Casting Nets to Catch a Husband

Chapter 165: Distribution

Chen Shi did indeed dote on Lu Shuang. Knowing that the trip to Hongdu Prefecture would involve only family members, with the skilled Lu Chengxiao, Liu Yanping, and Liu Yanan accompanying them, and Liu Yu as her sister-in-law, she felt it was safe enough. Moreover, it would be good for Lu Shuang to gain some experience outside.

Unable to resist Lu Shuang’s earnest pleading, she agreed, with one condition: that Lu Shuang, like Liu Yu, wear a veil hat when outside.

Lu Shuang readily agreed, eagerly looking forward to the day they would head to Hongdu Prefecture. However, before they even had a chance to leave, within two days, three ready-made garments from Liu Yu’s “Joyful Jiangnan” series were completed. Besides the first set, which was made in various sizes, the other two were single pieces.

Although it was planned for Liu Yanping and Liu Yanan to go out and sell them, Liu Yu was concerned about this new venture and decided to personally oversee the first attempt. Naturally, Liu Yanan would accompany her, while Lu Chengxiao and Liu Yanping would split up to visit different counties, seeking agents to help find suitable shops.

The Lu family had a mule cart, and when Chen Shi heard that Liu Yu was going to nearby towns to find distributors, she arranged for her to use the family’s mule cart. Since Liu Yanan was going along, he could drive the cart as well.

When Lu Shuang learned that Liu Yu was going to find distributors for the “Joyful Jiangnan” series, her eyes lit up. “Third Sister-in-law, take me with you! I’ll carry the bundle with the clothes.”

Since this was Liu Yu’s first time engaging in door-to-door sales, having Lu Shuang along would bolster her confidence. She smiled and agreed, “Sure, you can help give me some courage.”

Lu Shuang beamed, “Are you actually nervous, Third Sister-in-law?”

“Of course! Selling ready-made clothes in an embroidery shop is like trying to sell combs in a monastery. I’m worried about getting thrown out.”

This remark made Lu Shuang laugh out loud, imagining the scenario, which indeed seemed quite amusing.

Chen Shi and Qin Shi, who were seeing them off, were momentarily stunned by this statement. Qin Shi pondered and then suggested, “Third Sister-in-law, maybe you should let your third brother handle this instead? If you really encounter someone rude…”

Women are more sensitive about their reputations, and such a situation could indeed be quite embarrassing.

Even Chen Shi seemed a bit hesitant.

Seeing their reactions, Liu Yu quickly reassured them, “Sister-in-law, I was just joking. It’s possible we won’t sell anything, but I doubt we’ll get thrown out. It’s similar to when Father goes to other towns to collaborate with fabric shops. As long as we can offer them a good profit, the deal should go through.”

Qin Shi didn’t fully understand. To her, the embroidery workshop was already doing very well, and she had heard they were planning to open a branch. Creating an affordable series seemed unnecessary. However, she deeply respected Liu Yu and knew that transforming their fabric shop into a fabric store had been Liu Yu’s idea. Acknowledging Liu Yu’s business acumen, she nodded and said, “Then I wish you success, Third Sister-in-law. If you run into any difficult situations, don’t force it, just try somewhere else.”

“Thank you, Sister-in-law. I’ll take your kind words to heart,” Liu Yu replied with a smile. As they spoke, Liu Yanan arrived with the mule cart. After bidding farewell to Chen Shi and Qin Shi, Liu Yu and Lu Shuang boarded the cart together.

After discussing their plan with Liu Yanan, they decided to first head to a town called Changshi, not far from Anyi County. Since it was their first time visiting, they weren’t sure how many embroidery shops there were, but with only a few main streets in the town, finding them wouldn’t be difficult. After asking around, they soon located the shops.

Changshi Town had two embroidery shops. Liu Yu had already inquired about which one had better business while asking for directions. After getting off the cart, she didn’t rush into negotiations but instead visited both shops first.

Both Liu Yu and Lu Shuang were quite attractive, and their attire suggested they came from well-off families. Naturally, the shopkeepers noticed them. Judging by the quality of their clothes alone, neither shopkeeper felt comfortable recommending their own store’s garments.

They didn’t seem like the type to shop in these stores.

After a few exchanges, they had a rough impression. Liu Yu chose the slightly larger shop with better ready-made clothing styles and explained her purpose.

The shopkeeper was completely taken aback by the idea of selling ready-made clothes. “I wasn’t planning on selling clothes to you, but you want to sell clothes to me?”

The female shopkeeper seemed to have heard a joke. Clothes? Didn’t they have their own embroidery workers to make them?

“Madam, you must be joking. This is an embroidery shop, and we have our own embroiderers. We don’t need to bring in clothes from outside to sell.”

The shopkeeper had a kind disposition and didn’t change her attitude just because Liu Yu wasn’t a customer. Despite the surprise, she maintained her smile.

