Chapter 280: The Opening of the Porridge Shop
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“I will love everyone in the house. While I love you, I will also protect your family.
“Because they are also my family.”
Song Que felt very touched.
He hugged the woman in his arms tighter.
“So, she’s not you.
“And the only person I will fall in love with is you.”
Qin Xiaoyao’s heart trembled momentarily, and all her worries disappeared.
She hugged Song Que and squeezed him harder. She felt very sweet and blissful inwardly.
“In the future, we’ll live as a happy family,” Song Que murmured.
“Mm-hmm.”
Over the next few days, many people came to the Song family’s house.
Qin Xiaoyao and Song Que also took advantage of the holidays to visit other families.
The two of them finally had some free time on the fifth day of the New Year.
They spent another two days at home leisurely. On the seventh day of the New Year, the two of them began to get busy.
On the eighth day of the New Year, Song’s Porridge Shop was officially open for business.
Many people came to the shop early in the morning.
Most of them were Song Que’s colleagues in the government office and officers from the army.
There were many commoners nearby who came to join in the fun. After all, when Song’s Porridge Shop was being renovated, there was a lot of commotion. Today was the opening day, and the shop even had a promotional event.
The porridge sold in the porridge shop was mainly porridge with pork and century egg, century egg porridge, vegetable porridge, eight treasure congee, and plain porridge.
In terms of price, the porridge with pork and century egg was the most expensive. One bowl cost 10 copper coins.
The century egg porridge was 8 copper coins, followed by the eight treasures congee which was 6 copper coins. The vegetable porridge was 4 copper coins, and the plain porridge was only 3 copper coins.
In addition to selling porridge, the shop also sold buns with fillings, steamed buns, spring rolls, sesame balls, sticky rice cake, deep-fried dough sticks, and so on. The prices were the same as the market prices.
In addition, the pickled vegetables in the shop were free. Every customer who went there to purchase something could get a small plate of pickled vegetables for free.
In short, it was a premium breakfast shop from before the apocalypse.
On the opening day, customers who came to the shop would get 1 copper coin discount for every 10 copper coins spent.
At the same time, Qin Xiaoyao also launched a membership card service.
If a customer was willing to spend 100 copper coins to apply for a VIP card, he could pay 2 copper coins less for every 10 copper coins spent at Song’s Porridge Shop.
The porridge and breakfast items from Song’s Porridge Shop were indeed delicious, and they were not expensive compared to the current prices in Mountain Spring Town. In the end, many people chose to apply for a VIP card.
Wang Xiaomei assisted Qin Xiaoyao to sell things and collect payments while conducting other business transactions at the same time. Qin Xiaoyao was extremely busy but happy.
In addition to the customers who dined in, Song’s Porridge Shop also provided takeaway services. Customers could bring their own utensils or pay a deposit to use the utensils provided by the shop.
In the morning, many customers would also order takeaways after eating.
As a result, the porridge that Song’s Porridge Shop had prepared in advance was sold out very quickly.
It was not only the porridge, but also the small steamed dumplings, spring rolls, sesame balls, and sticky rice cake that sold very quickly.
Madam Liu, Song Yun, and the three middle-aged female helpers they hired worked in the back hall. They almost never stopped their work.
They were always busy cooking porridge, malting steamed buns, or frying spring rolls, sesame balls, and so on.
When the cooked items were ready, Liu Erniu, who was working as a waiter in the shop, would quickly send the cooked items to the outer hall for Qin Xiaoyao and Wang Xiaomei to sell.
However, no matter how fast they worked, the speed of food production could not keep up with the speed of sales outside, and the kitchen was constantly pressed to rush.
It wasn’t until 10 am that the number of customers in the porridge shop finally decreased.
Everyone who had been busy could finally heave a sigh of relief.
When it was past noon and there were only one or two customers left in the shop, Qin Xiaoyao allowed everyone to rest and eat.
