Chapter 23 The Little Girl Selling Dresses

With an eight-day cycle, He Changyi's career development entered a fast track.

She departed from the capital, carrying a large quantity of goods, and traveled by train to Moscow. After selling everything there, she flew back to China with US dollars and gold and silver jewelry.

During this period, He Changyi encountered train conductors who tried to extort money, fought off armed Hun thieves, and narrowly escaped being caught by customs several times.

However, the rewards that come with such great risks are also quite substantial.

He Changyi's assets expanded at an extremely exaggerated rate. After his original safe was filled with jewelry and artwork, he rented a new safe at the bank.

She no longer calculates the exact amount of money she earns each time; money has become an insignificant number.

Sometimes she would lose a stack of rubles without noticing, but such trivial matters were no longer worth worrying about.

During his brief stay in the capital, He Changyi bought several apartments in a newly opened development in the city center as easily as buying groceries. Each square meter cost only two thousand yuan, which was practically free compared to the exorbitant housing prices of tens of thousands of yuan in later generations.

Even with the incredibly low housing prices, He Changyi still secured the longest-term mortgage loan, requiring only a few hundred yuan in monthly payments.

The weather gradually warmed up, the sun shone brightly, and even the usually gloomy Mosk became cheerful.

The towers of Red Square Cathedral resemble brightly colored ice cream, possessing a dreamlike and wonderfully delicious quality.

The young people on the street dressed in a Western style, with blond hair and blue eyes, wearing light clothing. Everything looked vibrant and full of hope.

He Changyi consulted with Lao Wu, saying she needed clothing supplies other than leather jackets, preferably made according to her specified styles.

As expected, Lao Wu refused without hesitation.

"What's going on? Why not just make a decent leather jacket and instead do this weird stuff? I think you're just burning money and looking for trouble."

He Changyi protested:

"Hey, Lao Wu, I've bought hundreds of thousands of yuan worth of goods from you. Can't you show a little respect for your big clients?"

Old Wu softened his tone, but it still sounded very harsh.

“If I didn’t consider you one of my own, I wouldn’t bother talking to you like this. I would just tell you not to do it. Look around Xidan now, which store isn’t selling leather jackets? The Russians have even come to our village, ordering thousands of pieces at once. We can’t even keep up with the demand.”

Old Wu was from Yuezhou. He and his fellow villagers went north to Beijing to make a living. Later, these Yuezhou people spontaneously formed a settlement in the rural areas on the outskirts of Beijing, which was called "Yuezhou Village".

Most families in Yuezhou Village are engaged in clothing production and sales. In the 1990s, leather jackets became a trend, and Yuezhou Village became known as the "Leather Jacket Village".

Because the leather jackets were purchased directly from the processors, the price was much cheaper than at the Xidan counters, attracting many domestic and foreign traders to Yuezhou Village to buy leather jackets.

Old Wu and He Changyi met because of leather jackets, but now she is demanding that he supply clothing other than leather jackets.

Old Wu earnestly advised:

"Now that you've finally figured things out, wouldn't it be better to sell leather jackets and make some easy money? Don't mess around and end up losing all your money."

He Changyi, however, said:

"There's no such thing as easy money as being a reseller. It's just a matter of using your brain or not. When everyone's trading leather jackets, it means it's time to switch to a new track."

Old Wu muttered:

"Change, change, change what... Do you think all these people aren't as smart as you?"

He Changyi tapped the table impatiently with his fingers.

"Old Wu, are you going to do it or not? Give me a straight answer."

Although Old Wu had a bad temper, he knew that if He Changyi hadn't been ordering goods from his house all this time, he wouldn't have earned so much money. He had transformed from the worst-performing processing household in the village into a middle-class family, with his sewing machine working day and night, and his electricity bills had increased several times over.

He complained, "There are only a few people in my household. We can only make a few dozen leather jackets a day, even if we work ourselves to death. If we make your new clothes, just making the pattern will take a long time. How can we possibly manage to do it all..."

