Chapter 71

71 Extra Xu Luanle’s red string of fate (1)

Anonymous master’s shop had existed for ages.

Though the shop produced its dresses in small quantities, the meticulous craftsmanship made it a highly sought after shop for both nobles and royalty. Ever since then, the anonymous master’s shop possessed a long-standing reputation that never seemed to decline over the years. Still, no one ever knew the identity of the shop’s owner.

People of Da Yang assumed that the one behind the shop must be from a major merchant family that was as wealthy as they were influential, or supported by the royalty generations after generations, otherwise, a mere tailor shop would never dare refuse to become the Empress’s personal seamster.

Their guess was half correct.

It was true that the anonymous master’s shop had a supporter: every Emperor of the Ouyang dynasty.

However, it was false that the family behind the anonymous master was not a merchant family...but an aristocrat with close ties with the royals, the Xu family.

It started from an Emperor of a certain reign who wished to have a dress more beautiful and more outstanding than any dress for Su Fei. Coincidentally, there was a master from the Xu family whose interest was sewing and tailoring. This secret was only known to him and his close friend, the Emperor. And so, Su Fei’s exquisite attire was sewn by a master from the Xu family who was forced by a secret decree from the self-centered Emperor.

When the blood of the Ouyang dynasty loved someone, they would dote on that person without considering anything else!

However, happiness between the pair could not last. When a princess from Da Chu was married into the palace and received the title of Gui Fei, dresses sewn by master Xu caught her eyes. She asked for clothes as beautiful as those to wear as her wedding gown. In order to maintain the relationship between the two nations and to protect master Xu’s secret, the Emperor order an ‘anonymous master’s shop’ to be established in order to make Gui Fei’s dresses under the shop’s name.

.....

From then on, the anonymous master was the tailor shop that made wedding gowns for the Empress or other high-rank royal consorts when they married into the Ouyang dynasty, including the princes’ Wang Feis’ marriages bestowed by the Emperor.

Nowadays, the anonymous master tailored dresses for all noblewomen regardless of their ranks. The later generations chose their own clients without fearing offending anyone, since this was a right granted by the Emperor to the first generation of master Xu, in a deal they had made before the shop came to be.

Xu Luanle had to thank the first generation anonymous master for making this deal, otherwise, he would have to sew all day and night for every princess and consort in the royal palace, not having a moment for himself to play around.

But no matter how much he liked fooling around, sewing was Xu Luanle’s most favorite thing in the world.

This was his red string of fate!

“Big brother!”

Shudder!

A high-pitched voice from his sister jolted Xu Luanle from his siesta. Before he could gather his thoughts, a small but buxom figure moved to stand in front of him, putting two hands on her hips. Clearly, she came to protest.

“I’m not accepting this job!”

Xu Luanle sighed.

“So this is the reason Pei-er came to see me...”

The person who loved beauty as much as he did sewing felt relieved to hear that his sister only came to announce that she would not accept a request from Miss Bai. She was this resistant even before seeing the design. If she had, she would have thrown the paper away because of how challenging it was.

So she came because of this... Good.

“I came to refuse to work for that woman, and to ask for another case of powder from you!”

Xu Luanle instantly sat up.

“You can’t!”

“I can’t what?” Xu Peipei twisted her mouth, unaccepting his rejection. “You’re saying that I can’t not accept that job?”

Xu Luanle grabbed his favorite feather-fan and slowly waved it. “You can refuse the job. But you can’t take my power.”

Xu Peipei’s mouth showed an even uglier curve. The spoiled younger sister turned away from her brother and marched toward the vanity. She rummaged through everything on the table without caring about the owner’s consent.

“Brother is a man! Is there really a need for you to use cosmetics?” Xu Peipei used the same words against him, again. She took a red case, a new powder he had recently gotten, and raised it. “...Let me have this powder instead!”

As soon as she had spoken, Xu Peipei used martial arts to flee from his building. Xu Luanle could not even open his mouth to object in time before his sister disappeared with a powder case that he had not even opened!

Pei-er...

Why are you such a bully?!

Xu Luanle turned his face up toward the sky to stop his tears of sorrow from falling. He used his finger to tap around the rim of his eyes to wipe away ‘imaginary tears’ that no one would be able to see. Only Xu Luanle could feel it flow.

After playing the tragedy scene until he was satisfied, the first master of the Xu family moved to the vanity that was just trespassed by his sister, who looted his powder. He opened up the drawer and brought out another case of powder that had the same color as the one Xu Peipei had taken.

“Don’t say that I tricked you, dear sister.”

The powder case that should have been stolen was safe in Xu Luanle’s hand. What Xu Peipei got was only an empty box...

“Hah”

He threw his head back, laughing with his feathered-fan over his mouth.

—————

The next day.

“Le-er”

“Yes, father.”

“Doesn’t your face look a little too white these days?”

“I think it’s normal.”

“Pei-er.”

“Yes, father.”

“You should follow your brother’s example.”

“Isn’t my face also white?”

“Not as white as Le-er.”

“Big brother!”

Shudder!

“You’re a man! There’s no need for you to make your face white and smooth. Let me have that power!”

