"Yanyan, there is really nothing going on between me and her. She ran into a hooligan in the past and I happened to be there and helped her out. It has been a few years already and I never saw her again until recently."

"Alright, of course I trust you." Shu Yan looked him up and down. After his trip to City Han, he had become darker from the sun and also lost some weight. "I know that you will be back tonight so I had Aunty made extra food. Have dinner over at my place?"

"Okay." Feng Zeyu nodded happily.

The two ran into many from the neighborhood on their way over to Shu Yan's place. They were already used to seeing the two of them together.

They ran into Lin Hui while waiting for the elevator. Lin Hui gave Feng Zeyu an awkward smile when she saw him. Seeing Feng Zeyu reminded her of the days when she was gossiping to Shu Yan about Feng Zeyu. She had forgotten that she had never bad mouthed him.

"You two went out again today?"

"No, Yu just returned from a business trip so I had him come over for dinner. You went grocery shopping?" Shu Yan shared.

"No, we ran out of soy sauce so I went to get some."

Then they ran out of things to talk about.

Dinner was very hearty. There were chicken, duck, fish, meats, shrimp and crab. Aunty's cooking was amazing and Feng Zeyu fully appreciated it. He had two big bowls of rice. Almost one-third of the food was consumed by him.

"Don't over eat," said Shu Yan with a small bowl in hand that only had a few mouthfusl of rice inside.

"I will be fine. That's all you are going to eat? You should have some more."

"No, this is enough." Shu Yan didn't eat pork or too much rice at night. She would have some vegetables and also some seafood. She will eat till 80% full. It was both healthy and weight-maintaining. Good for the skin as well.

Feng Zeyu frowned. That was less than two mouthfuls for him.

"You are already skinny enough. You don't need to lose more weight." Truth was he felt that Shu Yan was too skinny. Her gaining a little bit more weight would be better.

The two had different ideas of what pretty was. Those at this day and age preferred women to be slightly chubby. They looked lucky that way. In Shu Yan's era, it was all about the bony kind of beauty. Granted, too overly skinny was not attractive either. As such, Shu Yan had stopped trying to lose weight but focused more on becoming shapely.

"I am not. That really was enough food. Maintaining my weight is one thing, but I also want to be healthy. As our ancestor had said, the trick of longevity is to eat only to partially full." Shu Yan explained with a smile on her.

Feng Zeyu had heard of that as well but very few could achieve that. That fact that Shu Yan could maintain that meant that she was a very persistent person.

After dinner, Feng Zeyu took out the gifts that he had brought back from City Han. In addition to food, he had also brought back a lot of silk flowers for Shu Yan and JingJing. All of the silk flowers looked very live-like and pretty. For Tianbao, he brought back a horse carved out of stone. It was equally live-like.

"Thank you, Uncle Fang." JingJing was very happy when she saw the silk flowers sitting inside a box.

Tianbao, too, loved his gift. He would not put down the stone horse.

"I am glad you like it." Feng Zeyu was happy that the children loved the gifts that he had picked out for them.

"I like them too." Shu Yan had a pony tail today. She picked up one of the silk flowers and put it next to her ear. "How does that look?"

"Pretty," said Feng Zeyu in a daze.

Shu Yan gave him a cross-eyed look. "Silly."

Their trip to the grassland was a good decision. The kids were close to Feng Zeyu now. Especially Tianbao, he would ask why Uncle Fang wasn't over even after just one day of not seeing him. JingJing no longer resented him. Perhaps she was still shy, she did not interact with Feng Zeyu as much.

After Shu Yan had walked Feng Zeyu to the elevator and was about to return home, she was stopped by Lin Hui.

"Shu Yan, come over to my place for a little while!"

Shu Yan had been very busy as of late and hadn't had a chance to chat with Lin Hui for a while now. She had her waited for a few minutes while she went home, sliced up some fruits, and brought it with her.

"What have you been busy with lately? You left early and came home late. I barely ever saw you." Lin Hui, too, brought out a lot of snacks.

"Don't even bring it up. There were so much going on at work. I will need to take a business trip in a few days; you will be seeing me even less." Hu Ruixue had entered Xia Ruo into overseas competitions so Shu Yan would have to step in and help out with matters in the company.

"Your company is always so busy. I take that it is doing well?" Lin Hui had already learned that Yanxue was Shu Yan's company. She was very surprised when she found out. She thought Shu Yan opened up a small company of sort but, lo and behold, Shu Yan had become the owner of a company that was well known nationwide.

Her husband did some calculations and figured that Yanxue's total assets probably added up to around 300 million or so. Even if Shu Yan only owned half of that, she was still a millionaire. A millionaire? What was the concept of a millionaire like at the day and age when a family with just ten-thousand-yuan worth of net worth was already impressive?

All in all, Lin Hui admired Shu Yan a lot. She got a divorce when she wanted one. She set her mind on starting a career and succeeded. Now she was in a relationship. She truly live for the moment.

"It does alright but all the money is tied up the company. I probably have less cash than you," said Shu Yan half-jokingly.

"You are joking." Lin Hui felt that that was sufficient small talk and asked Shu Yan in a low voice. "So you and Feng Zeyu are really a thing now?"

"Haven't you seen us together already?"

"When did you two get together? You are so tight-lipped around it." Lin Hui was envious that Shu Yan had told her nothing about it.

