Bright Era of China Entertainment

Chapter 806 Trip to Wuhan (Part )

"Wow—"

The sun was at its strongest at noon, and the air conditioner in the house was on to blow cold air to counteract the heat.

In the kitchen, the oil in the pot had been heated and boiled, and a pile of cut meat was poured in, and suddenly there was a sound of oil popping.

Chu Xuan took a half step back subconsciously with the spatula in his hand. The "pop" sound of the hot oil frying the meat in the pan made him a little scared, for fear that the hot oil would splash on him.

Seeing this scene, my aunt laughed and shook her head. It was obvious that Xiaoxuan had never cooked before and was scared by such a small noise.

Chu Xuan glanced at his aunt's teasing look, his face a little embarrassed.

He woke up in the morning and missed breakfast. He watched TV with his grandmother in the living room. Then he saw his aunt coming back from shopping for groceries and preparing lunch, and the ingredients happened to include green beans, so a new idea came to his mind.

I had planned to finish my work in Wuhan and then go to the Shangri-La Hotel to learn how to make the dishes my mother likes after returning to Beijing. But isn’t my aunt, who has been cooking for decades, a ready-made master chef?

How nice it is to be working in Wuhan while learning to cook my mother's favorite dishes from my aunt.

It can also save him time and give him more hope of going to America to accompany his wife to graduation.

So, now he transformed himself into a "chef" and, under the guidance of his aunt, cooked for the first time in his life - stir-fried green beans with meat.

"There are many ways to cook stir-fried green beans with meat. Your mother's favorite is this stir-fried pork belly. First cut the pork belly into small pieces, and then fry it in a pan. The meat tastes best when it is half crispy and half burnt. If you have patience, add some starch to the meat and stir it before frying. The texture will be better." Auntie temporarily acted as Chu Xuan's chef and said patiently.

"What is cornstarch?" Chu Xuan asked.

This question left my aunt speechless for a moment, then she smiled and said, "One day I'll buy some and show you what it is, then you'll know. Otherwise, even if I tell you, you won't know what it is."

"Okay." Chu Xuan was embarrassed.

Grandma came to the kitchen door, eating an apple in her hand. She looked at her grandson-in-law cooking from behind and admired him very much: "Xiaoxuan is really capable."

Chu Xuan turned his head and looked at his grandmother with his aunt.

Chu Xuan immediately turned his head back in embarrassment. It was okay to praise him for his career, but he was praised for cooking for the first time, which really made him feel ashamed.

Under the full command of his aunt, a dish of stir-fried green beans and meat, which looked simple but was actually very troublesome for Chu Xuan, was ready. Chu Xuan placed his work on the dining table and looked at his grandmother and aunt with dry eyes.

My uncle went out for business and the two children had to go to school, so during the day, only my grandmother and aunt were at home.

Grandma picked up a green bean and tasted it, nodding her head repeatedly: "Delicious, not bad!"

Chu Xuan looked at his aunt. His grandmother’s praise was not credible. It didn’t mean to be derogatory. It was just that from the moment he entered the house yesterday until now, his grandmother had never stopped praising him. He felt that he couldn’t bear this doting. It could only be said that old people were like this to their grandchildren, both pure and overly doting.

"It's OK, it's edible. Keep up the good work." My aunt tasted the next dish and found it averagely cooked, and still needed to work on it.

Chu Xuan picked up the chopsticks and took a bite of the dish to try. It seemed a little bland. The green beans were okay, as they were slightly sweet in nature, and adding less salt did not affect the taste. However, the pork belly seemed to have no taste at all.

Chu Xuan, his aunt, and his grandmother smiled at each other. None of them said anything, but the teasing smiles in their eyes said it all.

After the meal, Chu Xuan put down his chopsticks. He had barely eaten half of the plate of stir-fried green beans and meat. He waved his hand encouragingly and said, "Continue tomorrow. I promise it will be better than today!"

As he said that, he walked out: "Aunt, grandma, I'm leaving first."

Outside the courtyard gate, Yuan Hong drove up and waited for Chu Xuan for a few minutes.

