Chapter 36

Monday is just like any other Monday for Hong Kong people.

The double-day weekend has just passed, and people have not yet come out of the leisurely weekend and are still immersed in the beautiful dream of vacation.

Therefore, after a two-day weekend, we have to go to work and school early on Monday morning. People we meet on the street are all listless, depressed, and without any energy. This condition is simply called holiday syndrome.

Song Shu also got up early in the morning. It was a rare occasion for her to get up so early. After breakfast, she started to pack her things. She put her dress for the competition in a transparent dust bag and also packed other things she needed for the competition into her bag.

After sending Jiahui back home, Chen Zonghao followed behind her to help her organize things. He followed her wherever she went, like a big dog.

Song Shu stopped and turned around to look at him, a little amused, "What are you doing?"

Chen Zonghao looked down at her and touched his nose. "Are only participants allowed to enter the competition venue?"

After hearing what he said, Song Shu's eyes rolled around and she nodded seriously, "Yes, only contestants and models can enter without an invitation."

Song Shu saw a hint of disappointment in the man's eyes when she finished speaking, and he nodded, "Yeah."

"But," Song Shu changed her tone, and the man stared at her like a big dog that saw a bone. Song Shu coughed and said in a pretentious manner: "Participants can bring three or four people in. After all, they need to prepare to go on stage, and one person can't be busy. So, are you willing to go over and be my bodyguard?"

The man poked her forehead with his finger in an unpleasant tone, glanced at her, and said in a clean and clear word, "Go."

"Oh, if you are so reluctant, you don't have to go. It would be a shame to trouble you." Song Shu pretended to be considerate and said that it was fun to tease him sometimes.

Chen Zonghao bent down and lowered his head, leaning very close to her, looking at her with his eyes, "It's not forced, free bodyguard, do you want it?"

Song Shu was caught off guard by his sudden approach. The two were very close to each other. Unexpectedly, she flirted with him and got flirted with instead. Song Shu restrained her steps to retreat and forced herself to keep a calm expression. "I won't suffer any loss from having an extra free bodyguard. Of course, I'm not such a black-hearted person. I'll treat you to supper tonight."

Chen Zonghao straightened up and glanced at her red ears. "Okay, Jiahui, I'll ask Sister Liang to watch over her for one night."

＊

At noon, when Chen Xinyi came over, Song Shu took the prepared things and went to the Central Art Exhibition Hall with Chen Zonghao.

It was a little after 1pm and the guests would not arrive until the evening, so the only people in the exhibition hall were the staff, contestants and models.

A staff member led Song Shu and the others to a lounge and said, "This lounge is for you to change clothes, put on makeup, and wait for the show. This is the order of your clothing display. We will arrange for the models to rehearse the order of walking on the stage later."

"Okay." Song Shu nodded and took his list, which listed the order in which each designer's clothing would be displayed, as well as the name of the clothing she designed.

There were a total of thirty contestants, and Song Shu was ranked eighteenth, a relatively backward position. This position was neither good nor bad.

After the staff left, Song Shu looked around the lounge. It was not big. There was a changing room, a dressing table, a sofa, several plastic chairs and a table. Most importantly, there were several shelves for hanging clothes.

Chen Zonghao helped push out an iron rack, and Song Shu hung the skirt on it.

It was the first time that Chen Xinyi saw the skirt that she was going to wear on stage tonight. She looked at the skirt, her eyes completely attracted by it, and she didn't come back to her senses until she heard Song Shu's voice.

Song Shu glanced at the bruises on her feet and said, "Xinyi, don't be nervous when you go on stage. I heard from Xiaohua that you have been practicing your stage steps very seriously recently."

Judging from the injuries on her feet, they were probably caused by practicing catwalks.

Chen Xinyi followed her gaze and looked at her feet, not caring, "It's okay, just a minor injury."

Seeing that she really didn't care, Song Shu didn't know what to say.

It wasn't long before the staff came to inform the models and designers to go over and familiarize themselves with the venue.

Song Shu asked Chen Zonghao to watch over the clothes and other things in the lounge, because it was not uncommon for designers' entries to be destroyed. Song Shu had encountered this in her previous life, so she was extra careful.

Chen Zonghao stayed in the lounge, while Song Shu and Chen Xinyi followed the staff to the exhibition site.

The T-stage was in the middle of the exhibition area, about twenty meters long. Two stone steps lower than it, there were chairs placed on both sides of the long T-stage. They were seats for the guests, but the guests had not yet entered and the seats were empty.

At the end of the catwalk there was a long table with six chairs, which were obviously the seats for the judges.

There were many staff members walking around on the field.

When Song Shu and Chen Xinyi arrived, Chen Xinyi was called away by the staff, saying that the model needed to rehearse the stage order several times.

