CH 34

Previously, Xu Zhao had already tasted the four mooncake flavors. Although the flavors weren’t as exquisite as the mooncakes from the 21st century, since the ingredients were all natural and fresh, the flavors were also fresh and rich. Even Xu Jianguo had praised him, saying that these mooncakes were the best in recent years.

The curly-haired female boss would definitely think this as well.

However, due to a businessperson’s usual astuteness, the curly-haired woman definitely wouldn’t praise his mooncakes as delicious in front of him or else it would be harder to lower the price.  

Sure enough, the curly-haired woman quickly retracted her surprise as she slowly tasted it. She quickly finished the mooncake in her hand, then finally looked at Xu Zhao and very officially said three words, “It’s not bad.”

“There are other fillings. Do you want to try them?” Xu Zhao said.

“What other fillings are there? Tell me,” the curly-haired woman asked.

“For now, there’s five-nut, egg yolk, and yam paste,” Xu Zhao replied.

“There’s many kinds.” Because of the half a piece of mooncake, the curly-haired woman had a very friendly gaze towards Xu Zhao and became a lot kinder. However, she didn’t plan on trying and wanted to buy them directly. However, when she heard one piece of mooncake cost 28 cents, her expression immediately changed. “Why is it so expensive! The mooncakes from last year only cost 20 cents.”

“Prices are rising,” Xu Zhao said with a smile.

Yes, prices did in fact rise. The curly-haired woman was very clear about this, but buying a mooncake for 28 cents… wasn’t that a bit too expensive?

However, the mooncake was very delicious. Not to mention the filling, even the skin was very delicious. It was sweet but not greasy, soft and tasty. Even someone who didn’t like to eat mooncake like her was regretting that the other half was given to the little fat child, thus she wasn’t able to eat enough. That was to say, if this kind of mooncake went into the market, they would sell at least double than before.

However, one mooncake cost 28 cents. How will she be able to make a profit?

The curly-haired woman looked Xu Zhao up and down and asked, “Make it cheaper. I’ll buy a few to test if you make it cheaper.”

“I can’t lower the price. However, regardless of the price, you don’t have to pay the manufacturing cost,” Xu Zhao said with a smile.

“I won’t have to pay the manufacturing cost?” the curly-haired woman asked in surprise.

“Mn,” Xu Zhao said.

“Then what are you here for?” the curly-haired woman asked.

“I’m here to let you make easy money.”

The curly-haired woman became interested and asked, “And how will you do that?”

Xu Zhao smiled and said, “We’ll sell the mooncakes here. For each one sold, you’ll be given three cents commission. You won’t need to pay for the manufacturing cost of the mooncakes.”

“And what if they can’t be sold?” the curly-haired woman asked.

“If they can’t be sold, you can return them to me. You won’t have any losses.”

“You’ll do that? What exactly are you after?”

“I’m after small profits but high sales.” In fact, the profits wouldn’t be small.

Small profit but high sales—

The curly-haired woman certainly knew the meaning of these words. In fact small profits but high sales were the consistent style of some factories.

She was now weighing in her mind if it was more cost effective to buy the mooncakes herself or help sell the mooncakes instead. With the former, she might earn more profits, but she wouldn’t sell as much as the latter, since these mooncakes were very tasty and had the reputation of a state enterprise like West Prefecture Food Factory behind them, which was very reassuring.

The curly-haired lady boss thought it over and decided to compromise. That was, she would do both side by side. She would buy the mooncakes from last year, as well as help Xu Zhao sell mooncakes. Whichever made more money, she would choose that one. Therefore, she said, “All right. I’ll help you sell them.”

“Really?” Xu Zhao asked.

“Yes.”

“Then how about we write a written agreement?”

“Yo, kid. You even know about written agreements. You must have a higher education,” the curly-haired woman quipped.

Xu Zhao smiled shyly and said, “I understand just a bit. Most importantly, if it’s written in black and white, it will be fair and just, and everyone can be assured.”

“All right. Let’s write the agreement.”

“Okay.”

Xu Zhao and the curly-haired female boss discussed the details—and wrote them in the agreement. Afterward, Xu Zhao gave the curly-haired woman another piece of mooncake, then pulled Xu Fan from the store. At this time, Xu Fan had already finished eating his half of the mooncake. He lifted his small head and said, “Daddy, I didn’t eat my fill.”

