For the rest of the afternoon, Ning Yue taught Ning's mother how to log into the website and check order shipments.
The clothes were delivered the following afternoon. After school, Ning Yue played the role of a teacher again, showing the couple how to photograph the garments. Surprisingly, Mr. Ning's photos turned out quite well. Ning Yue lightly retouched the images, teaching him her editing process as she worked, before uploading them to the online store.
By the time they finished, it was almost eleven o'clock. Ning Yue didn't read any more books; she simply collapsed onto her bed and fell asleep.
Li Zhengmin acted quickly. It would have been difficult to investigate every minute detail from scratch, but with a clear direction, verifying the facts was much easier. The reason Southern Home Furnishings' profits had declined in recent years wasn't due to a lack of brand recognition or a genuine drop in sales. Rather, they had invested the majority of their earnings into research and development. A fully smart home ecosystem couldn't be developed overnight.
The people Li Zhengmin sent out quickly discovered that Southern Home Furnishings indeed had such a research initiative. Last year, they had even hired several experts in the artificial intelligence field to co-develop the project. Li Zhengmin made a prompt decision and began acquiring massive amounts of Southern Home Furnishings stock.
Seeing that he had finally made his move, Ning Yue breathed a sigh of relief. She was destined to make a fortune off this.
Ning's mother's Taobao shop was finally getting some business. The daily orders were sparse—at most three or four items a day—but even this meager sales volume gave the couple hope. The beginning was always the hardest, but now that they had taken the first step, the rest of the journey would be much smoother.
December 1st.
Southern Home Furnishings held a press conference to officially launch their fully smart home products. In the live broadcast room, viewers virtually experienced the speed, convenience, health benefits, and safety of the smart home system. Before the press conference even concluded, Southern Home Furnishings had received a massive influx of orders. Their stock hit the daily limit up on the very same day, and this upward trend was guaranteed not to stop anytime soon.
Inside the CEO's office of the Li Group Building.
Watching Southern Home Furnishings' stock price skyrocket thanks to the press conference, Li Zhengmin let out a long sigh of relief. It was said that surviving a great disaster was bound to bring good fortune, and there was truly some merit to those words.
He hadn't expected that his simple intention of thanking the young girl who saved his life would yield such an unexpected surprise.
Miss Ning was truly his lucky star!
A sudden thought occurred to him, and he pressed the intercom.
His assistant's voice rang out. "Mr. Li, what are your orders?"
"I remember the Yan Family recently submitted a new letter of intent for cooperation, right? Compile the documents and bring them in."
The call ended. The assistant wondered, "Didn't Mr. Li say just two days ago that he was passing on this letter of intent? Why the sudden change of mind?"
Nevertheless, he obediently gathered all the relevant documents and delivered them to the CEO's office.
"The documents you requested are all here."
Li Zhengmin waved his hand, signaling the assistant to leave, and then opened the file to read it carefully.
This letter of intent pertained to the renovation of an old district in the south of the city. The Yan Family planned to buy the land there and develop it into a high-end residential and commercial area. However, because it involved relocation and demolition, the project's startup capital was absurdly high. As a result, they proposed collaborations with several companies. It was obvious that the Yan Family simply wanted to find partners to share the risk. A few days ago, when he was busy dealing with his family affairs and impending divorce, he had merely glanced at the proposal before tossing it aside.
After reading it thoroughly for half an hour, Li Zhengmin forwarded the letter of intent to Ning Yue.
He included a message: "Miss Ning, this is a letter of intent submitted by the Yan Family. I passed on it a few days ago, but I don't know if it might be useful to you. You can take a look."
High schools generally didn't allow students to bring phones to class, so Ning Yue kept hers on mute during lessons. It wasn't until after class that she saw the file Li Zhengmin had sent.
The development of an old district. This was a project with a long cycle and high investment, but equally high returns.
If everything went smoothly, the Yan Family would undoubtedly make a massive fortune from this venture.
Ning Yue directly replied to Li Zhengmin: "The most difficult part of rebuilding an old city is the initial relocation and demolition work. If the Yan Family can perfectly resolve the demolition issues, the Li Family's investment will be a guaranteed profit with no risk of loss."
Mr. Li had been navigating the business world for many years, so he understood the implication of her words at a single glance. Consequently, the upper management of the Li Family's company launched a study into this cooperation intent that very day. A few days later, the Li Family executives were in frequent contact with the Yan Family's project manager.
The Yan Family's project manager was experiencing a severe headache. The Yan Family had originally pitched this letter of intent to several companies with comparable financial strength. However, so far, only the Li Family had shown any intention of collaborating. Yet, the Li Family proposed a condition that gave them a headache: they were willing to invest more money, but the funds would only be transferred after all compensation for the relocation of the original residents had been fully settled.
In other words, the Yan Family would be solely responsible for the project's initial startup capital. That figure was simply too steep. Truthfully, if the Yan Family possessed that much liquid capital, they wouldn't have sought out other companies for a partnership in the first place.
But if they didn't agree, their family couldn't single-handedly support such a massive project.
In short, it was an incredible dilemma.
Therefore, after a few rounds of negotiations with the Li Family's representatives, the Yan Family's project manager returned to his company and reported the Li Family's stance. As for how the higher-ups would ultimately decide, he only needed to await his orders.
In Class 13.
The students were currently taking a math quiz during this period. These types of tests were held almost every other day, and Ning Yue's scores improved nearly every time. Math had originally been the original host's worst subject. Out of a perfect score of 150, she had usually maintained an average of around 90. When Ning Yue first arrived, her initial math test had been a mere 92. Her monthly exam score was slightly better, but still only a 95.
However, her scores on these recent math quizzes were climbing higher and higher—from 92 to 118, then to 136, and finally to a perfect 150.
The homeroom teacher's eyes were filled with pleasant surprise whenever he looked at her.
The same went for English; she had scored a perfect 150 on the last quiz as well.
She double-checked her completed exam paper just as the bell rang. The homeroom teacher had the class representative collect the papers and promptly left the room.
Ning Yue pulled out a language test paper and started working on the problems.
At that moment, the class monitor walked over to her desk. "Ning Yue, what was the answer to the final question?"
"Fourteen A," Ning Yue replied.
The class monitor's face immediately fell. "I'm doomed. I got the last question wrong again. I can never seem to get full marks on the final major problem in math."
"Class monitor, why are you asking her? Maybe your answer is the right one, and hers is wrong!"
Bai Yiyi absolutely loathed seeing the boys in the class hovering around Ning Yue. She had no idea what was going on. Ever since this little bitch was kicked out by the Yan Family members, not only had she not spiraled into depression, but she was actually getting prettier by the day.
Ning Yue had always had delicate features and a good temperament. She was gentle, soft-spoken, and never got into conflicts with her classmates. Quite a few boys in the class had a crush on her.