RGL – Chapter 165

“Before that, please allow me to go get some small tools.”

The “small tools” Su Min mentioned, of course, referred to the small handbag she had brought with her earlier.

Earlier, to make drinking easier, she had left her bag on her seat. In a place like this, there was naturally no concern about someone stealing it.

After retrieving her bag, Su Min quickly went into the women’s restroom.

Alice had already been waiting impatiently. Seeing Su Min arrive, her expression finally softened a little. Although she generally looked down on Easterners, at this moment, this particular Easterner seemed to be the most suitable person to help her.

If anyone saw her current appearance, she’d definitely end up on the front page of tomorrow’s news magazines. But it didn’t matter if this Easterner saw her. First of all, it was an accident—she hadn’t meant for her to see her like this. And second, this Easterner looked weak and easy to control.

“What tools are you talking about?” Alice asked irritably. She had always had a bad temper, and her deep-seated arrogance made her come across as condescending whenever she spoke to anyone.

Su Min completely ignored her tone. While pulling out a needle and thread, she replied, “I may need to alter your dress a bit. If you don’t mind, may I sew a few things onto it?”

Honestly, if she had the choice, she would have liked to trim the dress a little. But after all, the dress belonged to Alice—she couldn’t just cut it up without permission. If she did and Alice didn’t like it, she wouldn’t be able to undo the damage.

So the only option was to modify it without permanently changing its shape.

“You want to alter my dress?” Alice frowned. “Are you seriously thinking about altering my dress? No, I won’t hand my dress over to you to do whatever you want.”

Su Min waved her hand. “Don’t worry, I’ll just stitch a few places. It won’t harm the dress at all. If you don’t like it, we can always revert it back.”

Seeing Alice still frowning, she added with a smile, “Besides, we’ve already occupied this restroom for quite a while. If we don’t come out soon, it’s going to cause problems for others.”

The restroom door was still locked, and by now, she figured people outside were probably getting desperate.

Alice clearly realized she couldn’t stay here much longer either. But the red wine stains and wet patches on her dress weren’t going to disappear on their own. She couldn’t accept walking out like this either.

After a few seconds of consideration, she reluctantly said, “Fine. I accept your suggestion.”

Seeing Alice’s disgusted expression, Su Min had a sudden urge to walk away.

But she also knew she had no way out now. If she really walked away at this point, someone like Alice would probably see her as an enemy in the fashion industry from then on.

She hadn’t even stepped into this world yet—if she was already earning hostility from the insiders, it would be a huge disadvantage for her.

Su Min quickly threaded the needle with blue embroidery thread, then squatted beside Alice. She pulled the soiled hem of the long dress over, folded it, and began stitching the folded sections together. She wasn’t stitching randomly either—starting from the top, she made the folds gradually larger, eventually transforming the once open and flowing gown into a mermaid-style skirt.

To balance the look, she also added a few pleats to the bodice of the dress. The final result didn’t look dirty at all.

“To save time, I only stitched the key parts. So the dress will probably only hold up until the end of tonight.”

Since the dress was already on Alice, her movement was limited, so Su Min couldn’t do fine work—and she didn’t have the time for meticulous stitching either. Just being able to transform the look of the dress was already her limit.

Alice raised her eyebrows arrogantly. “After tonight, the dress won’t need to exist anyway.” She curled her lips in disdain and turned to face the restroom mirror. The moment she turned, a flash of amazement crossed her eyes. “Beautiful.”

She stared intently at her reflection in the mirror, then lowered her head to look at the dress again, before turning to Su Min in disbelief. “How did you do that?”

She had just watched this Eastern girl sewing here and there on the dress and had assumed she was merely covering the stained parts. She hadn’t expected that a few stitches could result in such an effect.

“Like a mermaid,” Alice said with a rare smile on her lips.

Seeing the smile on Alice’s face, Su Min finally let out a breath of relief. She knew in her heart that this gamble had paid off.

“Ma’am, your dress was already beautiful, so it was very easy to enhance it,” Su Min offered a polite compliment.

Alice turned to look at her and smiled. “But it’s even more beautiful after your changes.” She then took a closer look at Su Min.

This clearly young Eastern girl was completely beyond her expectations.