Song Shu stood on the field, waiting for other designers to arrive, and then the staff gave them some instructions.

However, there is not much that designers need to pay attention to. They just need to prepare the clothes for their models and wait for the results of the competition. Only the winners can go on stage.

After a while, the shortlisted designers gathered one after another. Among the thirty designers, the ratio of male to female was about one to one.

The clothes he wears are probably designed by himself, with distinct characteristics.

Among the designers there, there were famous ones and some were unknown ones, and Song Shu didn't know any of them.

After listening to the staff's instructions, most designers planned to return to their own rest rooms, while some stayed to talk with designers they were familiar with. Song Shu didn't know anyone, so she planned to go back to the lounge.

But after taking just a few steps, a mocking voice came from behind, "Tsk, some designers, they don't have much ability, but they will hype themselves up all day long and do some trivial tricks."

Song Shu kept walking, wondering who would be the representatives sent by the two luxury clothing brands attending tonight.

But the man behind her saw that she didn't respond, so he couldn't help but walk a few steps faster and stopped in front of Song Shu to block her way. He crossed his arms and looked at Song Shu with contempt, "Why can't some people understand what people say? I'm talking about you."

Song Shu was forced to stop and realized that the male designer in front of her was talking about her. She looked up at the designer in front of her. He had a small bun tied behind his head, wore a burgundy tie shirt, and wide-leg pants that dragged on the ground. His face looked extremely arrogant.

Song Shu took a look and didn't recognize him, so she asked directly: "Who are you?"

The designer who was being questioned put down his crossed arms, pointed his finger at himself and said, "Don't you know me?" His tone was filled with anger and frustration.

He looked angry as if he didn't recognize him.

Song Shu was silent for a moment, then asked seriously, "Should I know you?"

The noise they made attracted quite a bit of attention, and many designers who were about to leave couldn't help but stop and look at them.

Some designers whispered to their companions: "Isn't that Alvin who used to be a designer for xx luxury clothing brand? Who is the female designer opposite?"

Song Shu had appeared in newspapers before when she first watched horse racing, but the photo was blurry, so many people did not recognize her. Although she has recently become quite famous in the Hong Kong fashion design circle, after all, she designed two popular styles that led the Hong Kong fashion trend, not many people know her, and the name does not match the person.

Alvin was furious after hearing what she said. He thought that he was also somewhat famous and had worked as a designer for a well-known luxury clothing brand. This little designer who suddenly appeared from nowhere didn't even know him. He was also a designer who became famous through hype. He said in a gloomy tone, "I didn't expect that our designer Song is not famous and has a bad temper. After all, I entered the industry earlier than you and worked as a designer for xx luxury clothing brand. I didn't expect that I couldn't even catch the eyes of our big designers."

After hearing what he said, other designers who were watching nearby couldn't help but speak up: "Designer Song, it seems that there is only one Designer Song on the shortlist today, and that is Song Shu."

"Song Shu is the designer who has been very popular recently. She is amazing and has designed two hit products. It would be great if we can design one hit product in our career."

Some secretly jealous people couldn't help but say: "But she is too arrogant. She didn't even say hello when she saw her senior."

Someone else echoed, "He's so awesome, who cares about other people? I think his eyes are almost growing on top of his head."

At this time, someone couldn't help but say, "Uh, didn't you hear what Alvin said at the beginning? He was clearly mocking Designer Song, saying that he has no ability and can only hype things up."

As soon as he finished speaking, the other designers fell silent. They had heard it, but they were selectively deaf.

Of course, even if some of them heard it, they still insisted: "But Alvin is a senior after all. If Designer Song says he doesn't know him, isn't that giving the senior face? He's too arrogant."

As soon as they finished speaking, a woman walked past them in a hurry, walked towards Song Shu and the others, and left a sentence, "Alvin is a shining piece of gold, you need to get to know him."

After saying that, the woman walked up to Song Shu and the other person without caring about their reactions. She looked at Alvin with a smile, "Oh, who am I thinking it was? Isn't it the famous designer Alvin who always wears a sign around his neck saying 'xx luxury clothing brand designer' when he goes out? I'm sorry."

This was a blatant mockery, just short of saying that Alvin had to wear a dog tag around his neck every time he went out, and mocking him for always saying "xx luxury clothing brand designer".

Alvin's face turned red with anger when he heard these words. He was about to curse back, but when he looked up and saw the person coming, his throat choked and he yelled in surprise, "Why is it you?"

The person who came could be said to be Alvin's mortal enemy, Yang Shanshan. In the circle of young designers, the two were equally famous and were often compared, so neither looked down on the other.

Yang Shanshan covered her mouth pretentiously, "Oh, our great designer Alvin actually knows me, I'm really surprised."

