Chapter 367: The Trap Set by Ye Jianhua

“Cotton Mill, this is Jiang Longcheng!”

“Brother Long, this is Jianhua…”

After Jiang Longcheng hung up, he immediately turned to Li Yi and said, “Looks like we won’t be making it to the hospital today!”

“What’s up?”

“That kid Jianhua says he’s organized a gathering and wants us to join him!” Jiang Longcheng said.

“What kind of gathering?”

“He didn’t say, but I’m guessing he’s getting married soon and wants to get everyone together before the wedding!” Jiang Longcheng said.

“Nonsense! Shouldn’t he be busy planning the wedding right now? Does he really have time for this?” Li Yi said indifferently.

Actually, it didn’t take much to figure out that a get-together like this was nothing more than a chance to have a good time before the wedding—much like the pre-wedding bachelor parties they have overseas.

“Fine, whether it’s nonsense or not, he called us. We should at least show up.”

Jiang Longcheng added, “If it turns out to be a bore, we can always slip out early!”

“Sounds good! Where’s this party, and when does it start?”

“At a workers’ club in the east part of town. He said we should head out right now!”

“Let’s go, then!”

“Alright!”

After a quick pack, the two left Jiang Longcheng’s office.

They went downstairs, got into his little 212 jeep, and sped off toward their destination.

After driving through the city for nearly half an hour, they finally arrived at a large compound.

The moment the car pulled through the gate, Li Yi saw the wooden sign hanging at the entrance clearly bearing the words “East City Workers’ Club”!

Jiang Longcheng was clearly very familiar with the place; he quickly pulled over and motioned for Li Yi to get out.

By then, it was completely dark, and the entire city was just beginning to light up.

Though there were no flashing neon lights, the area was aglow with a dazzling array of colors, a truly breathtaking sight.

As the two approached the club’s entrance, they spotted two uniformed security guards from a distance, checking the IDs of people entering the club.

“What kind of IDs are they checking? Do we have any?” Li Yi asked immediately.

“Work IDs or union membership cards will do!” Jiang Longcheng replied.

These days, not just anyone could enter a workers’ club; you had to be a worker or an official from one of Beijing’s various organizations, and you needed either a work ID or a union membership card.

“I don’t have one!”

“No problem!”

Seeing Jiang Longcheng’s confident demeanor, Li Yi said no more; he figured that for someone like him—the head of a major factory—this sort of thing shouldn’t be too difficult.

Since there weren’t many people, it was their turn in no time.

When the security guard checking IDs recognized Jiang Longcheng, he immediately stepped forward to greet him warmly.

Upon hearing that Li Yi was with him, the guard didn’t even bother checking his ID and simply let Jiang Longcheng lead him inside.

Seeing this, Li Yi wasn’t surprised—privileges were everywhere!

Once the two entered the club, a massive indoor dance hall immediately came into view, filled with young people dancing gracefully.

If it weren’t for the rather basic lighting and the relatively mellow dance music, Li Yi might have thought he’d stepped into a nightclub from decades in the future.

Jiang Longcheng led Li Yi through the dance hall with ease, heading toward the inner area.

The inner area was filled with small square tables and long benches—clearly intended for workers to relax and unwind.

At that moment, quite a few young people were gathered in small groups of three or five, joking and playing around, chatting animatedly, with hearty laughter ringing out from time to time.

“Have you ever been to a place like this before?” Jiang Longcheng asked as they walked.

“Actually, no!”

“Then you’ll have to come here often from now on. This is arguably the liveliest spot in all of Beijing!”

Perhaps fearing Li Yi might get the wrong idea, Jiang Longcheng quickly added, “Don’t get any funny ideas. This is just a place to eat, drink, and maybe dance a bit. There’s also a staff movie theater and a library inside—nothing else out of the ordinary!”

“Really?” Li Yi gave him a half-smile.

It was better if Jiang Longcheng hadn’t explained it; now that he had, Li Yi actually found it hard to believe.

Besides, he had lived in the capital before; though he’d never been to this place, he knew that the city’s earliest dance halls and bars had evolved from various workers’ clubs.

Li Yi believed that most of the people here were decent—after all, it wasn’t yet an era of nationwide revelry and hedonism.

But as for this place being nothing more than an ordinary leisure spot for workers, Li Yi didn’t buy it.

After all, if this place truly had nothing to offer, why would it attract so many children of the powerful and wealthy? Was it just so they could catch a whiff of the working class’s feet?

“Um… really, there’s nothing to it. It’s just a bit more laid-back here…”

The two chatted as they walked, quickly passing the lounge area and heading up the stairs to the second floor.

The second floor resembled a hotel, with rooms bearing various signs.

Jiang Longcheng led Li Yi down the hallway for a few steps before pushing open the door to a room.

The moment the door swung open, Li Yi was startled by the scene inside.

The room was enormous—at a glance, no less than 150 to 160 square meters.

Its size was one thing, but what was most striking was the unique layout—it was clearly designed for a salon gathering.

The room was lined with sofas, chairs, and small round tables, while the opposite side was stocked with plenty of drinks and snacks—leaving only the center of the room completely empty.

The room was already filled with people; some were dancing gracefully in the center, but most were sitting in small groups around the round tables, chatting.

It could be said that, although they were in the same workers’ club, the downstairs and upstairs were completely different worlds!

The moment Jiang Longcheng walked in, he caught everyone’s attention. As a direct descendant of the Jiang family, he became the center of attention the instant he appeared.

As for Li Yi, no one paid him any mind, assuming he was just a lowly errand boy there to carry Jiang Longcheng’s bags and clothes.

However, what happened next took everyone by surprise!

Ye Jianhua, who had been chatting and laughing with others just moments before, immediately dropped what he was doing and rushed over to greet the two as soon as he saw them.

“Brother Long, Brother-in-law, you two finally made it!”

Hearing Ye Jianhua’s enthusiastic greeting and those “unique” titles, everyone present was taken aback.

Everyone invited today was an acquaintance, and most of them were well aware of Ye Jianhua’s family situation—there hadn’t been a single girl in the Ye family for three generations.

If there weren’t even any sisters, where on earth would a brother-in-law come from?

Jiang Longcheng smiled and said, “Aren’t you supposed to be focusing on your job? Why are you suddenly throwing a party again?”

“I figured that once I’m married, it’ll be harder to get out and hang with everyone. So I figured I’d just get everyone together now, set the record straight, and save you all from thinking I’ve suddenly become a loner!” Ye Jianhua said with a laugh.

“Does Xiao Ying know about this?”

“She knows. Yi will bring her over in a minute!”

“You invited Lin Yi over and asked him to bring Xiao Ying’er too? Aren’t you afraid he’ll beat you up?” Jiang Longcheng said with a laugh.

“What’s there to be afraid of? With Ying’er around, he wouldn’t dare hit me!” Ye Jianhua said smugly.

“Typical!”

Just as they were speaking, the door to the room swung open again.

Immediately, several young people walked in, including Ye Jianhua’s fiancée, Lin Ying.

But when Li Yi saw the young man standing next to Lin Ying, he froze for a moment.

Earlier, when Jiang Longcheng and Ye Jianhua had mentioned Lin Yi, the name had sounded familiar to him, but he hadn’t been able to place it right away.

But the moment he saw the stern-faced young man standing before him, it all clicked—so it was him.

Lin Yi—undoubtedly the most outstanding young man in the Lin family in three generations!

He was also Lin Ying’s older brother.

In his previous life, upon learning of his sister’s suicide while serving in the military, he immediately requested discharge and personally took it upon himself to gather evidence of Ye Jianhua’s crimes.

In the end, using the evidence he had gathered, he forced Ye Jianhua into prison and dealt a crushing blow to the Ye family!

It must be said, he was a truly ruthless man.

More importantly, he lay low in government service for several years afterward, then ventured into business in the late 1980s, founding the Lin Blue Ocean Group. In less than 20 years, he built the company into a conglomerate with assets exceeding 100 billion yuan.

Backed by this immense wealth, the Lin family rose to prominence, gradually surpassing the Jiang and Ye families in influence.

Thinking back to the turmoil that unfolded a few years later, the repercussions were far-reaching.

It wasn’t just the Ye, Lin, and Jiang families; nearly every clan with ties to those two families—and even Ye Jianhua’s friends and brothers—were caught in the crossfire, sparking a series of farces involving courting, betrayal, and retaliation.

Although the incident ultimately ended with Ye Jianhua being sent to prison, the impact on him and the entire Ye family was far from trivial.

Since Ye Jianhua had invited only those he considered close to him today, it remained to be seen whether any of the men who had stood trial with him would be present.

At this thought, Li Yi—who had initially been in a rather low mood—suddenly found himself harboring a faint sense of anticipation for tonight’s “gathering”!

After leaving the cotton mill, Li Yi rushed straight to the city center!

He needed to find a suitable location in the city as soon as possible to set up a clothing boutique that would really catch people’s attention.

With An Hong and the experienced Director Tan on board, production shouldn’t be an issue; now it was all about how to quickly promote these garments.

And for promotion, a physical location was essential—and a boutique was undoubtedly the best choice!

If it were just the small batch of clothes Li Yi had on hand, he likely wouldn’t have gone to such great lengths; he could have simply wholesaled them to others to sell, sparing himself all this trouble.

But now that Jiang Longcheng is the director of the cotton mill, reviving this stagnant enterprise will require some serious effort.

Given the current situation, for the cotton mill to make a comeback, in addition to adjusting its industrial structure, establishing its own sales channels is of the utmost importance.

Otherwise, given the management skills of the current staff, it wouldn’t take long for competitors to copy and surpass them.

But after wandering around the city for most of the day, Li Yi still hadn’t found a suitable location.

Every storefront in the city larger than 5 square meters had been rented out, and even the slightly better spots on the streets had been snapped up for street stalls—so there was no way a large store of several hundred square meters was waiting for him.

There was no way around it: over the past three years, 300,000 educated youth had returned to the capital, and while a small fraction had secured jobs, the rest had all become unemployed.

With the implementation of policies allowing them to operate food stalls and sell small goods, a large number of them turned to petty trade to make a living—which is why finding a single shop in Beijing right now is next to impossible!

By the afternoon, Li Yi realized that continuing his search like this would likely be fruitless, so he decided to return to the cotton mill to talk with Jiang Longcheng again and see if he had any suitable space available.

By the time Li Yi returned to the cotton mill, it was already 5:30 p.m.

Jiang Longcheng was in his office, just about to pack up and head home, when he suddenly saw Li Yi push open the door and walk in.

“Speak of the devil! I was just thinking about coming to see you, and here you are!” Jiang Longcheng said with a smile.

“What do you need me for?” Li Yi asked, sounding a bit weary.

“I’ve already put you in touch with the reporter from the Workers’ Daily. We’ve set up a meeting for tomorrow evening. Does that work for you?” Jiang Longcheng said.

“That’s fine with me!”

“That’s great!”

Jiang Longcheng continued, “The factory leadership held another meeting this morning and approved the plan to establish a sales channel. You need to come up with a concrete proposal so they can implement it as soon as possible!”

Noticing the slight hoarseness in Jiang Longcheng’s voice, Li Yi immediately asked, “Has it been a bit rough?”

“It’s not too bad…”

“Be honest!” Li Yi said.

Jiang Longcheng was silent for a long moment, then said, “It really hasn’t been going smoothly. We had meetings all day today, mainly focusing on the future direction of the cotton mill. Since most of the fabric produced by the weaving workshop this year hasn’t sold, many people think we should cut the weaving operation and focus solely on spinning.”

“Others, however, believe the current situation is still unclear and that we should wait and see how things develop before making a decision…”

Hearing this, Li Yi couldn’t help but furrow his brow.

I have to say, the executives at this cotton mill really aren’t cut out for business; their thinking is a bit naive.

They think that if the fabric they weave doesn’t sell, they can just cut that part of the business and focus solely on spinning to turn the factory around.

That’s just plain crazy!

The main reason their fabric isn’t selling is that the yarn quality is subpar.

And the substandard yarn is primarily due to issues with some of the raw materials. Once they switch to better raw materials, these problems will disappear. Therefore, the factory’s profitability has absolutely nothing to do with the weaving workshop.

