TPW – Chapter 78

Lights Off

Everything has two sides. Solving one hidden danger often leads to another problem. It’s a never-ending cycle—

“What should we do then? We can’t just sit and wait for death. A crisis of trust is a huge taboo in business. We have to come up with a solution,” Qiao Lu said worriedly.

Sitting down, Xu Haizhou poured himself a glass of water, took a small sip, and remained silent, seemingly deep in thought.

“Mama, what’s a trust crisis?” Qiao An asked, hugging his little rubber ball and tilting his head.

“Well…” It was quite an important concept and worth explaining to a child.

Qiao Lu thought for a moment, then pulled her son into her arms and explained, “Let’s say, your favorite jujube paste rolls one day had a cockroach in them. Would you still buy them again?”

“Ah—cockroach? Cockroaches are scary!” The little guy made a gagging face and hugged Qiao Lu’s neck tightly. “I don’t want to eat cockroaches, they’re too scary. I’ll never eat jujube paste rolls again!”

This little rascal was really getting into it. Qiao Lu couldn’t help but laugh. “That pastry shop had hygiene problems, so there was a cockroach. But other shops selling jujube rolls are clean and tasty. Would you choose never to eat them again, or just buy from a different shop?”

“I’ll buy from a different shop.” After all, jujube rolls were really yummy. If other shops made them cleanly, why not eat them?

“Then what if that cockroach shop improved their hygiene later on—would you buy from them again?”

After a few seconds of silence, Qiao An shook his head.

“Hmm… I’d still be a bit scared,” he said, rubbing his arms and shuddering.

Cockroaches were just too scary and gross!

Qiao Lu kissed his little cheek and smiled. “Exactly, that’s what we call a trust crisis. You no longer trust them. When there are other pastry shops to choose from, you definitely wouldn’t go back to that one—even if they cleaned up. It would still make you uncomfortable, right?”

“Yeah.”

Qiao Lu continued, “Now, Daddy and Mommy’s business is facing a trust crisis. Customers are starting to doubt the quality of our clothes. They’re worried they might buy dirty clothing. So now Daddy and Mommy have to think of a way to regain their trust.”

“Just like the shop that sold cockroach jujube rolls—they need to clean up and make us want to buy their rolls again?”

“Hmm… something like that. But our situation is a little better. Right now, customers just suspect we might have dirty clothes, but no one has actually bought any.”

“Then just tell everyone our clothes are good! We don’t have dirty clothes. Our clothes have always been good!” Children think so simply—even the most complicated issues can be resolved in their minds in an instant.

“You little rascal. Do you think people will believe whatever you say? I could say I’m a millionaire—do you believe that?”

The little guy blinked and raised his hand cheerfully. “I believe it! Mama is a millionaire! Mama will definitely become a millionaire!”

He really had a lot of faith in his mother!

Qiao Lu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She was about to say something else when Xu Haizhou suddenly grabbed Qiao An from her arms like a madman.

“I’ve got it!” he cried, hugging Qiao An and showering him with kisses. “Thank you, son!”

Qiao An looked completely confused. He had no idea how he had helped his dad—he had just been chatting with Mama!

After the trust crisis broke out, Xu Haizhou’s clothing store saw a sharp drop in revenue. However, other stores on Baiyun Street—like the hardware shop, tea shop, and silk shop—were mostly unaffected.

It seemed that customers had silently agreed to avoid only the clothing stores on Baiyun Street.

Fortunately, Xu Haizhou had a brainwave thanks to his son. That very night, he went to the department store and purchased a large batch of fabric. He even asked the sales assistant to print out receipts.

Since Li Hongjun had a loud voice, he put it to use for promotion—his voice, finally, had a proper outlet.

Clang clang clang—clang clang clang—

They picked Sunday, the busiest day.

“Come take a look! Genuine fabric sourced from reputable manufacturers—absolutely no counterfeit or inferior goods! Ninety percent of our materials come from the department store, quality guaranteed, and with official receipts! 100% authentic!”

“Come on in, everyone! Our shop welcomes public scrutiny!”

Once a customer was drawn in by Li Hongjun’s booming voice, Xu Haizhou would immediately take over.

“The quality of our clothing has always been guaranteed. All our buyers say they’re satisfied. Look, this is the receipt from the department store. We source from there regularly. If you don’t believe me, ask the sales assistants—they all know us.”

The receipts were neatly displayed on a sturdy board to keep them from being crumpled, ensuring everyone could see them clearly.

Sure enough, they were legitimate receipts from the department store’s clothing section. Looking at the clothes in the shop, the quality was impressive. Anyone with an eye for garments could tell at a glance.

It seemed Baiyun Street wasn’t as bad as the rumors made it out to be—there were still honest merchants around.

With Xu Haizhou’s righteous expression and warm, welcoming smile, it was hard not to trust him.

As a result, business today doubled compared to the usual!

But they didn’t get to celebrate for long. The very next day, all the other clothing vendors on Baiyun Street had copied the idea—every store plastered with all kinds of receipts…

Li Hongjun was so angry he cursed out loud. “Copycats!”

“Our goods aren’t just legally sourced—they’re original! The only original brand in all of Lian City! Some of these styles aren’t even sold at the department store—if it’s not from our shop, it’s a knockoff.”

After Li Hongjun finished, Xu Haizhou added, “All our original designs are created by my wife. Handmade. The fabric’s sourced from the department store, so the costs are high. Selling it for twenty-eight is already a fair price.”

