"Yes, but itās stock from the year before last. Do you want it?"
"How much of a discount can you give me?"
"Four cents per meter." This store is diagonally opposite Old Yangās, and usually, they are fierce competitors. Today, Ye Qing happened to meet her match and turned to this store.
"What about this one? How do I get it?" Ye Qing also spotted a striped fabric, but it wasnāt cotton, it had a bit of a sheer texture.
"Youāre really good at picking, sis. These two fabrics are what we have a price advantage on, and this one comes in three colors, five cents per meter."
"Can it be cheaper?"
"Sis, it canāt be any cheaper, this is already very low."
Ye Qing also picked a khaki fabric thatās 1.2 yuan per meter; it felt very comfortable to touch. After considering for a long time, Ye Qing finally steeled herself and prepared to make pants. Two pairs of pants and three tops wouldnāt be too plain.
Today, she only came to buy fabrics, spending about a thousand yuan. Mainly, she didnāt have much experience, and with the first batch of fabrics, she focused solely on the price, ignoring the quality.
This time, she almost put all the money from the previous batch into it. Ye Qing gathered her courage, ready to compete fiercely with Lin Wan.
Not long after Ye Qing left, Lin Wan also came. A few days ago, she had agreed with Old Yang that denim would arrive in the next couple of days, and sheād come to pick it up.
Yu Qianqian was already looking at Lin Wan from the shop entrance from afar, and as soon as she saw her appear down the street, she quickly called out twice.
"Sister Xiao Wan, Sister Xiao Wan."
"Qianqian, whatās up? Is there new stock?" Lin Wan rode her tricycle and turned to Yu Qianqianās shop door.
"No. A few days ago, you asked me to keep an eye on the woman in this photo. I saw her today; she just left not long ago, called for a tricycle, and hauled quite a few batches of fabric. She got the goods from the store diagonally opposite Old Yangās. Let me tell you, in this street, all our shop owners know that his storeās goods are the shadiest." Yu Qianqian said with a sneaky smile.
"Well done, did you see what goods she took?"
"There were three batches of striped ones, one batch of black, couldnāt see clearly what fabric it was, and another batch of khaki, I know that one, that store carried a lot of that fabric that day. The fabric looks good. I heard they claim itās new fabric shipped from Shanghai, some kind of ice silk fabric, and quite expensive."
"Is that so, okay, Iāll go check out that store in a while."
"Alright, you go ahead, I recognize that woman without needing the photo, Iāll keep an extra eye on her for you in the future."
"Thanks, Qianqian."
"Sister Xiao Wan, no need to be so formal with me, youāre like my own elder sister now."
"Alright, your mouth is getting sweeter, business must be good, huh?"
"Itās all thanks to your blessing, sister."
After chatting with Yu Qianqian, Lin Wan went to the mentioned store to get a general understanding of the batches of fabric Ye Qing took.
Lin Wan used to stroll around here often and had been to this store, but it mainly stocked old fabrics or ordinary ones without any special features.
Despite this, the storeās business was still booming. The key is, nowadays, when making clothes, most people prefer this storeās goods.
On the other hand, Old Yang likes to dabble in new styles, with nice patterns and solid materials, but in this era, such slightly cutting-edge items arenāt very popular.
Old Yang does business based on a first impression.
"Sister Lin, did you just go to the store across the street?"
"Yes, to be honest, a friend of mine recently started a clothing business, and she deliberately imitates my storeās clothes. So, I just went to the store diaginally opposite yours to order a batch of goods. I was probing for some information."
Old Yang suddenly understood, "It was that woman just now, right? The first time she came, she stopped by here, and then went to their store and ordered a particularly substandard batch. It was the fabric I told you about last time, the batch that couldnāt be used, both our stores brought it in at the same time back then because it looked good, but it canāt be washed. Luckily, you gave me advice, and I managed to sell it to a state-owned restaurant, although not much was needed, and it hasnāt all sold yet; itās still sitting in the warehouse. That woman got fooled once, I thought she wouldnāt go there again, but who would have thought sheād order from them today. When that batch of goods came out, I took a glance; except for the khaki fabric which was good, the other batches werenāt, the striped one was actually nice, but it needs more effort to make, requiring a serger, or else it easily frays."
