Chapter 91 The Joy of Sharing Money
After buying bowls at the local product store, the brothers Cheng Yang and Cheng Lin hurried back without even going to the vegetable store.
Firstly, they were afraid of being late for selling stone buns at the school gate at 9:30, and secondly, they were also worried about the business at the stall.
There had been no customers in the shed before they left in the morning.
They were afraid that if it continued like this for the whole morning, the two people who stayed behind would feel uncomfortable.
The two brothers seemed to have a tacit understanding and no one spoke along the way.
Cheng Lin drove the car very fast, wishing he had wings so that he could rush back to show his support to his sister-in-law.
But when he was about to reach the door of the stall, he suddenly squeezed the brake and shouted in disbelief to the person behind him: "Brother!"
Cheng Yang saw it without him shouting, and saw the lively scene in front of his own shed.
He couldn't help but squint his eyes, as if he couldn't believe that what he saw was real.
Ever since Xiao Ai limited the supply, he hadn't seen such a long queue in front of the shed for a long time.
No, the scene now is more lively than before.
Because in addition to the customers queuing in front of the shed, there were also tables moved out from inside. Those tables were now full of people, and some people were even standing aside waiting to be seated.
"Brother, what's going on?" Cheng Lin's voice sounded like he was mumbling in his sleep, and it was obvious that he was completely confused.
"Hurry up and ride over to take a look," Cheng Yang ordered.
Cheng Lin rode a few quick steps and soon arrived at the road in front of the stall.
The two of them had just parked the car, and Cheng Yang hadn't even jumped out when he heard someone in the queue shout, "The bowl is back! Quick, get some help and bring it in!"
The crowd suddenly became agitated, and many people cast eager glances over here.
Even a few people who were standing by and watching the fun came over to offer help.
Without waiting for Cheng Yang to stop them, the two men picked up the bowls tied with hemp ropes from the car and hurriedly carried them into the shed.
What on earth is going on!
Cheng Yang also felt dizzy.
He glanced at the crowd and found that many of the people in the queue brought their own tableware, including lunch boxes and enamel basins.
Some people even brought their steel pots from home.
He sniffed and smelled the familiar aroma of meat, knowing that the braised pork rice had been sold in advance.
At this time, Cheng Lin was also excited. He didn't care about his brother anymore and rushed into the shed with two bundles of bowls.
While running, he shouted loudly: "Sister-in-law, we are back!"
Shi Xiaoai was so busy inside that she was running around, wishing she could be split into several parts. When she heard him shout, she agreed but didn't even bother to raise her head.
Instead, Wang Xiaofeng, who was sitting on the side making pancakes, responded and looked at Cheng Lin as if he had seen a savior.
She freed one hand and pointed to the basin beside her, saying, "Hurry up, go wash the cups and bowls. My sister needs them urgently."
Cheng Lin agreed, but didn't rush over. Instead, he looked outside and said a little hesitantly, "But it's almost half past nine!"
He rushed back just to go to the school gate!
Although no one at school required him to go there every day, Cheng Lin always felt that he had found that place, just like it was his home ground.
He hopes to take over the business there so that the students will remember him and the stone buns from his home.
So I don’t want to fish for three days and dry the net for two days.
But at this moment Wang Xiaofeng was so busy that she didn't care about Cheng Lin's thoughts at all.
After hearing what he said, she complained, "There's nothing we can do until 9:30. Don't you see how busy we are here? Even if you gave me two more hands, I still can't iron that much! Let's not go there today."
Cheng Lin looked at the empty bamboo basket on the table, then at the people queuing up. Although he felt a little disappointed, he still agreed and prepared to go wash the dishes.
At this time, Xiao Ai finally made some time. She quickly stopped Cheng Lin and said, "Your brother is back too, right? Let him wash the dishes. Go roll out the steamed buns and sell them over there. We're really too busy here."
Because they were the same style, and Shi Daxixi's steamed buns with vegetables also had a price reduction, almost no one bought the steamed buns here today.
Fortunately, they were making and selling it on the stall today, and they stopped immediately when they found something wrong.
But even so, they had still managed to stamp out more than a hundred sheets in the morning when no one was around.
What’s more important is that those side dishes were fried in the morning.
After hearing what Shi Xiaoai said, Wang Xiaofeng also realized the problem. She moved to the side, making room for Cheng Lin to roll the vegetables.
