Lu Nan noticed the two key account managers behind Mr. Yang exchanging glances. She knew that in this world, there aren’t many miraculous displays of power and dominance. To win them over, she needed to be professionally competent; it couldn’t be rushed. 

On Mr. Yang’s side, everything was set and ready to go. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Lu Nan spent two days training the two key account managers at Feixiang. She was unaware that the local office was already bubbling with hidden tensions. 

Privately, Dong Hui and Wang Xiaoxue have a close relationship, like conjoined twins, but they don’t spend time together at work. Dong Hui is well aware that Wang Xiaoxue is from the Harmony Wine Department and only meets the minimum standards in work performance, so there’s no future in following her. 

So, during the day, Dong Hui spends more time with Liu Yang and Sasha, since they are the veterans in the Classic Wine Group Purchase Department. Moreover, since both of them are about to be transferred, how she performs won’t pose any threat to them. 

Sasha was extremely annoyed by Dong Hui because she had a poor impression of her from the beginning. Now that they had more chances to interact, she felt even more that Dong Hui was overly scheming—when she tried to flatter others, she wasn’t sincere and always made sly remarks, as if she thought everyone was a fool. 

… 

On Wednesday morning, Sasha took Dong Hui and Xiang Feifei to Haortei Winery. On the way back, she dropped them off at the office building and then saw Lu Nan, so she invited Lu Nan to have lunch with her. 

Lu Nan waved to Xiang Feifei and Dong Hui in greeting, then turned and got into the beautiful car. 

Outside the car, Dong Hui said enviously, “Having a car is really nice.” 

Xiang Feifei urged, “Let’s go upstairs quickly. Isn’t it hot outside?” 

Inside the car, Sasha said while driving, “By the way, I think Dong Hui is hostile towards you.” 

Lu Nan nodded, “You sensed it too?” 

“Right? I knew my intuition was correct! You two didn’t know each other from school, did you? Did you offend her somehow?” Sasha was puzzled but quickly dismissed the idea, “No, that’s unlikely. Your personality isn’t the type to cause trouble. So why? Could it be that she secretly likes Chen Xiao and is jealous because you’re too close to him?” 

Lu Nan laughed, “That reason is too ridiculous.” She considered her words and said, “I suspect that her hostility is because she has mentally set me up as a rival.” 

“Ah? Well, that’s not impossible. Among this batch of newcomers, only you and she graduated from the same university.” Sasha took a moment to size up Lu Nan while waiting for the red light. “You joined the company earlier than her and your appearance is indeed better than hers. If that’s the reason, she must be really petty.” 

“Who knows.” 

“Well, you’d better be careful. You’re living under the same roof, and there’s not much soundproofing or privacy. If you accidentally say or do something, be wary of her going to Manager Wang to complain about you.” 

Lu Nan nodded. “I know. Haven’t you noticed that I don’t get back to the dormitory until three or four in the afternoon recently?” It’s not that hard to endure. Lu Nan can find a Starbucks with air conditioning, electricity, and internet, and type quietly—but she doesn’t need to tell Sasha about this. 

“That’s too bad, Nan Nan. You’re being watched closely. So, what are your plans for this afternoon? Do you want to go shopping after lunch?” 

Lu Nan thought for a moment. Her work for the day was already quite fulfilling, so she happily decided to go shopping. 

“Where to? Chenghuang Temple?” Sasha suggested. 

Lu Nan shook her head. “Miss Beautiful, do you think you’d find any good clothes there? Well, I know you’re considering my budget, but the quality of the clothes there is really quite average, it’s not suitable for you… or even for me. After all, we are professionals and need to dress appropriately on most occasions.” Lu Nan thought about it and suggested, “I’ll take you to a store to shop.” 

“Sure, lead the way.” 

… 

Lu Nan took Sasha to a women’s clothing store called Luna. 

Sasha parked the car and looked at the store sign. “The decor is a bit outdated… I haven’t heard of this brand before, but that chiffon blouse on the model looks nice.” Sasha wasn’t trying to be critical; with her usual spending habits, she rarely shopped outside major malls, even if she didn’t buy designer pieces. 

“Do you know ‘In the Water’s Edge’?” 