He Changyi needed to make the same number of leather jackets as before, but also wanted to add new clothes. Unfortunately, Lao Wu was a craftsman who demanded perfection. Unless he turned into an octopus, he couldn't finish making them even if he didn't sleep.

He Changyi was familiar with Lao Wu and knew his family situation very well. Upon hearing this, he immediately complained:

"You refuse to hire workers or outsource, so you and your wife and siblings have to work hard and struggle, even packing the food yourself. How can you possibly manage?"

Feeling guilty, Lao Wu whispered an explanation for himself:

"The workers I hire learn the craft and then run away, only to come back and steal my business; the clothes I buy from outside aren't uniform in size or style, how can they compare to what I make... Hiring people to pack them, that costs money, doesn't it?"

He Changyi was speechless on the spot.

This is why some families in Yuezhou Village have already started large-scale production by air, while the Wu family is still keeping their family workshop, with only a few relatives working there.

If it weren't for He Changyi, who had high standards for quality, Lao Wu's business would have gone from barely surviving to completely failing.

He's the kind of person who throws away the watermelon to pick up a sesame seed.

However, although he wasn't very good at business, Old Wu also had his advantages.

He Changyi doesn't need to worry about the quality of the clothes when buying from him, nor does he need to be wary of incorrect quantities, and there will be no situation where the contract is broken or the goods are sold to the higher bidder.

As soon as she returns to China from Russia, Old Wu will have prepared enough goods for her, and she can pick them up and board the train to leave.

This is why He Changyi is still willing to waste time with Lao Wu instead of simply finding a different partner.

“If you don’t trust others, just subcontract the processing to your relatives. You are one of the best craftsmen in the village, so if you are in charge, even if other people’s clothes are not as good as yours, they won’t be much worse.”

Old Wu hesitated and said:

"How much processing fee do I have to pay them?"

He'd feel the pinch if he gave too much money, and he'd lose face if he gave too little.

Old Wu's wife couldn't stand it anymore and finally couldn't help but interrupt their conversation.

"Are you trying to make money off your relatives? You can't even finish Miss He's orders yourself. Giving some to your relatives can help keep the business going. You're always thinking about how to make money and how to expand your business. If you ask me, just give them what they deserve. It won't hurt us if we earn a little less."

He Changyi said sincerely:

"Your sister-in-law is quick-witted. Old Wu, you're only good at making clothes."

Old Wu muttered resentfully:

"She was the one I taught to sew..."

Old Wu's wife, Sister Xia, ignored him and spoke directly to He Changyi:

"Miss He, just tell me what style of clothes you want, and we'll make them. Pattern making is quick; just tell me a design, and I'll bring it over for you to see tomorrow. If you're satisfied, I'll make as many as you need."

He Changyi smiled and praised, "Sister Xia is so straightforward!"

The two women finalized the cooperation after a back-and-forth discussion.

He Changyi told Sister Xia the style and color of the clothes she wanted. Although Sister Xia was not as skilled as Lao Wu and was not formally trained, she had been making clothes for many years. She understood seven or eight parts of what He Changyi said and made a simple sample on the spot using scrap materials.

He Changyi laughed as soon as he saw it.

"Old Wu, I think you should step down. Sister Xia is the pillar of your family."

When He Changyi returned to China, Lao Wu and Sister Xia had already prepared all the goods, including leather jackets and new clothing that He Changyi had specified.

He Changyi hired laborers to transport the goods to the train station, some of which were consigned as freight and some were carried with him.

When the train crossed the border and stopped at a station in Oslo, He Changyi took out his new clothes and faced the Oslo people swarming onto the train.

Among a sea of ​​leather jackets and Adidas shoes, a brightly colored long dress stood out.

How much is this?

The moment He Changyi revealed her long dress, many people immediately crowded around to ask about the price.

"Four thousand rubles."

Upon hearing the price, the person asking the question exclaimed in surprise:

"Four thousand? That's too expensive! A leather jacket only costs six thousand rubles!"

He Changyi smiled and said in Emei language:

"But there are people wearing leather jackets everywhere on the street, but no one has ever worn this skirt."

