Hangzhou, in an upscale residential complex.
Lin Lu wore cartoon-patterned pajamas, half-lying on her pillow with one calf slightly raised.
After using her lower lip to blow her air bangs, she interrogated like a police officer questioning a criminal: "Shen Qingning, is there something you haven't confessed to me?"
"Hm? What?" Shen Qingning was slightly puzzled.
"Are you leaving out some details? Like, is your cousin's friend very handsome!" Lin Lu said.
"You're sick." Shen Qingning said directly.
"Then just tell me—do you think he's handsome or not!"
In Shen Qingning's mind, Cheng Zhu's somewhat roguish face appeared, then she immediately said: "Anyway, not my type."
"Got it, he's handsome." Lin Lu said.
Shen Qingning: "..."
Lin Lu understood her best friend. She was an aloof person who rarely smiled in daily life, very cool, and rarely praised people.
Some people who speak tactfully might convert "ugly" to "not my type" as a high-EQ response.
Shen Qingning wasn't that type.
Since she avoided directly answering the question, Lin Lu firmly believed—he's handsome!
"How about adding me to the dinner party?" Lin Lu said as if possessed.
For her, this dinner wouldn't be awkward because she knew Shen Minglang, and had met Jiang Wanzhou several times—they were friends, just not that close.
The only stranger was the mysterious man who let her earn over ten thousand for free.
She'd really enjoyed watching that game because she enjoyed her dad's dumbfounded expression.
"When I first said to bet on 0-0, he wouldn't even place the bet for me!" Lin Lu thought.
Hearing this, Shen Qingning thought about it and said: "Okay, I'll tell them in the group."
"Group? You and this Cheng Zhu have a group together?" Lin Lu became alert again.
"What are you talking about? I mean my family group. I'll tell my brother and cousin you're coming too." Shen Qingning sighed deeply: "Can you stop being so paranoid?"
"Oh oh, okay okay!" Lin Lu said: "Hehe, getting to eat with a younger handsome guy!"
"You're only good with that mouth." Shen Qingning mocked.
"You haven't kissed it, how do you know, hmm?" This voice actress girl changed her voice to that seductive mature woman tone—the kind where the last sound of a sentence slightly drops in pitch with a bit of vocal fry.
This made her final "hmm" extremely sexy.
Shen Qingning couldn't stand her: "You have this vocal talent but can only use it on a woman like me. What kind of skill is that?"
"Hehe!" Lin Lu didn't mind, even felt quite proud: "I just haven't met someone I like yet. If I do, watch me charm him to death!"
...
...
At Yunlai Restaurant, Cheng Zhu and Jiang Wanzhou watched another episode of "Balala the Fairies" with Little Youzi.
During the commercial break, Cheng Zhu kept chatting with someone on his phone.
"Who are you chatting so happily with?" Jiang Wanzhou asked, afraid it was Li Xinyue.
They'd broken up and gotten back together too many times. Jiang Wanzhou had witnessed it all, so no matter how absolutely Cheng Zhu spoke, he maintained a wait-and-see attitude.
"With Ye Zi, that bartender at your cousin's bar." Cheng Zhu said honestly.
"Huh? You're already chatting with her?" Jiang Wanzhou paused: "What are you chatting about?"
"Flirting." Cheng Zhu said quietly, so Little Youzi wouldn't hear.
Jiang Wanzhou's eyes widened. He couldn't help giving Cheng Zhu a soft palm strike.
"You don't want to date her, right?" Jiang Wanzhou was shocked.
"How is that possible?" Cheng Zhu said.
"Then why are you flirting?"
"Can't flirt if you're not dating? You don't understand—she's useful to me."
"What for?"
"I said I'm going to do e-commerce. She already agreed to take buyer photos for me when the time comes." Cheng Zhu said: "Hey, she's actually pretty nice!"
"What's so special about that? I could take photos too." Jiang Wanzhou said.
"You?" Cheng Zhu looked him up and down disdainfully: "You definitely won't work."
"Why not? What exactly are you selling? One moment you say survey the market, next moment you say do e-commerce." He became increasingly curious.
"Secret." Cheng Zhu said: "After I succeed, I'll tell you."
"Hmph, playing mysterious, guarding against me huh? President Jiang doesn't care about your little business." Jiang Wanzhou was a bit unhappy.