Sasha nodded. “Yes, I know. It’s a local women’s clothing brand in Hailin City. They made the batwing tops and gym pants from twenty or thirty years ago. It was popular among my mom’s generation. Could this be it?” 

Lu Nan nodded, “This company is currently undergoing a transformation. Luna is their new product line. A college classmate of mine is interning here and is now the store manager. A few days ago, she sent me a message on WeChat saying that if I come to buy clothes, I can use her discount. She sent me some outfit suggestions, and the pictures looked pretty good, so I thought I’d come take a look. Even if I can’t spend much, it’s nice to show support.” 

Sasha was surprised. “Your college classmate? So, she graduated from Qianjiang University too? How did she end up working here, selling clothes?” 

“She started part-time as a sales associate in her freshman year and probably discovered an interest in this field. By her senior year, she signed a three-party agreement for an internship here and later got a permanent position.” 

“Alright, let’s go inside and take a look then.” 

Sasha entered with a hesitant heart, but once inside the store, she found that the clothes seemed pretty good. 

As a local, she has some knowledge of the brand “In the Water’s Edge.” Just as she said earlier, this brand was popular in her mother’s generation when she was young. It followed the trend at that time and sold popular products, but then it disappeared. Probably like countless clothing factories, it became an OEM factory for foreign brands. 

“I didn’t expect that ‘In the Water’s Edge’ would change to such a stylish name and have such fashionable products,” Sasha said while holding a black sleeveless dress in one hand and a chiffon shirt like the one on the mannequin in the other, looking a bit conflicted. “What do you think about pairing the chiffon shirt with a pleated skirt?” 

“I think you should try that slightly puffy tulle skirt for a little princess style.” 

Sasha considered it, “Then let’s try both skirts.” 

After trying them on and comparing, Sasha sighed, “You were right.” The chiffon shirt looked better with the tulle skirt, “but I really like this pleated skirt too!” 

Lu Nan looked around the display and picked up an item. “You could try pairing that pleated skirt with this short-sleeved shirt with a doll collar.” 

“Alright, I’ll give it a try!” Sasha, who had some confidence in Lu Nan’s aesthetic taste, immediately listened to her advice. 

Seeing Sasha, who was accustomed to good quality products and somewhat picky, getting into shopping mode, Lu Nan thought, “It’s not easy for this brand to succeed; it has been undergoing a painful transformation these years. However, their leader is very determined. Despite the thriving OEM market, there’s a crisis awareness and a commitment to innovation, with the recruitment of excellent designers and the formation of a design team. The product positioning is very clear, with affordable urban women’s fashion that fills a market gap. They’ve also started early with e-commerce channels… No wonder they later became a leading force in the domestic women’s clothing industry.” 

“Lu Nan, thank you for coming to support us, but… are you off today?” You Xiafei signaled to the staff that Lu Nan was her friend and that she would handle the reception. 

“I’m at work. I went out with my colleagues to do some work, and I came to see you on the way.” Seeing her ‘white-collar’ friend from her younger days, Lu Nan couldn’t help but smile and gave her a gentle hug, “Long time no see, Xia Fei.” 

“You’re exaggerating. We just saw each other last month when I went back to school to get my diploma.” 

Lu Nan didn’t continue the topic and quietly asked, “Can you give us a discount? I see my friend might go a bit overboard.” 

You Xiafei gave Lu Nan a friendly pat and said, “It’s great that you brought your friend! The new models are 38% off, which is the best we’ve got. We’ve also got some seasonal and out-of-stock stuff upstairs at 38% off. Also, I have the authority to give you 82% off.” 

Such a large discount, it felt almost like getting it for free. 

So, Lu Nan, who originally just wanted to shop sensibly, also went a bit crazy. 

Lu Nan invested 280,000 in the stock market (30,000 in savings plus 250,000 given by her father to buy a car). She initially had more than 3,000 left at the beginning and spent 1,500 in more than half a month (mainly the money she spent on the cheongsam she bought with Liu Yang), leaving her with 2,000. In addition to the 600 deposit returned when she moved out and the last half-month salary of more than 800 from CIMC Logistics at the beginning of the month, Lu Nan had a total of about 3,500 left. 

“It’s not too much to spend one-third of the money on clothes, right?” As soon as this thought came to mind, Lu Nan suddenly felt a little sad. “So, this is the worst part of being reborn. I have to think carefully before buying clothes worth more than a thousand.” 

