Chongfei Manual

Wei Luo felt somewhat awkward at the moment. Normally, a mother would prepare her daughter’s wedding dress. Wei Luo didn't have a mother, so this task had fallen onto Fourth Aunt Qin-shi's shoulders. It would also be acceptable if she sewed the dress herself. But, looking at the current situation, it couldn't be that Zhao Jie was going to hire someone to make her wedding dress? Had he talked about this with her father? Did her father agree?

For a girl's wedding, the wedding dress was extremely important. The wedding guests would be able to tell if the stitching on the wedding dress was good or not in a single glance. This concerned her future dignity and reputation. She understood that Zhao Jie was being considerate of her. But, wasn't the scope of his care a little too... extensive. The soles for Wei Luo’s wedding shoes were already half done being stitched. She had lost count the number of times she stabbed her fingers because of this. If it went like this, would those shoe soles not be used?

It was only now that Wei Luo understood why Prince Jing's residence's steward wanted her to come here. This inn was next door to the famous Xiu Chun. The clothes from Xiu Chun were famous in the capital. It was a store that had existed for over a hundred years and they usually only sold ready-made clothing. Every year, crowds of prestigious people with splendid family backgrounds would come to pre-order their limited supply of clothing.

However, Xiu Chun would accept only five orders for custom-made clothing for three days at the beginning of each year. After those orders were accepted, they would politely thank the rest of the visitors while declining to meet them and close their doors.

The rest of the time, even if people had money and wanted to order clothing to be specially made, they wouldn't be able to. Their ready-made clothing was also very extremely expensive. Even so, they were people willing to go to their store to be ripped off by these prices.

The young ladies in the capital all thought it would be glorious to be able to wear clothing from Xiu Chun. Other people would envy to death whoever could obtain one piece of clothing from this place.

It was currently late autumn. There were still several months until the next New Year. Other people had definitely already purchased the fixed amount of five orders. How was Zhao Jie able to get the people from Xiu Chun to agree?

If Wei Luo could wear a wedding dress from Xiu Chun, it would not only increase House Wei's reputation, it would also show how much importance Prince Jing placed on Wei Luo, which would in turn make people value House Wei and Wei Luo even more. On behalf of Zhao Jie's meticulousness, Wei Luo wouldn't bother him about the half finished soles. At worst, she would make them into another pair of embroidered shoes.

When Wei Luo returned to her senses, the woman had already finished taking her measurements and was glancing at her chest as she implicitly asked, "Miss, are you still growing recently?”

Wei Luo's face subconsciously turned red and she almost reached her hands out to cover her growing chest. This woman didn't seem like she was asking if she had been growing taller. She was probably asking if her chest was still developing... The measurements for the wedding dress had to be fitted closely. Normally, at this time, a girl wouldn't grow taller, but her chest would still continue to grow. The wedding dress wouldn't be comfortable if the chest area was too tight.

Wei Luo's face was so red that it looked as if blood could drip from it. It was one thing for her to know this herself, but it was embarrassing to say it in a roomful of people. Fortunately, there were no men inside the room. Prince Jing's steward had already left the room when they started taking measurements. "Recently, they're still growing..."

At fifteen year old, a girl's body would be blossoming. First, they had been like small, unopened lotus flowers. Now, they full enough to be held in a hand. Wei Luo almost suspected that it was because of Zhao Jie's rubbing... After all, before Zhao Jie had started touching them, her little peaches hadn't developed much.

After thinking too much about this, Wei Luo hurriedly to her senses and controlled her expression.

The woman from Xiu Chun was already accustomed and experienced with making clothes. Hearing her words, she knew what to do. Next year's October was less than a year away. She would make the wedding dress's chest area slightly bigger so that there would be sufficient space when the time came. The woman checked the recorded numbers. Seeing that there weren’t any problems, she congratulated Wei Luo on her good fortunes and left.

--------

Suddenly, the group of people that had surrounded Wei Luo had disappeared and Wei Luo was the only one left in the private room.

She didn't know where the Prince Jing's steward had gone. Wei Luo's female servants were waiting for her downstairs. She walked to the doorway to look, then she went back inside the room to put on her veiled hat. Just as her hand touched the veiled hat on the vermillion-lacquered round table with carved lions, a hard body pressed against her back and whispered into her ear, "How about letting me see how much they've grown?"

Wei Luo was surprised, but fortunately her reaction was quick. She nimbly moved sideways to avoid him, so Zhao Jie's hand only touched empty space.

Wei Luo turned around to face him. She felt both shy and indignant as she stared at him and asked, "Why are you here?"

When she asked this question, her eyes glanced at the door for a moment. The door was tightly closed. In addition, she really hadn't recently heard the sound of the door opening and closing. It couldn't be that Zhao Jie had been hidden in this room for this entire time, right? She thought of the words she has said to that woman during the measurement and connected them to the nonsensical words that Zhao Jie had just said. Wei Luo immediately understood his meaning. Her small face that blushed with both shame and anger was like the dewdrops that were seen in early spring mornings. It was cute, rosy, and bright.

Zhao Jie's expression was normal without the slightest shame. He lowered his eyes to look at this small, fuming girl. He pinched her cheek, laughed, and said, "This prince went through so much effort to invite people from Xiu Chun. It’s fine that you don't appreciate it. Do you also have to be angry?"

Wei Luo hadn't guarded herself against him pinching her face. It didn't hurt, but she still intentionally said, "Why didn't you tell me this in advance? I wasn't prepared at all."

Zhao Jie looked at her and asked, "What did you have to prepare for? You just had to bring yourself here."

Wei Luo asked, "Have you talked about this matter with my daddy?"

Zhao Jie nodded. Otherwise, Wei Kun wouldn't have agreed to let her go outside.

Wei Luo said, "Oh." She blinked and in slightly complaining overtone, she said, "They even took measurements to make shoes... I was already half finished with reinforcing my wedding soles by sewing. It's such a waste."

Zhao Jie looked at her strangely. His lips slowly curved up into a smile as he asked, "My Ah Luo also knows how to reinforce soles?”

Of course, she knew how. Other than reading books and gardening at home, Wei Luo naturally couldn't skimp on learning needlework. Da Liang thought highly of women who were clever and dexterous. This meant that not only did a woman need to be intelligent and understand etiquette, her needlework skills couldn't be too lacking. A woman needed to be talented at needlework in order to be valued by her mother-in-law and sister-in-laws after she married into her husband’s family. However, Wei Luo didn't like needlework and didn't practice often. This time, she had to repeatedly ask Fourth Aunt's advice on how to reinforce soles by sewing.