Lin Wan secretly thought, heaven is indeed helping me.
In a great mood, she pulled two batches of denim fabric, along with supplementing last timeās fabric, singing all the way back.
The good mood didnāt last long, Ye Zi informed her that Zhang Dandan rented a storefront on the other end of their street.
That evening during class, Yin Peibai and Su Ling became furious upon learning the news and decided to go to the storefront tomorrow to confront Zhang Dandan and Ye Qing.
"If we confront them, we might end up visiting the police station without achieving anything; better to defeat them in business so they canāt flaunt anymore."
"Their imitation of our clothes and undercutting prices will definitely cost us," said Su Ling. "We can do it this way." Lin Wan whispered schemingly to the two of them. Yin Peibai and Su Ling immediately understood.
Su Ling patted her chest in assurance, "This is a great idea, leave it to me, I promise itāll be done beautifully."
"My mother-in-law, sheās always hanging around the community, helping people find partners, sheās met quite a few people, she really is a talent in this area, very persuasive, donāt worry. Iāll find a few more, and weāll ensure the effect is achieved."
"This time, weāre counting on you, make sure to really stick it to them." Yin Peibai couldnāt wait to have these two disappear immediately. "Hey, Lin Wan, were you blind before, how could you know someone like Ye Qing, and even be best friends with her?"
Lin Wan was speechless at Yin Peibaiās words, "Not blind, just too naive, didnāt see her true nature, but itās not too late now."
"Exactly, thank goodness itās not too late, but Ye Qing probably doesnāt like you, always trying to find ways to oppose you. Initially, she might have tried to get Mr. Li to seduce you, last year she tried to harm your child, and this year started snatching your business. How much does she have to dislike you?" Yin Peibai suddenly figured out Ye Qingās mindset.
Mentioning Li Liang still made Su Ling quite upset.
"Sheās just crazy, canāt stand others being better or stronger than her. If she keeps going like this, itāll just backfire on her. Letās first collect some of their clothes." "Sure, tomorrow weāll ask around our friends and relatives. Or go door to door and ask?" S City is so big, who knows which stores have bought them.
Lin Wan chuckled, "Letās collect as many pieces as we can; our main aim is to ruin their brand, not to make money."
"Canāt let them get off easy, though."
Meanwhile, Ye Qing became less attentive in the office, hardly paying attention to Lin Yinghui. Just waiting eagerly to go home and make money.
After bringing the fabric back, Ye Qing bought a few of Lin Wanās clothes and started sketching them out.
Then sought out a colleague she had good relations with to introduce a relative who knew how to make clothes, offering 20 yuan a month to help Liang Weixiang.
Because they were in a rush, Liang Weixiang hardly slept these days, working overtime to make clothes.
She had to cut out a sample with every start, almost wasting three or four pieces to cut out a decent outfit for each style.
A week later, Zhang Dandan swaggered into her rented store to stock up the clothes, not afraid of running into Lin Wan at all.
She was almost showing off. Lin Wan didnāt bother with her. After gathering for a week, she was waiting for them to come.
Zhang Dandan and Ye Qing came together today, making quite a scene, hanging a sign, and even set off firecrackers. The name was uncannily close to theirs.
"Qingyi Clothing Wholesale. Ha, they sure are provocative." Su Ling couldnāt stand those who act righteous while being shameless.
"People are opening their business, are you not going to allow them to set off fireworks or what? Donāt worry about them, is everything ready on our side?" Lin Wan remained composed, undisturbed by the matter.
"Everything was prepared a few days ago. Pei Bai and I found over twenty pieces, bought for two yuan each, and a few were given to us directly. Additionally, we purchased thirty pieces from the department store, this was pricier, if they return the money, itāll break even, just right."
"Thatās perfect; our goal this time is to drive them out of this business area. If they donāt lose everything, Iāll remove a tree from the Lin name." Lin Wan was brimming with confidence, as if she could already see their impending misfortune.