Chapter 62: First Place? Who? Xie Zhao?!

“All calculated! The deposit is half the price, twenty yuan. The rest totals sixteen yuan, making it thirty-six yuan in total!”

With the special coupon, the Special Supply Cloth was two yuan per meter.

Half the deposit came to twenty yuan.

Combined with the books Xie Zhao had bought, which were genuine copies shipped from the Xinhua Bookstore, the price was not low.

Xie Zhao carried a thick stack of books along with various school supplies, filling his hands to the brim.

Meanwhile, the onlookers had already been dumbfounded the moment they heard the number thirty-six!

What?

Had they misheard?

What on earth was so expensive?!

Even Chen Qiming and Huang Yuwei were stunned!

How much?

Over thirty?

Even though their families were wealthy, they wouldn’t spend that much money all at once!

That was a full month’s salary!

Was this a joke?

Could Xie Zhao actually afford that?

In an instant, everyone’s eyes drifted toward Xie Zhao, some openly and others covertly.

He was no longer the young master of the Chen Family!

How could he have money?

Xie Zhao did not hesitate in the slightest.

He pulled out the money, paid, and took his items in one smooth, fluid motion.

Naturally, he saw Chen Qiming’s wide, shocked eyes and Huang Yuwei’s incredulous gaze.

He just didn’t care.

After all, stupidity was innate.

They wouldn’t believe what they saw or heard; they only chose to believe what they wanted to believe.

As Xie Zhao walked past Chen Qiming, he thought about it and decided to stop.

He stood still, looked at Chen Qiming, and asked with a smile, “I heard your grades are very good?”

Chen Qiming froze for a second, then couldn’t help but puff out his chest.

Hmph.

He had ranked in the top ten of his grade!

Even the vice principal had told their homeroom teacher to take special care of him.

In the future, he would be a college student!

The state would assign him a job, and he would eat from the public granary!

“Heh, what’s the matter? Realizing now that you shouldn’t have offended me? Let me tell you, it’s too late for regrets!”

Chen Qiming said viciously.

Xie Zhao, completely unbothered, shifted the bags to his other hand and turned his smiling gaze toward Huang Yuwei.

“Oh? So Huang Yuwei never told you who ranked first in the grade starting from the end of our freshman year?”

He sighed, wearing an expression of slight disdain mixed with pity.

“Tenth in the grade? Student Chen, you need to work harder. Otherwise, with the Chen Family spending so much to support your education only for you to get tenth place, people might think there’s something wrong with your brain.”

After saying this, Xie Zhao turned around with a polite smile and waved to the crowd.

“Goodbye.”

With that, he left the department store.

Behind him, the crowd stood in a daze for a while after he left before suddenly snapping out of it.

“I remember now,”

someone suddenly murmured. “Ever since we entered high school, first place… seems to have always been Xie Zhao.”

“Come to think of it, Xie Zhao is really low-key. He never even mentions it!”

“Tsk, look at that. They both lived in the Chen Family, so how is it that one got first place while the other only got tenth? And if you ask me, that tenth place might even be inflated!”

…

The classmates’ chatter felt like a series of slaps, leaving Chen Qiming’s cheeks stinging and his ears ringing!

First place?!

Who?

Xie Zhao?!

But how did he never know about this?

“Yuwei? Is it true? Why did you never mention this?!”

Chen Qiming couldn’t help but ask Huang Yuwei for confirmation.

He still didn’t believe it!

Huang Yuwei was also stunned for a moment before she snapped out of it. She nodded, her voice quiet but clear. “It’s true.”

The reason she hadn’t deliberately brought it up with Chen Qiming was that she hadn’t even thought of it herself.

There was no other reason: Xie Zhao was famously low-key.

He had only taken first place during the entrance exam, which had made their homeroom teacher so happy that he praised him extensively in front of the class.

But Xie Zhao had been extremely modest, merely saying he got lucky.

Later, Xie Zhao went to see the homeroom teacher, and from then on, the teacher stopped announcing Xie Zhao’s grades to the class.

Huang Yuwei had once been curious and asked Xie Zhao about it.

She still remembered what Xie Zhao had said.

“The son of Hudong County’s richest man, that label is already flashy enough. Being too eye-catching will only invite jealousy, and I don’t want to cause trouble for my parents.”

But look at Chen Qiming?

He got tenth place and wanted the whole world to know!

Huang Yuwei’s heart grew colder and colder.

She took a deep breath and abruptly shook off Chen Qiming’s hand. “I have things to do. I’m leaving!”

With that, she fled the scene.

Chen Qiming’s face instantly darkened.

“Xie Zhao!”

He ground his teeth and spat out the name.

It was all his fault!

…

At this moment.

At the Chen Family home.

Chen Donghai sat on the sofa with a dark expression, pinching the space between his brows.

He had only just been discharged from the hospital and returned home two days ago, yet he had already received bad news.

Over the past two years, the public’s entrepreneurial consciousness had awakened, leading to an increasing number of small garment factories. As long as they could pull strings and affiliate themselves with state-owned garment factories, they could manufacture clothing and sell it to prefecture-level cities.

Coinciding with the winter season, which was a slump period for clothing purchases, the sales of the Donghai Garment Factory had dropped by a full ten percent, and their revenue had repeatedly shrunk.

Chen Donghai was quite worried.

The secretary stood nearby cautiously. Seeing Chen Donghai get up to drink some water, he quickly followed and whispered, “President Chen, I think we could expand into other businesses.”

Other businesses?

Chen Donghai poured a cup of water, took a sip, and asked in a low voice, “Like what?”

The secretary quickly placed a paper bag on the coffee table.

“Take a look. I brought this back from my business trip to Yangcheng during the New Year.”

Yangcheng?

Chen Donghai narrowed his eyes.

In the past two years, Yangcheng had opened up to the outside world and established a special economic zone, resulting in an influx of high-quality foreign goods.

However, due to the lack of information flow and their location deep in the inland, none of these goods had made it to the county town yet.

Chen Donghai often traveled to the provincial capital to buy small appliances and the like for fun, and a large portion of those items came from Yangcheng.

His knowledge of the goods there was limited to appliances.

But he was a garment maker. How was he supposed to expand his business?

Chen Donghai opened the paper bag in confusion, revealing the contents inside.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

It was a beautiful, delicate little cloth bag.

It had a blue and white base adorned with lovely patterns. Designed as a crossbody bag, it even had a small ornament made of the same fabric hanging from the zipper.

Unlike the old-fashioned metal clasps, it used a zipper. With its vibrant colors, it was a refreshing sight the moment it appeared.

“Around the New Year, many young girls in Yangcheng were carrying this bag!”

The secretary said softly, “Although the demand for this kind of thing isn’t as huge as clothing, it uses very little material and has low production costs. If we make them look nice and set the price a bit higher, the profit will be enough to get us through the winter.”

Chen Donghai fell silent for a moment before asking, “Have you calculated the budget and cost? What’s the planned retail price? What about the production process? Can our master tailors make it?”

Despite the barrage of questions, the secretary answered in an orderly fashion.

“The fabric cost isn’t high. The main expense is labor. Yesterday, the factory made a prototype that’s close enough. The cost is about five yuan per bag. Although our craftsmanship isn’t quite as good as Yangcheng’s, you can’t really find any flaws unless you look closely. Plus, it has the advantage of being novel, so it should sell well.”