After Su Tang finished speaking, everyone was still very cautious. After all, they were all frightened by the pricing on Su Tang’s flyers and they felt that this shop must be doing some sort of shady business, or else the prices wouldn’t be so high. For instance, maybe they would take one of the “free samples” and then the owner would immediately change her tune and try to extort money from them with blackmail?
In fact, if this was one of the larger cities, like the county seat, the prefecture capital, or the capital city, it wouldn’t be strange to see these sorts of luxury goods. However, in remote places like Qinghe Town, the people all more or less had no concept of ‘high-level consumption’. At most, the wealthier people might eat desserts or luxury snacks a few more times a year.
And because of that sort of mindset, when it came to things like desserts and snacks, the vendors made no distinction in their target markets. They all sold these sorts of things to ordinary people and rich people the same. Of course, contrary to that, there were still stark differences when it came to things like fabric or jewelry. The rich could wear fine fabrics and adorn themselves with gold, silver, and jade, but the poor could not. Moreover, the rich didn’t wear the same styles of clothing or use the same kinds of embroidery on their clothing, so there were all sorts of differences in style depending on a person’s wealth.
However, at least presently, the rich people of Qinghe Town weren’t all that different from anyone else when it came to their diets. However, Su Tang was aiming to change that. She was specifically aiming for customers who had relatively better economic conditions, which was why the starting price on her menu was five copper coins. That was to say, in order to dine in her cafe, a person needed to be ready to spend five copper coins at minimum, and even then they would only get a small piece of toffee.
But Su Tang wasn’t worried. She knew that by setting her prices like this, she wasn’t just selling the item. She was also selling a sort of prestige to the buyer. A sense of ‘I am a tycoon. What other people cannot afford to buy, I can afford easily.’
So when she saw that the crowd was all hesitating and not coming forward to try the free samples, Su Tang didn’t feel anxious at all. She was confident that there would be at least one person who would want to purchase this sort of prestige. With this big crowd here, wasn’t it the perfect chance for this sort of person? No one else can afford it, but he can afford it, wouldn’t that make an impact? And whether the thing was good or bad, it wouldn’t really be a loss. If it was really terrible he could take it up with the shop owner, right? So Su Tang wasn’t worried at all.
“Is this thing here called cheesecake?” When Zhu Ran arrived he heard Su Tang advertising the free samples, so he went forward to take a look. On the plate, there were many small pieces of cakes and toffee, and he pointed at one of the small pieces of cake and asked to be sure.
When she heard Zhu Ran’s question, Su Tang secretly cheered in her heart: The tycoon is here!
“Yes, that is the cheesecake. After some experimentation at home, I managed to make this thing with milk and cheese, and so I decided to call it cheesecake. My cheesecake has a dense taste, but it also easily melts in the mouth. Would you like to have a try sir student?”
“Melts in the mouth, eh? Sure. I’ll try it.” When Zhu Ran heard Su Tang’s explanation, he was immediately curious what she meant by ‘melts in the mouth’. He really couldn’t imagine what sort of taste that was at all. As for the fears of being scammed that were holding the other people back, he wasn’t concerned about that at all.
So he reached down and picked up one of the small pieces of cheesecake using a small wooden stick provided by the shop and put it in his mouth. After putting it in his mouth, he was surprised to find that this cake really did seem to naturally melt away, leaving only a unique flavor that was a slight mixture of sweetness and saltiness. At the same time, there was no strong smell of milk.
“It was actually true…” This ‘cheesecake’ had a very unique taste, but Zhu Ran felt that Su Tang’s previous introduction actually captured its characteristics very well. The taste was dense, but the cake quickly melted in your mouth and only left a bit of lingering sweet taste behind.
Zhu Ran couldn’t help but want to take another bite, and when he reached out he found Su Tang blocking his hand. She said with a smile, “Sorry, classmate, the first sample is free, but everyone can only eat one piece.”
Having been blocked after unconsciously reaching out for more, Zhu Ran’s face felt hot, but he quickly took out thirty copper coins and passed them over to Su Tang, “Give me two pieces!”
Then he looked at the other side of the sample dish, where there were small pieces of toffee, and asked: “What about these?”
“You can sample everything once for free so, of course, you can sample these pieces of toffee as well.” Su Tang quickly gave permission. She was fine with giving out free samples, but only one of each.
Thus, Zhu Ran also picked up a toffee and tossed it into his mouth. The taste of the toffee was completely different from the taste of the cheesecake, and a sort of milky sweetness seemed to explode on his tongue. The candy was a little hard at first, but then it became chewy, and finally, after eating it there was a lingering taste in his mouth as if he had drank a large glass of milk.
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tl begging corner:
tl note: So you might have noticed that Su Tang said that she was offering a ‘buy 1 get 1 half-off promotion’ in the previous chapter and… yes. She did say that. I know because it comes up again 2 chapters from now, but the author seems to have forgotten during this chapter? I think it’s just an inconsistency from the author’s side.
Hmmmm… I think the cheesecake she makes is slightly different than the one I get in my country. Oh, well, there are various ones across the world
Interesting how previously the author went on and on about the best way to make profit was to make an economic item that would sell to the masses (soap), but now she is selling a luxury good that only the elite can afford.