Chapter 12

Meng Gang didn't use much force, and Mu Hanxia nearly exhausted all her strength to push him away.

She staggered a few steps back, he sat still, she stood. For a moment, neither of them spoke.

"Mu Hanxia," he called her name softly. Mu Hanxia looked at the ground, her face wearing a forced, deliberately casual smile, "President Meng, thank you for considering me. Really, with my current situation, your help is like a pie falling from the sky. If I weren't grateful, that would be heartless and thoughtless of me. But... as for going to college, although I want to, I don't want to give up work just yet. I feel like I should wait for another opportunity to consider it." She paused and looked up at him, "For now, I don't want to set the boundaries of my life just like that."

Meng Gang was silent for a while. If his eyes had shown a bit of turmoil before, now they had returned to being deeply calm. He pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and took a couple of puffs, his voice very light, "As long as you've thought it through, that's good."

——

In the following days, the big promotion continued. The entire Leya was still extremely busy.

Mu Hanxia was busy too, but she never went to the track to run again, sometimes appearing to be lost in thought. Once during a meal, He Jing asked her, "Are you worried about something lately?"

Mu Hanxia didn't want to lie, but she also didn't want to talk about it. So she replied, "Not really worried. It's just that, a few days ago, a big pie landed on my head, and I didn't take it."

Her cryptic words made He Jing blink and say, "Why not take it?"

"If the price is to be trapped inside the pie? Just staying put obediently, and when the master feels like biting, you bow your head for a bite," Mu Hanxia said, "I don't want to live like that."

——

Before anyone realized it, Yongzheng's opening day was rapidly approaching.

All the employees of Leya were still in the joy of the brilliant performance brought by this week's promotion. And across the street, Yongzheng was always silent, without any sign of activity, making many feel they were scared off, at a loss, and that there really was no need to take them seriously.

However, whenever Mu Hanxia thought of Lin Mochen's face, she would feel an uneasy premonition. It was like the calm before a storm, and you could never know what was going through the mind of the man behind that face.

...

No one expected Yongzheng's opening offensive to be so fierce, unconventional, and ruthless.

The first week, clothing was at a fifty percent discount.

When this topic was brought up, everyone was slightly surprised. Because everyone knows that the clothing in supermarkets is fairly outdated and the quality is just passable. Only the elderly would buy clothes at a supermarket, and they would still compare prices with the clothes sold next to the vegetable market. Therefore, it's rare to see a supermarket play up the clothing department in their promotions.

However, Yongzheng was one to break convention. It even overturned all past practices regarding the clothing section in supermarkets.

On the opening day, when customers walked into the store, the first thing they saw was a large promotional poster for clothing, extremely eye-catching, coupled with a variety of catchy promotional phrases, completely dominating their attention.

And when they reached the clothing section: "Wow, not bad!" The way the shelves were arranged was different from the usual wholesale markets in other supermarkets. It looked more like an open, fashionable clothing store, with soft lighting, comfortable displays, stylish and simple designs, and good quality.

Then they saw the prices—half off! Almost on par with Taobao prices, and you can actually see and touch the quality.

Not only that, in the center of the clothing section, there were two super large stack displays, neatly piled with basic men's and women's T-shirts. They came in five colors: black, white, blue, gray, and red, felt quite soft to the touch, and next to it stood a person-high price sign: only 9.9 yuan!

There was also a notice board beside it, stating: "All clothing items are promotional specials for the grand opening, available only while stocks last, hurry to preorder."

The old uncles and aunties saw this, and how could they wait? They immediately dragged their shopping carts over and started grabbing items! Once the grabbing started, impulses and emotions were easily transmitted among the crowd, and everyone began seizing products. Anything that seemed well-priced and well-designed was crammed into the shopping carts. In no time, almost every shopping cart was filled with several clothing items; some were even half full, with families buying for everyone. The two featured T-shirts sold out as soon as they were stocked.

Thanks to the pull of the clothing items, word spread quickly. Yongzheng was soon bustling with customers, and people also noticed that the prices of other goods here were no more expensive than those at Leya. Moreover, the overall shopping environment was too comfortable—clean, neat, spacious, and fashionable—making it feel much more upscale than Leya, which had been open for many years. Walking around inside, people's moods lifted. The sales staff were especially kind and enthusiastic, providing attentive service, which made customers feel particularly good. Furthermore, customers discovered that some goods here seemed to be of better quality and appearance than those at Leya, such as the deli items and fresh meat and fish.

The sales volume of all products started to rise.

In the first week of Yongzheng's opening, daily sales exceeded 2 million, reaching 3 million on the second and third days, completely matching Leya's normal sales volume. During this week, Leya's sales suffered a clear impact, plummeting from a peak of 3 million during previous promotions back down to 2 million.

That week, everyone at Leya was almost dumbfounded. The atmosphere in the office, from its previous relaxed and joyous air, became serious and quiet.

That day, Mu Hanxia was delivering documents upstairs. As she passed by Meng Gang's office, she faintly heard his stern voice, "What do you mean you can't do 50% off? I let you stay comfortably in Leya's system for all these years; you must do it..."

Mu Hanxia didn't dare to listen more and quickly walked downstairs.

Since that morning, she had barely seen Meng Gang again. But it was evident that Lin Mochen's completely refreshed opening move had shaken Meng Gang, an old hand in the supermarket industry.

That evening, after work, Mu Hanxia, as usual, ate barbecue with He Jing for a late-night snack.

The moonlight was clear, and the city was quiet. The two of them sat in front of the stall, altogether spending only 32.5 yuan. Each drinking a bottle of Fanta, it seemed like any other carefree day. But even these small fry could still feel the aftershocks of Yongzheng's opening.

He Jing muttered, "Why do Yongzheng's clothes sell so well? Why don't we also get some good quality, pretty clothes, redo the display and packaging, and do some promotions? Then we wouldn't have lost so many customers these past days."

Mu Hanxia, having been in the marketing department these days and dealing with a lot of business matters, bit into a chicken wing and replied, "It's not that easy. First, Lin Mo... Yongzheng's approach involves taking on a significant risk. Clothing is different from other goods; it has a strong individuality, and its styles change with the seasons, making it easy to end up with unsold stock. This time Yongzheng managed to sell well, but if it hadn't, all that stock would have been dead inventory. That's why we supermarkets typically only stock ordinary styles of clothing, enough to maintain regular sales. Look at other supermarkets—who would dare to take such a risk and aggressively move into the clothing sector?" She paused and added, "I think with Manager Meng's personality, he wouldn't do it either."