"A qipao?"
Shen Qilan brought the paper closer and studied it for a moment, her expression gradually growing a little strange.
Lu Ye's drawing skills really weren't much to speak of.
But the collar, waist, and both sides of the hem were drawn quite clearly.
Compared with the long, wide-sleeved dresses they usually wore, this garment was obviously much more form-fitting. Just looking at the drawing, she could already imagine how it would look on someone.
Liu Ruyan took a couple of looks, then glanced down at the dance dress she was wearing.
"Can you dance in it too?"
"That depends on the dance. It isn't suitable for movements that are too big, but you can wear it to film while standing or play an instrument while sitting."
As he spoke, Lu Ye added a few strokes beside the drawing.
This time, he drew a pair of shoes with modest heels.
The more Shen Qilan looked, the more interested she became. She immediately sent someone to fetch a tailor she knew.
The tailor arrived quickly. She was a woman who had made clothes nearby for years. She studied the drawing for a while and asked a few questions. Rather than saying she couldn't make it, as Lu Ye had feared, she pointed at the hem and said, "She'll need some room to walk here, or she won't be able to take a step."
Lu Ye's eyes lit up.
"Right, that's exactly what I meant."
"And this waist-the drawing looks nice, but to actually make it, I'll need to take the wearer's measurements. If you want one that anyone can wear, I'm afraid it won't turn out like this."
"Let's make two first."
Lu Ye looked at Shen Qilan and Liu Ruyan.
The two women exchanged a glance, and Shen Qilan was the first to smile.
"I'd like to see what comes of Steward Lu's clever idea."
Over the next two days, Lu Ye didn't stay at the workshop the whole time.
He completed the list of trial users for the chamber of commerce and returned to the sect for a visit. The two Titled Douluo no longer needed him beside them to remind them; they browsed new videos on their own.
Gu Rong had even learned to search by name.
But whenever he opened Douyin, he still watched his own Bone Dragon first, then checked how many more red hearts Chen Xin's video had received.
Lu Ye didn't even have to ask. One look at Gu Rong's face when he put down the phone told him who had more and who had fewer this time.
When word came from the Cloud Sound Workshop that the clothes were ready, he went to Heaven Dou City again.
This time, the moment he entered the room, Shen Qilan waved the newly delivered clothes at him.
"Please wait a moment, Young Master Lu. I'll go change and show you right away." After giving Lu Ye a coquettish smile, Shen Qilan took the clothes into the inner room.
Before long, the sound of high heels tapping against the floor came from the inner room.
When Lu Ye looked toward the sound, he immediately saw a gorgeous woman with a graceful figure, dressed in a black embroidered qipao and slender high heels, walking slowly toward him.
The curvaceous woman, whose bearing was both elegant and alluring, was none other than Shen Qilan, who had just left.
She had been beautiful to begin with, but the qipao made her look even more enticing, especially when she took light steps and occasionally revealed her long, shapely legs through the slits at the sides.
Never mind this life-even in his previous life, Lu Ye had never seen a sight like this. For a moment, he froze.
By the time he came to his senses, Shen Qilan was already standing in front of him.
The next second, Shen Qilan leaned close to his ear, her eyes brimming with affection, and whispered:
"Young Master Lu, do I look good?"
Hearing that and feeling her warm breath by his ear, Lu Ye nodded instinctively.
Lu Ye wasn't the only one dazzled by Shen Qilan's transformation in the qipao. The other musicians present were all looking at her with shining eyes.
Men weren't the only ones who liked looking at beautiful women. Women liked looking at beautiful women too.
"Sister Qilan looks so good in a qipao!"
"I want to wear one too!"
"So what if it shows some skin? As long as it looks good."
"Exactly! I never thought a qipao would look so good with high heels. No wonder-Young Master Lu designed it."
In no time, the musicians present had completely changed their minds about the qipao.
Shen Qilan turned slightly to the side and showed him the embroidery the tailor had added.
"Master He praised your ingenuity, but next time you draw, don't make the arms reach almost to the knees."
Someone nearby couldn't hold back a laugh.
Lu Ye wasn't angry either. It wasn't as though he earned his living by drawing. It had been hard enough to make his meaning clear.
Soon, Liu Ruyan had changed too.
She had chosen a light-colored one with fewer patterns than Shen Qilan's. Standing by the window, she looked fresh and graceful. She had pinned up the hair she usually wore loose, leaving a strand by her ear, and looked like a different person.
"Now that the clothes are ready, let's try a costume change."
Lu Ye had Liu Ruyan change back into her original dress, stand in front of the camera, and raise her hand to cover the lens. Once she had changed back into the new outfit, she lowered her hand from the same position.
At first, Liu Ruyan didn't understand why she had to go back and forth.
But when Lu Ye joined the two clips together and added music, her gaze instantly fixed on the screen.
In the video, she gently raised her hand.
The music changed at just the right moment, and when her hand fell, she was wearing a different outfit!
In a few short moments, she looked like a different person.
Shen Qilan immediately reached out and took the phone.
"Play it again."
After watching it a second time, she dragged it back to the beginning.
"She doesn't need to change here herself?"
"She already changed. I just cut out the part in between."
"I know. I mean, is this all other people see?"
"Yes."
The light in Liu Ruyan's eyes grew brighter and brighter. She immediately took back the phone and went to find another silk scarf.
Shen Qilan also prepared to change into another dance costume, but Lu Ye stopped her in the end.
"Let's leave the costume changes there for now."
"Let's continue talking about filming short videos. You must also be very curious why I asked you to do all this."
