Chapter 37
Shen You didn’t pay any attention to their conversation and focused on the food on the table. Food enthusiast, food soul—food lovers were superior people. Pre-peeled shrimp simply tasted better than shrimp one had to peel themselves.
Looking at Shen You’s casual demeanor, Gu Yue thought she and Xu Jiayan were simply not the same type of people.
Xu Jiayan was always polite and measured with others. To put it bluntly, people from that kind of family naturally carried a certain sense of distance in their character. But his interaction with Shen You was different.
After finishing dinner, Gu Yue felt somewhat uncomfortable watching Xu Jiayan actually open the car door for Shen You.
Gu Shaoyu, seeing this scene, sighed inside but didn’t say anything.
Xu Jiayan’s family had been prominent for generations. Looking at Jiang City’s modern celebrities and earliest industrialists, one could find several relatives among them. If they hadn’t been childhood neighbors, their family might not have been even able to establish such connections.
Xu Jiayan had always been the perfect child in other people’s eyes. And with all these advantages combined, how could there be few people who liked him?
Their family had money and now wanted status. And among the people they knew, Xu Jiayan was the most suitable for Gu Yue. Unlike those playboys with messy private lives, he was only interested in artifact restoration. He had only dated one girlfriend in university, and they seemed to have broken up over a year ago.
**
Before going to the museum, Shen You made a detour to buy bubble tea. She needed something to help her stay alert for the afternoon work.
They arrived at Professor Li’s office right on time, each carrying a cup of bubble tea.
Professor Li put down his thermos and shook his head, looking at Shen You with a smile. “You young people just love drinking these things.”
“I brought you something good.” Shen You took out a tea canister from her bag. “I bought the canister myself, but please try the tea leaves inside.”
The older generation loved drinking tea. Professor Li accepted it and immediately brewed a cup. Just from the aroma, he could tell it was exceptionally fine tea.
“Fragrant! So fragrant!” After taking a sip, Professor Li praised it repeatedly. This was much better than those expensively packaged brand teas.
“Girl, where did you buy this tea?”
The best tea house in Great Qi’s capital, Shen You thought to herself.
“A friend from my hometown gave it to me a few days ago. He makes tea himself and doesn’t produce much each year.”
Professor Li nodded, feeling happy that Shen You had thought to bring him tea, knowing he loved this kind. It wasn’t easy to come by, yet she had brought him some.
Xu Jiayan had his own business to attend to, so he left the office first. Shen You followed Professor Li to the workshop.
“Shen You, my girl, even if you won’t come work at the museum, you could at least let me register you as my student, right?” Professor Li sighed.
From their interactions during this period, he was increasingly satisfied with this girl’s solid professional abilities. But he also knew she was running an antique shop and didn’t want to abandon her current career.
He could understand that, which was why he suggested registering her name. In the collector’s circle, his name still carried some weight, and it would be somewhat helpful to this girl.
For a young woman without background or family support, making it alone in Jiang City and establishing herself on Antique Street wasn’t easy.
“Are you serious? Then okay.” Shen You smiled.
“When have I ever been unserious!” Professor Li went to refill his thermos.
“We’re going out for dinner later. Would you like to join us? I’m treating.”
She still owed him dinner, so this would be the perfect way to repay it.
“Forget it. You two young people go ahead. I need to go home for dinner—I didn’t tell my wife in advance.”
Professor Li waved his hand. Why would he go be a third wheel when young people were having dinner? It was more comfortable to eat at home.
Shen You said goodbye to Professor Li at the entrance and went to the city center with Xu Jiayan. And to prevent him from paying again, Shen You said as soon as they sat down:
“I said I would treat you to dinner. You paid last time, so if you pay again this time, I won’t come out for dinner next time.”
Hearing the seriousness in her tone, Xu Jiayan could only smile helplessly, letting her pay the bill. She really didn’t want to owe anyone anything.
By the time they returned home, it was almost nine o’clock.
Shen You took out the portable safe she had ordered online. Tomorrow she would need to take the items over early.
She would take the brush and jade-carved inkstone, leaving the ink at the shop. This type of fine ink could also be made in modern times, so it wouldn’t be worth much at the auction.
There were also several other items worth hundreds of thousands.
This auction could only be considered medium-scale, as it basically dealt with items in this price range. And since it was her first auction, it wouldn’t be appropriate to bring anything too expensive.
However all the items she was bringing were exquisite enough and not pieces commonly seen on the market.
She first tested the safe’s password—there weren’t any problems—then placed each item inside carefully.
**
Early the next morning — she had set an alarm so she could wake up early.
She changed into a silk wide-sleeved qipao, applied light makeup, and loaded the safe and the bolt of floral gauze fabric from Great Qi into her car.
Then, she went to the tailor shop which was located in the old foreign house area first.
This bolt of floral gauze was precious, and she didn’t feel comfortable finding just any tailor to work on it. Which was why she had specifically asked Gu Shaoyu for recommendations the day before. This shop was truly a century-old establishment with skills passed down through generations. It had absolutely excellent craftsmanship.
The only drawbacks were that it was expensive and required waiting in line for the work period.
The moment she entered the shop, she saw it displayed many fabrics: xiangyun silk, kesi silk, yunjin brocade—all the luxury items that were carefully selected by ancestors were available.
Ordinary silk had become the cheapest fabric here.
The owner was a man in his fifties, sitting there unhurriedly working on clothes.
“Hello, I’d like to see how many garments can be made from this fabric.” Shen You handed over the floral gauze fabric.
The owner only touched the fabric once before he started to marvel, “Such fine floral gauze fabric is very rare.”
The wealthy ladies who usually came to his shop would also bring their own fabrics, but in his half-lifetime as a tailor, he had rarely seen fabric with such excellent weaving techniques.
Modern floral gauze fabric could now be machine-woven, but there was one type that couldn’t be. And that was the most complex four-heddle twisted gauze.
This could only be hand-woven, which meant it was extremely labor-intensive, hence it was rarely seen in the market and was basically used for artifact restoration.
And this customer had brought exactly this type of fabric!
The dyeing of her fabric was also particularly refined. Ordinary people couldn’t buy such fabric even if they had money.
Shen You watched the owner take out measuring tape to measure the fabric dimensions, then asked, “Can you make one qipao and one Song-style jacket?”
“If I make an ancient-style qipao, what’s left won’t be enough for a jacket. I could only make a flutter-sleeve blouse. I can add some fabric to make a skirt as well.” The owner replied.
Shen You considered it for two seconds. “Then let’s do that. Thank you, boss.”
She also selected fabric for the skirt based on the owner’s recommendation, then paid for everything together.
The owner said she was lucky. He had just finished two orders, so she only needed to wait in line for two months.
Previous new customers had waited half a year.
Good shops indeed never lacked customers, Shen You sighed in her heart.
Looking at the clothes the owner had just finished and was ironing, the craftsmanship was truly excellent, and the price was truly expensive.
This was the first time she had ordered such expensive custom clothing. She could dress casually normally, but for future occasions like auction houses, she needed to pay attention to appearance.