Xia Xiao Lan knew that in later years, wholesale clothing dealers would consider style exchanges trivial—wholesalers could even return unsold styles directly to manufacturers. Of course, retailers had less favorable terms; they could only exchange seasonal clothing—spring styles for spring styles, summer for summer, and so on.
However, in the 1980s, clothing was scarce. Individual vendors were lucky just to get the latest styles, let alone think about exchanging them. Having a fixed wholesale stall was a luxury; some wholesale dealers operated as one-time sellers—you might not even find them the next time you came. Who would exchange styles then?
Xia Xiao Lan had managed to warm Chen Xi Liang’s heart. As the saying goes, there’s no business without cunning, and Chen Xi Liang pioneered a new practice among clothing wholesalers.
How could Xia Xiao Lan refuse such a good offer?
Although she had nothing to exchange this time, there was no guarantee that every style she picked would be popular—especially when Li Feng Mei and Liu Fen started selecting merchandise, mistakes were bound to happen. Chen Xi Liang’s offer to exchange styles was an enormous help to Xia Xiao Lan.
“I don’t need to exchange anything this time—the spring styles are selling well. I’ll trouble you another time.”
Before Xia Xiao Lan could ask, Chen Xi Liang told her about his trip to Beijing. It hadn’t been wasted—he’d had dinner with editors from both “Fashion” and “Popular Cinema” magazines. Having dinner with senior editors was extremely exciting for an individual vendor like Chen Xi Liang, especially since he was a loyal reader of “Fashion.”
He hadn’t introduced himself as an individual clothing wholesaler but as a representative of Chenyu Garment Factory, offering to provide free clothes to “Fashion” magazine. Chenyu’s products weren’t street-market quality and sold well from the factory—if they hadn’t been stuck with over a million yuan worth of wool coats, they wouldn’t need magazine advertising.
The “Fashion” editors liked the few samples Chen Xi Liang brought, but the “Popular Cinema” editors were harder to win over. While “Fashion” was a style magazine, “Popular Cinema” had greater influence but was more specialized.
Chen Xi Liang wasn’t discouraged—if one trip wasn’t enough, he’d make more. He was still waiting for the “Fashion” editors to introduce him to male actors.
“If any of our factory’s clothes make it into ‘Fashion,’ you’ll be the first to know!”
Xia Xiao Lan naturally agreed.
She planned to put a small sofa and bookshelf in her shop so customers could rest while trying on clothes and browsing fashion magazines—quite like high-end boutiques. With the clothes worn by magazine cover models available right there in the shop, how could sales not be good?
After selecting merchandise from Chen Xi Liang’s stall and choosing some clothes from other vendors, Xia Xiao Lan shipped everything directly back to Shangdu.
She was now familiar with the train station procedures and didn’t need someone to accompany each shipment. On this return trip to Yangcheng, she only notified Bai Zhen Zhu and Senior Brother Li by telegram.
Senior Brother Li’s name was Li Dong Liang.
Li Dong Liang realized he was the only one meeting her at the station and understood: that Miss Xia had eliminated Senior Brother Wan.
Xia Xiao Lan wouldn’t argue with Senior Brother Wan—he was just Bai Zhen Zhu’s senior brother, and she wouldn’t interfere even if he were Bai Zhen Zhu’s real brother. But she was the one paying, and there was no reason for the paying customer to accommodate a “bodyguard’s” attitude. If Senior Brother Wan thought he was destined for greater things, Xia Xiao Lan wouldn’t stand in his way.
She wouldn’t pay someone who thought she was foolish.
Although there was no formal employment contract, not notifying Senior Brother Wan was effectively firing him.
She asked Li Dong Liang if he could recommend other reliable martial brothers, as she needed to make a trip to Pengcheng. Li Dong Liang found someone named Ge Jian. He was also tall, with typical Yangcheng features and dark skin. Before Li Dong Liang found him, he had been working as a porter.
How much could one earn carrying bags for a day?
Working for Xia Xiao Lan, they earned more in a few days than a month’s regular salary, and since Xia Xiao Lan only came to Yangcheng about once every two weeks, it didn’t interfere with their other odd jobs. Ge Jian was more sensible than Senior Brother Wan, treating Xia Xiao Lan with the same attitude as Li Dong Liang.
This time, Xia Xiao Lan’s trip to Pengcheng Special Zone was legitimate—she had a border pass.
Bai Zhen Zhu had pulled many strings to get Xia Xiao Lan a border pass, so she no longer needed to “sneak” into the special zone.
She brought many local specialties, giving some to Chen Xi Liang and others to Bai Zhen Zhu’s grandmother. The remaining ones were specifically for Tang Hong En. In Pengcheng, Xia Xiao Lan found a public phone booth to call Driver Wang, who answered with surprise and hesitated before saying:
“Let me check with the leader. Are you bringing local specialties?”
“Yes, specialties from Yunan Province. I wanted Uncle Tang to try them.”
Driver Wang called back half an hour later, asked for Xia Xiao Lan’s location, and told her to stay put while he drove over to collect the items.
Xia Xiao Lan waited near the phone booth. Li and Ge were both men of few words—if Miss Xia could wait, what couldn’t they wait for? Senior Brother Wan had lost this job because he couldn’t wait patiently.
The whole process of delivering some local specialties took nearly two hours.
Driver Wang came in the same car as last time. “The leader is in a meeting, so I came to collect the items myself.”
Young Wang was cautious, but since Xia Xiao Lan hadn’t stuffed money in the boxes, there was nothing to hide. She actively introduced the items to Wang: “Yams and dates from Yunan, not worth much money, just for Uncle Tang to try.”
Wang’s expression became strange.
Although Tang Hong En wasn’t from Yunan, he had spent many years there. Yunan could be considered Tang Hong En’s second hometown.
If this weren’t something only those closest to him knew, Wang would have thought Xia Xiao Lan was deliberately playing to his preferences. Since Xia Xiao Lan couldn’t possibly know about Tang Hong En’s past, Wang could only conclude that she had good luck.
The leader would certainly be pleased to see these two boxes of inexpensive local specialties.
Wang couldn’t help but ask:
“Do you have a place to stay tonight?”
In case the leader was happy and wanted to meet Xia Xiao Lan, Wang needed to know where to find her.
Xia Xiao Lan gave him the guesthouse address and handed him her newly printed business card: “I’m only staying in Pengcheng for one night. This is the public phone number near my hometown. If Uncle Tang has any instructions, please let me know right away, Brother Wang.”
After Wang left with the yams and dates, Xia Xiao Lan headed to the People’s Bridge Small Commodities Market.
The chance of meeting Tang Hong En was small, and she wasn’t in a hurry to meet him—presence shouldn’t be forced, as too much frequency would make others uncomfortable. Without family ties, expensive gifts wouldn’t be appropriate. Local specialties were different—they showed she was thinking of Tang Hong En while being easy for him to accept.
What was the hurry? If she wanted Tang Hong En to introduce some decoration business, she needed to wait for Uncle Liu Yong to gain more experience first.
When she saw Bai Zhen Zhu again, business at her stall was still good.
Bai Zhen Zhu had expanded her clothing variety, adding women’s wear.
She was happy to see Xia Xiao Lan and pulled her aside to whisper:
“Fortunately, we only took that one batch of radios. Recently, for some reason, the supply of radios has increased dramatically, and profits have been squeezed very low. Yangcheng wholesalers aren’t willing to stock large quantities anymore.”