Xia Xiaolan drove You Li back to where she had picked her up.

She hadn’t lied about the 200-yuan monthly job – she wouldn’t deceive You Li about something like that.

You Li was tall, had a good figure, and wasn’t bad-looking.

Except for being young, she seemed to have no real shortcomings.

Not yet seventeen – while that was a bit young for dating, it wasn’t too young for work. Some apprentices were that age, and hadn’t many of the young people sent to rural areas in recent years also been teenagers?

Every family had their difficulties, and Xia Xiaolan didn’t bother asking about You Li’s situation. Liu Fen was about to open her fourth and fifth branch stores and needed staff. Training another salesperson wouldn’t hurt, and You Li’s good looks would suit selling clothes.

When Yang Yonghong wanted to work part-time at the clothing store, Xia Xiaolan stopped her, believing it would waste her education.

With You Li, Xia Xiaolan had no such concerns.

Without skills or education, youth was her only asset – You Li would have to rely on her youth for now.

A stable job would be good enough, and Xia Xiaolan wasn’t exaggerating about the 200 yuan monthly salary – the best-performing store clerks earned even more. Xia Xiaolan had given You Li a salary target; whether she could earn it would depend on her efforts. The wage system didn’t consider seniority – all regular clerks had the same base salary, with bonuses based on performance. Nothing could be fairer!

“Am I doing a good deed without expecting anything in return?”

Xia Xiaolan hadn’t told Shao Guangrong, since he was already helping by running errands – before leaving, Zhou Cheng seemed to have asked him to arrange interviews with Chen Xiliang.

That evening, Xia Xiaolan saw the Beijing Evening News.

Under the byline “Reporter Liu Xuan,” there were two articles: “Early Winter Fashion Show on Wangfujing Street” and “Actor Zhang Xiao Donates Tens of Thousands in Advertisement Fees?”

Xia Xiaolan quickly scanned the first article.

The placement was good, but Liu Xuan’s writing was rather superficial.

“Did Ji Ya not pay enough writing fees?”

Xia Xiaolan couldn’t understand why the Evening News article by Liu Xuan was so dry. She found it hard to believe that a newspaper with such a large circulation would have reporters of this caliber.

However, the second article about Zhang Xiao’s donation was written with great emotion and was very moving.

“Could this Liu Xuan be Zhang Xiao’s fan? The bias is too obvious!”

Xia Xiaolan couldn’t understand Reporter Liu Xuan’s psychological shift, but this was good for Luna. Ji Ya must be quite upset after reading the evening paper. Xia Xiaolan had thought the reporters would combine both stories into one article, especially after Ji Ya’s PR efforts, and merely mention Zhang Xiao and Chen Xiliang’s statements in passing. The evening paper was a surprise – not only did it run a separate article, but the quality was excellent.

Xia Xiaolan even wondered if Ji Ya had written the wrong name on the envelope when giving out the writing fee!

Liu Xuan had also written about Chen Xiliang’s donation pledge, though since Chen Xiliang wasn’t a public figure, what if it was just casual talk?

Liu Xuan maintained a skeptical tone about Chen Xiliang’s statement of “donating 1 yuan for each piece of clothing sold.”

The reporter wanted to verify the facts before major coverage. Zhou Cheng had told Chen Xiliang not to accept interviews yet, so Chen Xiliang had stayed hidden in his hotel.

As Xia Xiaolan had guessed, Ji Ya’s side couldn’t ignore the evening paper with its significant circulation in Beijing!

Having paid for coverage, only to get an article inferior to the one about Zhang Xiao, Ji Ya was naturally angry:

“What’s going on with this Evening News reporter Liu?”

Had he agreed readily but been bought off by Xia Xiaolan’s side?

Wang Mingming and her manager Le Feng were also dissatisfied.

Hong Kong newspapers used vertical traditional characters, while mainland papers used horizontal simplified characters – the reading habit was torturous.

After struggling through both articles, Wang Mingming felt uncomfortable.

“This is deliberately targeting me!”

With the two articles placed together, how could people not compare?

Zhang Xiao had donated tens of thousands in fees, while Luna’s Chen Xiliang mentioned: “Hong Kong stars demanding 100,000 yuan fees.” Though Liu Xuan hadn’t criticized Elegance directly, the article deliberately emphasized that “Elegance invited Hong Kong star Ms. Wang Mingming to perform and shoot advertisements” – reading the articles together, anyone who wasn’t stupid would know the Hong Kong star demanding 100,000 yuan was Wang Mingming!

At any other time, Wang Mingming would have thanked Liu Xuan for promoting her worth.

But not this time!

Wang Mingming looked at Le Feng, hoping her manager could come up with a solution.

Le Feng gritted his teeth, “Mainland actors’ film fees are very low, I don’t believe Zhang Xiao would donate 10,000 yuan for students’ uniforms!”

Ten thousand yuan – even white-collar workers in Central Hong Kong would need to save for months. With mainland incomes so low, could Zhang Xiao even earn 1,000 yuan per film? Le Feng couldn’t believe she would donate such a large sum.

Le Feng suggested to Ji Ya again: “Could we send someone to interview Zhang Xiao? It would be great if we could prove she’s lying.”

Without destroying the opposition, Wang Mingming’s image seemed affected.

Seeing Ji Ya’s lack of interest, Le Feng thought quickly, “If Zhang Xiao’s donation is fake, then Luna’s Chen must be a fraud too. Businessmen all want to make money, who would willingly give it away!”

What kind of wealth did Hong Kong’s charitable tycoons have?

Even tycoons making one-time donations for good publicity – even the richest didn’t promise to donate per property sale. No one could predict the future, and once such a promise was made, they’d have to keep donating as long as the brand existed.

Ji Ya tossed the newspaper on the table:

“Mr. Le, don’t worry about such minor matters. You probably don’t understand Xia Xiaolan well enough – she wouldn’t leave such an obvious weakness for us to exploit.”

Ji Ya despised Xia Xiaolan and Liu Fen as shameless mothers and daughters who relied on men for advancement, always trying to climb the social ladder.

But she had to admit Xia Xiaolan had business acumen.

While Le Feng wanted to investigate the donations, Ji Ya suspected it was a trap, deliberately exposed to lure them in.

If they brought reporters to investigate and Zhang Xiao had donated the uniforms, wouldn’t that just give Luna more free publicity? Ji Ya wouldn’t fall for that.

Her priority now was to keep the newspapers from discussing Zhang Xiao and Luna further.

Elegance’s fashion show needed to dominate the coverage.

The Evening News reporter Liu Xuan had already made a mistake – this couldn’t happen with other papers tomorrow!

Right, Zhang Xiao was shooting advertisements for Luna – did this mean the ads were already done?

Ji Ya discovered the most pressing issue: Where would Luna’s advertisements be broadcast?

After all of Zhen Wenxiu’s help, Ji Ya had to see this through.

Though the fashion show wasn’t perfect, it had concluded successfully. Apart from the trouble with Zhang Xiao and Chen Xiliang, the VIP clients who had ordered clothes from Ji Ya’s studio seemed quite pleased.

They preferred Elegance’s style, and mass production would surely lower prices.

Zhen Wenxiu also grew concerned:

“They can’t move that fast, right? Surely they’re not sending the ads to Central TV! I’ll ask around for you.”