“You don’t have to fill up on this. Just a taste is fine,” Xu Zhao said.

“T-then can I eat another mooncake later?” Xu Fan asked again.

“Yes, but we need to work first.”

“What kind of work?”

“Selling mooncakes.”

“I’ll also sell mooncakes!”

“Okay, let’s go.”

“Let’s go.”

Xu Zhao carried the bag of mooncakes with one hand, and his other pulled Xu Fan’s small hand. The father and son strolled under the shade of the tree, talking as they walked. When they saw a stop, they would stop, and Xu Zhao would take out his notebook with his observations from before and refamiliarize himself with it. Afterward, he would bring Xu Fan inside to inquire. Nearly every shop was willing to accept Xu Zhao’s method of making “easy money,” and signed a written agreement with him.

Even Xu Zhao was very surprised. Thinking it over, it was all thanks to this era. Since this era had just started, scammers, multi-level marketing, pyramid schemes, and all those other things that would spoil the social mood hadn’t appeared yet. Therefore, selling door-to-door like he was wasn’t as difficult as it would be in the future. Recruiting people was hard, and on the contrary, since he was sincere and used the reputation of a state enterprise like the West Prefecture Food Factory, these agreements were unexpectedly easy to obtain.

After all, everyone wanted to make “easy money.” Of course, it was also because the mooncakes were very delicious.

After talking to several shops in a row, Xu Zhao was tired, and Xu Fan was also tired. The father and son spent five cents to buy a large glass of soda and sat under the shade of the tree to drink it. Xu Zhao drank more than half, and the rest was given to Xu Fan to drink. Xu Fan’s small meaty hand clasped the white porcelain jar and covered his face with it before drinking the soda inside cleanly, then burped.

“Daddy, I finished,” Xu Fan said.

Xu Zhao pointed to the soda stall next to him and said, “Go return the porcelain jar to the people who sell sodas.”

Xu Fan immediately used his small legs and delivered the white porcelain jar to the soda stall. Afterwards, he ran back to sit by Xu Zhao’s side. Xu Zhao rubbed Xu Fan’s plump face. This child was really able to bear hardships. Although he carried Xu Fan and walked for a long time, Xu Fan didn’t cry out that he was tired or make a fuss. He was always energetic.

“Hungry?” Xu Zhao asked.

“No, I drank a lot of soda,” Xu Fan said.

Xu Zhao used a deliberating tone and asked Xu Fan, “Then let’s go to another three shops before eating, okay?”

“What will we eat?” Xu Fan asked back.

“What do you want to eat?”

“I want to eat noodles. Noodles with meat.”

“Sure. Let’s go and finish work first.”

“Finish work first!” Xu Fan especially loved repeating Xu Zhao’s words.

Xu Zhao pulled Xu Fan to another three shops. One of them rejected him, but it didn’t matter. In any case, he already had a lot of clients. It could be said that after more than half a day, the harvest was very rich. Afterward, Xu Zhao brought Xu Fan to a noodle shop, and specially ordered a large bowl of beef noodle soup and added a poached egg. He spent a total of 31 cents. 31 cents! It could be considered very luxurious.

However, when it was served, Xu Zhao and Xu Fan were very shocked. The bowl was large, it had a lot of noodles and meat. It was definitely worth the money, and was enough for both the father and son to get their fill.

Xu Zhao pulled half the noodles into a small bowl and gave it to Xu Fan.

Xu Fan reached out his hand to grab it.

Xu Zhao hurriedly said, “Xu Fan, what are you doing?”

“I’m eating noodles,” Xu Fan said.

“Aren’t you going to use chopsticks?”

“But, but… I don’t want to use chopsticks.”

Xu Zhao looked at Xu Fan and said, “How could you not use chopsticks? You’ll be three years old soon.”

“Chopsticks aren’t easy to use,” Xu Fan said.

“They are.” Xu Zhao handed the chopsticks to Xu Fan. “Eat.”

Xu Fan didn’t take the chopsticks. He looked at Xu Zhao and solemnly said, “I-If I use chopsticks… I won’t be able to eat my fill.”

Xu Zhao: “…”

This was the first time Xu Zhao heard this. Eating chopsticks won’t let you eat your fill… What kind of logic was this? Xu Zhao looked at the aggrieved Xu Fan, and couldn’t help but take a step back and said, “Use the chopsticks. We’ll go home after you eat your fill. How does that sound?”

