“Dad, I’m heading out.”
“Mm, be careful on the road.”
Early in the morning, the owner of the specialty store in the basement of Wanda Plaza personally drove over to deliver the sewing machine that Zi Yan had ordered.
Zi Yan ran his hand over the sewing machine, the texture indescribably smooth, with a creamy, delicate finish on the casing.
He was so excited he could fly— he didn’t even want breakfast. After getting dressed and grabbing his umbrella, he asked Zheng Quan for some Red Leader money as startup funds and prepared to buy some fabric.
Although the fabric sold around Haizhou was mostly for making ordinary clothes, Zi Yan was already itching with anticipation.
He had arranged with his mother to have some fabric slowly shipped over from Neon by courier.
Now that the weather was cooling down, even buying a few meters of flannel to make a jacket would be great.
“Hoo…”
Zi Yan peeked out from under his umbrella.
Maybe because today was Saturday—the official Double Holiday—the street was already fairly crowded, just past eight in the morning.
Zi Yan looked around. “So many people… And if I want to buy fabric, it really has to be in the city center…”
Thinking about the distance from here to downtown, a wave of despair washed over him.
A quick note about Haizhou’s city layout. Zi Yan had been to Wanda Plaza before; before it was transformed into a commercial hub, it used to be Haizhou’s original sports stadium, located in a relatively outlying part of Haizhou City, not too far from the Cadre Dormitory.
The shops there were all modern businesses. Having a specialty sewing machine store was already a miracle. As for old-fashioned fabric shops, those simply didn’t exist anymore.
So, if you wanted to buy fabric in Haizhou, you had to go to The First Department Store in the city center.
The First Department Store, Haizhou’s very first department store, was said to have been established in the 1950s— a real antique.
On its sixth floor, there were several clothing shops with decades of history. Along with custom tailoring, they sold fabric separately.
And, according to the city’s elders, back in the day, the First Department Store was the only six-story building in Haizhou. Anyone who could shop there was considered quite prestigious.
Time passed, and skyscrapers sprouted up like mushrooms. As Comrade Zheng Quan had mentioned in the news, Haizhou’s rapid development in recent years had basically built the framework of an international metropolis.
The pace of progress was really fast.
But the city center, with the First Department Store as its core, remained the most bustling place in Haizhou. Even though Wanda had entered the market and taken some of the shopping crowd, it could never challenge this area’s dominant status.
Tired from walking, Zi Yan sat down on a bench shaded by trees. The shade was thick, so he folded up his umbrella.
“But The First Department Store is really far from home…” Zi Yan stretched and muttered.
The Cadre Dormitory was located in the outskirts of Haizhou. Even taking the shortest route, getting to the city center meant walking about six or seven kilometers.
Zi Yan had planned to wait for the bus. But after waiting fifteen minutes, the bus finally arrived, and from the packed crowd visible through the windshield, it was crammed full of people.
Terrified by the overwhelming crowd, Zi Yan quietly stepped back and then walked away.
Forget it. Walking it is.
Zi Yan really wasn’t good at dealing with extremely crowded environments.
“Hello—”
After resting a bit and about to continue walking, someone suddenly called out behind him.
“Hm?”
Zi Yan turned around. It was a man he didn’t recognize, in his early thirties, holding a camera. Sporting a goat-beard similar to the sewing machine store owner’s, his face looked a bit weathered but wore a faint smile.
“Sorry to bother you. I’m a reporter from Haizhou Fashion Magazine. We’re currently working on a small feature about residents’ daily outfits. Could I take a photo of you?”
As he spoke, the goat-beard man pulled out a press card from his pocket for Zi Yan to see.
Zi Yan’s outfit today was the same as yesterday: an off-white high-neck thin cashmere sweater, paired with a black softshell jacket, deep blue skinny jeans outlining slender legs, and lightweight white sneakers.
Simple and neat, giving off a fresh vibe, catching the eye of the goat-beard reporter casually “street shooting” with his camera.
Zi Yan frowned: “…”
He was the first person to approach Zi Yan proactively. But just walking here from home, Zi Yan had already noticed more than a dozen pairs of eyes on him.
If it weren’t for his strong desire to make clothes, he definitely wouldn’t go out during the day, especially on a Double Holiday with large crowds.
Why do those people look at me with such surprise? It’s because of my unusual appearance.
White hair and red eyes—clearly a boy, yet holding an umbrella like those sun-sensitive girls. Being different really is a problem.
Zi Yan mocked himself silently.
Zi Yan asked, “Can I refuse?”
“Oh…” The goat-beard man smiled ruefully. “If you don’t want to, there’s nothing we can do… Haizhou Fashion Magazine is affiliated with Haizhou Daily, very reputable.”
“Ah, I know that.” Zi Yan waved his hand.
Zheng Quan liked to read and brought home a pile of magazines and newspapers from work every day to read before bed. Zi Yan had flipped through some of them out of curiosity. The magazine the reporter mentioned was among them.
Even the info about the fabric stores on the sixth floor of The First Department Store came from the ads on the last two pages of that magazine.
The goat-beard man said, “Well then…”
Zi Yan cut him off: “Sorry, even so, I don’t want to be photographed and appear in the magazine.”
Although Zi Yan was confident in his fashion sense, being featured in a magazine was still embarrassing.
“Besides—” Zi Yan said, “With my unique and unusual appearance, I’m sure it would hurt your magazine’s sales.”
Huh, who’s editing this issue? White hair, red eyes?
Zi Yan could even imagine the complaints of those who bought the magazine mid-month.
If because of me, Haizhou’s only fashion-related magazine sells poorly and ends up canceled, I, Zheng Zi Yan, would feel terribly guilty.
The goat-beard man said, “It will definitely affect sales.”
He hung the camera back around his neck and gestured with his hand. “Someone as handsome and good-looking as you would definitely boost our magazine’s sales.”
“Uh…” Zi Yan rubbed his forehead.
Handsome?
The goat-beard’s words were probably like calling someone handsome or beautiful in this era—a form of respect.
The goat-beard continued, “If possible, I’d even like to invite you to be a model for our magazine. You’d definitely become super popular.”
Zi Yan: “…”
The goat-beard smiled and invited, “So? My treat, let’s go chat properly at the Starbucks in Wanda?”
Zi Yan bowed slightly. “Sorry, I’m happy to be invited, but please allow me to decline.”
Without waiting for the goat-beard to say more, he opened his umbrella and walked off without looking back.
A model?
Being exposed in front of the public like that…
Well.