The meal naturally comprised the porridge and food items left in the shop.
Everyone was exhausted, and the porridge and food items were delicious, so they ended up eating a lot without realizing it.
This was especially true for the three middle-aged female helpers that Qin Xiaoyao had hired. All three ate until they almost burst.
It was mainly because food was so precious now. They were poor and could not bear to eat such thick porridge back home. Furthermore, there were so many food items available.
The three of them worked in the porridge shop and so they naturally knew the price of these food items.
Based on what they ate, each person’s meal easily cost more than 20 copper coins.
In addition to their daily salary of 50 copper coins, they reaped quite a lot.
It was a pity that the staff could not have takeaway for the items in the shop.
Even though the food items were half-price for staff takeaways, the three women still felt that it was a little expensive.
Qin Xiaoyao didn’t say anything when she saw this.
Instead, she said that everyone had worked hard today and had to eat their fill.
The porridge shop was only open in the morning and noon, but judging from today’s situation, the business was too good, and everyone’s workload was not light.
Therefore, after closing the shop, Qin Xiaoyao talked to everyone about recruiting more people on the way back.
“We need to make some adjustments to our work process,” Qin Xiaoyao said.
“From now on, Xiaomei will be in charge of selling porridge and collecting money. Yun’er and Mother will work together with her.”
If Qin Xiaoyao was free, she could also go to work as a cashier. However, she could not guarantee that she would be there every day.
The ideal situation for the porridge shop should be that it could still operate normally without her.
The three people whom Qin Xiaoyao named were caught by surprise.
“Er… will it work? Why don’t I stay in the back hall and help make the buns?” Madam Liu said doubtfully.
Although the back hall was busy, she didn’t have to face or deal with guests, so she felt that she could still do it.
However, if she went to the front hall, she would have to pick the food items for the customers and collect money. She was afraid that she would not be able to cope.
Song Yun also looked at Qin Xiaoyao anxiously.
She wanted to go to the front hall to help, but she was also worried that she would not be able to handle it.
Qin Xiaoyao chuckled.
“Don’t worry. It doesn’t matter if you guys are slow. I’ll be watching from the side for the next few days, and Xiaomei will be there too, so things won’t go wrong.”
Wang Xiaomei looked at the two of them and said, “That’s right! In fact, the work in the front hall is not complicated. You just have to help pick the food items and total up the bill. With Yun’er and Aunt Song’s arithmetic abilities, it won’t be difficult to handle these tasks.
“As for the customers who want to apply for the card, you can let Mrs. Song handle it.” As she spoke, Wang Xiaomei looked at Qin Xiaoyao.
The corner of Qin Xiaoyao’s mouth curled up. “Sure. For the next few days, I’ll take care of all the customers who apply for the card.”
In the future, she was also prepared to hand this task over to Wang Xiaomei.
After all, her original plan was to let Wang Xiaomei take charge of this porridge shop. Of course, this could only be possible after the porridge shop was well on the right track.
When Madam Liu and Song Yun heard this, they felt more at ease and they finally consented to the arrangement.
“Then the back hall…” Madam Liu asked again.
She was worried that without her daughter and herself, the back hall wouldn’t be able to cope.
“I’ll hire two more people to help make the food in the back hall. Also, I will hire an extra person to do odd jobs and wash the dishes in the kitchen.”
She didn’t expect the business to be so good. Madam Liu and the others were also doing the chores and washing the dishes in the back hall.
This way, the speed at which the kitchen produced cooked food slowed down, affecting the speed at which the shop could serve the customers.
Since the manual work wasn’t much, things would be much easier if more people shared the burden and everyone had their own duties.
“I’ve already asked Erniu to go back and ask Aunt Liu. If she’s willing to come over, we’ll let her do the odd jobs and washing chores,” Qin Xiaoyao said.
“And there’s the Liu family’s Xiaomei. If she’s willing to come over and help with the cooking, we only need to hire one more person..”