More importantly, there are at least several thousand cotton spinning mills of all sizes across the country right now, but very few of them have weaving workshops.

In the textile industry, spinning and weaving are distinct processes.

Spinning is the process of turning cotton, flax, wool, and other materials into yarn, while weaving is the process of turning yarn into fabric.

Currently, many factories only engage in simple cotton or wool spinning and do not weave fabric; only large factories are capable of both spinning and weaving.

So, in Li Yi’s view, having the ability to weave their own fabric was not a burden for the State-Owned Second Cotton Spinning Factory, but rather their greatest advantage at the moment—it allowed them to be more flexible and adaptable when adjusting their industrial structure.

To cut the weaving operations—who would even think of such a thing?

It’s not that Li Yi looks down on them, but if they stuck solely to spinning, he estimated they wouldn’t even last three years before having to file for bankruptcy.

“What do you think?”

Jiang Longcheng replied immediately, “I don’t think we should cut it. In fact, I believe selling ready-to-wear clothing has great potential. So I proposed that we not only keep our existing operations but also expand into clothing production and sales, and establish our own sales channels.”

“And what happened?”

“Well, the whole group vehemently opposed it—none of them agreed with my idea!”

“So how did you convince them?” Li Yi asked curiously.

“I made a solemn pledge to all the factory’s executives!” Jiang Longcheng said, making a startling statement.

“A written pledge?”

“That’s right. I gave them a year to see what I could do. If the factory hadn’t turned things around within a year, I’d resign in disgrace!” Jiang Longcheng said.

Li Yi said with a mix of amusement and exasperation, “So you basically staked your own future to shut those people up?”

“What else could I do?”

Jiang Longcheng continued, “Brother-in-law, I’ve staked everything on you. Don’t let me down!”

Hearing this, Li Yi fell silent for a long moment.

After a moment’s thought, he said, “Here’s what we’ll do. When I get back today, I’ll draw up a detailed action plan based on your factory’s situation.”

“Then you just follow the plan, and six months will be more than enough to turn the factory around!”

Hearing this, Jiang Longcheng burst out laughing immediately: “Brother Li Yi… my dear brother-in-law, you really are my lucky star! With you saying that, Third Brother here can rest easy!”

Before he could finish, Li Yi interjected, “Don’t get too excited just yet. This plan touches on every aspect of the cotton mill, and there are quite a few areas that might infringe on other people’s interests. You’d better be mentally prepared!”

“Prepared for what? Are you worried they’ll try to hold me back?” Jiang Longcheng frowned.

“Mm-hmm!”

Jiang Longcheng continued, “I made it very clear to them at the meeting today: we’re setting a one-year deadline. Within that year, they’ll give their full support to my efforts to establish the garment factory. If it succeeds, I’ll continue as factory director, and you’ll all share in the credit.”

“If it doesn’t pan out, I’ll walk away—no need for them to take the fall! And if anyone dares to hold me back during this time, don’t blame me for being ruthless!”

Hearing these defiant words, Li Yi couldn’t help but nod.

Although Jiang Longcheng had a somewhat cynical streak, he was still quite decisive when it came to getting things done.

He might not be a great leader, but he was a capable executor.

As long as the plan was well-prepared, given his personality, he should be able to carry it out effectively.

“By the way, I’m planning to open a clothing boutique downtown, but I’ve looked around and haven’t found a suitable location. Do you have any connections?” Li Yi asked.

“What do you mean by a ‘specialty store’?”

“It’s a store that exclusively sells the clothes we produce. The specific requirements are…”

After hearing Li Yi’s explanation of the boutique, Jiang Longcheng immediately replied, “I get it—it needs to be in a bustling downtown area with enough space, right?”

“Exactly!”

“Alright, leave it to me!”

“Mm-hmm!”

“Brother-in-law, I’m planning to head to the hospital in a bit to check on Aunt San. Are you coming?” Jiang Longcheng asked again.

“Sure!”

“Alright, let’s head over right now…”

However, before Jiang Longcheng could finish speaking, the phone on the desk suddenly rang…

…….

PS: I’m really sorry for skipping yesterday’s update. This illness is truly dreadful. The day before yesterday, my fever had gone down and I felt pretty good, so I thought I’d resume updates. I ended up writing 8,000 words that day, but then it flared up again that night—and it was even worse than the first day. What followed was over forty consecutive hours of severe insomnia. It was worse than death.

Cotton Spinning Mill. Garment Production Workshop!

Li Yi, Jiang Longcheng, Li Yeqiao, An Hong, and the others stared in awe at the fashionably dressed female workers before them.

Of course, they weren’t just amazed by the workers’ beauty—they were even more astonished by how the samples looked on them.

Just moments ago, Li Yi had finalized the purchase contract with the cotton mill.

He then came to the garment production workshop with Jiang Longcheng and the others to check on the progress of the sample production.

When Li Yi first saw the samples, he wasn’t particularly impressed.

In his view, the clothes were merely standard—nothing particularly outstanding.

However, to Director Tan, who was standing nearby, Li Yi’s expression conveyed a different message.

Thinking Li Yi was dissatisfied with the samples, he immediately suggested having the factory workers try them on to see how they looked.

And so, the factory’s beauty, Xu Taofang, once again stepped in as a model!

When everyone saw Xu Taofang, the factory’s beauty, in her batwing top and flared pants, they were instantly captivated by the look.

Beauty plus fashion—the result was definitely more than the sum of its parts!

“Brother-in-law, these clothes are absolutely stunning! No wonder you were willing to invest your entire fortune in them!” Jiang Longcheng exclaimed in admiration.

“So do you think if I put clothes like this on the market, people would buy them?” Li Yi asked with a smile.

“Of course people would buy them—who wouldn’t want such beautiful clothes?” Jiang Longcheng said happily.

At that moment, An Hong, standing nearby, frowned and said, “I don’t think so!”

As soon as she said that, almost everyone’s attention turned to her.

An Hong didn’t shy away from the spotlight; she explained directly, “These clothes are certainly fashionable, and they look great when worn, but I’m afraid the average person might not be ready to accept them just yet!”

Li Yi nodded and said, “You’re right, sis. So, in addition to ramping up production as soon as possible, we also need to quickly spread our fashion philosophy to the general public!”

“But… how do we do that?” Jiang Longcheng asked, looking a bit bewildered.

“You don’t need to worry about that. From now on, your job is to step up production and aim to turn half of our inventory into finished garments before the New Year!” Li Yi said.

Jiang Longcheng glanced at Tan Chunqiu beside him and asked, “Director Tan, can you guys handle this?”

“Well… all we can say is we’ll do our best!”

“How can you say you’ll just do your best? Are you facing any difficulties?” Jiang Longcheng frowned immediately.

“Yes. First, we don’t have enough sewing machines, and second, we’re short-handed…”

“That’s no problem. Just tell me what the difficulties are, and I’ll take care of them—but the task must be completed!” Jiang Longcheng said loudly.

“Yes!”

Li Yi also turned to Tan Chunqiu and said, “Director Tan, I’m leaving the production matters in your hands. I’ll have Comrade An Hong stay behind to assist you.”

“Alright!”

Li Yi continued, “Also, put the word out that the first batch of clothes produced in our workshop will be distributed free of charge to the employees here—one set per person!”

“But there’s one condition: everyone must wear our clothes when coming to and leaving work. If you feel these clothes aren’t suitable for production, you can change out of them once you arrive at the workplace!”

“Alright!”

The workers and staff members standing nearby were also quite excited upon hearing this.

Ready-to-wear clothes on the market cost at least ten or twenty yuan a set, and they aren’t even as nice as these.

But the best part was that they were free—who wouldn’t be happy to get clothes for nothing!

Of course, the workers at the cotton mill weren’t fools; they knew Li Yi’s real purpose was to turn every one of them into a living mannequin.

But since this arrangement offered them nothing but benefits, they were naturally more than happy to oblige!

In the days that followed, Li Yi had Director Tan gather all the team leaders together, and they carefully discussed the details of mass production.

First, they established detailed work standards and a finished product inspection system, requiring that the clothes produced must be free of quality defects.

Next, they determined the production ratio of men’s and women’s clothing, as well as the quantities for each size, and so on.

Once all these rules and regulations were finalized, Li Yi asked An Hong to stay behind and immediately organize production alongside Director Tan.

To make it easier for An Hong to commute, Li Yi even had Jiang Longcheng arrange a room for her at the cotton mill’s guesthouse.

Only after all this was done did Li Yi and Jiang Longcheng return to the factory director’s office.

……..

As soon as they walked through the office door, Jiang Longcheng said excitedly, “Brother-in-law, you’re a genius! How does your brain work? You actually came up with such a brilliant idea!”

“What do you think? Do you think this clothing business will work?”

“Definitely!”

Jiang Longcheng continued, “Look at the clothes on the market—none of them are as nice as ours. As soon as we launch them, people will definitely buy them!”

Li Yi smiled and said, “I’m not worried about people not buying them—I just don’t want to miss out on this Spring Festival!”

“What do you mean?”

“I plan to sell off half our inventory before the Spring Festival to recoup our funds as quickly as possible!”

Upon hearing this, Jiang Longcheng froze in shock. The fabric in their warehouse totaled over 36,000 bolts, which would make roughly 300,000 sets of clothes.

And now, with only a month left until the Spring Festival, let alone whether they could complete the production of 150,000 sets of clothing in such a short time.

Even if they managed to produce them, it would be nearly impossible to sell them all in such a short time!

“We… we don’t need to rush this. Let’s take it slow!”

“Third Brother, as long as the factory can produce them, I’ll sell them—don’t worry about that!”

Li Yi continued, “But for now, let’s talk about your factory’s future development. That 500,000 yuan will only keep your factory going for two or three months at most. If the money runs out and you still haven’t found a way forward, you’ll be in a fix again!”

“That’s exactly why we’re watching you. If your clothing business succeeds, our factory can just follow suit!” Jiang Longcheng said.

Li Yi shook his head. “If you can do it, why can’t other factories? If everyone starts doing the same thing, where’s the profit in that?”

“Then what should we do?”

“First, build brand awareness. Take advantage of the fact that other textile factories haven’t yet realized the enormous potential of the apparel market. Establish your brand as quickly as possible and gain public recognition.”

Li Yi continued, “Second, you need to establish your own sales channels as soon as possible—including, but not limited to, opening flagship stores in shopping malls or downtown areas—and seek out capable distributors in various provinces and cities!”

“At the same time, strictly control production quality and establish a comprehensive after-sales service department…”

Hearing Li Yi’s lengthy speech, Jiang Longcheng was momentarily dumbfounded, then said with a grim expression, “There’s so much to do!”

“What did you expect? Otherwise, just copying my designs will only keep your factory barely surviving—forget about growing and becoming a powerhouse!” Li Yi said.

“But I’ve never even heard of any of these things you’re talking about. What are we supposed to do?” Jiang Longcheng frowned.

“Easy. I can help you set up everything I mentioned—provided you provide the funding and manpower, of course!”

Changing the subject, Li Yi continued, “But here’s the deal: once everything’s up and running, you have to let me use those sales channels and brand stores for free for three months!”

“You’re trying to get something for nothing, aren’t you?” Jiang Longcheng said with a laugh.

“No, this is called a win-win partnership! I’m certainly getting a good deal, but your factory won’t lose out either!”

Jiang Longcheng thought for a moment and said, “Alright, I’ll discuss this with the deputy plant managers right away. I doubt they’ll dare to object!”

“Why?”

“You still owe the factory 300,000 yuan. The debtor is always the boss—even if it’s just to get that money back, they’ll have to treat you like royalty!” Jiang Longcheng said with a laugh.

“That’s true!”

Li Yi continued, “By the way, Third Brother, do you know anyone who works at a newspaper?”

“Yes, I do. What’s up?”

“Could you introduce me to him? I need to ask him to do me a favor. Is that okay?”

“Sure. I’ll give him a call right now and set up a time to meet,” Jiang Longcheng said.

“Great!”

After that, the two chatted for a while longer about work, and only then did Li Yi leave the cotton mill!

