The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 176 Zhou Hao, Your Stepmother Can Only Be Shen Baolan

Chapter 176: Chapter 176 Zhou Hao, Your Stepmother Can Only Be Shen Baolan

Shen Baolan racked her brain but couldn’t understand how she ended up in such a state.

Back when she was a maiden in her parental home, Shen Mingzhu couldn’t do anything right, but once she entered the city, it was as if Shen Mingzhu had turned into a different person, capable of doing anything and everything well, and her life just kept getting better.

In her parental home, she was superior to Shen Mingzhu in everything, but after entering the city, she was outdone by Shen Mingzhu in every aspect, and nothing seemed to go her way.

Could this really be destiny?

Shen Mingzhu was born lucky, able to lead a good life even after marrying the short-lived Pei Yang.

And she was born under an unlucky star, destined to a miserable end even after marrying the future tycoon?

The more Shen Baolan thought about it, the more desperate she became, and the more desperate she felt, the sadder she got, until she couldn’t help burying her head in her knees and sobbing uncontrollably.

Just as she was crying her eyes out, a clear and melodious child’s voice seemed to descend from heaven above—

"Just crying won’t do any good."

Shen Baolan, with tears blurring her vision, lifted her head and recognized Pei Ziheng. Her first reaction was that Shen Mingzhu had come to laugh at her!

Seeing her frantically looking around in panic, a disdainful sneer crossed the dark orbs of Pei Ziheng’s eyes.

"Don’t worry, my mom isn’t here."

Upon hearing that, Shen Baolan let out a sigh of relief and didn’t hide her disdain when addressing Pei Ziheng, "Go away, don’t bother me."

"I’m here to help you."

"If you don’t want to divorce Uncle Zhou, I can help you."

Staring at Pei Ziheng’s beautiful yet indifferent little face, Shen Baolan was speechless.

Although she found it ridiculous, she wasn’t willing to give up on even a one in ten million chance.

Since she was thrown out of the Zhou family, a whole day had passed without the Zhou family showing any concern for her, and the residents of the whole building treated her as if she were plague-stricken, wishing to stay far away from her.

Pei Ziheng was the only one willing to come close to her and say he would help her.

Even though he was just a five-year-old child, she still felt warmth in her heart.

Pei Ziheng took out two things from his pocket, a small mirror, and a photograph.

The person in the photo was Shen Mingzhu, wearing a slim-fit, grass-green, floral dress, her hair softly cascading down her back, smiling with bright eyes and white teeth.

Even Shen Baolan had to admit that the Shen Mingzhu in the photo was truly beautiful.

"Woman captivates with beauty, man becomes obsessed with soul, when affection aligns, his heart tips to her side."

Hearing the words Pei Ziheng recited, Shen Baolan was befuddled, "What does that mean?"

"To put it simply, if a woman is beautiful enough, a man will be utterly bewitched and unable to control himself."

Shen Baolan, looking at her unkempt and ugly reflection in the little mirror, then at the charming and alluring Shen Mingzhu in the photo, her gaze gradually hardened.

Watching Shen Baolan’s retreating figure, carrying her luggage and striding away, Pei Ziheng’s beautiful little face revealed a smile.

Zhou Hao, your stepmother will only be Shen Baolan. Dreaming of taking my mom, it won’t be possible even in several lifetimes!

...

To save costs, Shen Mingzhu bought two used bicycles and, together with Du Juan, started to promote the food factory’s business.

Shen Chaobei was in charge of supervising production in the factory.

In Fengcheng’s market, there were over a dozen brands of spicy strips and dried tofu, among which four or five were old brands with good reputations and name recognition. Shen Mingzhu wanted to carve out a path among these matured snack brands, which was undoubtedly as difficult as ascending to the heavens.

However, she had already thought of a marketing strategy and planned to use consignment sales to break into the market.

In fact, forty years later, consignment sales would become a very common and widespread business practice. But in that era, small shops and individual vendors operated mostly on a model of purchasing goods before selling them.