At that, Shen Qilan immediately gave him a reproachful look.
"Young Master Lu, wasn't it because you wanted us to please you?"
"As long as you ask, Young Master Lu, we can film a few more for you."
"Ahem. What kind of person do you take me for? Am I the sort to lose myself in beautiful women?" Lu Ye said righteously.
Shen Qilan looked at him, then at the costume-change video he had just opened, and said nothing.
Lu Ye put down the phone and pointed out the window.
"Once people in Heaven Dou City and outside the city have these, you won't have to go asking from door to door. People will already have heard you sing and seen you dance."
"Then if we keep filming, won't you always have something to sell?"
"That's right."
Lu Ye answered without the slightest reservation.
Shen Qilan was taken aback at first, then laughed.
"You're not hiding it at all."
"Why should I? I want to sell phones, and you want more people to know about the Cloud Sound Workshop. If you film well and people like it, they'll come looking for you themselves."
Shen Qilan naturally understood how much difference it could make in negotiations whether people knew who she was.
All she had to do was spend a little more effort filming, and she'd have a chance to spread her name. All things considered, it wasn't a bad bargain.
"Do we have to return these phones?"
"You can borrow them for now. If you want to keep them, buy them at the listed price. Once you actually get customers through them, surely you won't begrudge two gold coins."
Shen Qilan glanced down at the phone in her hand, then smiled and shook her head.
"I can't bear to return it even now."
The others nearby heard her and nodded one after another.
Lu Ye picked out a few more suitable pieces of music and let them try things out at their own pace, then prepared to attend to his next task.
As he was leaving, Liu Ruyan was still adjusting her position in front of the mirror.
The musician beside her called for her to take a break, but she didn't even turn around.
"One more. I'll rest after this one."
Lu Ye paused, then couldn't help laughing.
Those words sounded so familiar.
He left the Cloud Sound Workshop and went to the chamber of commerce's workshop.
Xu Cheng was planing wood. With each push of the plane, the curled shavings came off so thin that light shone through them. Lu Ye had only just raised his phone when the old master reached out to stop the apprentice beside him.
"Put that piece down. I'll do it."
"Master, I didn't ruin it."
"Move aside. You're blocking all the light."
Lu Ye hadn't said a word, and the old master had already put his best piece of wood in the light.
He grinned.
It turned out that a competitive streak made no distinction between Titled Douluo and carpenters.
The thirty trial phones were gradually handed over to musicians, woodworkers, cooks, washing and grooming workers, and chamber of commerce guards. People without dazzling Martial Souls also began considering what they could film. A stable hand even crouched by the threshold, waiting for a sleeping cat to roll over, until his legs went numb.
That evening, Lu Ye saw the video at Ning Fengzhi's place.
More precisely, he saw Gu Rong and Ning Rongrong watching it together.
Chen Xin sat beside them, initially holding a cup of tea. When he heard Ning Rongrong say that the cat was about to roll over, he glanced at the screen a couple of times too.
"Rongrong, you haven't watched Grandpa Bone's video yet."
"I've watched it. Wait a moment, it's about to roll over."
"What's about to roll over?"
Gu Rong leaned over and saw a kitten lying on its back with its paws over its face. As it slept, its body tilted to one side.
He watched along for a while and fell silent.
But just as the kitten was about to roll over, the video ended.
Gu Rong immediately frowned.
"Why did it stop?"
Ning Rongrong looked up at him and burst out laughing.
"Grandpa Bone, you were waiting too!"
Lu Ye leaned against the doorframe, laughing so hard his shoulders shook.
Gu Rong immediately turned to him. "What happened after that?"
"It didn't roll over. It went back to sleep."
"Then what did he film this for?!"
Chen Xin put down his teacup. "Don't block it with your hand. Play it again."
Gu Rong glanced at him, but this time he didn't bother arguing.
Even so, Gu Rong reached out and opened the video again.
After Lu Ye sat down, Ning Fengzhi picked up the trial user list and looked at the phone in his daughter's arms. At last, he smiled.
"Some people want to watch Titled Douluo, while others only want to watch a cat."
"And some Titled Douluo want to watch cats too."
Gu Rong raised his eyelids, and Lu Ye immediately sat up straight.
Ning Fengzhi suppressed a smile and put down the list.
"Besides the thirty trial phones, how many will you put up for sale in the first batch?"
"One hundred. They go on sale tomorrow. Two gold coins each, with no extra charge for watching videos."
"You'll mind the counter?"
"For one day. Once I've taught the clerks, I can't have them calling me over every time they sell one."
Ning Fengzhi nodded.
Lu Ye was a Soul Saint, not a shopkeeper they had brought in just to mind a counter. But looking at how much livelier things had grown around the phones over the past few days, he felt that the young man before him probably hadn't revealed all his plans.
"What about after those hundred sell out?"
"Sell more."
Lu Ye answered without hesitation.
"Sell them until one day, Soul Masters away from home can know what's happening with their families without returning to the sect; until the girls of the Cloud Sound Workshop can sit in Heaven Dou City while people in another city are already waiting for their next song."
Ning Rongrong suddenly looked up.
"When you're away, can you talk to your family too?"
"Of course."
Lu Ye had barely finished answering when Gu Rong picked up the conversation.
"Did you hear that? From now on, whenever Grandpa Bone goes out, I can talk to you every day."
Ning Rongrong nodded and lightly touched the edge of the phone with her finger.
But it wasn't only Grandpa Bone going out that she was thinking about.
Lu Ye didn't notice the young girl's expression. He was already wondering who the first person willing to pay at the counter tomorrow would be.