As she looked more closely, she also noticed Su Min’s own dress.

She had been in a foul mood earlier because of the stain on her own dress, and hadn’t noticed until now that the flowers on Su Min’s dress were actually hand-embroidered.

“Is this Eastern embroidery?”

“Yes.” Su Min saw that Alice had noticed her dress and was just about to introduce her outfit in more detail, when suddenly, there was a knock at the door from outside.

Alice raised her eyebrows. “Looks like this isn’t the best place for us to continue our conversation. Let’s find somewhere else outside.”

Outside, a few female models had already gathered, waiting to use the restroom. When they saw Su Min and Alice come out together, chatting happily, they all looked shocked.

The famously snobbish fashion editor was actually being so warm and friendly to an Easterner?

Some sharp-eyed observers noticed that Alice’s dress looked different than before.

“Su, I can see the brilliance of your idea reflected in their eyes. Look—they’re all looking at me.”

Alice straightened her back proudly.

Su Min thought to herself that foreigners sure had confidence. For most people, wearing a new or altered outfit would naturally draw some attention. But clearly, Alice was interpreting every look as admiration and envy.

One had to admit, this kind of beautiful misunderstanding wasn’t bad at all.

The two of them walked past the main hall and found a quiet corner to sit down.

Su Min knew that from this moment on, she had a chance to build a good relationship with this editor-in-chief.

Alice took a sip of red wine, her expression full of delight. The displeasure from earlier when her clothes were stained had already vanished. “If I’m not mistaken, the embroidery on your clothes is Eastern, isn’t it?”

“Yes, this is a traditional craft passed down in our country, Z, since ancient times. The outfit I’m wearing is also made of silk.”

“I’m familiar with this type of fabric—it’s very rare. In fact, I have an embroidered handkerchief like this at home. I had it framed and hung in my bedroom. It’s a truly charming piece of art,” Alice said, looking at Su Min. “From what I know, this type of clothing has already entered countries like M and F. One of my friends has a piece in her collection. I wonder if it came from the same place as yours.”

“If it has the letters ‘XS’ on it, then it’s from the same place.”

“Yes, there’s a symbol like that on the cuff. I thought it was just part of the pattern.” Alice’s interest was piqued.

Su Min smiled. “That’s the mark of our clothing brand. It also doubles as a decorative design.” When she first designed the export logo, she had turned the two characters into an aesthetically pleasing motif.

Alice raised her brows at her. “And what is your connection to this clothing brand?”

Alice hadn’t made her name in the industry by being simple-minded. When she brought up the topic, the expression on this young Eastern girl’s face immediately showed strong interest—which made her suspect there had to be some connection.

If there wasn’t, she wouldn’t have responded like that.

Su Min had no intention of hiding her relationship with Xiuse. In fact, she wanted to use this opportunity to promote the brand through Alice.

“To be honest with you, Xiuse was founded by me. Of course, not by myself alone—I had a team of wonderful partners.”

“You mean you founded a clothing brand?”

Alice was genuinely surprised. She had assumed this girl was just one of the staff.

But the calm confidence on Su Min’s face made her believe it. After all, a lie like that would be easily exposed—and anyone serious about staying in the fashion industry wouldn’t dare lie to her face.

“You look very young. To have founded such a promising brand at your age is really impressive.” Alice pulled out a rose-printed cigarette from her case. “My magazine currently only features European fashion, along with a bit from country M. So far, I haven’t published anything on Eastern fashion.”

Hearing that, Su Min’s eyes lit up, and her smile grew even brighter. “If it were featured even once, I think it would really catch people’s attention. Our clothing has a unique kind of beauty.”

Alice smiled with her lips closed but didn’t give a direct answer.

Soon after, more and more people came over to speak with Alice, so Su Min didn’t get a chance to continue the conversation.

Fortunately, Alice handed her a business card before they parted, which gave Su Min some comfort. For ease of contact, Su Min also gave Alice the address of her hotel in Paris.

What Su Min didn’t know was that the people around her were silently burning with envy and jealousy when they saw Alice give her a business card. After all, Alice Christine was notoriously aloof and difficult to approach. That she had spoken privately with a young Eastern woman for so long—and even handed her a card—was enough to stun everyone.

