This morning was a bit easier to deal with, so getting up and getting ready for work wasn’t an issue. Ironically, the only thing that slowed me down was some daydreaming of having suits made. While my parents were as bad as some parents I had come across, mine wanted me to succeed and dress the part. As a result, I wore button down shirts and other “child-friendly” formal wear growing up, even before I was a teenager. But one time, around the time I was ten, my parents brought me to a wedding, where I was deemed old enough to warrant wearing a suit. Like any Chinese family, our face, although at the time they only said it in terms respect and dignity, was important and my Mom demanded I wear one, even though my American Dad believed a button down would work just fine. Nonetheless, this cute Mingzie showed up to that wedding in a suit. Looking like the stunner I was, all the ladies couldn’t keep their hands off of me. By ladies, I mean the old ladies couldn’t stop pinching my cheeks and calling me adorable, but a man has to have dreams.

Anyway, that wedding still instilled in me a kernel of a desire to have a suit growing up. While I definitely was able to fulfill that desire, having a suit to me was an important fashion choice when it came to formal wear. My parents had even hinted at getting me a really good suit for me when I would’ve graduated college, that’s how important it was for my pride and practical purposes. So when I finally came across some options for conceivably getting some tailor-made, with money to spare, I would jump on it. With this strong desire, and opportunity for having suits, I may have spent a little while in the shower thinking about what I would want my suits to look like, and you can’t blame me either. How else am I, Young Master Mingzie, supposed to get a wife to have all those babies my mother wanted me to have. It is familial duty, I swear!

In the end, I narrowed it down to three main suits, two using the more traditional single breast suit style used in most work suits, as I planned on using these for work, and single double breasted suit. The last style was a more luxurious looking style that I had often seen those rich Europeans wear, so of course I had to have one. What I would differ between the first two suits, is one would have a notch lapel, while the other would have a peak lapel. The notch lapel would allow me wear this suit pretty much any wear formal, while the peak lapel would make the suit for more prestigious or formal events, allowing me to show off a bit more at work. Lastly, my European style suit would have a shawl lapel, making it the supreme style for looking like a true Young Master.

Despite my long series of shower thoughts, I still managed to get ready for work on time, getting down there five or so minutes early as usual. Work progressed much like yesterday, my work rhythm having settled in and making the work fly by. The only difference from yesterday was that the one project that was seemingly like it may be trouble reared its head a bit today. Nothing truly serious, as it was just some clerical issues with what was written not matching some previous submissions. This was easily fixed, and within an hour the corrected forms and documents made their way back to my desk. What was surprising was how quickly they were fixed. Usually these corrections took a couple hours, as whoever needed to correct things at the location wouldn’t drop their work to get it done, but this time it looked like they were either expecting the correction, or whatever approval this form would’ve given them was acting as a the final piece needed to continue their work. As a result, my work was easily finished by the time I needed to leave. Before leaving, I penned a quick little message to my Head Lead about my suspicions about this one project, making sure the Head Secretary saw it first, so anyone who may come in need to be aware of it has seen it.

With everything settled for work, I manage to leave a half hour early so I can get ahead of the general lunch rush. I get back to my room, having ordered some simple food to eat. I relax in my room while I eat, brushing my teeth after eating, as I have plans to commission those suits. After I have gotten myself looking good again, I find my guards waiting outside my room. From here, we set on out, and begin our trek through the various corridors of the Branch compound.

We walk at fairly casual pace, as I don’t want people to notice how eager I am about clothes, that is not very “Young Masterly” of me, right? We do the generic “window shopping” and looking at the street wares. Duanlu kept pestering me to look at jewelry, saying maybe a young lady will catch my interest and I should be prepared, but that’s what I’m already trying to do. A good suit makes the man, my father always said to me growing up, and now these suits I’m commissioning will make all the ladies flock to me. I check through the first two stores Baoli mentions, and when they hear of the designs I’m picturing, along with the very rough sketches I drew, they both reject the commissions, saying something along the lines of the idea is too “off the wall” for them, as well as they usually come with more specific demands and specific details, making it a hard project for them anyway. The forces my to take in the third option, Pianxin’s Apparel, the so called weird and eccentric clothes designer.

After a while, we managed to find the shop, not quite in the “bad” part of the town, but certainly off the main path of the market district. When we get here, I am pleasantly surprised at the storefront, and believe that this store might be the place I need.