June 30th was Zhan Xi’s last working day. On that day, she received two phone calls.
The first call was from the organizer of the Maker Festival. After confirming some matters with her, they informed her that her booth application had been approved and asked her to pay the booth fee online as soon as possible.
The second call was from a media company, notifying him of a second interview. After thinking it over, Zhan Xi apologized and told the other party that he wanted to give up the interview.
She vaguely felt that there was a wonderful cause and effect logic in the occurrence of things.
Zhan Xi already knew about the conflict between Fang Xu and Luo Jingyu, and also knew that if Luo Jingyu participated in the Creation Festival, she would have to handle all matters by herself.
Her Xiaoyu is indeed an all-rounder and full of talent, but Zhan Xi also understands that it is indeed difficult for him to support a three-day exhibition by himself.
Communication is Luo Jingyu's weakness in life. Faced with such a rare opportunity, Zhan Xi, as a girlfriend, will not stand idly by.
She decided to help Xiaoyu get through the difficult times, which would only take about half a month, and she could wait until after the Creation Festival to look for a new job.
After get off work, Zhan Xi took all his personal belongings and said goodbye to Yuan Sichen and other colleagues.
After taking the elevator downstairs, she ran into Lin Yan, who had to work overtime and had just bought a cup of coffee in the cafe. The two saw each other in the lobby on the first floor, and Lin Yan stopped and said, "I'm sorry about that day."
Zhan Xi thought for a long time before he realized that he was probably apologizing for what he said in the stairwell, and said quickly, "It's okay, I didn't take it to heart."
"You..." Lin Yan hesitated for a long time, and finally said, "I wish you all the best."
Zhan Xi smiled at him: "Thank you, and I wish you all the best."
She walked out of the building without looking back.
This company was her first job after leaving the ivory tower. In the past year, she learned a lot, experienced a lot, and grew a lot. She even met her boyfriend through work.
But she did not linger too much. One has to look forward. This is just a small choice in life.
When having dinner with Luo Jingyu in the evening, Zhan Xi told him that his registration had been passed and also told him his decision.
She signed in sign language: I'm not looking for a job for now, Xiaoyu, I want to help you prepare for the exhibition.
Luo Jingyu looked at her in a daze, and it was not until Zhan Xi repeated it that he reacted.
He signed anxiously: I don't want to delay your job search.
Zhan Xi shook his head: No delay.
Luo Jingyu looked at her for a long time, feeling extremely uneasy.
It was his idea to sign up for the Maker Festival, and he had been watching Huanhuan looking for a job. Before receiving a call from the organizer, he had no idea about the exhibition. Now that the registration was approved and he was about to set up his first stall in his life, he felt confused and at a loss, not knowing whether he could do it well on his own.
Just then, Huanhuan offered to help him.
Seeing his tangled look, Zhan Xi asked with a smile: "What are you doing? Don't you want me to help you?"
Luo Jingyu shook her head wildly.
"Then let's do it together!" Zhan Xi said excitedly, "Xiao Yu, there is still half a month left, let's plan it carefully, spending 20,000 yuan must have an effect!"
Luo Jingyu looked at her for a long time, finally smiled and nodded gently.
He paid 20,000 yuan in participation fees online and got a small booth.
Preparations for the Maker Festival began in May. Other exhibitors or individuals had already started preparing, but Luo Jingyu had just confirmed her participation, so time was running out. He and Zhan Xi had a lot to do, so they held a small meeting and planned what they were going to do.
First of all, the theme of the booth. Zhan Xi showed Luo Jingyu the manuscript he had written. Luo Jingyu was stunned by her wild ideas.
He didn't think so much at first, thinking that he could just put a table and chairs there and do the embossing quietly, and let the customers experience it at most. But Zhanxi's plan was very detailed, and he had to put a lot of effort into the theme layout.
"What do you think?" Zhan Xi asked.
Luo Jingyu: “…”
"No?" Zhan Xi asked again, "Too complicated? Not enough time? Then what was your original plan?"
Luo Jingyu pursed her lips, pointed at a sentence in the document, turned to look at Zhan Xi, and drew a question mark in the air with her index finger.
"Oh, this one? It's me." Zhan Xi said with a smile, "Do you think I'm not good enough?"
Luo Jingyu shook her head and looked at the document again. After thinking for a long time, she made up her mind and said in sign language: I think it’s okay, very good, let’s do it.
