Pei Ran lay in bed at home for three days, feeling thoroughly uncomfortable all over.
Li Xiulan could not wait to raise the standard of her meals to the level of a state banquet, while her father, Pei Jianguo, and her older brother, Pei Lei, found every possible way each day to stuff pocket money into her hands.
However, living this kind of “rice bug” idle life for too long made unrest seep out from the very joints of her bones. After all, only when money is held in one’s own hands does a person truly have the confidence to survive.
Right now, Pei Ran held two checks in her hand: one was for one hundred thousand given by Zhou Yang, and the other was for fifty thousand given by Zhao Wanqing. A total of one hundred and fifty thousand, it was neither too much nor too little. Leaving it in the bank to earn interest was a waste; she wanted to take this money out and start a small business.
But what would be good to do?
She called out in her mind: “Xiao Qi.”
“Xiao Qi, you are the system, so you ought to be clearer than anyone about the plotline in this book, right? Let me ask you, in period web novels, what business makes the most money?”
This was truly asking the right person. Xiao Qi quickly responded: “According to this system’s data analysis of a large number of period novels, the number one ranked industry is the clothing industry.”
“The eighties and nineties were the golden age of the clothing industry. Demand experienced explosive growth, and the profit margin was large. Women’s clothing in particular had fast updates and high average order value. In the original work, several supporting characters made their fortunes through clothing. For instance, the original owner’s best friend, Song Qingqing, relied on selling women’s clothing to become rich.”
Song Qingqing? Hearing this familiar name, Pei Ran’s heart stirred slightly.
“Did I… did the original owner and Song Qingqing stay in touch later on?”
System: “Originally, they did. She advised the original owner not to get divorced for the sake of her daughter and not to become a mistress to a financial backer. But the original owner not only cursed her out thoroughly, saying she was just jealous of her and wanted to block her progress, but ultimately broke off the friendship unilaterally.”
Pei Ran: “…”
“If you want to do business, looking for Song Qingqing is actually a pretty good choice. She is doing well right now and has already opened two branch stores on this street.”
Pei Ran did not have the nerve to turn back and look for her. But unable to withstand the system’s repeated persuasions, she tossed and turned all night thinking about it, and in the end could not hold back. Early the next morning, she sent a message to a phone number.
“Qingqing, how have you been doing lately?”
Less than three seconds after the message went out, the phone blew up with an incoming call.
“Ranran! You finally took me off your blacklist???”
The voice on the other end of the line was loud and sharp, nearly shattering Pei Ran’s eardrums. She quickly pulled the phone a bit farther away, yet the corners of her mouth could not help curving upward.
Song Qingqing had had a loud voice since childhood; when she shouted, it could practically blow the roof off.
“It was my fault back then. I shouldn’t have said such harsh words to you. You must have been completely heartbroken.”
“Do you know how many phone calls I’ve made to you over these past few years? Every time I changed my number, I got blacklisted by you. Can you please not blacklist me again this time? I won’t nag you anymore, alright?”
Song Qingqing’s voice was very loud, yet Pei Ran listened to the point of almost tearing up.
Clearly, she was the one who had let down their friendship, yet Song Qingqing placed all the blame for these past years on her own head, without complaining about her at all.
“Qingqing, I’m really sorry. It was my fault, and I shouldn’t have refused to listen to you.”
Pei Ran simply related her recent experiences in full to Song Qingqing. Hearing this, how could the other party not understand what had happened? She immediately launched a heavy barrage of fire at both Zhao Wanqing and Zhou Yang.
“That Zhao Wanqing! Back then, seeing her shrewd appearance, I knew she wasn’t someone easy to get along with. Sure enough, she abandoned you after abandoning her feelings, and didn’t even give you much cash; she’s simply a modern-day Zhou Bapi! Ptu!”
“And that Zhou Yang! To think I felt sorry for her before, thinking it wasn’t easy for her to raise Niannian alone. She actually dared to dump you right on the side of the road! Absolutely cold-blooded and heartless! What a scumbag!”
Under Song Qingqing’s verbal attack, neither Zhao Wanqing nor Zhou Yang escaped; both were thoroughly scolded to the bone.
Pei Ran’s long-stifled feelings finally found release. It was also at this moment that she realized what a fortunate thing it was to have a best friend who stood unconditionally by her side.
Song Qingqing grew tired of scolding and finally returned to the main topic: “We are best friends, and all those past unpleasantries are behind us. You calling me this time, do you have something you need my help with?”
Pei Ran said, feeling a bit embarrassed: “There really is something I wanted to ask of you.”
“I currently don’t have a job, so I wanted to ask if you’re short-handed to work over there. I can bear a lot of hardship now.”
Fake. In truth, she was not particularly good at bearing hardship either.
Song Qingqing laughed: “And here I thought it was some big deal that kept me nervous for half the day, so it was just this.”
“I just happened to open a new branch store on the commercial street in the west of the city recently, and it’s right at a time when we’re short-handed. If you’re willing, come by the store this afternoon to take a look.”
The two of them agreed to meet at the store that afternoon for a chat.
When Pei Ran arrived, Song Qingqing was standing at the entrance with her hands on her hips, lecturing a store employee. Her big wavy perm swung back and forth in the sunlight, and her bright red dress was dazzlingly eye-catching.
Seeing Pei Ran, she immediately walked over toward her.
