A Lei kept a close eye on things, leaving all the trade fair matters to Factory Director Fei and Tang Wenwen, and forbidding Qin Xiaoyu from participating.
After reviewing the sales figures for two days, Qin Xiaoyu started to get impatient. Sales weren't as good as she had expected; what happened to the booming sales she had anticipated?
After much persuasion, she was finally allowed to visit the exhibition on the last day of the trade fair.
This trade fair is much larger than the one she attended in Suzhou last time. The venue is bigger, and there are more attendees.
At their booth, the large banner of the Ministry of Light Industry's Gold Award was very eye-catching. Judging from the large number of participating companies and the variety of fashion items, sales were not bad, but they were much worse than at the Shanghai Fashion Show.
This is also because there are too many garment factories, leading to the diversion of personnel.
Qin Xiaoyu calculated that she would probably have to ship half of the clothes she brought back.
"These are minor issues, nothing to worry about. We just need to get things moving. Let's go back, there are too many people."
A Lei kept his arm around her shoulder, protecting her in his arms, and was trying to persuade her to go home.
"Let's go." Qin Xiaoyu had also seen the general outline. Although she was annoyed, she still cheered herself up.
Qin Xiaoyu suddenly felt his finger twitch, and instinctively turned her head to see Gao Daxiong's stall.
Gao Daxiong also brought a lot of fashion items, but he couldn't participate in the competition; however, he wanted to sell the fashion items.
Qin Xiaoyu walked toward his stall, with A Lei following closely behind.
Zhu Xu was also there.
The two quickly spotted Qin Xiaoyu, and immediately put on a different persona. Gao Daxiong always wore a smile, a smiling tiger who never offended anyone.
Zhu Xu had low emotional intelligence and was full of resentment. Needless to say, he blamed Qin Xiaoyu for not being able to participate, completely forgetting that they were plagiarists.
It's hard to say what someone with such bizarre values thinks; he's always right, anyway.
"Boss Gao, business is good." Qin Xiaoyu was both the victor and the condemner.
"Not bad, not bad. Boss Qin's business is even better now, he's even won the gold medal."
"That's well-deserved," Qin Xiaoyu said bluntly.
"That's right, that's right, what more can be said about Boss Qin's brand? It's only right!" Gao Daxiong's words were insincere, and it was exhausting to listen to.
“Boss Gao, we’ve never done anything wrong. Today we’re officially informing you that you should behave yourself in business and stop trying to pull any tricks. Otherwise, I’ll use all my resources to get rid of you.” A Lei’s threat was serious, and Gao Daxiong’s arrogance immediately subsided.
"Harmony brings wealth, harmony brings wealth. We might have misunderstood each other." Gao Daxiong helped A Lei aside and whispered to them, "It's all a misunderstanding. I didn't know my outfit for the competition was the same as yours. Zhu Xu claimed it was his original design, but that kid pulled a fast one. Now I can't even participate. Otherwise, I would have gotten a silver or bronze award, right? I'm wronged too."
Gao Daxiong immediately shifted the blame. Qin Xiaoyu and A Lei knew who he was, but without concrete evidence, nothing they said mattered. They needed solid proof, which they would investigate further back in Guangzhou.
Afraid that the place was too chaotic and full of people, A Lei quickly brought Qin Xiaoyu out.
"Sister-in-law, the deal for the Beijing counter is done." Tang Wenwen is known for her decisive and efficient work style.
"That's great." Qin Xiaoyu felt relieved that she didn't have to take all the remaining goods with her.
There's no problem selling these goods, but it only increases shipping costs, which isn't worthwhile.
Qin Xiaoyu realized that she still couldn't take too big a step; she had to take it easy.
A Lei brought a message that his aunt wanted to treat them to dinner again. They had just returned to China, and probably because of what happened last time, they felt they hadn't helped enough, so they wanted to smooth things over.
Qin Xiaoyu also felt that she had spoken rudely last time and wanted to find an opportunity to apologize, so this was a good opportunity.
This time, the dinner was held at home, and Qin Xiaoyu only now realized that she was being treated like family.
“Xiaoyu, I didn’t believe you last time. After checking, it turned out they did indeed change the ranking. Plus, they didn’t participate in the competition, so the plagiarism is confirmed. We’re not strong enough to protect original works right now, so you need to work on it yourselves. Luckily, we didn’t let it go, or something serious would have happened.” My aunt’s words were very frank, but they were also from a work perspective.
“Thank you, Aunt. I was a bit too outspoken last time. I just didn’t want to be tripped up by trivial things because I’ve put in so much effort. I’ve always felt that running a fashion brand requires individuality, which can’t be imitated. That’s why I insist on originality. With my production capacity, I could earn more money and make less money making high-quality replicas. The reason I chose this difficult path is that I hope one day we can go international and have our own brand to showcase.” Qin Xiaoyu spoke eloquently, and her aunt nodded in agreement.
She figured it out: when dealing with this kind of person, putting ideals first and speaking grander makes it easier to gain support.
"There's something I heard about you guys. I arranged a booth for you at the arts festival in September. It's not a fashion booth, it's a model booth. You can hold fashion shows repeatedly to attract audiences and advertise your clothing at the same time."
"Really!" Qin Xiaoyu could hardly believe it. Her aunt had suddenly become enlightened, which was a huge help. She feared that after this fashion show, not only would the clothes they brought not be enough to sell, but they would also have to source more from various places.
Just as Gao Daxiong and his group were leaving Beijing in disgrace, Qin Xiaoyu's career took another big leap forward.
The art festival is held in the art center, in a large hall under a glass enclosure, and their booth wasn't in a particularly prominent location. Since the festival mainly focuses on traditional art, their booth was considered niche, and managing to get a spot at all was quite an achievement.
"Should we do a runway show on the ground, or should we set up a stage?" Tang Wenwen asked Qin Xiaoyu for her opinion.
“Let’s set it up. Look, the rock singers over there have all set up their stages. If we just do a show on flat ground, we’ll be overwhelmed by the crowd,” Qin Xiaoyu decided decisively.
Unlike the performance in Shanghai, this one required a long preparation period, a full two weeks. A week in advance, the model team arrived in Beijing, and A Lei cleared out his entire living room to use as their training space.
Compared to the Shanghai event, the models have improved a lot this time. With the experience from last time, their performance was exceptionally good. Even A Lei nodded in approval.
The journey is a bit far, so my family in Guangzhou won't be coming over. I can only do it remotely, calling to inquire every day.
Sister-in-law Si couldn't make it last time, but this time she left her daughter behind and came by herself, firstly to see the fashion show, and secondly to see Xiao Zichen.
Qi Si didn't stop her. With such a large family around, he didn't expect his daughter to rely on Xiao Si's wife to take care of her.
With Xiao Si's sister-in-law and aunt vying to take care of Xiao Zichen, Tang Wenwen was completely freed up. Qin Xiaoyu didn't have to interfere with anything; everything was handled perfectly.
The opening day of the art festival was the busiest time. Unable to resist Qin Xiaoyu's pleas, A Lei took her to the art center.
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