Then she stood up and walked over to Shi Xiaoai, leaning over to whisper in her ear, "Sister, are we going to lower the price of our steamed buns?"
The guy across the street just now was selling a set for 20 cents and gave away a side dish.
"No, take the unsold ones back and eat them at noon." Shi Xiaoai said firmly.
After saying that, she glanced at the pot of braised food bubbling on the stove next to her. Seeing that there was a good variety of vegetarian dishes inside, she added, "When you roll the pancakes, roll a piece of braised tofu skin inside each one. Wrap it carefully with oil paper so that the soup doesn't leak out."
Cheng Lin agreed and started to act immediately.
His movements were very quick and he rolled out several of them quickly.
Probably because the aroma was brought out from the pot when the bean curd skin was scooped out, the people who were already waiting in line anxiously could not wait any longer and five or six sets were sold right after the rolls were finished.
And there were people behind shouting that they wanted it.
This is another pleasant surprise for everyone.
Just as Cheng Lin was rolling up the steamed bun, Cheng Kai hurried over with a big pot of rice.
The child was not very old, but the pot he was carrying was very big. He couldn't even stand up straight, and he was half bent over and gasping for breath.
Seeing this, Cheng Yang quickly went over to take the cauldron and asked, "Did you carry it here yourself? It's so heavy, did you get burned?"
"It's not hot. Brother, I can hold it! I'm strong!" Cheng Kai patted his arms proudly.
After that, he passed his brother and squeezed in front of Shi Xiaoai, with an expression that looked like he was asking for praise, and said loudly: "Sister-in-law, I have steamed the rice!"
Shi Xiaoai quickly raised her head, picked up a freshly fished-out tea egg and stuffed it into the child's hand, praising him, "Great! Our Kaikai is the best! But don't do it like this next time. Come get it from us, or go to the warehouse and get a cart and bring it here."
Cheng Kai was stunned for a moment after hearing this, then he laughed and said, "I forgot we have a stroller at home."
That little look is so adorable.
Not to mention Shi Xiaoai, even the customers queuing next to her liked it very much and started to praise it.
When has a child ever received so much attention?
He immediately became embarrassed.
He looked around, then walked over to his older brother in the corner and said, "Brother, let me help you wash the dishes!"
Cheng Yang looked around and didn't see his two little ones, so he asked, "Who will watch Mingrui and Mingxi if you come over?"
"Aunt Liu took them to the office and told them to go there and play for a day." Cheng Kai replied.
Cheng Yang knew that Aunt Liu must have noticed that things were busy here and rushed over to help.
He handed the dishwashing job to his younger brother, then collected the clean water on the stall, put the two empty buckets and the vegetables to be taken home on the tricycle, and prepared to go home to get water.
As Cheng Yang rode his bike into the alley, he saw two young men knocking on the door of Yard No. 1 with empty buckets.
He took another look and recognized that the two men were the ones who helped out at the Shi family snack bar in the morning.
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Speaking of which, Xiao Ai and the others have made sufficient preparations today. Not only do they make and sell the food immediately, which has increased the production speed, but they have also added new varieties.
But even so, all the ingredients prepared were used up before twelve o'clock, and the braised pork rice that was originally planned to be sold at noon was sold out before lunch.
Many customers who used to come here after get off work at noon to buy something to take home for lunch found that there was nothing left when they arrived.
After seeing off the last complaining customer, Shi Xiaoai and the others finally had some time to rest.
After sitting down, everyone subconsciously pounded their bodies and felt sore all over.
Wang Xiaofeng shook her wrists and felt sleepy and tired. She didn't want to move once she sat down.
But she had been stuck by the stove all morning and couldn't help but stand up and walk outside the stall to look to the side.
Less than twenty meters away from their tea stall, the person Shi Daxi was looking for was standing at the entrance of Yunhe Lane with a tin loudspeaker, shouting loudly to the acquaintances passing by.
"The most authentic stone steamed buns, Lao Shi's stone steamed buns, big opening discount, buy two get one free, if not delicious, no charge!"
The man's voice was very sharp, and he shouted for a long time until his voice became hoarse. It sounded like a devil's sound filling the ears, which was uncomfortable.
Wang Xiaofeng looked for a while and then walked back stomping his feet.
After returning, he couldn't help but turn around and spit at the tent door, cursing, "Isn't he afraid of losing his voice? He's been yelling for so long, croaking, it's giving me a headache.
