“You want me to take her as my disciple?” Qu Wei asked, startled.
“Yes, look at the child, how pitiful she is, and how good her character is. Such a rare child, can you bear to see her drop out of junior high, then go to work, and finally marry any man, exchange a betrothal gift for her family, and her life is over like this?” Huang He said mournfully.
“Alright…” Qu Wei couldn’t stand this. Thinking that this child seemed pretty good, she nodded and said, “But if I take her as my disciple, will the selection still be held?”
“Yes, of course, it will be held! Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I don’t have the energy to take care of two disciples!” Qu Wei shook her head repeatedly. One disciple was already a handful, and now to take on another one would really be the death of her. She was only thirty this year, and she didn’t even have children yet, but she already had two disciples.
“I’m not asking you to take two, just one!” Huang He said with a slight smile.
“You mean, you want Xiao Yuan to participate in the selection as well… Isn’t that a predetermined outcome?” Qu Wei’s expression changed drastically.
“How can you call it predetermined? It’s just that Xiao Yuan’s work is more outstanding and closer to your liking!” Huang He said cheerfully. However, she also knew that Qu Wei’s personality was a bit stubborn, so she said, “How about this, during this period, you teach Xiao Yuan with all your might, let her compete, and as for whether or not to choose her as the champion in the end, it’s entirely up to you to decide.”
“At worst, we’ll just take two disciples. It’s not as terrible as you think. Those who can win the championship already have a very solid foundation, and their abilities can even reach the national top level. You only need to provide guidance on her design concept, and it won’t take up much of your time.”
“Xiao Yuan can be the second chief designer for Cai Wei. We’ll start cultivating her now… But you have to promise me to at least let Xiao Yuan advance to the finals. This way, the show will have heat, and the champion who defeats Xiao Yuan will also have heat!” Huang He said with a grin.
“Okay!” Qu Wei finally agreed.
That evening, Huang He called Xiao Yuan over and asked if she was willing to be Qu Wei’s disciple. Xiao Yuan was naturally very willing and immediately knelt down to kowtow to Qu Wei. Her mother-in-law also found a piece of cured meat for Xiao Yuan to give to Qu Wei.
In ancient understanding, this cured meat was called “Shu Xiu,” a gift from a disciple to a teacher when formally becoming a disciple, a proper ancient Chinese ritual.
Qu Wei naturally understood these things. Qu Wei was flustered and could only give one of her jewelry pieces as a return gift to Xiao Yuan. This time, the ritual of apprenticeship was complete, and Xiao Yuan was now Qu Wei’s beloved disciple in tradition.
However, what was unexpected was that this matter encountered trouble with Xiao Yuan’s parents.
After all, Xiao Yuan was only in her teens and a minor, requiring the consent of her guardian. So, they specially called her parents to explain the matter.
As a result, Xiao Yuan’s parents were strongly opposed. In their view, Xiao Yuan becoming a disciple was a very unprofitable matter, especially when they heard that it might take more than ten or even decades to learn, they were even more opposed.
After all, in two more years, Xiao Yuan would graduate from junior high, and the nine-year compulsory education would be completed. She could directly go out to work and earn money to subsidize the family.
Although, due to the outbreak of the incident and media attention, they had already received a promise of compensation of several hundred thousand yuan from the relevant authorities to save and treat their son.
However, according to the doctors, Xiao Yuan’s brother’s brain had suffered irreversible damage, and there was a high probability that he would be intellectually disabled or even suffer from cerebral palsy in the future. A few hundred thousand yuan was not enough, and there would be many places to spend money in the future. They were even more hopeful that Xiao Yuan would subsidize the family.
Therefore, they were unwilling to let Xiao Yuan become a disciple no matter what, even if Huang He said that Xiao Yuan would not have to pay any tuition fees after becoming a disciple, and that she would receive a salary every month after she started working as an adult. They still refused.
Upon hearing her parents’ attitude, Xiao Yuan was stunned, and tears flowed uncontrollably.
“Never mind, give me the phone!” Qu Wei suddenly said. Xiao Yuan dazedly handed the phone to Qu Wei, fearing that Qu Wei would say something like she didn’t want her as a disciple.
As a result, Qu Wei picked up the phone and said to Xiao Yuan’s parents on the other end, “This is Qu Wei, Fang Xiao Yuan’s master. Xiao Yuan is my disciple from today onwards. As long as she remains my disciple, I will give Xiao Yuan a monthly salary of 5,000 yuan, which Xiao Yuan will send to you.”
“If you agree, come and sign a guardianship and training entrustment agreement with our company. If you disagree, then so be it. After all, there are plenty of people in the world who want to be my disciples. You decide for yourselves!”
The result was as expected. In those days, Xiao Yuan’s parents worked hard, and their combined monthly salary was only a little over 3,000 yuan. Now their daughter would have a salary of 5,000 yuan a month. It would be strange if they refused.
