“As for the collaboration, I do have my own plans and arrangements.”
“Thank you, Miss Yu, for thinking so highly of me.”
“Goodbye.”
Jiang Luo didn’t stay long. After saying this, he got up to leave, adding that he would treat today’s meal and cover the bill.
This time, Yu Dong didn’t follow him. She stayed seated, waiting for the door to close. After a moment, her eyes suddenly reddened—embarrassed? Of course. He had seen straight through her all along. How laughable that she had still been pretending, even thinking she did it well. Ha. Haha.
Sad?
Her eyes red, Yu Dong wrapped her arms around herself, feeling an intense shame.
For today’s meal, she had deliberately chosen a dress with bare shoulders and a low neckline.
She didn’t want to, but she had no choice.
Just like Jiang Luo had said, a young woman, alone in an unfamiliar place, doing business—her path was not an easy one.
Yu Dong hugged herself tighter and stared at the ceiling, fighting back tears.
Jiang Luo thought he had said everything he needed to say. As long as Yu Dong wasn’t foolish, she wouldn’t seek him out again.
Yet on that rainy day, traveling from Haicheng to Haimen, when he reached Hongming’s gate, he saw Yu Dong standing alone, without an umbrella, letting the heavy rain drench her completely.
Seeing Jiang Luo’s car, she ran to stop it. The driver, Lao Si, clicked his tongue, unable to bear it, and called out, “Boss Jiang?”
Jiang Luo replied, “No need to stop.”
He exhaled silently, thinking Yu Dong was both foolish and stubborn.
He didn’t want to intervene. No matter how gentlemanly he could be with a girl, when it came to business, he always acted according to his own plans—being softhearted was not an option.
But as the car drove into the factory, he glanced through the rear window and saw Yu Dong fall into a puddle at the gate, completely soaked. Memories of his own past, when people had helped him, flashed through his mind.
He sighed again and told Lao Si, “Stop the car.”
Was it because he had a soft heart?
Or because the name Yu Dong carried some special weight?
Or perhaps because he pitied her?
In any case, Jiang Luo stepped out, opened an umbrella, and walked toward Yu Dong, who was still lying in the puddle outside the gate, unable to get up.
“Can you get up?”
He tilted the umbrella over her head as he approached.
Yu Dong looked up at him, drenched from head to toe, worse off than a drenched chicken.
She tried to stand but couldn’t. Jiang Luo bent down, handed her the umbrella, and with one hand supporting her, gently helped pull her out of the puddle.
“Let’s go.”
He held the umbrella over both of them and walked decisively toward the factory. “Come inside. Go change into dry clothes.”
Yu Dong hugged her wet shoulders, shrinking under the umbrella, and followed him into the factory.
Jiang Luo took her to the former factory manager’s office—his temporary office at Hongming—and had Lao Si fetch a clean towel and some female colleague’s clothes so she could change there.
Waiting outside, hands in his pockets, Jiang Luo watched the rain pour from the sky and thought back.
In his previous life, for business, he had once waited in the rain, hoping to see someone. When the person arrived, he had dashed over, pressing his face to the glass, wanting a chance.
Once he had run after a car, tapping on the window all the way, and even fallen. His sleeves and legs were covered in mud, elbows scraped—far worse than Yu Dong looked now.
“Boss Jiang, I’m ready.”
Yu Dong’s calm voice came through the office door.
Jiang Luo withdrew his gaze from the rain and snapped back to the present.
But as he pushed the door open, turning and closing it behind him, he caught sight of something in his peripheral vision. Quickly, he turned toward the door and sternly called, “Miss Yu! Show some self-respect!”
Yu Dong, only in her undergarments, crouched down, hugging herself and started crying.
Seeing her cry, Jiang Luo didn’t scold further. Facing the door, he sighed silently.
When he spoke again, his voice softened slightly. “Put your clothes on first.”
“It’s okay to cry. Go ahead, cry while you dress.”
Yu Dong listened, still crouching, and began to dress while sobbing.
After a while, she said, “I’m done.”
Jiang Luo didn’t look back. “Are you sure?”
Sobbing, Yu Dong replied, “Do you think I want this? I have no choice. If I don’t do this, I can’t keep the factory running, and my family will go bankrupt.”
