Lin Chao Ci offered no explanation. He pinched her round little cheeks and urged her to go to bed.
"Heehee! So my big brother is one of those jerks from the movies. Poor Sister Chichi..."
"If you don't go to bed, I'm going to spank you! You wouldn't want your big brother spanking you at your age, would you?"
"Hmph! Fine, I'll go to bed. No need to be so mean!"
Lin Weiyi had been giggling away, but the moment she heard her brother threaten to spank her, unpleasant memories resurfaced. Her laughter stopped, she shrank back, and she hurried away with quick little steps.
"That little brat gets out of hand whenever I let her off for a few days. She's still so young, yet she already dares to make fun of her big brother..."
Watching his little sister hurry away, Lin Chao Ci couldn't help finding it amusing.
The next few days were peaceful. Apart from Lin Chao Ci and his sister moving house, nothing much happened.
After their father left to take up his post in the provincial capital, Lin Chao Ci's family moved out of Municipal Committee Compound No. 1.
They moved into the Senior Cadres' Retirement Building beside the municipal committee compound.
There were policies, and then there were ways around them.
Lin Chao Ci and Lin Weiyi were supposed to move to the provincial capital with their father and live in the Provincial Party Committee Compound.
But since they still had to attend school in Haikou City, the authorities made a vacant apartment available for them to stay in temporarily.
The authorities had originally intended to find them another courtyard residence in the municipal committee compound, but Lin Chao Ci had refused outright.
Since his father had been promoted and no longer held that position, they couldn't keep occupying a place they were no longer entitled to.
Some senior comrades, for instance, remained in the municipal committee compound even after retiring.
Nobody said anything to their faces, but everyone laughed at them behind their backs.
Lin Chao Ci had no desire to be a paragon of integrity, but he didn't want a bad reputation either.
As for living in the Senior Cadres' Retirement Building, that was because his grandmother was retired. She had previously served as director of the Chinese Painting Institute... Although she hadn't held a post in Haikou City, she still qualified as a senior cadre.
Living there was perfectly reasonable and gave others nothing to criticize.
It was best not to cross certain red lines. When nothing went wrong, they meant nothing, but once trouble struck, any one of them could become a charge against you.
Meanwhile, the factory had been working flat out and finally produced tens of thousands of new garments.
Lin Chao Ci made a special trip to inspect the warehouse. Every garment matched the sample exactly. There were no cut corners or shoddy workmanship—not even a stray thread.
Every garment underwent two or three inspections and only entered the warehouse after passing them.
Lin Chao Ci placed great importance on quality. There was no need to make money unscrupulously; ordinary people worked hard for their money too.
"Excellent. Every piece meets my requirements. Tell the publicity department to launch the first round of promotion!"
Lin Chao Ci hadn't been idle these past few days either. He had Fang Miaoke buy several storefronts in busy areas and find several advertising companies.
Everything was ready. All that remained was to test the market.
As long as the clothes proved themselves in the market and became popular, Lin Chao Ci would expand production and buy several more clothing factories. That would create tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs for Haikou City.
More people would have food on their tables and enough to eat.
"All right!"
Fang Miaoke was a quick learner and had already been trained into a competent secretary.
The clothes soon went on sale, and Lin Chao Ci employed three promotional methods.
1. Hire people to hand out flyers and advertise in print.
2. Advertise through television broadcasts.
3. Have models wear the clothes and promote them out on the streets.
The whole campaign was rolled out, complete with catchy slogans that stuck in people's heads.
Ordinary residents had never seen anything like it. One after another, they became fans and fell in love with the clothes from Lin Chao Ci's company.
"These clothes are beautiful, and the name is lovely too—the Beauty Series! The Lin Clothing Factory is really impressive!"
"There are so many people! These clothes are selling like crazy. Girl, we have to buy one each! Wearing something this pretty, we'll turn so many heads!"
"Honey, I want one too. Buy me one, please..."
Just one hour into the promotion, customers were already lining up outside all of Lin Chao Ci's stores.
Some women came alone, others came with a few close friends, and there were couples, both married and unmarried... At a glance, hundreds of people were waiting in line.
Fortunately, Lin Chao Ci had anticipated this and arranged for the police to send officers ahead of time to maintain order and prevent a stampede.
In a very short time, the Lin Clothing Factory's Beauty Series took all of Haikou City by storm.
The Beauty Series targeted ordinary women, with each piece costing only sixty or seventy yuan.
In later years, that price would be equivalent to roughly eight hundred to a thousand yuan.
It genuinely wasn't expensive. Ordinary women could afford it if they stretched their budgets a little.
This series didn't actually make much money. Its original purpose was to quickly build recognition, buzz, and a reputation!
The real money would come from the later Goddess of the Luo River, Chang'e, and Xi Shi series.
Clothes for Chinese people should bear Chinese names.
"Boss, the sales figures are in! Sales passed ten thousand yuan in the very first hour. We sold for eight hours, and total revenue exceeded a hundred thousand! If we extended our sales hours, that figure could be even higher!"
Fang Miaoke reported the stores' sales figures.
She was filled with admiration. The man before her was truly remarkable.
He could write songs, start a business, and even design clothes.
It felt as though there was nothing he couldn't do. He was handsome, had a powerful family background, and was gentle and kind.
Fang Miaoke was still a naive young girl, and a strange little feeling had begun to blossom in her heart toward her seemingly all-capable boss.
But she hadn't recognized it yet.
"We can't extend our sales hours! Our clothes lean toward the high end. They can't be available anytime, anywhere like street-stall goods. We need to create a sense of exclusivity through scarcity. Put simply, it's scarcity marketing!"
Lin Chao Ci explained patiently.
It was like those luxury brands in later years. They would release all kinds of new designs, but when you went into the store to ask, the sales assistant would tell you to reserve one first and wait several months for it to become available.
In reality, they already had stock in their warehouses. They simply refused to sell it to you.
There was actually another, more important reason: their current production capacity was insufficient.
Even with two shifts a day, the factory Lin Chao Ci had bought could only produce ten to twenty thousand garments.
And today, although the buzz had only just begun to build, they had already sold eight or nine thousand pieces.
At this rate, tomorrow's sales would definitely exceed ten thousand pieces.
Once they opened a few more stores, they would run short of clothes and wouldn't have enough to sell.
Lin Chao Ci tapped his chair and said, "Buy all those factories we looked at earlier too. Remember, keep everything within the rules, but get the prices as low as possible. I'm no sucker..."
"Yes, boss!"
Fang Miaoke nodded and immediately went to carry out his instructions.
Not long after Fang Miaoke left, the phone in Lin Chao Ci's pocket rang.
It was a call from Brother Ma.
Lin Chao Ci was mildly surprised. Although he had bought shares in the Penguin Company, he only had dividend rights, not decision-making rights.
Brother Ma could handle ordinary matters himself. Unless something major happened, he wouldn't contact Lin Chao Ci.
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