Lotus Root Pork Rib Soup

Fashion was forward-thinking. Fashion was a trend. Fashion didn't wait for you and neither did its purveyors.

Yuan Siqi slammed the stack of papers down onto her desk. In front of her, her secretary, fabric manager, and print designer flinched, shoulders hunching inwards as they steeled themselves for yet another tirade from the Tigress of XUE, the hottest local luxury fashion brand. They had all been on the receiving end of her wrath before but this time around, they were collateral damage and it wasn't fair.

"Senior Designer Yuan," the print designer, Sally Mi mumbled, "the intern on your team gave me your instructions and I worked on the print accordingly. It isn't my fault."

One impeccable eyebrow raised. Yuan Siqi sat back down and crossed her legs, her tailored slacks highlighting her shapely calves without detracting from the aggressive cut of her dressing choices. "Rest assured," she said coldly, "I'm not letting anyone off the hook. My intern might have made a mistake in the form but don't tell me you slept through our team meeting last month. I distinctly recall you taking notes, Sally. Surely you're aware that I requested four hues of blue for the qing hua ci (1) patterning. When you saw just three, why didn't you double-check?"

Because the print designer only utilised just one tone of blue, instead of the elegant, three-dimensional patterning on Yuan Siqi's blueprint, the ensuing result looked cheap. This range of cheongsams was supposed to be marketed to upper society women as a quaint afternoon tea range that would bring back the classic vibes of the 30s.

Yuan Siqi propped her elbows up on the table and massaged her temples. She couldn't believe it. Months of effort and this was the result? How was she going to answer Creative Director Xue? Yuan Siqi had fought tooth and nail to get to where she was now and this had been her big shot at impressing her boss. And now, because of one careless intern, she might have squandered this chance.

She didn't want to think about it.

"Where's Li Ai?"

The other three exchanged glances.

"I informed her that you wanted to meet her ASAP but…"

Before Yuan Siqi's secretary could finish her sentence, there was a perfunctory knock on the door, too loud for it to be the meek intern. It swung open without Yuan Siqi's permission and in strode a drop-dead gorgeous man.

Someone sucked in their breath. There were many men in the fashion industry but not all of them carried themselves with the same imposing authority. This wasn't one of the artsy designers that often worked together with Yuan Siqi on projects. He wasn't one of the models either, even if he could easily pass as one with his physique that was what girls would call 'a natural clothes rack'.

He was a sight for sore eyes. Except Yuan Siqi wasn't in the mood to appreciate him right now. Her eyes narrowed. The others might not know why this young shareholder of XUE was here but Yuan Siqi did. She accidentally walked in on the reason the other day in the car park.

"Mr Wei," she greeted, schooling her thunderous expression into one of neutrality. "What a surprise to see you here."

The man adjusted his sleeves and returned her greeting with a curt nod. "Senior Designer Yuan. I've been made aware of a mistake that occurred with your current project."

A cold smile tugged on the corner of Yuan Siqi's matte red lips. "Word does get around," she said. "I didn't think that the affairs of a small team in the design department would be enough to warrant personal attention from a sleeping shareholder."

If her subtle jibe annoyed him, he didn't let it show. He continued regarding her with a blatant disinterest that didn't so much as rankle her as made her wonder just what it was this severe, hardworking, formidable young man saw in a very normal, very commonplace girl like Li Ai.

Wei Yunian glanced at his watch. "There is still ample time to rectify the issue, if you require additional funding, I would be more than happy to assist."

It was all Yuan Siqi could do not to scoff in his face. "Wow, Mr Wei is generous. Is this your subtle way of begging me not to submit a formal report on this mistake? Mr Wei truly is cavalier, I can only wonder which distressed maiden you're protecting."

A long pause ensued. Yuan Siqi frowned. Why wasn't anyone stopping her from running her mouth at her boss' son, she remembered that there was a cue here, Li Ai was supposed to burst through the doors and stand up for herself—

"Cut!"

——————————

Su Qiao snapped out of her role. She relaxed into her own skin, the terseness slipping out of her shoulders. She could feel the subtle change in Mo Chen's aura too, the fight leaving him the second the director cued them, removing Wei Yunian's persona like it was just part of his costume.

