Early the next morning, Master He had barely entered the Cloud Sound Workshop when Shen Qilan pulled her over to a table.
There was no instrument on the table.
Instead, several outfits she had made in recent days lay there, along with two sheets of paper for taking measurements and three phones with their screens lit.
"Master He, have some water first."
"Let go of me first. My basket's still hanging from my arm."
Smiling, Shen Qilan took her sewing basket and brought her a stool. Master He had made clothes at the workshop for years and had never seen her so attentive. She couldn't help glancing first at the dress hanging by the window.
"Where did the stitching come loose this time?"
"It didn't. I wore it last night, and it was fine."
"In that case, the way you're acting, I hardly dare sit down."
Liu Ruyan came out of the inner room, her hair still loosely pinned up and none of her stage makeup on, though she already held a sheet of paper covered in writing.
"Master He, these are all questions about the clothes."
The old woman took it and had only read two lines before her brow furrowed.
"'A little thinner than the lady, with a waist about this wide'... You call that a measurement?"
She looked up at Liu Ruyan.
Holding back a laugh, Liu Ruyan handed her the phone as well.
Sure enough, the person had gone to the trouble of sending a picture of her own hand, saying it was about three handspans.
"How big is her handspan?" Master He asked.
"We don't know."
"Then shall I make it three of your handspans wide, so she can wrap it around a kettle?"
The whole room finally burst out laughing.
Shen Qilan waited for them to finish, then pushed another sheet of paper over. It listed shoulder widths, waist measurements, and skirt lengths recorded over the past few days, all measured with the same ruler and divided into several sizes according to the sample garments already made.
Last night, people had only been asking. This morning, the matter had truly been laid before them.
These few pieces were all they had to sell. If the size was wrong, no matter how pretty a dress was, they couldn't force someone into it.
Master He studied the list carefully, then pointed at one of the pieces.
"This one can be let out half an inch at the waist. Not that one; the allowance was cut off long ago. The lengths can be altered, though. Set aside the ones for people who want them shorter, and don't rush to take their money."
Shen Qilan noted each point down.
She had originally wanted to put all the prettiest outfits on display, but after Master He stopped her, she put away two that would be hard to fit.
For the finished clothes that remained, they first took clear pictures of the front and back and the stitching inside, then placed a paper measuring tape beside them so people could see the actual lengths.
Liu Ruyan changed into one of them and stood by the window. Instead of dancing as she had the night before, she first raised her arms, then sat down and stood up.
The video showed clearly where the dress pulled tight and where it still had room.
"This one doesn't feel tight when I sit," she said.
Master He added from the side, "It doesn't feel tight on you. If someone's waist is bigger than yours, she still needs to check the numbers."
Liu Ruyan couldn't hold it in. Laughing, she swallowed the rest of what she had been about to say.
When she filmed videos, the people beside her usually went along with her and offered praise.
Only Master He was willing to treat her, even through the camera, like a piece of cloth that needed to be measured precisely.
They didn't cut that part out.
Not long after they posted it, people in the comments began laughing along, saying they had finally seen someone who didn't listen to Liu Ruyan and only cared how wide her waist was.
Master He didn't quite understand what was funny. She was still picking at a loose thread with her needle.
"If they buy clothes that don't fit, then they'll really laugh at me."
Dugu Yan received the first pair of earrings before lunch.
Clothes required measurements, but earrings didn't. She picked the light-colored pair from the Cloud Sound Workshop's display window, confirmed that the pair in storage was unused, and paid. The delicate earrings appeared in her palm.
Ye Lingling was sitting by the window. When she saw Dugu Yan open her hand, her gaze lingered.
"It really is that pair."
"I didn't buy any others."
Dugu Yan laughed herself after saying it.
She knew what she had bought, but seeing the thing from the screen actually appear in her hand still felt novel.
The same design that had swung beside the young woman's ears the night before now lay in her palm. She hadn't asked anyone to go into the city, hadn't taken a carriage to the shop, and hadn't even had time to redo her hair.
She put one on and handed the other to Ye Lingling for the moment.
"See if it's crooked for me."
Ye Lingling stood up and straightened the fine chain behind her ear.
That was the scene Yu Tianheng saw when he came in.
He paused. Having finally learned his lesson, he didn't begin by asking what the two women were doing.
"They look nice."
Dugu Yan looked at him in the mirror.
