“Hui, someone’s coming to pick up this batch of goods at eight tomorrow morning. Keep an eye on it then.”
“Got it, Brother Ting. By the way, He Cheng’s people came to the factory looking for you again.”
At the mention of He Cheng’s people, Hui’s mood soured. The so-called He Cheng Investment Company was obviously just a front—underneath it was a Hong Kong underworld gang. Anyone doing legitimate business didn’t want to get tangled up with them. Yet they kept pestering Brother Ting because of the land.
Yes, no one had expected it. The land that Brother Ting and Sister Tian had bought together recently had actually been taken a fancy to by He Cheng. And it wasn’t just this one plot. They had their eyes on a whole large area around it.
The other plots were unclear, but Brother Ting and Sister Tian’s land was about to break ground. There was no way they’d sell.
But He Cheng wasn’t reasonable. Word was they’d already approached all the landowners of the plots, preparing to snap up the entire area in one go. But they’d hit a wall right from the start.
“Don’t bother with them.” Zhou Haoting was fed up with these He Cheng people. Because he had some connections and influence, He Cheng’s people didn’t dare pull any dirty tricks. So they just sent people to pester him at his door every day. Sometimes they even dared to block the trucks coming to pick up goods. No choice—these past two days, they’d been hiring temporary workers in advance just to keep order.
But this wasn’t a long-term solution.
Zhou Haoting was glad Tian Tian had gone back home. Otherwise, these people would probably pester her too.
It was time to think of a way to crush them all. Otherwise, when Tian Tian came back and saw this, she probably wouldn’t be happy.
At the same time, Tian Tian was shocked by what Meng Ge had said.
“Wait, Meng Ge. Why does He Cheng suddenly want to buy land?”
Although it wasn’t confirmed, she had a kind of premonition that the land He Cheng was eyeing included hers and Zhou Haoting’s! Just the day before she left, someone had come to their door wanting to buy land.
Meng Ge smiled bitterly and shook his head. “How would I know? I just know the big boss came to Shenzhen and hasn’t left. A while ago, he suddenly said he wanted to invest in land. Then he started looking for people and connections. In the end, they decided to buy land over in Tianfu Village. I know you live over there, so I wanted to give you a heads-up.
I heard the land over there was all bought by villagers. I was afraid there might be conflicts later, so I wanted to remind you to be careful and not get involved.”
Hearing this, Tian Tian’s parents chimed in. “Exactly, exactly. When you’re out there, mind your own business. If things get bad, just stay far away. Anyway, you’re renting. You can rent somewhere else.”
Tian Tian only thanked Meng Ge and said nothing more. Instead, she continued asking him, “Has Zhou Qiaoqiao stirred up anything recently?”
A while ago, Tian Tian and Zhou Haoting’s police classmate had reported that American investment company. But several days had passed, and there still didn’t seem to be any action.
She just wanted to know if Zhou Qiaoqiao was still investing. If so, she’d almost want to laugh.
As for whether that investment company would run off now? She wasn’t sure. Anyway, in her past life, it hadn’t run off until a few years later.
Meng Ge wasn’t surprised Tian Tian asked about Zhou Qiaoqiao. Because he’d also heard about Zhou Qiaoqiao targeting Tian Tian. Honestly, as a grown man, he couldn’t understand their so-called grudge. Brother Xiao hadn’t gotten involved either. It was that bastard Lao Hei who had directly teamed up with Zhou Qiaoqiao.
He couldn’t stop this matter, so he could only quietly gather information and quietly give Tian Tian a heads-up.
“By the way, speaking of Zhou Qiaoqiao. A while ago, she was borrowing money everywhere and put it into some investment company. Lao Hei’s people seem to have started investing along with her recently. Word is they’re making even more than before. They said something about changing investment projects.”
Tian Tian didn’t know about this! She slapped her thigh, thinking this was really getting interesting.
After seeing Meng Ge off, Tian Tian was about to go call Zhou Haoting to confirm whether the people eyeing their land were from He Cheng. But her mother had already spoken up. “Just now, when I said you should move, why did you seem unwilling?”
Tian Tian had told her parents quite a bit about Shenzhen. Including the wholesale shop and the clothing business. But she hadn’t mentioned buying land. Because there hadn’t been time!
Now, seeing her mother’s worried expression, she thought about it and decided to be direct. “Let me go confirm something with someone first. But Dad, Mom, I’ll tell you—I bought a vegetable plot in the village where I rent. This trip back, besides seeing you two, the other reason is to transfer my household registration.”