Chu Xuan sat in the passenger seat, reported a place name, and the car drove straight away.

His aunt was busy with the preparations for his and Liu Yifei's wedding house in her villa in Shenzhen, and had no plans to return to Wuhan. However, when she heard that he was coming to Wuhan, she decided to come back and take him to the fashion design company to see the progress of his fashion design.

Yuan Hong drove to the underground parking lot of an office building and parked. After getting out of the car, the two took the elevator and followed the instructions in the text message from the aunt-in-law to the corresponding floor.

The entire floor belongs to the same clothing company. It seems that this company is quite powerful. I heard from my aunt-in-law that this company also has its own clothing production plant. It is a large enterprise integrating design, production and sales.

But this company's brand is not well-known, and Chu Xuan has never heard of the unfamiliar name. If he had his previous level of knowledge, he might think that this company is "rubbish", but with his current level of knowledge, this is most likely the result of domestic brands being suppressed by foreign brands.

I heard from my aunt that this company no longer has any independent business projects, has given up its own brand, and has become an OEM for overseas clothing brands. This is indeed a bit sad.

"Xiaoxuan." The aunt appeared from the corridor to meet Chu Xuan.

"Hello, Mr. Chu Xuan." He was greeted by someone who looked like a company executive.

"Chu Xuan?!" The eyes of several employees passing by lit up and showed excitement.

Chu Xuan and Yuan Hong went to meet their aunt-in-law. After the two sides introduced each other, they learned that this company executive was the chief designer of the wedding dress project. After both sides greeted each other, they went to the design room together.

There are many clothes hangers and mannequins in the design studio, with a wide variety of clothes on display.

Among them, the most eye-catching is the ancient wedding dresses worn on the two mannequins in the center.

"Is this the wedding dress you and Sissi are wearing?" Yuan Hong looked at it with interest.

Chu Xuan nodded. The wedding dress that his aunt brought over during the filming was not a finished product and was relatively simple. However, the two sets of ancient wedding dresses in front of him were still exactly the same after such a long time, as if there was no progress at all. This made him wonder, "Didn't they say there were a lot of accessories? Aren't they finished yet?"

The aunt shook her head and said, "It's not that simple. There are too many things to consider."

Designer Mr. Song looked a little bitter and explained, "According to your request, we will try to restore the pattern and characteristics of the Song Dynasty wedding dress as closely as possible. Mr. Chu Xuan, as someone in the entertainment industry, should understand the complexity of ancient costumes. However, most of the ancient costumes in film and television dramas are made of simple materials and simple designs. I don't think any investor would do it if we really want to restore it one-to-one."

Chu Xuan and Yuan Hong nodded. This was the truth.

The ancient costumes in movies and TV dramas look beautiful, but in fact, few dramas spend real money on them.

The materials used are generally ordinary fabrics, and the gold and silver accessories are mostly fakes dyed with paint. The design only needs to be rough, and the details cannot withstand in-depth study. The main purpose is to save money.

If those costume dramas really want to restore a one-to-one, authentic makeup and styling, the cost of costumes alone would be at least tens of millions with no upper limit. According to the current market average investment of 3000 million for costume dramas, you can imagine that there will be a lot of quality and texture issues in the makeup and styling.

But this is not the director and crew's fault. Investors are unwilling to spend money on this, and there is nothing the director and crew can do about it.

"In addition to the main body, which we have some raw materials to make quickly, the clothing accessories are currently still in the design drawing stage. The company also has personnel sent out to look for workshops that can provide raw materials to find some materials. It will take some time to make a complete product, but it will definitely be done before the end of the year." Teacher Song said.

Chu Xuan nodded: "Can I see the design drawings?"

"Here it is." Teacher Song handed over the design drawing.

Chu Xuan took it and looked at it, and Yuan Hong also curiously leaned over to take a look.

Teacher Song explained: "According to the introduction of wedding attire in the History of Song Dynasty and Records of Clothing, women's wedding attire includes large sleeves, collar, long skirt, skirt, shawl, jade pendant, waist gauze, back, scented sachet, flower crown, red veil, painted fan and gold and silver jewelry."

