It was great that she didn't want to take a trip home. Shu Yan first told Aunty that she would not be travelling after all before she called Feng Zeyu immediately after that.

"Luckily, he is okay. That way I don't need to take a trip back. I have already asked my cousin to give them 1,000 yuan so he can buy or eat whatever he likes." The three sons could take care of the rest. Their parents had already paid for their houses, their weddings, and looked after their children for them. So what if they had to come up with some money to cover the hospital bills.

"Glad to hear that everything was alright." A hint of regret flashed through Feng Zeyu but he immediately chastised himself for even feeling that way.

After hanging up the phone, Shu Yan put the clothes that she had packed back to where they belonged. She may not like how original owner's parents' strong belief that boys were better than girls, but they were, after all, original owner's parents. It was best that they were healthy and alive.

That little incident took her entire day. When Shu Yan went into the office the next day, Hu Ruixue asked, "How come you did come to our New Year's Eve party last night? The programs were amazing and there were a lot of prizes. Such a shame that you have missed it."

"Since you have asked, my dad fell off the roof when he climbed up to fix the tiles. He was in the emergency room for 4-5 hours. I was already packing for a trip back when my cousin said he was stabilized so I didn't end up going." Shu Yan rubbed her temples and looked tired.

"Is everything okay? Why didn't you give me a call? We could have transferred him over to a hospital in City Nan. Our hospitals here are more advanced," said Hu Ruixue caringly.

"No, don't. If it was serious enough that he needs to be transferred to a better hospital, I will have my cousin help bring him over to a hospital in Capital City. I can cover the cost. In no uncertain terms can I let them know that I am here. That will ruin my children's and my life going forward." As for covering the entire cost, that was not going to happen. She wasn't a saint. Her parents would drink her blood if only they could. Why would she rush and offer herself up to them? Original owner's second sister notwithstanding, all of the three brothers would be in on this. If it cost 10,000 yuan, that's 2,500 a head; it was 20,000, then 5,000 each.

Hu Ruixue smacked herself on her own forehead and recalled that Shu Yan had mentioned in the past that her parents strongly believed that boys were better than girls. "Your parents are pitiful yet it was difficult for one to feel bad for them."

"Let's not talk about them anymore. Didn't you say that Duoduo wanted to have my sweet soup a couple of days ago.? I've made a big pot this morning. Have your chauffeur bring some home in a bit." Shu Yan did not want to talk about the messy business with the original owner's family at all.

"Okay, I shall thank Duoduo's godmother for her then."

Hu Ruixue brought her child with her to Shu Yan's on the second day of the new year. Hu Ruixue noticed that Duoduo was particularly quiet when she was around Shu Yan. The kind of comfortable quiet. Neither did she resend Tianbao nor JingJing. Hu Ruixue insisted that Shu Yan be Duoduo's godmother and also became the godmother of Shu Yan's two children.

Hu Ruixue wanted to have a banquet too but Shu Yan turned that idea down. She was friends with Hu Ruixue but she didn't like her brother Hu Ruiyang much neither was she particularly interested in meeting Hu Ruixue's parents.

Hu Ruixue respected her wish. They have time and, sooner or later, she would meet them.

There weren't a lot that needed taken care of in the office but they were tedious. Hu Ruixue was in charge of most of them.

There were 100 slots in the second round of franchisees and they already had 62 joined so far and quite a few in the process of deciding. An increase in number of shops means they also needed to crank up their productions in a relatively short period of time. Even at 100 pieces of clothing per shop, that came out to be 10,000 pieces. And each shop needed way more than 100 of them.

Most importantly, Shu Yan thought the orders for fall sets would decrease now that spring was almost there. Lo and behold, the orders went up instead of down. Someone had opened up the route to Russia and orders and orders of the fall sets were sold to them. They were said to be very popular there.

What Hu Ruixue wanted to talk to Shu Yan about today was to buy a piece of land themselves and build a factory.

"Do we have that much money?"

Shu Yan was tempted. There were still a lot of countryside around City Nan and the land was not that expensive. If they could buy their own land, the return in the future would be tremendous.

"Are you crazy? We will take out a loan." Who used their own money to buy land? With their company's current size and reputation, they didn't even go looking for banks. Banks would be looking for them. "Do you know how many banks had knocked on our door since we have reopened on the 8th? Seven of them, including all the ones that you can name off the top of your head. All of them wanted us to take out a loan with them. Its guaranteed that we will be able to get a loan as long as we want."

"Land costs a lot." Could they really get so much money from the bank?

"Of course we can. We will buy the land in an auction first and use that as collateral. Why wouldn't the bank approve that?" said Hu Ruixue confidently.

"But if you take the land first and pay later, the government might..." That was when it dawned on Shu Yan that all would be fine as long as she had connections. The Land and Resource Bereau wouldn't care as long as they get their money. It was only a matter of a couple of days. As for the bank side, with the size of their company, they would not be worried about their ability to pay the loan back so the approval would come quickly.

Shu Yan didn't understand the nitty gritty details of how it worked but, if Hu Ruixue said so, then it must be do-able. She would just follow her lead.

"You have a place in mind already?" That she could help. It was a parallel universe but the overall directions were about the same. She could totally pick out a location that would be very up and coming in the future and, once the demolition came, the government would for sure award them with another location along with a sizeable compensation.

