Su Tang’s tone was somewhat sheepish as she said she couldn’t invite them in. However, Jiang He and Madam Qian had already heard about the strange rules of Su Tang’s new shop, so they quickly waved their hands and reassured her: “No, no, it’s fine. Our shoes are dirty anyway, it isn’t appropriate for us to come inside. In fact, we should have come to congratulate you a long time ago, but unfortunately, we were busy all day until now. But there have been a lot of rumors going around today, people have been saying that your desserts are very delicious, so your business will definitely be getting better and better from now on.”
The two were actually very sincere with their blessings. They could afford to be since, after all, it wasn’t like they were competitors.
“Thanks, I’ll accept your kind words Big Brother, sister-in-law.” Su Tang replied with a smile when she heard them praising her future prospects.
Of course, Jiang He and Madam Qian could clearly see that Su Tang was closing up shop so, after saying a few more pleasantries, they made an excuse to leave. Once they left, Su Tang was finally able to close up the shop and head inside to settle the accounts.
“Today we sold 73 pieces of toffee, 32 pieces of cheesecake, 18 cupcakes, and 12 pots of milk tea altogether. Young miss, here is the money we collected today, a total of 1095 copper coins.” (tl note: according to my math it should be 1350? Maybe because of the discounts?)
After Baohe finished speaking and realized how much they sold and how much they earned, her small face began beaming with joy and she gasped, “That’s a lot of money.”
Su Tang was also a bit surprised when she heard the final number, which was a little higher than she had expected. Doing all the math, considering that the shop was bought for nothing on a loan and the only real costs were the people she bought back, her net profit was already over 900 copper coins on the first day, if she ignored the loan anyway.
This was a high amount of profit, but Su Tang kept a level head and said: “Today’s performance was excellent, but I estimate we probably won’t sell as much tomorrow.”
At the same time, Su Tang counted out five copper coins and handed them to Baohe: “Here, this is a reward for you.”
After all, Baohe had been so busy her feet had hardly touched the ground today. First she had spent the morning handing out flyers and then she had come back to man the counter for the rest of the day. That, combined with the fact that it was the grand opening of the cafe, made Su Tang feel it was appropriate to reward her.
Baohe accepted the money and put it away with a smile on her face. “Young Miss, thank you, thank you.”
Su Tang smiled along and gave a nod of acknowledgment before noticing that it was getting late and heading back with Baohe in tow.
Originally Su Tang had expected that the rush of customers would slow down after the first day but who could have guessed that many customers came back the next day after getting hooked on the taste of her desserts. The taste was so enchanting that many people made special trips out to Su Tang’s Dessert Cafe just to have another taste.
On top of that, Su Tang had spread word that the ‘buy one, get one half-off’ promotion would go on for five more days so, contrary to her expectations, the number of customers who came on the second day was even more than the number of customers on the first.
When she realized what was going on, Su Tang could only sigh and lament that it seemed that she had underestimated the market in Qinghe Town, or perhaps she had just underestimated the power of foodies.
Of course, having more customers was a good thing, and besides, the influx of people wasn’t much of a strain on Su Tang since she left running the front counter to Baohe. As for Su Tang herself, she only served the female customers who came to the inner part of the cafe of which, aside from Lu Wan’er, there were only one or two each day on the first few days.
It was a small number of customers, however, Su Tang wasn’t in any hurry. She was confident that her product was good, so she knew it was only a matter of time before word of mouth spread and more people heard about her cafe and her desserts gained a good reputation.
But then, on the fifth day of business, just when it was looking like Song Yi finally wouldn’t be able to stand it anymore and might do something drastic, the situation changed. When Su Tang went to open the cafe early that morning she found Mrs. Li waiting outside when she opened the doors.
“Miss Su!” When Mrs. Li saw Su Tang, she gave a wide smile. Then, when she saw Baohe standing beside Su Tang, she praised, “Wow, little Dani, it looks like you’ve been doing well with Miss Su. It’s only been how many days, but look how much you’ve changed, already grown so much bigger.”
Baohe and Zhang Cuilan had lived at Mrs. Li’s shop before so, of course, they were all familiar with one another. However, after spending the last few days selling goods and doing business at the front counter, Baohe’s character had become less timid and more straightforward so, after hearing Mrs. Li’s praise, Baohe just laughed and replied: “Auntie Li, the young miss has already changed my name to Baohe and, naturally, she’s been very good to me.”
Of course, Mrs. Li’s words hadn’t been said just for politeness’ sake. After all, as a woman who ran a slave shop, Mrs. Li had bought and sold all sorts of people before, and she had also seen plenty of people after they had been sold. Thus, just by looking at Baohe, she could tell that the girl was really living a good life under her new master. She was dressed in new clothes that looked thick and warm and her face seemed more fleshy now, with a ruddy and healthy complexion. So Mrs. Li could tell at a glance that Su Tang was a master who was kind to her subordinates.
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tl begging corner:
Thank you