The news that He Wenlin had opened a cake shop quickly spread among her relatives and friends.

Especially my relatives and friends in Shaoxing called one after another to ask when it would open and said they wanted to come and patronize it.

Mr. He told them that the opening date was June 16th, and He Wenlin would not change her mind about this date.

...

Before he knew it, it was May 27th again. Both of He Wenhua's factories were closed for the holiday, so he came to Jiangcun to bring over the money He Wenlin had paid for his phone.

"Brother, why do you seem a bit down today? Why didn't your wife come with you? Did you two have another fight?" He Wenlin asked him.

He Wenhua sighed and remained silent, which was taken as tacit agreement.

He came to pay back the money today, but Xia Lijuan made a scene, suggesting that he owe her the money for now. The phone bill of a thousand yuan or so wasn't much for He Wenlin.

He Wenhua was annoyed by her, but he couldn't say this to anyone else.

“Your sister-in-law’s family said they want a dowry of 50,000 yuan.” He Wenhua didn’t mention that she refused to pay back the money, but brought up the dowry.

"How much? Fifty thousand??" Mr. He was shocked. "This is outrageous! Do you think you own a bank, or is she made of gold?"

How much is 50,000 yuan at this time? It's the money you save for five years without eating or drinking. Some people don't even earn that much in five years without eating or drinking. It's even more valuable than 300,000 yuan twenty years later!

Because there are not many job opportunities now, let's take a clothing factory as an example. In 2018, He Wenlin had a childhood friend who worked as a supervisor in a clothing factory. He worked 14 hours a day, had 2 days off a month, and earned about 10,000 yuan a month. However, he had no money when he went home for the Chinese New Year holiday.

If he wants to earn over 300,000 yuan in dowry, he'll have to go without food or drink for three years!

Nowadays, a team leader in a garment factory only earns around 10,000 to 50,000 yuan a year, which is equivalent to not eating or drinking for five years!

He Wenlin felt that a bride price should indeed be given for marriage, but this was too much and unreasonable.

An ordinary family couldn't afford it, and for the older brother who's not even of marriageable age, asking him to come up with 50,000 yuan is just asking the wrong question.

"Did her family bring a dowry?" He Wenlin asked. "With so much betrothal money, they can't just be giving away two quilts as a dowry, can they?"

He Wenhua: "I don't know. When I heard 50,000, I was terrified. Even if you sold me, you wouldn't get 50,000. 15,000 would be more like it."

He Wenlin felt that Xia Lijuan's demand for a dowry of 50,000 yuan was probably a way to get He Wenhua to come to her for help.

This woman is truly a multicolored black abacus! (Borrowing a comment from reader Lucky Mouse, hahaha)

"What is your sister-in-law's attitude?" He Wenlin asked.

“She said her family had raised her with difficulty, and that a bride price should be given. If it is given, I will save face, and she will save face too,” He Wenhua said dejectedly. “I think it’s her who should save face!”

"Who's managing the money you've earned now?" Mr. He asked.

"It's basically in her hands, but we don't have much. We bought an air conditioner and a cell phone, which cost several thousand yuan. We don't have much money left."

He Wenlin said, "They must be asking for such a high dowry because they see that your fast food restaurant is making money. Brother, you've been running the restaurant for over a month now. Have you done any accounting for how much money you've made?"

“We did a review of our expenses a few days ago and found that our earnings were far from what we expected,” He Wenhua said. “We are currently selling around 500 units a day. Normally, we should have earned 4,500 to 4,600 yuan in the first half of this month, but in reality, we have only earned less than 2,000 yuan, which is less than 60% of our gross profit.”

You also have to factor in rent and utilities. There's hardly any profit left in a month. If you turn on the air conditioner, the electricity bill is ridiculously high. The monthly utility bill plus rent is at least two thousand!

He Wenlin: "Do you waste food? For example, you cook too much food, or you buy too much food and it spoils before you can cook it. When it's hot, you buy eggs and leave them at room temperature without putting them in the refrigerator. They spoil and you have to throw them away. These are all losses and costs."

Some dishes use a lot of oil, such as braised fish chunks, fried fish, and spicy chicken. These are all meat dishes, but they cost more than stir-fried pork with chili peppers. I don't know if you've considered this issue.

You have to calculate the cost of every dish you cook each day. It's not enough to just decide what dish to cook for lunch; you have to base it on your budget and cook dishes that your customers like within that budget.

At this point, He Wenlin said earnestly, "The reason I asked you to set up a stall step by step is because things that seem simple actually have a lot of knowledge involved. Once you understand and grasp the ins and outs, you can do it more smoothly. You don't have any competitors now, so you can still make some money. But if a competitor comes along, you'll be in trouble."

Upon hearing He Wenlin's words, He Wenhua quickly said, "Linlin, I understand what you're saying. I know you're letting me set up a stall for my own good."

However, Xia Lijuan insisted on opening the shop, and when he refused, the two ended up arguing. In addition, he also had a glimmer of hope: what if business was actually very good?

He Wenhua also recalled the situation since the business opened more than a month ago, saying, "It seems that we did throw away a lot of things, especially seasonings, scallions, garlic sprouts, etc. I really hadn't thought about this issue of cooking according to the budget. However, your sister-in-law also bears a lot of responsibility for the money we earned."

Since we opened, your sister-in-law has failed to ask customers if they were working overtime three times, causing us to deliver food at the wrong time. Once, she misremembered the time, resulting in an early delivery. Twice, the factory decided to have customers work overtime at the last minute, preventing us from delivering at 5:30. For all these early deliveries, we lost money on the fried noodles or fried rice.

He Wenlin: "You need to pay special attention to the afternoon deliveries. If you don't, you'll have wasted your whole day's work. For a husband-and-wife shop like yours, which doesn't sell coupons, your gross profit margin should be higher than ours. You should pay more attention to this when you get back."

He Wenlin uses vouchers and employs so many people, resulting in high expenses, yet she earns more money than them. That's because she has more factories and more workers here, so her actual gross profit margin is definitely not as high as theirs.

Mr. He said, “With your income, you won’t make much money in the summer just by turning on the air conditioning. Lijuan should be able to figure that out. Why do you still want a dowry of 50,000 yuan? Go back and talk to her properly. You should still give her the dowry. You can go back to her parents’ home with her for the Dragon Boat Festival.”

Everything that was going to happen between the two children has happened, and now the shop is open. Even if He's father doesn't like Xia Lijuan, as long as his nephew likes her, he still has to take responsibility.

He Wenlin felt that the other party might not lower the price. Xia Lijuan couldn't possibly be unaware of her brother's family's situation, yet she still demanded a dowry of 50,000 yuan. This clearly indicated that she wanted her brother or her grandmother to ask for favors from her.