Customers were stunned. “Wow, your wife designs all of these? No wonder we’ve never seen these styles anywhere else—not even at the department store. That’s impressive!”

Some even suspected his wife might be a professional fashion designer.

After sighing for a while, an older woman said, “My youngest daughter keeps pestering me to buy one of those dresses with little bow ties. We searched the whole market and couldn’t find it, so I had no choice but to ride my bicycle all the way over here.”

Well, it wasn’t a wasted trip — the quality of the dress was really good, not to mention the design. Just a five-minute walk to the end of the alley, and you can even try clothes on!

These days, everyone’s skinny. Aside from the kind who are skin-and-bones with yellowish, malnourished faces, anyone looks good in the dresses Qiao Lu designs.

“Alright, wrap it up. When the weather gets hotter, I’ll come to your place and buy one too. Got any new arrivals?” Her daughter was a high school student, and the dress she liked was still a bit too childish — she couldn’t wear it out.

“We do. We release new items every season. There’ll be a new batch of dresses by the end of this month.”

But the inventory situation was dangerous. They really had to think of a good solution.

“Alrighty then. Here you go — twenty-eight. Do I get a plastic bag?”

Xu Haizhou smiled and nodded. “Yes, of course.”

The promotional line used by Xu Haizhou’s shop was the genuine one. Other stores didn’t dare blindly follow suit — they had the ambition but not the guts.

After all, they’d just been to the police station not long ago. The police officers made it very clear: if you dare do false advertising, you won’t just get fined — you’ll end up in the slammer!

These days, the public deeply respects authority. Whatever the police say, nobody dares ignore or forget. No matter how jealous they were, they had to find other ways — they definitely couldn’t advertise themselves as selling the genuine version.

All they could do was phrase it more tactfully: “Come take a look! We’ve got the same styles here — if you like it, feel free to check it out!”

This delighted Li Hongjun, who took the opportunity to ramp up the advertising with all his might: “Authentic! Authentic! Ours is the only genuine store in all of Lian — all others are knock-offs! Make sure you choose the right one! Don’t regret a bad purchase!”

This was far more convincing than promoting “CCTV Spring Festival Gala replicas.” Every summer item they sold now was personally designed by Qiao Lu. If anyone dared say otherwise, he’d argue them into the ground!

The shop with a fitting room at the end of the alley was also cleaned up by the two men. Its layout and display were made to exactly match the original shop, making it immediately obvious that both belonged to the same owner.

In the week before the knock-offs appeared, Xu Haizhou earned another huge sum from the early summer collection.

He even discovered another key to running a successful business — reputation!

Reputation was something even more likely to make customers pay than “quality, style, or price.” It was the fastest way to earn quick money.

Of course, those other elements were still important. But if you really wanted to make big money, your reputation and branding had to be strong.

Li Hongjun did an excellent job at this.

Thanks to his relentless advertising, everyone who frequented Baiyun Street soon came to know: many of the dresses at Xu Haizhou’s shop were personally designed by his wife. They were authentic and one-of-a-kind. No need to mention quality or style — it was plain for all to see.

So when the first batch of dresses with branded logos came out, Xu Haizhou and Li Hongjun began vigorously promoting their own brand.

“Purple Dragonfly! For authentic fashion, look for Purple Dragonfly!”

“Comrade, come check out Purple Dragonfly — Lian’s first independently designed fashion brand, guaranteed quality.”

“Buying clothes? Choose Purple Dragonfly! Strict quality control! Exchange guaranteed within three days for any issues!”

Most of these lines were taught by Qiao Lu. They emphasized key words like “one-of-a-kind,” “guaranteed,” “authentic,” and “quality” to firmly capture consumers’ psychology.

With this whole marketing strategy, a third of the foot traffic was drawn to Xu Haizhou’s little shop.

The shop was too small to accommodate everyone, so customers who wanted to try on clothes were directed to the second store at the alley’s end. The two men each managed one shop.

It was a complete win-win!

The originally chosen name “Little Bee” was replaced by Qiao Lu.

Although “Little Bee” sounded cute and pleasant, if they ever wanted to go big and high-end, that name wouldn’t hold up.

So she switched to another insect-themed name that was easy to remember but still elegant: Purple Dragonfly.

“Little Bee” wasn’t abandoned though — Qiao Lu still planned to launch a children’s clothing line in the future, and that brand would be called Little Bee.

Qiao Lu designed logos for both Purple Dragonfly and Little Bee. Qiao An was thrilled. He traced the simple version of the Little Bee logo twice with a pencil, then copied it, and finally drew it from memory. It actually looked pretty good.

“Yay! I’m gonna wait for it — wait a little, and Little Bee will be born~ Mama, you have to hurry up and make kids’ clothes, okay?”

“Alright, don’t rush.”

So Qiao An wasn’t sad. He now had something to look forward to — the day the children’s line would be released.

Under the combined promotional efforts of Xu Haizhou and Li Hongjun, the brand effect was beginning to show. Add to that the fitting room advantage, and one Sunday, both stores actually sold out their stock! Even the inventory at home wasn’t enough — the two men were beside themselves with worry…

That was a standard no other clothing vendor on Baiyun Street could match!

Unless you could open a fitting room on this crowded little alley and immediately create a vivid, “high-class” and memorable brand, you couldn’t compete with them.

This period was truly a jackpot!

Originally, Qiao Lu thought they’d need to hold out another month or two before she and Xu Haizhou could go house hunting in Nanhu Garden. But in less than half a month, they’d earned another 2,500 yuan.

A private bathroom — here I come!