Consignment sales, on the other hand, were the opposite of purchasing goods; you sell the products first and then settle with the manufacturer. Whatever doesn’t sell, the manufacturer would take back free of charge.

With this business model, both the cost and the inventory pressure were on the manufacturer, while the retail sellers effectively operated without any cost.

This meant Shen Mingzhu was extremely confident in her own products; otherwise, she wouldn’t dare try consignment sales lightly, as it could easily result in a loss so great she’d be left with nothing but her underwear.

Shen Mingzhu and Du Juan rode their bicycles, specifically looking for food stores or small shops densely surrounded by schools and residents.

Once the shop owners tasted the spicy strips and dried tofu, and heard they could sell the products before settling accounts and that the food factory would even come to freely pick up unsold products, they all agreed to the consignment, since they would not incur any losses even if the products didn’t sell.

For Shen Mingzhu, consignment was just the first step, her ultimate goal was to sell the products.

Even a tiny snack shop with space no bigger than a palm had at least a dozen or even dozens of small snacks for sale. How could she make her "Mingzhu" snacks stand out?

Naturally, she needed a good salesperson, and the store owners were undoubtedly the best candidates.

Opening a store was all about making money, and if her products offered a high profit margin, the shop owners would naturally be motivated to sell vigorously.

For this reason, Shen Mingzhu specifically designed a set of sales incentive schemes for the store owners.

Monthly sales champions in the city area, district area, top three in the quarter, and top five for the year, would all receive a certain percentage of commission as a reward.

The more they sold, the higher the commission, with no limit.

Thanks to the consignment model, it only took three days for Shen Mingzhu to set up a total of eighteen food stores and small shops as sales outlets, achieving a successful start.

However, Shen Chaobei was worried about this.

The products seemed to be flowing out like water, but not a cent came back in return. He had never seen such a way of selling goods. What if they couldn’t collect the money?

In fact, it wasn’t just Shen Chaobei who was concerned; Du Juan and the workers at the factory also had their worries.

Shen Mingzhu simply took the opportunity during mealtime to reassure everyone, "The shops I’ve chosen are well-reputed and trustworthy. They’ve been in business for years; do you think they would stop doing business just to pocket a few dozen yuan worth of goods?"

Assuaged by Shen Mingzhu’s words, everyone set aside their worries and started to focus on production with positivity.

...

Under Pei Ziheng’s guidance, Shen Baolan decided to change her image to win back Zhou Shuhuan’s heart.

She had good fundamentals, a beautiful face, and a tall figure; before getting married, she was known alongside Shen Mingzhu as one of the two golden flowers of Shenjiagou.

However, after getting pregnant, she indulged too much and stretched her stomach, never restraining herself, which led to her becoming more and more overweight.

To return to her pre-marriage figure, the quickest and most effective method was to lose weight.

Though Shen Baolan had many flaws, she also had her strong points, such as her pride and unwillingness to admit defeat. She was stubborn to the core, and once she set her mind on something, ten oxen couldn’t pull her back.

Once she decided not to eat, she wouldn’t open her mouth no matter how her family tried to persuade her, even if they placed meat right in front of her lips, her jaws would remain clenched shut.

She even went so far as to ask Liu Cuihua to tie her to the bed at night because she feared she couldn’t resist the temptation to sneak a snack due to hunger.

Although Liu Cuihua was angry that her daughter’s behavior affected her son, she felt deeply pained seeing her daughter lying on the bed looking exhausted and weak.

"Otherwise just divorce him, I refuse to believe you can’t get married off again without Zhou Shuhuan!" suggested Liu Cuihua.

Shen Baolan, who hadn’t eaten for three days and felt like biting into anything she saw, shook her head weakly, "No, I can’t divorce him. If I do, I won’t be able to become a rich wife, and our family won’t be able to enjoy a good life through my connection to him."

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