Chapter Forty-Seven: A New Face, A New Life

The next day, He Zhixing and the others completed the transfer formalities with Hu Li; everything else remained unchanged, only the owner was different.

Afterward, they found a house with a courtyard to rent. The rent was a bit steep, but that was no issue. They then bought an electric sewing machine and all kinds of fabrics, materials, and tools needed for designing clothes—a major shopping spree. Yu Fang was full of enthusiasm, but poor He Zhixing could only act as a porter, as boys always do when accompanying girls on shopping trips.

Once they had bought everything and set up their operation, they asked Hu Li to bring over all the remaining styles in stock to their rented house, where they sorted and categorized everything.

The house with the courtyard was quite spacious. Though not in a bustling downtown area, it was only about a ten-minute walk from their store. The house had four bedrooms and a living room. Hou Juan also moved in to live with them. Hu Li, envious, wanted to move in as well, but for now, it was not possible; when they hired a server to watch the store, Hu Li hoped to move in too.

At this stage, they were still reorganizing, and until the new designs came out, everything continued as before. He Zhixing and Yu Fang were busy every day, focused on redesigning styles and creating new ones. They worked on both altering existing pieces and drafting patterns. After a month, their core collection was largely in shape. Besides the altered pieces, they had also designed over a hundred entirely new, original styles.

They displayed these finished designs at home, modeling the clothes themselves so they could critique each other. Any detail that wasn’t perfect would be revised until both were satisfied. In the end, they confirmed over a hundred styles for production.

At last, they took the next step: they asked Hu Li to close the shop, brought all their old stock back for reworking, and began renovating the storefront. The two of them settled on a new name for their shop: Northwind Fashion.

After half a month, the store reopened. The entrance was cleverly designed; upon entering, to the left was a small glass-enclosed room, just big enough for two people to turn around in. Inside stood two mannequins, male and female, dressed in their latest, most stylish designs. All around, an animated wall displayed a rolling montage of their clothing, rendered in a pseudo-3D effect, with more than a hundred styles cycling in sequence, giving the displays a fresh and innovative visual appeal.

The grand reopening of the fashion store drew many young people eager for novelty and trends. The scene was so lively they had to hire two more assistants, and even then, they were overwhelmed. They barely had time to eat, and if it hadn’t been for scheduled meal breaks, it would have been even more chaotic.

On the first day, nearly all the inventory they had prepared for the shop was sold out. Yu Fang approached He Zhixing and said, “Zhixing, this won’t do. At this rate, the clothes we spent a month or two preparing will be gone in just a few days. If we rely on ourselves to make everything, we simply can’t keep up with demand. Why don’t we set up a factory or find a garment processing plant to produce for us?”

He Zhixing thought for a moment. “I never expected our clothes to sell so well right off the bat. If we open our own factory now, we’re not ready—we’d have to buy equipment, machines, find a location, all sorts of things aren’t in place yet. For now, let’s find a processing factory to fill our orders. When our fashion store and designs have made a name for themselves, it won’t be too late to discuss starting our own factory.”

Yu Fang nodded, “I’ll follow your lead. Let’s look for a processing partner tomorrow.”

The two of them spent the whole day running around, looking for factories, providing samples and fabric choices to potential partners. In short, it was a day of hectic errands back and forth.

Fortunately, there were two of them. If just one had had to handle every big and small matter, it would have been exhausting. That night, after showering, He Zhixing sighed, “Running your own business really is tiring.”

Yu Fang teased him with a laugh, “Hehe, we’re just starting out. Nothing’s running smoothly yet, but once we get the hang of it and everything’s in order, it’ll all be much easier.”