The person asking the question shook his head repeatedly:

"That's too expensive. Unless it's two thousand rubles, I'd rather wear a leather jacket."

He Changyi wasn't angry; he pointed to the bright sun overhead.

"Summer is just around the corner, are you really going to wear a leather jacket during the beautiful but short-lived summer?"

For the Oroqen people, cold is the norm throughout the year, and warmth is a fleeting illusion, making them yearn for a sliver of warmth before freezing to death, just like the little match girl.

That's why summer is all the more precious.

The long dress in He Changyi's hand had extremely bright and eye-catching colors, and it shimmered with a delicate luster in the sunlight, as if someone had splashed rich and colorful paint on a dark and gloomy canvas, full of fatal attraction.

"But... this is just too expensive..."

While most people were still hesitating, a girl wearing jeans walked over.

She wore Polish-made lipstick and walked steadily across the gravel tracks in high heels; she was a rather fashionable young woman.

"Give me a dress."

He Changyi accepted the money, handed over the long dress, and thoughtfully reminded her:

"This dress comes in three sizes. You can try it on to see which size you prefer, and if it doesn't fit, you can exchange it now."

Without saying a word, the girl put on the long skirt. Although she was wearing a T-shirt and jeans underneath, which made her look a bit bulky, the people around her still gasped in surprise.

Simply put, this long dress is completely different from the loose-fitting round-neck dress; it emphasizes tailoring and highlights the wearer's slender and upright figure.

The square neckline perfectly showcases the swan-like neck and beautiful collarbone; the three-dimensional cut of the skirt outlines a slender and flat waist; and the knee-length skirt is neither too conservative nor so fashionable as to make an old-fashioned person feel out of touch.

Combined with the vibrant colors reminiscent of an oil painting, along with the girl's snow-white skin and long brown hair, it looks like a captivating painting.

After a brief silence, the crowd erupted in unprecedented enthusiasm.

"Give me one skirt, no, I want three!"

"I want five!"

"Don't worry about the size, just give me the dress!"

He Changyi was almost swallowed up by the crowd, while the fashionable girl who had bought the dress earlier was also trying to squeeze into the crowd.

"I want more! Please give me another one!"

He Changyi's new dress was more popular than ever before. Even after the train started moving, people kept chasing after it, holding up money and shouting at her, trying to buy another one.

Such scenes occurred at every station along the route.

Everyone's first choice is to buy He Changyi's dress, and only if they really can't buy it will they choose leather jackets and "Adidas" instead.

The other traders on the bus were filled with envy, repeatedly saying:

"Goodness, why didn't I think of selling skirts? In summer, who buys leather jackets? More people will definitely buy skirts."

However, despite this, most people still have path dependence; if they can make money by selling leather jackets and sweatshirts, they are too lazy to develop other product categories.

Just like Lao Wu said, once you've finally figured out the way, who would bother to open up a new one?

When the train arrived in Mosk, all the long dresses He Changyi had brought had been sold out.

She had her reliable porter, whom she had worked with many times, deliver the goods to the Baikal Hotel. After everything was settled, she went to visit Grandma Vitalie.

After He Changyi moved away, Vitalie's house returned to peace.

He Changyi brought her many gifts, including a long dress that Lao Wu made by hand.

Grandma Vitalie couldn't wait to change into her new dress. The elegant and understated design, along with the bright and noble fabric, made her look stunning.

While delighted, Grandma Vitalie asked with a hint of doubt:

“My dear, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear a dress.”

He Changyi was wearing a shirt and cigarette pants, and her medium-length hair was casually tied up at the back of her head, making her look dashing and unrestrained.

“I need to be stronger than a man; a skirt will only slow down my kicking speed. If there’s a wall in front of me, I’d rather leap over it directly than lift up my long skirt first.”

Grandma Vitalie said with a smile:

"You're a good girl, and an iron girl. If it were still the League, a girl like you would be printed on the promotional posters."

For some reason, He Changyi has not seen Alexei during this period.

He seemed to be avoiding her, but He Changyi didn't know what there was to hide from.

