and go back to knock it off, you will soon be able to produce a high-quality imitation. People who don’t have high requirements on shoes won’t be able to tell the difference.”
"Can't we report it?" Mu Xiaoya’s heart was messy.
"How do you report so many stores? And as long as they make a slight change, they can say it’s their own shoes." Fang Hui sighed, "World famous brands can't take them, let alone our small studio."
"This is good ah. What if they will continue to knock off our new products in the future, what should we do?" Although Mu Xiaoya didn’t expect her studio to make a lot of money, her shoes, which she worked hard to design, has been knocked off and profited by others, she felt uncomfortable.
"Who will we do?" Fang Hui has lost hair because of this annoying matter in recent days. “This group of shops are really disgusting, I really want to hack their shops.”
"What do you want to hack?" Bai Chuan who was sitting beside Mu Xiaoya listened to the entire conversation before he suddenly voiced out his question.
Fang Hui and Mu Xiaoya turned their heads at the same time and saw Bai Chuan's big black eyes staring at the company screen for a moment. When he noticed they were both looking at him, he couldn’t help but ask again: “What do you want to hack?”
"No... No." Mu Xiaoya was terrified and shook her head hurriedly. If she didn’t stop him, Bai Chuan would really hack Taobao, then this matter will become a big deal.
"Oh." Bai Chuan saw that the matter had nothing to do with him, so he continued to look down at his book.
Mu Xiaoya breathed a sigh of relief and gave Fang Hui a warning look at the same time. Fang Hui spread out her hands to express her innocence.
"Don’t mention the matter of hacking other people's shops." Mu Xiaoya pulled Fang Hui over and gave her a verbal warning.
"Okay." Fang Hui couldn’t hide the regret in her voice. She really did want to look forward to how Bai Chuan would have hacked these Taobao shops.
Fortunately, the studio also has income from the physical store, so although the income from their online store was affected to a certain extent, the store’s first Chinese New Year of their entrepreneurship was still profitable. They both weren’t stingy either. During the Chinese New Year’s holiday, they gave an unusually huge bonus to their two employees in the store.
Mu Xiaoya didn't expect the 300,000 yuan she invested would be paid back in only half a year, not only did she make a return on her investment, but also made an extra 200,000 yuan. So, she used this money to gift a super-luxury Chinese New Year tour for her parents.
A week before Chinese New Year, the Mu parents and Mu Xiaoya wanted to travel abroad to see the world, but Mu Xiaoya knew that her parents didn’t want to make things difficult for her on where to spend Chinese New Year’s Eve. So they specially prepared this trip abroad to celebrate Chinese New Year's. They would travel for Chinese New Year, then let her return with Bai Chuan to the Bai family home for Chinese New Year’s Eve.
(TN: Chinese New Year is a one week long holiday, so the last day of the New Years, they will spend it with the Bai family.)
Mu Xiaoya felt that her parents were worried, but in the end, they didn’t cancelled because the place they were going to travel this time was the place that her parents have been talking about for seven or eight years and still hasn’t visited yet. This trip was their travel dream.
On New Year's Eve, Mu Xiaoya and Bai Chuan packed up some clothes and returned to the Bai family home. There was no need to get up early for six consecutive days, and Mu Xiaoya was a little lazy on days when she didn't need to cook, and this kind of laziness lasted all spring.
Spring is the recovery time for everything; Mu Xiaoya slept for two hours at their coffee bar in the corner almost every day. If she wasn’t a boss, Fang Hui wouldn’t then help, but instead would want to openly drive this person away.
"If you hadn't slept like this for several months, I wouldn’t doubt that you are pregnant." Fang Hui saw Mu Xiaoya woke up again and delivered the freshly brewed coffee in her hand, afraid that she would fall asleep again.
The somewhat dazed Mu Xiaoya had her hands touch the coffee and was awakened by Fang Hui. She directly let go of her hold on the coffee cup: "Bring me a cup of tea, I don't drink coffee."
"You quit coffee, are you sure you’re not pregnant?" Fang Hui was startled.