—————

The next day

“Le-er”

“Yes, mother.”

“Aren’t your lips a little too red today?”

“I think it’s normal.”

“Pei-er”

“Yes, mother.”

“You should follow your brother’s example.”

“Are my lips not red as well?”

“Not as red as your brother.”

“Big brother!”

Shudder!

“You’re a man! There’s no need for you to make your lips red. Let me have that rouge!”

—————

The next day

“Le-er”

“Yes, father.”

“I think...”

“You can have it!”

Xu Luanle tearfully blurted out. He only tricked his sister a couple of times. Why would father pressure him like this?!

Bullies!

They’re bullying him too much!

“Really, brother?!”

Xu Peipei smiled, satisfied as the victor.

Of course, my dear sister.”

His heart was protesting, but Xu Luanle had to lie to his teeth. Because they were in front of father and mother who spoiled his sister rotten!

That day, Xu Luanle had his servants bring all his cosmetics to Xu Peipei. He could no longer endure the pressure that he had to face daily from his parents. He watched a chest containing all his beauty products, bidding it farewell with woeful eyes.

That same night, the esteemed anonymous master washed his face clean, leaving no trace of the usual paint from cosmetics. Then, he blended into the night and head for his beloved sister’s residence. There was no light from Xu Peipei’s bedroom. It was as he had expected. The tall figure silently crept up to the dark room, nimble, because of his martial arts.

.....

His sister was soundly sleeping in her bed. Her chest rose and fall with her calm breaths. The older brother watched her peaceful slumber for a moment, before using his two fingers to pinch her nose and moving his bare face close to hers.

When her breath was interrupted, the sleeping person naturally opened her eyelids.

What she saw was not deep darkness, but Xu Luanle’s face that face dimly, and precisely illuminated by candlelight.

Xu Peipei’s eyes widened. She could not remember that this was her own older brother.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”

“Miss! What happened?!” Hearing the scream, a maid who was outside her bedroom immediately rushed in to investigate. But when she saw a tall figure in white with a pale and unfamiliar face, both the young lady and the maid shrieked.

“A ghost!”

Hehehehee

—————

Actually, Xu Luanle was very close with Xu Peipei.

They were close in age, and when combined with the Xu family’s strange upbringing, the two siblings were close in a strange way. The younger one liked to steal from the older one. And the older one liked to trick the younger one.

There were only a few things that the siblings would agree and bond over.

One was sewing, a god-given talent that every generation of the Xu family possessed. But such a gift was not bestowed to every child, only a few in the generation. Xu Luanle and Xu Peipei who were born from the first Furen were blessed, but in the end, the one who mainly manage the anonymous master business was Xu Luanle. Xu Peipei’s attention span was far too short, and she was far too spoiled.

The clearest evidence was the job from Miss Bai that Xu Peipei refused to accept without even taking a glance at the design. Thus, this job became Xu Luanle’s responsibility. A responsibility that he gladly accepted because of the challenge it posed.

Another thing that Xu Luanle and Xu Peipei loved was training martial arts. Whether a son or a daughter, if they were a member of the Xu family, they had to fight as well as they could sew.

There were many times that magic and martial arts helped them in their travel to find quality fabrics and sewing equipment. But one thing always irked Xu Luanle. Why would his sister always come and take his cosmetics, even though she was with him every time he bought them!

In the end, the victim had to adapt by buying everything double. He would give Xu Peipei either the real one or a dud up to what he was feeling in the air that day.

Hehe

And recently, there was another woman who stumbled in to be another target for him.

Xu Luanle never thought that the first miss of the Bai family would be so observant that she would know his identity at the first glance. He had originally intended to reveal himself, but still, it was a surprise that he was exposed before then. Above all, the thing he liked the most about this new friend was...her having a way with words!

She was far from what Pei-er had told him.

She was a splendid woman. Her ailaine would make his eyes sharp and fierce like the great phoenix!

Xu Luanle could not wait until that day!

“Awww queen!”

A soft embrace enveloped him, along with an understanding tone, when he told her his woe of being bullied by his own sister. Xu Luanle was so grateful for Bai Yu’s compassion that his imaginary tears overflowed and he had to delicately wipe them away. Still, there was one thing he did not understand. “What’s ‘queen’?”

“It’s a secret name between you and me.”

“Great. Then I’ll call you queen!”

He fancied this word!

“Please call me ‘sis’ instead.”

“Alright! You always impress me with your unique ideas, sis!” Xu Luanle laughed with his mouth by the feathered-fan, not caring that there was a noble guest heading toward his building. And that guest was not the man who Bai Yu had just spurned.

That’s right!

Xu Luanle saw the interaction between Bai Yu and Ouyang Mingxian. Furthermore, he also knew that Bai Yu was no longer his sister’s love rival. And so a plan to tie the red string of fate for his ‘sis’ friend was a new entertainment that piqued Xu Luanle’s interest.

But before the anonymous master could do anything for Bai Yu’s red string, the little object called ‘ailaine’ drew all of his attention away. The moment that the tip of the blackened brush followed along the edge of his eye, the master of the Xu family felt it...

Xu Luanle finally found his own red string of fate!