Ch49 - Birthday

A man sitting in the middle broke the silence.

“Yes, very good. You passed the primary selection. You will now proceed to the next level of—” 

A woman in a white suit went ahead and interrupted this pretense.

“Oh, quit it already. Do you really think you can find someone better than this? Is the sweetheart with the big boobs your pick? Her height might meet the requirements, but, dare I say it, her weight definitely does not.”

This woman spoke in a very slick manner, her attitude aggressive.

The man who spoke up earlier just shrugged. 

“But, as we said before, a woman would be our first choice. Men are too rough around the edges. Women are softer and prettier. Those glittery little accessories should be paired with smooth and delicate skin, not rough and hard muscles.”

“I’m so touched that you finally learned how to remember the requirements. However, could you please open your eyes for once? This doesn’t have anything to do with gender anymore. He is more than beautiful enough. The fact that he’s a guy will only be an asset to him. Do you have any idea how much the clothes weigh?”

“Try using your brain. Paris Fashion Week is just about to start. It took us a lot of energy to get here. I don’t want anyone else to steal our limelight.”

Once she finished speaking, she turned straight towards the person next to her.

“Hey, do we have the clothes right now? I want him to try it on.”

The designer was right next to her.

“It’s in the safe next door. Please give me five minutes. My assistant has already gone to get it.”

After a while, two people walked in through the door. They were followed by another two people wearing suits, both of whom looked very sturdy. They were pushing a small cart with a piece of flannel draped over it. On it were two large boxes. 

They opened the first box and took out a piece of fabric. The main color was gold. It had all sorts of geometric shapes lining its patterns. The style seemed to emulate ancient Egyptian clothing. The fabric also had tiny little gems embedded along the patterns. It was incredibly beautiful.

Gu Qingchi couldn’t quite tell what kind of clothing it was.

It seemed to be a single piece of cloth when unfolded.

The designer began introducing it. 

“This was a custom-made piece for a wealthy Egyptian customer from a couple years back. It was decorated with gold thread and tens of millions worth of precious jewels. It has since been kept in a safe within the bank. We’re borrowing it for this event, so the piece cannot be altered. It can only be fixed in place.”

He held the clothing over his body.

“If the model ended up being a woman, we planned to pin the shoulder down underneath the armpit. However, since you’re not a woman, we’ve decided to wrap the fabric around your waist. It will serve as bottoms. There are also matching accessories. In this way, we’ll be able to fully display the entire outfit. The overall design should be pretty good.”

Perhaps he was just being considerate of Gu Qingchi, but the designer spoke very slowly. 

After he finished speaking, the woman turned to Gu Qingchi.

“So, if it’s at all possible, I’d like you to try the clothes on here because they need to be under surveillance at all times.”

Gu Qingchi understood. He nodded, a little hesitant.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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The designer gently wrapped the clothes around him. After adjusting it a bit, he left a marker on the clothing. When the time came, he’d place a pin or something here to turn the fabric into a piece of clothing. 

Egyptian clothing had always been gorgeous, but, at the same time, there were very few pieces of fabric in its structure. It didn’t matter if you were a man or a woman. Men would only wear a short wraparound skirt. It was common to expose the upper body.

The piece that Gu Qingchi was wearing was very long. The fabric in front ended just above his ankles, and the fabric in the back dragged along the floor a bit. KK wasn’t so much exhibiting a new design as it was trying to garner attention through the means of those priceless pieces of jewelry.

After the clothing was fixed to Gu Qingchi’s body, all sorts of accessories were taken out of the box one by one and placed on Gu Qingchi.

By the time Gu Qingchi left, an entire hour had already passed. After walking out, he tilted his head sideways, letting Xiao Ke know that they could leave now. 

Xiao Ke followed after him.

“Gu ge, how is it? Do they want to work together? Will we be able to get admission into Paris Fashion Week next year?”

Gu Qingchi shook his head.

“They didn’t say it was Paris Fashion Week.” 

“What did they say?”

“They said there would be a runway show in two days.”

Xiao Ke sucked in a breath.

“Isn’t that this year’s Paris Fashion Week?” 

On the day of the show, all of the people present were dressed in formal wear. Pretty much everyone had a camera in their hands.

At the very front of the runway were several famous designers within the fashion industry, as well as many, many photographers.

Right behind them were celebrities and public figures from all over the world. Vano was also among them. She had a dainty and delicate pair of opera glasses in her lap.

“KK is scheduled for later. The timing isn’t very good. Everyone will be tired by then. They’ll all be waiting for the finale.” 

Vano looked towards the photographers. After the fashion shows were over, they would be publishing their photos. Vano’s TL Magazine would also be publishing the highlights.

After a while, the initial fervor slowly started to die down. The photographers began looking down at the photos they took.

It wasn’t until the show’s finale that photographers gradually started looking up. The finale would have a celebrity walking the runway. There would typically be something interesting to see during the finale.

It was rather chaotic backstage. Different models of different skin tones were coming and going the entire time. Things were bound to go wrong from time to time. 

