“Dad! We’ve been here for a while, and there are so many people here. Grandma Wu and I can’t squeeze in. Grandma Wu told us to sit outside for a while, otherwise we might get stepped on.”
An'an rushed over and hugged Xu Zijiang's leg, explaining in her childish voice.
“Good girl, An'an and Grandma Wu did the right thing. There were too many people, and it would be easy to get hurt if you squeezed in.”
“But there aren’t that many people now. An’an can go in and take a look. Mom is still inside. Come on, Aunt Wu, you can take Yuanyuan in and take a look too.”
Xu Zi rubbed An An's fluffy little head and praised her, then gestured for Aunt Wu to go in.
"Okay, I'll take the two children inside now."
Aunt Wu patted her bottom and stood up, carrying Yuanyuan in one arm and holding An'an's hand in the other, the two of them walked into the shop. Yu Jiu was busy collecting money, and didn't even look up, not noticing that An'an and the two had come in. It wasn't until An'an came around behind the counter and hugged Yu Jiu that Yu Jiu realized that her two little ones had come over.
"Oh, you're here. I knew I shouldn't have let you come today. There are too many people. Even if you had come, your dad and I wouldn't have had time to take care of you. Here, An'an, here's 5 yuan. Take your little brother and Grandma Wu for a walk around the store, then go out shopping and buy something to eat with Grandma Wu."
Yu Jiu was incredibly busy. She quickly collected the money and then prepared to answer everyone's questions. Someone else had their eye on some clothes and wanted Yu Jiu to come over. So, since Yu Jiu didn't have time to play with An'an and Yuanyuan, she simply took out 5 yuan and handed it to An'an.
An'an accepted it, nodding obediently with her big, blinking eyes.
"Okay, Mom, let's buy some food and eat here!"
An'an knew her parents were busy and didn't necessarily want to stay there. She followed Yu Jiu around their newly opened clothing store for a stroll, then went shopping with Aunt Wu. She came back with a lot of things: candied hawthorns, tofu pudding, steamed buns, fried pastries…
I spent all the 5 yuan that Yu Jiu gave me.
However, she wasn't buying these things for herself; she was bringing them for Yu Jiu and Xu Zijiang. She felt that her parents had worked so hard for so long and must be hungry. She couldn't carry all of them herself, so Aunt Wu helped her carry half of them. She carried the remaining half herself and laboriously walked back to the clothing store entrance.
Xu Zi was soliciting customers at the door again when he saw An An carrying so many things back, so he quickly went up to take them.
"Why did you buy so much? Is it for your parents?"
"Yes, Mom and Dad work so hard, and you're getting all this food!"
An'an said sensibly, "You're so considerate." Xu Zi pinched his daughter's earlobe and accepted her kindness. It just so happened that they were indeed very thirsty.
Xu Zijiang stopped soliciting customers, picked up An'an, and went into the shop, saying to Yu Jiu.
"Let's take a break. An'an bought some food and came over. We're already open for business, so people passing by will come in and take a look if they're interested. We don't need to actively solicit customers."
"Okay, let's take a break then, I'm tired too."
Yu Jiu nodded, then found a few more stools, and they sat around the counter to eat. Xu Zijiang held An'an, and Yu Jiu held Yuanyuan. The two of them sat on the stools, and the other stool was given to Aunt Wu.
“This is really tiring work. If business is good in a couple of days, we’ll hire someone to do the work so we can have an easier time.”
Yu Jiu took a few big gulps of tofu pudding to moisten his throat before sighing.
This morning alone, they have sold more than 40 pieces of clothing. There are many people in the store, and they need to be served. Moreover, some people try on clothes but don't put them back in their original place. She and Xu Zijiang also have to shuttle around the store, hang up the clothes, and serve customers repeatedly.
She has to walk around and talk non-stop. Although it's profitable, she definitely can't stand it in the long run, so hiring someone is imperative.
"Business is definitely not going to be bad, and we'll definitely need to hire people. Even if we earn a little less, we can't let ourselves get too tired."
Xu Zi was the first to agree to hire people, and even two. That way, Yu Jiu could just sit and collect money when business wasn't busy. She could just watch from the sidelines and do nothing.
"Yes, health is important. I see you've only been busy all morning and your voice is already hoarse. How can you keep going like this?"
Aunt Wu agreed, saying that she wouldn't have suggested this if Yu Jiu and Xu Zi didn't earn much money, but since they could earn money, it didn't matter if they spent some money to hire someone to do the work, just like hiring her to take care of the children, it would make things easier for them.
"Yes, Mom is so tired. Her voice doesn't even sound like Mom's anymore. Mom, have some more water and my mung bean soup."
An'an tenderly pushed her mung bean soup towards Yu Jiu, offering it to him. Yu Jiu accepted without hesitation, taking a large gulp; An'an's mung bean soup was incredibly refreshing.
"Ha, mung bean soup really is the best way to quench thirst."
"Let's hire someone over the next couple of days. Once business is stable, you can go about your other tasks, and we'll hire another person."
Yu Jiu agreed, and that was the end of it. They took a short break to eat and drink for about ten minutes before Xu Zijiang and Yu Jiu got back to work.
An'an didn't want to go home and wanted to stay in the shop with Yu Jiu and Xu Zijiang, but Yuanyuan wanted to sleep, so Aunt Wu took Yuanyuan back first. An'an was put behind the counter by Yu Jiu and obediently helped her collect money and do the accounting.
Around 6 p.m., when it was almost completely dark, Yu Jiu and Xu Zijiang prepared to close up shop. There weren't many people out at night, so there was no need to stay there any longer, and they might not even be able to sell a single piece of clothing.
After the last guest left, Yu Jiu and Xu Zijiang closed the door, but they didn't go home yet; they were settling the day's accounts.
"We sold a total of 108 items, which is a pretty good number. However, the dresses and polyester shirts sold better, while the denim jackets and jeans sold slightly fewer, but the difference wasn't significant..."
Yu Jiu carefully compared various data. A total of 34 dresses were sold, 24 shirts were made of polyester fabric, 22 were denim jackets, 23 were jeans, and only a few of the other types were sold. It can be seen that girls are indeed the main group of people who come to their store to buy clothes.
“Blouse skirts and polyester shirts are more casual, while denim clothes are too fashionable and don’t have as many customers, so it’s not surprising that they sell less.”
After all, they had set up a stall here to sell denim clothes before, so many people who wanted to buy them should have already done so.
"Not counting rent, and after deducting our cost of goods, we made a total of 803 yuan today, which is a very high return."
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