DM Chapter 23

Feng Ruixue!

Posted by April Fox, ? Views, Released on January 26, 2025

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Chapter 23: Feng Ruixue!

Chen Fangzhou glanced at it, gave no comment, and only said, “It’s not quite the same as the catalog.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “The one in the catalog makes the face look bigger.”

This was a small trick she played. Sticking rigidly to the script might be safer, but it wouldn’t leave a lasting impression.

Boss Chen had secretly given her some leeway. At first, Jiang Xiaoyuan was thrilled, but halfway through washing Lily’s hair, she realized that Chen Fangzhou wasn’t really trying to test her.

Whether influenced by the top scholar in this world or not, Jiang Xiaoyuan felt her mind had become more active these days. She quickly understood Chen Fangzhou’s intention—Boss Chen didn’t believe she could truly reach the level of an intern technician in less than a month. Even though an intern technician’s job is mostly assisting others, they still have much more customer interaction compared to a shampooist.

Though Manager Chen might be a bit quirky at times, he was extremely cautious and responsible when it came to customer service. He didn’t want to give Jiang Xiaoyuan the badge of an intern technician at all.

He must have also learned about the conflict between Jiang Xiaoyuan and Xiao K’s group through some means. He couldn’t let her pass the assessment but also didn’t want her to lose face. He had no choice but to do this. He first lowered the difficulty for her secretly without telling others, so that people would be convinced. Then he made a firm statement that “she has worked too little and does not have the qualifications of an intern technician” and did not let her pass.

This way, no one would think she wasn’t capable; they’d just believe the manager was being unfair. This would not only save Jiang Xiaoyuan’s face, but also would not undermine the high standards and strict requirements of the store…Perhaps, with the sympathy of others, Jiang Xiaoyuan, a naughty child of all kinds, might even integrate into the team sooner.

Boss Chen had some subtle tricks up his sleeve. After figuring it out, Jiang Xiaoyuan wasn’t ungrateful but still felt frustrated that her efforts were being overlooked. She wanted to try her best.

Jiang Xiaoyuan looked at Chen Fangzhou anxiously, wondering what he thought of her improvement. However, Boss Chen had a mysterious calmness on his face. He made no comments, just waved his hand and called for the next person.

Jiang Xiaoyuan, heavy with thoughts, stepped aside, even more nervous than before the assessment.

Lily, on the other hand, had somehow sidled up to her and sweetly started a conversation: “Did you work somewhere else before? You did a great job on the style.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan forced a smile: “No, I just fiddled around. I’m not sure if Mr. Chen will let me pass.”

Xiao K and her small group often spread rumors that “Jiang Xiaoyuan looks down on people and is hard to talk to.” Lily, who had heard these rumors, hadn’t had a good impression of her either. But after actually talking to her, Lily found that Jiang Xiaoyuan was quite approachable.

This Lily girl was a bit too bold. She had already forgotten her dramatic declaration earlier about cutting her hair short and instead leaned closer to Jiang Xiaoyuan, saying, “Can I come to you for a blow-dry before closing the store and shopping next time?”

Jiang Xiaoyuan glanced at Lily and thought, “Weren’t you planning to cut your hair short?”

But in the end, she swallowed the retort—Jiang Xiaoyuan wasn’t against being accepted by others; she just couldn’t bring herself to make the first move after being initially excluded.

She nodded but felt her attitude was too stiff and unfriendly, so she awkwardly added, “Your hair is really nice.”

The subsequent assessment was long and torturous for Jiang Xiaoyuan. By the time everyone had been assessed, it was nearly 11 p.m. Lily yawned three times in a row, and the participants stood in a row, all exhausted and tense, waiting for Boss Chen’s verdict.

Chen Fangzhou: “Hu Xiaoxue, promoted to technician, change your badge tomorrow. John, promoted to intern technician, oh, and you’re this month’s performance champion; make sure to keep it up next month. Xiao K, you didn’t pass, continue your internship. Keep your mind on the job instead of doing so much unnecessary stuff. Jiang Xiaoyuan…”

Jiang Xiaoyuan suddenly felt her mouth go dry for no reason.

Chen Fangzhou glanced at her, “You were at the bottom in performance this month, unqualified, and all your performance bonuses are deducted.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan felt her heart sink to the bottom.

