Moonlight Like Water (3)

Chapter 17: Moonlight Like Water (3)

Miss Windsor jolted awake from a beautiful dream, her thoughts turning to her family's current situation. Tears welled in her eyes. "We're almost out of money..."

Seeing her large, beautiful eyes about to overflow with tears, Lorist quickly consoled her. "Don't cry. Doesn't your family still have a property and two shops in Molent City? That's the capital for the Windsor family to make a comeback! As long as you manage it well, endless wealth will follow. Once you've earned money, Miss, you can proceed with those five steps. We believe that under your leadership, the Windsor family will surely reclaim its territory and restore its former glory."

Fatty Shi chimed in from the side. "Exactly. Never mind the house for now, just those two shops your family owns on Triumph Avenue are worth a fortune. That's the commercial center of our Molent City, where land is worth its weight in gold. Owning two shops there means your foundation for doing business is more solid than others. Think about the Golden Horn Merchant Guild back then; they started by running errands from a small tavern, but after five or six years of operation, they've grown into a major guild with an annual income of a million gold coins. Miss, as long as you can find a good business project, earning a thousand gold coins a year is actually very simple."

The girl lifted her tear-streaked face, her large eyes misty, and asked a question that was both simple and profound: "Then do you know of any business that can earn over a thousand gold coins a year?"

"Ah!" Fatty Shi seemed to suddenly recall something and immediately made an excuse. "Oh dear, I forgot I need to patrol the academy. It's been very dry lately, and the students are all hot-tempered, prone to fighting. Our enforcement department has been so busy during the day we haven't had a moment to rest. Now, even the nights aren't peaceful; people are even bathing in Moon Lake. You two chat, I'll be going now."

The girl's face turned red.

As Fatty Shi walked past the girl, he gave a semi-bow with considerable grace, pursed his lips, and whispered quickly to the girl, "He has a way," before disappearing out the door.

Lorist felt a headache coming on, as this Miss Windsor seemed determined to cling to him. Wherever he went, she followed, trailing him closely. She even waited outside when he went to relieve himself, refusing to leave. This situation had already attracted the attention and gossip of many students, and if it continued, it would turn into a spectacle.

"Fine, I give up, Miss. What exactly do you want?" Lorist asked, unsure whether to laugh or cry, looking at the stubborn girl.

"You saved me, so now you have to take responsibility for me."

"Good grief, did I do wrong by saving you? So how do you want me to take responsibility?"

"I want you to help me..."

"No, that matter of yours is too complicated and tiring; I find it troublesome."

"If you're taking responsibility, you have to help me. You even have a way to help me reclaim our family's territory, so you must have a way to make money..." The girl stamped her foot, like a lover throwing a tantrum.

Lorist's heart softened. "I won't do it without any benefit..."

The girl smiled, radiant and gentle like a blooming flower. "Then can I be your girlfriend...?"

Lorist was lost in her smile...

Lorist's advice to his new girlfriend, Miss Windsor, was to stop selling Kingdom of Qiloda specialties and general goods in the two shops on Triumph Avenue. They should be redecorated and specialize in high-end women's fashion from now on.

The girl looked at him with wide, bewildered eyes. She couldn't understand what "high-end women's fashion" meant. In her experience, noble ladies and young ladies either had their clothes custom-made or made them themselves or with the help of their maids. No one would buy from a ready-to-wear shop. After all, the clothes sold in ready-to-wear shops were simple, mass-produced styles, primarily catering to citizens like mercenaries, laborers, minor officials, housewives, and vendors. No noble would patronize such a place; it would be too demeaning and would become a joke and object of scorn within noble circles.

Lorist patiently explained, "We won't be doing business like those ready-to-wear shops. We'll be specializing in custom-made formal wear, dresses, and other high-end apparel for noble ladies and young ladies. A single women's garment can earn at least a dozen gold coins."

"Is that possible? Will anyone buy them?" the girl asked, looking at her new boyfriend with doubt.

"Of course, it's possible. As long as the designs are good and create a fashion trend, given how nobles buy expensive rather than practical items and their tendency to compete with each other, it will be hard not to get rich."

"Then who will design them?" the girl asked.

"Naturally, I will," Lorist said, pointing to himself with a confident expression.

Lorist was indeed very confident. In fact, opening a specialty store for high-end women's fashion was one of the money-making ideas he had long considered. He was just bringing it out now to help his girlfriend. As for clothing design, he had obtained a designer's certificate in his previous life. He was particularly an expert in princess dresses and formal gowns.

In his previous life, when Lorist was the manager of a small handicraft factory, he received an order. A nouveau riche wanted to celebrate his seven-year-old daughter's birthday and sent a letter to Mattel, the world's largest toy distributor, requesting 108 Barbie dolls the same size as his daughter, priced at 100,000 yuan each. However, there was a special requirement: the princess dresses and interchangeable formal gowns on these 108 Barbie dolls had to be in different styles. Since his daughter liked wearing princess dresses, these 108 sets of princess dresses and formal gowns for the Barbie dolls amounted to 216 sets of high-end children's wear that could be changed at will.

