Newlyweds who’ve just had their first taste of marriage naturally want to spend a few sweet days together, and those with any sense know not to disturb them, letting them enjoy their privacy.
Liu Fen worried about her daughter, and Kong Huie worried about her son – mothers’ love for their children is more delicate than fathers’.
Even so, neither suggested that Xiaolan and Zhou Cheng should live with their parents after marriage—living with the husband’s parents wouldn’t be appropriate, nor would living with the wife’s parents, so they simply let the newlyweds build their own nest!
The courtyard Zhou Cheng had asked Liu Yong to help prepare was very close to Shichahai. Liu Fen considered whether she should stay in Beijing a bit longer, making it convenient for her daughter and son-in-law to come home for meals.
Tang Hong’en was quite wistful:
“Afen, I don’t have many days left of vacation.”
“Hmm?”
So then.
So aren’t you coming back to Pengcheng with me?
Ever since Xia Xiaolan graduated early from Huaqing and no longer needed to stay in Beijing for school, Liu Fen has been spending more and more time in Pengcheng. The several ‘Blue Phoenix’ stores in Beijing were all running smoothly; she only needed to check the accounts once every two weeks.
Flying back and forth didn’t waste much time.
Before there was Grandmother Yu, but now Grandmother Yu was in America accompanying her granddaughter, so Liu Fen spent more and more time with Tang Hong’en.
Old Tang, who used to accept their semi-separated state, now particularly couldn’t stand being apart from his wife for long periods.
But Liu Fen hadn’t married him to become a housewife.
Since she would be based in Pengcheng, Liu Fen also planned to expand her business there.
Previously, Li Fengmei had opened a Luna store in Pengcheng, but later, because of the Li family matters, Liu Yong had Li Fengmei participate in ‘Yuan Hui’s’ management. Li Fengmei wasn’t highly educated and found managing company accounts difficult, but unwilling to lose face as the boss’s wife by admitting she didn’t know how she dove in to learn from scratch.
Naturally, she had little time to manage her Luna franchise store.
Although Luna had a unified supply from headquarters, different locations still needed the franchise owners to manage them according to local conditions.
China’s territory was so vast that, the north and south had different aesthetics aside, even the climate varied greatly.
Luna was famous for its down jackets, which were lighter than the previous duck down coats.
But thinking down jackets would sell well and blindly requesting stock from headquarters to Pengcheng would be foolish—how many days a year could you wear down jackets in Pengcheng’s weather?!
With Li Fengmei’s divided attention, the Luna store in Pengcheng naturally had mediocre business.
But Liu Fen hadn’t considered taking over the Luna store from Li Fengmei.
Relatives shouldn’t have too deep economic ties. At first, everyone helps each other get started, but once developed to a certain scale, they should have their own paths. Xia Xiaolan had always operated this way, so she never had conflicts with Liu Yong’s side, never damaging family relationships.
Having partnerships with others didn’t matter, worst case you could just dissolve the partnership.
But having conflicts in a partnership with relatives meant not just dissolving the business, but both families harboring resentment, possibly never speaking to each other again.
Liu Fen couldn’t bear to have conflicts with Liu Yong. Whether Sister-in-law Li Fengmei’s business did well or not was her own choice; since they’d already separated, what right did she have to interfere?
Moreover, would doing business in Pengcheng affect Old Tang?
Liu Fen considered this as well.
Her business wasn’t large, but it still required her to be in the public eye.
Liu Fen thought, why not choose Yangcheng instead?
Speaking of business, she was most familiar with clothing. Men’s wear, women’s wear, and children’s wear were all within ‘Blue Phoenix’s’ business scope, but would she still open retail stores in Yangcheng?
Because Xia Xiaolan had been busy in Hong Kong for several months, Liu Fen hadn’t formally discussed it with her daughter, but she didn’t plan to do retail in Yangcheng.
She wanted to switch to wholesale.