When leaving the banquet, the students who had come with her were all buzzing with excitement. Being part of such an event was sure to add some shine to their future resumes.

“By the way, Su Min, what did you talk about with that editor-in-chief? You two were sitting together in that room for quite a while.”

Zhao Qiu, a female student who came with the group, asked cautiously.

Her question sparked the interest of the others as well.

Even the teachers seemed curious. Every time they had come in the past, even getting the staff here to be polite was difficult—much less getting a chance to speak with someone like that one-on-one.

Su Min smiled. “We bumped into each other in the restroom. I helped her out a bit, and she said a few words to me. Later, we talked about traditional clothing from our country.”

“Talking to you about domestic fashion? What a waste. If anything, she should’ve been talking to a professor. What if you said something all wrong—wouldn’t that embarrass us?” Zhao Qiu said bitterly.

She hadn’t disliked Su Min before, but now she couldn’t help feeling jealous.

Though the other students didn’t say anything, they also felt a bit envious.

Su Min noticed this, but she didn’t care about being disliked. She had done nothing wrong. If avoiding hate meant accepting mediocrity, she wouldn’t be able to live with herself.

So she said nothing more.

Fortunately, Wu Yang was fair-minded. Seeing the tension among the students, he quickly stepped in. “Su Min’s skills are solid. You should trust your classmate. Besides, everyone on this trip was chosen because they’re the best. Do you doubt the school’s ability to select talent?”

With Wu Yang saying that, Zhao Qiu couldn’t object anymore. If she denied the school’s judgment, it would be like saying she didn’t deserve to be here either.

Even so, she no longer felt like talking to Su Min after that.

The purpose of this teacher-student trip had been to attend the fashion show. Now that the show and the banquet were both over, Wu Yang and the other teachers decided to give the students a day off before returning to China.

The moment they heard they could spend a day exploring Paris, all the awkwardness in the group disappeared.

When Su Min heard they were going back soon, she began to worry. If Alice didn’t reach out to her before they returned, it would be even harder to get another chance once she was back in China.

Su Min was still fretting about missing a great opportunity when, the very next day, Alice called the hotel and invited her to the office for tea.

After hanging up, Su Min finally let out a sigh of relief. She had seized this opportunity after all.

They had already talked at length during the banquet, so when they met this time, Alice got straight to the point.

Her current weekly magazine focused on fashion clothing and accessories. But the Western market had fallen into a kind of rut—everything was the same old thing with a new name. She wanted to publish an issue focused on Eastern fashion.

“I know that these styles aren’t really in vogue in your country anymore. The trends lean more toward Western fashion, though the designs are quite outdated. I was originally interested in countries H and R. Both are in East Asia and have distinctive styles. But after seeing your designs, I changed my mind. I’d like to try collaborating with you.”

Su Min smiled warmly. “Our country has a history that spans over two thousand years. In that regard, no other country can compare. I’ll show you the charm of our traditional culture.”

“Oh?” Alice smiled. “I like working with confident people. I hope what you show me will live up to that confidence.”

“Of course.” Su Min raised her glass with a smile. “Let’s wait and see.”

“OK.”

After sealing the deal, Su Min walked out of Alice’s magazine office in a daze.

She could hardly believe she had actually reached an agreement with Alice. Her designs were going to appear in a top European fashion magazine.

Just thinking about it made her blood boil with excitement.

Xiuse, Xiuse…

After a long, exhausting flight, the group finally returned to China. What surprised Su Min was that Li Weisi had actually come back with them.

However, he spent most of his time chatting with Professor Wu and the other teachers, so the students had little opportunity to interact with him.

Su Min was interested in making connections with someone like him, but since he was a man and she was just a female student, approaching him directly didn’t look good. So she gave up the idea and focused entirely on planning the upcoming magazine shoot.

The only thing she didn’t know was—who should she get as the model?

“You’re finally back!” Su Min had just returned home when Liao Zhaodi, who was busy translating documents, jumped up excitedly and came over to help with her bags.

“Look at you—I was only gone a few days,” Su Min said as she stepped inside to change clothes.

Liao Zhaodi helped carry her luggage inside and laughed, “You may have only been gone a few days, but we were all not used to it.”