CHAPTER 39: CHAPTER 39 CHALLENGE

The several days of booming sales during the National Day holiday also allowed Tang Mingli and Tang Yue to slowly start accumulating wealth. Now that Tang Mingli went to restock, he already had over a thousand yuan on him.

With this huge sum of over a thousand yuan, Tang Mingli became very picky when purchasing stock. He would rather choose good-looking styles than cheap but unattractive ones.

There were quite a few clothes sellers in Wangjiang County, but none had a business as bustling as his.

Tang Mingli knew well that it was because the clothes looked good. With more money, Tang Mingli also started to buy more stock each time, and the round-trip travel expenses were not insignificant.

As a result, every time Tang Mingli returned from restocking, he always felt like he was about to collapse from exhaustion.

"Uncle, with the new stock, we can sell for another half month," Tang Yue comforted as she hurriedly handed him a glass of water.

The more clothes they sold, the harder it became. Even Tang Yue, who got up early and stayed up late, deeply felt the challenges of running a clothing stall, especially when dealing with people who always tried on clothes but never bought anything, and those who haggled over prices.

Tang Yue had become hoarse from talking these past few days. She told Tang Mingli she would come to help him again over the weekend, then went back to school.

Xu Zhenzhen had taken a few days off and hadn’t come in.

Tang Yue’s ears were relatively quiet, and her entire focus was on her studies.

That day, the school started monthly exams.

It was the first test after entering Senior High School. Xu Zhenzhen seemed to have received the notification as she showed up on the day of the exam, though she didn’t look as spirited as before.

Tang Yue had no interest in Xu Zhenzhen’s situation. After dealing with the exams, she had some free time and took out a notebook to work on clothing design drafts.

In her previous life, she loved clothes but regrettably hadn’t gone to college. Otherwise, with further studies, she definitely could have done better.

Now, her vision was thirty years ahead. When designing clothes popular in this era, she considered a lot, fearing that if they were too trendy, the local people might not accept them.

Once she could deal with a clothing factory, her parents wouldn’t have to work so hard anymore.

Since the last incident, Xu Zhenzhen no longer came up to her as before, which made Tang Yue feel more at ease. Meanwhile, Zhang Lei in her class often sneaked peeks at her, but she pretended not to notice. Her daily activities were studying, doing homework, and drawing design sketches.

Afraid that someone might see her designs, she always drew in a corner of the library.

When the weekend came around, Tang Yue still went to help Tang Mingli with sales. Seeing that business was good, Tang Mingli took the opportunity to restock over the weekend. The smile on his face grew more and more, but at the same time, he brought Tang Yue some bad news.

"Xiao Yue, there are no clothing factories around here," Tang Mingli sighed. "I’ve asked many people, and they say you have to go to the Provincial City. There’s none here."

"Oh." Tang Yue felt somewhat disappointed, but she also perked up: "It’s okay, there will be one in the future."

"What are you going to do?" Tang Mingli asked.

Tang Yue raised an eyebrow: "Do about what? Before the New Year, let’s focus on selling these clothes first."

"Uncle, have you ever thought about opening a clothing store?" Tang Yue asked.

"Why? Aren’t we doing pretty good like this?" Tang Mingli felt Tang Yue’s question was superfluous.

He even had plans. After a year of business, he could buy a house in the county. Maybe, it wouldn’t even take a year.

"With a store, you wouldn’t have to work so hard, and you wouldn’t have to pack and unpack like this," Tang Yue said, looking at the abundance of goods on the stall. Every day, Tang Mingli had to carry them back to where he lived. Although it wasn’t far, carrying them out in the morning and back in the evening, these goods weighed at least several hundred pounds.

"It’s fine to work hard as long as I can make money," Tang Mingli wasn’t afraid of hardship.

"Okay then, uncle, keep it up for now," Tang Yue, too, was tired and went back to school earlier. Yet, she couldn’t help but wonder, with no clothing factory around, how could she realize all her previous ideas?

She had drawn so many design sketches. Relying on herself alone was definitely not viable.

She needed to find business opportunities in the Provincial City.

Tang Yue decided in her heart to wait until the winter break to go to the Provincial City, so she would have more time.

At her uncle’s place, he did everything, and she only took thirty percent of the profits, which made her feel a bit embarrassed.

*

Monday.

The exam results were out. Tang Yue from Class 10 topped the rankings with her superb performance, especially her full score in English which nearly turned people green with envy.

Everyone kept asking Tang Yue how she did so well in English.

When Xu Zhenzhen heard the scores, she was shocked to her core. Tang Yue’s English had always been good, but not to the extent of getting a perfect score, right?

And her Chinese and Math had clearly improved a lot.

Envy ate away at Xu Zhenzhen from the inside.

Tang Yue’s name became well-known throughout the first year of Senior High School in no time.

"Tang Yue, didn’t you just copy your way to one hundred percent in English?" Zhang Minmin clearly did not believe it. Her cousin, Zhang Tingyu, had always been the best in English during middle school, but she only scored 96 points, missing a perfect score by four points.

"Why don’t you try copying yourself a one hundred percent?" Tang Yue retorted.

Zhang Minmin’s face turned red instantly; if she could copy a one hundred percent, she would have been boasting in front of her already.

"So you’re Tang Yue?"

Zhang Tingyu, who had been silent beside her, stepped forward. She bore some resemblance to Zhang Minmin in their facial features, but was more delicately beautiful, and unlike Zhang Minmin, she wasn’t dressed like a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl in princess-style clothing at sixteen or seventeen.

Zhang Tingyu was wearing jeans and a self-knitted purple sweater, with beautiful flowers made from various colors of yarn in the center. Her fair skin and long black hair draping behind her gave her a refined air.

However, the arrogance emanating from her was... somewhat off-putting.

"Yes," Tang Yue nodded.

"I’m Zhang Tingyu. I want to compete with you. Next exam, I’ll definitely surpass you," Zhang Tingyu dropped these words and turned to leave.

"Way to go, Zhang Tingyu, I support you," Zhang Minmin hurriedly followed after her.

"What nonsense," Tang Yue couldn’t help but roll her eyes; such childish behavior.

"Tang Yue, I support you, and you will surely be more remarkable than her," Yang Qingqing immediately expressed her support: "Don’t feel bad, Zhang Tingyu always had such a high opinion of herself. Back in middle school, she would challenge anyone who outperformed her."

"..." Tang Yue remained silent.

Yang Qingqing consoled, "Really, even if you lose, it doesn’t matter because you’re the number one this time."

"Oh, so you mean she has never lost before?" Tang Yue asked back.