Xu Wenwen ran an online store.
She had missed the internet's golden age, having entered the business a bit late.
But after years of diligent work, she had gradually gotten on track.
She sold children's stationery.
Her only frustration was that these young mothers asked far too many questions.
Her online store operated on a low-profit, high-volume model. Unable to afford professional customer service, she had recruited her cousin sisters to handle customer inquiries.
Those who only wanted refunds were, after all, the minority.
Most customers simply asked a few questions before making a purchase without hesitation.
If they could quickly confirm payment, it was like dealing with dream customers.
She had just finished shipping out yesterday's orders.
Her so-called online store "office" was actually just her living room, with a few desks set up.
Occasionally, she could hear the rapid typing of her cousin sisters.
Xu Wenwen took a sip of water, feeling somewhat tired.
After all, she was both the boss and the shipper, handling after-sales and customer service. But this month, coinciding with the start of school, stationery sales had been exceptionally good.
After deducting various expenses, she would take home nearly 30,000 yuan this month.
This was the first time her income had been so high.
Previously, in her best months, she had only earned about 10,000 yuan.
Now it had suddenly tripled. Xu Wenwen, only 25 years old, felt a surge of excitement seeing the income in her backend.
Just then, her Cousin Sister suddenly stood up with a loud noise, startling Xu Wenwen.
Xu Wenwen asked, "What's wrong?"
Her Cousin Sister said from the side, "We just got a huge order!" Her face had changed color from shock.
Xu Wenwen immediately got up to take a look, and even she gasped.
The pencils they had listed came in packs of 10.
Someone had just ordered over 12,000 packs.
She had been running her online store for several years now and had never encountered a situation like this.
Previously, the largest order had been for 20 or 30 packs, usually during website promotions or when discount coupons were available, making such purchases particularly economical.
But 12,000 packs?
Xu Wenwen broke out in a cold sweat all over.
Just yesterday, she had taken her cousin sisters out for dinner to celebrate breaking into the top 10 in sales for their stationery category.
Could it be that as soon as they entered the top 10, competitors had started to cause trouble?
She had heard of such things before.
Some people would place massive orders, then demand large-scale refunds.
If a store's credibility rating dropped low enough, it could lead directly to account suspension.
She had always heard about it but never witnessed it firsthand.
How could this be happening to her?
Everyone was stunned. This large order wasn't boosting the store's performance; instead, it felt like a death sentence.
12,000 packs was just too outrageous.
That's equivalent to 120,000 pencils.
Even a whole school wouldn't need that many!
At this point, her Cousin Younger Sister suggested, "Could it be a child who got hold of their parent's phone and just kept clicking to buy?"
"That's possible!" Xu Wenwen said.
She immediately returned to the chat window and typed: "Dear customer, our store doesn't accept purchases from minors. Would you like us to process a refund for this order?"
After sending the message, the other party's status remained unread.
Yet she couldn't take it upon herself to process a refund.
So she anxiously started calling the platform's customer service.
What should she do? She had never encountered such an urgent situation before.
Her online store was just starting to get on track, and if such a mistake occurred now,
all her previous efforts could be wasted.
But the website said: The account wasn't flagged as risky, so they advised her to ship the order and deal with any issues later.
Xu Wenwen relayed the website's response to her cousin sisters, and both were quite angry.
It was clear the platform didn't want to get involved.
What did they mean by dealing with it later? Where would she get so many items from?
Her warehouse stock was only about 4,000 to 5,000 packs.
Such a sudden large order meant she'd have to invest money upfront to restock.
If this turned out to be a prank,
she'd be stuck with a huge inventory, lose money on shipping, and damage her store's reputation.
Xu Wenwen was usually an introvert, not comfortable calling strangers.
But this time she had no choice and called the customer directly, but there was no answer.
Xu Wenwen was so scared that sweat appeared on her forehead, and her face turned pale.
Just then, she heard her Cousin Sister exclaim again: "Oh my god, this person just ordered 12,000 erasers too!"
If the first pencil order could have been a mistake,
12,000 erasers made her heart feel like it was being gripped by a giant, monstrous claw.
Tormenting her inside.
