Xia Xiaolan made a special trip, and it wasn’t just about buying a car.
The mother and daughter flew from the capital to Yang City, while Li Fengmei came by train, arriving the next morning. By May, the South had already entered summer. The stores in both the capital and Commercial City needed to stock summer clothing. Luna has also launched this year’s summer collection. While spring was short, summer was long, lasting nearly five months from May to September, during which summer clothing would be sellable.
For Luna, the summer collection was their main focus.
There had been no progress with Wang Mingming, and Chen Xiliang had given up on persuading her. Basically, without being able to afford the advertising fees, there was no way to persuade Wang Mingming. These were Wang Mingming’s peak years – she could perform at the Spring Festival Gala and starred in TVB’s major dramas… The price to hire Wang Mingming for advertising was more than both Xia Xiaolan and Chen Xiliang could afford.
“If we can’t manage that, we’ll find actresses from the mainland. I’ve asked around – they don’t charge much for filming movies, and advertising takes even less time than filming!”
Chen Xiliang had done his homework.
Xia Xiaolan knew mainland actresses were cheaper. “Journey to the West” took five or six years to film, and the male actor who played Sun Wukong later revealed on a show that he only received 2,000 yuan for the entire role!
Regular TV dramas certainly didn’t take six years to film, and a female lead earning several hundred yuan was considered decent pay.
“The advertising shoot itself won’t be expensive, but broadcasting it on TV will be costly. Once the advertisement airs, can Luna’s management keep up with the pace of development?”
How expensive could filming an advertisement be? With 10,000 yuan, they could hire the best director currently available domestically. Xia Xiaolan didn’t need to worry about that – it would be enough to assemble the entire production team, from the female actor to the cameraman, and complete the final product!
Xia Xiaolan wasn’t concerned about continuing to invest in the company, but whether Chen Xiliang could manage the expanding business.
This wasn’t the fashion mogul Chen of the millennium, but Chen Xiliang who had just transformed from a wholesale trader to a fashion brand creator. The Chen Xiliang of ’85 was too young – young people had drive, but that also meant a lack of experience.
Chen Xiliang still needed to listen to Xia Xiaolan’s words.
After dampening Chen Xiliang’s enthusiasm, Xia Xiaolan quickly offered some encouragement:
“Let’s focus on making the summer collection successful first, then we’ll see how things go.”
The summer collection was already in production. Chen Xiliang took Xia Xiaolan to tour the factory and told her about what had happened earlier at the Luna store:
“It’s strange – when the Hong Kong company tried to bail them out, they were almost released, but then the police station changed their stance, saying they were illegal migrants. They’re still detained at the police station.”
Chen Xiliang took out the 2,000 yuan compensation that Ah Hua had given him.
Xia Xiaolan pushed it back to him, “You keep it.”
Chenyu’s workers had helped apprehend the people and take them to the police station – Chen Xiliang needed to show his gratitude, otherwise, who would help him in the future? Chen Xiliang had invested both effort and money; it wouldn’t be appropriate for Director Xia to accept this 2,000 yuan compensation.
Xia Xiaolan hadn’t known earlier about Xia Dajun cursing in the streets of Yang City; she only learned about it from Liu Fen after returning from Ji Bei Province.
Combined with Zhang Cui’s surveillance report, Xia Xiaolan felt she couldn’t tolerate it anymore, which was why she finally detonated the mine she had laid last year, determined to completely break free from the mess that was the Xia family. Ge Jian was also bold – although Xia Xiaolan had told him to leave early, he stayed in Commercial City waiting for the dust to settle, including observing Xia Dajun’s situation.
When told that Xia Dajun left with three nephews, Xia Xiaolan felt it was karmic justice. He had complained about her mother not bearing sons, and now he had picked up three half-grown children to raise, all from the Xia family lineage. Xia Dajun could raise them as his sons… It would be best if he invested all his energy in raising the children, saving everyone from his appearance in front of her and Liu Fen!