"How can these people be so shameless? They can't even shout in front of their own stall, but they come to our side and shout. They almost ran to our stall to pull people in! How can they be so shameless!"
"Whether he helps or not, we've already sold all our stuff. Why are you so angry?" Shi Xiaoai consoled him kindly.
Wang Xiaofeng was obviously still very angry.
She sat down next to Shi Xiaoai angrily and corrected her, "Sister, you can't count it like that. We sold out because we changed to a new variety today, and old customers gave us face. If you hadn't thought of changing to a new product, how miserable would it be for us to watch like this today!"
"These guys are so mean, they actually resorted to such tactics. They just opened their shop and are attracting our original customers. How much business will they take away from us now? I calculated that they sell just as much as we do."
Of course Xiao Ai knew what Wang Xiaofeng said.
There is only so much customer traffic at the hospital entrance, and it will be difficult to sell if the market is saturated.
Just like when the nut-filled stone buns were first released, they were snapped up once, but then the sales of stone buns declined for many days.
Isn't Shi Xiaomei's plan to grab her own market share by distributing products at all costs?
But she didn't want to say these words here to avoid making them nervous.
She just looked at Wang Xiaofeng with approval, thinking that this girl was smart and that she could try to give her more responsibilities in the future.
Shi Xiaoai nodded in agreement.
Then he said to Wang Xiaofeng, "It's true that they sold more than we did. They had a buy-two-get-one-free deal, so people who buy at least three at a time. You can tell by counting how many people went there."
Wang Xiaofeng looked across worriedly. At this time, there was still a lot of traffic in the shed over there, and customers came in an endless stream.
Cheng Lin was also looking at the opposite side with the same worry.
He interrupted, "Sister-in-law, I just saw at least two deliveries from that place at the school gate. They were all those big baskets, probably full of stone buns or baked buns. If that's the case, they sold at least 500 this morning."
"More than that." Shi Xiaoai said, "When they came in this morning, they carried in four large baskets."
The people at the stall suddenly became quiet, and everyone was calculating in their minds how much so many baskets of pancakes could be sold for?
Finally, Cheng Lin couldn't help but ask, "Sister-in-law, do you think they can make money selling so many? Why do I feel like they can't make much?"
Cheng Lin has been learning the purchasing business from his elder brother these days, so he has some understanding of the prices of ingredients.
He knew that grain prices were now uniform, and the price they bought from Master Liu was the same as the price at the grain store.
The same must be true for that family. No matter how they get the food, the price is at most the same as their own, or even higher.
In this case, if you buy two and get one free, doesn't that mean you lose more the more you sell?
What exactly are they trying to achieve?
Cheng Lin couldn't figure it out, so he just expressed his doubts.
Shi Xiaoai patiently explained, "They want to build a reputation and let people know that the things they sell are just as good as ours. We've been here for so long, we've established roots. If they don't come up with some publicity, how will anyone notice them?"
"There's no point in noticing it! Isn't this just losing money to gain publicity? Even if you don't make money in business, you can't lose money on it! Are they stupid?"
Cheng Lin's words made everyone laugh.
"They won't keep selling like this forever. It'll probably only be a day or two. Okay, let's not talk about them anymore. Let's talk about our own. Do you want to know how much we sold this morning?"
Everyone experienced unprecedented ups and downs this morning, and Shi Xiaoai felt that an encouragement mechanism must be activated at this moment.
To calm everyone down and at the same time to encourage them.
After saying this, no one cared anymore whether others were making money or losing money, or how harsh the shouting of the person outside was.
Everyone agreed to divide the money, and then moved towards Shi Xiaoai at the same time.
Not only that, their eyes were bright, their faces were rosy, and their backs were straight.
It was as if those people who were too tired to move a minute ago were not them at all.
Sure enough, no matter what era, what workers care most about is their own wallets.
When several people surrounded Shi Xiao Ai and even little Cheng Kai went over to join in the fun, Cheng Yang silently stood up and walked to the door of the tent.
Half of his body was standing outside the tent, paying attention to the people coming and going, and the other half remained in the tent, his ears perked up quietly, obviously very concerned about his wife's performance in the morning.
Shi Xiaoai took out their record book.
Now, due to the poor conditions and incomplete accounts, she can only use a notebook to temporarily record the daily sales.
