A Promising Youth

Chapter 12 General Grey

I really didn't expect Director Lau to be so knowledgeable that he recognized the color right away.

But I didn't know how to answer him. Before leaving prison, Master told me never to reveal my

relationship with these people in prison.

After all, most of my teachers were special prisoner inmates. No one knew whom they had offended

before. If others knew that I was a disciple of these people, there was a possibility that they might bring

me trouble or even revenge.

Seeing that I was silent, Director Lau asked again.

“Young man, what is your relationship with the Stone Family? Do you have the technique of dyeing

cloth of ‘Mermaid'?”

“No, I don't know the Stone Family, much less ‘mermaids’.”

Taking a deep breath, I tried my best to hide it.

“Director Lau, since no one can dye this cloth, the Blue Butterfly's design is a deceptive decoration.

Please make the decision at once. Everyone is still busy!”

Carrie hugged her arms, urging.

But Director Lau shook his head, took a deep breath and said.

“This cloth is called ‘General Grey’. There was a brand that really dyed it. I had the pleasure of seeing it

once when I was a boy, and it was beautiful! No, we can't use ‘beautiful’ to describe it. If we can wear

this kind of fabric in this summit, it can definitely give investors a shock, and may even take back the

name ‘Textile City’!”

Hearing this, the pretty girl immediately looked at me with bright eyes, while Carrie, who was on the

opposite side, mocked with a crooked nose.

“What is ‘General Grey’, ‘Mermaid’? Why haven't I heard of it?”

“You youngsters of course have never heard of it, because this brand disappeared decades ago.”

When he finished, he let out a long sigh and looked at me again with great regret.

“You really don’t know the Stone Family?”

“No.”

I shook my head decisively.

“Well then, time is running out, and I'll have to give the bidding to JL Company.”

I immediately interrupted him.

“Why?”

Is our Blue Butterfly's design inferior to JL Company?”

Director Lau shook his head and laughed lightly.

“This foreign man is right. If you can't dye this kind of cloth, no matter how good you design is, it's just

for show.”

“Who says we can't dye this kind of cloth? Director Lau, although I don't know anything about 'General

Grey', I can definitely get the color of this fabric!”

Lifting my head, I looked at him with immense confidence.

“How old are you, young man? 23? Don't brag so much It's not like no one has ever tried it in all the

textile mills in R City, and those experienced workers who have been immersed in the dyeing and

weaving industry for years had never able to make it.”

I turned my head to look at the pretty girl. Her excited eyes instantly dimmed so much. Looking at her

despondent look, for some reason, I felt pain in heart. ‘Girl, you saved my life, how could I let you

down?’

Tilting my head back, I said firmly.

“Director Lau, we have no proof. I hope you can give me half an hour. I'll take this ‘General Grey’ of

fabric to you!” Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“So, you can dye? Can I have a look?”

Having said that, he felt wrong and said, “Don't get me wrong. There is confidential technology involved

and I would never peek at it.”

“Ok.”

I nodded. I could see that Director Lau had some relations with Clara, and he was not bad. Most

importantly, let ting them on the site increased the persuasive power, lest Carrie slandered us that the

cloth was from elsewhere.

Afterwards, Clara took me as well as several leaders to the dyeing and weaving workshop. Other

representatives of enterprises involved in the bid naturally did not follow, after all, they were all in the

same industry. Dyeing and weaving technology was the lifeblood of the enterprise, so they were not

allowed to visit. Beside if they saw it on the site, they could not get it.

The dyeing and weaving workshop, because the factory could not pay wages, had long been stopped

running. Clara called several works to bring dye and open the dye tank.

Honestly, it was hard for a factory owner to beg employees to work.

It was good that everything was ready. Before the dyeing, Clara came up to me, looked at me and

asked.

“You... you can really do this, huh?”

I stifled my laughter in excitement. This silly girl had not recognized me by now.

Maybe, she was a goddess in my heart and my savior, but I was probably just a very ordinary poor boy

in her heart back then. It was normal that she couldn't remember me.

“What're you laughing at?”

She pouted, looked at me with suspicion, and whispered again.

“I asked just now, the company has not hired a designer, so who the hell are you?”

“Young man, stop chatting and get to work!”

Director Lau and a few others who were accompanying him could not wait any more.

I didn't answer the pretty girl's question, holding a smile at the corner of my mouth. I felt happy to be so

close to her and to be able to talk to her!

So this time, no matter what, I was going to help her out, just as she helped me and encouraged me.

There were in total 8 dye tanks with warm water in them. I put on my gloves and added a single color to

my hand, watching intently as the colors changed.

Director Lau couldn't help but ask curiously.

“Matteo, what are you doing? Why do you need to mix 8 colors?”

As I went about my business, I said.

“Director Lau, do you know why, so many people have tried, but no one has ever been able to dye

‘General Grey’?”

“Why?”

He immediately had curiosity.

“Because with normal cloth dyeing, the basic tone dyes are used, and with the materials used to dye

the General's Grey, all of them are transitional colors, and there's a mix of eight transitional colors.”

Director Lau froze.

“No way. How do you go about capturing the color difference with 8 transitional colors? It's too difficult

for the average person to control!”

I just laughed and didn't say anything. He was right, color difference was hard to grasp the accuracy

with naked eye, but the real key technique was not about the color difference.

Turning back to Clara, I smiled at her and said.

“Miss Clara, find a piece of 80% woolen fabric, one foot is enough.”

When I finished, I looked at Director Lau again and said.

“Well, would you guys mind stepping back for a moment?”

Although their eyes were still shocked, they were too embarrassed to continue watching when key

technology was involved.

Only after they left did I start pouring the mixed dyes into the dye tank in sequence.

As I said earlier, the color difference was not the key. It didn't matter if there were some shifts. The

most important thing was the “order”. If the 8 dyes were added in the wrong order, God would not be

able to dye ‘General Grey’.

The dye went into the pool. Clara took the fabric to me.

Turning back to the machine, I looked at the thermometer and said to the worker.

“Rise the temperature and heat.”

It had heated up, and with the temperature just reaching 51.3 degrees, I hurriedly shouted.

“Stop. Just keep it at that temperature!”

After that, I quickly put down the cloth, added various auxiliaries, and then began to dye. To be honest,

it was also my first time dyeing cloth. Although the method and process were correct, I was still more or

less unsure.

Twenty minutes later, after the foot-long piece of cloth was fished out of the wash tank and dried, I

breathed a long sigh of relief.

“Miss Clara, it's done!”

She froze, pointing incredulously at the cloth and asking.

“Is this what you call ‘General Grey’? Why is it yellow, like a diaper? Matteo, are you helping me, or are

you trying to screw me?!”