“Ranran!”
Song Qingqing grabbed her by the shoulders, looking her up and down several times, her eye sockets suddenly turning red. “Look how thin you’ve gotten!”
Looking at the tiny bit of meat on her own frame, Pei Ran smiled sheepishly: “This is actually after I gained a bit of weight eating at home these past few days.”
Song Qingqing pulled Pei Ran into the store and poured her a glass of water.
“Coming back this time, are you going to leave again?”
“I’m not leaving,” Pei Ran said. “After two failed relationships, I finally realized that romantic love is the most unreliable thing. Only the money held in your own hands is real and solid. So I want to learn to do business and earn big money too.”
Song Qingqing stared at her for several seconds, then suddenly slapped the table: “Alright! It just so happens my branch store needs a helper. The salary is eight hundred a month with lunch included. Will you do it?”
“I will.”
“Good then, you start work today!”
The styles of clothes at Song Qingqing’s branch store leaned more toward young and fashionable, and most of the customers who came in were young girls in their early twenties. On her first day at work, Pei Ran knew nothing, but she learned very quickly. Under Song Qingqing’s unreserved instruction, taking inventory, hanging displays, coordinating outfits, and sales, she had mastered everything in less than a week.
Song Qingqing could not help exclaiming with emotion: “Ranran, coming back this time, I always feel like you’ve changed a lot. Before, when you told me you wanted to look for a job, I originally thought you were just talking and would complain of fatigue after working a few days. I really didn’t expect you to stick with it.”
Pei Ran had no time to pay attention to her best friend’s melancholy, because she was busy studying the clothes in the store.
She noticed a problem.
The clothes in the store looked nice enough, but there were always certain details that were unsatisfactory. For instance, the collar of this shirt was too stiff, the waistline of that skirt was too high, and the position of the buttons on this coat was off. In the end, nobody bought them, so they could only rot in stock.
She mentioned it to Song Qingqing, who let out a sigh: “There’s no way around it. They came from wholesale inventory; it’s not like we made them ourselves. Whatever way the factory makes them is how they are, so we can only sell them as they are.”
Pei Ran picked up a piece of clothing, turned it over and inspected it several times, and suddenly said: “For this piece of clothing, if the sleeves were shortened by an inch and the waistline was raised by two centimeters, it would look much better.”
Song Qingqing dropped her jaw: “How do you know that?”
“I… I just figured it out randomly on my own.” Pei Ran could not explain why either; she just felt it would look better that way.
Song Qingqing was truly a top-tier best friend who followed up instantly. The day after Pei Ran spoke, she found a tailor to alter a new one according to what she had said.
On the very day the new version was put up, this piece of clothing, which originally nobody had paid any attention to, was bought by someone. Immediately after, a second customer and a third customer both specifically asked for the “altered” version.
In less than a week, this batch of altered clothes was completely sold out.
Looking at the ledger with continuous income coming in, Zhou Qingqing originally thought this batch of goods was going to rot in her hands. She had not expected that after such an alteration by Pei Ran, every single piece would actually sell out. She could not help admiringly asking, “Ranran, have you studied design before?”
Pei Ran shook her head: “No.”
The more Song Qingqing thought about it, the more excited she became: “Could this be top-tier talent? You are a born natural to be a clothing designer!”
The system suddenly reminded her in her mind: “The original owner studied painting for a few years in the past. Although it was later abandoned, the muscle memory of this body remains. Your sensitivity to lines and proportions must have laid its foundation back then.”
Pei Ran’s heart moved.
The original owner actually knew how to draw?
She flipped through those shattered fragments of memory in her mind, and sure enough, she saw a scene: Pei Ran sat in front of a window with a paintbrush in hand, drawing a sketch portrait.
What shocked Pei Ran completely was that the person in her drawing was actually Zhou Yang!
Did they used to have such a good relationship in the past?
She shook her head, sweeping that scene out of her mind.
How could romantic entanglements be more important than making money?
Knowing that she had a foundation, Pei Ran became even more firm in her thoughts: “Qingqing, I want to go study clothing design.”
Song Qingqing froze for a moment: “You mean, you want to go to night school?”
Night school was a vocational school specifically provided for workers who worked during the day. Enrollees could choose the content they were interested in and pay fees to study.
“I heard that the Workers’ Cultural Palace has a clothing design training class, with classes every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday evening.”
Seeing that Song Qingqing did not agree immediately, and the expression on her face looked as if she was pondering something, Pei Ran hurriedly guaranteed: “I will come to work as normal during the day, and I definitely won’t be lazy!”
Song Qingqing did not think studying was a bad thing. On the contrary, seeing Pei Ran so ambitious, she herself felt a sense of crisis about falling behind. She was thinking whether she should also learn something so as not to fall behind.
As if having made up a certain resolution, Song Qingqing said: “I’ll go with you!”
“Except I’m not studying design.”
Song Qingqing had no interest in how to make clothes; she was only interested in how to sell clothes and how to open more branch stores.
“I remember night school has a course called Commercial Enterprise Management? I’ll study that!”
Although what she was running right now was still just a tiny clothing shop, she believed that in the not-too-distant future, she would surely achieve a commercial empire that belonged to herself!
Pei Ran and Song Qingqing looked at each other and smiled. Both of them saw a raging fire burning in each other’s eyes.