Qu Wei spent a whole day at her mother-in-law's house, digesting the operational strategies she had received from Huang He.
To be honest, it was a bit difficult. After all, Qu Wei's main profession was a designer, and her ability in business operations was not very strong. Even with Huang He personally teaching her hands-on, she absorbed information slowly. However, she finally managed to grasp the essence of the methods.
"It's definitely not feasible to let Qu Wei manage the luxury brand. This girl could unknowingly sell the company!" Huang He muttered to himself, then cautiously asked Qu Wei if she was willing to hand over the company's operational rights to professional managers.
Huang He valued Qu Wei highly, as she was currently the core of Liushang Qu Shui Cai Wei, and she would also be the core of the future four light luxury brands. Only when the designers of the four light luxury brands were firmly established would Qu Wei's importance gradually diminish, though she would still remain very important. Unless absolutely necessary, Huang He did not want to upset Qu Wei.
"Yes! I couldn't ask for more!" Qu Wei's face showed a happy expression. She actually understood that she had no business management skills. Otherwise, Liushang Qu Shui Cai Wei would not have been on the verge of bankruptcy before. Designing was what made her feel most comfortable.
"But I have a condition!" Qu Wei added, "That is, the professional manager can only manage the company's operations. In terms of design, I must be solely responsible. No one is allowed to interfere with my designs."
"And when it comes to design, my word is final. Whichever design I choose will be used for the company's new products. No one has the right to stop me."
"Alright!" Huang He agreed readily.
"Including you, you have no right to interfere with my designs!" Qu Wei added.
"This..." Huang He felt a headache coming on. After hesitating for a moment, he still agreed.
Well, he could agree to her having the visible authority. If he were truly dissatisfied with a design, he would find other ways to persuade her, perhaps during her most vulnerable moments...
By the time the new luxury industry development plan was finalized, it was completely dark. Her mother-in-law enthusiastically invited Qu Wei to stay for dinner, and Qu Wei did not refuse. Thus, the courtyard house experienced a rare state of high occupancy, with a total of six people having dinner.
Moreover, apart from Huang He, the other five were all women.
Leng Zhi Ting and Leng Zhi Yuan were naturally very curious about the sudden appearance of Qu Wei. Leng Zhi Ting even stood with her hands on her hips and said, "Sister, aren't you here to ruin my sister and brother-in-law's happy life!"
"..." Qu Wei's expression twitched slightly. Mentally, she had no such intentions. However, in terms of actual actions, she had done quite a lot.
"Qu Wei is the world's most famous national style designer. How could she possibly fancy brother-in-law? She's here to discuss the company's development!" Huang He tapped Leng Zhi Ting's head. Leng Zhi Ting then hummed in response. It was Xiao Yuan who showed a shocked expression. After hesitating for a while, she excitedly asked, "Sister, are you really the Oriental Muse, Teacher Qu Wei?"
"Oriental Muse? What kind of title is that?" Huang He was taken aback. Qu Wei quickly blushed and said humbly, "I am Qu Wei, but those are just random names given by foreigners. How can I possibly deserve the title of a muse?"
It turned out that when Qu Wei shocked the world in France, coupled with the extraordinary reception of Hanfu, foreigners had given Qu Wei the nickname "Oriental Muse" according to their own perceptions.
"It's quite good. To receive a goddess title from foreigners is also an achievement!" Huang He smiled. He certainly didn't think much of such a title, but Xiao Yuan, who was beside them, had completely transformed into Qu Wei's little fan girl. She couldn't help but ask Qu Wei various questions, many of which were professional questions about fashion design, surprising even Qu Wei.
"Xiao Yuan's biggest dream is to be a fashion designer!" Leng Zhi Ting added. "She often picks up our discarded notebooks or blank pages from used paper and secretly takes them home to draw various fashion design sketches. She also borrows many professional books on fashion design from the school library. Our teacher says that with her talent, she can get into the Central Academy of Fine Arts!"
"But her family doesn't support her. They even tore up her notebooks filled with design sketches. They say that a girl like Xiao Yuan will eventually get married, and studying so much is useless. There's no need to study fashion design; it doesn't earn money. After junior high school, she'll go out to work and earn money for her younger brother's education!" Leng Zhi Ting said indignantly, and Xiao Yuan's expression grew even dimmer.
"Do you have any design drafts? Can you show them to me?" Hearing Leng Zhi Ting's words, Qu Wei didn't react, but Huang He's eyes lit up, and he said to Xiao Yuan.
"Yes!" Xiao Yuan immediately fumbled through her schoolbag and pulled out a thin notebook. This notebook was not written with Xiao Yuan's name, but with the name Wang Shengli.
The front of this notebook was filled with various assignments, and only on the back of the pages were some simple fashion design sketches drawn.