Song Shu couldn't help but laugh after hearing this. She looked at the woman who suddenly appeared. She was wearing a red dress with big wavy hair and delicate and gorgeous facial features. She looked like a radiant beauty.

When Alvin heard Song Shu's laughter, he became even angrier and pointed the finger at Song Shu again, "Are you laughing at me?"

Song Shu looked at him with an innocent expression, "I'm sorry, I'm just a newcomer in the design circle. I don't recognize you because you are too dazzling and I dare not look at you closely."

"Puff," this time it was Yang Shanshan who laughed out loud. Facing Alvin's murderous gaze, she didn't take it seriously at all. She shrugged her shoulders, turned around and stretched out her hand to Song Shu, "Beauty, you speak so nicely. Let me introduce myself. My name is Yang Shanshan."

Song Shu extended her hand and shook it back, curling her lips, "Hello, Miss Yang, my name is Song Shu, you speak very nicely."

The two of them introduced themselves happily, completely forgetting about Alvin standing beside them, making him look like a fool. Alvin was so angry that he glared at the two of them and walked away.

Song Shu and Yang Shanshan didn't care at all. They hit it off right away and walked to a rest area in a corner, sat on the sofa and started chatting.

Yang Shanshan said, "Don't worry about Alvin. He is a person who thinks highly of himself. I can see that in his eyes, he looks down on everyone except himself."

Song Shu shook her head. She didn't care. If this person hadn't blocked her for no reason, she wouldn't have bothered to talk to him. "Thank you for helping me out just now."

Yang Shanshan waved her hands, "Hey, it's nothing. The main thing is that I can't stand that person either. Let's not talk about him. In fact, I have wanted to meet you for a long time, but unfortunately I never had the chance. I read one of your previous interviews and I really agree with what you said in it. I really want to communicate with you in detail, but I don't have much time today. This is my BB pole number. We can talk again when we have time."

"Okay." Song Shu took the business card with her number on it, picked up a blank piece of paper from the table and wrote down the store's number. She didn't buy a pager because she rarely went out, so she just installed a telephone in the store not long ago. But she thought it would be more convenient for her to buy one.

Song Shu wrote down the number and handed it to her, "This is the number of my store."

Yang Shanshan took it, and the two sat for a while before saying goodbye and leaving. After all, they had a competition to go on and time was tight.

＊

After saying goodbye to her, Song Shu went to her own lounge. When she opened the door, she found that Xinyi had not returned yet and Chen Zonghao was the only one in the lounge.

At this time, the man was sitting on the sofa, his long legs casually draped on the ground, his arms crossed, his head resting on the sofa, his eyes closed, as if he was asleep.

The air conditioner was on in the room. It was already autumn and it was a bit chilly, so it was a bit cold to stay in the rest room.

Seeing that he was only wearing a short-sleeved shirt and feeling the temperature in the lounge, Song Shu walked to a chair where her coat, which she had just taken off, was draped. She picked up the coat, walked to the sofa, bent down, and covered him with the coat.

Just as she was about to stand up, Song Shu met the man's open eyes and he grabbed her wrist.

Chen Zonghao woke up when she was covering him with clothes. When he opened his eyes and saw her, he thought he was still dreaming, so he naturally reached out and held her hand.

This action caused her waist, which was about to straighten up, to bend down again due to his force. The chain around her neck swayed, and Chen Zonghao's eyes were attracted to the chain.

It was just that Song Shu was wearing a low-necked skirt today, and this action made her neckline even lower, revealing her fair skin.

Chen Zonghao's eyes were burned, and he quickly looked away. He coughed, withdrew his hand, stood up, and put his coat on her. "I'm not cold, you wear it."

Song Shu looked at his red ears, glanced at her collar, and thought of his careless look just now. She felt a surge of heat on her face and felt extremely embarrassed. She pinched her coat with her fingers and replied hesitantly, "Okay."

＊

When Chen Xinyi pushed the door open, she found the lounge extremely quiet. Sister Shu and her husband were sitting on the sofa and on a chair next to the dressing table respectively, neither of them speaking.

But Sister Shu lowered her head and looked at the cosmetics on the dressing table, while the man sitting on the sofa glanced at Sister Shu through the mirror.

Hearing her push the door, the two looked at her. Song Shu even stood up from her chair and looked at her. "You're back?"

But her tone was a little anxious, and her face was red. The temperature in the rest room was not high. "Sister Shu, do you feel hot?" Chen Xinyi asked curiously. She just felt that the atmosphere between the two of them was weird.

But she didn't notice anything wrong. When she heard Sister Shu's voice, she nodded, "Well, we've walked the runway a few times in rehearsal. The staff told us that we can start getting ready. The guests have already started to arrive."

"Okay." Song Shu heard her words and became serious, "Then let's get started."