Cotton Mill. Garment Production Workshop!

At that moment, dozens of managers and workers were gathered around a female worker, examining her from all angles, and everyone couldn’t help but marvel in astonishment.

“This outfit looks weird, but it really looks great when she’s wearing it!”

“You’re absolutely right. Look at those wide flares at the bottom of the pants—they make her legs look three inches longer!”

“Comrade Taofang is already beautiful, but wearing this makes her look even more stunning…”

Though the female worker at the center of the crowd looked bashful, she was secretly delighted by the compliments.

She couldn’t take her eyes off her new outfit!

“Comrade Taofang, walk around a bit. See if the outfit feels comfortable when you move,” said Tan Chunqiu.

“Sure thing!”

Immediately, the female worker, who had been drafted as an impromptu model, began walking around the workshop.

After a moment, she said, “It’s quite comfortable—I don’t feel any discomfort at all!”

“That’s good!”

Hearing this, Tan Chunqiu breathed a sigh of relief!

Actually, earlier that morning, after looking at Li Yi’s sketches, he’d felt quite uncertain.

Mainly because these outfits were so unconventional, and he had no idea how they would turn out once made.

He knew full well that if the clothes didn’t turn out well, their workshop would have to hold more study sessions, exchange meetings, and even various criticism sessions.

So, after Li Yi left that morning, Tan Chunqiu took the note approved by Jiang Longcheng and went to the warehouse to pick up some fabric.

Then, accompanied by several team leaders, he set to work rushing the production of samples based on Li Yi’s sketches.

They were all experienced master tailors, and Li Yi’s sketches were far from mere doodles—they were incredibly detailed.

There were also extensive written instructions clearly outlining the key points of each garment.

After a full day of work, they managed to rush out several pairs of women’s flared pants and batwing tops.

Even after the samples were ready, everyone was still unsure about the results, so Tan Chunqiu asked Xu Taofang—the prettiest woman in the production workshop—to model the clothes and see how they looked.

Wow, those clothes that looked so odd instantly came into their own when Xu Taofang put them on.

Especially the exaggerated flares on the pant legs—not only did they make her figure appear slimmer, but the flared pants also flattered her leg shape.

For women whose leg lines aren’t quite perfect, wearing flared pants can make their legs look more attractive.

Even for women with a bit of extra weight on their legs, pairing flared pants with a pair of high heels can make their legs appear slimmer.

And that batwing-sleeve top looks equally stunning when worn, especially with its stand-up collar, which gives off an air of elegance and sophistication without sacrificing a sense of vitality.

In short, everyone in the garment workshop was blown away.

As the workshop manager, Tan Chunqiu clearly had a broader perspective than the ordinary workers.

The success of these garments directly impacts the income of the workers and managers in his workshop.

When he went to the factory director’s office today to get approval, the director gave him specific instructions.

If they performed well, that young man would hire their workshop to help produce the garments, paying at least one yuan and fifty cents per person per day.

Most importantly, he wouldn’t withhold their wages!

So, after seeing how well these garments turned out, Supervisor Tan was full of anticipation!

…….

The next morning!

Li Yi got up early and went to the hospital.

He brought over the books Tang Xue usually used for her studies, so she could read them whenever she had free time.

He also called An Hong over.

Today, he was going to sign a purchase contract with the cotton mill, after which he would have the garment production workshop ramp up mass production.

However, since Li Yi didn’t have much expertise in this area himself, he planned to have An Hong serve as his representative, stationed at the cotton mill.

After leaving the hospital, Li Yi went to the bank and withdrew all the money from his passbook.

Afterward, Li Yi returned to the store and counted every last penny he had on hand!

The total came to 204,600 yuan—just enough to sign the contract with the cotton mill!

It was already past nine o’clock, so Li Yi immediately set off for the cotton mill with Li Yeqiao and An Hong, carrying the money with them.

When the three of them arrived at the cotton mill carrying two large bags filled with cash, Jiang Longcheng was listening to Tan Chunqiu’s report.

Upon seeing Li Yi, Jiang Longcheng said cheerfully, “Brother-in-law, you’ve arrived just in time. Old Tan and his team have rushed the samples to completion. I hear the results are quite good—would you like to take a look?”

Li Yi smiled and said, “No need to rush to see the samples. Let’s sign the contract first!”

Hearing this, Jiang Longcheng was taken aback for a moment, then his gaze fixed on the canvas bags in Li Yi and Li Yeqiao’s hands.

“You aren’t carrying money in those bags, are you?”

“That’s exactly what it is!”

“You managed to get it all together this quickly?” Jiang Longcheng asked, looking stunned.

To be honest, he was genuinely taken aback by Li Yi’s generosity.

Don’t get me wrong—the Jiang family is one of the most prominent clans in the entire capital. Not only is the old patriarch still alive, but his uncles and cousins all hold high-ranking positions, giving them ample political resources.

But when it came to money, they really didn’t have much.

Forget 200,000 yuan—without embezzling public funds, his family couldn’t even come up with 20,000 yuan.

“Come on, don’t look so wide-eyed!”

Li Yi then added, “Hurry up and notify your factory’s management to assemble. Let’s get this contract signed as soon as possible so I can go take a look at the samples!”

“You’d better think this through…”

“Once the arrow is released, there’s no turning back. Hurry up!” Li Yi said.

Seeing how resolute Li Yi was, Jiang Longcheng nodded immediately and said, “Alright, I’ll have them get everything ready right away!”

He then instructed his secretary to summon the factory’s management to the conference room for a meeting to prepare for the contract signing!

The entire signing process went relatively smoothly. When the finance director took the 200,000 yuan in cash from Li Yi and Li Yeqiao, He Tianming, Chen Rui, and the others all breathed a sigh of relief—only Jiang Longcheng looked deeply concerned.

Yesterday, he had called his third uncle to report on the matter.

He had no choice; he had to report it. He was afraid his third uncle would hold him accountable later.

Upon hearing the news, his third uncle remained silent for quite a while before finally instructing him to simply cooperate fully.

Although his third uncle hadn’t said anything, Jiang Longcheng could sense that his third uncle wasn’t very optimistic about the situation.

In contrast, the other factory officials were relieved—they had finally managed to sell off that batch of defective inventory!

With this emergency cash infusion, the factory’s situation could finally begin to stabilize.

Admittedly, for a large state-owned factory with nearly 2,000 employees, 200,000 yuan was merely a drop in the bucket.

But at least it would cover the overdue wages for the workers and cadres, giving everyone enough to get through the New Year, so they were all overjoyed.

What they didn’t know was that their current joy would soon turn into bitter regret!

PS: This is so painful—my whole body feels like it’s been run over by a car!

By the time they left the garment production workshop at the cotton mill, it was almost 9:30.

Li Yi checked the time and figured it was about right; he guessed his brother-in-law and the others would be arriving soon.

He exchanged a few words with Jiang Longcheng, then led Li Yeqiao toward the main gate of the cotton mill.

As soon as they reached the entrance, they saw several people standing there chatting. Leading the group was none other than Fat Jin, with Long Zhanjun standing right beside him.

Seeing Li Yi actually emerge from inside the cotton mill, Fat Jin was slightly taken aback.

Although the cotton mill hadn’t been doing well financially in recent years and had a somewhat tarnished reputation, it was still a major state-owned enterprise with over a thousand employees.

The fact that Li Yi was striding out so confidently clearly indicated he had deep connections with the factory.

And anyone connected to such a large state-owned enterprise was rarely an ordinary person.

“Brother Li Yi, where’s the goods?” Jin Fat asked with a smile.

Seeing that Li Yi spoke with refinement and carried himself with distinction, he immediately felt a desire to befriend him and adopted a very humble tone.

“The goods are on their way and will be delivered very soon!” Li Yi replied.

“That’s incredibly fast—we just closed the deal yesterday, and the goods are already on their way today?”

“Getting the goods out early lets me focus on other things with peace of mind. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything!” Li Yi said with a smile.

“You’re right. If I had 100,000 pounds of dried goods, I’d be just like you…”

Just then, Li Yeqiao, standing nearby, suddenly pointed toward the main road and exclaimed, “Here they come!”

Everyone immediately stopped talking and looked in the direction Li Yeqiao was pointing.

A convoy of Jiefang trucks came into view, with the lead vehicle less than a hundred meters away.

Jin Fat instinctively glanced at the license plate—it was indeed from North Sai Province.

“Wow, for an out-of-town vehicle to enter Beijing, they managed to get the entry permit processed this quickly. This young man’s connections and influence are probably even more formidable than he imagined.”

In an instant, the look in Fat Jin’s eyes toward Li Yi changed once again.

Li Yi didn’t notice Jin Fat’s expression. He strode to the side of the road and waved to the driver of the lead truck.

Yang Wenguang in the truck also spotted Li Yi and immediately stepped on the gas, driving toward them.

Soon, the convoy arrived at the main gate of the cotton mill!

As soon as the truck came to a stop, Yang Wenguang jumped out.

“Bro-in-law, thanks for your hard work!” Li Yi said with a smile.

“It’s fine. We took turns driving, so it wasn’t really that tiring!” Yang Wenguang replied.

Li Yi nodded and said, “Our store is right nearby. Once we’ve delivered the goods in a bit, I’ll treat the guys from the convoy to some barbecue!”

“Sounds great!” Yang Wenguang said with a smile.

Li Yi then turned to Jin Fatso standing nearby and said, “This truck is loaded with dried goods—all top-quality wild mushrooms that have been sun-dried. Check them over!”

“Alright!”

Jin Fat immediately had someone climb into the truck and unload one package from the side and one from the middle.

Then, right in front of Li Yi and the others, he used a small knife to slit open the burlap sacks.

He then poured out a portion of the mushrooms and began inspecting them one by one.

Since the quantity involved in this transaction was quite large, Jin Fatso inspected them with particular care.

After all, he had practically invested his entire fortune in this deal; if he were swindled, he’d be truly ruined.

After the inspection, he found that the quality of this batch was exceptionally high.

Whether it was the variety, size, or moisture content—even the storage conditions were excellent—it fully met export standards.

“The goods are fine!”

“If there are no issues, let’s weigh it and complete the handover. While the truck is still here, my brother-in-law can help deliver it to your warehouse!” Li Yi said.

“Alright! Our warehouse isn’t far from here. Brother Li, let’s go together!”

“Alright!”

…….

By the time they returned from Fat Jin’s place, it was already past 2:00 p.m.

After all, with tens of thousands of pounds of cargo, unloading, weighing, and settling the accounts took a full four hours.

Still, the results were quite good. The six trucks brought in a total of over 68,000 jin, amounting to more than 143,000 yuan.

Considering that he had previously stated he wouldn’t handle delivery, Fat Jin specifically gave an extra 1,200 yuan as a shipping fee.

Li Yi didn’t hesitate to accept it!

After setting a time for the next delivery, Li Yi led his brother-in-law and the others back to the shop.

To treat the guys in the fleet, Li Yi immediately had Dongzi and the others serve up meat and hot pot for everyone, telling them to eat their fill.

The drivers in the fleet were all ordinary workers; they rarely treated themselves to meat like this. At first, they were a bit reserved and couldn’t quite let loose.

But they were quickly won over by the unique flavor of the hot pot, and soon let loose.

Twelve drivers managed to polish off 10 pounds of lamb and another 10 pounds of beef, plus a mountain of vegetables, in a single meal—their appetite was off the charts.

After the meal, Li Yi had originally planned to book a few rooms at a nearby guesthouse for the drivers to rest before heading back.

But my brother-in-law said they had a regular place to rest in the northern suburbs and told him not to worry about it.

So after the meal, my brother-in-law took a few packages from the truck and handed them to Li Yi, then led the convoy away.

To thank the drivers, Li Yi handed over the 12,000 yuan in freight fees that Golden Fatso had given him to his sister’s husband.

He told him to give half to the sugar factory’s finance department and distribute the other half among the drivers.

After seeing his brother-in-law off, Li Yi, with the help of Dongzi and the others, carried the packages back to their rented apartment.

Upon opening them back at the apartment, he found that aside from some of Tang Xue’s clothes and books, the rest were all children’s clothes.