Cheng Zhu patted his shoulder: "It's not that I've started yet. If I fail, the more I say now, the more embarrassing it is. After I succeed, I promise to tell you first."
"Tch, I wouldn't laugh at you anyway." After complaining a few more times, Jiang Wanzhou didn't continue pressing.
At this moment, his phone vibrated. Looking at it, Shen Qingning told him and Shen Minglang in the group that Lin Lu would also come to dinner.
Jiang Wanzhou didn't care, just replied: "OK."
On Shen Minglang's side, he sent three emojis in a row, saying he was going shopping at Hangzhou Tower tonight to buy new clothes and dress handsomely tomorrow.
"Peacock displaying." Jiang Wanzhou mocked.
He looked at Cheng Zhu: "My cousin sister says she's bringing a best friend to dinner tomorrow."
Cheng Zhu said what all guys would definitely say in unison: "Is she good-looking?"
"She's good-looking." Jiang Wanzhou didn't lie, very honestly said.
"Nice nice, I definitely didn't make the wrong friend." Cheng Zhu teased with a mischievous smile.
Jiang Wanzhou was too lazy to deal with him and got up saying he was going home for dinner.
Before leaving, he didn't forget to splurge, packing three portions of mung bean soup.
After he left, Cheng Zhu held his phone, continuing to flirt with Ye Zi.
"This kind of nightlife girl has wide connections. Quite a few female friends around her probably also play pretty openly."
"These are all resources that need to be utilized." Cheng Zhu thought.
Still adhering to that saying: Don't let down good girls, don't waste bad girls.
Except this time he wanted to turn them into tools.
Next, the place Cheng Zhu planned to survey was called Guanyun County.
This place was still a poverty-stricken county years ago.
But in a few years, it would gain an impressive-sounding title—Capital of Sexy Lingerie.
Many people might not know that the vast majority of the world's sexy lingerie is made by Chinese factories. And a large portion of that comes from Guanyun.
Yes, sexy lingerie was the e-commerce track Cheng Zhu chose.
With e-commerce's rapid development, competition between merchants was getting increasingly fierce.
It was 2014 now, still relatively manageable, still in a booming development period.
But look at 2023—how many e-commerce people were complaining.
However, even in 2023, if you knew how to operate, this track still had great prospects!
Because people's attitudes were changing, social atmosphere was also changing.
And the reason Cheng Zhu chose to do this was actually after deep consideration.
"First, I know where the supply is."
"Second, just looking at the styles you can tell—this stuff uses little material, low cost, high profit!"
"If operated well, seventy percent profit margin is very normal."
"When customers buy other things, they might haggle. Buying this stuff, they don't consider your costs. The more economical your materials, the more they might like it!"
"Hugely profitable, extremely profitable!"
"Of course, there's another very important point—the return rate is extremely low!"
Yes, this category had one of the lowest return rates in e-commerce.
In this business, returns were a very difficult thing to handle.
"Oh right, there's also no off-season. The market has demand all year round. Although it's cool to wear, there's AC in winter anyway."
"Besides this, choosing this track also doesn't require too high costs."
"It's 2014 now. Guanyun's side is still in development stage, definitely not as crazy as later when the government directly allocated billions in funding to vigorously support it, building [Lingerie Town], with many factories having mature systems and processes."
"But now they should also be able to help with [dropshipping], right?"
This meant Cheng Zhu didn't need to tie up too much capital, and it was convenient and effortless.
You have to know, one of the biggest cost pressures in the clothing industry was—inventory.
Factories supporting [dropshipping] could solve this problem.
At the same time, the customer base would mostly choose online shopping because many people were too embarrassed to go to physical stores to browse.
This was still an era that talked about sex with changed colors.
"Like once you walked through that door, you became a pervert."
"Hilarious—whether or not you walk through that door, men are perverts until death!" Cheng Zhu thought.
So these days, people earning hundreds of thousands a year from this were too numerous!
And sexy lingerie had another interesting point.
Women were users, men were also users.
Therefore, although this business didn't seem that respectable, Cheng Zhu's heart grew a sense of mission.
"I'm raising everyone's happiness index here."
"Just earning a tiny bit of disreputable money in the process."
In 2023, buyer photos for this type of clothing couldn't be seen on Taobao anymore, but now was 2014—buyer photos could still be posted.
This way, girls like Ye Zi became useful.
With such a lofty ideal, Cheng Zhu continued flirting with Ye Zi.