"Did I ask you?"
"No. I saw them."
This time, she didn't press him further. She merely tilted the mirror a little and took another look.
The sunlight outside the window fell on the little beads, making them brighter than they had looked under the lights on the phone the night before.
She suddenly took out her phone, snapped a picture in the mirror, and sent it to the Cloud Sound Workshop.
Her face wasn't in it; she had only photographed the little bit by her ear.
"Received them. Nice work."
When the photo reached Liu Ruyan's phone, Master He was still checking another customer's measurements.
After looking at it, Shen Qilan first crossed one pair of those earrings off the quantity available for sale, then turned and smiled at Liu Ruyan. "She's the one who asked the most detailed questions last night."
Liu Ruyan nodded and showed the photo to the young woman who made the earrings.
She had been sitting to one side, sorting boxes for the others. Hearing the customer's praise, she hurriedly wiped her hands, took the phone, and studied the picture with particular care.
"They look even prettier on her than they did sitting here."
Something she had made herself had taken on a different look in someone else's hands.
Shen Qilan was just about to speak when a new order suddenly popped up.
A finished garment.
It wasn't someone merely asking how the clothes were made, or simply saying they looked nice. An adult female Soul Master who had already checked the shoulder and waist measurements and the length had actually bought the light-colored dress.
They had stored this finished garment in the display window just moments ago. When Shen Qilan confirmed its storage, the dress had vanished from the table, and Master He had been so startled she had forgotten to put down her needle. Now that the order had popped up, she couldn't help looking again at where the dress had been.
The spot had long been empty.
Master He reached out and touched the edge of the table. Just now, it had only existed in the phone, yet now it was already in someone else's hands.
"It's there already?"
"It's there."
Shen Qilan showed her the order.
Still uneasy, Master He twice urged them to ask the customer to let them know after trying it on. Liu Ruyan sent the message as asked, and a little while later, a photo showing only the skirt hem came back.
The length was just right.
Only then did the old woman's brow relax.
"Next time, don't bring me that three-handspans-or-two sort of thing. If it's written clearly, how could it not fit?"
As she spoke, she pulled her sewing basket close again and began unpicking the hem of a skirt another customer wanted shortened.
Shen Qilan glanced at the order, then at the tabletop, where everything had once been neatly arranged but a corner now stood empty. She couldn't help letting out a soft breath.
Last night, she had been thinking about those gold coins.
Only now did she truly see another road growing before her eyes.
The young women didn't have to leave the workshop for banquets every day, and the tailor didn't have to wait for someone to walk through the shop door. As long as people could see the designs clearly, the things they made could find people willing to wear them on their own.
Lu Ye's message arrived just then.
"Don't be in a hurry to cut all the cloth. First, make a clear record of the measurements for the pieces you've sold. Master He needs to eat."
After reading it, Shen Qilan deliberately showed the phone to Master He.
"Did you hear that? Even Young Master Lu is looking out for you."
Master He looked up at it and said unhurriedly, "If he's really concerned, next time he draws a sleeve, he shouldn't leave me guessing whether a line is a hand or part of the garment."
Liu Ruyan laughed until she collapsed against the table.
She picked up her own phone and sent Lu Ye those exact words, then sorted through the audience's questions from the night before, one by one.
Questions about the music she saved for next time; questions about the clothes she sent to Shen Qilan; and those who had sent nothing but a long passage of praise she thanked properly.
Gu Zheng was among them too.
He had sent a message saying that last night's dance was excellent and that she needn't dwell on the small mishap during the part when the lights went out.
After reading it, Liu Ruyan sent him a sincere reply of thanks.
Those names from last night had truly appeared before her eyes. Some people had waited for her, and some had told her there was no rush when she panicked. If she sent out thanks without even looking carefully, she herself would feel she had done them wrong.
Even so, she still had to tell Young Master Gu that the next performance hadn't been scheduled yet, so he didn't need to keep the whole night free for her.
After she sent the message, quite a while passed before he replied.
"All right. I shall go practice my swordsmanship."
Looking at those words, Liu Ruyan suddenly pressed her lips together and smiled.
This time there weren't hundreds of words.
It was much easier to understand than before.
She put down her phone and turned to look at the skirt hem Master He had just altered. The clothes on camera were part of last night's excitement, but here before her, someone still had to carefully finish every stitch.