"What do you think?" Huang He glanced at it and thought the drawing was quite nice, but he didn't understand, so he handed it to Qu Wei.
Xiao Yuan also looked at Qu Wei with anticipation, waiting for the Oriental Muse's evaluation.
Qu Wei took the notebook, looked at it for a few moments, and then nodded, "Not bad, you have some unique ideas!"
Then there were no further comments, which made Xiao Yuan a little disappointed. She was hoping for more comments from her idol.
"Muse, take a closer look. There are still many works in the back. Please look at them all and give more feedback!" Huang He urged from the side. Qu Wei had no choice but to read all the works in the notebook. Then she said, "I can see that your ideas are very good, especially this one. The idea is very bold! You have the talent to be a designer!"
"However, your fundamental skills are insufficient. All the lines are drawn casually, and this is just what you imagine in your mind, without considering the practicalities of production and wear!"
"If you truly want to become a designer in the future, I suggest you enroll in a professional art class. For fashion design, art is the most basic skill. Once you understand art, you will have the foundation to become a designer."
"Once your art skills are up to par, you can participate in the art examination and then apply to a professional fashion design college. You truly have talent, and if you continue on this path, you will be able to make a living.
"But you must work hard enough, you are still far from it!"
"Also, your art foundation must be solid. How about this, I'll introduce you to a teacher's art training class. She's my senior sister, her professional foundation is very solid, and she also teaches a lot of design knowledge while teaching art. The price is not expensive, around 200 per class, 10 classes a month, which is 2000 yuan! For my sake, I can even give you a discount, and over 1000 yuan should be enough!" Qu Wei actually said a lot and even proactively introduced a training class to Xiao Yuan.
Xiao Yuan listened and nodded repeatedly. When Qu Wei mentioned that she would enroll in a professional art class to study art, Xiao Yuan's expression fell by half.
In any era, art professional training classes were an expensive undertaking.
Ordinary families might grit their teeth and pay such a fee for their children, but for Xiao Yuan's family, her main goal now was to persuade her parents to let her finish junior high school without dropping out and continue her studies.
Asking her parents to pay over a thousand yuan a month for her to enroll in a professional art class was really too much to ask!
"Thank you, teacher!" Although she knew the training class was impossible, Xiao Yuan still bowed respectfully to Qu Wei and thanked her. After dinner, she went back to do her homework.
Leng Zhi Ting was also quickly roped into doing homework by her mother-in-law. Suddenly, only Huang He and Qu Wei were left at the dining table.
"How is this child?" Huang He asked.
"Which child are you talking about?" Qu Wei asked foolishly.
"Of course, it's Xiao Yuan!" Huang He said with a chuckle.
"She's alright!" Qu Wei nodded. "She's a pretty good kid."
"What about her talent for being a designer?" Huang He asked again.
"So-so. In fact, it's hard to see much talent yet, as she's still a novice, and what she produces is very basic. There's not much talent to be seen!" Qu Wei said.
"Didn't you praise her, saying some of her designs had unique features and ideas?" Huang He asked in confusion.
"There are plenty of fashion designers with unique features and ideas in the world. Look at the Paris Fashion Week every year; there are so many strange and distinctive clothes. But truly popular styles are few. This is because human aesthetics cannot accept too many strange things. The modern fashion design concepts that are popular are almost all used up. What's left is just playing with details."
"In fact, so-called fashion is just bringing out things from twenty or thirty years ago and making them retro. Fashion really doesn't have many new things."
"In fact, the reason I strongly promote the development of Hanfu is that there are too few points for the global fashion circle to leverage. The popular fashion styles are always the same. Instead, Hanfu has many ancient elements that are rarely mentioned in modern society. Incorporating them into fashion design can create astonishing freshness!"
"To be honest, when I was 10 years old, I had more ideas than this child. I could come up with over a dozen uniquely designed outfits in a day. She's still too young!"
"As of now, her talent is only average. Of course, after receiving systematic training, she might unleash more powerful hidden talents, but that's not something I can see now!" Qu Wei said truthfully.
"Is that so?" Huang He looked at the room where Xiao Yuan was, his gaze carrying an indescribable meaning.
"Wait, why are you so concerned about this young girl, Huang He? You pervert, you're not interested in a junior high school student who's only a little over ten years old, are you?" Qu Wei's expression changed drastically.
"What nonsense are you thinking? We're not interested in such skinny little girls!" Huang He rolled his eyes and said, "My meaning is, this Xiao Yuan might be the target we're looking for!"
"See, she has some talent for fashion design, is young, has a tragic background, and is related to the recently popular Fuyang milk powder, a victim of Fuyang milk powder. With these elements combined, if she were to participate in our designer selection, the buzz would be explosive!"
"If you eventually take her as your disciple and let her become a fashion designer for our Cai Wei... Tsk tsk, it would be a killer move!" Huang He's expression at this moment could only be described as drooling.