The three of them went home together. Ji Qinghe didn’t ask Ji Meng to help with cooking and told her to take care of Qiuqiu.

Ji Meng let Qiuqiu get her art supplies and continue practicing the lines she learned yesterday, while she organized the pile of defective clothing, picking out some lines to cut into various strips of fabric.

As mealtime approached, Meng Ling knocked on the door.

She came to deliver the sewing machine, hair clips, headbands, and adhesive to Ji Meng.

“I brought the sewing machine from my house, so let it stay here for now. I only managed to get this many clips and headbands. After you use them, let me know. I’ll be going now to check with Xiao Wu about the bamboo poles and lamps.”

Meng Ling was bustling with energy as she helped Ji Meng place the sewing machine in the room. She greeted Qiuqiu and Ji Qinghe, who had just come out of the kitchen, and then left.

“Mengmeng, why did you get a sewing machine?”

They used to have a sewing machine at home, but it was lost when they were searched. When Ji Qinghe returned, he was able to retrieve items from the pharmacy and the house, but other belongings that were taken could not be recovered.

“Do we need a sewing machine? Should we buy one?”

Ji Qinghe had already asked someone to get a bicycle, and he thought a sewing machine shouldn’t be too difficult to obtain.

“No need, I just need to use it for a few days to make something.”

Ji Meng replied. Sewing machine wasn’t cheap, and buying one without making clothes would be a waste. Since she hadn’t earned any money yet, it was best to save where they could.

Using it temporarily implied that they did need one.

But since his daughter said it wasn’t necessary, Ji Qinghe didn’t say much else, just nodded and said, “Oh, then let’s eat, it’s six o’clock.”

For dinner, Ji Qinghe prepared a simple meal: stir-fried minced meat with eggplant, a dish of greens, and a bowl of egg drop soup.

However, Ji Qinghe’s cooking was quite good, and the three of them enjoyed the meal.

After dinner, Ji Meng cleaned up the table, washed up quickly, chatted with Ji Qinghe for a while, and then took Qiuqiu back to their room.

It was still early, and since Qiuqiu had napped at school during lunchtime, she didn’t feel like sleeping. Ji Meng let her read the storybook she had bought yesterday.

Meanwhile, she got busy with the sewing machine.

With a few clicks of the foot pedal, she made a beautiful, delicate hair tie.

With a few more clicks, after some gluing, a hair clip with a bow was completed.

A simple piece of fabric quickly transformed into something fresh and pretty. Qiuqiu was so amazed that she couldn’t focus on her storybook anymore and came over to help her mother place the hair ties and clips.

By ten o’clock at night, Ji Meng felt a bit tired in her shoulders. Looking at the nearly a hundred hair ties and headbands in the box, along with the clips, she felt satisfied and took Qiuqiu to sleep.

The next day, as usual, she sent Qiuqiu off to school and then headed to the small market to meet Meng Ling and the others.

When she arrived, she noticed that the small market had changed.

The vendors’ stalls had clearly undergone significant improvements.

The issues Ji Meng mentioned had all been addressed, there were signs at the stalls, everything was clean, and some vendors even had small carts ready.

It suddenly felt more organized, and there were several more stalls.

Ji Meng noticed that there were suddenly many more food stalls, even one selling canned goods.

The variety was much richer.

It looked somewhat like a night market from later times.

Looking at Meng Ling’s stall, the changes were even more significant.

A canopy made from plastic film, as Ji Meng requested, covered the stall. The entrance was open, and inside, there were racks made from bamboo poles. Above the plastic film wall, there were also small spotlights that could be used as floodlights.

“Wow, you guys worked overnight on this?”

Ji Meng looked at the canopy in front of her with delight.

It was much better than she had imagined. Aside from not being constructed of wood, the sides were only covered with plastic film instead of white-painted walls. Everything else matched some of the simpler exhibition venues she had seen in later years.

“Yes, Xiao Wu and a few others worked hard all night,” Meng Ling replied.

“Since we need to set up the stage over at the square this afternoon, we naturally had to hurry here.”

“Alright, let’s leave this to Xiao Wu, and we’ll head over to the factory, they should be starting work soon.”

“Oh, okay.”

Ji Meng was still looking at her shelves. After seeing the site, she felt more confident about tomorrow.

“Are you satisfied?”

Zheng Wu walked over from a distance, his brown eyes watching the radiant smile on her lips.

“Yeah, you’re really impressive, you almost perfectly captured what I wanted.”

Ji Meng was genuinely surprised. She looked at Zheng Wu and thought that being a repairman at a textile factory was a waste of his talent. With such skills, when the market opens up later, he could easily go into renovations or real estate and become a big boss.

Zheng Wu had no idea what Ji Meng was thinking. He looked at her with his clear eyes, like autumn water, the corners of his lips barely lifting in a smile before quickly composing himself. “I’ll get back to work.”

“Oh, okay, you go ahead,”

Ji Meng said quickly. She turned to shout for a moment and then ran over to Meng Ling, who was chatting with a vendor selling flashlights and mirrors.

