Having made money, Bai Zhenzhu was grateful to Xia Xiaolan.

If not for Xia Xiaolan pointing her in the right direction and initially investing startup capital, Bai Zhenzhu would still be managing her barely surviving fruit stand. Now wealthy, Boss Bai was very generous. She felt Xia Xiaolan had dissolved their partnership too early, taking only three thousand yuan and giving up a profitable venture. She felt both grateful and guilty.

This was Xia Xiaolan’s first time bringing her aunt to Yang City, and Bai Zhenzhu wanted to be a good host, treating them to a restaurant meal.

Small plates and bowls held measured portions of dim sum. Li Fengmei’s behavior wasn’t much better than Liu Fen’s. While Liu Fen was simply reserved, Li Fengmei felt nervous inside but tried to appear gracious, not wanting to embarrass her niece.

The generous Boss Bai had been a country bumpkin just two months ago. Even now in business, she didn’t care about dressing up, her style becoming increasingly masculine.

Bai Zhenzhu’s two senior apprentice brothers weren’t doing well either. Seeing their junior sister’s lavish ordering style, they worried she wouldn’t be able to pay the bill. After filling their stomachs, Xia Xiaolan finally had time to discuss business:

“Sister Bai, about those stockings I asked you to look out for before the New Year – did you manage to get any?”

Bai Zhenzhu glanced at Xia Xiaolan. The stockings came from Hong Kong, and while Hong Kong goods were always popular, few people had focused on such small items as stockings.

A pair cost just a few yuan and could easily snag, while how much did a pair of trousers cost?

Bai Zhenzhu didn’t think anyone would buy stockings.

But when she displayed them at the small commodities market, factory women workers came to buy them. Some female customers working in foreign-owned factories complained to Bai Zhenzhu in their high heels about how hard it was to find stockings in Peng City.

“It’s impolite to wear skirts with bare legs. All our female leaders wear stockings.”

Bai Zhenzhu raised the price from eight to ten yuan per pair, yet people still bought several pairs at once.

Had these women gone crazy?

Foreign factory wages were high, reportedly several hundred yuan per month, but their spending speed left Bai Zhenzhu dumbfounded. Spending thousands on large appliances wasn’t strange – good appliances could last over a decade. But ten yuan for stockings that would wear out after a few uses, no matter how careful one was with such thin material.

Xia Xiaolan was still watching her, so Bai Zhenzhu refocused and nodded:

“Yes, nearby fishermen know I’m collecting stockings and bring any they have to me. I’ve sold some but kept the bulk for you, about two hundred pairs… Can you take that many?”

Xia Xiaolan nodded, “I’ll take them all!”

How much profit could one make from stockings? The total price was fixed – at most a few yuan per pair.

Two hundred pairs meant nearly a thousand yuan in profit, an amount Xia Xiaolan hardly considered significant anymore. But she wasn’t after profit from stockings – she wanted to enhance Blue Phoenix’s status among Shang City’s women. Blue Phoenix always had the scarcest, most sought-after goods, selling clothing styles unavailable elsewhere in Shang City.

Having hit products like stockings that others couldn’t get, Blue Phoenix could obtain them. Whatever avant-garde clothing others dared not stock, Blue Phoenix would! The impression that it was better to visit Blue Phoenix than department stores for fashion would become deeply ingrained, making good business inevitable.

Bai Zhenzhu knew stockings were profitable. Two hundred pairs weren’t challenging to sell given her current business – if sold openly, she wouldn’t have enough to meet demand. But when Xia Xiaolan said she wanted the stockings, Bai Zhenzhu didn’t hesitate to reserve them for her.

She had many things about Peng City to tell Xia Xiaolan but felt seeing it personally would be better than describing it.

“Xiaolan, you should visit Peng City.”

The money-making speed at just one small market felt like a dream to Bai Zhenzhu. If Xia Xiaolan went to see it, she’d surely gain more insights than Bai Zhenzhu herself. Xia Xiaolan wanted to visit Peng City too but hadn’t decided if it would be this trip.

The clothing store’s dividend was 12,000 yuan. She’d used some of the money earned with Bai Zhenzhu, and the remainder might just be enough for a washing machine.

The store’s working capital had been set aside early, with over 20,000 yuan in inventory funds sufficient for turnover. Xia Xiaolan was considering what else to do with the dividends she’d already received.

But who would help her sell?

Should she let her uncle manage this business?

Xia Xiaolan had ideas but didn’t agree immediately, telling Bai Zhenzhu she’d think about it.

“First, I need to get clothes from Chen Xiliang. The Shang City store is almost out of stock. An empty store won’t make any money.”

Xia Xiaolan and Li Fengmei arrived in Yang City on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year. Though the clothing wholesale market wasn’t open, they knew where to find Chen Xiliang. Chen Xiliang lived in a small bungalow. As February was warming up, he had already obtained this year’s spring collection.

Xia Xiaolan was curious how he knew which styles to stock. Chen Xiliang pulled out several “Fashion” magazines, pointing to the cover model wearing a red bat-wing sleeve dress: “I think this style will be hot. Last year I saw Jiang Lili wearing a similar red dress on the ‘Popular Cinema’ cover. She was filming a new movie called ‘Red Dresses Popular on the Street’… I have a feeling red dresses will be trendy.”

Xia Xiaolan had completely forgotten about this.

She hadn’t worked in the fashion industry in her previous life and only had a general understanding of 1980s fashion developments.

But red dresses had indeed become popular. She remembered around 1985, her aunt bought a red dress. If it was popular in a small place like Yueyang by 1985, the trend must have started earlier.

Xia Xiaolan looked at Chen Xiliang with slight surprise.

No wonder Chen Xiliang would become a major fashion boss later. Unlike Xia Xiaolan who had the advantage of foreknowledge, Chen Xiliang had genuine sensitivity to fashion trends. Wholesale clothing vendors who stocked based on fashion magazines were rare now. Xia Xiaolan picked up the “Fashion” magazine – China’s first domestically founded fashion magazine, with considerable influence.

“You have quite a collection of fashion magazines. Do you have foreign and Hong Kong-Taiwan ones too? Give me all your fashion magazines, and I’ll give you an idea… You mentioned wanting to sell a batch of men’s wool coats – did you manage to?”

Chen Xiliang was skeptical.

“Sister Xia, don’t trick me! If your idea works, all these magazines are yours!”

He had many fashion magazines, bringing out over a hundred for Xia Xiaolan to see.

These were Chen Xiliang’s treasures. It was because he read so many fashion magazines that his stall’s clothes differed from other wholesalers’. With her future perspective, Xia Xiaolan most appreciated Chen Xiliang’s goods.

However, the unsold men’s wool coats were Chen Xiliang’s headache. Because of that inventory, he couldn’t even enjoy the New Year.

If Xia Xiaolan truly had an idea to sell those coats, how could Chen Xiliang begrudge some magazines? Although these magazines were collected through much effort, even in a place as open as Yang City they were hard to find… After all, he’d already read them, and Chen Xiliang remembered everything from the magazines.

Xia Xiaolan flipped through them briefly – these magazines would be good for cultivating fashion appreciation in her mother and aunt.

“You can find business opportunities from ‘Fashion’ magazine cover models, so why not work backward and let these fashion magazines help you sell clothes?”