The white rose I picked up cried and said she liked me.

As the weather gets colder, the days are getting shorter.

Before dawn, Xu Nian got up early, changed her clothes, and went out to work.

In winter, people are less willing to go out and prefer to stay at home, wrapped in their blankets, and comfortably enjoy the warmth of their beds.

Especially on weekends, enjoying a steaming cup of milk tea while snuggled in bed watching TV shows is a wonderful thing.

As a result, the number of food delivery orders surged significantly.

Xu Hu had to arrange for more riders to be on duty in order to ensure the on-time delivery rate of orders in this area.

Xu Nian has lost count of how many days he has gone out under the starry night. He wears thick clothes to ensure that he doesn't shiver while riding his bike during the coldest part of the day.

However, he did not complain about it.

Because the income is very high after a day's work like this.

If you work like this for a month straight, after deducting taxes, you can still get seven or eight thousand yuan.

Three meals a day, meat at every meal, enough to eat and warm to wear—things that were only a luxury six months ago have finally become a reality for him.

Moreover, there were two of them.

Xu Xi didn't get up until almost noon. As agreed yesterday, she took Zhao Lin to Sister Na's clothing store.

Wen Yao also came over, saying that it was boring to stay at home alone, and that they could go out shopping after they finished their work.

"Huh? Why is the door closed?"

When the group arrived at the clothing store, they were puzzled by the tightly closed roller shutter door.

"Could it be that Sister Na has something to do today? Or maybe she wants to rest and take a day off?"

Wen Yao murmured to herself.

She was familiar with this trick. Whenever she woke up late, the weather was bad, her left eyelid twitched, or she was too lazy to get out of bed, she would lock the door of the convenience store and lie in bed watching her favorite shows.

Xu Xi scratched his head, feeling a little strange.

In her memory, Sister Na was a very business-minded person. Even if she was not in the store, she would arrange for the sales staff to continue serving customers.

Look here.

Zhao Lin noticed a note pasted on the wall next to her.

She pointed to the note and said it to Xu Xi and Wen Yao.

The note read: Prime location shop for sublet.

Below is a phone number.

"Huh? Business was so good, why did you quit?"

Wen Yao said with a puzzled look, she remembered that every time she passed by this clothing store, she could see a constant stream of customers.

Even if her family's convenience store went out of business, she didn't believe that the clothing store could close down.

Xu Xi took her phone out of the pocket of her cat-ear hoodie and dialed the number on the note.

"Who?"

Li Na's tired voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Sister Na, it's me, Xu Xi."

Xu Xi answered softly.

"Sister Na, why are you closing the clothing store? Are you moving to another place?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.

"I'm in the warehouse, let's talk in the warehouse."

After hanging up the phone, Xu Xi led the two to the warehouse of a clothing store in the alley.

The door wasn't locked; I just pushed it gently and went inside.

At this moment, the warehouse was filled with all sorts of clothes in a mess.

Some were well-packaged, some were already opened, some were in express delivery boxes, and some were carelessly discarded on the ground.

The styles are also very diverse; at a glance, it seems there are more than when I last visited the warehouse.

There used to be a large empty area where you could put some sofas and furniture, but now it's completely full, and there's not even room to step.

Only in the innermost corner was a small, clean area marked out, where a live-streaming stand was placed.

Hu Yu looked terrible, using thick foundation to cover the signs of fatigue on her face, especially her heavy dark circles. She was forcing herself to explain the clothes in her hands in front of the camera.

Li Na was adjusting the lights and constantly unpacking and packing the mountain of clothes while helping Hu Yu.

She was equally exhausted, as if she hadn't slept for days and nights, and even her steps were light and unsteady.

"Sister Na, are you alright?"

Xu Xi quickly stepped forward and supported Li Na's swaying body.

"I'm fine, Xu Xi."

Li Na waved her hand gently, but her weak and feeble movements contradicted her words.

She gestured for the three people who were walking quickly towards her to be quiet.

The three of them glanced at Hu Yu, who was live-streaming, and nodded.

"Sister Na, what happened?"

Xu Xi tiptoed in her small cotton shoes and whispered in Li Na's ear, "What do you mean?"

Li Na rubbed her tired eyes.

"We've been live-streaming to sell goods for a week now."

"Isn't that unnecessary, Sister Na? You'll ruin your health if you keep pushing yourself like this."

Wen Yao and Zhao Lin brought over a stool and helped Li Na sit down slowly.

Li Na sighed, shook her head, and began to recount her story.

It turns out that in previous years, the goods she stocked up in advance for every Double Eleven would sell out quickly on e-commerce platforms, and there would be no stock left to sell before the promotion ended.

If you want to buy goods from other stores to resell, you will have to pay several times the normal purchase price, which is not cost-effective.

So this year, she rented this warehouse and ordered many times more clothes from the garment factory than in previous years. This not only depleted all of her and Hu Yu's savings but also left them with a lot of debt.

Based on past sales data, if at least three-quarters of the goods in this warehouse are sold, the company can make a fortune.

The remaining quarter can be kept for physical stores or distributed to other clothing stores, and there is no worry about sales.

Just as she was preparing to make a big splash, the "tainted cotton" incident broke out.

Fortunately, the clothing factory that Li Na sourced her goods from was one she had personally visited, and all the materials she used were from clean and transparent sources, with no quality issues.

Unfortunately, consumers are unaware of this; they only know that a large number of garments made from substandard cotton still exist on the market, and they have lost the desire to buy clothing.

In an instant, sales of all clothing products plummeted.

Throughout the entire Double Eleven shopping festival, not even one-tenth of the inventory was sold.

Even clothes sold in the days before the incident broke out were returned without reason within seven days.

The business of physical stores has also been affected, with daily turnover not even covering the costs of rent and utilities.

In the past few days, Li Na and Hu Yu have been trying to find ways to sell their stock to their peers, but with little success; no one is willing to take on this hot potato.

With no other option, the two of them took turns trying out the recently popular live-streaming sales, but sales remained sluggish.

Only a few pieces of clothing were sold in a whole day.

"I don't expect to break even anymore. I just want to pay back the money before the debt comes due."

At this point, Li Na lowered her head and sighed repeatedly.

If she hadn't stocked up on so much inventory, this wave of impact wouldn't have been a big deal for her; at most, she would just earn a little less money.

But she was too eager for quick success and made all her savings and incurred debts, pushing herself into an abyss of no return.

Just then, Hu Yu, who was live streaming, suddenly rolled her eyes and fell straight down like a puppet with its strings cut.