Zhou Haoting had a smooth day. The contract was signed, and the client was in a hurry, so there was no need to entertain them in the evening. After seeing the client off at the train station at three in the afternoon, Zhou Haoting sent Hui back to the home appliance factory to keep an eye on things. Then he hummed a tune as he drove toward the Convention and Exhibition Center.
He was thinking of taking Tian Tian to a newly opened Western restaurant in Luohu District tonight to try something new.
Then, at the entrance of the Convention and Exhibition Center, he saw Tian Tian chatting and laughing with a pretty boy.
Zhou Haoting frowned slightly. He quickly smoothed his expression back to normal. He parked the car, got out, and walked straight toward Tian Tian.
“Oh, that handsome guy walking over here—why is he staring at me like that?”
At the entrance, the pretty boy was telling Tian Tian about his recent situation when he suddenly felt a murderous aura. He looked up and saw a man more handsome than himself staring at him.
He shivered and grumbled unhappily, “He’s that handsome and still glaring at me. Must be jealous that I’m even better looking.”
“Heh, didn’t you latch onto a rich Hong Kong woman? How come you don’t have money for a mirror?”
The pretty boy was momentarily speechless. “Hey, hey, hey, you’re something else, Tian Tian. Who was it that just jumped out to help you? I descended like a god and decided to supply your garment factory. Instead of thanking me, you’re taking an outsider’s side.”
Tian Tian glanced at him. “Chen Jiahao, you’ve been watching too many Hong Kong movies. With that pretty-boy face of yours, ‘descended like a god’? Please. Besides, supplying us is mutually beneficial. Don’t think I don’t know—your factory has been sitting on that fabric inventory too.”
But Tian Tian hadn’t expected the world to be this small.
That Old He, who had been refusing to cooperate, had a textile factory behind him whose owner turned out to be Chen Jiahao. Strictly speaking, it was invested in by the rich Hong Kong woman Chen Jiahao had latched onto. And Chen Jiahao, as the nominal owner, had come specially to attend the trade fair today.
It was just that coincidental—he ran into Tian Tian.
After that, it was simple. Both sides knew each other, and Tian Tian had essentially pointed Chen Jiahao down a bright path before, saving him decades of detours. Chen Jiahao acknowledged that favor. So the cooperation was easily reached.
At the time, the shocked face of Tianmei Textile Factory’s Director Lai nearly made Tian Tian die laughing.
And when Chen Jiahao heard Tian Tian’s words, he immediately fell silent. In fact, their Yunshang Textile Factory really did have a backlog of fabric. And Tian Tian’s order really was mutually beneficial.
“But how did you offend someone from He Cheng?”
What had happened earlier in the hall left Chen Jiahao very puzzled. He wasn’t afraid of offending He Cheng—after all, the person behind him wasn’t a vegetarian. But Tian Tian was just an ordinary person. How had she offended the underworld?
Tian Tian was about to speak when she saw the person in the distance had already walked over. She smiled and went to meet him. “Was today smooth?”
Zhou Haoting nodded. “Everything went smoothly. How about on your end?”
Tian Tian made an OK gesture. “Found a suitable manufacturer. The price they gave is even a bit lower than Tianmei’s.”
“Hey, hey, hey, you surnamed Tian. This is a case of having a man and losing your humanity…”
Chen Jiahao, standing nearby, saw Tian Tian chatting and laughing with that handsome guy who’d been staring at him and finally caught on.
So his earlier grumbling had just been part of their little flirtation.
“What are you talking about?” Tian Tian shot Chen Jiahao an annoyed glare. Then she pulled Zhou Haoting over to introduce him. “This is Chen Jiahao, the one who latched onto a rich woman. My vocational school classmate.”
Hearing the name, Zhou Haoting let out a long “Oh” with a look of sudden understanding.
Seeing the other man’s expression, Chen Jiahao knew his business was no secret to him. He didn’t get angry either. After all, he’d gained benefits from latching onto a rich woman—so what if people knew? If you eat salted fish, you have to tolerate thirst.
