Chapter 25 Part 1

“Could you lift your arm just a bit, please?”

The tailor picked up a soft measuring tape and gently wrapped it around Li Zhuo’s shoulder.

“Yes, that’s perfect.”

Li Zhuo was an exceptionally cooperative client, making the tailor’s job feel effortless.

As she bent her head to record the data, perhaps because Li Zhuo looked so endearing obediently waiting for her next instruction, or because he was close in age to her own younger brother, the usually reserved tailor couldn’t help but add a few extra words of advice:

“Actually, for teenagers your age, bone structure grows very quickly. Measurements like shoulder width, chest, waist, sleeve length, trouser length, and back length change frequently, so it’s best to get remeasured every so often…”

“If you order custom clothes based on today’s numbers a year or two from now, they’ll definitely be uncomfortable…”

Li Zhuo responded instinctively, “Thank you.”

In the next second, his mind flashed to the suit he wore at the coming-of-age ceremony the day before yesterday. Could it have been tailored using his old measurements?

No wonder it felt so tight, so suffocating. No wonder… no wonder…

But didn’t they know?

No, they probably just didn’t care.

The night before the banquet, Li Huachuan had casually tossed an old suit at him, yet Li Zhuo had carefully hung it by his bed and happily put it on first thing in the morning.

He was so happy that even when he felt uncomfortable midway, it never crossed his mind that the suit was the problem. He just assumed he wasn’t used to wearing formal attire anymore.

He endured the discomfort, keeping his back as straight as possible to avoid looking slouched.

Thinking about it now made him want to laugh.

“How was it?”

As soon as Li Zhuo stepped out of the fitting room, Mo Liang, who had been waiting outside, leaned in and whispered, “Did you not like that tailor? We can switch to a different one.”

Li Zhuo, failing to follow his train of thought, looked startled. “Huh?!”

Mo Liang’s logic was simple: he had just detected a minor fluctuation in his child’s emotional hormones. The only human inside who could have spoken—and had spoken—to him was the short-haired tailor. Therefore, the answer was obvious:

She had to be the cause!

Although Li Zhuo couldn’t immediately guess all of Mo Liang’s thoughts, he still quickly shook his head. “It has nothing to do with her. She was very nice, really.”

To ensure a suit fits comfortably and conforms perfectly to the body, the measurements taken before tailoring are extremely precise. Just the knee circumference alone required three data points, measured above and below the bend of the knee. There were also measurements like ankle circumference, waist height, shoulder slope, and so on.

He remembered that shortly after arriving at the Li family home, before attending his first event with them, Lu Fei had taken him to another shop. That experience taught him how tedious buying clothes could be for city people.

It wasn’t like he imagined, where all the clothes hung on the wall and you just told the shopkeeper your size so they could pull one down with a pole.

Every employee in that shop dressed impeccably. Even the air seemed different from the outside world. Li Zhuo, who had never seen such a scene before, felt extremely out of place and his discomfort naturally showed.

The young man assigned to measure him, doused in perfume, had perhaps noticed Li Zhuo’s timidity and secretly rolled his eyes several times throughout the process.

Later, Li Zhuo accidentally overheard him mocking him with other staff in the room next to the fitting area, saying he looked like a clueless country bumpkin with his slumped shoulders and bowed head…

But that lady just now was different. Sensing his stiff body, she gently reminded him to relax so the measurements would be more accurate. She even thoughtfully warned him that since he was still growing, he should update his measurements regularly.

Past memories flashed through Li Zhuo’s mind one after another. Of course, he didn’t tell the whole story out loud; he simply defended the tailor. “She didn’t say anything bad about me. I’m not upset because of her.”

Mo Liang replied with an “Oh,” finally dropping the subject of the tailor. Instead, he began asking where Li Zhuo wanted to go play next, saying he could accompany him anywhere, as if he were just a carefree man with nothing but free time.

“I… don’t know either.”

“It’s fine, no need to answer right away. That took quite a while; it’s time to rehydrate now. How about we get something to drink and eat first?”

Li Zhuo nodded and started walking toward the fabric display area, with Mo Liang following closely behind.

If Li Zhuo took three steps forward, Mo Liang took three steps. If Li Zhuo stopped suddenly, Mo Liang stopped too.

“What is it?”

Mo Liang asked.

Li Zhuo shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

He had noticed ages ago.

