Chapter 395: The Wind of “Flying Snow”!

The night passed without incident, and Li Yi got up early the next morning.

Taking advantage of the fact that Jiang Longcheng hadn’t gotten up yet, he went to the guardhouse at the factory gate and asked the elderly guard on duty to help him find a copy of the *Workers’ Daily*.

He knew that nearly every major factory subscribed to dozens of copies of newspapers like the *Workers’ Daily*—it was a mandatory quota.

Otherwise, how could such a newspaper possibly have a daily circulation of several million copies!

As he walked toward the guesthouse, Li Yi flipped through the pages of the newspaper.

It wasn’t that he enjoyed reading the paper, but rather that he was looking for reports on the cotton mill and Feixue Apparel.

Soon, near the top of page two, he found a news article about Jiang Longyin, the district’s top official, inspecting the Wangfujing Department Store.

Although the article primarily covered Jiang Longyin and the district leaders’ inspection of the mall—merely mentioning in passing that he had delivered a speech at the Feixue Apparel store—Li Yi was pleased to see that the accompanying photo clearly showed the “Feixue Apparel” storefront.

Furthermore, the article mentioned that the store manager of Feixue Apparel had briefed the district leaders, and it also noted that the store was packed with customers lining up to shop.

Although the article didn’t specifically promote Feixue Apparel, anyone who read it would still retain a faint memory of the store.

However, this wasn’t the article Li Yi was actually looking for, so he continued flipping through the pages.

Soon, he found the news story he was looking for near the bottom of Page 4.

The article was written by Li Yi himself, titled “New Approaches to Business Reform: A New Lease on Life for an Old Factory—Chronicling the Rebirth of the State-Owned Second Cotton Spinning Mill!”

On the surface, the article discussed how the State-Owned Second Cotton Spinning Mill had reformed its business strategy by shifting from producing raw cotton fabric to manufacturing ready-to-wear garments, thereby breathing new life into the factory—a story brimming with positive energy.

However, the tone shifted in the latter half of the article, which unexpectedly focused on Feixue Apparel, discussing how the brand’s product designs were fashionable and aligned with public tastes.

It was also accompanied by several images carefully selected by Li Yi, making it a clear case of personal promotion.

When Li Yi handed the article to Yang Ling yesterday, he immediately spotted the problem.

But after reading it carefully a few times, he felt the overall premise was sound and agreed to help publish it.

After reading these two articles, Li Yi felt much more at ease.

After all, *Workers’ Daily* is a comprehensive newspaper published by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, primarily targeting government agencies and enterprises nationwide, with a daily circulation of 2.2 million copies at its peak.

One can imagine that publishing a sponsored article in such a high-profile newspaper would yield results beyond imagination.

Of course, since newspaper advertising has a certain lag time, the results of this ad might not be immediately apparent.

However, the successful publication of this sponsored article gave Li Yi an idea: if it worked for *Workers’ Daily*, then *People’s Daily*, *TV News*, *Beijing Daily*, and others could do the same!

However, he couldn’t pull this off on his own. After all, publishing in newspapers of this scale requires some seriously solid connections.

Fortunately, when it came to connections, Li Yi’s own network was no slouch. Whether it was the Jiang family or the Ye family, either could easily pull this off.

Immediately, he returned to his room and retrieved the sponsored article he had drafted in advance.

Then he knocked on Jiang Longcheng’s door…

……

Night had fallen, and the city lights were just beginning to glow!

In the conference room of the cotton mill’s administrative building, just like yesterday, the lights were bright and the room was bustling with people.

Li Yi and the staff from Feixue Apparel were once again holding a work meeting here to review the day’s activities!

Just like yesterday, Li Yi presided over the meeting, with the two store managers and Sales Section Chief Sun Feng reporting on the situation one by one.

However, unlike yesterday’s jubilant atmosphere, today’s meeting felt somewhat subdued.

