“Are girls born knowing magic or something?” Jiang Cenglan looked at his reflection in the mirror. On his face, nothing had actually changed, yet his features looked several levels more refined, making him want to touch his cheek in disbelief.
Then his hand was promptly smacked away.
His senior sister stood with her hands on her hips, as haughty as ever. “What do you know?”, she started scolding him. “You think it was the prince’s love that made Cinderella’s name famous? It was the fairy godmother’s magic! It was the pretty dress!”
“I thought it was her mom who gave her a strange name…”
“Shut up!” The upperclassman shoved the clothes into his arms and ordered. “Now go and change, Cinder-fella!”
His senior was visibly tense, and Jiang Cenglan didn’t dare talk back. He obediently headed backstage to change, determined to transform into something that would meet her expectations. It was only when he arrived at the venue that Jiang Cenglan realized she hadn’t hired a model to save money… And not only that, she also fully expected him to walk the runway!
Little Jiang was speechless for a moment, but quickly accepted his fate. After all, it was just a streetwear brand showcase, not exactly the end of the world.
Besides, fashion design students couldn’t always count on performance majors to model their final projects. More often than not, they had to strut the catwalk themselves, and Jiang Cenglan could even walk in women’s wear if needed.
Granted, not professionally. But at least, he could still do it without looking utterly ridiculous.
Back when he was an undergrad, there had been an older student who loved wearing women’s clothing. That guy’s presence was magnetic, and every time he walked the runway, it was a spectacle in itself. Therefore, Jiang Cenglan quickly tore open the garment bag and changed into his outfit for the day, determined to channel his senior’s aura and borrow a little bit of his godly charm.
Checking himself out in the makeshift dressing area’s mirror, he was fairly satisfied with what he saw. But when he stepped out, Jiang Cenglan found his senior sister crouched on the ground, looking like she was in agony.
“What’s wrong? What happened?” Jiang Cenglan rushed over and tried to help her up.
She weakly resisted his pull, lifting her head. The pretty girl’s face was now ghostly pale, and sweat the size of raindrops streamed down her skin.
“Stomach cramps,” she said. “Too nervous…”
Severe anxiety often manifests in physical symptoms, with the most obvious being gastric spasms. Jiang Cenglan immediately asked: “Do you have any medicine?”
“Xiao Zhang went to get some for me.”
She was in so much pain that she was practically rolling her eyes, and her distress made Jiang Cenglan start panicking too. However, there wasn’t much he could do, so he crouched down beside her in solidarity.
When the pain was that intense, even moving felt unbearable. Fortunately, Xiao Zhang came back within two minutes, but her expression didn’t look good either.
“I couldn’t find my bag!”, she said, feeling both annoyed and worried at the same time. “Boss, do you have any extra medicine?”
“No. How could your bag be missing…”, the senior sister spoke through clenched teeth.
When they’d driven to the venue earlier that afternoon, Jiang Cenglan, Xiao Zhang, and their young boss had gotten out of the car first. In the rush to do his makeup, the girls only grabbed the cosmetics bag, leaving all the other luggage in the car. Now Xiao Zhang had gone back to look for painkillers, but their cosmetics bag obviously had no type of medicine inside.
Jiang Cenglan figured that the staff responsible for hauling the clothing bags probably saw the forgotten luggage and brought it along. However, they were currently going through security via the special access lane, so finding an organiser to ask would be a hassle.
Jiang Cenglan made a snap decision. “I’ll go buy it outside,” he said.
Leaving Xiao Zhang to take care of their boss, he bolted for the exit. However, the expo center was massive, so it took him over ten minutes to locate a pharmacy.
And of course, just as he finished telling the clerk the name of the medicine, his phone rang.
Jiang Cenglan picked up the call.
His senior sister’s voice had returned to normal as she said: “Lanlan, no need to buy it. We found our bags. Nothing is missing and I’ve already taken a painkiller, so I’m feeling much better.”
“That’s good.” Jiang Cenglan breathed a sigh of relief.
“Take your time coming back. Don’t run! We still have plenty of time, and if you sweat and ruin your makeup, that won’t look good!”
“Mm.”
After hanging up, Jiang Cenglan thought about it and still paid for the medicine, just to have it for the future. His senior sister must have recovered her full strength after taking her pills, since she was now messaging him on WeChat, instructing Jiang Cenglan to wander around and check out what the competition had to offer.
Over 400 clothing brands were participating in that specific expo. More than half of them were streetwear and fast fashion labels, many of which would eventually be competing with their brand for spots in shopping malls. Whether they could attract attention or not, it was a critical test for the future of their business.
Following her instructions, Jiang Cenglan agreed on a meetup time with her and then strolled off to gather some intel. However, he was walking around aimlessly and also scrolling on his phone at the same time, so naturally, he ended up in the wrong exhibition hall, completely unaware.
