Chapter 548 - 532: Benefits

Lin Wan’s words made Yin Peibai and Su Ling nod in agreement, "We’ll start learning as soon as we get back."

...

"What, you actually got cheated out of fifty yuan by that brat Lin Wan. Are you stupid, just because she asked, you gave it to her?" Liang Weixiang slapped the table, her heart aching with anger.

"I was a bit scared by those people at the time. If I didn’t refund it, they’d drag me to jail. Could I not give it back? How was I supposed to know Lin Wan would exploit the situation? It can’t all be my fault," Zhang Dandan said guiltily.

"This whole thing is your fault. If it weren’t for your mistake today, how would we lose so much money? Fifty yuan in cash and three pieces of clothing. In any case, this money will be deducted from your share," Ye Qing looked at the mother and daughter before her with contempt, thinking to herself that they were more of a hindrance than a help. Falling for such a simple scam, at this rate, they’d lose everything.

"Ah Qing, you can’t blame Dan Dan for this. It was the material you sourced. How could you use such low-quality fabric to make clothes? Even if it was cheap, I wouldn’t buy this kind of clothing." Unwilling to have money deducted from their share, Liang Weixiang immediately disagreed. It’s because of the poor quality that today’s situation occurred.

Ye Qing was actually feeling guilty as well. When she bought the fabric, she only saw that it was similar to the fabric from Lin Wan’s family and was extremely cheap, without considering the quality issue.

At the time, she thought if the cost could be lower than Lin Wan’s, she could undercut Lin Wan’s clothing with the price.

Who knew the material would be so inferior?

"Wanting to make money while using good materials, where’s such a good thing? They don’t have the ability and don’t want to admit it. If you can’t sell, you can’t sell."

"We have no ability, but if you’re capable, you sell them. If you can sell them, today’s losses will all be on us, alright?" She, being an elder, was given no face at all. Liang Weixiang felt very displeased.

Since coming to S City, things had been unpleasant every day, being lectured by that brat Lin Wan. Now Ye Qing dared to speak to her in such a tone. How could she still establish her status as an elder in the future?

"That’s what you said. Fine, tomorrow Dan Dan will go sell near the train station, and I’ll handle the sales in the city." Ye Qing recently discovered their supervisor knew Director Wang from the department store’s clothing section.

Her supervisor mentioned it seemed they were brothers-in-law.

Such a good connection couldn’t be wasted. Lin Wan thinks she’s impressive, let’s see how impressive she’ll be in a few days.

This batch made over five hundred pieces, and only about fifty have been sold so far.

The clothes couldn’t be discarded, or they’d lose everything. Ye Qing learned her lesson and wouldn’t be so greedy for cheap fabric next time.

To sustain in the long run, you can’t use poor-quality materials.

If she doesn’t outshine Lin Wan in this lifetime, Ye Qing would have lived in vain.

Leaving Liang Weixiang’s courtyard, Ye Qing took dozens of clothes and went to Yang Erni’s house.

She knew Yang Erni was someone motivated by profit, and would side with whoever brought her profit, so she wouldn’t refuse these clothes. After all, they were much cheaper than Lin Wan’s.

Yesterday, their house’s damaged wall was repaired. Liang Weixiang couldn’t see into Qiu Hualan’s house anymore.

After Ye Qing left, Qiu Hualan was very worried that Ye Qing could really sell those clothes. If so, then adding everything up today, the fifty-something yuan would have to come from her pocket.

These days, they hadn’t earned much money.

.....

The next day.

Ye Qing brought a box of Zhonghua cigarettes to the supervisor’s office and came out relaxed after half an hour.

After work in the evening, Lin Wan waited for the director at the department store entrance. The two went into Director Wang’s office together...

.....

Back to Lin Wan, early in the morning, she handed the child to Shi Lan and took the clothes to the store, telling Ye Zi and the others, "Sister Xiao Wan, early this morning, several stores in our street started selling clothes identical to ours and are selling them cheaply."

"Which stores have them?"

"Next door at Sister Yang Erjie’s, there are plenty on display."

Lin Wan turned to glance at Yang Erni’s house and indeed saw quite a few.