"We've known each other for quite a while but haven't been together for very long. Let's not talk about me anymore. How's Xiuyue doing? I haven't seen her in a while." Shu Yan didn't want to talk more about herself and Feng Zeyu so she changed the subject quickly.

Hearing Shu Yan brought up Wu Xiuyue, Lin Hui pursed her lips. "Don't even bring her up. She is doing great. Now that she is a boss lady and made a lot of money, she looked down on those in the working class like us!"

It sounded like the two had some sort of a spat?

Shu Yan didn't even need to ask when Lin Hui carried on all on her own. "She had stopped dropping off and picking up her kids since she started her clothing shop. It had always been her mother-in-law who was doing that.

 As such, we haven't been seeing each other a lot. A while back, she started doing that again herself but that wasn't her real intention. Every time she ran into a parent, she would tell them how busy she was having her own business and that she made just a few hundred yuan a day working from early till late. 

When she ran into me, she told me to quit my job and go work for her and that she would pay me 500 yuan. Am I short that 500 yuan? Sheesh, she didn't even make that much money and she is so stuck up already."

Shu Yan truly had no idea that Wu Xiuyue had changed so much. She was a very simple and virtuous person before.

"How was the business at her shop?" Shu Yan had stopped visiting her shop ever since she had Zhang Huaxiu took over the management of it. She didn't need to pick up and drop off her children anymore so she hadn't had contact with Wu Xiuyue and had no idea what had been going on with her.

"I took a peek at it when I went shopping the other day. It's busy for sure. I don't know exactly how much she is making. A few hundred yuan should not be a stretch. I ran into her just a few days ago and she told me that she was looking at houses. So she probably made quite a bit. We are all friends, the few of us. As a friend, I am happy for her for making so much money but that personality of hers. I don't talk to her anymore and you should be avoiding her as well.

Shu Yan didn't exactly believe the "I am happy for her for making so much money" part. Wu Xiuyue might be a bit braggy but Lin Hui had also showed off her superiority in front of Wu Xiuyue in the past as well.

Lin Hui asked hesitantly, "What say I go and open up a clothing shop too? I won't do it the same way that Wu Xiuyue did. I'll go the way you had originally suggested for her and open up a high-end women's clothing shop and attract quality customers. Lin Hui's shop is busy alright but it was like the market and it looks messy all the time. I don't like it much."

"What about your job then?" asked Shu Yan.

"I'll keep my job. It isn't like I need to stay in the shop all the time. I can hire someone." Obviously, she had been planning this for a while now.

"Well, you want to think this through first. I hadn't been running the shop for a while now and don't know much about the current environment." After her experience with Wu Xiuyue, Shu Yan didn't want to get involved again. Everything that Lin Hui said right now sounded good but who knew what would actually happen.

"I'll check out the market first. I won't just jump in blindly. Oh right. Didn't you just mention that your company started a women's clothing line as well? How about I join the franchise?"

"We have no plans for franchise for the time being," said Shu Yan subtly.

Their setting for the women's clothing line was different than that of the undergarment. They wanted to go the high-end women's clothing route. As such, it would be counterproductive to open up shops all over.

 A luxurious brand is not only luxurious because of their price point but they also need to appear more superior than a regular brand in every way. For example, if they were to have a shop in a shopping mall, it would have to be the biggest mall. They could only open up in tier-1 cities. Not even tier-2 cities were worthy of them. 

For their quantities, they would stick to the announced number nationally with a few limited-edition ones, perhaps only 10 or so nationwide. In addition, their company had already sent someone over to Hong Kong and Taiwan to check out the market.

 They would have counters there as well. if they did well in the overseas competitions, Shu Yan might consider counters in some major cities overseas as well.

Lin Hui felt regretful. She knew how successful Shu Yan's undergarment brand was. There was a shop by the University and its business was great. Unfortunately, she wasn't planning on going into business back then. She would be making money by now. It would never have been Wu Xiuyue.

When they were almost done with the fruits, Shu Yan went home with her plate.

Fang Zeyu drove Shu Yan to work the next day. The two had been going to and from the office together all the time now. Many in the building were aware that they were dating.

Many men were envious of Fang Zeyu. They should have pursued Shu Yan. So what if she was a single mother? She was competent and pretty.

"Is Boss Hu back yet?" Shu Yan asked the front desk.

"Yes, she is. She is in her office right now."

"Okay." Shu Yan went straight to Hu Ruixue's office and found her talking to someone from Designs and Marketing.

"Oh, here you are." Hu Ruixue smiled when she saw Shu Yan. There were dark circles under her eyes and she looked very tired. "Okay. That's all for now. Go and organize what we have just talked about. We will need that for our meeting in a minute."

After she had sent off the individuals from Designs and Marketing, Hu Ruixue walked over, laid down on the couch and said feebly, "We visited a total of 4 countries and entered into over 10 competitions. We only received consolation prizes in the major competitions but we did well in the small-scale ones."

Shu Yan looked through all of the wards, let out a sigh of relief and smiled. "That is quite impressive already. I will have someone draft something up and this can be published on the newspapers tomorrow. The commercials are mostly ready. Just waiting for your return to take a look on them.:

Nobody not in the field would pay any attention to clothing design competitions. All they need to know was that Shu Yan started a female clothing line and that they had received a lot of awards in major competitions overseas.