Chen Fangzhou continued, “However, you did pass the assessment, promoted to intern technician, change your badge tomorrow. But I’m warning you, if you perform like this next month, there will be no performance bonus, and promotion won’t make a difference.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan only heard half of it. As the crowd erupted in surprise, she felt like she was floating, and everything about bonuses or not went in one ear and out the other.

Chen Fangzhou casually drew a question slip, crumpled it up, and tossed it at her forehead, “What are you spacing out for? Did you hear what I said?”

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “Yes, sir!”

And just like that, Jiang Xiaoyuan became the shortest-tenured shampooist to complete her appreticeship in the store. She also successfully broke the ice with Lily’s small circle. She realized that she wasn’t entirely out of place among her colleagues. They could chat about weight loss, clothes, and even make jokes about Boss Chen behind his back.

Jiang Xiaoyuan’s ability to draw was also a big deal. On a whim, she drew a portrait of each person that didn’t look like them. Anyway, no one cared whether the painting looked like them or not, as long as they were beautified.

Jiang Xiaoyuan switched to an “intern technician” badge. She felt guilty, afraid others would see through her and realize she didn’t deserve the title. Fortunately, the job of an intern technician mainly involved assisting, so she managed for the time being. Pretending to be confident, she continued to secretly catch up on her skills.

Of course, her joy didn’t last long. Since she had no performance bonus, she only received a pitiful basic salary for the month, which was a drop in the bucket compared to her “huge” debt. Grinding her teeth, she sent three-quarters of it to Qi Lian as the first installment of her repayment.

She still didn’t have money to buy clothes, and it seemed she was destined to wear that hideous black down jacket over her summer clothes all winter.

Jiang Xiaoyuan’s precious youth was being wasted in a mire of poverty, with no sign of when she might climb out.

But regardless, Jiang Xiaoyuan began to get used to life at the hair salon and found that “getting used to” things had its advantages—these two words were magical and could ease most of the world’s pains.

Since arriving in this world, Jiang Xiaoyuan had been in constant turmoil. These recent days were the first time she had finally settled down.

But unfortunately, Jiang Xiaoyuan’s brief moment of peace lasted only a few weeks.

It was the store’s one day off that week, and it was snowing heavily outside, bitterly cold. The heating in Jiang Xiaoyuan’s place wasn’t working well, so she sneaked into the salon to warm up with the air conditioning. Not wanting to feel like a freeloader, she pretended to study hard, practicing curling hair with a stack of paper strips while enjoying the warm air.

In the middle of her practice, someone suddenly knocked on the door. Jiang Xiaoyuan went to check and was startled to see a young man standing at the entrance. He was exceptionally tall, easily over 1.9 meters, and his large frame blocked half the street’s sunlight.

Jiang Xiaoyuan didn’t dare let him in and cautiously poked her head out. “Excuse me, can I help you?”

The young man hunched his shoulders, accommodating her height, trying to make their eyes level, his posture seemed servile, and he shivered in the wind and snow and asked: “Miss, are you not working today?”

Jiang Xiaoyuan eyed him warily. “We’re closed today. Who are you looking for?”

The young man: “Um… is there a stylist here?”

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “No.”

To her surprise, as soon as she said that, the nearly two-meter-tall man glanced around and suddenly started crying at the door.

Jiang Xiaoyuan froze with her hand halfway through closing the door.

Ten minutes later, she had washed her face, tightened her bug-shell-like down jacket, and followed the sobbing strong man across the street to a bridal studio.

The studio seemed on the verge of closing down and had come up with various desperate measures to cut costs and increase revenue. It seemed really hard on its employees. The most unethical thing is to ask photographers to be responsible for their own profits and losses. They had to find customers, sign contracts, and settle accounts at the end of the month. If there were too few customers in the month, the photographers would also deduct money as the “depreciation fee” of the equipment for that month.

But in this bitterly cold winter, who would expose their shoulders for a wedding photo?

In this tough off-season, the photographer, a new hire, had finally signed his first client, scheduled for today. But early that morning, the studio’s overworked makeup artist called in and said she wasn’t coming.

The struggling studio only had one makeup artist. She was treated like a star surrounded by the moon. She was so great that no one could afford to offend her.

