From Wage Slave to Tycoon

The prerequisite is that you have to be rich—very rich!

.......

Shanghai University, by the lakeside path.

"Yaya, when you turn back, have a slight, natural smile on your face. Qingya, lower the light a little, don’t get too close!"

As Wang Yue spoke, the DSLR in her hands never stopped, capturing every frame of Zhao Ya’s movements.

Ever since getting some advice from Su Chen, Su Qingya and her friends had figured out a path to promote Hanfu culture: making Hanfu-related videos.

But they ran into a problem right at the start: the division of labor.

The most crucial issue was who would be on camera. All four of them were very beautiful, each with her own distinct charm. However, for personal reasons, neither Su Qingya nor Wang Yue was willing to appear on screen. Helpless, the responsibility fell to Qin Nan and Zhao Ya.

The two of them understood Su Qingya and Wang Yue’s reservations and had no choice but to take on this important role.

To figure this out, Wang Yue went out and bought nearly twenty sets of Hanfu from several different dynasties, having both of them try the outfits on to see who was more photogenic.

Initially, Su Qingya and Wang Yue thought Qin Nan would be the more eye-catching one. After all, as a girl from the south, she had a certain dainty charm in Hanfu. But to their surprise, it was Zhao Ya’s appearance that left them completely stunned.

It really proved the saying: no comparison, no hurt...

Although Zhao Ya had always liked wearing Hanfu, for family reasons, she had only ever bought cheaper ones—the kind that cost a little over a hundred yuan—which looked rather casual.

But this time, Wang Yue had bought high-quality pieces, with even the cheapest ones costing over five hundred yuan. Seeing them on Zhao Ya completely shattered Su Qingya and the others’ initial impression of her. It was as if Zhao Ya was born to promote Hanfu culture.

Combined with her baby face and voluptuous figure, plus her height of 168 cm—standard for a northern girl—the other three couldn’t help but reach out and feel the effect for themselves.

"It’s blowing up! It’s blowing up! We’re going viral!" Qin Nan yelled excitedly as she jogged over to the others.

The three, who had been in the middle of shooting, all stopped and looked at Qin Nan in confusion.

"What’s blowing up?"

Qin Nan put her hands on her knees, panting heavily as she said, "Our video! It’s blowing up! The video we shot earlier has tons of likes and comments—more than ten thousand!"

Considering Douyin had launched less than a week ago and only had about a hundred thousand downloads so far, getting over ten thousand likes was proof of just how popular their video was.

"Really?" Hearing this, Su Qingya and the other two looked thrilled and quickly gathered around.

With slightly trembling hands, Qin Nan opened the Douyin app, navigated to their profile page, and handed the phone to Wang Yue.

Wang Yue didn’t hesitate, taking the phone and looking at it immediately.

So far, they had only made one video, which was to promote the mamianqun. The concept was very simple—just a straightforward transition video that cut to the beat.

They never expected it to become a trending topic. The likes had already reached twenty thousand, and there were several thousand comments.

"Yuanyuan, quick, see what the comments are saying!" Su Qingya said excitedly.

Hearing that, Qin Nan seemed to remember something and quickly said, "Ah—don’t read the com—"

Before she could finish, Wang Yue had already opened the comments section, and the smile on her face instantly froze.

Watching the expressions on the others’ faces change, Qin Nan sighed and muttered, "Sigh... I told you not to read the comments!"

In reality, the vast majority of the comments were positive, but they were all discussing how great Zhao Ya’s figure was. Barely anyone was paying serious attention to what she was actually wearing.

After scrolling for a while, Wang Yue handed the phone back to Qin Nan and saw that Su Qingya and the others all had long faces.

"Why the long faces? Isn’t our first step going great? We have tens of thousands of people following us now!"

"Besides, Douyin just launched. As it develops, I’m sure more like-minded people will see our efforts."

Hearing Wang Yue’s words, smiles returned to the other three’s faces.

"Yuanyuan is right," Su Qingya said. "Hanfu has already faded from the public eye, so it doesn’t matter if their attention is on Yaya’s figure for now. As long as we keep working hard, our followers will only grow, and more and more people will see our videos in the end."

As Su Qingya spoke, she glanced across the faces of the other three, then held out her right hand. "Let’s work together to make Hanfu culture a global trend again!"

"Let’s work together!" Wang Yue said resolutely.

Qin Nan and Zhao Ya also put their right hands on top of Su Qingya’s and Wang Yue’s, saying excitedly, "Let’s work together!"

After that shared bowl of chicken soup for the soul, their morale was soaring. They quickly finished filming the video, and the group headed toward the entrepreneurship center, talking and laughing along the way.

Just as they reached the bottom of the building, two phones rang in unison. They belonged to Qin Nan and Zhao Ya.

After checking the caller ID, they each made a gesture to Su Qingya and Wang Yue before stepping away to find a quiet place to talk.

A minute or two later, both Qin Nan and Zhao Ya returned, looking glum.

"What’s wrong with you two?" Su Qingya asked curiously.

"My mom told me to come home. She said university has been out for days and the Little New Year is almost here, so why am I not home yet? She wants me back today!" Zhao Ya said with a pout. For them as northerners, the New Year’s traditions were quite elaborate, involving a whole round of different holidays.