Hearing the words “buy land” and “transfer household registration,” Tian Tian’s parents were dumbfounded.
Wait, no. Their… their daughter was that impressive? She’d only been running the shop a few months, and she’d already bought land?
The couple exchanged glances, both thinking they were dreaming. Tian Tian’s father pinched his own face, and Tian Tian’s mother pinched it too.
Then a yelp of pain rang out.
“Stop pinching, stop pinching, I’m not dreaming!”
Seeing her father grimacing, Tian Tian’s mother smiled sheepishly and let go of the swollen patch of cheek.
“Our girl is really something!”
What could the couple say? They’d lived half their lives and never bought land. The place they lived now was a homestead allocated by the village. They hadn’t expected their daughter to be this impressive!
Seeing her parents still wearing dreamy expressions, Tian Tian tossed out a “I’m going to make a phone call” and ran outside.
The moment she stepped out, she ran right into Tian Xin. Seeing her, Tian Xin’s expression twisted for a moment. Then she gave a loud huff and turned back into her house.
Tian Tian shook her head and didn’t lower herself to Tian Xin’s level. She felt the two of them were no longer people from the same world.
Meanwhile, Zhou Haoting was stunned after receiving Tian Tian’s call.
“How did you know?” He didn’t hide that the people wanting to buy the land were from He Cheng. Earlier, he’d only heard someone had taken a fancy to his land—he hadn’t expected it to be He Cheng.
He hadn’t even had time to solve everything, and Tian Tian already knew.
Tian Tian didn’t hide it either. “Meng Ge happened to come back to the village.”
Zhou Haoting said, “Mm, no wonder. You don’t need to worry about this. The land is in my name. I’ll deal with all of them. You just enjoy yourself at home for a few days. Go ahead with the household registration transfer. By the time you’re back, it should be about done.”
Tian Tian didn’t jump up saying “let me handle it.” Instead, she thought for a moment and finally said, “If you can, go make contact with Xiao Ming. Ask about He Cheng’s financial situation.”
She didn’t say it too explicitly, but Zhou Haoting understood instantly. If there really was a problem, it would be hilarious.
Thinking about Zhou Qiaoqiao and the investment company, Tian Tian smiled and told Zhou Haoting the news she’d heard from Meng Ge.
After that, she completely stopped worrying about it. Enjoying a few good days at home was the proper thing to do.
After the phone call, she went home, showered, and slept. The next day she slept until the sun was up and found a big bowl of dried scallop congee kept warm in the kitchen. Her parents weren’t home. They’d probably gone to buy groceries, or to deliver money to Niuzai and Fengmei’s families.
After a fragrant, delicious breakfast, Tian Tian didn’t go out. Instead, she lay on the lounge chair in the living room, thinking about what line of work to pursue next.
The school uniform business would belong to Ye Lifeng from now on. She just needed to make the first wave of money. The wholesale shop was on track and didn’t need much of her attention. After that came designing clothes. The garment industry had high profit margins. But the pressure was real too. And selling clothes domestically had one downside—as soon as your clothes hit the market, copycat versions would quickly appear.
Not just one-to-one copies, but all kinds of knockoffs and imitations.
For a creator, seeing too much of that was annoying.
But if she went into other industries—restaurants were too tiring, pass. Entertainment industry, she didn’t understand it. Service industry, not interested. Opening her own factory and being the boss was too tiring. Just look at Ye Lifeng and Zhou Haoting. One was a garment factory owner, the other a home appliance factory owner.
When busy, they were practically kicking themselves in the back of the head.
So opening her own factory and being the boss—pass. But working for someone else was even more impossible.
Buy a piece of land, build houses, rent them out, and be a landlady? That was already achieved. She might reinvest in more later. But the money on hand was a bit tight.
So, Tian Tian slapped her forehead and decided to keep deepening her roots in the garment industry.
But the old rough-and-ready approach wouldn’t work anymore.
Building a brand to sell domestically, and creating designs specifically for overseas markets—that was a path.
As for how to get connected to overseas markets? In her past life, although she’d always worked in shipping and documentation at factories, she knew how to be a foreign trade salesperson.
Once she figured out this path, Tian Tian lay back down to enjoy the leisurely feeling.
As for the people who occasionally poked their heads into the yard looking for her, she pretended not to notice. Anyway, coming back was for relaxation. Tian Tian really didn’t want to spend energy on village gossip.
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