In Zhanxi's idea, the most important part of the exhibition is not Luo Jingyu's demonstration of how to make hot stamping flowers, but the hot stamping flower interest class experience. Teacher Luo will teach guests how to make introductory flowers, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. He needs to prepare the materials for the interest class and also make the corresponding finished products in advance to show to visitors.
Zhan Xi thought of the difficulties he and Mrs. Chi Jiang encountered when teaching, and said, "Xiao Yu, I've thought about it. You have to teach me first, and then I will help you explain it. You just need to be responsible for doing it step by step."
The organizer of the Maker Festival has a WeChat official account. Starting from May, it will push several booth information every day according to different sections. When the staff notified Zhanxi that her registration was approved, they asked her for the official account, Weibo or short video platform homepage account. Zhanxi did not give the account of "Xiaoyuyu Handmade Hot Flower" to the other party, because the accounts of this so-called hot flower studio on all platforms are managed by Fang Xu, Luo Jingyu has no control, and Fang Xu may not cooperate with him in publicity.
With Luo Jingyu's consent, Zhan Xi decided to register a new account, a monthly one, specifically for the Creation Festival.
Time was very tight, so she named the company casually, adding the homonym of her own name and Xiaoyu's name, and thus a new "Xiyu Hot Flower Art" was added to the WeChat public account, Weibo and QQ station.
Fang Xu and Luo Jingyu have been working together for four years and have been deeply involved in the Hanfu circle. Nowadays, most of their customer channels are obtained through various Hanfu groups, and they no longer care about their business display on the platform.
"Xiao Yu Yu Handmade Hot Embossing" doesn't even have a public account, and hasn't posted any new content on Weibo for two years. It only occasionally uploads some videos on Q station, but its Taobao store is quite well run.
Zhan Xi felt that Fang Xu's ideas were of no reference value, so she went to look at the social accounts of Teacher Xu, Sister Shao, and Sister Xiao Zhu. After carefully studying each one, she gave Luo Jingyu a task, asking him to do the flower pattern of the experience class carefully, and take a video of the whole process, and she would do the post-editing.
Luo Jingyu asked her in surprise: Can you
Zhan Xi didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "I studied media! How can I not know how to edit a video? But I haven't done it for a long time. Don't worry, I will definitely make it beautiful for you!"
Luo Jingyu's eyes sparkled and she praised sincerely: Huanhuan, you are really amazing!
The edited videos will be displayed on Weibo, and what the official account needs more is tweets, which are naturally written by Zhan Xi.
He asked Luo Jingyu to find a large number of photos of her embossing works over the years, and the two of them worked together to screen them one by one to use as illustrations for the tweets.
Zhanxi writes a short post every day. She doesn’t talk about flower embossing specifically, but uses different flowers as an introduction. Each post introduces a solar term or a traditional Chinese festival, and only returns to flower embossing at the end. Anyway, Xiaoyu makes so many flower shapes that she can’t finish writing before the Creation Festival.
More than a week later, the official WeChat account of the Maker Festival pushed a tweet introducing the "Jubilee Fish Embossing Art". The content was actually written by Zhan Xi, and the QR codes of the main booth on various platforms were hung below. In just one day, the WeChat account and Weibo gained a lot of fans.
Everything was going on in full swing. Materials needed for booth layout were purchased one by one, and Luo Jingyu made the finished products for the exhibition one by one. Zhan Xi and Luo Jingyu were busy from morning till night every day, with not enough time for sleep. There was almost nothing else on their minds. The calendar was full of work items, and they circled them after completing one.
There were only two of them, and none of them had any experience in participating in an exhibition. They didn't understand many things, so Zhan Xi shamelessly asked a few young ladies, who patiently answered her questions and told her what to pay attention to when participating in an exhibition.
In one week, the Maker Festival will open.
The day Fang Xu came uninvited, Luo Jingyu was teaching Zhan Xi how to make lily of the valley.
He went to open the door, and was startled when he saw Fang Xu. Fang Xu looked very calm, walked in with a bag of fruit, and said with a smile: "I just happened to pass by on my way to do something, so I came to see you."
He saw Zhan Xi sitting at the workbench and waved: "Hello, Miss Zhan."
Zhan Xi didn't like him, but out of politeness he still said, "Hello, Mr. Fang."
Luo Jingyu invited Fang Xu to sit on the sofa and brought him a drink. Fang Xu stretched his neck to look at the semi-finished embossing on the workbench and asked Zhan Xi, "Miss Zhan is also interested in embossing?"