And it didn't stop there - the person also ordered 200 pencil sharpeners.
Their pencil sharpeners were very exquisite, so they were quite expensive.
Over 30 yuan each.
Usually, parents wouldn't splurge on such nice sharpeners for their children.
Typically, only art studios that needed to sharpen lots of pencils would buy one.
"Could it be a bulk purchase? It's cheaper online!" her Cousin Younger Sister suggested.
True, she did have connections in the pencil and stationery supply chain.
Her selling price was close to the wholesale price that second-tier distributors could get.
The profit margin was extremely thin, only earning a few cents per order.
It wasn't unheard of for people to come to her for bulk purchases before.
But their quantities were always much smaller, around a few dozen orders.
Those usually blended in with normal sales without standing out.
Thinking this might be the case, she immediately checked the shipping address provided by the buyer. It showed Starry Sky Kindergarten.
"So it is a bulk purchase!" She felt slightly relieved.
After her initial relief, she realized the name sounded very familiar.
But she couldn't quite place it at the moment.
She was too busy with daily tasks to pay much attention to online matters.
Seeing that the buyer had left a specific address in the neighboring city, she was still pondering whether to ship the order or not.
Just then, her phone rang. She answered to hear a pleasant female voice saying, "Did you call me earlier?"
Xu Wenwen immediately replied, "Yes, I'm the store owner. You placed an order for 1,200 packs of pencils, 1,200 erasers, and 200 pencil sharpeners in our store. I wanted to confirm if you want us to ship this order?"
"Yes, please ship it as soon as possible," the voice replied.
Hearing this, Xu Wenwen felt even more at ease. The caller's tone exuded a comfortable aura. But to avoid any complications, she added, "You're certain about this order, right? We'll be incurring significant costs."
The other party responded, "Yes, I'm certain," and then hung up.
Her heart was racing. Fulfilling this order would earn her a gross profit of 30,000 yuan, not accounting for shipping costs.
"So, are we going to ship this?" her Cousin Sister, who had been following the situation closely, asked.
Xu Wenwen thought for a moment and said, "Yes." She then borrowed some money from a lending platform and placed an order directly with the manufacturer.
Riding her electric scooter, she went to the suburban factory to pick up the goods herself, as it would be faster.
She had to recount such a large quantity of items multiple times. It took her an entire night.
She even threw in some extra ballpoint pens, erasers, and other items as freebies.
Given the weight of the package and the customer's urgency, she opted for the fastest air shipping. The shipping cost alone was 5,000 yuan.
She anxiously tracked the package. That night, Xu Wenwen could barely sleep.
She was terrified of hearing her computer ding, fearing the customer might request a refund!
Finally, after what felt like an eternity of waiting and paying the hefty shipping fee, the customer received the package.
Then she heard a 'ding' sound, and her heart tightened.
It felt like she was about to face judgment.
But when she looked, all the money had been transferred to her account.
Moreover, the customer had left a positive review, writing: "The store owner is very nice, and the shipping was really fast."
Xu Wenwen finally felt the weight lift from her chest.
Then her computer started pinging constantly.
They were all orders for notebooks, pens, erasers, and such.
Even Xu Wenwen didn't understand what was happening.
It was her clever Cousin Younger Sister who figured it out: "Wow, ever since we sold that huge order, we've suddenly shot to the top of the stationery category rankings."
The website used algorithms for recommendations.
Her store had directly entered the large traffic pool.
This meant more exposure.
Other people started flocking to buy from her store, all thanks to that big customer.
This was even better than paying for promotions.
She felt touched.
Later, she came across a livestream from Starry Sky Kindergarten.
Out of curiosity, she clicked to watch for a moment, and suddenly everything became clear.
No wonder the name had seemed so familiar.
Recently, Xu Wenwen had watched a livestream from Starry Sky Kindergarten and even seen some news about it: apparently, the neighboring kindergarten had become an internet sensation, with many celebrities sending their children there.
At the time, she had discussed it with her friends.
But then she quickly forgot about it.
Unexpectedly, she received a big order, and Xu Wenwen immediately followed Starry Sky Kindergarten on social media. After that, she became busy once again.