He just spread his hands casually, looking unconcerned. Instead, he said to Zhou Haoting, “Brother, you’re really something.”
Zhou Haoting was briefly stunned. Then he smiled. “You flatter me.”
Tian Tian, standing between them, narrowed her eyes slightly and growled, “What are you saying?”
Zhou Haoting immediately followed up, “Exactly, what are you saying?”
Chen Jiahao rolled his eyes, speechless. Fine. He was being collectively targeted.
After the three joked around, they didn’t just disperse. Instead, they found a place and seriously discussed the follow-up arrangements for the cooperation.
—
With the most important raw material problem solved, everything went smoothly after that.
In less than a week, Tianmei’s breach-of-contract compensation was in hand, the fabric supply was successfully connected, and the clothes continued to sell like hotcakes. Before, sales had only radiated to nearby cities. Now quite a few people from the interior had come over to pick up goods. Of course, counterfeits were still rampant. But by now, the Victory sportswear sets produced by Lifeng Factory had thoroughly taken off. Others selling knockoffs could still make some profit, but the lion’s share remained with Lifeng Factory.
Tian Tian kept watching the counterfeiting situation, but it was all within the expected range.
As for the “Miss Zhou” that shameless Director Lai from Tianmei Textile Factory had mentioned, Tian Tian had confirmed that same day it was Zhou Qiaoqiao. Honestly, Tian Tian had no idea why this person was biting at her like a mad dog. But she wasn’t going to waste energy on a mad dog either.
She just asked Chen Jiahao, Zhou Haoting, and the others to look into Zhou Qiaoqiao’s situation.
When she learned the woman had become the umpteenth mistress of He Cheng’s boss, Tian Tian’s jaw nearly dropped. It was just too surreal.
But she just treated it like some urban legend she’d heard. At the same time, she discussed with Zhou Haoting about having someone keep an eye on Zhou Qiaoqiao, so that during the sportswear sales boom, the woman wouldn’t stir up trouble again.
Producing a piece of clothing involved several key links: raw materials, manufacturing, inventory, and sales. Zhou Qiaoqiao had previously attacked from the raw materials angle. Now that it had clearly failed, it was hard to say where she’d stir up trouble next.
So Tian Tian recruited ten young people from Tianfu Village specifically to patrol around Lifeng Factory and prevent anyone from causing sabotage. After that came sales.
Sales had always been handled at the wholesale shop, and the current staff could handle the load. Mainly because many regular customers placed orders by phone and paid by wire transfer, so it barely took up manpower.
Everything on Tian Tian’s end was going smoothly, with several burlap sacks of cash being hauled to the bank every day.
But things on Zhou Qiaoqiao’s end were anything but smooth.
In a villa in Shenzhen specifically catering to Chinese and overseas Chinese, Zhou Qiaoqiao was cursing the person on the other end of the phone. “Useless! All of you are useless! You can’t even handle such a simple thing. How can I trust you with anything after this? You’re so useless—I don’t think you deserve to be factory director anymore.”
With that, she slammed the receiver back onto the phone base with a loud bang.
“Oh, little sister-in-law. What’s going on? Getting this worked up?”
A pleasant male voice sounded from behind her. Zhou Qiaoqiao’s back tingled. She reached up and tucked the stray hairs at her forehead behind her ear. Then she turned around, forcing herself to stay calm. “Xiao Ming. You’re here to see Brother Jian? He’s upstairs talking with Lao Hei. You can go straight up.”
“Alright. But little sister-in-law still hasn’t said who upset you.”
Zhou Qiaoqiao licked her dry lips. “No one. Just a small matter.”
It wasn’t that she lacked courage—it was that Xiao Ming was simply too hard to read.
Zhou Qiaoqiao thought back to the first time she met Xiao Ming.
At the time, she and her mother had been driven out of Tianfu Village and had nowhere to go. They tried to find housing in nearby villages, but when those villages heard about the mother and daughter’s situation, they all refused to rent to them.
It was her good fortune that she happened to run into Xiao Ming while looking for a place.