After all, she's not a Siberian tiger and wouldn't actually include a bear in her daily diet.

When He Changyi returned to the Baikal Hotel, someone said sourly:

"Oh, Mr. He is here."

He Changyi retorted without changing her expression:

"Hello, little rascal."

The man didn't get any advantage verbally; instead, He Changyi called him a lackey, leaving him speechless.

Only after He Changyi's figure disappeared around the corner of the corridor did he spit out a foul mouth and mutter under his breath:

"Hmph, she's just a woman, what's so great about her!"

Another person advised:

"Why do you care if she's a woman or not? Just tell me if her business is bigger than yours?"

Since He Changyi changed her location to the Baikal Hotel, the smugglers who regularly stay at the hotel have seen her place bustling with activity every day, with long queues of people buying and placing orders forming in the corridors.

Some people were envious and tried to poach her clients, but they were rejected outright without any hesitation.

"I don't trust you. I've bought down jackets from people like you before, but I won't fall for it again! I only trust He; she would never cheat me out of my money with inferior goods!"

"Yes, although you are all from China, you are different."

The middleman who tried to poach clients lost face badly and complained bitterly:

"What's the difference? Aren't they all just middlemen? Why pretend? I don't believe she doesn't want to make money off the Russians."

"Maybe he's not even as good as me!"

So some people started observing He Changyi, and when guests came to the door, they would hide to the side and eavesdrop.

Over time, they discovered that He Changyi was actually selling high-quality, low-priced goods to the Russians, which aroused dissatisfaction among some people.

Everyone else is selling counterfeit and shoddy goods and making money without conscience, so why can't you go along with it and make clean money?

So, if we go out and get called shady merchants by Russians, you can become friends with them, and they'll even bring you flowers when they come to buy things.

Like an extra white sheep in a flock of black sheep, many people disliked He Changyi and often made sarcastic remarks, saying that she came to Oros to do charity.

It wasn't because they were of high quality and only expressed their dissatisfaction verbally, but because He Changyi threw out every single one of them who dared to express their opinions with concrete actions.

—Don't worry about whether you're thrown face down or upside down, beaten senseless, or having a mental ritual performed. Just tell me if you were actually thrown out in the end.

After several attempts, no one dared to compare fist sizes with He Changyi anymore. Instead, they became gossipy and complaining men, whispering and gossiping behind his back.

But whenever He Changyi passed by, the resentful husbands would immediately scatter like birds and beasts, afraid of being caught in the act by her.

He Changyi didn't have time to argue with these petty men; she was busy making money.

Since she brought her new long dresses to Mosk, people have been lining up from the rooftop to outside the hotel to buy them.

Because the skirts are made of thin material, I could only bring a few dozen leather jackets in one baggage check-in, but now I can bring hundreds or even thousands of skirts.

Even so, demand still exceeds supply.

He Changyi counted money until his eyes were dizzy. The bed was piled with all kinds of jewelry, and there was even a small bag of raw gemstones.

People who had been suppressed for too long under the alliance system erupted with unprecedented enthusiasm at this moment.

It's as if wearing a brightly colored, beautiful dress means you're also wearing freedom.

There were so many rubles that even though He Changyi tried his best to use barter to trade, the rubles he received still filled a large suitcase.

She would go downstairs every now and then to call the currency exchange guy at the door to exchange her rubles for dollars.

By the way, the Stan people who used to trade with us have completely disappeared.

According to the hotel receptionist, the gang that collects protection money in this area has changed. The Stan people are hunting on someone else's territory without permission and are probably diving in the Mosk River now.

After selling most of her goods, He Changyi planned to buy a plane ticket back to China. She needed to get Lao Wu to make more dresses as soon as possible.

Just as she was packing her belongings, there was a knock on the door.

He Changyi didn't open the door. First, he held the knife under his pillow in his hand and then took a heavy leather jacket to cover himself before walking to the door and observing the visitors outside through the peephole.

The newcomer had a typical Slavic face, with a stern expression and no smiles.

