Chapter 1233: Chapter 827: A Few Days of Living Together

"Where are you?"

On the phone, Zhang Ningzhi’s voice was full of grievance. "I’d just set foot back home and you left Zhen Nan right after?"

"Mainly I’m hiding from Huang Beibei." Jiang Nian bullshitted. "She’s so ugly, I couldn’t handle it and ran."

"Go to hell!" A voice came through the phone, it was Yao Beibei. "Talking trash about me again!"

"Huh, you’re there too?"

"Heh! Fake!"

"Alright alright, you two stop fighting." Zhizhi said, "So... so where are you now?"

"Yuhang, living in the sewers." Jiang Nian sat in front of the computer. "I’ll send you the location under the bridge."

Zhang Ningzhi: "..."

"What are you doing there? Working a summer job? Is it fun? Are they still hiring?"

Hearing that, Jiang Nian got a bit of a headache.

Zhizhi was good in every way, except once she made a call, she couldn’t help drifting toward full-on endless-chatter mode.

If you didn’t cut her off, it was easily three hours to start.

Doesn’t she ever need to pee?

Let’s just say, even when she pees, she keeps talking. The little girl is shy though; when she goes to the bathroom, she’ll specially mute herself.

And she’ll even remind Jiang Nian not to hang up.

Like, what the hell...

"Selling clothes there." Jiang Nian said. "I do need a model, but the shoots have to be offline."

Offline recruiting—this has also been documented in the ’xxx’ series.

"Sure, I’ll come with Beibei." Zhang Ningzhi laughed. "The kind where you don’t need to reimburse our travel and lodging."

"Yao Beibei won’t do. I’d lose money shooting her."

"Can you shut up?" Yao Beibei’s voice came through. "Keep talking nonsense and I’ll smash your dog head in!"

Jiang Nian glanced at the calendar on the desk. He had to go to Beijing on July 6, and hesitated.

"When are you coming?"

"We can come anytime." Zhang Ningzhi said excitedly. "We’ve already been back in Zhen Nan for two days."

"Okay, just come straight over then." Jiang Nian said. "Just get yourselves here, I’ll handle the rest."

He was still in the startup phase recently, with a lot on his plate. A normal person couldn’t handle it, but he could refresh his stamina bar.

In other words, he could go 24 hours without sleep.

"Okayyy." The little girl didn’t bother to hide her joy. "Then I’ll go pack my stuff first."

"Mm."

After hanging up, Jiang Nian lowered his eyes. He hadn’t been here long, but he’d already registered the shop and rented a place.

For sourcing, he followed Zhao Qiuxue’s route.

He rented a mixed-use commercial apartment that could double as a small office. Close to Four Seasons Green, but not right next to it.

Low rent, mature supply chain.

The shop was already decorated. He alone was doing product selection part-time, plus operations and customer service, photography, and promotion.

Graphic design was outsourced, also not expensive.

Basically, the "team" was just him. Initial investment around fifty to a hundred thousand, absolutely no stockpiling, fast in fast out.

Not exactly genius, but a solid, steady play.

Traditional style.

If he won he’d go find a sweet girl; if he lost he’d go find a rich woman. Just kidding—win or lose he’d find both; either way he wouldn’t starve.

Most capital-rich arc so far, but still the soft-rice route.

Snapping back, he’d put a few products on the shelves yesterday. All system-selected, and he’d gone all-in on them.

Burning money on the "Express Lane" ads to start testing and pulling traffic.

"System bro, don’t let me down." He muttered, picked up his phone, and went to eat.

His goals weren’t high—if he could get ten orders a day, that was a win.

The first day of Express Lane is cold start; within the first seven days you’re mainly building weight. About two to three hundred a day in ad spend.

He got one order yesterday, small loss.

No biggie, today would probably lose money too.

The workflow was simple: check data every few hours, delete useless keywords, push the good ones forward.

Keep only the best-looking images, burn one or two hundred and then stop.

In the ideal case, by day three or four you break even, days five or six you start turning a profit, and your first breakout product begins to show.

So, short, fast, and sharp.

Jiang Nian planned to get staff here stabilized before he left on the sixth, so he could pull himself out.

Probably wouldn’t be gone long though; he’d have to run back again.

Rip!

.....

Afternoon.

He checked the data and packed up the two orders that had sold. After shipping them out, he wandered around aimlessly.

On the way he ran into Zhao Qiuxue and immediately detoured.

Damn, she was something else too.

Every time she saw Jiang Nian, it was a guaranteed three-hit combo: first flex her Beijing University daughter, then start sobbing and whining.

Then she’d switch to a big smile and ask about his Express Lane data.

Byd, she got her fix—she got to brag, to sigh, to "look forward," and for him it was like poking every sore spot.

Chi Shi!

What’s so great about a top university? He knew a whole basket of them, her daughter was just... forget it, whatever.

For Song Xiyun’s sake, he wouldn’t argue with her.

At night, Zhang Ningzhi and the others arrived. Jiang Nian didn’t have a car here, so he could only hail one to pick them up at the airport.

He didn’t have much money, but he still had to do his host duties.

"Welcome, welcome."

Jiang Nian stood at the exit holding two bouquets of flowers, and stuffed them into the hands of the approaching Zhang Ningzhi and Yao Beibei one by one.

"Honored to have rich ladies gracing us with their presence."

"Please buy me dinner."

Hearing that, both girls couldn’t hold it in. They even suspected they’d misheard, staring at Jiang Nian blankly.

"Aren’t you supposed to be the one treating us?"

"Huh, am I?"

"???"

"Don’t sweat the details. Let’s eat first. As I said at the very beginning, I’m broke."

"When did you say that?"

"Forgot to stack my disclaimers."

The three of them chattered away as they got into the luxurious yet low-key BYD, gave the last digits of the plate, and headed for downtown.

They took the airport expressway, then the overpass.

The two girls had just gotten off the plane and then onto a ride-hail. Dizzy and out of it, they didn’t say much, and half an hour later they arrived.

Jiang Nian was staying in a loft apartment as a temporary transition. Later it wouldn’t matter; he could just turn it into an employee benefit.

Bottom line, it couldn’t fit three people.

"Did you already book a hotel?" He opened the door and let the two girls look around. "Come in and sit for a bit first."