"Big sleeves..." Yuan Hong raised his hands and looked at the cuffs: "It's the sleeves, and they are very big and wide, right?"

"Right, right, right." Teacher Song said, and raised his hand to pat his forearm: "To be precise, the big sleeve refers to the part of the arm in front of the elbow, which needs to be made separately."

"Ah? Made individually?" Yuan Hong asked in surprise.

The aunt nodded slightly: "Things that the teacher just mentioned, including the big sleeves, collars and so on, all need to be made separately, and then threaded together to form a whole."

"Why not make it together?" Chu Xuan asked curiously.

Teacher Song said: "According to the description in Menglianglu, the big sleeves, long skirt, shawl, jade pendant and back are all crimson silk, and the main body and the rest are all raw colors. Crimson silk refers to silk products, which are bright red; raw colors in ancient times were cyan, which is dark green."

Even though Chu Xuan knew a little about history and culture, this kind of overly detailed culture was the first time he had heard of it. Like the confused Yuan Hong, he savored the cultural crystallization of the Song Dynasty like a primary school student.

Teacher Song added: "When coloring silk fabrics, basically only one color can be applied at a time. The main body of the Song Dynasty women's wedding dress is blue, and the accessories are red, and the red is mixed with some gold patterns, so the accessories need to be separated separately, customized one by one, colored one by one, and finally attached to the main body with needle and thread."

"Damn." Yuan Hong patted Chu Xuan on the shoulder, feeling amused: "The costumes used in previous filmings were all fake. Those ancient costumes were a complete set. No wonder there were problems with the coloring. I was caught in the rain on the set two years ago and my clothes faded."

Chu Xuan, his aunt and Teacher Song all laughed and had a lot of fun.

"This is just the women's wedding dress, which has countless complicated parts, not to mention your men's wedding dress, Mr. Chu, which is not much less complicated than women's." Teacher Song said.

Chu Xuan nodded, understanding the difficulty of restoring an ancient wedding dress one-to-one.

Chu Xuan flipped through a few pages of design drawings, and a computer-generated design of a set of clothing came into view. It was also a red dress, but it was much simpler. It was not his wedding dress either. It was obviously designed for guests.

Chu Xuan glanced at Yuan Hong: "How about this set?"

"Sure." Yuan Hong didn't think twice. The clothing style in the design drawing was different from the main men's clothing being made in front of him. He just thought that this design was the second wedding dress plan prepared for Chu Xuan.

"Okay, then this set of clothes is for you." Chu Xuan said.

Yuan Hong was confused: "I wear it?"

Chu Xuan teased: "Then all the guests who come to my wedding will have to wear ancient costumes."

"Is this true?" Yuan Hong said in surprise, looking at Chu Xuan in disbelief.

"Why would I lie to you? These guest clothes will be considered as return gifts when the time comes." Chu Xuan said.

"You mean you want to give it to us?" Yuan Hong became very interested. It was the first time he heard that the guests attending the wedding had to wear ancient costumes. What interested him even more was that these ancient costumes Chu Xuan mentioned would be given to the guests as return gifts.

Yuan Hong grabbed the design and looked at it with great interest: "Then I want to choose a set. This red one is too bright. Give it to Lao Hu, not to me."

The aunt-in-law saw Chu Xuan and his friends discussing the design drawings with great interest and felt it was interesting.

Teacher Song sighed in his heart that this was the largest private client he had ever encountered since he started working.

In addition to wedding attire for men and women, hundreds of sets of ancient costumes will also be made for the guests. This has never happened before in domestic weddings, right?

The total value of these clothes is conservatively estimated to be several million.

All he could say was: great!

Fortunately, the ancient costumes designed for the guests are simple. Even though they belong to the category of handicrafts and cannot be put on the assembly line, as long as the money is in place in time and a few more people from the workshops are asked to help, it will not be difficult to complete this big project before the New Year.

After spending an afternoon at the clothing company, Chu Xuan got a general understanding of the progress in wedding costumes and learned some new knowledge. After saying goodbye to Yuan Hong, Chu Xuan got into his aunt's car and went to the An family for dinner.