It was about halfway through the show when the number of people slowly started to decrease.

By the time Gu Qingchi started to take the stage, the backstage area was pretty much empty. This was because KK had specifically asked for a slot towards the end. The early stages of the show were far too messy, and KK’s finale was far too important. They couldn’t afford any risks.

There was a group of people surrounding Gu Qingchi. They arranged his clothes and accessories.

His phone, which was lying on the table, suddenly chimed. Gu Qingchi hadn’t planned to look at it at first. However, someone ended up handing it to him, and he subconsciously accepted. 

Xie Luyu sent him a message on WeChat.

[When will your plane arrive?]

It wasn’t convenient for Gu Qingchi to text, so he replied with a voice message.

[Tomorrow at noon.] 

After he finished speaking, he placed his phone back on the table. He was just about to head onstage.

What Gu Qingchi didn’t see was that, not long after he put down his phone, someone had added him on WeChat, the reason for the application was very simple, Cheng Ke.

Paris Fashion Week was recorded. Guests were allowed to bring cameras. They could take pictures, but they could not record videos.

However, after such a long time, the audience below was also tired. The models went up one after another, but there weren’t many in the audience taking photos. 

Gu Qingchi appeared behind one of the celebrity spokespersons.

When it came to the runway, celebrities were always going to be a little bit worse compared to models. Still, they received a lot of attention, so a lot of people in the audience began focusing their attention on the stage.

Gu Qingchi was the last one to walk. The finale.

What was originally an unremarkable sheet of fabric was now a beautiful skirt which was wrapped around his waist. 

Under the dazzling lights, the gold thread meshed together with the glittering jewelry into the perfect picture.

Ancient Egypt’s gorgeous style. A golden tone.

This outfit had an usually large amount of jewelry, most of which were made of gold. The accessories were processed in order to bring out as much shine as possible.

Gu Qingchi was covered head to toe in jewelry. Whenever he walked, the clinking of jewelry would ring out. There was a certain rhythm to it. It followed along the pace of his footsteps. 

This alone was already incredibly heavy. It really would have been difficult for a woman to bear it all.

Gu Qingchi had six or seven golden hoops on each of his arms. They were stacked upon his forearm. A ruby ​​was inlaid upon the choker around his neck. Gu Qingchi was barefoot. There were hoops along his ankles as well. They were also made of gold.

His earrings were also made of gold. They were shaped into diamonds. However, the most striking thing had to be the two necklaces hanging around his neck.

The first one was rather short. It was littered with rubies. 

Then, there was a longer necklace, very long. It was made up of several interconnected chains. The main part of the necklace lay right above his chest. A rather large ruby ​​was inlaid upon the middle.

Gu Qingchi’s beautiful muscles, decorated in gold and gems, was simply a feast for the eyes.

He looked just like a flamboyant and extravagant Egyptian monarch. He stole away everyone’s attention the moment he walked out.

As soon as Gu Qingchi walked out, exclamations started rising up from the audience members closest to the stage. 

He didn’t shift his gaze. He simply walked forward one step at a time. The fabric rippled along with his movements, and the gold ornaments on his body clinked together.

As Gu Qingchi walked towards the center of the stage, more and more people raised their heads and noticed him.

The cameras below also started flashing one after another.

“I haven’t seen this model before. It’s a new face.” 

“An Asian. Oh, the outfit really suits him.”

“Just watch. I bet the designers up front are going to fight tooth and nail for this model. They’ve never been the type to share.”

“Alright. KK will definitely be releasing all the jewelry he’s wearing. The necklace will probably also be lent out to celebrities. KK really did themselves good this time.”

Vano leaned forward. She took the opportunity to recommend Gu Qingchi to a couple of designers in the front. These were the kings of the fashion industry. 

“This is the model I recommended to you the other day. He’s very, very special.”

At this moment, Gu Qingchi had just walked to the front of the stage. He took a step forward with his right foot. Then, he stood sideways and looked forward.

The photographers’ cameras kept flashing.

Gu Qingchi paused there for a while. Then, he headed back in time to the rhythm. The whole thing didn’t take much more than a couple of minutes. 

However, he managed to catch everyone’s attention in that small frame of time.

Xie Luyu had successfully mastered the skills it took to make a birthday cake. He even went to a bakery and learned how to draw patterns with cream.

He spent half a day decorating the apartment. He even set up a little mechanism so that, when Gu Qingchi opened the door, confetti and ribbons would fall.

In addition, Xie Luyu also prepared a birthday present for Gu Qingchi. 

This alone wasn’t enough. It needed something even more special.

When Xie Luyu was a child, his birthday was organized by the butler. He would hold a birthday banquet and invite a bunch of people that Xie Luyu didn’t know. It was very boring. Xie Luyu had never wanted this kind of birthday, but Xie Luyu still looked forward to it because his parents would come back on his birthday.

Now, Xie Luyu didn’t have such expectations anymore, but Xie Luyu had been very imaginative when he was a child. That was why he created the perfect birthday for Gu Qingchi, all of it according to all his childhood fantasies of what a birthday should be.