Zhan Xi smiled and said, "Yeah, it's quite interesting. Let Xiaoyu teach me."
Luo Jingyu pulled a chair and sat down opposite Fang Xu. Zhan Xi did not leave either. He sat at the workbench, playing with his phone while listening to them talk.
"What are you busy with recently? The Maker Festival?" Fang Xu asked.
Luo Jingyu nodded. He did not hide the registration matter from Fang Xu and told him about it at the beginning of the month.
Fang Xu asked again: "So you have to wait until the exhibition is over before you have time to design the custom clothes for the Hanfu Festival?"
Luo Jingyu nodded again.
Fang Xu shook his head and sighed: "Our business will definitely not be good this year. Starting so late will have a huge impact."
Luo Jingyu didn't respond, Zhan Xi said: "There are gains and losses, Mr. Fang, if Xiaoyu becomes more well-known, it will only help your business, not harm it."
Fang Xu smiled and said, "I know Xiaoyu has something to pursue, and I definitely support her. Did you see what I said?"
He turned to Luo Jingyu and asked, "How is the design of the co-branded set going?"
Luo Jingyu stood up and brought him some color design drafts to show him.
This was at the beginning of the month. A Hanfu studio commissioned Fang Xu to do a co-branded design. The other party was going to launch a new autumn collection with the theme of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Several sets needed to be matched with curling flower hair accessories. Luo Jingyu took the time to draw the design, which was hand-painted.
"It's pretty good! Do you want to revise it?" Fang Xu asked after reading it.
Luo Jingyu was just about to type on his phone when someone patted him on the shoulder. He looked up and saw Zhan Xi standing next to him.
Zhan Xi used sign language to tell him: Just say it directly and I will translate it for you.
Luo Jingyu felt warm inside, smiled, and typed a few words in sign language. After Zhan Xi read it, he said to Fang Xu, "Xiao Yu said that you can send it to the other party first, ask for his opinion, and then he can revise it."
Fang Xu stared at them in amazement and asked, "Miss Zhan, do you know sign language?"
Zhan Xi said calmly: "I have studied for four months and I have basically no problem communicating with Xiaoyu. Sign language is not difficult to learn."
How could sign language not be difficult to learn? Fang Xu had seen Luo Jingyu sign language, and it was dazzling.
He had complicated feelings. Having known Luo Jingyu for four years, Fang Xu had never thought about learning sign language. He just felt that communicating with Xiaoyu was troublesome, especially since he was such a bad typist.
Why didn't Luo Jingyu improve her written communication skills? Fang Xu thought, why would he, a man with normal hearing, learn sign language? Just to communicate with Luo Jingyu, a deaf person? Why
As expected, the power of love is great. Fang Xu looked at Zhan Xi coldly, thinking that this beautiful girl was so overwhelmed by love that she couldn't think clearly.
He took a photo of the design with his phone and said, "Okay, I'll send it to the other party and ask them first. I'll give you feedback then."
Afterwards, Fang Xu drank a drink and asked Luo Jingyu casually how he planned to set up a stall at the Creation Festival. Luo Jingyu looked at him seriously. In the past, he would never hide anything from Fang Xu, but now, unless it was necessary, he didn't want to tell him anything.
Zhan Xi helped him out and said with a smile: "Mr. Fang, you said you won't interfere or help, so just leave it alone. Besides, hot flower making is so unpopular, what else can you do? Isn't it just Xiaoyu setting up a stall to make hot flower making, and visitors gather around to watch. It's no different from making candy figures."
Luo Jingyu: “…”
Fang Xu laughed: "That's true."
He sat there for a short while before saying he was leaving. Zhan Xi held the gift and watched him go. Luo Jingyu sent Fang Xu to the door and watched him take the elevator downstairs.
Fang Xu went downstairs to get the car, making a phone call as he walked.
The female voice on the phone said in a coquettish voice: "Brother Xiao Fang."
Fang Xu said: "I'm out."
The other party asked: "Did you ask?"
"He didn't say anything. He was very sneaky." Fang Xu replied, "But I got the things."
After hanging up the phone, Fang Xu opened WeChat and took another look at the tweet posted by the Creation Festival official account.
"The Art of Fish Embossing, humph." He read it out loud and sneered at the end.
The deaf boy's wings are really hard, Fang Xu thought, is he planning to kick him away and fly away
Haha, is there such an easy thing in this world