Along the way, he kept sneaking photos and sending them to his boss.
“Seems like there’s a lot of summery women’s wear over here.”
“It looks like beachwear, right? No need to take pics of those,” his senior replied.“Oh, just go and check out the runway area. Try to get familiar with it in advance.”
The expo wasn’t just open to shopping mall representatives and distributors, but also accessible to the general public, so anyone who bought a ticket could come in. His boss had been told that their section would probably crowd around 4 p.m., and the actual presentation, that being the runway show, would happen at 7 in the evening.
So, with enough time to spare, Jiang Cenglan strolled along and soon found the runway in the very center of the venue, slightly longer than a typical fashion show’s catwalk. At the moment, the staff was mopping the floor, so Jiang Cenglan couldn’t step up. He stood below instead, stroking his chin thoughtfully, trying to mentally rehearse a runway walk.
Then someone tapped him on the shoulder.
Jiang Cenglan turned and walked straight into a breeze of perfume. His heart gave a jolt, and a feeling of pure joy surged up from within. He instinctively took a step back, looked up, and sure enough, the person who had tapped him was Li Que.
“Long time no see,” the man said with a smile, slipping off his sunglasses.
“L-Long time no see!” Jiang Cenglan’s heart was racing.
He had no idea what to say. Thankfully, Li Que wasn’t staring at him or pressing him to start a conversation, which eased his nerves just a little.
Li Que stood there with effortless ease and elegance, dazzling as if caught in a spotlight, and even though he wasn’t striking a pose on purpose, those who passed by still couldn’t help but glance over at them from time to time.
Jiang Cenglan started to worry that someone might recognize Li Que soon. But just as he was hesitating over whether to remind him, Li Que had already put his sunglasses back on. He then glanced around, seemingly looking for something, then tilted his head in slight frustration as he said: “No cafés here, huh. Want to sit over there for a bit?”
He pointed to the row of chairs beside the runway. Still in a daze, Jiang Cenglan followed him over. Sitting down, Jiang Cenglan was almost enveloped by the man’s scent, reminiscent of a deep, green forest.
Li Que was wearing a chypre[mfn]Chypre is the name of a family (or concept) of perfumes that are characterised by an accord composed of citrus top notes, a middle centered on cistus labdanum, and a mossy-animalic set of basenotes derived from oakmoss. Chypre perfumes fall into numerous classes according to their modifier notes, which include but are not limited to leather, florals, fruits, and amber[/mfn] perfume today.
In other words, what people usually call the smell of old money.
“You’re dressed really sharp today,” the man said, then asked: “Here for fun?”
“Not for fun… I’m working,” Jiang Cenglan shook his head after nodding slightly. He then tapped the tip of his foot against the runway before continuing: “I’ll be walking a show later.”
Hearing that, Li Que raised his eyebrows high. Amusement gleamed faintly through his lightly tinted, mostly decorative sunglasses, as he echoed with surprise: “Later? Here? A runway show?”
“Yeah.” Jiang Cenglan thought Li Que was questioning his qualifications out of professional instinct as a model, so he pushed through his embarrassment and explained: “It’s for a friend’s brand… She’s just starting out and doesn’t have the budget to hire professional models.”
Hearing the explanation, Li Que went quiet for a few seconds, recalling that some designers did, in fact, walk their own shows. In the end, he simply nodded in understanding, saying: “That’s not unheard of.”
Jiang Cenglan’s face turned red. “Did you come specifically to watch?”, he asked. “If you’re watching, I’ll feel really awkward.”
However, Li Que shook his head before answering: “I own a few shares in some brands, so I came with my execs to check out the product lines, not the runway shows.” Then he added: “But if you’re walking, I wouldn’t mind seeing it. I really like your body.”
Li Que really liked… His body?!
Jiang Cenglan didn’t even have time to process the slightly ambiguous sentence before a bell rang inside the venue. People began arriving, filling the seats around them in no time. Poor little Jiang had no idea what was happening, while the bell abruptly turned into a high-energy dance track.
The venue lights dimmed. Spotlights around the runway flared on, and ambient lights flickered to the beat. Soon enough, he saw a model striding forward from backstage in a sexy bikini, walking with a confident catwalk strut.
Every sharp tap of her heels on the hard flooring seemed to dance directly across the surface of Jiang Cenglan’s brain.
Then came the second, the third, and many, many more bikini-clad models.
Jiang Cenglan: “?!”
Jiang Cenglan: “…”
Finally realizing what was going on, Jiang Cenglan slowly turned his head, only to see Li Que smiling at him, mouthing the words: “I’m really looking forward to your runway walk~”
