Chapter 18: Auntie and the Tailor Part 4

Chu Wang suddenly had an idea and decided to save himself from this Li Lei and Han Meimei-style conversation.

She thought for five seconds, and while Lin Yunyan was going downstairs to get dessert, she walked over to Mr. Saumur and whispered in French, "Sir, if you don't want to eat, you can refuse."

This was the first time Misole had heard French spoken by someone other than Mr. Joe. Although the pronunciation was a little stiff and the grammar was not entirely correct, it was enough to make him stop marking lines on the stage.

Chu Wang looked at the slightly cloudy pupils and hurriedly lowered his voice to add, "Don't worry about making her unhappy. After all, it was our family that was disrespectful first. If it really doesn't work, you can leave it for me to eat. If you are willing to try it once, she will definitely not ask you to eat fruit again and again."

"Wouldn't that be even more rude of me?"

"I'll be the one who's being rude, isn't that fine?"

Misole's expression changed from surprise to the narrowed smile that adults would have when teasing children. He looked at her from above his glasses, "...Aren't you afraid of being punished by your parents?"

"Madam won't punish me, at least not recently," Lin Chuwang blinked. "How about we make a bet, Mr. Saumier?"

At this time, Lin Yunyan asked her maid to bring black tea and brownies into the room.

Chu Wang immediately fell silent, stepped aside and watched from a distance.

Lin Yunyan signaled her maid to bring the black tea and brownie to Mr. Misor, and then said with anticipation, "Please eat."

Mr. Misole turned his head slightly and looked at Lin Chuwang with a complicated expression.

Chu Wang understood and tilted his head to ask obediently, "Second sister, is there any share for me?"

Lin Yunyan said, "Sister, why don't you just go down and eat your own portion?"

Chu Wang smiled and said, "I'm really hungry. I'll eat this first and leave my portion for Mr. Sommer." After saying that, she looked up again and asked Mr. Sommer in English, "Is that okay, sir?"

With Mr. Somir's nod of agreement, Yunyan watched Chu Wang take the black tea and brownie she had carefully prepared for him, and sat in the corner to eat happily.

——

As expected, Yunyan filed a complaint to the emperor without delay.

At the dinner table, Mr. Saumur was asking Qiao Maling for her wedding dress opinion, while Mr. Qiao was talking to Michelle, and Xue Zhenzhen was diligently teaching Leon how to use chopsticks. Yunyan, pretending to understand French, paid close attention to Mr. Saumur's conversation, but occasionally glanced at Mrs. Lin from the corner of her eye.

Mrs. Lin finished the last half shrimp with a gesture a hundred times more elegant than usual, raised her head proudly, and wiped her mouth. After adjusting her expression six or seven times, she cleared her throat to set the record straight and asked Lin Chuwang, "I heard that the third girl competed with the guests for food today?"

Lin Chuwang was struggling with the asparagus. He looked up blankly and nodded a little innocently.

Mrs. Lin had to maintain her composure in front of her aunt and her dignity in front of the three maids, so she coughed twice and said sternly, "You've been in Hong Kong for so long, haven't you learned the rules yet?"

Chu Wang hurriedly put down his knife and fork, stood at the table properly, and whispered, "Aunt, I was wrong."

Mrs. Lin's scolding, far less forceful than her usual intensity, brought the conversation to a halt. Michelle, a servant by birth, had long heard of this noble, educated Chinese wife and had always held her in awe. This was the first time she'd ever lectured someone so earnestly, and she couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive. With her face pale, she embraced the equally pale Leon.

On one side was the dignified and imposing wife, upholding the household rules; on the other was the pale, delicate, blond, blue-eyed concubine. Seeing this, Master Qiao's first instinct was to comfort the delicate, tearful, and adorable concubine.

Most white women have large frames. This Michelle, perhaps born a slave, was malnourished, hence her unusually thin frame. Lin Chuwang imagined white women to be incredibly strong, ready to grab someone's hair and slam them against a wall in a fight. He hadn't imagined white women from a century ago would be this unusual. In front of Mrs. Lin, who wasn't particularly tall herself, she seemed even more protective of him.