When I arrived in Wuhan, I had to say hello to my grandma, and of course I had to visit my grandparents as well.

"Grandpa and grandma, I'm here to see you." Chu Xuan walked into the house with some fruits in his hands, which he bought on the way here. He wanted to buy some better gifts, but his aunt-in-law wouldn't let him, so he had to give up.

When the elderly see their grandchildren coming to visit, they don’t care whether you are holding anything in your hands. As long as someone comes, this is what makes them happiest: "Xiaoxuan, come in quickly."

Grandma was very happy to see Chu Xuan. Although she didn't behave as dotingly as the grandmother, her joyful expression and her action of opening the shoe cabinet and taking slippers for Chu Xuan also expressed her welcome to the arrival of her grandson-in-law.

"Sissi went to America?" asked Grandpa.

"Yes, she is about to graduate from her further studies, and I am here to say hello to her grandparents on her behalf." Chu Xuan said.

"Okay, okay, okay." Grandpa said "Okay" three times in a row, and a wrinkled smile appeared on his naturally serious face. It could be said to be ugly, but it was more kind.

The meal has been prepared by a nanny.

In the past, when my aunt was around, the An family never hired a nanny.

It was because my aunt-in-law was representing the An family this year and was busy with their wedding, so she had no choice but to hire a nanny to take care of my grandparents.

Put yourself in their shoes. Grandpa and grandma have been accustomed to being taken care of by their aunt all year round, and the mood of the elderly has a great impact on their health. Now suddenly a strange nanny comes to take care of them. Regardless of whether this nanny is considerate or not, I think this unfamiliarity will make grandpa and grandma feel uncomfortable.

However, when he arrived, his grandparents did not express any discomfort, and there was no negative emotion on their faces.

Chu Xuan had guessed something. Hiring a nanny was something his grandparents tacitly agreed to, and his grandparents had no complaints about his aunt being busy with their wedding.

After all, this was all for the smooth marriage between him and Liu Yifei. Not only were his grandmothers eagerly looking forward to it, but his grandparents also made compromises for this, preferring their own living environment to become unfamiliar and uncomfortable in order to fulfill the happiness of their children and grandchildren.

Chu Xuan felt a little uncomfortable in his heart, but there was nothing he could do. He could only make more trips to Wuhan during this time to spend more time with his grandparents and make them happy.

"Xiaoxuan, where do you live in Wuhan? At Xixi's grandmother's place? I asked Xiu to tidy up Xixi's room and put in new bedding. How about you stay with us?"

During dinner, grandma pointed to the small room where Liu Yifei used to live, and looked at Chu Xuan with a bit of longing, hoping that Chu Xuan could live at home.

Chu Xuan paused while picking up rice with chopsticks, raised his head and asked tentatively: "I don't know how many days I will stay in Wuhan, how about staying one night with grandma and one night with grandpa and grandma?"

Grandpa pointed at Chu Xuan and smiled slightly on his old face: "You little rascal."

Grandma and aunt couldn't help laughing, while Chu Xuan smiled and lowered his head to eat.

Since grandma suggested living here, that's all he could say.

Otherwise, if I keep living in the An family, my grandmother will be unhappy.

If I continue to live with my grandmother, my family might have some ideas about it.

He doesn't know how to clone himself, so if he keeps one of himself, he can only keep both of them equal and live with each for a day.

"It's just so clever." He secretly admired his own cleverness.

At the same time, he also deeply understood the troubles that divorced families bring to children.

If my parents hadn't divorced, my grandmother and grandparents would be one family. There would be no need for him to treat them equally. Such a thing would never have happened.

This puts him, the son-in-law, in a dilemma as he has to take care of the feelings of his grandmother's family as well as the mood of his grandparents.

Ultimately, the root of the problem lies with the mother-in-law and the father-in-law.

Since you have chosen to get married, why do you want to get divorced?

Since your heart is set on it, why fear the long and difficult road ahead?
These two adults are really ignorant and narrow-minded, they deserve criticism.

Taking history as a mirror and this feeling as a reflection, his heart was sublimated in the unpredictable and mysterious connection with the family formed with Liu Yifei.

(End of this chapter)