Liu Yu smiled and said, “Please don’t be too quick to refuse. Why don’t you take a look at the clothes I’ve brought first?”

She turned to Lu Shuang, who handed her the bundle. Liu Yu opened it and took out the first set of clothing to show the shopkeeper. “A winter outfit like this, if you purchase it from us, would cost 720 wen.”

“How much?” The shopkeeper thought she had misheard.

“720 wen for a light winter garment made with 1.6 jin of cotton.”

1.6 jin of cotton? The shopkeeper looked at Liu Yu, then quickly felt the garment. Having made clothes for over ten years, she could estimate the amount of cotton used just by touching it. 1.6 jin of cotton—just the cotton alone would cost nearly 200 wen, meaning the fabric and workmanship only accounted for about 500 wen.

She was stunned. She examined the fabric and the style of the clothing closely, but for a moment, she was at a loss for words.

720 wen. To produce a similar garment in her own shop would cost almost the same, maybe saving 20 or 30 wen. But the clothes these two young ladies brought were far more attractive than what her shop could produce.

The fabric was the same as the ones in her shop, but the finished garments were entirely different.

The female shopkeeper glanced at Liu Yu’s bundle, noticing that there seemed to be two more sets of clothes inside.

Observing the shopkeeper’s interest, Liu Yu promptly took out the other two garments, unfolded them, and said, “Please, take a look at these two as well.”

The shopkeeper, already intrigued, did not hesitate to examine the other two garments closely. Before she could say anything, Liu Yu added, “This blue set is priced at 710 wen, and the crimson set, which includes some embroidery, is 740 wen.”

The embroidery was relatively simple.

Liu Yu had thought it through: the Joyful Jiangnan series couldn’t solely rely on hand-painting for decoration. If the Ruyi Embroidery Workshop currently employed mid- to high-level embroiderers, then the Joyful Jiangnan series could be designed with simpler embroidery that junior embroiderers could handle. The crimson set used such basic embroidery, and in the future, if the business grew, they could hire embroiderers who were still learning the craft. Since the embroidery was minimal and not very challenging, the labor cost would be relatively low.

The shopkeeper was stunned, wondering what Liu Yu and Lu Shuang were after. It didn’t seem like they were trying to make money, and judging by their clothes, they didn’t look like they were making a few garments just to earn some extra household income.

As these thoughts crossed her mind, her gaze fell on the collar of the garment in her hands, where she noticed some characters embroidered.

“Joyful Jiangnan?”

Liu Yu nodded and smiled, asking, “Are you familiar with the Ruyi Embroidery Workshop in Anyi County?”

How could she not know? The shopkeeper traveled to Anyi County every month to see what styles were popular in the embroidery shops there and then tried to replicate them back in her own shop.

Ruyi Embroidery Workshop—the name was practically legendary!

Within just two months of opening, it had surpassed several long-established embroidery shops. The shopkeeper had visited it three times, finding the styles so attractive that she wished she could stay there forever. Some of the color combinations in her own shop’s clothes were copied from the Ruyi Embroidery Workshop.

Unfortunately, the fabric quality in her shop was far inferior. Even the cheapest designs from the Ruyi Embroidery Workshop were difficult for her to replicate. She could barely copy the shapes, let alone capture the essence and quality.

As she looked at the characters for Joyful Jiangnan beneath the word Ruyi on the collar, the shopkeeper started to make a connection. “Are you…?”

“I am one of the owners of the Ruyi Embroidery Workshop,” Liu Yu replied.

The shopkeeper’s heart skipped a beat. Was she here because she had discovered the copied designs?

It wasn’t surprising that she had such a reaction—her guilty conscience was at work. Adding to that, Liu Yu had first inspected the clothes in her shop, making the shopkeeper even more nervous.

For a moment, she even forgot that Liu Yu was there to sell her clothes.

Liu Yu, however, hadn’t noticed that this shop had copied her designs. Unlike An Ji, the fabrics in this small-town embroidery shop were so inferior that, aside from the color schemes, nothing else had been effectively copied. As the original designer, Liu Yu hadn’t paid much attention to this, so the shopkeeper’s fear was entirely unfounded.

Finally, the shopkeeper came to her senses but was still at a loss for how to respond. She ran an embroidery shop, but now someone was trying to sell her ready-made clothes?

This shopkeeper was different from Cui Erniang. Cui Erniang had initially wanted to help Liu Yu and Madam Wei purely out of goodwill and only later realized how profitable it could be.

But this shopkeeper had no such relationship with Liu Yu, and there was no question of her helping to sell the clothes on commission. She was a seller herself, and now someone had come to her shop to sell clothes? It was a lot to process.

Liu Yu, understanding why the shopkeeper reacted this way, smiled and explained, “Joyful Jiangnan is a ready-made clothing series from our embroidery workshop, designed for customers in small towns. In the beginning, we plan to release around ten to twenty styles each season, distributing them to embroidery shops in various towns. This won’t affect your shop’s usual business; it will just add some variety to your selection. The prices I mentioned are comparable to your production costs, but our designs and patterns are superior. If you’re interested, you can visit the Ruyi Embroidery Workshop in a few days to view the designs and place an order.”