Some had been mailed by Old Huang, while others were little quilts and cotton jackets his mother had made for her future grandchildren!

Clearly, his parents knew that Tang Xue would most likely be spending her postpartum confinement here, so they had sent all these things along with them.

Thinking about Tang Xue’s postpartum recovery, Li Yi immediately remembered the matter of the apartment. He wondered if Jiang Longcheng had looked into it for him.

But considering that guy was usually unreliable, Li Yi decided he’d have to find time tomorrow to remind him.

He didn’t want to end up with a baby on the way and still no place to call home!

Of course, the most urgent priority right now was to sign the contract with the cotton mill and get construction started as soon as possible.

This couldn’t be put off!

After all, people in China have always liked to wear new clothes for the New Year, and once the New Year passes, most people won’t be willing to buy new clothes.

Therefore, production must be arranged as soon as possible!

Besides, given the current market conditions, the clothes he “borrowed” might not be what people are looking for, so he’ll need to set aside some time for marketing.

That’s right—marketing!

These days, it’s no longer enough for a product to be good—you also need a solid sales strategy.

As for the products, Li Yi was confident.

The designs he’s… “borrowed” are all 1980s fashion hits. For women, Li Yi has chosen bell-bottom pants and batwing tops—styles that swept the entire decade.

Anyone who lived through that era knows just how popular these two items were.

It’s safe to say that there’s hardly a woman in the city who lived through that era who hasn’t worn bell-bottoms or a batwing top.

If there were any, it was because they couldn’t afford them, not because they didn’t like them.

For gay men, Li Yi chose the Zhongshan suit and Western-style suits, which were in line with mainstream trends; after all, gay men didn’t have many specific preferences regarding clothing styles.

Moving from a Zhongshan suit to a Western-style suit was already a major step forward in the tide of fashion trends.

The products themselves were certainly fine, but after all, it was just after the reform and opening-up, and the public’s mindset was still relatively closed-minded.

Suddenly appearing “outlandish attire” would not necessarily become the mainstream of public taste right away.

So, whether this attempt to snap up fabric from the cotton mill will be successful depends not only on whether the fabric can be turned into clothing, but more importantly on how well the marketing is executed.

In short, what lies ahead for Li Yi is definitely a tough battle where every second counts!

What Li Yi didn’t know, however, was that just as he was thinking about signing a contract with the cotton mill as soon as possible, Tan Chunqiu’s factory uniform production workshop was in an uproar because of his “design.”

PS: Working while sick, and having to take care of two sick people on top of that—it’s really no way to live!

Beiguan Village. Hot Pot Restaurant!

By the time Li Yi woke up, Long Zhanjun and the others had already returned from the market, and Li Yeqiao had withdrawn all the money from the account.

Although it was only a little over 30,000 yuan, it filled an entire bag.

There was no way around it—100-yuan bills hadn’t been issued yet, and the largest denomination was only 10 yuan, so 30,000 yuan meant 3,000 bills.

Li Yi was just about to head to the cotton mill when, before he could even set off, the shop phone rang.

Long Zhanjun answered the phone, exchanged a few words, and immediately called out to Li Yi, who was just about to leave, saying someone was looking for him.

When Li Yi took the phone, he immediately heard his brother-in-law’s familiar voice: “Xiao Yi, where in Beijing should I deliver the goods?”

“Brother-in-law, have it delivered to the State-Owned Second Cotton Mill near Beiguan Village. It’s easy to find there!” Li Yi said.

“Alright, we’ll be there in an hour at the latest. You wait for us there!”

Hearing this, Li Yi was taken aback!

“Brother-in-law, when did you leave? How did you get here so early?”

“After our call yesterday, I suddenly remembered we had a shipment to send to Beijing, so I went over to Director Liang’s house. After getting his approval, I took the convoy to Nianzishan Village overnight.”

Then his brother-in-law added, “Actually, our convoy arrived in Beijing at dawn; we just found a phone to call you!”

“A convoy? How many trucks did you bring?”

“Twenty-one trucks. But fifteen of them were carrying brown sugar, and the remaining six were your dry goods!”

“Alright, drive safely. I’ll be waiting for you here at the Second Cotton Spinning Mill!” Li Yi said with a smile.

“Alright!”

After hanging up, Li Yi immediately told Long Zhanjun the location of Fat Jin’s shop and told him to hurry over there to notify the guy to come inspect the goods!

As for himself, he immediately took Li Yeqiao and headed straight for the cotton mill!

His brother-in-law’s speed was truly unmatched—it saved him a lot of time.

After all, there were less than six weeks left until the Lunar New Year.

If he wanted to capitalize on the rush of people buying clothes for the New Year, he had to produce the first batch of clothes within two weeks and ship them out quickly.

Time was definitely of the essence!

When Li Yi arrived at the cotton mill, Jiang Longcheng was in his office carefully reviewing the contract documents delivered by his secretary.

The contract had been drafted yesterday afternoon by Li Yi and several key factory executives, then sent to the administrative office to be printed overnight in preparation for the signing.

Just as he was looking through them, Li Yi walked in with Li Yeqiao!

“Huh, why are you here so early?” Jiang Longcheng asked, somewhat surprised.

“We came to see if your contracts are ready!” Li Yi said with a smile.

Jiang Longcheng tapped the contracts on the desk and said, “I was just looking at them. What’s the rush?”

“Of course I’m in a hurry. The sooner we sign, the sooner we can start production!”

“You can sign the contract anytime, but you’d better think it through. Once you sign this thing, there’s no turning back!” Jiang Longcheng said.

“Got it!”

Then Li Yi added, “If you’re not busy, would you mind coming with me to take a look around the workwear production workshop?”

“Sure!”

With that, the group left Jiang Longcheng’s office and headed to the workwear production workshop at the back of the building.

The workwear production workshop was located at the very back of the cotton mill; within the entire facility, it was a low-profile department that seemed almost dispensable.

When Li Yi and the others arrived, the workers there were in the middle of a study session.

Due to a shortage of raw materials and a severe backlog of inventory, nearly all production workshops had been shut down.

With production halted, the workers had nothing to do. Fearing they might cause trouble, the factory organized these so-called study sessions and exchange meetings!

Although the goal was to keep everyone’s spirits up, overall, it seemed rather like a distraction from their actual work.

Upon seeing Jiang Longcheng arrive with Li Yi and the others, the workshop director, Tan Chunqiu, immediately came out to greet them, accompanied by several team leaders.

“Director, what brings you here?”

“Just came to check on you all. How have things been lately?” Jiang Longcheng asked.

Director Tan replied with a grim expression, “The workers haven’t been paid for over two months now, and morale is pretty low.”

“Tell everyone that the factory is almost there—we’re working to resolve the wage issue by the end of the month!”

“Really, Director? Do we really have the money?”

Director Tan asked excitedly, his gaunt, swarthy body trembling slightly.

“Of course it’s true!”

Jiang Longcheng then pointed to Li Yi standing beside him and said, “Old Tan, this is my brother-in-law. He’ll be assigning you some work soon, so your workshop needs to cooperate fully!”

Upon hearing that he was the factory director’s brother-in-law, Director Tan dared not be disrespectful and hurriedly replied, “We’ll definitely cooperate and give it our all!”

Although Li Yi had spent a few months at the cotton mill in his previous life, he didn’t know much about this Director Tan.

He looked at the thin, dark-skinned old man missing a front tooth and asked, “Director Tan, could you tell me a bit about our garment production workshop?”

“Sure… sure. Our workshop mainly produces work uniforms for the factory’s employees, and occasionally we take on orders for other factories as well. We used to be pretty busy, but these days…”

“Never mind that. Just tell me about the equipment and staff in your workshop!”

Director Tan hurriedly replied, “Our workshop currently has three production areas: one for cutting, one for sewing, and another for ironing and packaging. At present, the entire workshop has a total of 102 sewing machines, 20 overlock machines, and 155 employees!”

After listening to Director Tan’s introduction, Li Yi was quite satisfied with the conditions of this garment production workshop.

He then asked, “How many sets of work uniforms can each worker produce in a day?”

“That’s hard to say, because we make the shirts and pants separately!”

Director Tan continued, “If we exclude cutting and focus solely on sewing, a skilled worker can produce over 80 shirts a day!”

“As for pants, it’s even faster—at least 120 pairs a day!”

Hearing this, Li Yi began to calculate in his mind.

Yesterday, he had learned roughly the quantity and types of fabric stockpiled in the factory from the warehouse manager.

According to the inventory records, the fabric currently stockpiled in the warehouse included not only cotton but also some polyester and a small amount of printed fabric.

The total amounted to over 36,000 bolts!

Since a standard bolt is 33.3 meters (10 zhang), that meant the total fabric amounted to roughly 360,000 zhang.

Normally, a full set of clothes for an adult requires about 1.25 zhang.

Men require slightly more fabric, while women need a little less, but on average, it’s roughly this amount.

In other words, if all this fabric were used to make clothes, it would be enough for roughly 288,000 sets.

Based on this calculation, if all the sewing machines in the factory were running at full capacity, it would take about 35 days to produce 288,000 sets of tops.

If they were to focus entirely on producing pants, it would take about 23 days.

Added together, that comes to roughly two months—which is close to Li Yi’s estimate.

However, that’s only in an ideal scenario; in reality, it remains to be seen whether the workers at the factory will be able to produce the products he needs.

With that in mind, Li Yi immediately took a stack of draft paper from the shoulder bag he was carrying and handed it to Director Tan.

“Director Tan, take a look—do you think you can produce clothes like this?”

With a hint of puzzlement, Director Tan took the draft paper Li Yi handed him and began to look it over.

Director Tan was a veteran tailor himself, but when he saw the garments sketched on the paper, he was momentarily taken aback.

These garments were unlike anything they had ever made before—they looked strange and out of the ordinary.

Take the pair of pants he was looking at now, for instance. From the waist up, they seemed fine, but the legs were long and wide—they looked just like a giant megaphone!

Although he’d never seen this style before, it actually looked quite nice.

After looking at them for a moment, Director Tan immediately said, “We can make them, but it might take a little time at first!”

Li Yi replied immediately, “As long as we can make them, that’s fine. If possible, could Director Tan and your team please make a few samples based on these drawings? What do you think?”

“Alright, but the materials…”

Before he could finish, Jiang Longcheng immediately interjected, “Go pick up the materials from the warehouse. Just say I approved it!”

“Alright…”

……..

Hospital. Inpatient Ward!

By the time Li Yi arrived at the hospital, it was already past ten o’clock at night.

Since his mother-in-law’s room was close to the hallway, Li Yi decided to check there first. If she had already gone to bed, he would head to the rest area next door.

As soon as he reached the door of the ward, Li Yi heard muffled laughter and chatter coming from inside. From the sounds, he could tell there were other people in the room, and none of them had gone to sleep yet.

He pushed the door open and walked in!

Sure enough, besides Tang Xue, his third older sister, Li Na, was also there, but he didn’t see Zhang Xinyao or An Hong.

Seeing Li Yi walk in, Tang Xue’s eyes lit up, and she immediately said happily, “Why are you here? Did you sort things out with Third Brother?”

Li Yi smiled and said, “It’s not that simple!”

“So you’ll still have to go over there to help tomorrow?” Tang Xue asked, sounding a bit disappointed.

“Not just tomorrow—it might take several months!” Li Yi said with a laugh.

“That long?”

“Yeah.”

Li Yi then briefly recounted what had happened that afternoon to Tang Xue, his mother-in-law, and the others.

After hearing Li Yi’s explanation, Ye Lingyun immediately frowned and said, “So you spent 500,000 of your own money to buy that batch of cotton fabric from their factory just to help Longcheng?”

Li Yi knew what she was worried about and replied immediately, “It wasn’t entirely to help Third Brother. Most importantly, this is a great opportunity to make money!”

“Can you really make money off this? That fabric has defects!” Ye Lingyun said with some concern.

No sooner had she finished speaking than Tang Xue, standing nearby, took her mother’s hand and said, “Mom, you can rest assured about this. If he says it’ll work, it’ll definitely work!”