Jiang Luo finally turned to look. Yu Dong wore a former female worker’s uniform from Hongming, plain and simple, her hair half-wet, sticking to her forehead and cheeks.
Jiang Luo stood quietly, expressionless. “Miss Yu, in the business world, there’s a saying: in the arena of fame and fortune, men enter on their knees, women enter naked.”
“You only strip once today. After that, you’ll never need to do it again.”
Wiping her tears, Yu Dong said, “It’s not like I could choose. I have no way. If I don’t do this, I can’t save the factory. My parents would be buried in debt.”
“Li Fengrui wanted you dead, didn’t he? But even he threatened me with my reputation, demanding I either cooperate with him or sleep with him.”
“I refused, and he still wanted to destroy me.”
The truth behind the car accident was clear now.
Jiang Luo didn’t dwell on it. The past was past.
“Don’t worry, I’m not Li Fengrui.”
Yu Dong, perhaps still feeling wronged, continued to cry uncontrollably. Jiang Luo said nothing and patiently waited.
After a while, Yu Dong stopped crying, wiped her face with her sleeve, and tried to compose herself. “Thank you. You really are different from Li Fengrui.”
Jiang Luo didn’t want to discuss Li Fengrui. Hands in his pockets, he asked plainly, “Why are you looking for me again?”
“You said it.”
Yu Dong stepped forward, closing the distance slightly, about three meters away. “You said if I spoke up, and you could help, you would. Let’s be friends.”
Jiang Luo nodded. Calmly, he gave the impression of, Just speak. I’m listening.
Yu Dong spoke clearly and simply, “Our family’s factory in Singapore can’t survive.”
Jiang Luo asked, “How long?”
“Over a year. It’s been running at a loss.”
Jiang Luo cut to the point: “Why not close it?”
Yu Dong: “The investment is too large. If we close it, everything is gone.”
Jiang Luo: “What’s the problem?”
Yu Dong asked back, “Do you know the biggest, most hidden risk in running a garment factory?”
Jiang Luo calmly replied, “The rate of profit can’t keep up with machinery depreciation.”
Yu Dong was stunned. “You actually know?”
Jiang Luo: “Miss Yu, I’m asking you—what exactly is wrong with your Singapore factory?”
Yu Dong explained, “When I graduated, my father borrowed heavily from friends to update the factory’s equipment. We thought the newest, best machines would improve efficiency and lower costs. But the new machines barely increased efficiency. Orders were low those two years, labor costs rose, and the factory quickly faltered. At first, profits shrank; then there was no profit at all; eventually, we couldn’t even cover the principal.”
Jiang Luo: “So your plan for returning was to see if you could move the factory to a place with lower operating and labor costs and revive it?”
“Yes.”
Jiang Luo asked directly, “What do you want me to do?”
Yu Dong stepped closer, eyes sincere. “We already own shares in Hongming. Can you help us move the factory from Singapore and let me run it?”
Jiang Luo remained calm. “You know that’s impossible.”
Yu Dong could only ask, “Then what would you be willing to help with?”
Jiang Luo looked at her. “If I were you, I’d close the Singapore factory immediately, cut losses in time, and then start a new factory domestically.”
Yu Dong struggled to accept it, clearly distressed. “If we do that, it’s total bankruptcy. My parents would be buried in debt.”
“And I don’t have money to start a new factory or invest again.”
Suddenly, Jiang Luo asked, “Where’s your equipment from?”
Yu Dong: “All imported from Japan.”
Jiang Luo: “Sewing machines, irons… what models?”
She gave the models. Jiang Luo thought for a moment. “The machines aren’t old. They’re new.”
“Your biggest problem,” he continued, “is the high operating and labor costs in Singapore. Even with many orders, you only break even. Once orders drop, you stop making money.”
He frowned. “What kind of orders? Why have they dropped so much?”
Yu Dong: “Exports to Europe and America.”
Jiang Luo immediately understood. “Profit loss also relates to exchange rates, but most importantly, your market has been taken over domestically. You sell clothes for $5 abroad; in China, the same item sells for $1 or even less.”
Yu Dong: “Exactly. That’s why I returned.”
Jiang Luo didn’t look at her anymore, moving to the desk, flipping through the materials he needed. “The Singapore factory can’t be saved. If you don’t close it now, losses will grow, and your debts will increase.”