After pausing for a moment, Lin Wan took the clothes she took from Zhang Dandan’s stall yesterday and headed to Yang Erni’s store.

"Sister Erni, how could you even dare sell these clothes? Didn’t you hear about what happened outside the department store yesterday?"

Yang Erni was stunned, "What happened?"

"The people who supplied you were exposed for the quality of their clothes yesterday at the department store. They fall apart after one wash and are completely unwearable. Don’t believe me, take a look." Lin Wan said as she showed the water-soaked clothes to Yang Erni.

So thin you could see a shadow through them, which shocked Yang Erni, "Oh dear, I can’t sell these reputation-ruining clothes," Yang Erni said hurriedly, putting away the clothes, "This Sister Ye is something else, how dare she cheat me too, just wait until I give her a piece of my mind." Yang Erni complained to herself as she spoke.

Hearing the words Sister Ye, Lin Wan was also surprised, "Sister Erni, what did you say, it was that Ah Qing you mentioned before who gave them to you?"

"Ah, indeed, she came to my house last night asking me to help her sell a batch of clothes, offering a cheap price," Yang Erni admitted, then realized it was inappropriate and quickly smiled apologetically at Lin Wan, "Sister Lin, I’m sorry, I had thought about selling them mixed with ours. Please don’t be upset, I had no intention of selling them as fakes."

"Sister Erni, you’re joking, there’s no comparison with our clothes, anyone with knowledge can tell the difference at a glance. It’s impossible to pass off the inferior as superior," Lin Wan replied.

"Haha, true enough," Yang Erni laughed awkwardly, feeling slightly guilty.

But today’s incident made her realize something, it wasn’t just Liang Weixiang and her daughter making these clothes, she’d been wondering where Liang Weixiang got so much money. Turns out she had backing.

This Ye Qing truly never stopped thinking about her, her ability to always oppose her was growing.

Alright, if you want to plot against me, let’s see if I agree. Don’t blame me if you end up getting tricked instead.

At home, Lin Wan recalled many promotional activities for clothes from later generations.

Off-season discounts were evidently too late. The only option was to do discounts. But they were targeting wholesalers now.

Just starting, Lin Wan didn’t want to use her secret weapon. After much thought, doing a bundled sale was most fitting. For instance, one piece for five yuan, but if taken as a set, two pieces for just six yuan. Not a single merchant would refuse such a deal, right? Existing clothes wouldn’t do, Lin Wan had to make new designs, and they had to be in line with the masses.

During an entire afternoon, Lin Wan spent all her time in the study. At noon, Shi Lan, worried, stopped by with the child to check on her. Seeing her engrossed, she probably hadn’t even thought about eating. While Little Star was asleep, Shi Lan made her a cup of malted milk, and then carried Little Star back to her own courtyard without disturbing her.

As night approached, Lin Wan designed a set of styles she was quite satisfied with.

Slim-fit pipe trousers, striped dress pants, casual female cropped pants, plus a simple short-sleeve t-shirt with a loose round neck. The sleeves were quite wide, slightly drooping, giving it a Korean style. During the last purchase, she’d noticed some cotton striped fabric. Of course, they couldn’t all be the same pattern.

Pants would remain unchanged, the top could be matched with four or five different short sleeves, cotton white, suit-style short sleeves. Lin Wan had roughly designed five styles.

With a variety of styles and not a single product, merchants would have a greater selection to choose from, and it could meet various customer needs (Oh, Da Jinzi suggests, maybe I could switch to selling clothes... chuckling).

In competition, aside from having a price advantage, the key is that the product must be good!

In the evening, when Mom and brother returned, they learned that Shi Lan had helped with the child all day and that there had been problems at Lin Wan’s store.

Lin Yinghui knew a bit about the situation and explained it generally to Liang Hongmei.

Only then did Shi Lan realize that there had been issues with Lin Wan’s clothing.

"I knew those two, Liang Weixiang and her daughter, couldn’t stay quiet for a few days. Now they’re messing with Xiao Wan’s business. We shouldn’t have taken into account family ties and such back when Dan Dan came to S City. We shouldn’t have cared about her. Then there wouldn’t be such troubles now," Liang Hongmei said, upset with herself for being too kind, allowing Liang Weixiang and her daughter to take advantage.