Mattel received this order with a headache. Was he buying dolls or clothes? If it were $100,000 per doll, they could have hired a professional clothing design company to design and customize these princess dresses and formal gowns. But at 100,000 yuan each, it was uncertain if that was enough for the design and customization fees. After some thought, they decided that Chinese tycoons' affairs should be handled by Chinese manufacturers. So, the order was passed down to a Chinese manufacturer, priced at 50,000 yuan each, with the same requirements.

The tycoon naturally wanted genuine Mattel Barbie dolls. However, he forgot that China was the world's factory at the time, and even genuine Barbie dolls were made in China; Mattel was only responsible for applying the labels. When the order reached the Chinese manufacturer, they also had a headache. The Barbie dolls were easy; they could just modify the molds. Although the quantity was small, the profit was high. But what about the clothes? Hire a clothing company? Who would take on over 200 sets? And they had to be in different styles, meaning different fabrics and different production requirements. The design alone was a hassle, especially the gold and silver gemstone decorations required for the princess dresses and formal gowns, as well as special materials like whalebone and animal fur, which were even more troublesome. Finally, a representative from the factory thought of his comrade Lorist's small handicraft factory. As the factory manager, Lorist made the decision: they would take it. They accepted the design and production of over 200 sets of high-end children's wear.

For those three months, Lorist suffered immensely. From the movie "Sissi" to "Napoleon," from online fashion forums to various entertainment magazines, from appreciating world-famous paintings to the latest red-carpet photos of female celebrities, the collected material and pictures of women's clothing styles piled up like a mountain. The people in the office at the time joked that they could publish a complete collection of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign high-end women's fashion.

Lorist and several designers discussed, borrowed ideas, and deliberated day and night, forgetting to eat and sleep. Finally, they drew over 500 design drafts for princess dresses and formal gowns. These were sent to the Chinese manufacturer, who then sent them to Mattel. Mattel forwarded them to the Chinese tycoon, who approved 216 designs. The approved designs were sent back through the same channels to the small handicraft factory for production. This order earned the small handicraft factory about 500,000 yuan. At that time, Lorist, as the factory manager, began to consider whether he should convert the small handicraft factory into a children's clothing factory.

Six years had passed since he transmigrated to Galintea. Lorist had gained a deep understanding of this unfamiliar world. As the largest commercial city in Galintea, Molent City had always been known for its openness and freedom on the continent, and it had always led the fashion trends of Galintea. However, in Lorist's eyes, these so-called fashion trends were a joke. Because these fashion trends were nothing more than things like "monster fur is softer and best for shawls," or "a poet has written another good poem, so touching and romantic," or "the Moors' weapon shop just launched a rapier; it's sharp and tough, not easily broken, and ornately decorated, attracting beautiful women when worn," etc. What did any of this have to do with fashion?

Nobles generally had the habit of having clothes custom-made for themselves and their families. But Lorist noticed that the styles of clothes worn by nobles now were largely unchanged from hundreds of years ago. The only differences were that the materials used were better, or small changes like adding gold thread trim were made. As Miss Windsor had thought, noblewomen, ladies, and young ladies also had their clothes custom-made or made them themselves or with the help of their maids. However, even custom-made clothes followed old styles, with most of the effort put into the materials. Those made by themselves only involved changing patterns or structures, and then at gatherings, they would chatter about whose clothes had more exquisite patterns or whose embroidery skills were better.

Therefore, Lorist was very confident that if the princess dresses and formal gowns he designed appeared before these noblewomen, ladies, and young ladies, they would go crazy. Every woman loves beauty, but the women of Galintea had not yet experienced the charm of fashionable clothing. Unlike in his previous life, where the imagination of fashion designers was pushed to unimaginable extremes, resulting in many fashion designers becoming bald.

However, Miss Windsor kept doubting whether her new boyfriend was reliable. Lorist couldn't stand being stared at by those large, beautiful eyes, so he decided to show off and let this young lady see what real capability looked like.

The girl brought her new boyfriend back to her home in the East City. Her two personal maids, Rina and Susie, were very curious. How could their high-and-mighty Miss bring back this ordinary-looking man? Judging by his attire, he wasn't dressed well either. He even had a Black Iron badge pinned to his chest; it looked so ugly.

Lorist, naturally unaware of what the two maids were saying about him, found a well-lit room on the third floor. He asked for paper and pen and began drawing design drafts for princess dresses with the girl as his model. At first, the girl kept finding fault. "There's too little fabric," "You're such a pervert showing so much skin," "Wearing such tight clothes would make one very shy," and so on. But as one design draft after another was completed, the girl fell silent. She turned her head, and Lorist was startled. Her eyes were glazed over, staring intently at the design drafts, lost in her own imagination.

Lorist clapped his hands a few times near her ear, finally waking her from her reverie. The girl's face was flushed, and she grabbed the princess dress design drafts without hesitation. "I want to have them made immediately..."

Saying that, she ran out of the room to find her maids. Lorist called out from behind, "What about me?"

"You stay put in the room and draw more design drafts. I'll have dinner sent up," the girl replied.