At the time, seeing a handsome guy like Xiao Ming appear as if from heaven, she had the illusion of meeting Prince Charming. He not only helped her solve the housing problem, but also thoughtfully sent a car to help the mother and daughter move.
After moving into the new place, Zhou Qiaoqiao was happy on the first day. When Xiao Ming came on the second day, she was still happy. But she soon learned that every gift fate gives you has its price clearly marked from the very beginning.
He came right out and told her to become his boss’s umpteenth mistress. At first, Zhou Qiaoqiao definitely refused. But refusing meant leaving the beautiful apartment complex beneath her feet. She couldn’t bear to part with it. And Xiao Ming offered too much.
He not only promised to find someone to care for her mother, but guaranteed no shortage of meat and eggs. He even had people buy many beautiful clothes and jewelry, dressing her up beautifully and keeping her smelling sweet every day. Zhou Qiaoqiao couldn’t bear to give up such a heavenly life.
Besides, the boyfriend she’d found herself was no good. Whoever Xiao Ming introduced her to couldn’t be worse than that boyfriend. Especially since this big shot was from Hong Kong.
So Zhou Qiaoqiao didn’t hold out more than two days before agreeing to become the umpteenth mistress of an underworld boss. When she met him, it wasn’t bad—he was around fifty, but didn’t look old. And most importantly, the boss was very generous. He gave her a diamond necklace the first time they met. After that, it was fine clothes and fine food every day.
Zhou Qiaoqiao had seen Hong Kong’s prosperity and experienced its decadent luxury. She no longer felt there was anything wrong with being someone’s umpteenth mistress. She threw herself into pleasing Brother Jian, chasing money and more money. Inwardly, she was grateful to Xiao Ming for giving her this opportunity. Otherwise, someone like her would have ended up waiting tables in a tea restaurant even if she made it to Hong Kong.
After a period of such wonderful days, Brother Jian was coming to Shenzhen. As his most favored woman, of course she had to come along. And then she ran into Tian Tian.
One of the culprits who had gotten her family driven out. The woman was doing very well, even running a small business as a boss. How could Zhou Qiaoqiao allow that?
She had thought that with her current status and money, crushing an ant would be easy.
But look at things now. Such a simple matter, and that damned Director Lai couldn’t handle it. Truly useless.
Thinking of this, she looked up at Xiao Ming. He was watching her with a smile, looking as if he were waiting for her to pour out her troubles.
Zhou Qiaoqiao quickly shook her head. He was a good person, but not purely a good person. So Zhou Qiaoqiao was a bit afraid of him.
Seeing her conflicted expression, Xiao Ming marveled inwardly. But he didn’t show it on his face, just maintaining a patient look.
Just then, footsteps came from upstairs. The two looked up and saw Brother Jian coming down with Lao Hei.
“Ah Ming, Qiaoqiao, what’s going on?”
“Nothing.” Zhou Qiaoqiao said immediately.
Xiao Ming said, “Boss, nothing. I came to report to you about the investigation.”
Brother Jian nodded, not concerned with Zhou Qiaoqiao’s minor matters. He called Xiao Ming upstairs to the study. As for Lao Hei, having received his instructions, he was ready to leave.
But as Lao Hei watched Xiao Ming walk off, he saw the smug smile Xiao Ming threw him and clenched his jaw. Xiao Ming, that bastard. A bastard with no descendants. Suddenly he noticed Zhou Qiaoqiao had her head down, looking deep in thought.
So Lao Hei changed his mind. He made a detour and sat down in front of Zhou Qiaoqiao.
Zhou Qiaoqiao was still thinking about how to deal with Tian Tian. Getting Brother Jian to act directly was impossible. Brother Jian didn’t let women appear in public. Her earlier revenge had relied on borrowing his authority. But since this attempt had failed, continuing revenge through other means couldn’t rely on simple borrowed authority.
She looked up at Lao Hei. His sleazy appearance made her frown. But aside from him, she temporarily had no one else to turn to for help.
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