“Let’s go, aren’t we heading to the factory?”

When they reached the factory, Ji Meng told Meng Ling to first check the batch of returns from the clothing factory.

This batch didn’t have the trendy styles that Meng Ling’s batch for the Hong Kong merchants did, but her styles were more in line with the local aesthetic, and the fabric and workmanship were excellent.

Ji Meng put together thirty outfits and took them to an empty office.

At this time, the fifty or so models had also arrived.

After familiarizing them with walking and having them respond to various prompts in a deliberately noisy environment, Ji Meng began selecting suitable outfits and makeup for them.

Planning to set up the stage at the small square that afternoon, she wanted them to rehearse.

Having worked as a model and seen shows for many years, and being a beauty herself, creating looks wasn’t difficult.

In just one morning, plus time for lunch, the makeup and styling were completed.

Fifty-six female workers from the textile and clothing factories walked out of the office, transformed. Many people turned to look at them as they walked by.

Some were so focused on watching that they accidentally bumped into walls and pillars, creating quite a scene.

Not only were the factory workers surprised, but so was Meng Ling.

“How did you do it? It’s like magic! How can they look so beautiful?”

Meng Ling had witnessed it herself. Several women, who had been quite plain, became stunning beauties after Ji Meng worked her magic with makeup and new hairstyles.

Watching the group of women, filled with joy and excitement, walking with a sense of happiness, Meng Ling suddenly grabbed Ji Meng’s hand.

“I want to be a beauty too! I want to be a stunning woman!”

It was incredible, the woman in front of her was like a goddess!

Ji Meng smiled and said, “Don’t worry, just focus on doing your job well and making sure the publicity is on point, tomorrow will be your day.”

She led the beauties to the stage that Zheng Wu had already set up for rehearsal.

More than fifty beautiful women appeared at the small square, walking over from the textile factory and attracting a lot of attention along the way.

Many people even followed them to the square, where a crowd gathered as they rehearsed on stage.

Watching the various styles of beauties walking up there, people below started discussing amongst themselves.

When they learned that this was an event for Women’s Day organized by the textile and clothing factories, everyone became very interested and mentioned that they would come early tomorrow.

This effectively served as an invisible promotion.

Meanwhile, the business at the small market also became lively a day earlier.

After they finished their trial walks and got assigned numbers, Ji Meng instructed them to go to the makeshift fitting rooms nearby to change out their clothes.

They still needed to wear them tomorrow.

Many were reluctant to take them off, lingering around and not moving.

“Can I wear this outfit back home and then come again tomorrow? I promise not to get it dirty or wrinkled,” said a girl named Tan Yue.

She was twenty this year, recently married, and appeared delicate and petite, about 1.5 meters tall, with a somewhat frail figure. Mustering the courage to participate in this event was entirely driven by the chance to get an outfit.

Since getting married, her in-laws had a lot of family members, and they had been saving money, so she hadn’t worn new clothes in a long time.

Today was the most beautiful day for her, even more so than when she was dating or got married.

She was reluctant to take it off and wanted to wear it home to show everyone.

It turned out that she can be this pretty too!

“Yes, we promise not to get them dirty, can we just wear them back tomorrow morning?” After Tan Yue spoke, several others chimed in.

“Sorry, you need to change out of them,” Ji Meng replied, shaking her head. She tried to use a gentle tone to avoid unnecessary friction.

“I know everyone is quite satisfied with the way I’ve styled you, but the outfits have to be changed. It’s not just about worrying that you’ll get them dirty or anything, during your rehearsal, I noticed some details that need adjusting to ensure the best effect for tomorrow’s show.”

“So, you need to change them today, and once you finish your walk tomorrow, you can wear them again.”

After much persuasion, they reluctantly changed out of the outfits.

Ji Meng didn’t deceive them, there were indeed a few outfits that needed slight adjustments.

However, they were all minor issues that would be resolved quickly.

Once those outfits were sorted, Meng Ling brought over the ironed clothes from home along with the three thousand garments from the clothing factory.

The next step was organizing the display boards on-site.

The main purpose of this event was to clear inventory, so the setup of the display boards and the overall atmosphere was important.

It was a busy scene, there were over four thousand garments, more than a hundred styles to coordinate, along with lighting and material arrangements that needed to fit the environment, requiring a lot of effort.

Meng Ling needed to focus on the final promotion, planning to distribute flyers to several factories nearby with a lot of female workers.

Zheng Wu was busy checking the safety issues on-site and at the walking stage, as well as hanging banners, leaving him with no time to help.

Therefore, Ji Meng was left alone to manage the site, making her feel dizzy with all the tasks.

But even so, by the time she went to pick up Qiuqiu, the setup was still not complete.

Early the next morning, people were already getting ready to start selling. With Ji Meng being busy all day tomorrow, she couldn’t find the time to manage everything, so she and Meng Ling, along with Zheng Wu, discussed and decided to work overtime that night.

