Upon seeing this, Huan Yuanliang told Xu Ruantang what he wanted to ask.
“Ms. Xu, I have a shop in the center of Beijing. I was thinking about what to do, but seeing your cake-making skills gave me an idea.”
He said a long speech, and Xu Ruantang understood that he wanted to invite her to be the store manager, someone who would be in charge of both management and teaching.
After he finished speaking, Xu Ruantang refused directly: "Mr. Huan, I can't agree to that. Putting aside the fact that I have no management experience at all, I'm also only vaguely familiar with making desserts and am still in the exploratory stage."
Logically speaking, Huan Yuanliang shouldn't have approached her.
Beijing is the capital city, and even in the 1980s, you could still find famous pastry chefs if you wanted to.
Instead of seeking out professionals, he came to her, a half-baked expert. Even if he genuinely admires her skills, he shouldn't have let her manage the entire shop.
“Miss Xu, I didn’t mean anything by it.” Huan Yuanliang probably knew that Xu Ruantang had misunderstood him, so he explained, “I just admire your abilities, and I have high hopes for this industry.”
Huan Yuanliang, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, pushed them up with his hand. "I'm a businessman. My first thought when I see a business opportunity is to seize it. You know coffee, right?"
Xu Ruantang nodded. "I've heard of it."
“The ones in China aren’t authentic. Abroad, coffee shops with desserts are everywhere.” Huan Yuanliang boldly expressed his opinion: “I have a feeling that within five years, a new model will also be launched in China.”
He had considered this emerging industry chain, which he knew would be profitable, when he first returned to China.
Unfortunately, domestic pastry chefs are relatively traditional, and the products they make are limited to a certain range.
When Huan Yuanliang saw Xu Ruantang's hand-painted designs on the cake, he felt that his opportunity had arrived. Being one step ahead of others might bring him enough benefits to last a lifetime.
“Ms. Xu, if you are willing to come and help me, I can offer you a high salary; we can discuss all of that.”
After chatting for a while, Huan Yuanliang and Huan Molin prepared to leave.
Before getting on the bus, Huan Molin, who hadn't said a word since arriving, suddenly grabbed Xu Ruantang's leg and wouldn't let go.
Huan Yuanliang was completely silent, and quickly pulled his son down and held him in his arms.
He said to Huan Molin, "Molin, say goodbye to your sister."
Xu Ruantang walked up to him and patted Huan Molin's head. "Molin, goodbye."
Huan Molin leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.
Huan Yuanliang hadn't expected his son to act this way, so he could only awkwardly apologize and explain, "Miss Xu, Mo Lin has been abroad for a long time, and that's how they say goodbye there. I'm sorry."
"It's nothing." Xu Ruantang took a step back and helped hold the car door open. "Mr. Huan, I'll think about what you said and call you back."
The father and son got into the car, and Huan Molin was still leaning out of the car window waving to Xu Ruantang, his blue eyes crinkling with laughter.
As the car drove away, Xu Ruantang turned her head and almost cried out.
"Big brother, how come you walk so quietly?" Xu Ruantang patted her chest. "You can scare people to death!"
Chen Jijun's handsome face was filled with gloom, his gaze coldly fixed on her face, his voice low: "When did I become the eldest brother?"
He raised his hand, his slender fingertips caressing Xu Ruantang's cheek as if no one else was there, focusing on rubbing the spot where Huan Molin had just kissed her.
“Big brother is just a general term.” Xu Ruantang looked at Chen Ji with confusion. “Didn’t you say I didn’t need to come pick me up and that I could go back by myself?”
Her tone was clearly very nice, even with an unconscious hint of coquettishness, but Chen Ji's eyes still turned cold.
"Wife, who were you talking to just now?" Chen Ji asked indifferently.
Xu Ruantang looked at him coolly. When Chen Ji didn't want to answer a question, he always used a rhetorical question to cover it up.
"I'm hungry, I'm going home first."
Upon arriving home, Chen Ji went straight into the kitchen.
Xu Ruantang followed him inside and saw him tying his apron. She went over to help him, saying, "Let me do it."
Chen Ji picked up the washed tomatoes, placed them on the cutting board, and began to chop them, asking casually, "Do you really like children?"
Xu Ruantang was obsessed with tying a bow on the muscular man, and blurted out: "I like it, it's cute, I don't have that much thought to it."
She was referring to children under two years old who couldn't speak much yet, but who would babble and smile at others all day long.
Thinking about it this way, only Xiao Bao fits the bill best.
Chen Ji thought she liked any child, and thinking of what she had seen today, the knife in her hand became heavier.
Xu Ruantang stood behind him, staring at the confused tomato in deep thought.
She noticed that the man had a cold expression on his face from the moment he picked her up.
"The time you were rushed to the hospital with a fever and unconsciousness, I rescued a lost little boy."
Xu Ruantang sat on a small stool nearby, picking vegetables and saying casually, "That little boy is the one you saw today, the mixed-race boy with blue eyes. The one holding him is his father. He wants to invite me to be a pastry chef at his newly opened shop."
Xu Ruantang couldn't help but laugh when she talked about this. She could be a pastry chef now. It's true that information asymmetry is the primary condition for creating wealth.
Chen Ji paused slightly in his grip on the knife. "Where to?"
"They said it's in the city center, but I haven't agreed yet." Xu Ruantang picked the vegetables and scooped water to wash them. "This matter is a bit beyond my capabilities. If I were to do it, it would probably take up most of my energy."
Xu Ruantang didn't have any grand ambitions. Even after time-traveling, she never thought of taking advantage of the era to become a giant.
She envisioned a life where she could have a little money, live a comfortable life, and then simply relax and enjoy life, focusing all her energy on painting.
Partnering with Qiu Liang was a means for her to achieve economic independence.
Now that they're independent, they've actually made quite a bit of money. But there's been a change in circumstances, namely the yard next to Qiu Liang's house.
If she wanted to buy it, she probably wouldn't have enough money even if she spent all her savings.
She used the 500 yuan that Jia Shuling lost to Cheng Dan to buy a gold lock for Xiaobao. She had more than 300 yuan left from her stall earnings, 300 yuan from the military region's reward, and 200 yuan that Li Shuhe insisted on giving her when she lost money during the August 1st incident.
It only adds up to eight hundred.
The shop's profit sharing over the past few months has been around 1,200 yuan, and she receives about 300 yuan from the custom-made pastry orders.
Qiu Liang also told Sister Juan that the custom-made cakes wouldn't go into the company accounts; it was all money she earned, and after deducting the costs, she should keep it.
However, Xu Ruantang felt that since she rarely went to the shop, most of the work was done by Qiu Liang, and the ability to make custom cakes was only because they had a shop, so it should belong to the shop.
After that, she only had 2,300 yuan left, not even enough to buy a house.
The reason she hesitated at that time was that if she really wanted to buy the courtyard, Huan Yuanliang had agreed to give her an advance payment.
She didn't intend to accept the high salary Huan Yuanliang offered, but Xu Ruantang thought of a better way.
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