When her son became angry, Chen’s sister-in-law shuddered.

She had been thinking wrongly – what did it matter who Xia Xiaolan wanted to date? She was excellent at English, scoring full marks twice in a row. As long as she could help Chen Qing improve his grades, whether she became her daughter-in-law was secondary. Chen’s sister-in-law was willing to treat Xia Xiaolan like a “mother-in-law” and hold her in high regard!

“Mom spoke wrongly. Are her study methods effective?”

Chen Qing nodded, “I think she’s amazing. If she continues to improve, her grades will be better than mine next year.”

Chen’s sister-in-law felt a bit uncomfortable again.

Every mother in the world thinks their child is the most outstanding, but when Chen Qing said Xia Xiaolan was even better than him, Chen’s sister-in-law couldn’t accept it. However, the facts were right there – Chen Qing would get a headache just looking at foreign letters, while Xia Xiaolan could score full marks.

“I think she’ll be back soon, don’t worry. How could Xiaolan abandon her home?”

Xia Xiaolan had been gone for four or five days. Li Fengmei and Liu Fen were worried at home, especially Liu Fen, who was separated from Xia Xiaolan for a long time for the first time and couldn’t sleep at night, tossing and turning.

Despite their worries, they couldn’t stop their business.

This was Xia Xiaolan’s first time traveling far for business, and personal safety was the most important thing – profit or loss was secondary. If she made a profit, that would be fine, but if she lost money, the family’s livelihood would depend entirely on Liu Fen’s current income-generating business.

The weather was starting to cool down.

It was becoming increasingly difficult to collect loaches, and in a few days, this business would have to stop. Liu Fen wished she could make several trips to the oil press factory in a day – there were mountains of oil dregs there, and as long as one was willing to work hard, there was money to be made.

The little bit of meat that Liu Fen had managed to put on had disappeared again in just a few days!

Li Fengmei tried to comfort her, “Xiaolan is clever, what are you worried about?”

If it were a son, Liu Fen wouldn’t worry, but Xiaolan was a daughter.

The two sisters-in-law comforted and encouraged each other at home while Xia Xiaolan finally managed to get three bags of goods off the train. What was the point of taking the goods back to Qijing Village, only to bring them back to Shangdu to sell?

Xia Xiaolan wasn’t crazy.

She had left with 900 yuan, and when she got off the train, she had less than 20 yuan left in her pocket.

What was the point of dragging the clothes back home? It was best to sell them quickly in Shangdu – she still had a whole day.

Xia Xiaolan had gotten a small cart in Yangcheng with wheels underneath, made of simple welded iron pipes. It was very convenient for hauling goods; otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to bring the clothes back by herself.

Pulling the goods slowly along, Xia Xiaolan finally found a tailor shop on the street.

“Could I borrow your iron? I’m willing to pay…”

Xia Xiaolan successfully rented an iron.

The remaining money was spent on hangers, and she bought two used standing clothing racks. Xia Xiaolan resourcefully bought some scraps of cloth to cover them, and suddenly they didn’t look so cheap anymore.

Especially those wool coats – she carefully ironed them until there wasn’t a single wrinkle. Even displayed on the street, the clothes looked high-end.

At that time, individual vendors were like guerrilla forces, setting up wherever suitable, and as long as no one reported them, it wasn’t a major issue. People were now used to buying various things on the streets, and as soon as Xia Xiaolan hung up the clothes at an empty corner spot, people came asking about prices.

“How much for this sweater?”

“Sister, you have good taste! This is the latest style from Yangcheng. You’re the first customer, so I’ll give you a special price.”

The colorful sweaters were attractive, and this woman had her eye on the green maple leaf sweater that Xia Xiaolan particularly liked. The boss had said the cost price was 15 yuan, and Xia Xiaolan couldn’t completely refuse to negotiate, so the final wholesale price was 14 yuan per piece. The ones with lace collars and colored beads had a wholesale price of 12 yuan.

For the sweater that cost 14 yuan, Xia Xiaolan quoted 36!

Was it expensive?