While in the fitting room, she sneakily checked her card balance to confirm there wouldn’t be any extra charges. Unfortunately, when she put her phone back in her bag, she remembered—she still had a credit card!!! 

It’s common knowledge that once in college, many upperclassmen promote credit cards to new students. Lu Nan had gotten one to receive a five 20-yuan cake vouchers and a radio for the CET-4 exam. She hadn’t used it much—just a few transactions at the beginning of the year to meet the minimum spending requirement and to avoid the annual fee—and had then left the card unused, so she hadn’t thought about it since. 

However, she was in a shopping mood today and suddenly felt energetic. She checked the text messages on her phone from the past few months and saw that her credit limit was 3,000 yuan. It wasn’t a lot, but it was better than nothing. 

Use the credit card for clothes and keep the cash on hand for daily expenses and emergencies. 

Lu Nan is not worried about not being able to pay back the money she spends in advance. 

Because she always had a plan for her spending. 

In her ‘previous life,’ she had several platinum cards and took advantage of various benefits. She even raised the credit limits of three of the cards to over 400,000, with a total credit limit of nearly two million, but she never became a credit card slave. 

This shows that credit cards themselves are neutral. It was issued by banks as proof of creditworthiness to consumers with good credit. It’s those who lack control over their financial situation and spending desires who overdraw their credit and can’t repay, which makes cautious people wary of credit cards. 

In the end, after spending over three hours at Luna, Sasha bought fifteen new items and eight discounted items with a total of over 6,300 after discounts. 

Lu Nan was much more restrained. She bought four new items and three discounted items with a total of just over 1,700. 

You Xiafei was very happy. Although she was the store manager now, she still had a sales target. With Lu Nan bringing her friend and spending more than 8,000, she managed to reach her target in just half a day. “I’ll apply for a membership card for you. It’s a gold card. You can redeem points later.” 

After a shopping spree, Sasha was quite satisfied with Luna, so she and Lu Nan filled out their membership information together. 

As they were leaving, Sasha said, “I didn’t expect the clothes at In the Water’s Edge to be so good. It’s really a bargain.” 

“It’s now called Luna… I thought you might find it too cheap and not high-end enough,” Lu Nan joked. 

“Hey, my family is only upper-middle class. Do you have a misunderstanding about me? Hot springs and red wine?” Sasha pouted. “The new summer clothes costing 300 to 500 aren’t cheap. I’ve been to Chenghuang Temple before; their clothes are only 30 to 50, and rarely more than 100. I know that. When I said it’s a bargain, I meant with your friend’s discount. But the end-of-season and clearance coats and down jackets are practically free.” 

“As long as you think it’s good,” Lu Nan said, “Can I leave my new clothes in your car and pick them up on the weekend?” 

Sasha nodded, “Just leave them there.” 

… 

At the Friday morning meeting, the District Director of the East China Region for Yuan Chuan Liquor Sales. (surname Tong, male, around forty) visited the Hailin office, accompanied by a regional group purchasing manager (female, in her twenties, named Liu Tao) and a driver. 

The purpose of their visit was for three things: 

First, to encourage the Hailin office for its rare outstanding performance, which had always been mediocre; 

Second, to meet with this relatively high-quality mid-sized distributor and maintain good relations; 

Third, to understand the situation after receiving a complaint from the distributor Green Trading about the Harmony Liquor distributor. 

Of course, these matters had little to do with the office staff. District Director Tong was still smiling warmly as he addressed everyone. 

General Director Xiang asked everyone to applaud and welcome him and asked District Director Tong to sit at the seat at the conference table. 

Director Tong waved his hand and said, “You guys continue the meeting as usual. I’ll sit in the back row and listen in.” After that, he walked to the back, and it seemed that he was not just pretending. 

General Director Xiang gave Manager Wang a glance, “Old Wang, you and the others continue with the meeting as usual. I’ll sit at the back too.” 

With a district leader present at the morning meeting, everyone’s attitude noticeably improved, and they tried to be more detailed in their reports. 

After the meeting, Manager Wang glanced at the back row of the conference room. 

Director Tong smiled, “Why are you looking at me? Everyone should get back to their work. Oh, right, the group purchase managers, stay a bit longer; Manager Liu wants to talk to you.”