"Brother Long, where are we going now?" After breakfast, Hu Yuying stuck closely to Long Aotian, unwilling to leave his side even for a moment.
"This is Yiwu, the largest wholesale market. A significant portion of the small goods you see in the market comes from here."
"So, are we here to wholesale clothes too?"
Long Aotian nodded: "Yes and no. We are indeed here to wholesale clothes, but not from here."
"The clothes and goods here are already saturated in the market. We’ll go straight to the source factory to see if there are any new products."
Hearing this, Hu Yuying couldn’t help but move a little closer to Long Aotian: "What if there are no new products? Wouldn’t we have come all this way for nothing?"
"Little girl, are you underestimating your Brother Long?" Long Aotian chuckled.
It just so happened that he had seen this year’s summer new product, a silk short-sleeve, on a certain online shopping platform.
The price of a silk short-sleeve online was over 30 yuan.
But Long Aotian had done this before in his previous world.
The wholesale price was only a few yuan. This was the most amazing aspect of the early days of e-commerce—you could make a killing!
Long Aotian was even thinking of setting up his own online shop when he got back, to see if he could make it work.
"New products usually don’t hit the market all at once. They’re first distributed in batches through their own channels to test the waters and see how they perform."
"If the response is good, the source will increase the price. If it’s not, they’ll clear the stock at a discount. Either way, they won’t lose money."
"The difference is that the source factory’s clearance sales target the wholesale channels, while the shops’ clearance sales target us ordinary folks."
As they talked, Long Aotian had already found the spot: "Alright, this is the place."
"Here?" Hu Yuying looked around at the high walls and trees, feeling a bit confused.
"Wait a second." Long Aotian glanced around, then jumped up, grabbing the top of the wall with both hands. With a forceful pull, his body slowly rose as if he were doing a pull-up.
"It’s fine." Letting go, Long Aotian landed back on the ground.
"Come here." Long Aotian crouched down, crossing his hands and signaling for Hu Yuying to step on his palms and shoulders to climb up first.
"Ah? Brother Long, I’m scared." Hu Yuying looked embarrassed and hesitant.
"If you’re too scared to go in, just wait here for me."
Long Aotian was about to climb the wall.
"No, Brother Long, I’ll go in. It’s just... I’m scared to step on you..." Hu Yuying’s voice grew softer as she spoke.
"It’s nothing, come on."
Hu Yuying obediently moved closer to Long Aotian.
"Get a little closer."
Hu Yuying glanced up at Long Aotian, bit her lip, and moved even closer.
At this moment, Hu Yuying was so close to Long Aotian that there were only a few inches between them.
She could even clearly feel the warmth radiating from Long Aotian’s body.
"Turn around and face the wall."
"Okay." Already feeling shy, Hu Yuying immediately turned to face the wall upon hearing Long Aotian’s words.
"Ready?" Long Aotian’s body pressed closer, and Hu Yuying felt as if she could hear his breathing and heartbeat.
"Yes."
As soon as she answered, her legs were tightly wrapped, and the next second, a strong force lifted her into the air.
"Don’t just stand there, grab the wall. I’ll help you up." Hearing Long Aotian’s voice behind her, Hu Yuying nodded blankly, still in shock.
Brother Long... Brother Long just lifted her up?
Shaking her head, she quickly grabbed the edge of the wall and, with Long Aotian’s help, successfully climbed over.
Long Aotian used the same method to climb the wall, then jumped down and opened his arms to Hu Yuying: "Come on, I’ll catch you."
Hu Yuying looked at Long Aotian nervously, her voice trembling: "Brother Long, you have to catch me, okay?"
"Don’t worry, I’ll definitely catch you. Trust me."
"Okay, I trust you, Brother Long." Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and jumped.
"Gotcha!" Long Aotian caught her, spun around to dissipate the force, and then gently patted her back: "There, you’re fine now."
Hu Yuying’s whole body was tense, but she slowly opened her eyes upon hearing Long Aotian’s words. When she saw herself in Long Aotian’s arms, she could clearly feel her cheeks burning with embarrassment, completely out of her control.
Her snow-white ears, half-hidden by her hair, were flushed red.
She gently stepped out of Long Aotian’s embrace, but her body still seemed to carry his scent, as if she were still being held by him. Her ears were filled with the sound of her own heartbeat, and it took her a while to regain her composure.
Long Aotian didn’t think much of it and smiled at Hu Yuying: "You’re really brave."
Hearing this, Hu Yuying instinctively nodded: "Yes, I am brave."
"Praise you a little, and you get all cocky."
"I learned it from you, Brother Long."
The two of them walked forward.
After circling around, they finally saw workers loading goods onto a truck.
Long Aotian turned to Hu Yuying, brushing the dust off his hands and straightening his clothes: "How’s this?"
"It’s good, Brother Long."
Long Aotian patted the dust off Hu Yuying’s knees: "Relax, we’re just here to pick up some goods."
"But didn’t we climb over the wall to get in?" Hu Yuying whispered.
Seeing her guilty look, Long Aotian couldn’t help but chuckle: "Stand tall. If you don’t say anything, no one will know we climbed the wall."
"See those goods being loaded? That’s this year’s summer collection. If we can get our hands on them, we’ll definitely make a profit."
"But how do we get them? Will they give them to us?" Hu Yuying leaned closer to Long Aotian and whispered. Here, she only knew Long Aotian, and only he could give her a sense of security.
Instinctively, she wanted to be closer to him.
"They will. Usually, the factory sets aside a portion for their relatives."
"But we’re not relatives of the factory workers."
"Silly, they won’t know if you don’t tell them."
Hu Yuying bit her lip, trying to suppress a smile: "So we’re going to pretend to be relatives?" For some reason, she suddenly felt a thrill of excitement.
Soon, the workers finished loading the truck, and as expected, a dozen large packages were left behind.
At that moment, Long Aotian led Hu Yuying over.
"Old Zhao? Old Zhao?"
Long Aotian called out to the workers.
One of the workers turned around, puzzled, and looked at Long Aotian and Hu Yuying.
As the worker’s gaze fell on them, Long Aotian quickly turned his head to avoid showing his face.
Then he noticed that Hu Yuying was still staring blankly at the worker, so he reached out and gently turned her head away...