Lin Qingping and Gu Juncheng

Chapter 37 Meet the world

This was a condition that no one would refuse, but Lin Qingping proposed that she wanted 5% of the profits.

This isn't a problem for the factory manager; she provides the design and helps secure orders, so 5% isn't unreasonable.

With the garment factory settled, the next step is to head straight to the provincial capital to meet Xiang Hongying at Meisheng Department Store.

They still couldn't buy seats and had to stand or sit on the ground all the way to the provincial capital. But this time, since they didn't have big bags of clothes or a lot of cash, they were tired but not mentally burdened.

When they arrived in the provincial capital, it was still morning. They had a simple breakfast, tidied their clothes, and went to Meisheng in a relaxed and unhurried manner.

Upon entering the gates of Meisheng and explaining our purpose, we were personally led to the manager's office, where Xiang Hongying, who had received the news, came down to greet us.

Gu Youlian thought back to last month when they were looked down upon for being peasants, and she couldn't help but lower her head, tears welling up in her eyes.

The conversation with Xiang Hongying went very smoothly.

Xiang Hongying had been eagerly anticipating Lin Qingping's arrival. This time, she placed a large order for winter clothes with Lin Qingping, totaling 2000 pieces. Of these, about 1000 were already available styles, and she wanted 1000 new styles. She hadn't even seen any samples of the new styles.

Xiang Hongying also made a request to Lin Qingping: "Comrade Qingping, I have taken on a lot of risk with this huge order. I have one condition: you can't supply other shopping malls anymore. I have to be the exclusive supplier."

Lin Qingping thought for a moment and expressed her difficulty.

Xiang Hongying considered it for a moment, then said, "At least you have to promise me that you can't supply other people in our province. Other shopping malls will have to get their goods from me."

In fact, this is equivalent to the later regional general agency model.

Lin Qingping admired Xiang Hongying's business acumen. No wonder she could become a manager; she was very capable of coming up with such an advanced model in an instant.

"Sure!" Lin Qingping readily agreed this time.

When it came to signing a formal contract for the 2000-piece order, a problem arose. In those days, there was no precedent for individuals and companies to sign contracts, at least not in their area.

Lin Qingping had anticipated this and smiled, "I'm really happy to have reached a cooperation agreement with Manager Xiang today. It's settled then. Manager Xiang, which day is convenient for you? Our factory manager will come over to sign the contract then."

"Factory manager? You... have a factory?" Manager Xiang had always been curious about this question.

"Yes, how about the day after tomorrow?" Lin Qingping asked.

"Of course." Xiang Hongying didn't say anything else. An order of 2000 pieces was not like the small orders of one or two hundred pieces before. She could easily make a promise. She also wanted to see the strength behind Lin Qingping.

Therefore, Lin Qingping did not go back for the time being. The first thing she did after leaving Meisheng was to go to the post office to call the factory manager of the garment factory and explain the situation to him.

Lin Qingping originally intended to use a lot of persuasion to convince Director Hu, but to her surprise, the other party readily agreed and would take the train to the provincial capital that night.

Lin Qingping then led Gu Youlian and Du Gen to settle down in the provincial capital.

The hotel where I stayed.

It was Gu Youlian's first time staying in a hotel, and she found it incredibly novel, touching and looking at everything. But once the novelty wore off, more frustration washed over her.

She sighed to her husband, Du Gen, in the room, "Genzi, you know, in just over a month with my sister-in-law, we've seen things we've never seen in our lives. We took a train, went to the provincial capital, ate at fancy restaurants, and stayed in hotels. I'm afraid we'll never have the chance to see the world like this again..."

"Why not?" Dugan didn't understand.

“Look, my sister-in-law has partnered with Factory Director Hu. With so many workers in the factory, why would they need us to make clothes?” Gu Youlian said worriedly.

“Have you forgotten? Didn’t your sister-in-law ask us if we were willing to work for her? How could she not need us anymore?” Dugen pointed at her.

"This... it's no longer needed!" Gu Youlian sighed.

"Why can't we use it?" Lin Qingping's voice came from the doorway.

"Bottle...bottle..." Gu Youlian was caught red-handed and felt a little embarrassed.

Lin Qingping didn't argue with her, but only asked Du Gen, "Du Gen, tell me, what else can you do?"

Dugen was eager to try, "Don't laugh at me if I'm wrong. I'm just a country bumpkin with no experience."

"Go ahead and say it!" Lin Qingping encouraged him.

“What I was thinking was that you said we should expand more and more, and I originally thought of developing in neighboring cities. People from neighboring cities even take special trips to buy our clothes! But Manager Xiang won’t let us sell anymore, so we can still go to neighboring provinces! There are so many provinces in the country, our clothes can be sold all over the country!” Du Gen has a natural peddler’s mindset. His ancestors were peddlers who went from street to street selling goods, and it’s something ingrained in his genes.

"We don't need to make clothes anymore! We'll just sell clothes!" Dugan said with increasing confidence; it was his specialty!

Gu Youlian also perked up, looking at Lin Qingping, "Pingzi, is what he said right?"

Lin Qingping nodded, "That's pretty much right, the idea is correct, but we need to think about how to sell it in the long run."

"Of course! We'll all listen to you then!" Dugan was overjoyed to receive such affirmation.

"Let's go! Let's go eat first." Lin Qingping said enthusiastically.

Gu Youlian had been thinking about this for a while: where would they eat at the hotel? Did the hotel include meals? She had seen Pingzi pay for two rooms for one yuan a night!

How much food can you buy with just one dollar!

"Does the food at the inn cost money?" Gu Youlian asked worriedly.

Lin Qingping smiled and said, "We won't eat at the inn today; we'll go get something fresh."

Lin Qingping led them to a Western restaurant.

She had eaten steak here in her previous life. She had to admit that although she also ran a restaurant, the steak at this Western restaurant was really good. She often exchanged cooking tips with the owner.

However, right now the restaurant owner is still the owner's father; the owner she knows is still a young lad! Maybe even going through his rebellious phase...

Following her memories from her past life, she arrived at the location of the steakhouse.

As a century-old store, it doesn't yet have a very stylish decoration; the storefront is quite simple.

Walking inside, the owner had a friendly, business-like face; he really was the young man's father!

Gu Youlian sat down, looked around, and didn't know how to order.

"What...what is all this food?" She was even more nervous than when she last treated the manager to a meal, and whispered to Dugan.

Dugan reassured her softly, "Don't worry, just follow the bottle's instructions."

Then, he said to Lin Qingping frankly, "You order the bottle, we don't know anything about it."

Lin Qingping took the initiative and ordered three steaks, a salad, a roast pigeon, and three desserts.