Someone once asked: What should I do if my mother-in-law is too picky? Then find her an imaginary enemy, such as a third party in my marriage. She will be too busy taking care of herself to care about you.

This was exactly what happened to Mrs. Lin at this moment. She had finally mustered up the courage to punish Lin Chuwang, but the moment Mr. Qiao comforted his wife, her anger vanished. She was naturally angry, but she couldn't let it out now, otherwise she would be completely defeated.

She immediately said in an extremely gentle voice, "It's not a big deal if girls are a little naughty when they are young. But it's only once. If you make a mistake next time, your aunt will punish you. Sit down quickly. ... Ma Ling, what did Mr. Saumur tell you just now? The wedding dress will be ready in a few days." She glanced at Mr. Qiao's face, then smiled and asked Leon in English, "Leon, can you use chopsticks now?"

After Chu Wang was pardoned, he quickly sat down and picked up his knife and fork to continue fighting with the asparagus.

Lin Yunyan did not get what he wished to see Lin Chuwang being punished, so he turned his attention to Mr. Saumur. Although Mr. Saumur had been speaking French to Mr. Qiao, he heard him mention the pronunciation of "chuwang" more than once, and both of them cast admiring glances at Lin Chuwang from time to time during the conversation.

So Yunyan felt a little listless for the rest of the dinner.

——

After dinner, Chu Wang took a walk and sat on the wicker swing in the garden, humming a random pop song. Mr. Saumur saw her upstairs and came downstairs soon and sat next to the wicker swing.

"Hmm... I actually lost to a little Chinese girl," Somir said with a smile, "So what kind of reward does the little Chinese girl want?"

"I heard you say at the dinner table," Chu Wang tilted his head and thought for a moment, "After finishing my sister's wedding dress, Mr. Somier would leave the Qiao Mansion, rent a shop in Yau Ma Tei, and find one or two apprentices to help out?"

"Several of Mr. Qiao's friends have asked me to make some formal dresses for them. I've seen some Chinese hand-embroidery in France and I'd like to use it on some Western-style dresses. So this time I came to Hong Kong with Mr. Qiao, and my purpose was to learn some Chinese hand-embroidery."

Chu Wang nodded and said, "It is indeed very beautiful, but unfortunately I am clumsy and have not learned it."

Mr. Saumur was also curious: "Why do you never speak French in front of your family?"

"My mother and I aren't particularly popular in our family..." Chu Wang decided to tell a harmless lie, "and she taught me French and English."

"Oh, who could dislike such a clever and lovely girl?" Mr. Saumur said, without sparing his admiration. "Well, what does the reward that such a clever and lovely girl desire have to do with my future plans?"

Chu Wang winked cunningly: "Is it possible that the apprentice Mr. Saumier needs is a little oriental girl who can't embroider?"

After hearing her words, Mr. Saumur was obviously a little surprised, but he asked very seriously: "Why do you want to learn tailoring?"

She wanted to say, "Because your last name is Luca, a hundred years from now, a couture dress bearing your name will start at tens of thousands. Learning from you, the originator, no matter how little you learn, will secure you a stable job."

Of course, Chu Wang couldn't bring herself to express her true feelings like that. After a moment's thought, she said, "I also want to wear a stylish and beautiful wedding dress like my sister's when I get married, but I definitely can't afford a great tailor like Mr. Saumier, so..."

Mr. Saumur couldn't help laughing when he heard this.

Seeing him laughing at her like that, Chu Wang felt even more aggrieved and said, "I even suspect that my fiancé will abandon me and marry a more fashionable wife. If I can learn even a little bit of skills from Mr. Somier by then, it will be enough to support myself."

This is the most sincere truth.

Saumier looked at this tiny little person, who was actually worried about his marriage with a sad face. He couldn't help but laugh and said seriously, "When you get married, if I'm still in Hong Kong, I will definitely come to help you make your wedding dress... But will Mr. and Mrs. Qiao agree to their precious niece suffering as a helper for me?"

Chu Wang's eyes lit up: "As long as you agree, sir, there will be absolutely no problem with my uncle and aunt."

