"Oh, just kidding, don't take it seriously." Little Fish's dad chuckled.

"Not serious? How can you get a Shanghai hukou?" Qin Xiaoyu sneered.

"That's all drunken bragging. Don't listen to their nonsense. I didn't say that. I said I could get Xiao Ye a Shanghai hukou (household registration) and get her transferred there." Xiao Yu's father revealed the truth with this statement, and the rumor probably started from there.

"Are you bragging after drinking? You were drinking Moutai, weren't you?"

"No way, how could I bear to drink that?" Little Fish's dad felt even more guilty.

"Really? Then do you know that it's illegal to take money from someone and not help them out?" Qin Xiaoyu narrowed her eyes and stared intently at him.

"What law? Is it illegal to brag?" Little Fish's dad was stubborn, but he chickened out.

"You'd better return the money they gave you right now to mitigate the damage, or I'll sue you! This is fraud! I'll send you to the capital first!" Qin Xiaoyu kept telling herself not to get angry and to settle things as soon as possible.

"What does our Xiao Ye have to do with you? She's my child, it's none of your business! Are you jealous because Xiao Ye married well?" The stepmother got angry and was ready to have a falling out with Qin Xiaoyu.

"I can't control her? If you keep doing this, you'll drive her to her death!" Qin Xiaoyu stood up angrily, and A Lei quickly helped her up. Qi Si went over and kicked her. The stepmother was not prepared for the attack from the side and flew out, crashing into the wall and unable to catch her breath for a long time.

Little Fish's dad rushed over to help her up, and when he lifted her clothes, he saw a large purplish-black footprint.

The stepmother had recovered her breath, but kept groaning in pain. She looked badly injured; Qi Si's kick probably broke several of her ribs.

"Don't push your luck and come to my house to commit violence. I'll fight you to the death..." Little Fish's father rarely showed any courage. He got up, grabbed a shovel, and raised it to chop at Qi Si.

Qi Si always had to give Qin Xiaoyu face, so he snatched it away and tapped it on his body. He stumbled back a few steps and fell right onto his stepmother, causing her to scream again.

"You, you! I'm going to sue you! Your own daughter hired people to beat her father and poisoned her mother! You've lost your heart!" Little Fish's father cried out in anguish, pounding the ground in tears.

"If you want to drive Xiaoye to her death, then go ahead and do it. Xiaoye was jilted because of you, and the man is already engaged to someone else. She's emotionally unstable right now; if it weren't for A Lei's persuasion, she probably would have jumped into the sea. I'll say it clearly again: immediately return all the things and money you received. I'll have Fourth Brother come to inspect them in three days. If there are still problems, you can go to the police station and confess yourself. This is illegal; it's called fraud. I will provide them with all the evidence they need and send you in jail." After Qin Xiaoyu finished speaking, she turned and walked out. She couldn't stay in this filthy place for even a minute longer.

A Lei followed closely behind her; the entrance was already crowded with onlookers.

"Listen up, spread this message: Qin Xiaoye and I have absolutely nothing to do with them. We are not responsible for his using us to extort money and gifts; go find them!"

“He said he would help my daughter get a job at the garment factory, and I even gave him 500 yuan.” A neighbor panicked when he heard this.

"He said he would help my son get a Shanghai hukou (household registration), so I gave him a chicken and a can of soybean oil! He also said he would give me 1,000 yuan if it worked out!"

"Go find him and get your money back. I don't care about this. The garment factory doesn't have a single opening, and a Shanghai residency permit is just a pipe dream." It wasn't that Qin Xiaoyu was resolute; if this matter wasn't resolved quickly, it would never end.

As the crowd surged into the courtyard, the stepmother's screams could be heard intermittently, but Qin Xiaoyu pretended not to hear them.

At the intersection, once she was in the car, Qin Xiaoyu's heartbeat finally calmed down a bit.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to the baby in her belly, not wanting him to have to go through so much hardship and suffering right now. She thought to herself, "This mother was just unlucky; I wasn't born into the right family."

"Don't think about it anymore. You can't choose your birth. Just be good and leave this godforsaken place later." It was clear that Qi Si was already fed up with this place.

Despite A Lei's objections, Qin Xiaoyu still went to the garment factory. Factory Director Xie and her daughter were there, and they came over to greet Qin Xiaoyu and hugged her tightly.

"Xiaoyu heard you were pregnant. I didn't expect you to come back. I really missed you." Director Fei had spent a lot of time with her in Guangzhou, and their relationship was even deeper. He helped her sit down in a chair.

Factory Director Xie brought over a teacup, but Factory Director Fei stopped him, saying, "You're pregnant, so you shouldn't drink tea."

"I'm not that dramatic." Qin Xiaoyu snatched the cup from Director Fei.

“I was thinking of discussing this with you. The Second Light Industry Bureau held a meeting a few days ago. The Lao Bao Garment Factory is losing money like crazy right now, and they asked if we could take it over.”

"Sister, what do you think?"

"To be honest, whether we take them in or not doesn't really matter. When the heavy industry was profitable, they had more production orders than they could handle. To put it bluntly, they were all on the same payroll, and they were all seasoned veterans. Now that the machinery factory isn't doing well, there are more laid-off workers, and labor protection measures are being used less. They can't get orders, so they're starting to look for a way out. I'm afraid that even if we take them in, they'll be harder to manage than new workers." Director Fei's words made Qin Xiaoyu nod repeatedly. The past few months in Guangzhou hadn't been in vain; she was now clear-headed and decisive.

"Listen to your sister, if you don't want to accept it, then don't." Qin Xiaoyu is now considering opening several more factories in Guangzhou, since the transportation there is advantageous.

"Also, regarding your suggestion to continue recruiting for the modeling team, I haven't been paying much attention. I always thought that the modeling team would only be used a few times a year, and it would mostly be just for show. If we recruit more people, they would just be freeloaders." After returning to the North, Director Fei's perspective had become limited again without him realizing it.

"Sister Fei, don't focus on the immediate future. There will be many more opportunities to use them in the future. Twenty people are still a bit too few. We won't even have enough people to change clothes for a single show, and there are very few male models. Just find ten more people according to my criteria, six men and four women." Qin Xiaoyu said this, and Factory Director Fei dared not disobey.

The requirements for this recruitment are very strict. Qin Xiaoyu has set a strict height requirement: men must be 185 cm tall and women 175 cm tall, not even one centimeter less.

Fortunately, northerners are generally taller, and one by one they gathered, eventually bringing together ten people. Qin Xiaoyu handed them over to Hu Xing and began training.

She believed that she would need them many times in the future, as the saying goes, "You raise an army for a thousand days, but use it for only one."

Furthermore, apart from A Lei, no one knows the true nature of Riyue Clothing. With her current income, she could easily support a factory, let alone 30 idle people.

Since the Shanghai fashion show, Riyue Apparel has reached a new level, with smooth cash flow and money flowing in like water.

The modeling team is becoming more and more mature. Although they only have one chance to perform, it's a big event for these young girls. After recovering from her injury, Hu Xing continued to lead the team, becoming even more composed.