Ever since Li Zhuo woke up the previous afternoon, Mo Liang seemed even more anxious about his emotional state than usual. No matter where he went, Mo Liang shadowed his every step.

Even when Li Zhuo insisted he was fine, Mo Liang only verbally acknowledged it while still guarding him as carefully as one would protect the pupil of their eye.

If Li Zhuo said he’d slept too long and wanted to go for a walk, Mo Liang would follow step by step, trailing behind him like a shadow all day long. Even when Li Zhuo went to the restroom, Mo Liang stood guard at the door!

This level of vigilance made it seem like Li Zhuo was about to do something terrible any second.

Today was even more intense. The moment he woke up and opened his eyes, he saw a magnified face close to his own nose, as if sensing his breath.

Mo Liang followed him at meals, followed him to the washroom.

At noon, when Li Zhuo lay on the sofa and casually asked what happened to the suit he’d worn before, Mo Liang didn’t answer where it went. Instead, he just said he would take him to get a new one tailored and then brought him to this high-end custom suit shop hidden amidst the bustling city.

It was said this shop operated on a membership basis, not open to the public. It didn’t serve walk-in customers, only its members.

Li Zhuo knew this partly from what he’d heard and partly because the shop’s name was rather tricky.

The last time he heard this shop’s name was from Li Xuan. Another reason he remembered it was because the shop had a very difficult-to-pronounce foreign name, one he had mispronounced during a previous public occasion.

After being corrected once, he memorized it firmly.

He had never been here before, as booking an appointment was notoriously troublesome. When he arrived with Mo Liang this time, he deliberately observed the place, mentally comparing it to that other shop.

Was it quieter?

Perhaps Mo Liang had given prior instructions. Li Zhuo clearly sensed there were very few people in the shop. Even the initial receptionist, after guiding him to the fitting room, had disappeared somewhere.

The rest area of the shop was meant to provide customers a place to relax and enjoy food and drinks; logically, it should have been the busiest spot.

But on the way to the lounge area, it remained eerily quiet. He didn’t run into a single employee or customer, and the lounge area itself seemed devoid of any other patrons.

Could it be just them?

Stepping into the rest area, his feet sank into a deep-colored carpet so soft it felt like walking on clouds. Looking up, the long corridor leading in was lined on both sides with meticulously arranged display shelves showcasing many rare fabrics.

These fabrics featured exquisite textures, and under the carefully angled warm lights, they shimmered with a captivating, unique luster. Every inch of this space exuded an aura of understated luxury.

The dessert section, tea area, and dining space were all clearly defined. Fashion catalogs were everywhere—on the tables and in the corners—ready to be flipped open to reveal the season’s most popular haute couture styles.

Li Zhuo placed his order and casually flipped open a page that happened to be the men’s section. He stared at the model in the picture while Mo Liang, seated across from him, stared directly at him.

Truthfully, it wasn’t normal for humans to stare so intently and for so long at someone else. It was considered somewhat impolite behavior. Fortunately, Li Zhuo had grown used to it, knowing Teacher Mo meant no harm and simply liked looking at him.

He didn’t know what Mo Liang was thinking while staring at him. He focused on opening another menu, ordered a drink, and then smoothly passed the menu to Mo Liang across the table.

Mo Liang didn’t take it, his gaze still fixed on Li Zhuo, but his words were directed at the waiter standing nearby. “I’ll have the same as him.”

The waiter left, and once again, the quiet, serene space held only two customers: Mo Liang and Li Zhuo.

“……”

It was too quiet. Li Zhuo unconsciously began spacing out again until Mo Liang from the opposite side roused him, asking in a deeply concerned tone, “My child, what are you thinking about? Tell me, alright?”

Human thoughts were opaque, which was extremely inconvenient for Mo Liang. He couldn’t directly probe what his child was thinking; he could only rely on observing the hormonal changes in his organs and his facial expressions.

“Hm, I was thinking…” Li Zhuo pointed at his cell phone lying on the table, “Why can’t I find a single piece of negative news about me?”

Since the evening he woke up, he had tried searching keywords related to the Li family’s coming-of-age banquet. After all, quite a few people had been invited there.

Strangely, his first search yielded absolutely no related news!

Refusing to believe it, he searched a second and then a third time. It was only on the fourth attempt that he finally got a few scattered results, but the comment sections were almost entirely praising him…

Even using his toes to think, he knew that was impossible.