Night on Gilded Street was steeped in flecks of gold. Warm yellow spotlights cast layered shadows through the branches of the rosewood trees lining the street. Light filtered between the leaves onto the bluestone pavement, mingling with the glow from the shop windows on either side.
Velvet skirts in the couture boutique gleamed like pearls. Inside the jeweler's glass cases, diamond necklaces refracted the overhead lights into a sky full of stars. Even the floor lamps in the café on the corner wore halos of golden light.
In the fountain plaza nearby, columns of water resembling crystal lamps rose and fell to jazz music, droplets splashing up and down as though dancing.
Two women in long silk dresses sat beside the café's floor-to-ceiling windows. Upstairs, men in bespoke suits leaned against a carved railing, raising their glasses as they chatted, their voices mingling with the engines and horns of passing cars.
Yan Wen and the others emerged from the parking lot. A slightly chilly evening breeze stirred the rosewood trees, their branches swaying gently and their shadows shifting across the bluestone path and shop windows.
Yan Wen entered a bespoke suit shop, with Mo Chengzhou, the assistant, and the driver close behind. A saleswoman in black business attire greeted the four of them with a professional smile.
Neatly folded suits in various colors sat on the shop's shelves, with assorted jackets hanging in the spaces below. An elderly tailor in a black waistcoat and reading glasses sat at a sewing machine, guiding the fabric in his hands as it gradually took the shape of a sleeve.
"How quickly can you make a suit?" Yan Wen asked.
"Sir, the quickest would be around one to two months," the saleswoman explained.
"That long?"
"Sir, if you need one urgently, you could take