Chapter 198: Please Enter the Vat

After autumn clothing sales were nearing their end, winter clothing followed immediately, because in the previous quarter, Xia Hua's reputation had already spread.

So, even before winter clothing sales began, order volume had already surged.

This time Su Ruo did not let Li Zhaodi take the clothes to various malls for advance promotion.

Instead, both inside the factory and externally, strict confidentiality measures were adopted; each process was operated separately, and before the final process was completed, no one knew what the clothes would ultimately look like.

The three design departments were further strictly separated, ensuring each department could only see its own clothes, with no visibility of other departments' clothes.

Moreover, there was a strict top‑to‑bottom ranking system; aside from the designer themselves and the department head, no one could see the finished product.

Thus, if any drawings were leaked, the source could be immediately identified.

Such a tight system inevitably had some impact, but to completely prevent Die Lian's plagiarism, Su Ruo had no choice but to implement it.

Moreover, after the products were finished this time, Su Ruo did not let Li Zhaodi take the clothes out for promotion; instead, she had the managers come to the factory to view them and then decide how many orders to place.

After Su Ruo's series of actions, it was unclear whether the other side was offended or something else, but the female celebrity Ye Yu, who endorsed Die Lian, actually said in a public interview: she chose to endorse them because she liked Die Lian's clothes, but she never expected that after Die Lian's clothes became a hit, someone would come out and plagiarize them, which troubled her greatly.

Although Ye Yu did not name names, based on the information she gave, people immediately guessed it was Xia Hua.

That day, some extreme fans of Ye Yu threw feces at Xia Hua's storefront.

Su Ruo looked at Ye Yu's photo, her gaze gradually turning cold; originally she had not felt strongly about Ye Yu endorsing Die Lian.

After all, she is an actress, and also a person; it is normal for someone to pay her to endorse a product and for her to accept the endorsement.

But Su Ruo did not expect that, as a celebrity, the other party would so indiscriminately defame them, and even attempt to use her influence to suppress them, which Su Ruo could not tolerate.

Since the other side was not benevolent, she would not blame herself for being unrighteous; Su Ruo immediately had the system investigate Ye Yu, wanting to know all of Ye Yu's information.

Although the system is dark and directly demanded a large sum of points from Su Ruo, she had to admit its efficiency was truly fast.

After seeing Ye Yu's information, Su Ruo's lips curled into a cold arc; this Ye Yu appeared pure on the surface, but was in fact a habitual offender, stopping at nothing for fame and money.

But Su Ruo did not immediately go to expose Ye Yu's true face; she let the matter ferment online.

Moreover, when Li Zhaodi and Bai Xinya asked, she told them to rest assured and continue production, as she had already found a countermeasure.

After these events, the two came to trust Su Ruo almost blindly, as if there were no problem in the world she could not solve.

So upon hearing Su Ruo say that, the two simply stopped worrying about these matters and instead focused wholeheartedly on production,

but when no one knew, Su Ruo silently accepted an interview from a television station, and moreover a nationally known one.

Days passed like this, Su Ruo not in a hurry, nor were the people of Die Lian; apparently they were saving up some big move.

As the weather turned cold, Die Lian deliberately launched their new clothing before Xia Hua, and had Ye Yu wear their clothes to film an advertisement.

Die Lian thought that as long as they seized the initiative this time and damaged Xia Hua's reputation, they would surely gain an advantage.

But when Su Ruo saw Die Lian's clothes, the corner of her mouth curled into a sarcastic smile.

She had thought the other side, after lying low for so long, had come up with some big move, but it turned out to be mere plagiarism, which was really boring.

Thus, on the first day Die Lian's new clothes hit the market, Xia Hua fired several workers and clothing designers.

These people originally denied leaking the clothes. Only after Su Ruo laid out photos of their contacts with Die Lian's people, one by one, did their faces instantly turn ashen.

These people thought their actions were covert, unaware that every move they made was under Su Ruo's surveillance.

Having suffered a loss once, Su Ruo would absolutely not let herself suffer a second time.

However, current laws are still incomplete, especially regarding intellectual property protection, which can be said to be a blank.

What Su Ruo could do was only to fire them; yet being able to root out these corrupt elements was in itself a deeply satisfying act.

Su Ruo immediately convened an all‑staff meeting, announced the names of those individuals, and stated how they would be dealt with.

Nowadays, folk customs are still simple, so the employees below, upon hearing what those three had done, felt thoroughly disapproving in their hearts.

With this lesson beforehand, I believe that, in order to keep their jobs, those who secretly harbor greed and are tempted by money will also think carefully before acting.

Half a month after Die Lian launched its new line, Xia Hua's winter clothing also went on sale in full; just when everyone thought Xia Hua would again copy Die Lian's clothes, the result was astonishing.

Because the clothing Xia Hua had just launched was completely different from Die Lian's—different in style, fabric, workmanship, and even color.

Die Lian's clothes mainly used white, yellow, and pink; in autumn, Xia Hua had indeed set these as the main color scheme.

Moreover, relying on those bright colors, amidst a sea of black, blue, and gray garments, they attracted many consumers' attention and sold well.

Since Die Lian plagiarized Xia Hua's clothes, they naturally chose the same color scheme.

Also because of autumn sales and Su Ruo's deliberate misdirection, they likewise used those colors as the main hue for their winter line.

But they overlooked the most important point: winter clothing is generally thick, especially cotton jackets and overcoats, which are very difficult to clean.

Such gaudy colors may look nice, but they are highly impractical, getting dirty after just a couple of days of wear.

In this day and age, how many people would spend so much money on beautiful but useless clothing just for looks?

Xia Hua's new clothing this season not only differs completely in style from Die Lian's, but its colors are primarily black, with blue as a secondary accent, and then red.

After all, people nowadays buy clothes mainly to wear during the New Year, so Su Ruo chose a particularly bright red for festivity.

There are also some white and yellow items, but they are produced in very limited quantities, after all, winter clothing in those colors can only be sold to a very small niche group.

The people of Die Lian planned that upon seeing Xia Hua's clothes come out, they would realize they had been duped, but now that the garments are already made, their regret comes too late.

Su Ruo sneered; she had long known that a company relying solely on plagiarism is doomed to be short‑lived, and her counterstrike against Xia Hua has only just begun.