Gu Siyan had just confided her “big secret” to Xia Xiaolan, showing complete trust in her.

The tutoring program He Jia attended wasn’t any secret – Gu Siyan’s mother had almost sent her daughter there, but Gu Zhengqing investigated the teachers and found them unsatisfactory, so Gu Siyan didn’t go. He Jia went through, ended up dating one of the male students there, and now found herself in this situation.

A tutoring program run by Jingshi Institute students!

That must be the one Xia Ziyu organized… Many thoughts flashed through Xia Xiaolan’s mind. Such an incident at Xia Ziyu’s tutoring program, if properly leveraged, could completely destroy Xia Ziyu’s budding career and prevent her from ever recovering.

Xia Xiaolan was momentarily tempted.

Besides their chance of meeting at the hospital, she didn’t know He Jia and didn’t need to consider a stranger’s feelings.

But doing that would make her no different from Xia Ziyu.

That girl He Jia was still immature herself. Young people’s curiosity about relationships sometimes leads to crossing boundaries. He Jia was just unlucky – she got pregnant!

If Xia Xiaolan used this incident as a weapon against Xia Ziyu, He Jia, caught in the middle, would bear the heaviest burden.

Xia Xiaolan didn’t want to drive an innocent girl to desperation. This matter couldn’t become public knowledge.

“Don’t tell the teachers. It’s better to tell He Jia’s parents directly but be prepared to lose this friend… Sometimes we have to do things our friends don’t like for their good.”

Gu Siyan had made up her mind: “Even if she blames me for breaking my promise, I won’t be angry with her.”

Ah, silly girl, it’s not just about breaking a promise.

Sometimes sharing a big secret brings two people closer.

Other times, the opposite happens – when a secret is too heavy, the person involved chooses to distance themselves from friends who know it.

Regardless of He Jia’s thoughts, her parents would likely want to keep Gu Siyan as far away as possible.

…

Just as Xia Xiaolan had finally calmed down Gu Siyan, Chen Xiliang, who had earlier talked about approaching Popular Film’s editorial department, returned defeated.

“Sister Xia, are you saying my designed men’s coats aren’t good-looking?”

To be honest, Xia Xiaolan thought they looked good.

But Chen Xiliang’s unorthodox way of doing business had shown warning signs before. If he hadn’t been drunk and insisted on pursuing his design dreams by modifying the client’s coat order, they wouldn’t have refused to accept the shipment. Not only did these coats fail to make money, but they also became dead stock, difficult to sell even at a cost.

It seemed things hadn’t gone smoothly for Chen Xiliang at Popular Film’s editorial department.

Xia Xiaolan felt like she’d become an advice radio station – apparently, everyone could consult her about their problems!

“Tell me, what happened now!”

Chen Xiliang grew angry just talking about it, “Those editors, I’ve been dealing with them for months, treating them to drinks, giving gifts. When they talked about introducing a popular male actor, they kept making excuses. Later, someone finally told me honestly – they look down on me for being an individual business owner, a small vendor. They won’t even accept free clothes for their photoshoots…”

Chen Xiliang was furious. Though not pure cashmere, those coats were really good quality.

Those who complained might not even wear clothes as good as these.

Chen Xiliang didn’t lose his temper in person, still smiling and running around for days. He finally confirmed arrangements for last year’s rising star Zhou Wangjing to wear the clothes for a photoshoot, but Chen Xiliang had been doing well lately, making money on everything, and couldn’t tolerate such treatment.

Chenyu Garment Factory was just a manufacturer without its brand.

Were Yang City goods inferior to Shanghai goods?

Those people didn’t even know that the clothes sold in Shanghai department stores were made in Yang City!

This wasn’t Chen Xiliang’s first such experience with Popular Film – he’d encountered similar issues when dealing with Fashion magazine. However, in the 1980s, China’s fashion circle didn’t have much influence. Being barely competent themselves, they couldn’t be too picky about Chen Xiliang’s background, and both sides managed to cooperate fairly well.

Popular Film was different – it had a large readership, was well-established, and more prestigious.

When they wanted an actor on the cover, it wasn’t the actor driving magazine sales, but the magazine promoting the actor. How could a small vendor like Chen Xiliang think he could influence the film and television circle just by buying meals and giving cigarettes and alcohol?

Behind his back, they laughed at his presumption, showing off with just a bit of money.

Chen Xiliang swallowed his anger and sealed the deal, but needed someone to share his thoughts with. He didn’t know anyone else in Beijing, so he kept pestering Xia Xiaolan.

Exhausted, Xia Xiaolan suppressed a yawn:

“Then create your clothing brand. Have actors shoot advertisements for your designed clothes, ignore the magazines, use TV commercials…”

Chen Xiliang was stunned, “Create our clothing brand?”

His current resources come from his brother-in-law He Congsheng. He wholesaled whatever the factory produced. This sportswear order was Chen Xiliang’s first attempt at custom production. He ordered thirty thousand sets of sportswear, all sold out, and this business earned both Chen Xiliang and Xia Xiaolan seventy to eighty thousand yuan!

Chen Xiliang’s inner ambition was already stirring.

He seemed unsatisfied being just a wholesaler but hadn’t figured out exactly what he wanted to do. Should he copy designs from foreign fashion magazines and gamble on whether they’d be hits, whether they’d sell out?

Rather than picking random styles here and there, why not unite them under a single “brand”?

It was like an epiphany for Chen Xiliang.

“You’re something! Ancestor Xia, we could partner to create our clothing brand. As you said, find actors for advertisements – I refuse to believe we can’t make this name famous!”

Chen Xiliang was over-excited – was he going to evolve into a clothing industry tycoon ahead of schedule?

Doing business with Chen Xiliang was profitable.

In her previous life, no one had stimulated Chen Xiliang like this, yet in over a decade he’d built a clothing empire worth hundreds of millions. If not for his untimely death in a kidnapping, the Chen clothing enterprise might not have declined. Creating original clothing brands in China wasn’t easy, and the clothing industry took a big hit after 2000. However some brands toughly survived the industry’s low period and rose rapidly with the advent of e-commerce platforms.

The clothing industry’s downturn was twenty years away.

The 1980s were very profitable – most of Xia Xiaolan’s current wealth came from dealing in clothes, whether retail or occasional wholesale… But she had always focused on the sales end.

“No, let me think about this.”