As for Ge Jian’s report that villagers had surrounded Xia Dajun, demanding he pay Xia Hongbing’s gambling debts, Xia Xiaolan was equally pleased to hear it.
Gamblers never quit – losing a few thousand, Xia Dajun immediately agreed to pay his brother’s debt. This time it was a few thousand, next time it might be tens of thousands. With such a large family to support, Xia Dajun’s monthly salary of two or three thousand wasn’t much at all.
Regarding Chen Xiliang’s questions, Xia Xiaolan had a clear understanding. Her mother hadn’t mentioned anything, but when she met Aunt Li Fengmei this morning, Li Fengmei mentioned meeting with Mayor Tang during her last trip to Yang City to pick up goods.
It must have been Tang Hongen working behind the scenes. With people like Xia Hongbing’s family, the treatment could be either strict or lenient. Even the Cheng Rong Group couldn’t bail them out – only Mayor Tang’s influence could exceed that of Hong Kong merchants.
Xia Xiaolan felt helpless about this.
Tang Hongen’s pursuit of her mother showed genuine sincerity.
The two couldn’t meet often, being in different parts of the country, but Tang Hongen was actively creating opportunities to spend time together.
When a man has nothing, his attentiveness to a woman doesn’t necessarily indicate true affection – he might simply have nothing else to offer except his time and effort to impress her.
But when a man of high position and authority still chooses to act this way, it’s hard to dismiss it as insincere.
His power was already his greatest advantage, yet he was willing to set that aside and still invest time and effort – that showed sincerity.
Unfortunately, as Grandmother Yu had said, her mother now wanted to evolve into a career-oriented woman. No matter how good Tang Hongen was, she wouldn’t consider romantic matters for now – Xia Xiaolan vaguely felt these words were familiar; wasn’t this exactly what she had told Zhou Cheng, prioritizing studies and career?
Yet she ended up dating Zhou Cheng anyway.
Thinking about it now still made Xia Xiaolan blush.
Love just happens naturally, regardless of any prior declarations.
“I hope Uncle Tang has that patience,” Xia Xiaolan muttered to herself.
While Liu Fen and Li Fengmei were busy selecting styles in Yang City, she needed to head to Peng City first.
With only two days over the weekend, Xia Xiaolan had more than one matter to handle.
Earlier in the year, Bai Zhenzhu had been arranging to open a branch store, and even Kang Wei’s car accident hadn’t delayed this. Kang Wei was still fixated on the business in Peng City, persistently trying to convince Xie Yun to let him come over, but Xie Yun hadn’t agreed yet.
Since Xia Xiaolan had finally made it here, she naturally wanted to see things for herself. Even if she could only take a quick look and offer some opinions, it showed her involvement in the business.
“Sister Bai, you’re working too hard!”
Arriving in Peng City, she found Bai Zhenzhu incredibly busy, managing both the old store’s business and the new store’s renovation. Shao Guangrong was currently absorbed in his studies, Kang Wei had suffered a head injury, Xia Xiaolan was in school, and Liu Yong could barely manage his own ‘Yuan Hui’ business. Among all the shareholders of the building materials store, Bai Zhenzhu was the only one managing things.
Seeing Bai Zhenzhu’s lips covered in dry skin, too busy even to stay hydrated, Xia Xiaolan felt quite apologetic.
But Bai Zhenzhu didn’t mind, “It’s good you’re here. What do you think of these blueprints? The new store has a different layout from the old one. I had Gong Yang modify it based on the original, maintaining the style while adjusting some parts.”
The new store’s renovation had already begun, with Liu Yong’s team doing the work, of course.
These design modifications were entirely Gong Yang’s work. After working with Liu Yong in renovation for a year, Gong Yang transitioned from part-time to full-time, and Xia Xiaolan could see his significant improvement.
Gong Yang had participated in his school’s internship but gave up the guaranteed job placement. Now he was Yuan Hui’s full-time designer, the first college graduate to work for Liu Yong!