"I do not want to rule out this possibility ah." Since she decided to have children, Mu Xiaoya had quit drinking coffee and replaced it with green tea. This sleepiness started to happen after Chinese New Year. At first, she thought she was pregnant. She bought a few pregnancy tests and went home to use them. They all were negative. After a few more days, her usual menstrual period arrived on schedule, and Mu Xiaoya was completely at a loss. She believed that since she and Bai Chuan didn’t use contraception, it was likely a child would come at any time.
Fang Hui was speechless and turned back to the bar to make a cup of tea for Mu Xiaoya and brought it over.
"Thank you." Mu Xiaoya moved the design draft stained with her own saliva to one side. She had fell asleep when she was drawing the design draft.
"It's true that one becomes sleepy in the spring and tired in the autumn, but aren’t you too much? I haven’t seen you sleep so much before." When they went to school, she would nap for at most 20 minutes in class, and she would wake up after being slightly touched. What about the Mu Xiaoya now? It’s not easy to wake her up after she’s been asleep for two hours.
“I went to the hospital for a checkup. The doctor said that my body has a lot of moisture, so I fall asleep easily.” Mu Xiaoya took a sip of tea, which made people feel more energetic. But she also had some doubts about whether it was because she hadn’t drink coffee for a long time. She used to make herself a cup of coffee every noon.
"Then maybe you’re slept too long."
"Maybe it’s because the climate in spring is too comfortable. I’ll be fine once it’s summer." The temperature gets hotter every day, it won’t be long before it’s summer.
"Calculating the time, in a few months, it will be one year since we graduated."
"En." Mu Xiaoya nodded. Since her rebirth, she always felt that time flies by quickly.
"You and Bai Chuan have been married for almost a year, shouldn’t you have a date for the wedding?" Fang Hui always felt that Mu Xiaoya wasn’t actually married since she hasn’t attended Mu Xiaoya's wedding.
"It’s almost been a year since Grandma passed away."
"They won't pay attention to that. Does that mean you’re not have a wedding within three years, right? If you don't have a wedding and then I get married, I won’t become your bridesmaid when you do get married." Fang Hui cried out.
(TN: Chinese traditions about death – this is one of them: If you are engaged to be married and a close loved one passes away, you must postpone the wedding for one to three years.)
"Are you going to get married?" Mu Xiaoya was fully awake after her nap.
"I mean, if you’re waiting for three years, I suppose I will."
"It’s unlikely, don’t worry." You won’t be able to get married in the next three years.
"Hey, what do you mean? Do you think I won’t get married, right?" Fang Hui smiled at Mu Xiaoya's confidence.
"How can you easily get married when you’re so playful?" Mu Xiaoya got up with a smile. Suddenly, it was dark in front of her eyes and her whole person fell backwards again. Her arm banged on the corner of the table, making a loud sound.
"What's the matter with you?" Fang Hui was frightened, and hurriedly walked over to her ignoring their quarrel.
"I’m okay. Maybe it’s because I slept for too long and didn’t have lunch. I feel dizzy." Mu Xiaoya rubbed her temples.
"Then I’ll take the tea and heat up a glass of milk for you." Fang Hui took the cup of tea that was in front of Mu Xiaoya away, then turned back and shouted to Xiaoxin, “Xiaoxin, go to the mall and get a bowl of porridge.”
"Okay." Xiaoxin answered, got up and went to the mall.
"I want to eat braised pork with rice." Mu Xiaoya, who slowly returned to her senses, didn’t forget to order more.
"Send a message to Xiaoxin yourself." Fang Hui wasn’t in a good mood.
After eating, Mu Xiaoya was much better. Not only did her spirit recovered, but she also gained inspiration. She sat at the window and designed a new summer style in a few hours, when previously she spent two days thinking about.
"Yes... Boss Fang, I haven't delayed my work while sleeping." Mu Xiaoya handed the completed design draft to Fang Hui.
"Yes, yes, yes, I won’t call you anymore when you sleep."
"Knock knock!"
The familiar knocking sound was heard, Mu Xiaoya turned around with a smile. She saw Bai Chuan standing outside the French window wearing a camel sweater. When Bai Chuan saw Mu Xiaoya looking at him, he waved then walked towards the door.
"This obsessive-compulsive disorder is really enough. It’s been more than half a year, still every day he knocks on the glass regardless of weather conditions. He won’t enter the door unless he knocks, it’s really difficult to endure.” Although she has seen this scene hundreds of times, Fang Hui still complained about it.
