Luna’s earnings from last year couldn’t be used for dividends.

Xia Xiaolan was stretched thin and could only send Chen Xiliang to Hong Kong to discuss the TV series matters.

Yu Shihua’s urgency was justified, as Xia Xiaolan indeed had a great interest in the Hong Kong market. On the mainland, after the TV series aired, many people waved money around wanting to join Luna’s franchise. After discussing with Chen Xiliang, neither believed that unlimited expansion of Luna franchise stores was beneficial. Although the Reform and Opening Up had entered its ninth year, many cities remained unchanged.

How many consumers could those small places sustain?

Opening a Luna store in every city would bring in plenty of franchise fees, but if franchisees couldn’t recover their investment, it would damage Luna’s brand and harm its long-term development.

After discussions, Xia Xiaolan and Chen Xiliang decided it was best to temporarily limit Luna’s total franchise stores to 150.

Another advantage of making TV series was that once advertisements aired, they aired. You’d need to buy new time slots from TV stations.

If the TV series was good, stations would rerun it themselves!

Maybe not on Central Television, but provincial station reruns were also good.

This series was tailor-made for Luna, and its advertising effect would be lasting.

First, they needed to establish those 150 franchise stores well; future business would follow naturally.

The excess advertising effect could only be directed towards mainland peripherals, and bringing the series to Hong Kong was a test of that market.

A women’s clothing brand popular on the mainland might not adapt well to Hong Kong.

Any business expands through gradual exploration.

If they encountered setbacks in Hong Kong, it would be a valuable experience for both Chen Xiliang and Xia Xiaolan to reflect upon; even failure wouldn’t be a total loss.

For Luna, Xia Xiaolan could only manage the broad direction. She couldn’t go to Hong Kong personally because she had other matters to handle in Shenzhen—while she had caught Yu Shihua off guard in women’s wear, Wenquxing had met its match in electronic dictionaries.

It couldn’t be helped; Wenquxing had developed too smoothly.

Since February last year, after Wenquxing’s advertisements aired, it had boarded a high-speed development train.

In one year, from last year until now, Wenquxing has sold nearly 200,000 units through Xinhua Bookstore channels!

Xia Xiaolan hadn’t seen much cash return, as profits went into expanding production capacity.

But these terrifying sales figures revealed this untapped market to others.

Before the new year, a Hong Kong company had launched its electronic dictionary named ‘Quick Translator’, directly competing with ‘Wenquxing’… Xu Jing couldn’t underestimate this. Though capable, he was working alone. After discussing with Ma Hai, they decided to occupy the market faster while ensuring new product development speed.

Since ‘Wenquxing’ was China’s first electronic dictionary maker, they needed to maintain their leading position as industry frontrunners and not be technologically overtaken by latecomers—

“This requires substantial R&D funding.”

Xia Xiaolan gave this answer after reviewing their plans.

Xu Jing was uncertain, “Director Xia, I know this will affect your short-term returns, but it’s beneficial long-term!”

Xia Xiaolan nodded, “I’m not opposing that point. My question is, with such a large R&D investment, are you satisfied just making electronic dictionaries? Think carefully, electronic dictionary technology has few barriers. ‘Quick Translator’ won’t be the only competitor. When everyone rushes in for this piece of cake, where will Wenquxing go?”

“Yes, it’s not just Hong Kong companies; even domestic factories want to start this project.”

Ma Hai worried.

Initially, he and Xu Jing had struggled to work around foreign patent technology.

Domestic projects wouldn’t care about patents. If they couldn’t get foreign ones, they’d just disassemble ‘Wenquxing’ to study it.

Neither Xu Jing nor Ma Hai had solutions, and even Xia Xiaolan could only watch helplessly.

Xia Xiaolan had no objections to last year’s financial report or to Xu and Ma investing most profits into R&D, but whether they could only produce electronic dictionaries was for them to figure out.

In Xia Xiaolan’s view, with sufficient technical reserves, they could produce anything.

Why be satisfied just selling electronic dictionaries?

Wasn’t Lenovo started by selling assembled computers? Even without their technology, they built a brand through assembly alone.

From electronic dictionaries to computers, then to phones, Xu Jing and Ma Hai had endless possibilities.

If they “died” during their entrepreneurial journey, Xia Xiaolan would have to dig through her memory bank to see when to invest in other industry leaders… but she didn’t have such thoughts yet. Those opportunities depended on timing; if she happened to meet them, she wouldn’t mind investing in future leaders.

But asking her to carry money to be these future leaders’ followers? Sorry, the current Xia Xiaolan couldn’t lower herself to that level—even a pig could fly in the right wind, and she now had some foundation. Why wait for others to lead her to wealth?

Xia Xiaolan quickly arranged for You Li to accompany Tang Youru to Hong Kong.

In Beijing, Shi Surong’s case had reached its conclusion.

Selling Tang Youru alone wouldn’t have earned Shi Surong many years. Tang Hongen didn’t plan to be gentlemanly with Shi Surong. Some of the evil deeds Shi Surong and Tang Xianzhong had done in Yunan could be investigated, enough to make Shi Surong suffer… Shi Surong was already over 50 this year. With a 15-year sentence, if the Shi family didn’t have longevity genes, she would likely die in prison.

Xia Xiaolan heard from Liu Fen that Tang Chunlei desperately tried contacting Tang Hongen, and Tang Ruojia had written many letters to him.

Tang Hongen ignored all of Tang Chunlei’s calls, which Secretary Lai intercepted.

Tang Ruojia’s letters were burned without even being read by Tang Hongen.

Tang Ruojia was truly unlucky. She had originally planned to repair relations with her second uncle before the college entrance exam, hoping for Tang Hongen’s help during the exam.

Unexpectedly, not only did she fail to repair relations, but such “old grudges” were uncovered. Given Tang Ruojia’s resilience, her mindset for facing the college entrance exam had likely collapsed.

Xia Xiaolan naturally felt no sympathy.

Was Tang Ruojia innocent?

Protected by Shi Surong and Tang Xianzhong, although born in the countryside, Tang Ruojia grew up in the city and never experienced hardship.

Tang Hongen hadn’t taken revenge; he just ignored her, preventing her unrealistic expectations from being fulfilled… Comparatively, Little You had suffered more. The evil done by Shi Surong and Tang Xianzhong caused Tang Youru’s lifetime tragedy!

As for moving Tang Xianzhong’s grave, Tang Chunlei considered it and decided not to trouble Tang Hongen, handling it himself.

Reportedly, when Shi Surong learned that Tang Youru had been found, she became hysterical. Xia Xiaolan felt this evil woman must continue living. Having ruined Tang Youru’s entire life, she should spend her remaining days in prison occasionally hearing “good news”—Little You would live better than Shi Surong’s children, Xia Xiaolan was confident of that!

Xia Xiaolan was heading to Hainan Island. Before departing, Bai Zhenzhu came to her:

“Xiaolan, can I go with you? I need to lay low for a while!”

—What was she laying low from? Had Bai Zhenzhu done something illegal?!