He made it seem effortless but Su Qiao knew exactly how difficult that was. Already, she might look like she'd recovered on the surface, but in truth, her emotions were still a messy jumble. The feelings of resentment and dissatisfaction that Yuan Siqi had been experiencing just seconds ago still lingered.

Of course, that could be the result of Bai Meixin messing up. Again.

"Meixin!" Director Ma called out, brows furrowed. Although he looked displeased with her, it didn't go amiss to Su Qiao that Director Ma had gone from using her full name to a more genial first name basis. "Why did you miss your entrance?"

Bai Meixin's fingers curled in her skirt. She chewed on her lower lip, cheeks colouring with a rosy embarrassment. "I—I'm sorry," she said weakly. "I saw…"

"Director, please don't blame Ms Bai, my appearance distracted her."

Su Qiao froze. Her heart started racing but not in a giddy, puppy love sort of way. Quite the opposite, in fact. There was no one she wanted to see less.

Why was Lin Zizhou here?

She didn't know it but her expression had gone from professional apathy to a frosty disdain. Mo Chen raised his eyebrows at her but she pretended not to see it. Blood rushed in her ears.

How dare Lin Zizhou? Even when they'd been dating, he'd been 'too busy' to visit her on set. He'd had a whole wealth of excuses too, ranging from 'our relationship is private, we should behave in a low-key manner or it could affect your career' to 'what kind of CEO visited film sets to monitor their employees' welfare personally?'

But for his would-have-been sister-in-law, this little CEO Lin clearly had no qualms.

Su Qiao let out a huff of laughter but it was directed at herself. For the nth time, she couldn't understand how she could be so blind. It was like the cloth had been ripped from her eyes the second her infatuation with him vanished and she could see his true colours for herself now.

She didn't want to have anything to say to him.

"Mo Laoshi," she drawled, pulling her curls up into a messy ponytail before turning her back deliberately on Lin Zizhou and Bai Meixin. "What did you think of my acting during the scene just now?"

Mo Chen raised an eyebrow. She chose to pretend not to notice the less than subtle glances he was directing between Lin Zizhou and her.

"Something tells me that your next take will be even better," he replied smoothly.

[Wasn't that the truth?] she thought wryly. Her mood was so dampened by Lin Zizhou's shocking arrival that she wouldn't even have to try and summon Yuan Siqi's anger and frustration anymore. On the contrary, she was going to have to go the extra mile not to overdo it.

She wanted to ignore Lin Zizhou but unfortunately for her, Director Ma had other ideas. She couldn't blame him, of course. To him, Su Qiao was a rising star and Lin Zizhou was the CEO of her management company. There was no reason for Su Qiao to dislike him. On the other hand, there was plenty of reason for Su Qiao to want to suck up to him. Just like how Bai Meixin was making her presence known in front of Lin Zizhou, Director Ma was struck with the sudden urge to include Su Qiao in the conversation. Perhaps this was because he felt like both actresses had a lot of potential and he wanted it to be recognised?

"Su Qiao," he called. "Come here, CEO Lin was kind enough to drop by and make sure that everything is on track with filming, hurry up and thank him!"

Bai Meixin accepted the cue before Su Qiao could find a polite way to reject it. She bowed her head eagerly at Lin Zizhou and gave him a grateful smile that lit up the entire room.

"Thank you very much, Big Bro—" She clapped a hand over her mouth when she realised what she was saying but it was too late. "C-CEO Lin." She tried to cover up but that only made her previous slip-up even more glaring.

Lin Zizhou didn't get angry at her, though, which was even more telling. He nodded at her seriously and said, "Do your best."

A funny expression passed over the faces of Director Ma and the other crew members. And just like that, even though their assumptions weren't true, at least not yet, Su Qiao knew that Bai Meixin's life on set was going to be equivalent to that of a newly minted Film Empress.

"Lotus," Mo Chen muttered.

Su Qiao looked at him quizzically. "Do you mean what I think you mean?"

Mo Chen threw Bai Meixin one last considering look. "It's nothing," he said. "I was just thinking of having lotus root pork rib soup for lunch later. I keep being reminded of it recently."