Chapter 61: A Masterpiece
Xu Tongtong looked at the dress in Su Xing’s hand. After a short while, she heaved a sigh of relief and chuckled. Then, she sneered, "Li Luo is my favorite designer. She has a habit of publishing photos of all the dresses that she designs throughout the year on her social media platforms. I follow all of them, but I’ve never seen this dress before!
"Besides, everyone who’s familiar with her knows that she’s well known for her lavish and extravagant designs. Look at this dress. Other than the three plastic diamonds on the collar, I can’t see any opulent elements on it."
After saying that, Xu Tongtong stared at the young girl that had praised Fu Zhi’s dress earlier on, causing the latter to bite her lower lip nervously. In the end, the young girl gave in to Xu Tongtong’s warning gaze and changed her opinion. "Well, after taking a closer look, I realized the texture of the fabric is rough, so I’m pretty sure it’s just something off the rack."
Xu Tongtong then looked at Fu Zhi disdainfully, "Whoever the designer is, they must be an amateur. They didn’t do their homework well and they did a bad job of copying Li Luo’s design. This kind of rubbish, which can’t even be considered a counterfeit, is worth only 9.9 yuan."
After saying that, she hurled Lu Chuwan’s dresses onto Fu Zhi’s vanity. "See? The difference between rubbish and a branded good is as clear as the sky. If you’re still not sure, then you probably should take a look at Wanwan’s closet. She’s got a good style sense."
A peculiar stagnant smell hung over the dresses, as they had been kept in a closet for too long. When Xu Tongtong flung those dresses on Fu Zhi’s vanity, the mold fluttered down and landed on her powder puff.
Fu Zhi turned her body sideways as she stared at Xu Tongtong. Her eyes were cold and almost cruel.
Xu Tongtong’s heart skipped a beat when she saw Fu Zhi’s expression. It took her a short while to come back to her senses and say, "The vision and minds of people from a small town are very different from those of people in the city. How can you treat rubbish like a world treasure?"
Lu Chuwan glanced across the light yellow dress with tear-filled eyes. Just as she started feeling a little better, someone from the crowd shouted, "Ah! I remember it... No wonder it looked so familiar to me. I visited a museum in China before, and there was this yellow waistcoat that looked almost identical to this dress!"
The girl who had spoken was Bai Miao. She glued her gaze on Fu Zhi’s dress as she added, "They look exactly the same, and both of them can glow under the light!"
Xu Tongtong frowned, "Are you mad? How can the dress of a country bumpkin like Fu Zhi be the same as an antique in a museum?"
Bai Miao ignored Xu Tongtong and picked up the card from the floor. After seeing the emblem logo of China Design Headquarters on the lower corner,
Spider silk was a natural fiber with very high elasticity, so it was a great material for making clothes and dresses.
However, the golden silk orb-weaver was on a whole different level.
The silk it produced was gold in color and had both great coloration and texture. However, since it was practically impossible to commercially breed the golden silk orb-weaver and this spider could only survive in the plateau region of China, it was not an easy task to collect its silk.
Take the golden waistcoat in China’s museum as an example. More than a million golden silk orb-weavers had been amassed, and it had taken four years to complete the waistcoat. It was the one and only textile in the world that was made with natural spider silk.
Therefore, Xu Tongtong felt like she had heard the funniest joke in the world when Bai Miao said Fu Zhi’s dress was the same as the waistcoat in the museum. "Did you take your medicine before you went out today, Bai Miao? How is there any possibility that a piece of art that our government put in a museum could fall into Fu Zhi’s hands? Do you think all of us are idiots?"
"That’s right. Even the Lu Family couldn’t afford such a priceless treasure, let alone Fu Zhi!"
"Have you gone out of your mind, Bai Yao? How could you simply say something like that to deceive us?"
"I inspected the golden waistcoat closely while I was in the museum. I’m very certain that it’s exactly the same as Fu Zhi’s dress!" Bai Miao was so exasperated that her face had turned red. "Besides, my father is an archeologist, so I’ve studied things like this before!"
Xu Tongtong glanced at Fu Zhi and sneered, "Studied what? Studied how to help Fu Zhi cover the fact that she bought an off-the-rack dress?"
Fu Zhi raised one of her eyebrows and said with a twinkle in her eyes, "What if everything Bai Miao said is the truth? What if this dress is the real deal?"
"That’s impossible!" Xu Tongtong replied without any hesitation. "Don’t ever think that your identity has changed just because you’ve become a member of the Lu Family. I guess you’ve never been to a museum before, right? If this dress is the real deal, I’ll get down on my knees and apologize to you today!"
Xu Tongtong loathed Fu Zhi’s holier-than-thou attitude a lot. It made her feel sick.
Fu Zhi sat under the light, and the silvery rays made her skin look even fairer.
After a few seconds, she said softly, "Remember what you said."
"Of course I won’t forget!" Xu Tongtong replied defiantly. After all, she was certain that even the Lu Family couldn’t afford a piece of art that was worth as much as a few cities.
Su Xing blinked her eyes in confusion and asked, "But how are we going to tell whether this dress is the real deal or not?"
"There’s a QR code here!" Bai Miao pointed at the card in her hand. "We’ll know where this dress comes from after we scan the QR code!"
There was an unreadable expression on Fu Zhi’s face. She glanced at Xu Tongtong and ordered simply, "You. Go and scan the QR Code."
"I’ll go! You think you can scare me?" Xu Tongtong said as she pulled out her phone to scan the QR code. Right now, she just wanted to crush Fu Zhi’s pride and avenge Lu Chuwan.
However, she was stunned after she scanned the QR code.
She stood there frozen for three minutes straight as sweat began to form beads on her forehead.
Everyone was looking at Xu Tongtong, as they were eager to know the result as well.
"What is it, Xu Tongtong? Is it real or fake?" Bai Miao nudged Xu Tongtong’s shoulder.
"No! How is this possible? It must be fake. It must be fake. She must have done something to the back-end data..."
Xu Tongtong stared in disbelief at the location of the consignor—Li Luo’s Studio.
Refusing to accept this fact, Xu Tongtong exited the page and scanned the QR code again. However, the result was the same. The consignor was Li Luo’s Studio, and the dress had the genuine emblem logo given to the studio by China.
"How can someone from a rural area like Fu Zhi be related to Li Luo’s Studio? I don’t believe it! This QR code must be fake!’ Xu Tongtong shouted with her eyes looking bloodshot.
Besides Xu Tongtong, a few other girls did not believe it either. Piqued by curiosity, some of them went forward and scanned the QR code with their phones too.
After they ascertained that the QR code was authentic, a commotion broke out across the crowd.
"Wow, so this dress was really designed by Li Luo’s Studio! It’s a limited-edition dress that’s connected to the Chinese Royal Family!"
"The depiction on the hemline and the diamonds on the collar obviously look better than the waistcoat in the museum!"
"And here I thought Lu Chuwan was generous. Now that I think of it, all her dresses are nothing. Even if she moves her entire closet here, none of her clothes could be compared to Fu Zhi’s dress!"
"Hmm... Do you think Fu Zhi would notice my intention if I sucked up to her now?"