Fortunately, the varieties sold now are simple. Wang Xiaofeng only needs to report the number after baking 100 of them, and it doesn’t take much time to record.
She took out a pen and paper and calculated the number according to the number on it. The more she counted, the higher the corners of her lips curled up and the more she smiled.
"Today we bought a total of 535 stone-baked steamed buns and 100 pan-fried steamed buns. We also sold 100 tea eggs and 50 braised eggs. We sold 89 servings of braised pork rice, both meat and vegetable. So, our total sales this morning were... 223.40 yuan!"
Shi Xiaoai finished the calculation and reported the morning's sales.
"Two hundred and twenty-three!" Cheng Lin repeated softly, his voice hazy.
He looked at Shi Xiaoai and asked, "Sister-in-law, you didn't make a mistake, did you?"
Shi Xiaoai pushed the calculation paper in front of him and said, "Come, calculate it again."
Cheng Lin shook his head vigorously, saying, "No, no! I don't count. Sister-in-law, you must be right."
As he spoke, his mouth opened wider and wider, and finally he couldn't help laughing out loud.
Seeing his brother getting a little carried away, Cheng Yang coughed lightly.
Cheng Lin immediately covered his mouth, but he couldn't resist the excitement that welled up in his heart. He excitedly shouted in a breathy voice: "We're rich! We're rich!"
Wang Xiaofeng didn't act as exaggerated as he did, but she couldn't hide the surprise on her face.
She clutched the corner of her clothes tightly with her hands, as if this could make her appear more stable.
Shi Xiaoai looked at everyone and continued to calculate: "Today's stone buns are all baked by Xiaofeng. According to the commission of two cents, 535 should be 10.7 yuan."
After she said that, she counted out the corresponding amount of money from her schoolbag and handed it to Wang Xiaofeng.
Wang Xiaofeng was excited but a little embarrassed.
She never expected to get so much money today!
And that’s just one morning’s income.
With a blushing face, she took the money and held it tightly in her hand, lowering her head and a little afraid to face the gazes of the people around her.
"I made the steamed buns today, but Xiaolin rolled them. It must be hard work carrying so many steamed buns to sell at school. So I'll give you a commission of two cents per steamed bun, so one hundred steamed buns is two yuan."
As Shi Xiaoai spoke, she counted out a two-dollar bill and handed it to Cheng Lin.
"Thank you, sister-in-law!" Cheng Lin took it generously and put it into his pocket happily.
Everyone thought that was the end of it, but Xiao Ai continued, "Kaikai also made a contribution today. Not only did he help us steam rice, but he also brought us such a big pot of rice, solving a big problem for us. So I'll give you one dollar as a reward."
That's a good performance, but don't do it again. If you encounter something like this again, remember to come over and call for help, don't bring it here yourself."
After Shi Xiaoai finished speaking, she counted out a dollar and gave it to Cheng Kai.
Cheng Kai didn't expect that he would get money too. He excitedly reached out to take it.
But after getting the money, he felt confused again.
The little guy looked at the roll of bills in his hand, then looked at his pockets, and then looked at his two brothers and sister-in-law.
He turned around and stuffed the money back into Shi Xiaoai's hand, saying, "Sister-in-law, this money is for you. I don't want it. I can't eat for free at home."
Shi Xiaoai never thought that the little guy would behave like this.
She could only stuff the money back into the child's hand and say, "You didn't eat for free. Don't you know that your mother paid for your food? This is the result of your hard work, and you deserve it."
But Cheng Kai still pushed the money into her hand, and then put his hands behind his back to strongly express his refusal.
Seeing this, Cheng Lin had to explain for his brother: "Sister-in-law, please keep it for Kaikai. He has never spent any money at home."
Shi Xiaoai handed the money to Cheng Lin: "Please help Kaikai put it away first. When I have time, I will take you to the bank to open an account and deposit the money in your own passbook."
When the two children heard that they could have their own passbook, they were obviously excited, and this time no one refused.
Not only them, but also Wang Xiaofeng on the side pursed her lips and decided to sort out her money after returning home and deposit it in the bank as soon as possible.
After getting their own money, everyone happily prepared to disperse.
Who knew that at this time Xiao Ai spoke again: "Don't worry, what we just paid out was your commission, let's pay out the bonus now as well."
Several people sat back down again, their expressions even more shocked.
Everyone was very satisfied to receive so much money, but we didn’t expect there would be a bonus!
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