Chapter 367

Flowers bloom and fade, spring comes and autumn goes.

Time flies, and the years march forward swiftly under the mighty wheels of history.

Summer, 1991.

In the blink of an eye, it has been Ji Wanmei's third year studying at East China University.

That year, she turned twenty-one.

At this point, she only had six months left before graduating from university.

A lot has happened in the past two years.

First, Ji Wanmei founded her own clothing design brand.

She used the same name as her previous physical store, and the clothing brand's series is called "Oriental Charm".

This clothing brand was first created in Huadong City, a major provincial capital in the south.

Initially, 'Oriental Charm' mainly produced traditional Chinese style cheongsams and mid-range ready-made women's clothing, and later gradually expanded to include children's and men's clothing.

In Ji Wanmei's initial plan, she did not intend to build her own factory for the time being, so she found a manufacturing plant with good industrial technology to cooperate with her.

The factory handled the manufacturing for her, while Ji Wanmei and her team provided design drafts and store management.

She had done this kind of thing in the very beginning of her previous life, so in a sense, she was quite familiar with it.

Thanks to Ji Wanmei's good reputation for custom-made cheongsams among the "high-society ladies" in East China, and with the strong support of Grandma Song, a successor of Shu embroidery, Ji Wanmei's clothing brand was established relatively smoothly.

After more than half a year of preparation, she opened her first directly operated clothing brand store in the city center of East China.

At the end of the year, Ji Wanmei seized the opportunity and took over a branch in another new economic development zone in East China.

Over the past two years, Ji Wanmei and Lei Tingjun have maintained a frequency of meeting once a month and exchanging letters once a week, preserving their feelings for each other.

Ji Xingguo was generally aware that they were in contact privately. However, he wasn't as opposed as before, and was now somewhat turning a blind eye.

However, he still did not openly agree, saying the same old thing: everything would have to wait until Ji Wanmei graduated from university.

However, Ji Wanmei thought this was already very good.

Anyway, she and Lei Tingjun got through the toughest two years, and now she has six months left before graduation, at which point they can be together openly.

Of course, during these two years, Lei Tingjun also gave Ji Wanmei the greatest support in establishing the OEM factory for her clothing brand.

Whether in terms of action or funding.

Just like Ji Wanmei supported him in taking on the western district development project of Pingdong City, he provided support in a practical way.

While Ji Wanmei was running around to contract manufacturers and negotiating with those seasoned factory managers, Lei Tingjun would always make time to come and accompany her, no matter how busy he was.

When the first batch of clothing was put into production, a large amount of raw materials needed to be purchased. In addition, with the first mid-to-high-end store under the new development, Lei Tingjun gave all the cash he had on hand, 80,000 yuan, to Ji Wanmei.

Over the past two years, Ji Wanmei had saved tens of thousands of yuan on her own. With the 80,000 yuan given to her by Lei Tingjun, she had raised a total of 150,000 yuan, which allowed her to successfully establish her clothing brand.

The two supported each other through thick and thin, and progressed side by side.

Over the years, they not only had an unwavering love for each other, but also developed a feeling that this person had become 'in my blood' and 'in my life'.

Meanwhile, Lei Tingjun's development project in Pingdong City has been gradually completed.

The earliest completed wholesale market, 'Dongfangcheng', was put into use last year.

The arrival of hundreds of merchants in the 'Oriental Wholesale City' instantly brought a surge of economic vitality to this newly developed area in the southwest corner of the city.

While the construction project of the Thunder Army was underway, on the other side, there were still unfinished residential buildings, and many of them had not even officially opened for sale, yet merchants had already come to place reservations.

Because they saw the promising development prospects of this area, they wanted to be among the first to select the best locations—businessmen always have the keenest sense of smell.

Seeing that Lei Tingjun had indeed achieved some results and fulfilled his promise, the Pingdong Municipal Government instructed the Urban Road and Transportation Planning Bureau to add two new bus routes to the West District Development City.

With the opening of transportation, the western district has begun to show signs of becoming the second economic center of Pingdong City.

...

However, as time went by, by the end of 1992, major cities began to experience my country's first wave of layoffs.

In that year, the state made further major arrangements for the reform of state-owned enterprises. The documents issued emphasized that it is necessary to "adjust and improve the ownership structure", "the forms of public ownership can and should be diversified", and "the layout of the state-owned economy should be adjusted strategically".

For important industries and key areas that are vital to the national economy, asset restructuring and structural adjustment should be implemented to strengthen key areas and improve the overall quality of state-owned assets.

Following the issuance of the central government's document: "We must focus on improving the overall state-owned economy, focusing on large enterprises while allowing smaller ones to operate more freely. We must implement strategic restructuring of state-owned enterprises."

This marked the beginning of the reform of state-owned enterprises and factories.

Many state-owned enterprises faced a series of shocks brought about by the reform and opening up, and were forced to carry out necessary reforms after restructuring, resulting in layoffs of employees.

Among these, state-owned factories became the key targets for reform.

Therefore, in the spring of 1992, Dongfang Factory, a state-owned daily chemical factory that had driven the local economy in Pingquan County for decades, would also face the same situation.

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