While Yue Ling carried on with work, on the other side of Imperial, all was calm inside the Ji Mansion.
Ji Jingxu had just finished getting ready for school and walked out of his bedroom. He stops in his tracks in the long hallway and turns his head in the direction of his grandfather's bedroom, only to see the door closed.
When he came home from school, he was surprised to see the old man home. He wanted to question his grandfather for coming home when he (Grandfather Ji) knew that his condition was not improving. However, he stopped himself.
He knew that his grandfather had his reasons for being discharged from the hospital.
Also, he was glad to see the old man welcoming him when he came home from school. It was like nothing had changed.
"Jingxu, are you ready?"
Just as his thoughts drift away, an elderly voice calls out to him from behind. He turns away from his grandfather's bedroom door to look at the person.
He meets the eyes of Housekeeper Hu, and he faintly smiles a nod.
"Mm. I'll meet you in the car."
Housekeeper Hu did not think much and left Ji Jingxu alone in the second-floor hallway.
When the housekeeper's step grew further into the distance, Ji Jingxu picked up his feet and walked towards his grandfather's bedroom.
He knocked on the door once and waited for a response. When he doesn't hear anything, he sighs inside, thinking his grandfather must still be sleeping.
He takes his backpack off and opens it to get a sticky note. He writes down a message and sticks it on the door before walking away.
"Old man… I'm going to school now. I'll see you later."
It didn't take long before Ji Jingxu arrived outside the Ji Mansion. He turns back to look at the stairs, hoping his grandfather will see him off, but there is only emptiness.
He felt a faint but sharp pain pierce his chest, making him unable to breathe. His eyes tremble, and he unknowingly takes a step back inside the house.
He needed to go back upstairs and make sure his grandfather was okay.
Just as he took his second step, a familiar voice called his name from outside. He abruptly stops and turns to the source of the voice.
His eyes widened slightly when he saw his grandfather standing in front of the white Royce Rolls with a cane. His lower ever so slightly trembles before he finds his voice.
Grandfather Ji stood with a confused expression as he gazed at his grandson. He thought the boy would be happy to see him, but the longer he looked at Ji Jingxu, he understood something.
He sighed a small smile and approached the boy, who looked like a terrified boy lost in this big world.
"I'm here. Your grandfather is here."
He held a solemn expression as comes to a stop in front of Ji Jingxu and raised his hand to pat the boy on the head.
"I'm not going anywhere."
His voice is almost breaking, but he remembers to keep himself together. He cannot show Ji Jingxu that he is also afraid.
He clears his throat and moves his hand away from the boy's head.
"Come. Let me take you to school."
Ji Jingxu accepts the old man's offer and nods in agreement. He wants to spend as much time with his grandfather as possible, even if it is only for a short moment.
As the grandfather and grandson approached the car, Zhong Yang watched from the driver's side. His eyes fill with tears, but he does not shed any tears.
He ushers a sniffle and steps out of the car to help the two individuals get inside.
As the white Royce-Rolls drives away from the Ji Mansion, back at De L'amour, Yue Ling had just finished making her morning rounds.
She stops by the design room to check on her design team. However, the second she stepped inside the room, she was blown away by the mess inside.
It was as if a tornado had hit the place and left seconds ago.
She blinked with bewilderment at the sight of her design team scurrying inside the room like they were racing with time.
"Is everything alright in here?"
Her voice fell and stopped the people in the room. Tang Zhonghui held fabric samples in his hands. Lian Ni Shang and Shan Sinan are working on sketches. The Gui twins are styling a mannequin. Qi Li is sitting in a corner, working on his own designs.
"Everything is alright."
A childlike voice sounds from the far back of the room, causing Yue Ling to look in that direction.
Ju Suo's petite figure ascends from behind a desk with a massive grin. Her neatly short hair was now like that of a bird's nest, and dark circles were forming around her eyes.
"We're just seeing who has come up with the best dress for you."
Yue Ling didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the sight of her fashion forecaster. She clears her throat to do neither and walks further into the room.
"It's only been a few hours since I assigned the task. Why do you all look like you have suffered?"
Everyone fell into silence at her words. It was true that it had only been a few hours. However, to them, those few hours meant time was not on their side.
They will fail their boss if they don't get started immediately and develop a design. And that is the last thing they want to do.
Oblivious to this, Yue Ling walks to the table where Lian Ni Shang and Shan Sinan are working. She sees the many sketches they've already come up with and picks up one of the papers.
"Boss, take a look at this too."
Before she can give her opinion on Lian Ni Shang's design, Qi Li interrupts her. She looks at the man and is greeted by his stretched hands holding a tablet.
She set the paper down and replaced it with Qi Li's tablet.
She was taken aback by how carefully thought out the details.
It was a satin dusty blue off-the-shoulder dress. The top part of the dress was wrapped into a cold shoulder sleeve paired with an A-line skirt.
Qi Li felt proud of his work, but he tries his best to keep a calm expression. Of course, everyone else was not blind and could see the faint but arrogant smile on his face.
The Gui twins glance at one another before intervening. Gui Zhongmin politely takes the tablet out of his boss's hand and hands it back to Qi Li.
He smiles at his boss and gently ushers her to the mannequin he and his older brother worked on.
"Boss, come take a look at this. Lan and I need your honest opinion on our design too."
Yue Ling didn't refute her subordinate and followed along. However, she was flabbergasted when she stood in front of the mannequin.
The dress in front of her was a dress, yet it wasn't a dress.
Unlike the sketched design on Qi Li's tablet, Gui Tian Lan and Gui Zhongmin decided to make their creation come to life.
However, the mannequin in front of Yue Ling was covered with different fabric samples.
If she had one word to describe the dress, it would be 'rainbow.'
Her eyebrows twitch for a split second, and she parts her lips but sees the eager expression on the twins' faces. The two men looked like they were waiting to be praised for their hard work.
She couldn't help but smile with a faint sigh.
"Let's try to figure out the color of the dress before taking the next step."
Gui Tian Lan and Gui Zhongmin were expecting a different response, but the two men gave one another an understanding glance. Neither spoke a word and hurried on to decide on color with determination.
Witnessing this scene, Ju Suo and Tang Zhonghui didn't need to get their boss's attention. Even without seeking Yue Ling's opinion, the two knew they needed to find the perfect color for the dress.
Lian Ni Shang stares at the people in the room and then quietly ambles to stand next to her boss.
"Boss, there's something I want to ask you."
Yue Ling gives a side glance to her pattern maker. Her expression was enough to let Lian Ni Shang go on and ask her questions.
She (Lian Ni Shang) hesitated upon meeting Yue Ling's bluish-green eyes but inhaled a deep breath.
"I have been thinking since the photo shoot. Why don't you and Mr. Lu just have your wedding?"
Yue Ling stares at the woman next to her. She ponders for a split second before turning her attention back to the other people in the room.
"If I can, I want to do that, but it was Madam Lu's idea to hold an engagement banquet first. She has put so much into planning that I can't bear to ask her to cancel it."
As much as she finds Madam Lu a little eccentric, she can see that the woman is pouring her heart into this engagement and wedding.
Besides, she was okay with it.
Madam Lu may not be her birth mother, but she is aware that the woman is trying her best to let her experience the feelings a bride should have with their mother when planning such an event.
And for that, she is genuinely grateful to the woman.