RGL – Chapter 109

Zhaodi also said, “The other workers only earn one-tenth of that.”

“Ah, then I feel a bit embarrassed,” Zhang Qingqing said with some concern.

Su Min replied, “Don’t worry about that. We have different roles here, and the pay reflects that. The better you do, the more you earn.”

After hearing Su Min’s explanation, Zhang Qingqing started to understand: as long as she worked hard, she could earn more than others.

Once the embroidery was finished, Su Min immediately invited a skilled tailor to begin assembling the garment.

Su Min had indeed put a lot of thought into making this dress. From selecting the materials, to finding an embroiderer, and then getting workers to hand-make the buttons one by one. She thought, if this dress turned out well, then no matter how complicated future garments might be, her shop would be capable of handling them.

After five days of rushed work, the dress was finally completed.

Looking at the gown hanging on a hanger, Su Min, Sun Yan, and the others were amazed.

“If only I had a chance to wear something like this,” Sun Yan said enviously.

“It’s really beautiful,” Liao Zhaodi said, cupping her cheeks. Then she looked at Su Min excitedly, “Minzi, look how gorgeous this dress is. You designed it!”

“This was everyone’s effort,” Su Min said joyfully.

She carefully folded the dress and placed it into a box, then said to the others, “Today, we finished the dress, and it’s thanks to everyone’s hard work. To celebrate, let’s go out for dinner—my treat!”

“That’s great!” Liao Zhaodi clapped happily. “I want to eat skewers!”

“No problem,” Su Min said with a smile.

Zhang Qingqing looked at everyone’s smiling faces and felt happy too. At first, she worked hard because she wanted to stay and keep the job. But seeing everyone’s joy after successfully finishing the project, she suddenly felt that her work wasn’t just about making money anymore—it had become something truly meaningful to her.

That evening, Su Min took the dress home with her.

Sun Qiufang and Su Changrong were stunned when they saw the finished garment.

They had lived most of their lives and had never seen such a finely made dress.

Sun Qiufang leaned in, pointing at the embroidery, and asked, “Minzi, is this really hand-stitched?”

“Mom, this is genuine Su embroidery. The embroiderer trained under a Suzhou embroidery master from Jiangnan.”

“I don’t know much about Su embroidery, silly girl, but this stitching is indeed very fine,” Su Changrong nodded and pointed to the waistline. “Even this part is shaped like a flower.”

Su Min tugged gently at the side of the waist and pulled it open—the flower unfolded flat.

Seeing Sun Qiufang’s wide eyes, she quickly stopped her, “Don’t worry, it won’t break. The idea is that the dress shouldn’t be worn only once—that’d be such a waste. So I added an elastic waist here. When you have a belly, it stretches and becomes flat. After giving birth, the same spot looks like a decorative border.”

“So that’s what it is. You really have clever ideas,” Sun Qiufang said in amazement. She wanted to touch the dress but was worried she’d damage it. In the end, she couldn’t resist and lightly brushed her fingers over it.

“The fabric is so soft—this must be silk. I heard only the rich could wear it in the past. Us common folks never had the chance.”

Su Min thought to herself, Even now, only the wealthy wear this kind of thing. Who has the time and money to wear clothes like this daily? Even though she made it herself, she couldn’t bear to wear it.

The dress was ready ahead of time. Since Su Min didn’t know whether Ke Wan still needed it, she didn’t rush to deliver it. She planned to take it over on Saturday when she had time off.

But before Saturday came, Ke Wan called Su Min’s home.

It turned out Ke Wan had gone to B City to visit a friend, but ended up exhausting herself and experienced complications with her pregnancy. She had to stay in the hospital for a few days and hadn’t had time to return. When she finally felt better and called home, she found out Su Min had visited earlier.

Since she still couldn’t travel, she asked her husband to bring the dress to B City.

Su Min was relieved to hear the explanation. After putting so much effort into the dress, it would have been disappointing if it hadn’t been used.

That evening, Mr. Wu drove over to pick up the dress. He opened the box to take a look, and his eyes flashed with satisfaction. Smiling, he closed the box and handed over the payment.

Su Min looked at the money in her hand, surprised. “Two thousand yuan?” Did I count wrong?

Wu Zhe smiled. “I’m a businessman—I understand the value of this. This was my wife’s instruction. Her custom dresses usually cost this much. If there’s any additional amount due, I’ll have someone send it later.”

Before Su Min could respond, Wu Zhe had already left.

Sun Qiufang was also shocked. “Daughter, this dress really made that much?”

Su Min nodded, still surprised. She had expected only a few hundred yuan at most.

After calculating the costs of materials, labor, and time, she realized the price was actually reasonable. She had invested a lot into this dress. It made her realize that the pricing she had set for custom clothing before was too low. But such high-end clients were rare.

After selling the dress, Su Min calculated the profit distribution and packed the wages for everyone involved in making the dress.

She had originally planned to pay everyone at the end of the month, but since Zhang Qingqing had just joined and didn’t have any money, she decided to pay early.

This bonus was the most generous they had ever received from making a garment. Both the tailor and Zhang Qingqing were thrilled.

Especially Zhang Qingqing—this was her first time earning wages, and she was shocked to find she received over 300 yuan. Her heart was pounding.

Back in the village, her family had little savings due to her grandmother’s medical bills. In bad harvest years, they still had to hand over grain to the government. They had barely enough to eat, let alone save, and they had never seen this much money.

She was so moved she teared up and kept thanking Su Min.

Seeing that things were settled for now, Su Min gave her the weekend off and said she’d call her back when more embroidery was needed.

Zhang Qingqing nodded eagerly. Right now, she didn’t even want to rest—she just wanted to work as much as possible and earn more money.

On Saturday morning, Zhang Qingqing and her sister Zhang Panpan returned to their hometown with the money. She planned to give it to her parents to help improve their living conditions.

“All this money is what Qingqing earned recently?”

Mother Zhang held the money her daughter gave her, her hands trembling with excitement. It hadn’t been that long, and she was already bringing back this much. Aside from the time they sold their biggest pig, they’d never had this much money in the house.

Father Zhang was also stunned. He couldn’t believe it.

Working the fields all year didn’t bring in that much, and their daughter hadn’t even been gone a full month.

“Qingqing, what exactly are you doing to earn this kind of money?”

Zhang Qingqing said happily, “I just embroidered a few pomegranates on a dress, and they paid me this much.” Even she felt like it was a dream. Back in the village, she’d done a lot of embroidery, helping people with patterns, but had never earned a cent. She never imagined she’d earn so much now.

“Really? Just embroidered some pomegranates?”

Mother Zhang couldn’t believe it.

Zhang Qingqing nodded and looked at her sister. “Ask Panpan if you don’t believe me.”

Zhang Panpan confirmed, “It’s true. I know all about it. My classmate wouldn’t lie—she’s really nice.”

“She must be! Otherwise how would she have taken such good care of us and helped find such a great job?” Mother Zhang sighed. “You both need to thank her properly.”

“I know, Mom. I’ll work hard. I won’t let Panpan’s classmate down. You and Dad keep this money. I’ll keep earning and send more home. We can buy good medicine for Grandma, and maybe even save up to build a new house.”

Grandma Zhang, sitting nearby, waved her hand. “My illness is old already. Let your parents keep the money—use it for your dowry when you get married.”

They were poor and already looked down on. If their daughter got married with no dowry, they’d never hold their heads up.

Mother Zhang respected Grandma’s opinion. Though she wanted to use the money to fix the house, she agreed, “Yes, you’re getting to that age—it’s time to start saving.”

“Mom, don’t talk about that. I’ve just left the village and don’t want to think about marriage right now. I have such a good opportunity to earn money—I don’t want to lose it. Don’t worry, I’ll keep earning. Panpan’s classmate said there’ll be no shortage of work.”

“She’s such a good person. We really don’t have anything good to give in return… how about you take some of our homemade pickles back when you return? She’s done us a huge favor. Qingqing, you must work hard and never let anyone think we’re ungrateful.”

She feared her daughter might be dazzled by life in the city.

Zhang Qingqing quickly promised, “Mom, I won’t forget my roots.”

Now that she had a path forward, the Zhang family could rest easy. In their eyes, no girl in the nearby villages could match her in earning ability. The Zhao family looked down on them—well, now they could look down on them in return.

That night, Zhang Qingqing told her sister, “Panpan, how is Su Min so capable? I heard from Sun Yan that all the money to open her shop didn’t come from her family—she earned it herself. She’s really amazing. If I were like her, our family would be living well already.”

Zhang Panpan was also deeply moved. She had always been praised for her grades, but had no skill with her hands. Her family scraped together everything to send her to school. She used to think good grades would be enough to succeed. But after meeting Su Min, she realized grades weren’t everything—one needed ideas and the ability to take action. Otherwise, you’d just be a bookworm.

She made up her mind to learn from Su Min—not just about making money, but also how to handle people and situations. Her family had invested so much in her—she had to repay them.

Meanwhile, Su Min had no idea she had become the Zhang family’s benefactor. She was busy thinking about the future of her shop, Xiuse.

This custom dress sale had shown her the high profits possible in custom clothing.

Based on the workers’ schedules, they could handle a few sets each month. Even if not all sold for 2,000 yuan, prices between 800–1,000 were still realistic. But even though the local economy was decent, most people were still factory workers, and few had that kind of money.

To really grow, she’d have to expand to bigger cities like B City or S City.

But right now, she was still focused on her studies. She couldn’t move to a faraway city for the sake of the shop—plus, she had no connections there, and making a name for herself would be hard.

Her store still lacked the platform and reputation to do full-fledged custom work. After all, not everyone was as easygoing as Ke Wan.

And Su Min still didn’t know what Ke Wan thought of the dress.

If Ke Wan didn’t like it, the road to custom orders would be even harder.

Thinking this far, Su Min yawned and turned over with a sigh. “Forget it, no point worrying now. As long as the shop keeps earning and stays afloat, that’s enough.”

Everything else could wait until after high school graduation.

When Wu Zhe arrived at the hospital in B City with the dress, Ke Wan had already returned to the Shu family home with Shu Jing. He had no choice but to follow them there.

Though the Wu and Shu families had no business ties, Ke Wan and Shu Jing were close, so the families were on familiar terms. The Shu family butler opened the door quickly and invited him in.

Ke Wan was in the room with Shu Jing, looking at her newborn child with envy. “You’re really lucky. Zheng Kai actually let you come back to your parents’ house for postpartum care. Where did you find such a man?”

Shu Jing laughed, “He wanted me to come back! He’s always busy with work and doesn’t have time for me and the baby.” Though the words were bitter, her tone was full of happiness.

Zhang Ning, holding her own child nearby, teased, “I’ll talk to Zheng Kai one day. He shouldn’t treat his wife and child like that.”

“Please don’t!” Shu Jing said quickly. “Then he’ll start bothering me again.”

Everyone laughed.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Shu Jing called out, and the nanny came in holding a wooden box.

“What’s that?” Shu Jing asked.

The nanny replied, “Mr. Wu asked me to deliver this to Mrs. Wu. It’s the custom dress she ordered.”

“He’s here?” Ke Wan smiled and quickly opened the box to take out the dress.

The silk was soft and flowed smoothly. As soon as she lifted the collar, the whole dress unfolded gracefully without any visible wrinkles.

“Wow—”

Shu Jing and Zhang Ning gasped.

Even Ke Wan was momentarily stunned.

Shu Jing asked, “Is this the design you commissioned from a local designer? Who made it? It’s amazing. I’ve never seen a style like this—and look at the embroidery!”

Ke Wan touched it. It really was embroidered.

Zhang Ning studied the dress thoughtfully. The hem reminded her of a fishtail gown she had once seen.

But the rest of the design was unfamiliar. She smiled and shook her head, thinking she was overthinking it.

Shu Jing urged Ke Wan to try it on. Ke Wan, unable to resist, went to the dressing room and changed.

When she came out, Shu Jing was stunned.

“Where did you find this designer? Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I just gave birth, and now you’re showing up with such a gorgeous maternity gown. Are you trying to make me jealous on purpose?”