Chapter 369 Not buying, just asking, and asking quite professional questions.

Wang Hao hurriedly put on his clothes, opened the door, and found Ding Jiahe still standing not far away, with her back to him.

But they didn't see Ding Jiahe's face, which had just turned red.

Wang Hao grinned and walked over, reaching out to grab Ding Jiahe's hand. Ding Jiahe's fingers flinched slightly, trying to pull away, but she couldn't. She didn't move, letting him hold her hand as the two walked side by side out of the guesthouse.

"Xiao Ding, are you hungry? What would you like to eat?"

"I also want to eat roasted sweet potatoes, there are some over there that sell them." Ding Jiahe pointed towards the alley entrance.

"Let's go." Wang Hao tightened his grip on her hand and quickened his pace.

"Oh dear, it wouldn't be good if someone saw us on the street." Ding Jiahe blushed and tried to pull her hand away from his.

Wang Hao looked around; there weren't many people on the street. He raised Ding Jiahe's hand, quickly kissed it, let go, and then ran off as fast as he could.

"Hey—Wang Hao!" Ding Jiahe's face flushed red.

Wang Hao had already run several meters away when he turned back and smiled at her, revealing a small tiger tooth.

Ding Jiahe stood there, not daring to chase after him, afraid he would run too fast and hurt himself. She could only stomp her feet a few times, biting her lip and glaring at him, feeling both ashamed and angry. Wang Hao stood a few steps away, laughing so hard his eyes disappeared.

The two bought roasted sweet potatoes and carried them towards the department store. The sweet potatoes were hot, so they took turns carrying them and blew on them as they walked.

When we arrived at the department store, everyone had already arrived.

When Lu Weidong saw Wang Hao arrive, he looked at him with a half-smile.

The moment Wang Hao's eyes met Lu Weidong's, he understood his expression. He tried to suppress his laughter, but the corners of his mouth wouldn't let him. Lu Weidong stared at him for another two seconds until Wang Hao coughed uncomfortably twice, then he let him go, and Lu Weidong's smile became even more pronounced.

Ye Wenxi took in the expressions of the two people and scoffed inwardly.

Ye Wenxi glanced at her watch; there were still three minutes until the official opening. She turned to Lu Weihua and said:

"Weihua, go with your second brother to buy some things. Help me buy a handkerchief and comb set; I need them."

"Can you manage to keep up with the workload?" Lu Weihua asked.

Ye Wenxi nodded: "It's alright, go and come back quickly."

"Okay, then," Lu Weihua said, and followed Lu Weidong.

The brother and sister went straight to the textile counter to pick out handkerchiefs. Lu Weihua was in charge of looking at the styles, comparing floral, plain, lace, and cartoon handkerchiefs over and over.

Lu Weidong was in charge of taking out the tickets and money, silently following behind to pay the bill.

After buying the handkerchief, I went to the small department store counter next door to pick out a wooden comb and a mirror.

Lu Weihua picked up a comb and combed his hair, then looked at himself in the small round mirror: "Second brother, this looks good."

"I remember your second sister-in-law seemed to prefer something bright red, not this one."

"Oh dear, it's a good thing I came with you. That's the color I bought for my wedding. Trust me, just buy this one!" Lu Weihua waved the light pink wooden comb in front of Lu Weidong.

Not long after, the brother and sister returned, each carrying two large, bulging bags.

"Second Sister-in-law, what a coincidence! When we went today, they had a batch of new handkerchiefs with really pretty designs. I bought a lot of small handkerchiefs, but we use a lot of cloth coupons. Do you think this is okay?" Lu Weihua emptied the contents of the bag and spread the colorful items all over the table.

Ye Wenxi flipped through them and found that fifty percent of them were handkerchiefs, seven or eight different styles, each one neatly folded.

The remaining items are a comb set and a nail clipper set, totaling about 150 pieces.

"It's alright, we have enough fabric coupons. Let the customers choose whichever they like, and we'll restock later," Ye Wenxi said with a smile.

The tickets Ye Wenxi and his group used for purchasing things didn't go through individual quotas; they went through the military region's channels.

The military region issued them a certificate: "Certificate of Joint Military-Civilian Production" and "Approval for Employment Assistance for Military Families". With these two documents in hand, the garment factory could directly obtain fabric through planned allocation without having to compete with ordinary people for individual tickets.

Not only the fabric, but also the equipment in the production workshop, office supplies, and even the meat coupons that Lang Yuqin used to buy vegetables were all sourced from the military region.

Ye Wenxi usually carried two wallets. One contained a thick wad of coupons—cloth coupons, grain coupons, industrial coupons, you name it—and the other was filled with cash, bulging out of its purse.

Lu Weidong and Wang Hao stayed in the exhibition area for a while longer, wanting to help out more, but Ye Wenxi chased them out.

"Let's go, let's go, go do whatever you want."

"Are you sure you don't need our help?" Lu Weidong asked softly with a smile.

"It's not that you can't help," Ye Wenxi said without looking up, folding clothes in her hands. "There are many things I need to explain to you, and explaining them takes longer than doing them myself. I simply don't have the time."

Lu Weidong glanced at his watch; it was only a little past eight.

"Let's go then. I'll go home first and bring you lunch." He turned to Wang Hao, "Come with me to my house."

"Brother Dong..." Wang Hao hesitated a bit. The thought of going to the commander's house made any soldier a little nervous.

But Wang Hao couldn't resist Ye Wenxi and Ding Jiahe, and the two of them pushed and dragged him away.

Ye Wenxi turned around, took a large notebook, and walked up to Xiao He and her classmate.

"Xiaohe, come here for a moment, I need to talk to you about something." She opened her notebook and began to speak to Xiaohe and Jiang Jie. "These are some questions I've prepared. Take some time today to copy a few down and keep them for future reference. If you have any good questions, you can tell me."

Xiao He looked down at the text written on it:

What do you do for a living? What industry are you in?

What are the group activities you participate in most often?

Do you have any channels to promote this clothing information? If so, what are they?

……

In addition to inquiring about the target customer group's professions and social circles, I also asked about their preferences for fabrics and styles, as well as the occasions and frequency of their clothing purchases. There were fewer than ten questions in total, none of which touched on privacy or income; they all focused on their consumption habits and information channels.

These were the questions Ye Wenxi had come up with the night before; they were just a first draft and would need further revision.

But we can roughly figure out the demographics of the people who come to buy clothes, what they like, the activities they participate in, and how they get their clothing information.

Looking at the questionnaire, Xiaohe was a little puzzled. She had never seen anyone send out such a form to consumers and ask so many details.

However, Ye Wenxi didn't explain further, firstly because he didn't have time to elaborate, and secondly because he didn't need to know too much about Xiao He's work at the moment. Xiao He had a question in her mind but didn't ask, thinking she would ask Ye Wenxi when he had time.

Today is Sunday, and there are even more people than yesterday morning. Fortunately, we've gotten to know a few of them quite well, so we can manage.

After a while, Ye Wenxi noticed that some customers were acting strangely; they weren't buying anything, but just asking questions, and they were asking quite professional questions.