But the customer is coming today, you can’t let him do his own makeup, right? The photographer had no other choice but to run to the hair salon across the street to find someone – he was really unlucky, the hair salon was closed, so he had to grab Jiang Xiaoyuan to make up the number with tears and snot.

“Is this how you treat customers?” Jiang Xiaoyuan muttered, her face half-buried in her down jacket. “Your studio’s operations are so unprofessional; are you about to go out of business? Why are you even working in this dump?”

The photographer, with his massive frame, nervously twiddled his fingers and softly replied, “I’m not skilled enough. No one else would take me, and it was hard enough finding this job.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan said, “You might as well work in a restaurant as a waiter.”

The photographer, while wiping away his tears and whimpering, pitifully responded, “It’s all the same.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan thought for a moment and found herself at a loss for words. She could only admit that he had a point—these young people who had traveled far from home were all the same. They had no education, no skills, and had flocked to various service industries: hair washers, waiters… Though the work was different, their status and circumstances were similar. Customers were treated like emperors, bosses like grand overseers, and they were the small fry at the bottom of the food chain, constantly being ordered around.

Besides this unfortunate photographer, there was also a yawning cashier in the studio. The photographer timidly greeted the cashier, politely asked Jiang Xiaoyuan to sit down, and diligently poured her a glass of water. Then, he shuffled over with tiny steps and said, “I don’t have any money to pay you right now, is that okay?”

Jiang Xiaoyuan thought to herself: “I can tell you don’t have money.”

The reason she agreed, on one hand, was out of pity for the guy, and on the other hand, was because she was itching to do something. Jiang Xiaoyuan loved makeup. Ever since middle school, she enjoyed applying makeup to her own face, spending four or five hours on a look, then taking a few photos before washing it all off and going to bed.

Some say that spending 10,000 hours on something can make you a genius in that field. Jiang Xiaoyuan had spent far more time than that on her face. If this were ancient times, she would probably already be a renowned makeup master. Unfortunately, her skills had no outlet. Ever since she arrived in this world, she had been bare-faced—unwilling to put cheap cosmetics on her face, and unable to afford good ones, she chose to go bare-faced.

Today, at last, she had the chance to return to the arena.

Jiang Xiaoyuan gulped down the hot water and shivered as she said, “I don’t have any makeup with me. Don’t tell me you don’t have any tools here either.”

The photographer hurriedly said, “We do, we do, I’ll go get them.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “Wait, where’s your air conditioner? Can you turn it up? It’s too cold.”

The photographer awkwardly looked at her and said: “There are no customers, so the boss won’t let us turn it on.”

Jiang Xiaoyuan: “…”

It really was about to go out of business.

Jiang Xiaoyuan found that birds of a feather flock together. When she was decked out in gold and silver, she felt like all of China had already entered the ranks of super-developed countries; everywhere she looked, luxury stores were filled with her compatriots.

But when she was shivering and huddling wherever she could find air conditioning, she realized the world was full of poor souls—not just any poor souls, but those so destitute that the sound of their poverty echoed.

After waiting in the cold for about half an hour, a car finally pulled up slowly at the door. Jiang Xiaoyuan jumped up excitedly, “They’re here, they’re here! Quick, turn on the air conditioning!”

The big photographer, who had been adjusting his camera, was so startled by her shout that he almost dropped the lens. The store was suddenly in chaos. Jiang Xiaoyuan, with a quick step, seized the prime spot under the air conditioner, positioned herself with a beaming smile ready to greet the customers, and watched as a man and a woman walked in through the door.

The woman was quietly scolding the man: “Why did you insist on taking photos this season? It’s freezing, and you just had to book this shabby place. We are taking wedding photos, not the one-inch photos on the driver’s license!”

The man replied: “Well, it’s cheap here…”

The woman said, “Huo Boyu, are you serious? How many times am I going to get married in my life? How many chances will I have to take wedding photos? And you think ‘cheap’ is a good enough reason?”

The man was deeply embarrassed and mumbled: “We’re here already, people are watching, so stop talking.”

The woman, concerned about her image, saw that there were only a few staff members ready to serve them and fell silent, her face cold.

But Jiang Xiaoyuan was already stunned. She saw the stylish young woman remove her sunglasses, revealing a face that Jiang Xiaoyuan would recognize even if it turned to ashes—it was Feng Ruixue!