Tang Xue had absolute confidence in Li Yi’s ability to make money.

She knew better than anyone what the Li family’s situation had been like just six months ago.

And look at them now—not to mention how much Li Yi is worth, but just the pocket money he’s given her has added up to six or seven thousand yuan.

That was equivalent to the total wages of an ordinary worker over a dozen years—and that was assuming they didn’t eat or drink a single thing.

Plus, Sister Na had been working with Li Yi for a few months and had already saved over three thousand yuan herself.

Since Li Yi says he can make money, there’s definitely no problem!

“Silly girl, aren’t you afraid that Little Yi will squander all our family’s savings?” Ye Lingyun looked at her daughter and said affectionately.

“Mom, I trust him!”

Seeing the happiness in her daughter’s eyes, Ye Lingyun felt deeply comforted.

Although that incident years ago had kept them apart for nearly 20 years, causing her to miss her daughter’s entire upbringing,

But after all she’d been through, her daughter had found someone worthy of her trust for the rest of her life—a silver lining in an otherwise tragic situation.

“Xiao Yi, why don’t you ask Xue’er’s father to step in and help you? He has a wide network of contacts; perhaps he can help you sell that batch of fabric!” Ye Lingyun suggested.

Although Li Yi appeared confident, Ye Lingyun was still a bit worried; after all, that batch of fabric had defects and was truly hard to sell.

To ensure her daughter’s young family wasn’t affected, she felt it only made sense for her husband to step in and help their son-in-law.

“It’s not time yet. If I really run into trouble, I’ll ask for help!” Li Yi said.

“That’s fine, but don’t hesitate to ask!” Ye Lingyun said.

“Alright!”

Just then, Third Sister Li Na suddenly asked, “Xiao Yi, where are you going to get that 500,000?”

Li Yi smiled and said, “I forgot to tell you two—we sold our dried goods!”

Hearing this, Tang Xue and Li Na’s eyes lit up, and they hurriedly asked, “How much per pound?”

“Two yuan a pound!”

“That high?”

Then, Li Na said excitedly, “Xiao Yi, doesn’t that mean our dried mushrooms can bring in over 200,000 yuan?”

“That’s right!”

Hearing Li Yi’s confirmation once more, Li Na immediately grabbed Tang Xue’s hand and exclaimed, “Xiao Xue, we’re rich… we’re rich!”

From her hospital bed, Ye Lingyun watched her daughter and her older sister-in-law’s excited expressions and asked in confusion, “What’s going on?”

Tang Xue immediately sat down by her mother’s bedside and, as if showing off a treasure, recounted in detail the family’s mushroom business from the past six months.

After hearing her daughter’s account, Ye Lingyun was completely stunned.

She had always known Li Yi was capable; even her own husband thought he was extraordinary, going so far as to compare him to that “wolf cub” from the Wang family.

But Ye Lingyun never in a million years would have imagined that this young man had started from scratch with no one’s help and made so much money in just six months.

Not to mention ordinary people—even in a high-ranking official family like theirs, it might be impossible to earn that much in a lifetime.

No wonder he’d been so confident when he mentioned that matter earlier—it turns out he really does have what it takes!

………

A Compound in Guangdong Province!

Jiang Shiying had just returned to the small compound assigned to him after attending a meeting at his workplace!

As soon as he walked in, without even taking off his shoes, he went straight to his study and dialed a number.

The call connected quickly, and a steady voice came from the other end: “Who is this?”

“Old Hu, it’s me!”

“I knew it—who else would be calling me this late? It’s you, kid!” the man on the other end said with a laugh.

“How’s the investigation going?” Jiang Shiying asked immediately.

“It’s all been cleared up. It matches the records in the case file. Both the ringleader and the accomplices have received their just punishment!”

“Are there any who slipped through the net?”

“It’s not exactly that they slipped through the net—it’s just that some of them weren’t deeply involved in the case, so the local procuratorate didn’t bring charges against them!”

“Who are they?” Jiang Shiying asked in a low voice.

The past few days had been consumed by reuniting with his daughter and dealing with his wife’s sudden fainting spell, leaving him no time at all to deal with that bunch of scum in Yong County.

Now that he’d finally recovered, it was time to settle the score!

His daughter had suffered for so many years, his wife had endured so much pain, and he had nearly lost his entire family—someone had to be held accountable for all of this.

“The siblings of the main suspect, Tang Jizhong—they were all involved to some extent, and some were even detained for attacking my eldest niece and her family!”

The voice on the other end continued, “And then there’s Tang Jizhong’s daughter, Tang Bing. According to the investigation, that girl has bullied my eldest niece quite a bit; and then there’s the Tan family next door…”

After hearing the findings from the other end of the line, Jiang Shiying’s breathing became uneven.

On the train back to Beijing from Qingshan County, he had quietly asked Li Yi about this matter. The young man hadn’t given a clear answer, only saying he would handle it.

He knew even then that the matter wasn’t over. So, upon returning to Beijing, he called his childhood friend and brother—who held a position in the Political and Legal Affairs Commission of Qin Province—and asked him to look into the matter.

He hadn’t realized the extent of it until he looked into it—and what he found truly shocked him.

There were still so many people who had bullied his daughter who had gone unpunished, and each case was more egregious than the last.

Especially Tang Jizhong’s youngest daughter and his mistress—one had bullied the girl for over a decade, and the other had toyed with her emotions. They both deserved to die.

“Old Hu, since I’m not stationed there, it’s not convenient for me to intervene. I’m leaving this matter to you. I must seek justice for my wife and daughter!” Jiang Shiying said in a grave tone.

“Got it!”

Then, the voice on the other end added, “But Old Jiang, I’ve got to warn you—your son-in-law is no ordinary guy. You’d better keep a close eye on him!”

“Oh? What’s the matter?” Jiang Shiying asked immediately.

“That son-in-law of yours is no pushover. I’ve personally reviewed the case files—those criminals were almost all sentenced to heavy prison terms, and even the son of the accomplice, Tang Meiqin, was sentenced to ten years!”

Then the voice on the other end continued, “Also, according to the latest intel from my sources, Tang Jizhong’s daughter was disfigured, and his mistress had her leg broken—she’s now disabled. Your son-in-law’s fingerprints are all over this!”

“Did he send people to do it?” Jiang Shiying frowned.

“Not exactly. Apparently, Tang Jizhong’s daughter was having an affair with a man named Tan Cheng. Somehow, Tang Bing’s husband found out about it, and he was the one who hired people to carry out the brutal attack.”

“What does that have to do with that kid?”

“According to the investigation, that Liu fellow only struck so viciously after catching them in the act, and before he led his men to catch them, someone had secretly slipped him a note.”

The voice on the other end continued, “The person who passed the note is a local upstart with close ties to a man named Long Zhanjun—and that Long Zhanjun is your son-in-law’s best friend!”

Upon hearing this, Jiang Shiying showed no sign of worry; instead, he said with satisfaction, “It seems that kid really does have some skills!”

“Judging by these tactics, he’s clearly intent on wiping them out completely. This is no ordinary person!”

“I think that’s just fine. If they don’t provoke me, I won’t provoke them; but if they do, I’ll wipe them out completely!” Jiang Shiying said.

“Ah, I’d almost forgotten what kind of man you are, Jiang Shiying—a father-in-law as cunning as a fox and a son-in-law as ruthless as a beast. From now on, anyone who crosses the Jiang family is in for a world of trouble!”

“Enough with the nonsense. I’m leaving this to you. I’m waiting for your good news!” Jiang Shiying said.

“Got it!”

With that, the person on the other end hung up immediately.

Jiang Shiying paused for a few minutes, then dialed another number—and to his surprise, the area code was from North Sai Province…

…….

After sorting out his financial situation, Li Yi decided to head to the hospital.

First, to check on Tang Xue and his mother-in-law; second, because he wanted to talk to An Hong.

Although Li Yi wanted to snap up the cotton mill’s surplus fabric to start a clothing business, he’d never actually run such a business before.

But An Hong was different!

In her previous life, she had made her first fortune by buying up the inventory of the Qingshan County Textile Mill at rock-bottom prices, and had subsequently acquired that small, run-down factory outright.

For a long time afterward, she remained deeply rooted in the apparel and textile industry, only venturing into fields like petrochemicals in the 1990s.

Although it would be another seven or eight years before she bought the Qing Shan County Textile Mill at a bargain price, she might not yet possess the vision or boldness required at this stage.

But considering that she had been working at the textile mill for all these years, she had a deep understanding of the textile industry.

If she could step in to help him, it would certainly save him a lot of trouble.

However, just as Li Yi was about to leave, a deep voice suddenly rang out from the doorway: “Is anyone there?”

Hearing the voice, Li Yi, Long Zhanjun, and the others immediately turned toward the door!

They discovered that a man wearing a cotton overcoat had entered the reception area at some point.

The man wasn’t tall, but he was quite “stocky.” dxmbang

With that thick cotton coat and large woolen hat, from a distance he looked just like a fat bear.

However, the moment Li Yi got a clear look at the man’s face, his eyes lit up. He immediately stood up and said, “Yes!”

The fat man, upon seeing Li Yi, walked straight over and said cheerfully, “Brother, I finally found you!”

Seeing Jin Fatso’s enthusiastic demeanor, and knowing him as he did, Li Yi figured the guy was most likely after the batch of dried goods he had in his possession.

They must have realized that it was getting harder to source goods from the Northeast, which is why they’d remembered him.

“Mr. Jin, why are you here so late? Did you finally come to your senses or something?” Li Yi asked with a smile.

“I just wanted to ask Brother Li if that batch of goods you have is still available,” Fat Jin replied with a forced smile.

“It’s still there, but as for the price…”

Before he could finish, Fat Jin immediately cut in, “Price is negotiable!”

Jin Jishun had already steeled himself for a steep markup when he came today—after all, dried goods were in high demand this year.

“So, how much are you willing to pay per pound?” Li Yi asked.

“Two yuan!”

“Mr. Jin, two yuan is the price from ten days ago. I hope you can offer a fair price,” Li Yi said calmly.

“Brother Li, two yuan is actually quite a lot. Last year, the purchase price for this stuff was less than one yuan and twenty cents!” Fat Jin said.

Li Yi just smiled and said, “Last year, the Northeast didn’t suffer any disasters, and we didn’t even export our dried goods. What do you think?”

Hearing Li Yi’s words, Jin Jishun knew he was dealing with an expert. He immediately said, “Brother Li, go ahead—how much?”

“Actually, dried mushrooms haven’t been expensive in previous years. Back then, over a yuan per pound was considered a high price.”

Plus, they’re only in season for three to five months. By summer, fresh mushrooms are available—cheap and delicious—so who would bother with dried ones?

So they usually didn’t stock up much; a few trips to the Northeast during the fall and winter were usually enough to cover a year’s supply.

But this year, the cold snap hit the Northeast early, burying many crops under snow. Who has the time to sun-dry mushrooms? Supply has suddenly dropped by two-thirds.

More importantly, for some reason, Hong Kong has been importing dried goods from us on a massive scale this year, causing domestic prices to skyrocket.

Just a few days ago, their purchase price was only 1.7 yuan per jin, but now it’s already up to 2 yuan—and even at that price, they can’t get their hands on any stock.

“Flat rate of 2.2 yuan!” Li Yi said.

“That’s too expensive. Let’s meet halfway—how about 2.10?” said Fat Jin.

Li Yi thought for a moment and said, “The price is fine, but the goods aren’t in Beijing—you’ll have to come pick them up yourself!”

“Where is it?”

“Qingshan County, North Sai Province!”

“How much is there?”

“No less than 100,000 catties!”

Hearing this, Fat Jin was momentarily dumbfounded. He asked in shock, “There really are 100,000 catties? You’re not joking?”

“Do I look like I’m joking?” Li Yi retorted.

“I need to inspect the goods first. If everything checks out, I’ll take all 100,000 jin!”

“Sure!”

“When should we go inspect the goods?” asked Fat Jin.

“No need. I’ll have a batch delivered. If you’re satisfied, you can keep it; if you think the quality isn’t up to par, I’ll sell it to someone else!” Li Yi said.

“Alright, that’s a deal!”

