"Why are you here? Are you off work?"

Looking at the tall figure in front of her, Jiang Qiaoqiao couldn't help but ask in confusion.

She never expected that Huo Beixiao would come looking for her.

"The factory gave me half a day off." Huo Beixiao's voice was emotionless, his gaze falling on her patched old clothes.

He then pulled out thirty yuan from his pocket. "Take this money. It should be enough to buy two new outfits."

Jiang Qiaoqiao looked at the man in surprise, "Where did you get the money?"

"I borrowed it from the factory manager," Huo Beixiao replied succinctly.

It took Jiang Qiaoqiao a moment to process what she had just realized.

Isn't the factory director Huo Beixiao's biological father?

However, Huo Beixiao's mother died early, and his father later remarried and had a son who is now only ten years old.

Huo Beixiao was never close to his father, so he moved out to live alone.

For such a big event as a wedding, Huo Beixiao himself didn't care about arranging the banquet, and no one else in the Huo family cared at all.

Jiang Qiaoqiao felt a little guilty. "I have the betrothal gifts you gave me, as well as the dowry I got from my family. I can afford to buy my own clothes."

She stuffed the money back into Huo Beixiao's hand, saying, "Take this and return it to the factory manager."

Huo Beixiao didn't answer, "You need capital to do business."

Jiang Qiaoqiao was at a loss for words for a moment.

“If you want to do business, you can only buy goods in the provincial capital. I’ll go with you,” Huo Beixiao said, unusually taking the initiative.

Jiang Qiaoqiao looked at Huo Beixiao's cold and stern face.

For a moment, I felt no joy, but rather a mix of emotions.

Since you only have Jiang Yiran on your mind, why are you being so nice to me now?

She suppressed her emotions and nodded, "Okay, then I'll also go to the provincial capital to buy my clothes wholesale."

Huo Beixiao bought a train ticket to the provincial capital.

It takes two hours by bus from Zhongxian County to the provincial capital.

The infrastructure was poor in those days, and the roads were very bumpy.

It was the middle of summer, and there was no air conditioning in the car. All sorts of smells mixed together, which smelled terrible, and Jiang Qiaoqiao was covered in sweat.

The back of the shirt was soaked.

Huo Beixiao watched as the little woman's face flushed red, but she didn't utter a single complaint. In fact, her almond-shaped eyes sparkled with anticipation.

An unprecedented sense of anticipation for the future rose in his heart.

This seems completely different from the married life he dreamed of.

In his dream, it seemed that no matter what he did or how he did it, Jiang Yiran had endless complaints.

He thought Jiang Yiran disliked him, so he stopped going back to that house, but unexpectedly this made Jiang Yiran even more dissatisfied.

Thinking of his dream, Huo Beixiao's brows furrowed tightly.

It's a two-hour drive.

When they got off the bus, Huo Beixiao felt a little tired, but Jiang Qiaoqiao still looked radiant.

On the way to the wholesale market, Jiang Qiaoqiao earnestly instructed Huo Beixiao, "When we get to the wholesale stalls, let's stand outside and watch for a while to see how others get their goods."

When we go to pick up the goods, I'll negotiate the price with the boss. You just stand there like usual, with a slightly fierce expression.

Huo Beixiao's appearance can be described as cold and aloof, or to put it bluntly, he looks a bit fierce.

He should be able to leverage Huo Beixiao's strengths to negotiate prices with wholesalers.

The bustling atmosphere of the provincial capital is incomparable to that of a county town.

This is also the time when small vendors pack up their stalls and go to the wholesale market to restock.

The wholesale market was bustling with activity and filled with noise.

Jiang Qiaoqiao went to the clothing wholesale market and looked at each stall one by one.

Outside a stall, I saw a group of small vendors picking up their goods.

"Boss, these pants are six yuan a pair, we'll buy them all for you," a middle-aged man leading the group of vendors said to the slightly overweight stall owner.

The chubby boss waved his hands repeatedly, "I can't take it, I can't take it. At this price, the more I sell, the more I lose."

"Boss, we've already bought quite a lot of goods from you, this price is acceptable. Everyone else is charging this price." The middle-aged man was still unwilling to give up.

The small vendors who were with him also chimed in.

These small vendors are competitors when selling goods, but allies when buying them.

The more you buy, the cheaper the price the wholesaler will offer.

At this moment, the chubby boss pulled out a pack from under a pile of goods. "I also have some here that cost six yuan a pack. Do you want them? If you do, I'll give you all of them."

Jiang Qiaoqiao glanced at the fat boss's bag of goods from afar, and her eyes lit up. These were stirrup pants that would be popular for the next ten years or so?

Was it already designed and manufactured at this point?

It's worth noting that when stirrup pants were in fashion, even jeans had to avoid competing with them.

It wasn't until people's aesthetic tastes changed and stirrup pants gradually disappeared from the scene that jeans became increasingly popular.

The vendors took the bag of stirrup pants out and examined it closely.

"Boss, these pants are so weirdly made. There's a big hole at the bottom of the cuff. How am I supposed to wear them?"

"How can we sell these pants that are so difficult to even put on?"

"Fine, fine, we'll take those pants back. You can give them to us for eight yuan a pair."

The chubby boss waved his hand reluctantly, "Forget it, we're all old acquaintances, I'll sell this batch of goods to you at a slight loss, you can just come to me for the next batch."

The fat boss looked like he had suffered a huge loss.

But after the small vendors paid and took their goods, he immediately put on a smile and started counting the money.

Just by looking at his face, which was practically beaming with joy, you could tell he had made a fortune.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!