Soon, they excitedly came over and signed a training entrustment agreement with Liushangqushui Cai Wei. This was an agreement designed by lawyers. Once the agreement was signed, unless Xiao Yuan was abused or made to work as a child laborer, or not allowed to receive education, her parents could not reclaim her guardianship. Otherwise, they would have to pay ten times the compensation for the company’s training of Xiao Yuan.
Frankly speaking, the investment by Liushangqushui Cai Wei to cultivate Xiao Yuan was definitely in the millions. After all, even a piece of high-grade fabric could be worth thousands of yuan, not to mention various professional training courses. Xiao Yuan’s parents couldn’t afford to compensate for this even if they sold everything they owned.
Similarly, this agreement would also restrict Fang Xiao Yuan from betraying in the future. If she betrayed the company, she would also have to bear the compensation for the training costs.
This was actually a very capitalist agreement, but Xiao Yuan and her parents signed it happily. After all, they had nothing now, so why worry about future compensation.
While Qu Wei was busy with these matters, Boss Huang suddenly received an invitation letter to a charity gala from the China Dairy Association.
The Fuyang milk powder incident had caused a very bad influence, not as terrifying as the incident in 2008, but it had also dealt a huge blow to the entire dairy industry.
In order to restore the reputation of the dairy industry, the Dairy Association planned to hold a charity gala, inviting various members of the Dairy Association to participate. At the gala, they would enthusiastically donate and establish a fund for the future medical treatment of the children who had been harmed.
Because this incident was exposed by Jiangnan Mall, which was a party related to the incident, it was unclear whether the Dairy Association was unwilling to pay out of their own pocket and wanted to drag Jiangnan Group into paying as well.
Or perhaps they simply invited Jiangnan Group to join in the fun, and thus sent an invitation to Jiangnan Group.
Although such a move might seem like a show and an attempt to win people's hearts, the fund could indeed help these harmed children, and Huang He was happy to see it happen.
Huang He did not oppose commercial charity; in fact, he strongly supported it. After all, the enterprise gained honor and reputation, and the unfortunate received help. This was a mutually beneficial matter and should be strongly advocated.
Therefore, Huang He did not hesitate too much and readily agreed, even planning to attend the charity gala himself.
However, what Boss Huang did not expect was that when he arrived at the venue of the charity gala at the appointed time, he found an acquaintance at the entrance!
“Brother Huang He, what a coincidence!” Vivian said in very fluent Chinese.
“Vivian? You were also invited to the charity gala?” Huang He asked curiously. He really did not expect to see Vivian here.
How could a charity gala hosted by the China Dairy Association invite Vivian, a student?
Could it be that they were attracted by Vivian’s princess status, but that seemed a bit out of place!
“No, I wasn’t invited. I’m here on behalf of the students from my academy to watch the graduation show of my senior brothers and sisters!” Vivian said with a smile.
“Graduation show? What’s going on?” Huang He was taken aback. He only knew that it was a charity gala and thought it was just a regular banquet with some celebrities singing and people donating money.
He had not specifically asked anyone to pay attention to the details of this gala before, but he did not expect it to be related to some graduation show.
“You don’t know? The theme of this charity gala is the graduation show of our Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts!” Vivian said cheerfully.
It turned out that the president of the China Dairy Association was a graduate of Tsinghua University, and Vivian was an international student from Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts, so she was his senior.
The full name of Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts is Tsinghua University Academy of Arts and Design, formerly the Central Academy of Arts and Design, which was merged into Tsinghua University in 1999, becoming the new Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts.
This means that it had only been 4 years since the establishment of the Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts.
And 4 years is the time from a freshman’s admission to graduation. Therefore, the students graduating from Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts this year were the first batch of students fully trained by Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts.
Therefore, many graduation-related activities were being held on a grand scale to showcase the academy’s teaching achievements.
However, although the Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts had many majors, there were not many projects that were capable of holding lively and influential events. Among them, the most well-known was the annual graduation show held by the Fashion and Apparel Design major of Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts.
The so-called graduation show was actually a large-scale, professional runway show where all graduates presented several of their most outstanding graduation works.
As this was an important occasion to evaluate four years of learning, and also the first professional runway show for most designers in their lives, it was very important for all graduates of the Fashion and Apparel Design major. They would put in 120% effort to organize this runway show.
At the same time, such graduation shows would be very exciting, and beautiful models were always something that the public enjoyed. Thus, it had gradually become the most influential event of the Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts.
Coincidentally, the timing of the charity gala hosted by the Dairy Association coincided with the graduation show. So, this senior alumnus and the school hit it off and held the charity gala and the graduation show together. The Dairy Association and Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts jointly sponsored the graduation show, and all the donations and income from the show were used to establish the charity fund for this event, achieving two goals with one action.