Originally, Beijing’s ‘Blue Phoenix’ stores also got their stock from Yangcheng.
Because Yangcheng had many supply sources, and was close to Hong Kong, had many Hong Kong-style products.
Chen Xiliang had built up the Luna brand but still hadn’t completely let go of the wholesale business, which earned him quite a bit each year.
Liu Fen had this plan and discussed it with Tang Hong’en, but he didn’t quite agree:
“It’s too tiring!”
Was retail tiring?
If ‘Blue Phoenix’ didn’t have Xia Xiaolan’s training and standardized management system, those few stores would have taken up all of Liu Fen’s time—retail was tiring.
But wholesale was even more tiring!
Tang Hong’en had gone to wholesale markets with Liu Fen several times; those stall owners had to mind their stalls all day, so busy they couldn’t even take a sip of water.
Chen Xiliang could hand it over to others because he was among the first batch of individual clothing wholesalers in Yangcheng. He might be a small businessman compared to Tang Hong’en, but Old Chen had a voice in Yangcheng’s clothing wholesale circle… Even so, as Chen Xiliang’s focus shifted towards Luna, profits from clothing wholesale decreased.
Without proper management, any business would be the same.
Just like White Zhenzhu’s previous stalls at People’s Bridge Small Commodities Market—after handing them over to Master Wan and others to operate, they didn’t earn as much as when White Zhenzhu managed them herself. White Zhenzhu now had shares in a building materials store, her brick factory, and had opened a cement factory, long since completely abandoning these small businesses to others, having bigger business to do, not worth wasting that energy.
Liu Fen’s situation was similar. Having finally gotten on track, Liu Fen was turning back to do more exhausting clothing wholesale. Tang Hong’en felt the effort spent wouldn’t be worth the returns!
Of course, while Old Tang understood the broader economic environment better when it came to specific business operations, he wasn’t as good as Xia Xiaolan.
Seeing Liu Fen troubled over this, Tang Hong’en cleared his throat:
“Well, let’s invite Xiaolan and Zhou Cheng home for dinner, you can discuss it with Xiaolan then.”
Wasn’t she just missing her daughter?
What a perfect excuse.
Liu Fen was indeed very happy.
When the madam was happy, Tang Hong’en was happy.
But they didn’t end up having that meal.
Liu Fen received a phone call.
The call was for Tang Hong’en, from someone claiming to be Tang Hong’en’s elder sister-in-law, asking Tang Hong’en to return to his hometown.
When Tang Hong’en married Liu Fen, not a single relative from his hometown came, and he never mentioned his hometown relatives, basically maintaining a state of disconnection.
Liu Fen only knew that her father-in-law and mother-in-law had passed away; she knew nothing about any other relatives from his hometown.
Receiving this call, she finally learned definitely that Tang Hong’en had a sister-in-law.
A sister-in-law doesn’t appear from nowhere, so he must have a brother.
Liu Fen felt very embarrassed. Tang Hong’en had accompanied her to sweep the tombs of the Liu elders, but she had never accompanied Old Tang back to his hometown. Although Old Tang had never brought it up, as Tang Hong’en’s wife, wasn’t she too inadequate?
Liu Fen, with three parts caution and seven parts embarrassment, addressed her as Sister-in-law.
Tang Hong’en’s sister-in-law’s attitude was cold, with an indescribable arrogance:
“Tell him to come back quickly, he can still make it to see his brother off one last time. The Tang family having such a high official, truly the ancestral graves must be smoking!”
The sister-in-law’s tone wasn’t good.
Liu Fen’s heart tightened as she held the phone.
See him off one last time?!
Tang Hong’en returned from buying groceries, “Afen, who called?”
The phone receiver transmitted a busy signal, and Liu Fen steadied herself, “…A woman, claiming to be your sister-in-law, wants you to return home, to see your elder brother off one last time.”
Liu Fen looked worriedly at Tang Hong’en. Her first contact with her husband’s family turned out to be such bad news.