“I can’t eat my fill,” Xu Fan insisted.

“Why not? Daddy thinks you can,” Xu Zhao said patiently.

“Cannot.”

“How about you try first? If you can’t eat your fill, you can use your hands instead, okay?” Xu Zhao said.

Xu Fan considered it and thought this was a good idea. Therefore, he nodded, his small meaty hand awkwardly held the chopsticks. Instead of saying he used the chopsticks to eat noodles, it would be better to say he used them to dig through the noodles. The beef noodles were made very well. The noodles were firm and the soup was flavorful. Xu Fan dug into the noodles, completely forgetting the matter that “if he used chopsticks, he won’t be able to eat his fill.” Not only did he eat about half the noodles, he also ate meat and poached egg, his tiny mouth oily from all the food.

“Have you eaten your fill?” Xu Zhao asked after they finished eating.

“I’m full.” Xu Fan giggled.

Xu Zhao didn’t mention the matter of using hands to eat, and used a towel to wipe the oil off of Xu Fan’s mouth, and said, “Let’s go home.”

Xu Fan said, “Let’s go home.” He ran to the front as soon as he said those words.

“Go slowly. Don’t run. You just finished eating, so you can’t run,” Xu Zhao reminded.

Xu Fan turned back and said, “I’m going to find Second Grandpa Cui.”

“Second Grandpa Cui went home already. We’re going to ride in an even bigger car.”

“Even bigger car?”

Afterward, Xu Zhao took Xu Fan to ride the bus heading to Jiang Ping County.

The bus was a lot bigger than Cui Dingchen’s black compact car. Adding on the fact that it was just after the afternoon, so there weren’t a lot of people. The bus appeared to be very spacious, making Xu Fan extremely excited, constantly calling out, “very big car!” In any case, in Xu Fan’s eyes, there was no such thing as small cars, and Xu Zhao didn’t want to correct it. Once he grew a bit older, he’d naturally be able to distinguish the two. For now, he’d let Xu Fan get excited over the big cars.

However, the excitement didn’t last long before Xu Fan fell asleep in Xu Zhao’s embrace. The little guy had gained weight, his body was very meaty and he was a bit heavy. However, he was obviously a lot cuter.

Xu Zhao hugged Xu Fan while sitting by the window. He looked at the scenery outside the window, but was thinking about the mooncake matters. He had already won over those small shops. Now there was still Sister Yun’s entire factory as well as Sister Yun’s partner at the cigarette factory. If he could win over these two factories, he would make at least one thousand Yuan. One thousand Yuan would turn him from poverty-stricken to well-off.

Therefore, he mentally planned how he was going to persuade Sister Yun. He planned all the way until they arrived at the county town, and at this time, Xu Fan still hadn’t woken up. Xu Zhao gently patted Xu Fan’s small face and said, “Wake up. We’re here.”

Xu Fan grumbled and nested towards Xu Zhao’s neck, unwilling to wake up.

“Don’t sleep. Get down and walk or else you won’t be able to sleep tonight,” Xu Zhao said.

Xu Fan blinked twice. He wanted to sleep, not walk.

“Sanwa, what about your big car?” Xu Zhao could only say.

Xu Fan immediately opened his eyes as he looked in his arms, then asked, “Where’s my big car?”

“Yes, where is your big car?” Xu Zhao asked back.

Xu Fan immediately looked around, at a loss.

“Come down quickly, and I’ll help you find your big car, okay?” Xu Zhao said.

Xu Fan immediately got down, and anxiously looked inside Xu Zhao’s bag of mooncakes.

Xu Zhao took the big car out from the bag of mooncakes and said, “Oh, so it was here.”

Xu Fan immediately stretched out his tiny arms and said, “Gimme.”

Xu Zhao smiled and said, “Here. Let’s go home.”

Xu Fan finally woke up, one hand wrapped around his big car as his other hand held Xu Zhao’s hand. They walked toward Fan’s Little Shop, and when they got there, his sleepiness had disappeared, and he vigorously and lively called out Grandma and Grandpa, telling them that he had sat in a big car and an even bigger car as he ran around.

Father Xu laughed as he listened. He reached out his hand to pat Xu Fan’s head.

Mother Xu’s smile was unnatural, like she was hiding something in her heart.

Xu Zhao looked at Mother Xu, sensing that something was wrong and asked, “Mom, what’s wrong?”