One sweater costs a month’s salary!

It was expensive.

The wool felt nice to touch, but buying wool to knit it yourself wouldn’t cost much. 36 yuan for a sweater? That would be like having too much money to handle!

Xia Xiaolan seemed to see through her thoughts:

“This is machine-knitted, you won’t find this style anywhere else in Shangdu. The factory in Yangcheng even exports these overseas!”

Each stitch was dense and tight. Hand-knitting would show inconsistencies in tension, always revealing traces of human work. Although expert knitters could make sweaters as good as machine-made ones, not everyone was an expert… Even the most skilled person would need half a month to knit something like this.

The woman was tempted.

“36 is too expensive…”

Of course, 36 yuan for a sweater wasn’t cheap, but consumption in this era was quite crazy. People compressed their daily material consumption to the minimum but were willing to spend their saved money lavishly on certain things.

Xia Xiaolan took out a white wool coat and put the green maple leaf sweater over it.

“You can wear it on its own or match it with other clothes. The quality and style are unique – your money will be well spent!”

A white wool coat!

Xia Xiaolan had been very bold in stocking this item.

A wool coat costing over a hundred yuan would certainly be worn with great care. White shows every bit of dirt, so how could one work while wearing it? But that was laughable – wearing such an expensive garment was for occasions to show off, not for working at all.

The woman who had hesitated even about buying the sweater discovered that the white wool coat looked good too.

No, she shouldn’t ask the price – that coat looked extremely expensive!

But by now, several young women had gathered around Xia Xiaolan’s stall, their eyes gleaming at the wool coat.

“How much is it!”

“Is it really good wool?”

Xia Xiaolan smiled, “Don’t worry, everyone, let’s go one at a time. There’s plenty of stock – everyone will be able to find something they like.”

Liar – there was only one white wool coat hanging there, how could there be plenty of stock?

Xia Xiaolan’s sweaters were over thirty yuan, and the bell-bottom pants were also thirty.

She wasn’t too aggressive with the wool coat pricing. Even the department store’s coats at 128 yuan weren’t as stylish as hers, and Xia Xiaolan only asked for 108 yuan. At 20 yuan less, people who could afford it felt they were getting a great bargain.

Moreover, Xia Xiaolan was good at matching clothes, and her attitude was a hundred times more enthusiastic than department store clerks.

After buying her clothes, she praised her customers lavishly – every female customer was a goddess in her words. Even though women knew it was false, they loved hearing such sweet flattery, especially coming from the beautiful Xia Xiaolan – it really made them feel good!

Once you make a woman happy, getting them to spend money isn’t far behind.

Xia Xiaolan hadn’t expected that the wool coats priced over a hundred yuan would be the first to sell out.

She had only brought six of them due to limited capital!

Nobody carries over a hundred yuan while walking on the street – they all left deposits with Xia Xiaolan and hurried home to get the money. Standing there for several hours, she was amazed by the shopping frenzy of Shangdu’s women – every wearable size was sold out.

This batch of sweaters’ style and quality had been carefully selected by Xia Xiaolan.

They weren’t available even in Shangdu’s wholesale clothing market – truly unique Yangcheng goods. However, their popularity still exceeded Xia Xiaolan’s expectations.

She had deliberately kept two sweaters in reserve.

Money was so easy to make that Xia Xiaolan didn’t even notice her fatigue. She wanted to immediately book another ticket to Yangcheng, and roll over her profits a few more times – next year she could buy a house in Shangdu if anyone was willing to sell!

She needed to prepare for staying in Shangdu for a while – compared to Shangdu, Anqing County’s market was too small.

Xia Xiaolan pulled her rack, originally planning to find a guest house to rest when she suddenly thought renting a room would work too! She wouldn’t go door to door asking – she knew someone in Shangdu, Hu Yongcai from the city guest house!

Seeing Xia Xiaolan appear before him pulling her things, Hu Yongcai shook his head to clear it:

“It’s Xiaolan! Haven’t seen you in a while. I heard from Zhu Fang that you went back to attend high school?”