She Only Cares About Cultivation-Chapter 908 - 822: Famine Era 63
In the medical profession, the older you are, the more valuable you become. It’s not like with workers, where many retire early to make room for their children. But for experienced and capable doctors like Ye Huan, early retirement means a significant loss.
Therefore, when Ye Huan wanted to retire three years early, the hospital hesitated. It was only after Ye Huan agreed to assist with complex surgeries if needed that they let her go.
Although she retired, Tong Zhan was still in Jibei Province. He wasn’t unaware of what his wife was up to, and even said she was messing around.
However, in just three months, she recovered the investment on all her ventures, something he’d never heard of. Curiously, he even came to have a look.
"There are so many rich people in this era?"
Ye Huan’s lips curved slightly upward, "The Reform and Opening era opened up the country, allowing free trade. When people have enough to eat and wear, of course, the extra money goes to consumption. What else would it be kept for? Buying houses?"
This was unlike later times. In those days, housing was allocated by work units. Who would think to buy a house?
Only someone like her, who came from later times, would have such forward-looking insight.
Actually, she still found the clothes of this era unattractive and even considered designing her own. However, her designs might not fit the aesthetics of the time.
So after thinking it over, she decided to stick to retail for the time being.
In an era without telephones and inconvenient transportation, each trip to carry goods was the most challenging.
Yet she enjoyed treating trains as a monthly pass, carrying goods every half month. From the initial five thousand yuan to ten thousand yuan now, she doubled her goods in just three months, showing that in this era filled with gold and opportunities, any venture was profitable.
She even called Brother Five and Sixth Brother to ask if they and their wives were interested in doing business.
Now, apart from their two families, everyone in the Ye Family had stable jobs. However, the brothers and sisters-in-law weren’t willing to join. They felt they were too old, their limbs were less nimble, and with kids still in school, should they fail to get into college, they’d have to face a future of back-breaking work.
While she wanted to tell them that even small food businesses were profitable, since they were unwilling, she couldn’t insist and hung up the phone with a sigh.
The call was made from the post office to home, as the home brigade had a phone, taking quite a bit to find someone.
Although phone calls were expensive, they were faster than writing letters or telegraphing.
No one from the Ye Family was willing to come, and she’d long been at odds with her uncle’s family, so she couldn’t possibly help those ungrateful people.
Being unable to open two stores alone due to limited energy, she had to focus entirely on her clothing store business.
Of course, to find shops with unique property rights for sale, she didn’t forget to ask around while running her shop.
Ye Huan initially went to restock every half month, and soon it became once a week. Her taste and pairing choices always caught people’s attention, so once clothes were draped on the models, numerous inquiries followed.
People were slim in those times, so she chose M and L sizes, and never more than five pieces per color for each clothing item.
As word spread about their good service, more people began to visit their clothing store.
Initially, some didn’t know it was a women’s store. Even male customers came in by mistake. So Ye Huan set up a separate storefront for men’s clothing. This time, she brought back five thousand yuan worth of men’s clothing, along with women’s apparel, accessories like women’s shoes, bags, socks, men’s socks, and underwear, making up a total of twenty thousand yuan in goods, sent back to Beijing via railway freight.
Upon arrival at Beijing Station, there were porters available. She hired two temporarily to transport the goods to Wangfujing, which only cost several dollars. It was quite convenient and efficient. Being older, she would always opt to hire help rather than exert herself.
She had considered trading electronic products, but the high cost and risk, along with the less vibrant market in the Northern region compared to the Southern, and the risk of being accused of smuggling made it unwise. So she finally decided to stick faithfully to her clothing business.