After dinner at home, she informed Ji Qinghe that she would be working late.

At this point, Ji Qinghe finally learned that the beauty contest that had been discussed in the alley was initiated by his daughter.

She was in charge of organizing the event for tomorrow, with Meng Ling just providing initial support.

Ji Qinghe didn’t know what to say after hearing this.

His daughter had only been back for a day and had already organized such a grand event.

Although he hadn’t seen the contest yet, just hearing the discussions about the rehearsal that afternoon made him realize how lively it would be tomorrow.

His daughter was more outstanding than he had imagined.

Ji Qinghe felt both proud and distressed.

A child who hasn’t experienced hardship doesn’t understand so much.

“It’s quite late. Even though the market isn’t far from here, we should still pay attention to safety. I’ll accompany you and Qiuqiu there, and we’ll come back together once everything is set up,” Ji Qinghe said as he went inside to get a flashlight.

Ji Meng wanted to say it wasn’t necessary, but seeing Ji Qinghe’s insistence and noticing Qiuqiu’s worried expression, she finally agreed.

When they arrived at the small market, Meng Ling and Zheng Wu were already there. They had set up the posters Ji Meng had drawn during her previous break, as well as the ground stickers, banners, GG signs, GG hanging paintings, and price tags.

Once Ji Meng arrived, she began busying herself with the display boards.

Ji Qinghe helped Zheng Wu and Meng Ling by taking out the clothes that hadn’t been hung yet and hanging them on the bamboo poles according to size. This was a method to prevent chaos tomorrow when everyone would be too busy to find their sizes.

Qiuqiu wanted to help, so she sweetly asked this and that, ultimately finding a clothes rack and taking on the job of handing it over.

This collaboration with the clothing factory proved beneficial. Meng Ling didn’t have enough clothes racks, so she asked the clothing factory’s manager, who then helped her borrow a batch of plastic clothes racks from the department store’s inventory.

They hadn’t been used in a long time, gathering dust, but they were still usable after a quick clean.

By ten o’clock at night, everything was ready. Zheng Wu stayed behind to guard the stall while Ji Meng, Meng Ling, and the others headed home to wash up and sleep.

At four-thirty the next morning, Ji Meng skipped breakfast and quickly told Ji Qinghe to help take Qiuqiu. She hurried out to the small market.

The makeup and styling for over fifty girls took a lot of time. Even with Meng Ling and Zhang Ru assisting her, it still required several hours.

By 7 o’clock in the morning, the early market-goers arrived.

Seeing the dramatically transformed small market, they were all filled with curiosity, and when they looked at the large characters on the posters, they were immediately drawn in.

“Clothing factory’s beautiful garments exclusive sale! Buy one get one free, buy one get two free! Two pieces for only 18.8 yuan, three pieces for only 26.8 yuan, and with a coat, just 38.8 yuan.”

Even getting fabric and a tailor for similar materials would cost about the same price, and seeing the beautiful clothes on the poster made it hard to look away.

As a result, everyone couldn’t help but wander in, with some starting to ask what “buy one get one free” and “buy one get two free” meant.

It was quite strange, even before the beauty contest started, the atmosphere in the market began to heat up.

Zheng Wu was overwhelmed managing everything by himself, so Meng Ling and Zhang Ru had to step in to help.

In the end, there still weren’t enough hands, so Meng Ling asked for help from her mom, second aunt, and the part-time workers Ji Meng had asked her to recruit from the department store the day before.

Ji Meng was still busy applying makeup for the girls.

She had tried to use quick makeup techniques as much as possible, but she was still quite busy.

At 8:30 in the morning, finally, all the girls’ makeup and styling were completed, and it was time for the event to begin.

At this moment, a crowd had started to gather in the small square.

On the stage, the loudspeakers and the red carpet were all set up.

Below the stage, the seating for the judges and the audience had been organized, and the security personnel from the clothing factory and textile factory were responsible for maintaining order on-site.

At this time, Ji Qinghe came by to bring Ji Meng two steamed buns.

Ji Meng hurriedly ate them and went on stage.

The event needed some warming up, Zhang Ru was in charge of seating the leaders from both factories, while the performance on stage relied entirely on Ji Meng.

Meng Ling was both managing the business and worrying about Ji Meng, concerned that there were too many people and that she might not handle the situation well.

However, Ji Meng wasn’t flustered at all. As soon as she stepped on stage, she bowed to the audience and took the microphone to speak.

“Good morning, leaders, employees from the textile and clothing factories, neighbors, and friends!”

Ji Meng’s voice was clear and resonant, immediately capturing everyone’s attention.

As they looked at her standing gracefully on stage in a deep green long dress, her skin was as white as the ice and snow as ^[1]“Tianshan”, or “Heavenly Mountains,” is a major mountain range in Central Asia, stretching about 2,500 kilometers across China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. Known … Continue readingTianshan, her features are exquisite and stunning, radiating beauty and confidence.