A whirlwind marriage with a high-ranking official: Lights out, don't force me to take the initi

The next morning, Ye Wenxi checked out of the guesthouse, picked up her bundle, and went out.

She sat down at a state-run breakfast shop on the street corner and ordered a bowl of soy milk and two fried dough sticks.

The soy milk was freshly ground and served steaming hot, with a thin layer of oil skin on top.

Ye Wenxi broke off half of a fried dough stick and soaked it in the sweet soy milk. She took a bite, and the crispy fried dough stick, tender on the inside, melted in her mouth after absorbing the sweet soy milk.

She finished the last drop of water in a few gulps, wiped her mouth, took out her food coupons and a few coins to pay the bill, and got up to walk towards the bus stop.

The mornings in Harbin are chilly. Most people on the street are already wearing dark cloth coats and thick work pants. Cyclists are hunching their shoulders and tucking their hands into their sleeves.

Ye Wenxi walked for more than twenty minutes to reach the entrance of the Light Industry Bureau.

She had just stepped into the lobby on the first floor, intending to go straight upstairs to find Liu Jianguo, when she heard someone call out to her, "Comrade Ye! Please wait!"

Ye Wenxi turned around and saw a security guard in a dark blue uniform jogging over: "Comrade Ye, right? Director Liu instructed this morning that you should go directly to the conference room on the second floor. Please wait a moment, I'll take you up."

To the conference room? It seems Liu Jianguo wants to make the design filing public and invite relevant people to witness it.

This is good, because in the future, whether it's about protecting our rights or getting into disputes, there will be witnesses present today to testify, so that things won't be unclear later.

She followed the security guard up to the second floor and pushed open the door to the conference room.

There was a long table in the room, with Liu Jianguo sitting in the middle and four or five people sitting around him.

Ye Wenxi glanced at them and recognized several familiar faces from before.

There were staff members from the Light Industry Bureau, the person in charge of the factory, and two veteran comrades in charge of approvals.

"Oh, Comrade Ye is here! Please have a seat!" Liu Jianguo stood up and greeted her with a smile. "I know you're here today to file your design. This is a big deal, so I've brought along all the people in charge of the relevant processes."

The staff member next to her pulled out a chair for Ye Wenxi and invited her to sit down.

Liu Jianguo gestured for him to sit down and continued:

"From now on, whether we're dealing with factories or other organizations, we'll have a record of everything. Let's finalize this today, what do you think?"

Ye Wenxi put down her bag and nodded with a smile: "Director Liu is so thoughtful, that's perfect. Shall we begin?"

She took out a stack of materials from her bag, which was in a brown paper bag.

Inside were stacks of manuscripts, several certificates stamped with red seals, and a handwritten register.

"These are the core design points of all the styles that my garment company has put into production so far, a total of twenty-three items." Ye Wenxi spread the materials on the table and explained them one by one, starting with the first item. "The first item is the stand-up collar and diagonal placket design, which adopts traditional Chinese tailoring and has a waist-cinching treatment, making it different from the straight-cut workwear style on the market."

"The second point is the pleating technique of the pleated skirt. The depth and spacing of the pleats have a fixed ratio, and the spread of the skirt when walking is calculated..."

She then pulled out a document stamped with a red seal: "This is a certificate issued by the Logistics Department of the Military Region, proving that the style was indeed independently designed and produced by Wenxi Garment Company, with records of the time and batch. And this one is the filing receipt from the Propaganda Department of the Military Region."

She showed each item to everyone and handed over the materials one by one.

The people present passed around the manuscripts and documents, their expressions gradually shifting from casual to serious.

Those certificates stamped with the military region's seal carried considerable weight, the bright red seals affixed to the paper.

The whole thing lasted almost an hour.

Ye Wenxi laid out all twenty-three core design points on the table, each accompanied by a manuscript, production date, and military region certification.

Finally, she pushed the stack of materials in front of Liu Jianguo: "Director Liu, these are all the core design assets of our garment company. I request the Light Industry Bureau to formally register and file them."

Liu Jianguo picked up the stack of materials, glanced through them, and turned to the old comrade in charge of the ledger next to him, saying, "Write all of this down, number each item, and attach Comrade Ye's explanation today and a copy of the military region's document. This is the first time our Harbin Light Industry Bureau has received formal registration from a private design company, so we need to get it done quickly."

The old man quickly took out his pen and began to write in the register.

The registration process is now finalized.

Ye Wenxi breathed a sigh of relief, retied the brown paper bag, and took out a few more sheets of paper from the bag, gently placing them in the center of the table.

"Everyone, there are a few more things I'd like to share with you."

Several people in the room gathered around to look. The paper showed three designs... bell-bottoms, bodysuit, and batwing top.

The style is different from the traditional styles we just saw. The lines are bold and the design is novel and unique, especially the flared pants, which almost cover the feet.

"This..." The propaganda officer frowned. "Comrade Ye, do these items also need to be registered?"

Ye Wenxi smiled and placed her hands on the table: "I don't plan to register these designs. I want to... do design licensing."

"Authorization?" The group looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Yes." Ye Wenxi straightened up. "If you are all interested, I can license these design elements to our state-owned factory. The terms are negotiable."

The room was quiet for a few seconds.

Liu Jianguo picked up the blueprint for the bell-bottoms, and a factory manager next to him scratched his head and said, "Comrade Ye, we don't think we've seen these models in production at your place. We haven't seen them on the market either."

"It's true that it hasn't been launched yet," Ye Wenxi admitted frankly. "Currently, we've only produced design drafts and prototypes; there's no mass production yet."

"Not yet launched?" The person in charge was even more bewildered. "If it's not launched, there's no way to verify market response..."

Ye Wenxi looked around and tapped the table lightly with his finger: "Comrades, the reason I haven't put these designs into production immediately is not because they're bad; quite the opposite, it's because they're too ahead of their time. I can assure you all that these three designs will become wildly popular across the country within the next one to two years."

The people in the room exchanged glances, clearly still somewhat skeptical.

Ye Wenxi paused, then pulled another piece of paper from her bag: "The design techniques used in these pieces are the work of the designer from our clothing company who returned from Hong Kong. He saw the latest trends there. As far as I know, similar styles are already emerging in Hong Kong, but they haven't entered the mainland on a large scale yet."

Liu Jianguo put down the blueprints and looked at her: "So what do you mean?"

"What I mean is," Ye Wenxi's gaze swept over everyone present, "instead of me taking the lead and making a small profit, why not license the design to our state-owned factory so everyone can use it together?" She smiled, "Whether the companies in Hong Kong will grant you the license is doubtful... such a hit product, they will definitely keep it for themselves."

Ye Wenxi glanced at everyone and said with a smile, "But I can give it to you now."