So it really was the Ruyi Embroidery Workshop offering to supply goods. The shopkeeper almost wanted to ask, “Aren’t you worried about your designs being copied?”

But when she considered the prices Liu Yu had just quoted—only 20 to 30 wen more than what she would spend to make them herself—she realized she couldn’t even copy them effectively, so there was no point in trying.

The slight price difference was because Liu Yu got her fabric at a cost that was 10-20% lower than what small-town embroidery shops could get. Adding just 20-30 wen more was enough to secure a profit.

Finally snapping out of her daze, the shopkeeper, now alert, asked, “But everyone’s body shape is different. How will you handle that?”

Lu Shuang had anticipated this and smiled as she opened another bundle, saying, “You can compare these. Each style comes in a full range of sizes, so you don’t need to worry about fitting.”

Inside the bundle were two more sets of the first style the shopkeeper had seen. Lu Shuang took them out for comparison, and they indeed came in different sizes. Realizing that Liu Yu and Lu Shuang had also visited the other embroidery shop across the street, the shopkeeper asked, “Did you show these clothes to the shop across from mine as well?”

This question showed that she was already interested. Liu Yu smiled and replied, “Generally speaking, as long as the sales volume is guaranteed, we only partner with one shop per town. I’ve already checked out both shops here in Changshi Town and decided to show these clothes to you first. If you can’t confirm your intention to cooperate, I’ll head over to the other shop.”

Hearing that Liu Yu was about to go to the competitor, the shopkeeper, who had been hesitating, quickly said, “Wait, I can confirm now! But sales are something you can only gauge by trying, right? So you don’t need to visit the other shop—I’ll take care of it.”

Liu Yu and Lu Shuang exchanged a glance, both smiling. Liu Yu nodded and said, “Alright then. Since you’re interested in working with us, I won’t go to the other shop. We’ll start taking orders for winter clothing on the 15th of October. I’ll give you three days. If you don’t come within that time, we’ll approach the shop across the street.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be there on the 15th.”

Ruyi Embroidery Workshop’s clothes!

The shopkeeper, who had visited Ruyi Embroidery Workshop three times in the past two months trying to copy their designs without success, felt her heart race with excitement. She had to secure this partnership before her competitor did.

Liu Yu and Lu Shuang smiled, packed up their sample clothes, and wished her a pleasant collaboration. The shopkeeper, eager to ensure they didn’t visit the shop across the street, enthusiastically escorted them out of the embroidery shop, watching nervously as they got into the cart and drove away. Only after seeing the cart disappear in the distance did she relax, excitedly clenching her fists in triumph. Ruyi Embroidery Workshop! She glanced across the street and noticed the other shopkeeper watching curiously. Quickly suppressing her excitement, she composed herself, making sure not to give anything away, and returned to her own shop.

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Sansukini: Please support the new novel starting on Sunday, after the end of Interstellar Dad

I’ll Share The Bed With You

Jiang Xingxing originally lived in a damp basement, working as an extra on film sets every day, earning just enough for a boxed meal. One day, she picked up a down-and-out “little wolf pup.” He was homeless and didn’t speak much. Jiang Xingxing, with her soft heart, took meticulous care of him, sharing half of her boxed meal with him every day. Later, even her bed was shared.

A few months later, the man disappeared, leaving Jiang Xingxing heartbroken for a long time.

One day, Jiang Xingxing was brought to a bedroom in a luxurious mansion, with a king-sized bed and a French breakfast spread out on the dining table. Outside the window was a stunning view of the deep blue ocean.

Jiang Xingxing was stunned for a few seconds, thinking she was dreaming.

At that moment, a man wrapped in a white bath towel emerged from the bathroom. He had a high, defined brow, a clean and handsome face, beautiful collarbones, and a chocolate bar-like six-pack abs.

The man walked up to her, gently wrapped his arm around her slender waist, leaned close to her ear, and said in a sexy voice, “Forgot about me after sleeping together, huh?”

~

Rumors had it that Shang Jie, the richest man in Jiangcheng, was ascetic and reserved, but after that day, Jiang Xingxing became his wife in name only.**

“In name only”? Then why are we sleeping together!

Hey, hey, who told you to take off your clothes? So what if you have an eight-pack and a V-line!

Shang Jie tugged at the collar of his shirt, his cold eyes slightly lifting, and his thin lips parting lightly—

“Don’t move. Be good.”

To Wake the Sleeping Beauty, All It Takes Is a French Kiss

A step-by-step scheming, dual-personality, domineering CEO x a cute, naive, and energetic girl.

Tags: Modern Romance, Split Personality, Entertainment Circle, Redemption, Healing