"That is what I wanted to talk to you about." Hu Ruixue pulled out a map and opened it up. She pointed at a few locations that she had circled in red. "These are a few locations that I have picked up. Take a look and see what you think. We can look again if you don't like them."

There was a total of four circles. Shu Yan was very impressed with Hu Ruixue after she had taken a look. Some people were just good like that. All of the locations that she had picked up would become very bustling in the future.

"So, what do you think? Which one of these is the best one?" There was confidence in Hu Ruixue's smile. She trusted that Shu Yan would like her choices.

"All of them are pretty good. If I have the money, I would buy all four of them." Shu Yan's eyes were beaming.

"I feel the exact same way. Do you see this place? There will be a major logistics hub right here. If our factory can be next to it, it will be very easy for us to ship out our products in the future and it will also save us a lot of transportation," said Hu Ruixue as she pointed at one of the circles.

"Logistics?" Alright, she had overestimated Hu Ruixue. Having a good eye was one thing, having the network was more important.

"That's right, the country had decided to build their own logistics. There will be two experimental sites located in City Nan and City Yang. This is the location set for City Nan. The land around it would be somewhat difficult as many others had their eyes on it as well." Hu Ruixue stroked her chin. "The other three locations aren't bad either. They are a little bit more remote but their sizes are bigger. I feel that if we are going to do it, we should just build a bigger factory. That way we will not need to expand within the next five years."

Nobody could predict the future. If their country expanded in the next few years, they would, of course, expand with it. What if it wasn't big enough? That would doubtless be the best case scenario. If their factory could not supply them with sufficient products, that meant that their business had really taken off.

Any of the locations would do and they should take whichever one they were able to.

"Okay, I get it," said Hu Ruixue with a nod.

After her meeting in the morning, Shu Yan had nothing else on her schedule so she returned to her shop. As soon as she walked inside, she could see that both Zhang Huaxiu and Yingying were in foul moods. Yingying, in particular, had her body turned to the side. Even so, it wasn't difficult to see that her eyes were reddened.

"What's the matter?" Shu Yan walked closer and noticed that one side of her cheeks were a little swollen and there were bruising around the corners of her eye and mouth. Someone had obviously struck her.

"What happened? Who hit you?" Shu Yan took her hand and studied her carefully. She could even see redness in her eyes. How hard was she struck?

"Boss Lady, my father... he wants me to marry a crippled man. All because the man can afford 50,000 yuan of betrothal gift. My father wants to sell me. I didn't agree to it so he hit me. He even locked me up and wouldn't let me come in to work. I lied to my mother that I agree to it before she'd let me out to have breakfast. I ran out after she had left for work. How could he do this to me? How could he sell me for my brother? Am I not his child?" Yingying couldn't help but started crying after she saw Shu Yan.

"Don't cry yet. Tell me the whole story starting from the beginning." Shu Yan had her sit down and had Zhang Huaxiu poured her a glass of water.

"My brother wants to get married but the girl's side said he must have his own house. Remember they asked me to come up with 10,000 yuan? I told them I don't have that much money and have been giving them 150 yuan a month. My parents hadn't said anything in the last couple of months and I thought that was kind of odd. Little do I know that they had put out words that they would marry me off to anyone regardless of weight or height, as long as they can come up with the betrothal gift," said Yingying as she sobbed.

"Their favoritism is too extreme," said Zhang Huaxiu angrily after she brought Yingying a glass of water. "One way or another, you can't agree to it. We live in the modern-day society now. You should have freedom of your relationships. We no longer blindly follow what the parents and matchmaker say."

"They don't care about that. They feel that they had raised me this entire time and now they can sell me so my brother can get married." Yingying sobbed a little more and said to Shu Yan, "Boss Lady, can I sleep in the shop for the next few days? I don't dare go back to my place nor would I be able to anymore."

"That's not a problem at all but it's not safe for a girl to stay here. Why don't you come and stay over at my place for now? You can go to and from work with Xiuxiu. As for your parents, Yingying, as someone who had been through this, I will say that you cannot always give in to your parents. If you don't put your foot down, they will continue to pressure you. Be familial doesn't mean you must sacrifice yourself. Your parents are still young right now. You go on with your life and, when you are wealthy, more capable and when they are older, you can be familial to them then." Shu Yan truly wished for the best for this girl who had shared so much with the original owner.

"I... I am not going to marry the crippled man. I'd rather die."

Shu Yan's place had three room, maybe four if they counted the one that Aunty lived in. Now that Yingying was staying over, Shu Yan had her stay in JingJing's room and had JingJing stayed in the same room as her.

"Aunty Yingying will be staying with us for a few days. What say we let her stay in your room and you sleep with Mommy, hmm?"

Before JingJing could even nod, Tianbao said loudly from one said, "Mom, Aunty Yingying can stay in my room. I want to sleep with you."

"No, Tianbao is a little man and needs to sleep by himself. Besides, a little boy's room is not the same as a little girl's room, okay?"

Not having an adult male in the house, Shu Yan tried to have them understand the differences between boys and girls, especially when it came to Tianbao. Shu Yan purposefully wanted to train him to be more independent. She didn't want him to rely on her too much. Him turning into a mommy's boy was not what she wanted to see.

"Thank you, Boss Lady."

"Don't think too much and get some rest," says Shu Yan.

When they headed into work the next day, they saw a few people surrounding their front door. Shu Yan was just about to walk over when Yingying grabbed her and said in a low voice, "That's my parents."

Shu Yan was just about to say something when Yingying's parents came charging at her