“Alright!”

…….

After seeing Fat Jin off, Li Yi was in high spirits.

He’d been working on this batch of dried mushrooms for over half a year, and now he was finally ready to sell them—great news.

Plus, as soon as these mushrooms hit the market, new investment opportunities would follow. In terms of capital utilization, he had truly maximized his resources.

As a successful businessman, what he feared most was idle capital—that was a massive waste.

Thinking of his agreement with Fat Jin, Li Yi immediately called the Qing Shan County Sugar Factory.

With the deal sealed, the next step was to get some samples shipped over as soon as possible so the guy could inspect them.

For this, Li Yi had no choice but to ask Liang Yukui for help—after all, their sugar factory had plenty of large trucks.

Most importantly, the sugar produced by their factory was exclusively supplied to the Beijing-Tianjin region, so their vehicles had permits to enter Beijing.

That’s right—Beijing entry permits!

Many people assume this requirement was implemented after the turn of the millennium, but that’s not actually the case.

The predecessor to the “Beijing Entry Permit” was a document titled “Notice on Amending the Approval Procedures for Non-Local Vehicles Entering Beijing,” which took effect on August 23, 1979—a date that coincides almost exactly with the start of China’s reform and opening-up.

Back then, not only were cars hard to come by, but this permit was even harder to obtain. According to the provisions of this “Notice,” individuals entering Beijing had to be politically reliable, and the vehicles entering the city had to be in good condition.

In addition, you need to obtain a certificate from the local government and the relevant authorities, as well as a letter of introduction from your employer, which must be stamped with both the employer’s official seal and that of the local vehicle management office. All in all, it’s a huge hassle.

It wasn’t until 2005, when the “Notice on Amending the Approval Procedures for Non-Beijing Vehicles Entering Beijing” was repealed, that the era of requiring letters of introduction for entry into Beijing officially came to an end.

So, unless you have special connections, getting goods from outside the city into Beijing is actually quite difficult.

The phone rang for quite a while before someone finally picked it up. A slightly rough voice came from the other end: “Sugar Factory General Affairs Office. Who’s calling?”

“I’d like to speak with Director Liang!”

“The director has already left for the day. Why don’t you call back tomorrow?”

“Could you please call Section Chief Yang from your Transportation Department for me?” Li Yi asked again.

“I can try to reach him, but I’m not sure if Section Chief Yang is in his dorm. By the way, who’s this?”

“My name is Li Yi. I’m Yang Wenguang’s brother-in-law!”

“Oh, Comrade Li Yi! I know who you are. Please hold on!”

After quite a while, my brother-in-law’s breathless voice finally came through the phone: “Xiao Yi?”

“It’s me, brother-in-law!”

“Why are you calling so late? How’s the matter with my sister-in-law’s family reunion going?”

“Everything went smoothly!”

Li Yi continued, “Brother-in-law, I’m calling you today because I need your help with two things!”

“What is it? Go ahead!”

“We’re ready to sell our dried goods, but we need to send a truckload to Beijing, so we’ll need to use your factory’s truck!” Li Yi said.

“Alright, I’ll talk to Factory Director Liang tomorrow and have them send it over as soon as possible!” Yang Wenguang said.

“Tell Director Liang that we’re not using the truck for free. I’ll cover all the expenses along the way—I’ll pay three hundred yuan for each round trip!” Li Yi said.

“Alright!”

“Also, Brother-in-law, when you head back tomorrow, please give my parents a message for me: tell them that Xiao Xue’s family reunion went very smoothly. I’ve got some things to take care of here, but I’ll go see them as soon as I’m done!” Li Yi added.

“Got it!”

After hanging up the phone, Li Yi asked Long Zhanjun to keep the door open for him, then hopped on the shop’s tricycle and headed to Xiehe Hospital in the city center.

Beiguan Village. Hot Pot Restaurant!

Gathered around the steaming copper pot, Li Yi was devouring the fragrant slices of meat!

Having gone hungry for most of the day, he was starving and devoured the food with great relish.

Across from him, however, Jiang Longcheng sat with a furrowed brow, completely lacking any appetite.

Just moments ago, Li Yi and the cotton mill had drafted a contract to purchase the factory’s surplus cotton fabric.

Although the contract was only a draft and hadn’t been signed yet, judging by Li Yi’s attitude, he was dead set on spending 500,000 yuan to buy that batch of substandard fabric from the factory.

“Brother-in-law, that’s 500,000 yuan! Aren’t you worried at all?” Jiang Longcheng said, his food tasting like nothing.

He now truly felt he’d set Li Yi up—this was 500,000 yuan, after all. If Uncle San found out about this, wouldn’t he break his belt in anger?

“Worried about what? Losing money?”

“Exactly. If we really do lose that money, even with your restaurant raking in a fortune every day, it’d probably take you years to recover!”

Yet Li Yi remained completely unfazed. “Don’t worry. We won’t lose a dime.”

“Well…”

Before Jiang Longcheng could finish, Li Yi set down his chopsticks and said, “Third Brother, do you know what the current market price for cotton cloth is?”

“Thirty-five cents a foot!”

“Right, and you need cloth ration tickets too!”

Li Yi continued, “But the batch of fabric I bought from your factory costs only about 14 cents per foot—and no ration tickets required!”

“But… but there’s a problem with the quality of this batch of fabric. No matter how cheap it is, nobody’s going to buy it!” Jiang Longcheng frowned.

“Just because no one buys the fabric doesn’t mean no one will buy the finished garments!” Li Yi said calmly.

“Ready-to-wear? Are you planning to turn this batch of fabric into clothes to sell?” Jiang Longcheng asked, somewhat surprised.

“Exactly!”

“If no one buys the fabric, does that mean people will buy the finished garments?” Jiang Longcheng asked skeptically.

“Heh, no—I meant for your factory to do more market research. Do you know what the current state of the apparel market is?”

“Well… not really!”

“I knew you wouldn’t know!”

Li Yi continued, “Right now, demand in the clothing market is huge, but there are very few people who can actually make clothes, and the styles they produce are extremely outdated. Do you know what that means?”

“What?”

“Business opportunity!”

Li Yi continued, “As long as my clothes are stylish and reasonably priced, I’ll be raking in the cash without even lifting a finger!”

“How do you know all this?” Jiang Longcheng asked curiously.

“Heh, if you’d just spent more time checking out the tailor shops in town, you wouldn’t be asking that!”

“That’s a good idea, but making ready-to-wear clothes isn’t easy,” Jiang Longcheng said.

“What’s so hard about it? I’ve got the raw materials; you’ve got the labor, the property, and the machinery. What’s there to worry about?”

“So you want to hire our factory workers to make clothes for you!”

“Exactly. Doesn’t your cotton mill have a workshop that produces work uniforms? It’s equipped with sewing machines and staffed by experienced workers. Do you think this could work?” Li Yi said.

“We’re happy to let you use the workshop and the workers, but do you have the 500,000 yuan for the goods?” Jiang Longcheng asked again.

“Don’t worry about the money—I can handle that myself!”

“That’s 500,000 yuan. Are you really sure you can handle it? If not, try talking to Lao Er—have him help you arrange a bank loan!” Jiang Longcheng said.

“No need!”

Li Yi then added, “I’ll handle the money myself. As for you, keep an eye on the factory—especially when we start making clothes. We must strictly control quality!”

“You can rest assured about that. Now that we’ve gotten rid of those parasites, the workers at the factory are still willing to listen to what I say!”

“Hmm, if we pull this off, your factory will be back on its feet!” Li Yi said.

“So you want our factory to start producing and selling clothes?”

“We’ll discuss that later. Let’s focus on getting the immediate tasks done first!”

“Alright!”

…….

After seeing Jiang Longcheng off, most of the customers in the store had also left.

Li Yi immediately called over Long Zhanjun, Li Yeqiao, and the others!

Since they were going to go all out, they needed to see how much capital they had on hand.

After briefly inquiring about the shop’s business over the past few days, Li Yi turned to Li Yeqiao and asked, “How much money is in the account right now?”

Li Yeqiao immediately pulled out a ledger, glanced at it, and said, “Not counting today’s earnings, the shop currently has a little over 30,000 yuan!”

“Hmm, withdraw all that money tomorrow. I have a use for it!” Li Yi said.

“Alright!”

Then Li Yi added, “Dalong, from now on, you’ll be in charge of the shop’s books. Starting tomorrow, Brother Li is going to be working on other business ventures with me!”

“Next up, we’ll be buying fabric, hiring workers to make clothes, and handling sales—we absolutely can’t do this without a proper bookkeeper.”

“Got it!”

After saying this, Li Yi began calculating the funds at his disposal.

There was 30,000 yuan in the shop, he had a little over 20,000 yuan on hand, and with the 10,000-plus yuan in his savings account as a contingency fund, the total came to just over 60,000 yuan.

According to the contract terms, he was required to pay the cotton mill a lump-sum payment of 200,000 yuan upon signing.

In other words, he was currently short by 140,000 yuan.

How could he come up with 140,000 yuan in such a short time?

Li Yi thought of the dried goods at home!

Over 100,000 jin of dried mushrooms—even at current market prices, they could fetch 170,000 to 180,000 yuan.

Admittedly, selling them now would fall short of his expectations—he’d likely have to accept several tens of thousands less.

But considering the profit margin from making finished garments, Li Yi decided to sell the dried goods anyway and get the cotton mill up and running as soon as possible.

So, Li Yi decided to head to the dried goods market tomorrow morning to have a chat with Fat Jin.

“Fat Jin” was the man Li Yi had specifically gone to meet at the dried goods market last time. His full name was Jin Jishun, and he was one of the few licensed vendors in Beijing.

Although the state had imposed particularly severe restrictions on the private economy over the past few decades, by the time of the Reform and Opening-Up, the private sector had virtually disappeared in China, and the private economy was negligible.

However, this did not mean that the individual economy had completely vanished. For instance, the “Notice on Further Cracking Down on Counter-Revolutionary Economicism and Speculative Activities,” issued in 1970, explicitly stipulated that apart from state-owned commerce, cooperative commerce, and licensed vendors, no unit or individual was permitted to engage in commercial activities.

This shows that even during the most difficult times, there were still some people in the country engaged in commercial activities.

However, these individuals were all authorized by the state and were primarily concentrated in individual handicrafts and small vendors acting as agents for state-owned stores.

For several generations, the Jin family had been in the business of buying and selling mountain produce and dried goods. Most of the time, they supplied goods to the supply and marketing cooperatives in Beijing, but they also sold them on their own.

Though they kept a low profile, they were a formidable force.

In his previous life, after leaving the cotton mill, Li Yi had been in the mountain produce business for a while. He’d had some dealings with this guy and knew him fairly well.

Jin Fatso was incredibly cunning in business; most people couldn’t outsmart him, and Li Yi actually admired him for that.

But cunning aside, he was a man of his word.

He’d pull out all the stops during negotiations, but once a contract was signed, he never went back on his word.

More importantly, Fat Jin has real clout. Though he keeps a low profile, he’s one of the most powerful buyers in the capital’s dried goods market.

Once a deal was struck with him, Li Yi wouldn’t have to worry about selling the 100,000 catties of mushrooms he had on hand.

What Li Yi didn’t know was that just as he was desperate for cash, Fat Jin was also fretting over a shortage of stock!

Just as Li Yi was thinking about going to talk to Fat Jin, the other party was already on his way!

PS: I’m screwed. I haven’t left the house for over a hundred days straight and thought I was fine. I was even bragging to the editor yesterday, saying I’d definitely never catch it, but today… Due to health reasons, I’ll do my best to keep updating!

While the leaders of the State-Owned Second Cotton Spinning Factory in Beijing were in session, Li Yi was furiously scribbling away in Jiang Longcheng’s office, drafting a detailed marketing plan.

Regarding this batch of fabric from the cotton mill, Li Yi felt that selling it directly would be difficult.

The reasons were simple. First, the fabric had obvious defects that anyone with a discerning eye could spot immediately.

Second, the reputation of the State-Owned Second Cotton Spinning Factory had already been tarnished. If it were known that this batch of fabric came from this factory, even at a steep discount, it was unlikely anyone would buy it.