He Changyi carefully observed him and made sure he wasn't carrying any weapons or hiding any accomplices behind him before hanging the security chain and opening the door a crack.

"What's up?"

The man pulled out a familiar-looking dress and asked:

"Did you sell this?"

He Changyi nodded, signaling with his eyes that he should speak quickly.

The man got straight to the point:

"I want five thousand dresses like this."

The man's name was Vakim, and he was a local merchant from Oroqen.

He saw girls on the street wearing beautiful long dresses he had never seen before. After inquiring, he learned that the dresses were bought from Zhong Guo, a middleman at the Baikal Hotel.

Vakim was very proactive; he immediately went to the Baikal Hotel and, holding the skirt, asked around layer by layer until he found He Changyi.

He Changyi ushered Waqim into the room and brewed him a pot of tea from Zhongguo.

"Five thousand dresses, how much are you planning to spend?"

Vakim said seriously:

"I think two thousand rubles is a reasonable price."

He Changyi withdrew his hand from the tea.

"Forget it then, I'd rather sell it myself. You should go back."

Seeing He Changyi's uninterested expression, Vakim's face showed a slight nervousness.

"Then what price do you think would be more appropriate?"

He Changyi smiled slyly.

"Four thousand rubles is a very appropriate number."

Vakim: ...

Having the same wholesale and retail price is indeed a good deal for sellers.

What followed was an extremely difficult round of bargaining.

When facing this young German woman, Vakim felt immense pressure, as if the German soldiers were about to storm Stalingrad.

The two eventually agreed on a price of thirteen dollars per dress, denominated in US dollars.

Waqim needs to pay a 20% deposit upfront, totaling $13,000. The deposit is non-refundable if the order is cancelled.

This was a disastrous defeat comparable to the Dunkirk evacuation, as Vakim sincerely stated:

"If all Chinese people were like you, then it's not hard to understand why you were able to become the most powerful socialist country, while our red flag has already fallen to the ground."

He Changyi offered a half-hearted consolation:

"Don't worry, at least there are plenty of idiots from Zhongguo in the hotel."

He Changyi returned to China with a huge order and went straight to Yuezhou Village after leaving the airport.

"Old Wu, I want ten thousand dresses! Now!"

Before leaving, He Changyi placed an order for two thousand dresses. Old Wu was working day and night to finish them, and he kept dozing off while operating the sewing machine.

But when he heard He Changyi's words, he was so shocked that his eyes widened and he almost put his finger under the needle.

"What?! You want another ten thousand?! You might as well skin me alive and make skirts out of me!"

Sister Xia slapped Old Wu as she passed by and scolded him:

"What nonsense are you talking about? Your skin is worth very little. Even if you used it to make a dress, no one would want it."

Then she warmly greeted He Changyi.

"Miss He, please sit down, please sit down. Have you eaten yet? I'll have someone order a table of food from the village restaurant right now!"

And then turn around and curse Old Wu again:

"Why are you looking so long-faced? The God of Wealth has come to our door, so hurry up and get up to greet Miss He!"

With Sister Xia overseeing the operation, they made some themselves, outsourced some to relatives, and, together with the two thousand skirts they had already made, rushed to produce five thousand skirts in just three days.

He Changyi bought tickets for an entire train carriage over those three days, a total of seventeen compartments and sixty-eight berths.

At the same time, she hired three veterans to accompany her.

The job includes room and board, round-trip train tickets, and a salary of 3,000 yuan per person, equivalent to two years' wages for an ordinary worker.

As the international train travels across the Siberian plains, the wilderness stretches out in a vast expanse of lush green, with milky mist drifting through the silent white forests.

The railway tracks cut through the city, and trains roared past.

A girl in a long dress flashed by on the street, her vibrant colors lingering on the travelers' retinas.

A veteran guarded each of the front, rear, and middle sections of the carriage. Each compartment was crammed with goods, leaving only berths for four people to rest.

He Changyi sat by the window, enjoying the rare tranquility.

From the cold spring to the scorching summer, the step she took finally landed firmly on the ground.

-----------------------

Author's Note: Daily check-in (Sunglasses)