Zhang Xuemei paused in her grip on the pen, her brow furrowing slightly. "Of course not. Once the cafeteria is running smoothly, I'll still go back to Yongqing. That's where the main base is."
"You need to leave someone to watch over the cafeteria, right? They all have jobs. Are you going to rely entirely on the employees' self-discipline?"
Xu Mingjiang immediately raised his hand and volunteered, "Let me go, I'm free anyway."
Zhang Xuemei smiled and said, "Look, there are people here now. Okay, let's talk about the money. Well, we've signed a five-year contract. The contract fee is 45,000 yuan per year, so it's 225,000 yuan for five years."
Then, adding the cafeteria renovation costs, the reserved funds for employee salaries, and the money for buying ingredients, the total investment should be just under 240,000 yuan. Let's say it's 240,000 yuan, with each of the three companies contributing 80,000 yuan. What do you think?
Xu Minghe had already calculated in his mind that his family could come up with 80,000, so he nodded in agreement.
Xu Mingjiang and his wife had no objections and followed their sister-in-law's lead.
“Okay, here’s what I’m thinking. We owe a lot to Yan Hong for taking over the cafeteria this time. Without her uncle’s help, we wouldn’t have been able to do it so smoothly. So I’m thinking of having the three of us pool together five percent of the shares and give them to Yan Hong’s uncle. What do you guys think?”
As soon as Zhang Xuemei finished speaking, Xu Yanhong immediately stopped her, saying, "Don't do that, Third Sister-in-law. I know my uncle. He won't accept it. I'm just afraid someone will report him for favoritism."
"Principal Xu has been such a great help, it wouldn't be right for us not to show our appreciation at all, would it?"
Zhang Xuemei thought that although he was only helping out of respect for Yan Hong, they would ultimately be the ones to benefit, so she wanted to show her appreciation.
Xu Yanhong knew her uncle's temperament; he would never accept the money no matter what. But as her third sister-in-law said, it wouldn't be right not to offer anything in return. For a moment, she didn't know what to do.
Xu Mingjiang came up with an idea: "Fourth Sister-in-law, didn't you ask about the renovation with my eldest brother before, saying you were asking for your uncle? Is that Principal Xu?"
"Yes, what's wrong?" Xu Yanhong didn't understand what this had to do with the shares.
Upon hearing this, Zhang Xuemei understood and said with a smile, "That makes things easier. Yanhong, here's what you do: when you go back, tell your uncle that the house renovation will be handed over directly to your eldest brother. As for the expenses, we'll naturally pay for them. What do you think?"
“Mingjiang is quick-witted. That works. I’ll go back and talk to my uncle right away.”
Xu Yanhong thought that since this way she wasn't directly receiving money, the risk wasn't that great. Could it be that someone would actually check whether money had been paid or not?
Chu Xiaoxiao suddenly asked in a low voice, "Have you forgotten about Teacher Chen? Is his house being renovated too?"
Everyone was taken aback; they really didn't know that.
"We'll have to renovate sooner or later, right? There's no set timeframe anyway, right?" Xu Mingjiang was quite easygoing. He figured his older brothers would be working in the renovation team for life, so he was ready to go anytime.
"Alright, it's settled then. Yan Hong, how about this: you go to the store and pick out a few more clothes for both families, and we'll consider it a gift from us."
Xu Yanhong thought it was just a few pieces of clothing, and even if it was a gift from her niece, it wouldn't be a big deal, so she nodded in agreement.
After discussing the thank-you gift, Zhang Xuemei steered the conversation back to the shares, saying, "How about this? To thank Yan Hong for her help, the Mingjiang and I families will each take 33%, and Yan Hong, you will take 34%. Don't refuse, it's only one percent, it's nothing."
"That's right, we're all family, let's just leave it at that."
Seeing the sincerity on her third sister-in-law's face, Xu Yanhong, who was about to decline, swallowed back what she wanted to say.
...
After more than ten days of intense work, we finally finished all the preparations before the start of the school year, and now we're just waiting for school to begin tomorrow.
This morning, students who had just entered the cafeteria noticed a big change. First of all, the floor was much cleaner and no longer made a sizzling sound when you stepped on it.
Furthermore, a small blackboard had appeared on the wall where people lined up for meals at some point, with the words "Today's Breakfast" written on it, followed by rows of smaller characters.
"Little student, what would you like to eat? Look, for main dishes we have congee, fried dough sticks, meat buns, vegetable buns, stir-fried rice noodles, glutinous rice in meat broth, rice noodles in salted vegetable soup, and scallion oil noodles. For drinks we have soy milk, tofu pudding, and seaweed and egg drop soup..."
As soon as the students came in, Zhao Chunhua hurriedly called out to them. This morning, not only the students but even she ate several meat buns. They were even better than the ones bought outside. No wonder it was Boss Zhang's family recipe.
Zhang Xuemei had tried their breakfast before and found that it really only consisted of plain porridge and steamed buns, maybe with a regular steamed bread at most. And those steamed breads were truly awful—neither fluffy nor fragrant—and the filling of the meat buns was also terrible. So she had no choice but to resort to her 'family secret recipe'.
Fortunately, the dough rose well, but the chefs were reluctant to add too much filling. You see, you can make steamed buns in different ways. Today they add some chopped red dates, tomorrow they add some chopped walnuts. It's different every day, so you won't get tired of it. It just increases the cost a bit, but you can make them a little smaller, and that will make up for it.
Nowadays, kids are all about taste; good food is more important to them than anything else, and they're willing to pay a little more for it. Of course, there are also thrifty kids who get regular white flour steamed buns, so they don't have to worry about not having enough to eat.
"Wow, there's my favorite glutinous rice in broth! Auntie, could you give me more broth?" A round-faced little girl clasped her hands together and pleaded with the lady serving the food.
“Okay, there’s plenty of soup.” Zhao Chunhua nodded with a smile, reached for a bowl, scooped a bowl of glutinous rice with a rice spoon, then ladled a large spoonful of meat soup on top, and finally sprinkled crispy fried dough sticks on top.
The little girl took the sticky rice, took a deep sniff, and then sweetly thanked Zhao Chunhua, "Thank you, Auntie!"
I don't know if some student spread the word, but the students who came to the cafeteria for breakfast this morning were quite early, about twenty minutes earlier than usual, and they sold out of breakfast.
Xu Mingjiang looked through each window and happily told Zhang Xuemei, "Third Sister-in-law, I've checked. Most of today's breakfast is sold out, except for some porridge. Aunt Zhao said it's much better than before. Before, they would leave a lot of breakfast uneaten, which was a waste."
And as I walked past the students, I heard them all saying that breakfast was delicious today. Third Sister-in-law, I have a feeling we've succeeded.
Seeing the excited Xu Mingjiang, Zhang Xuemei smiled and said, "Of course! Not only are there more varieties of breakfast today, but the taste has also improved. Kids have discerning palates, so if they say it's delicious, then it must be delicious."
Xu Mingjiang thought so too, but then his eyes caught sight of the pile of colorful meal tickets and he couldn't help but ask, "By the way, Third Sister-in-law, what's the deal with selling meal tickets?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com