Unless, of course, the fabric were taken to the vast rural areas for sale!

But this raised another issue: the government’s centralized purchasing and distribution policy. Such a move would simply not be permitted.

Therefore, Li Yi’s plan was not to sell fabric, but to sell ready-made garments.

At present, there is no shortage of fabric—not just in the capital, but nationwide—yet there is a severe shortage of ready-made clothing.

With the Lunar New Year approaching, turning this batch of fabric into ready-to-wear garments for direct sale would certainly yield better results than selling the fabric by the yard.

More importantly, selling finished garments not only adds value to the fabric but also provides work for the cotton mill’s employees.

Due to raw material shortages, the cotton mill’s workers had been idle for over a month.

During this time, nearly all frontline workers have been idle at home.

If we bring them back to make clothes, a significant number of workers will have work to do, and the factory won’t have to keep them on the payroll without work.

In short, this plan is highly feasible!

Li Yi had only just finished half of his proposal when Jiang Longcheng’s meeting concluded, and he hurried back to his office.

Upon pushing open the door, Jiang Longcheng saw Li Yi sitting at his desk writing something, so he immediately sat down across from him.

“Any results yet?” Li Yi asked without looking up.

“No! We’ve adjourned for now; we’ll resume in a moment!”

Jiang Longcheng continued, “Regarding the first proposal, they think a 20% profit margin is too high. They say it’s unreasonable for you to take 20% just for presenting a single proposal!”

“What about the second proposal?” Li Yi asked again.

“They also think selling 1.25 million worth of goods for 300,000 is a bit too low—the factory would lose too much money!” Jiang Longcheng said.

“So what did you guys discuss?” Li Yi asked, frowning.

“Well…”

“How much are they planning to sell it for?”

“500,000!”

Jiang Longcheng said somewhat sheepishly; he thought this price was a bit high.

After all, the sales department had been actively promoting this batch of fabric for some time, even going so far as to slash the price by half, yet there were still very few takers.

Consequently, the sales department estimated that the maximum they could realistically expect for this batch was around 300,000 to 400,000.

Li Yi thought for a moment and said, “500,000 is a bit high, but it’s not completely out of the question!”

“Wait, brother-in-law, are you really going to spend 500,000 on that batch of fabric?” Jiang Longcheng asked, looking stunned.

“Yeah, but I have a condition!”

“What conditions? Go ahead.”

“There’s no point telling you. I’ll just talk to them directly!” Li Yi said.

“That works too!”

Li Yi then put away the draft he’d been working on at the table and followed Jiang Longcheng into the adjacent conference room.

When the senior management of the cotton mill in the conference room saw Jiang Longcheng enter with a young man, they all looked at Li Yi with curiosity.

Jiang Longcheng cleared his throat and said, “Let’s continue the meeting. First, let me introduce you all to Comrade Li Yi. The two proposals we were just discussing were put forward by him!”

“I just shared the results of our discussion with him, and he’d like to talk with everyone in person!”

No sooner had he finished speaking than a middle-aged man immediately spoke up: “Comrade Li Yi, we’re all comrades in the revolution. If you have a solution to our factory’s problems, all of our employees will be grateful to you, but 20% of our net profit is really a bit too much.”

As soon as he said this, someone immediately chimed in: “Exactly! You’re asking for 20% of our profits just for coming up with a single proposal—that’s way too greedy!”

“Yeah, how can anyone act like that…”

Li Yi watched their performance with a calm expression; they were treating him like some naive greenhorn who’d never seen the world.

If he’d run into some greenhorn fresh out of school, with his head full of patriotic sentiment and collectivist ideals, he might actually have handed over the proposal right then and there, only to be met with a simple “thank you.”

But Li Yi was clearly not that kind of person!

Setting aside the fact that he still had to complete the “three-year, one-million-yuan” challenge with his father-in-law, just looking at these people’s shameless faces made him determined not to let them have their way.

At that moment, Li Yi looked at the man who had spoken first and said, “You must be Deputy Plant Manager He, right?”

“You know me?” He Tianming frowned.

Li Yi glanced at him—with that unlucky look on his face, how could he not recognize him!

In his previous life, this guy had been burned to death after investigating Gao Shubin.

By reminding Jiang Longcheng to investigate Gao Shubin, he had indirectly saved this man’s life. Yet instead of being grateful, the man was now taking jabs at him.

“So, Deputy Plant Manager He is saying that since we’re all comrades in the revolution, we should treat each other as one, right?”

“Exactly. Revolutionary comrades should naturally help one another—how could you possibly ask for so much?” He Tianming said.

“Haha, so does that mean your money is my money? I’m short on cash right now—shouldn’t you give me some too?” Li Yi said indifferently.

“How can that be the same…”

“What’s the difference? What, are you saying that what’s mine is yours, but what’s yours is still yours?”

Li Yi then slammed his fist on the table and stood up, shouting, “Don’t you have any idea what kind of situation your factory is in right now? I have a way to solve your predicament, yet you’re trying to play the moral high ground on me. Do you take me, Li Yi, for a fool?”

Seeing that Li Yi seemed genuinely angry, Jiang Longcheng hurriedly said, “Brother-in-law, don’t get upset. Let’s talk this out. Let’s talk it out!”

“Bro-in-law?”

Hearing Jiang Longcheng’s address to Li Yi, everyone in the conference room was stunned.

Most of them knew a bit about the Jiang family—hadn’t the Jiang family gone three generations without a single daughter?

What on earth was this “brother-in-law” business?

But regardless, everyone could tell that the young man standing before them had a special relationship with their Plant Manager Jiang.

Immediately, Chen Rui, another deputy factory director, chimed in: “Comrade Li Yi, please don’t get upset. Let’s talk this out! Business is business—a 20% profit share is indeed a bit high!”

Li Yi replied immediately, “Talk business, indeed. Since you won’t accept a 20% profit share, let’s discuss the second proposal!”

“I hear you think 300,000 yuan for that batch of fabric is a bit low, and you’re planning to ask for 500,000?”

He Tianming replied, “That’s right. Selling goods worth over 1.2 million for 500,000 is already very low!”

“Don’t you have any idea what condition that batch of goods is in? If you could sell it for 500,000, I think you would’ve sold it long ago—you wouldn’t still be waiting until now!” Li Yi said.

At that moment, Chen Rui spoke up, “So, how much are you willing to offer?”

“For my third older brother’s sake, I can accept the 500,000 price, but you must agree to three conditions of mine!” Li Yi said.

“What conditions?” He Tianming and Chen Rui asked urgently.

“The first condition is payment in installments. The 500,000 yuan will be paid in two installments: 200,000 yuan upon signing the contract, and the remaining 300,000 yuan to be paid in full two months later!”

Li Yi continued, “The second condition is that you must let me use part of your cotton mill’s factory buildings and warehouses for free on a trial basis, for no more than three months!”

“The third condition is that I want to hire some of your factory’s employees!”

After hearing Li Yi’s three conditions, the leaders in the conference room immediately began whispering among themselves.

After a long pause, He Tianming asked again, “The first two conditions are fine, but you need to clarify this matter of hiring our factory’s workers. How exactly do you plan to hire them?”

“It’s just a short-term arrangement—one yuan and fifty cents per person per day!” Li Yi replied.

One yuan and fifty cents a day per person—that’s 45 yuan a month, which is higher than the wages they pay their workers.

Plus, since most of the workers were currently just sitting idle at the factory, Li Yi’s offer to pay them would significantly ease the factory’s financial burden.

All in all, it was a good deal.

With that in mind, He Tianming immediately said, “If that’s the case, I agree to this proposal in principle!”

“I agree too!”

“I have no objections…”

……..

After seeing Jiang Longcheng off, Li Yi returned to Ye Lingyun’s hospital room, intending to discuss the matter with Tang Xue.

After all, he’d left her—who was pregnant—and his seriously ill mother behind; he had to explain himself clearly, or else it could easily create a rift between them.

Just as he reached the door of the hospital room, Li Yi heard his third sister’s voice!

“Auntie, you really gave me a heart attack! Thank goodness you’re awake—otherwise, I’d be in a real bind, caught between a rock and a hard place!”

Although Li Na’s voice was a bit loud and boisterous, one could still tell she was still shaken by the scare.

“You’re not calling me ‘Big Sister’ anymore?” Ye Lingyun asked with a smile.

“No… no, we’re from different generations!” Li Na said, a touch of embarrassment in her voice.

“What happened yesterday was my fault. I scared you!”

Then Ye Lingyun added, “But I really do want to thank you. If it weren’t for you, I don’t know when I would have been able to reunite with Xue’er!”

“You don’t need to apologize…”

Just then, Li Yi pushed open the door and walked in!

Upon seeing him, everyone fell silent, their eyes fixed on Li Yi.

“Xiao Yi, come here!”

Hearing his mother-in-law’s call, Li Yi immediately walked over!

“How are you feeling now? Do you need to rest for a bit?”

“I’m fine. With Xue’er here, I feel at ease—my body feels much lighter!” Ye Lingyun said.

“That may be so, but you still need to follow the doctor’s orders and take your IV fluids and medication on time!” Li Yi said.

“Hmm, Xiao Yi, thank you!”

“Please don’t say that—I can’t accept such praise!” Li Yi said with a smile.

Meanwhile, Tang Xue, standing nearby, quickly interjected, “Mom, we’re family—you’re being too polite to him!”

“That’s right, we’re family—we’re all family!” Ye Lingyun said.

Li Yi understood his mother-in-law’s current state of mind, so he quickly changed the subject: “By the way, Xiao Xue, Third Brother stopped by earlier. Grandpa asked him to bring you some bedding and daily necessities!”

“Where’s Third Brother now?”

“He went to pick up Zhang the educated youth and Sister-in-law An Hong!”

“Huh? Why is he picking them up?” Tang Xue asked in surprise.

Li Yi then explained the situation regarding Jiang Longcheng asking for his help.

Upon hearing this, Tang Xue immediately said, “Since Third Brother asked for your help, you should definitely go!”

“Besides, we don’t need Xinyao or Sister-in-law An Hong. With Third Sister here, the two of us can take good care of Mom!”

Li Yi smiled and said, “I don’t feel comfortable leaving Third Sister to handle it all by herself!”

“All right, then!”

At that moment, Ye Lingyun looked at Li Yi and said, “Xiao Yi, I know you’re a smart, level-headed kid. Longcheng has always been close to me and Shiying—please do your best to help him if you can!”

“Rest assured, I won’t stand idly by when it comes to Third Brother’s affairs!” Li Yi replied.

“Alright!”

I have to say, Jiang Longcheng sure is quick!

No sooner had Li Yi finished explaining the situation to Tang Xue and his mother-in-law than he brought Zhang Xinyao and An Hong over.

When the two learned that Tang Xue had actually found her biological parents—and that they were both scions of prominent Beijing families—they were utterly shocked.

When they learned that Li Yi had asked them to come to the hospital to help him look after Tang Xue and her biological mother, they immediately agreed.

After settling matters at the hospital, Li Yi followed Jiang Longcheng to the cotton mill!

…….

Cotton Mill. Main Warehouse!

When the mill’s warehouse manager opened the doors in front of Li Yi and Jiang Longcheng, the two were stunned by the mountains of cotton fabric and yarn piled inside.

The vast warehouse was filled with neatly stacked bales.

These massive fiber-woven bales were filled entirely with cotton cloth and yarn, with cotton cloth making up the vast majority.

After recovering from the initial shock, Li Yi immediately walked into the warehouse and took a look around!

After his tour, Li Yi was inwardly stunned.

He had always known that the cotton mill was suffering from severe inventory backlog, but he never imagined the quantities would be this vast.

To put it simply, the backlog in this warehouse alone was worth no less than several hundred thousand yuan!

And who knows how many large warehouses like this there were throughout the entire cotton mill.

Disposing of all this fabric was no easy task.

With that in mind, Li Yi pointed to a random woven bag and said to the warehouse managers standing nearby, “Open it up!”

The warehouse managers at the cotton mill didn’t recognize Li Yi. Upon hearing this, they didn’t move but all turned to look at Jiang Longcheng.