Mu Xiaoya didn't argue with her, instead she got up and packed her things into her bag preparing to leave work.
"It’s a new season and you’re going to let me work overtime alone?" Fang Hui held Mu Xiaoya’s bag and threatened. This woman was too much, she dozes off during work and slips away so she would be left working overtime?
"Tomorrow is my mother-in-law's birthday. I asked Xiao Chuan to buy a gift together." Mu Xiaoya made a pleading gesture towards Fang Hui.
"..." Fang Hui drew the corners of her mouth and released her hand.
Mu Xiaoya ‘hehe’ed with a smile when she left.
Giving gifts to wealthy people is actually the biggest headache. For a person who lacks nothing, nothing has novelty. Mu Xiaoya had a headache for two or three days, before she decided to take the DIY route and spent the whole weekend with Bai Chuan in a pottery studio to make an entire tea set. Then spent another weekend to paint them, they were just finished yesterday. They were going to pick them up tonight, so that they can be directly gift tomorrow.
The two went to the pottery studio to check the finished products and found that although the finished products weren’t perfect, they were much better than they expected. Especially, the painting on the sides of the teapot and teacups were all personally painted by Bai Chuan, which made this become a precious gift.
"It's so beautiful, Mom will love it." Mu Xiaoya packed the tea set into the box, closed the lid and repackaged it to let Bai Chuan carry it.
"En." Bai Chuan took it, and the two went out together.
"Excuse me, excuse me..." Suddenly, a staff member carrying a row of unmolded clay came from ahead. The passageway wasn’t that wide, so Mu Xiaoya was afraid that she would block him and moved aside. She didn’t realize she moved too fast, but her eyes suddenly turned dark.
Bai Chuan was pushed to the other side by the staff, then naturally waited for the other person to pass by before walking to Mu Xiaoya.
"Xiaoya?" As soon as he approached, Bai Chuan keenly noticed Mu Xiaoya’s abnormality. Her eyebrows were wrinkled, and her eyes were closed. Her face was pale and she was leaning against a workbench. "What's wrong?"
Bai Chuan wanted to go support Mu Xiaoya, but his hand didn’t reach Mu Xiaoya’s arm when she abruptly slid down from the workbench.
Bai Chuan’s pupils suddenly shrank, ignoring the things in his hand, he knelt and held her person in his arms before Mu Xiaoya completely fell to the ground.
"Xiaoya, Xiaoya?" Bai Chuan shouted anxiously, but Mu Xiaoya in his arms had her eyes tightly closed and didn’t give a response to him. For a moment, Bai Chuan only felt that there was an invisible huge cloak that covered him. People outside was banging constantly, making a loud buzzing noise, but he couldn’t see or hear anything.
=
Mu Xiaoya didn’t lose conscience for too long, but when she woke up, she discovered that she was lying in Bai Chuan’s arms, surrounded by several people who talked fervently but nobody didn’t dare to approach.
"Don't be dazed. Hurry and send your wife to the hospital ah."
"Yes ah, why don't you talk?"
"Don't delay treatment."
Someone tried to approach, but as long as someone moved, Bai Chuan will hug her even more tightly in a precautionary manner.
This is...
Looking up, Mu Xiaoya saw Bai Chuan's empty eyes, and her heart was shocked. She raised her hand and caressed the side of Bai Chuan’s face, softly calling out, “Xiao Chuan.”
This one sound gradually brought light in the hollow eyes, and the sound penetrated Bai Chuan's ears like a huge bell ringing.
"Xiaoya~" Bai Chuan could see outside his own window at last.
"Take me to a hospital."
—
Author’s Notes:
After Chinese New Year, the new models were put on the shelves were knocked off again.
Mu Xiaoya: Alas, it was knocked off again.
Bai Chuan glanced and said nothing.
In the middle of the night, while his wife was asleep, Bai Chuan scrambled up and edited a Trojan to send out. Overnight, the entire Taobao page who used the new baby of Mu Xiaoya’s studio were all poisoned and automatically removed.
(TN: Trojan is a type of malware/virus~~~not the condom brand hehe)