"Miss Ye, one of these will be your wedding dress. Please choose one." The polite smile intact on her face, Lisa stood beside the rack, which stood taller than her.
In Vivian's eyes, the smile mocked her.
"Black wedding dresses?" Vivian angrily pointed at the row of black in front of her.
She noticed Lisa's professional attire, which was also black except for her white shirt.
Just like the two men beside her, Lisa was also in black.
There seemed to be a recurring theme in their outfits—a funeral theme.
She was going to get married, not on her way to becoming a widow!
It was one disappointment after the other. First, that absolutely glorious wedding dress was not designed for her. Then Lisa respectfully referred to Nina as John's wife. Finally, she was being made to select a black wedding dress for her wedding.
It was the last straw for Vivian. She glared at the three of them and asked belligerently, "What do you mean? Have you seen anybody get married wearing a black wedding dress?"
Her tone was heavy with rage and accusation, as if she would tear apart everyone inside the shop within the next second.
There were two people on the second floor—a man and a woman dressed respectively in a black suit and a black dress. They sat at table near the top landing of the stairs, all the while playing with their mobile phones with their heads down.
One of them had Richard on the other end of an ongoing call.
Lisa was unmoved by Vivian's accusation. "Miss Ye, there are many people who wear black wedding dresses to get married. To them, black represents loyalty. Faithful unto death. Sounds cool, right?"
Vivian could accept the concept—faithful unto death, but she couldn't accept black.
She didn't like black items, with the exception of shoes. She never wore black clothes, and her wardrobe almost exclusively white.
In her eyes, black was a symbol of evil, whereas white stood for purity. How could she wear black?
Cool?
Everyone said that she was a gentle and generous woman. She didn't want to be cool.
Vivian realized that her overreaction just now would leave a bad impression on them.
In order to maintain the elegant, gracious image she had cultivated, Vivian did her best to calm herself down. She took a couple of deep breaths and looked at the windows.
To Vivian's relief, nobody pulled up the curtains. She couldn't see outside, which meant that nobody could peek at what was going on inside the shop.
Thus, the person she hired would not be able to take "candid" photos of her.
If the woman happened to catch her pointing her fingers at the staff and the photos got circulated, her reputation would be damaged.
Anyway, John was not in attendance, so Vivian would rather not have the journalist take any photos at all.
Vivian turned around, her elegant, ladylike demeanor once again in place. With a friendly smile, she sweetly asked, "I really don't like black wedding dresses. Can I change it to white?
Besides, I don't think the designs of these dresses are any good." Vivian walked over to the rack to take a closer look. The designs were rather plain, and the material looked so rough that she didn't want to touch it for fear of getting scratched.
The gowns looked like mass-produced releases and were bedecked all over with ruffles and tucks, which were popular motifs these days. Upon closer inspection, the fabric appeared to be an ashy shade of gray instead of black, but it wasn't really noticeable.
Actually, the dresses cost time and money to produce and would undoubtedly sell out the moment they hit the racks.
It was just that, after Vivian had seen Starry River, the gowns just looked plain and shoddily made in comparison.
Besides, considering Vivian's abhorrence for black, she found herself particularly disgusted with this set of dresses.
"These gowns look like they were designed by an amateur. Can we look at other dresses?" Vivian's voice was dripping with disgust.
Lisa replied, "Yes, the gowns were designed by a rookie. Miss Ye, I'm sure you are aware that our in-house designer doesn't design wedding dresses."
"If they're not professionals in the field, then why should I let them design my wedding dress?" Suppressing her anger, Vivian tried to force her lips to form a smile.
"Mr. Shi specifically ordered this collection."
"John did?" All this was becoming more confusing for Vivian.
"Yes."
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