Soon, Xu Taofang, An Hong, and Sun Feng had finished their reports. Compared to yesterday, sales had been completely halved.

Yesterday, the East Shore Market store had sales of over 1,100 yuan, but today it was less than 800 yuan—a drop of one-third.

The situation at the Wangfujing Department Store branch was even worse: today’s sales totaled just over 4,000 yuan, a drop of about 40% from yesterday’s figure of over 7,000 yuan.

But that wasn’t the worst of it—the worst was Sun Feng’s sales department.

Yesterday, they sold 12,000 yuan, making them the talk of the town.

But today, they managed a paltry 1,500 yuan—not even a fraction of yesterday’s total. It was a total disaster.

Good grief—turnover plummeted from 20,000 to just over 6,000. That wasn’t just a 50% drop; it was practically cut in half.

Yet while everyone else was frantic and gloomy, Li Yi remained remarkably calm.

All of this was exactly as he had anticipated. After all, yesterday’s high sales figures were inflated and didn’t reflect the team’s true performance.

Under these circumstances, a dip in revenue was inevitable.

But as the effects of advertising and positive word-of-mouth gradually took hold, sales would inevitably rebound, surging to new heights time and again, and eventually settle into a relatively stable phase.

Only when these styles lost their appeal and were phased out by the market would sales decline year by year, until they eventually stopped selling altogether.

Therefore, the current sharp drop in sales was entirely normal, and there was no need to panic.

Li Yi immediately encouraged everyone to remain humble and patient, and to keep their composure.

At the same time, he told everyone that sales would soon return to yesterday’s levels and might even see a significant increase, so they should be mentally prepared.

With Li Yi’s words, Jiang Longcheng, An Hong, Xu Taofang, and the others immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Afterward, Li Yi gave a brief summary, just as he had done the day before, and the meeting concluded.

And the subsequent developments indeed unfolded exactly as Li Yi had predicted.

On the third day, sales began to recover, reaching 9,000 yuan.

On the fourth day, it rebounded to 15,000 yuan, with the sales department alone reaching 8,000 yuan, and an increasing number of out-of-town distributors coming to inquire about stock.

On the fifth day, sales rose slightly again, reaching 19,000 yuan—almost matching the opening day’s figure.

By the seventh day, sales experienced a massive surge.

That day, dealers from Beijing, Tianjin, and other cities suddenly flooded into the cotton mill, placing massive orders for clothing. Each one demanded hundreds or even thousands of pieces right off the bat, much to the delight of Sun Feng and his team.

In just a single day, the sales department shipped over 8,000 pieces, and that day alone, the sales department received 160,000 yuan in payments.

The performance of the two Beijing stores was equally astonishing: the Dong’an Market branch’s daily sales exceeded 3,000 yuan for the first time, while the Wangfujing flagship store reached a staggering 11,000 yuan.

And that wasn’t even the end of it. As customers who had purchased clothes in the previous days began wearing their new outfits out in public, the streets were suddenly filled with people wearing Feixue apparel. The fashionable designs instantly captured the attention of the general public.

This even caught the attention of Beijing Television, which conducted impromptu interviews with numerous customers, effectively giving Feixue Apparel a wave of free television publicity.

Coupled with the gradual impact of the newspaper’s soft advertisements, the following days saw explosive growth at both Beijing stores and the sales department.

This was especially true at the Wangfujing flagship store, where crowds of people would gather as soon as the doors opened each day; within half an hour of opening, long lines would form outside the store.

Seizing this opportunity, Li Yi had his team begin promoting the Dong’an branch.

He had the attractive saleswoman tell the customers that they also had a store at Dong’an Market, where the clothing was the same, the prices were the same, and there were fewer people.

Soon, large numbers of impatient citizens who didn’t want to wait in line flocked to the Dong’an Market store.

As crowds of ordinary people scrambled to buy these fashionable clothes, no one could have imagined that in the final days of the Year of the Monkey, a “snowstorm” would sweep through the capital and its surrounding areas!