“Didn’t you hear me? What are you all standing there for? Hurry up and open it!” Jiang Longcheng shouted.

Hearing Jiang Longcheng’s order, the warehouse managers finally snapped out of it and immediately set to work on the large bundle!

Soon, the large bundle wrapped in cotton cloth was unwrapped.

Then, Li Yi personally began inspecting the fabric inside.

He inspected it meticulously, unfolding and examining each of the six bolts of fabric in the bundle one by one with the utmost care.

It took Li Yi over an hour to finish inspecting all six bolts of cloth.

To be honest, the cloth in the warehouse did indeed have some flaws; two of the six bolts had uneven threads or small holes.

The problems were real, but not as serious as one might imagine. At the very least, the fabric was still usable; it was just that, with a bit of bad luck, a small hole might be discovered after it was made into clothing.

Yet even such a minor flaw was enough to ruin the reputation of the Second State-Owned Cotton Spinning Factory.

Of course, the severe backlog of goods at the factory is directly related to product quality issues, but it is also due to the poor economic climate.

Currently, there are thousands of textile mills of all sizes across the country, resulting in a severe overcapacity.

If the products aren’t competitive, being weeded out is inevitable.

“Bro-in-law, what do you think? Is there still a chance to salvage this?” Jiang Longcheng asked nervously.

Li Yi didn’t answer him, but instead turned to the warehouse manager standing nearby and asked, “How much stock like this do you have in total?”

The warehouse manager didn’t dare to delay and hurriedly replied, “Currently, we have four full containers and one and a half!”

“What’s the total value?”

“The cotton fabric alone is worth about 1.25 million, the cotton yarn is worth about 150,000, and the cotton thread is worth 80,000!”

After hearing the warehouse manager’s reply, Li Yi felt more confident.

Then he turned to Jiang Longcheng and said, “Let’s take this outside.”

“Alright!”

The two then left the warehouse area and returned to Jiang Longcheng’s office.

As soon as they entered, Li Yi said, “We have two options. Think it over!”

“What are the options?” Jiang Longcheng asked eagerly.

“Option one: I’ll personally devise the shipping plan, tell you exactly what to do, and you organize the factory workers to carry it out. Once it’s done, I’ll take 20% of the net profit!”

Seeing Jiang Longcheng’s brow furrow, Li Yi quickly explained, “If this factory belonged to the Jiang family, I’d definitely help for free—not a penny!”

“But since the factory is collectively owned and you’re just an agent, I can’t work for free. I hope you understand, Third Brother!”

“I understand. What’s the second option?” Jiang Longcheng asked.

“For the second option, I’ll take this batch of cotton fabric. But given the quality issues, I’ll pay no more than 300,000 yuan for the 1.25 million yuan worth of fabric!” Li Yi said.

“What are you going to do with so much fabric?” Jiang Longcheng frowned.

“To make a profit, of course!”

“Can you really make a profit? Don’t lose your entire investment. You should know that just a couple of days ago, we already slashed the price to half of what it was, but still no one was willing to buy!” Jiang Longcheng said.

“That’s none of your concern. I have my own way of handling it!”

Li Yi then added, “Since this concerns the collective, I suggest you hold a meeting with the factory’s leadership to discuss it!”

“Alright, I’ll call a meeting right away!”

With that, Jiang Longcheng hurried over to the secretary’s office next door and summoned the factory’s mid- and senior-level managers to the conference room immediately!

The next day, early morning!

Li Yi was dozing fitfully when he suddenly felt someone calling his name.

He opened his eyes to find Jiang Shiying standing right by his bed. Li Yi was so startled he sat bolt upright.

Man, that guy really knows how to give someone a heart attack!

“Uncle… Father-in-law, what’s going on?”

“Yun’er is awake and wants to see Xue’er. I can’t go in there to get her,” Jiang Shiying said.

“Got it!”

With that, Li Yi immediately put on his shoes and headed straight for the neighboring hospital room!

When Li Yi entered the room, he saw his third sister having breakfast with Tang Xue. They sure were up early.

Seeing Li Yi come in, Li Na asked right away, “Have you eaten yet? If not, there’s still half a bowl of congee left here!”

“No, thanks. Why are you two up so early?”

Tang Xue smiled and said, “It’s Sister Na who woke up hungry—she didn’t eat dinner last night!”

“What do you mean ‘last night’? I haven’t eaten since yesterday at noon—all the way through the night until dawn! I’ve been starving for ages!” Li Na added.

“Then why didn’t you say anything yesterday?” Li Yi asked.

“I… I didn’t dare say anything!”

Seeing his third sister looking so timid, Li Yi shook his head.

Then he turned to Tang Xue and said, “Xiao Xue, your mother has woken up. She says she wants to see you!”

“My mom’s awake?”

Tang Xue immediately put down her chopsticks, got out of bed, and looked thrilled.

Li Na quickly put down her bowl, stepped forward to support her, and said, “Take it easy—you two really have me on edge!”

Then, with Li Na by her side, Tang Xue made her way to her mother’s hospital room.

When mother and daughter were reunited, there was naturally another outburst of emotion.

Fortunately, after last night’s emotional outburst, the two were mostly overjoyed and no longer had tears welling up in their eyes!

Watching the mother and daughter whispering to each other, Li Yi felt that the men present were surplus to requirements.

So, he took Jiang Shiying and the sleepy-eyed Jiang Longcheng downstairs to the cafeteria for breakfast; they must have been hungry by now.

After ordering some simple steamed buns and thin porridge, the group found a table by the window and sat down.

After just a couple of bites, Jiang Shiying turned to Li Yi and said, “I have to leave in a little while. I’m leaving Yun’er and Xue’er in your care!”

“In such a hurry?”

“Yeah, there’s an important matter in the province that needs my attention. I was supposed to go back the day before yesterday, but I’ve already been delayed two days because of Xue’er’s situation—I can’t put it off any longer!” Jiang Shiying said.

Li Yi knew the nature of his work was unique, so he immediately replied, “Alright, leave the family matters to me!”

“Once Yun’er has recovered, you two should move back to the old family home together!” Jiang Shiying said again.

“Let’s discuss that later!”

Jiang Shiying sensed Li Yi’s reluctance. He knew his son-in-law wasn’t the type to be pushed around, and that he likely didn’t want to live at his father-in-law’s house permanently.

He understood Li Yi’s perspective, so he nodded and said, “Alright, we’ll discuss this later!”

After that, the three fell silent and turned their full attention to the breakfast before them!

……

Li Yi was extremely busy all morning.

First, he saw Jiang Shiying off, then dealt with several waves of relatives who came to visit Ye Lingyun and Tang Xue.

Goodness, they were all close relatives from the Jiang and Ye families, and the moment they arrived, they started handing out gifts.

Some brought clothes and health supplements, others gave jewelry and accessories, and still others simply handed over cash—often tens or even hundreds of yuan—all of it for Tang Xue.

Tang Xue had never seen anything like this before. Back at the Tang family, she had been a complete nobody—no one cared about her feelings, or even whether she lived or died.

She never imagined that just by finding her biological parents, her treatment would suddenly be elevated like this.

Such a sudden change left her struggling to adjust.

Fortunately, Li Yi was there to help her handle these relatives one by one.

At the same time, Li Yi took Tang Xue to Peking Union Medical College Hospital for a prenatal checkup.

After all the ups and downs of the journey, with its mix of tears and laughter, Li Yi was deeply worried.

Fortunately, the results showed that both the mother and the fetus were doing well. Upon seeing the report, Li Yi’s heart finally settled.

That matter was settled, but another issue needed to be resolved as soon as possible—housing!

They say plans never keep up with changes, and Li Yi now understood this all too well.

When he came this time, he hadn’t expected Tang Xue to stay here long-term; he’d actually planned for her to return to the village for her postpartum confinement!

But judging by the current situation, it would be very difficult for Tang Xue to return to Nianzi Mountain Village anytime soon.

Even if she were willing, Jiang Shiying and Ye Lingyun—her in-laws—would certainly object, and the elders of the Jiang and Ye families would surely disapprove as well.

Especially his mother-in-law, Ye—these days, she can’t wait to see Tang Xue the moment she opens her eyes, acting just like a child.

Plus, with the Lunar New Year approaching, barring any surprises, Tang Xue would likely give birth and spend her postpartum recovery in Beijing.

Li Yi didn’t object to this; after all, medical care in the capital was superior, and it would be better for Tang Xue’s delivery and recovery.

However, judging by what Jiang Shiying had said that morning, his father-in-law wanted him and Tang Xue to move into the Jiang family’s ancestral home.

And that was something Li Yi was genuinely unwilling to do!

On one hand, it was certainly due to some machismo at play; according to local customs, only a man who marries into the family would live under his father-in-law’s roof for an extended period.

Clearly, as a man of his stature, Li Yi had no desire to be a son-in-law living under his father-in-law’s roof. He wasn’t short on money, so why would he want to live off his father-in-law?

Secondly, the Jiang family’s old mansion had too many rules—with security guards and secretaries in the courtyard—making it far too inconvenient.

After all, he planned to run a business in the future, which would inevitably require him to come and go frequently; living in his own home would be much more suitable.

Moreover, Li Yi had already planned to buy a property in Beijing, so the matter of purchasing a home had to be put on the agenda.

However, since he currently needed to stay at the hospital to care for his mother-in-law and had no time to look around, he had no choice but to find someone to handle it for him.

Just as Li Yi was agonizing over who to ask, someone came right to him!

In the hospital corridor, Jiang Longcheng walked over, carrying a large bundle of luggage and bedding.

Spotting Li Yi, he called out breathlessly from a distance, “Quick… quick, help me out!”

Li Yi immediately stepped forward to take some of the luggage from his hands and asked, “Why are you carrying so much stuff?”

Jiang Longcheng grimaced and said, “Do you think I want to do this? It was the old man’s idea. He was worried you’d be cold in the hospital, so he had me bring some bedding over!”

“Didn’t you tell him the hospital has great heating and already provides beds and bedding?”

“Of course I explained it, but if explaining worked, he wouldn’t be my grandpa!”

“Alright, you’ve brought everything. Stop rambling!” Li Yi said with a smile.

“Uh-huh!”

After the two of them carried the items into the ward where Tang Xue and the others were staying, Jiang Longcheng, still panting, turned to Li Yi and said, “Bro-in-law, when are you going to take care of that thing you promised me?”

“What thing?”

“That mess at our factory—you said you’d draw up a plan for me. If we don’t get this sorted out soon, we won’t be able to hold on much longer!” Jiang Longcheng said with a grim expression.

Li Yi thought for a moment and said, “Here’s what we’ll do: later, take me to see your factory’s warehouse, and then I’ll draw up a plan for you!”

“Don’t say ‘later’—can we go right now?” Jiang Longcheng asked.

“I can’t do that right now. Who’s going to look after Xiao Xue and my mother-in-law if I leave?” Li Yi said.

“Here’s what we’ll do: I’ll find someone to look after them. How about you help me sort out that mess?”

Li Yi could tell the guy was really desperate. He frowned and said, “Forget it. Go to the shop and bring Zhang Xinyao and that Auntie An Hong over here. Add my third older sister to the mix—three of us taking care of two people shouldn’t be a problem!”

“Alright, alright, I’ll go right now…”

“Wait, do me one more favor!”

“What is it?”

“See if there are any suitable apartments in the city. I want to buy one!” Li Yi said.

“What kind of place are you looking for? An apartment building or…”

“No apartment building—preferably a traditional courtyard house!”

“Why on earth would you want to buy one of those run-down courtyards? The plumbing’s terrible, and there’s no central heating. You’d be better off buying an apartment. Are you short on cash or something…”

“It’s got nothing to do with money. Xiao Xue and I are used to living in a single-story house!”

Li Yi then added, “Remember, I want a traditional courtyard house—don’t try to pull a mixed-use courtyard compound on me!”

“Alright, alright, leave it to me!”

With that, Jiang Longcheng hurried out of the hospital.

Watching the guy’s receding figure, Li Yi couldn’t help but sigh. With a brother-in-law like this, he was in for a lot of work in the future!