——

Mr. Qiao naturally had no objection to Mr. Saumier's willingness to take Chu Wang on as an apprentice. Mrs. Qiao, however, felt that tailoring was not a respectable profession in China. However, she still made a pretentious suggestion to Lin Chu Wang, informing her that her proper English teacher was about to arrive in Hong Kong and asking if she really wanted to give up her afternoon English lessons to become an apprentice at Mr. Saumier's tailor-made dress shop in Yau Ma Tei.

Lin Chuwang was of course more than happy to think that he would no longer have to pretend to be an English freshman every afternoon.

Because the teachers at the church school are all British, the entrance exam will test English. Qiao Maling was worried about Lin Chuwang for a while, but Yun Yan was kind enough to help Lin Chuwang out: Chuwang will not start school until next year, so there is still more than a year left, so it is completely in time.

After discussing the rough outline of the wedding dress with Ma Ling, Mr. Saumier also found a suitable shop in Yau Ma Tei. With the Scottish teacher's arrival in Hong Kong, Ma Ling was able to fully devote herself to wedding preparations. While preparations for the wedding were in full swing on Earl Road, Lin Chuwang, having been in Hong Kong for nearly six months, enjoyed a half-day of freedom for the first time: accompanied by Die'er, he would take the tram every afternoon to the downtown area of ​​Kowloon, where Mr. Saumier's shop was located.

As an apprentice, Lin Chuwang didn't have to pay tuition, nor did she receive a salary, so she still had no spare money. Although Mr. Somier would often buy her candy and other snacks, or make her some homemade trinkets, even though she walked through the shopping-inducing Hong Kong pedestrian streets a century ago, Lin Chuwang could only admire them from afar before hurriedly passing by with Dier.

Another apprentice at Mr. Saumur's was a Vietnamese woman, surnamed Nguyen (N), who married a Hong Konger. She came to Hong Kong at the age of sixteen and began learning embroidery at a cheongsam shop, continuing her career until she was thirty. She had spent more than ten years in Vietnam working as a maid with her mother in a French family, so she spoke quite good French. One day, returning home from work at the cheongsam shop, she saw Mr. Saumur's ad posted outside the shop and immediately decided to quit her job and join Mr. Saumur as a maid, learning from him—of course, Mrs. Nguyen was paid a commission.

Mrs. Ruan was a remarkably quiet woman, meticulously spending most of her time in a corner, meticulously applying the finishing touches to Sister Ma Ling's wedding dress—embroidering a peony pattern. Most of the time, she listened as Mr. Saumier, driven nearly mad by Lin Chuwang's clumsy manipulations, walked around the streets of Yau Ma Tei twice, then returned with a beaming smile to continue teaching Lin Chuwang the most basic tailoring techniques.

The only time Lin Chuwang earned Mr. Saumur's nod of admiration, a "teachable child," was when he discovered that the little guy had incredibly accurately cut out large circles and ovals from small circles and polygons. The result: a beautifully symmetrical pattern, ready for embroidery. Mr. Saumur was so amazed that he held up the pattern for three days, exclaiming that Lin Chuwang was a "once-in-a-century genius."

Lin Chuwang couldn't help but feel a bit bewildered. These geometric cutting methods were fundamental drawing elements in CAD and engineering drawing, designed to facilitate clumsy science and engineering students. She had never imagined that, in this era of engineering's infancy, she would inexplicably set a precedent, which truly made her a bit uneasy.

Author's Note: Lin Chuwang's language skills: Primarily English and German, with more listening, reading, and writing than speaking in French, Spanish, and Italian. Because he knows Spanish, he can understand Portuguese. His Latin vocabulary is limited to academic and professional terms, and he's not very proficient in pronouncing them.

You should be able to see the progress bar now. If you think I'm pushing it too hard, please let me know and I'll write slower.

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In the past, cheongsams were all hand-embroidered, unlike today when they are mass-printed and appliquéd.

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What’s going on with the recent update? It’s driving me crazy. I really want to know what you guys want to see...

Don’t you think the little things in life that combine Chinese and Western elements in this era are very interesting? !

Well, just think of it as me entertaining myself...