With that, their conversation was done. Su Tang didn’t bother to lecture Jiang He and Madam Qian about how they should start studying new products or how to make their own fishballs more delicious, she just said what needed to be said and left the rest in their hands.
After leaving the stuffed steamed bun shop, Su Tang returned to her cafe and found that a woman had arrived in the Dessert Cafe’s previously empty inner room. Pu Wei was speaking to her and patiently introducing the cafe’s new products.
Baohe was also manning the outside counter and looked to be preparing herself to promote the new products to the students when they arrived. Seeing that they were both busy, Su Tang went around back to enter the living quarters behind the cafe. There she found Zhang Cuilan and Yu Caihe working together to make soap as usual.
It was hot inside and the work was hard, but Su Tang was satisfied to see that there weren’t any idle people in her group. Actually, scratch that, there was a certain cat that seemed very idle.
The lazy orange cat laying on Su Tang’s shoulder seemed to sense his master’s thoughts and began to whine internally. This was called “a pet follows its master”, okay? It was a commonly accepted thing in this world and there was nothing wrong with it!
It was nearly lunchtime but Su Tang didn’t bother to call Zhang Cuilan and Yu Caihe over to cook. Instead, she personally cooked three dishes and a soup for Su Nuo before heading off to the Song residence to make lunch for Song Yi as well. Thus, when Su Nuo returned from the academy for lunch he wasn’t able to see his sister at all. Although he felt a little lost because of this, when he saw that his sister had cooked him a delicious meal before she left his feelings were comforted a little.
When Su Tang came back from the Song residence later that evening, she once again personally cooked a meal for Su Nuo. As the siblings sat down to have their meal together, Su Tang spoke up to tell the little guy that she would be out more often for the next while.
“Sister, you need to go out again?” Originally, after eating the food his sister had cooked for him personally twice in one day, Su Nuo had been very happy. But now when he heard that his sister was planning to go out again despite having only come home for a few days, his eyes began to redden.
Seeing through the little guy’s feelings, Su Tang could only reach over and rub his head to comfort him. She said, “Your sister needs to go out to find Brother Luo and discuss a lot of important matters. But I promise I’ll rush back as soon as I can once I’m done.”
In the past, the little guy had always been beaten and bullied at home. Back then he would never have enough food to eat or enough clothes to wear and, in the end, he was even tossed into the Qing River with his sister as a sacrifice. It was only after he came out of that river that he finally felt as if he had been reborn, and his life has started to slowly become much better. However, if there was any problem to speak of, it was that the little guy was really too dependent on Su Tang.
But Su Tang was really getting busier and busier these days. She didn’t have the time to slowly accompany him until he grew up enough to put his past behind him. At the same time, because of his past, the little guy really didn’t have any sense of security in his heart. Although he was very sensible for his age, whenever he thought of his sister going away again and leaving him alone with just the servants, his eyes turned red and teary.
“But the next time you come back, will you finally be able to stay? Or will you always be going out like this in the future?” Su Nuo asked sadly. His eyes had turned red and moist, just like a little rabbit.
Back when Su Tang had first come to this world, this little guy had been the only person by her side. Thus, in her heart, she really regarded Su Nuo as her own brother. She loved him very much, and she also understood his loneliness and wanted to help.
However, she couldn’t lie to him to make him feel better. She could only reply honestly: “I will probably be very busy this year.”
After all, the sauce business she intended to build wasn’t something that would be settled with just a few words. She would need to find people to raise seedlings, then find people to cultivate the seedlings on the land she had bought once they had grown, then set up a workshop to act as her factory that would focus on producing the tomato sauce and chili sauce she would sell under her brand. Even if she was leaving the actual sales process to the Luo family, there were still many things that Su Tang would need to personally keep an eye on.
In short, there was no way Su Tang would be able to just sit around at home for the next period of time. Of course, fortunately, she would have Luo Xingchen’s help for most of these steps so she shouldn’t have to travel very far.
“What about next year then? Will you not have to go out all the time then?” The little guy heard his sister say that she would be busy all year and lowered his head. But after thinking it over, he looked up again and asked that question with a hopeful expression.
“Well, maybe by next year it will be different.” Although the little guy was still only seven years old, he was very sharp and usually remembered everything Su Tang said, so she didn’t dare to lie to him or give him empty promises. After all, she really didn’t know how next year would turn out or if she would get any new ideas that would cause her to be busy again. For example, just considering this year, she had spontaneously come up with plans for both a sauce business and a grilled fish restaurant, so who could say what the future might hold?
“Sister, at least promised me not to leave for more than ten days at a time, okay?” Knowing that his sister was truly busy, the little guy was sensible enough to only ask for a promise like this.
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tl begging corner:
