The Evil Mother-in-law: Torment Children, Work Hard, Be Rich!-Chapter 156: Taohua Learns Bookkeeping
Tong Huaqiong and Gu Dahuan came to the temple to take a look around.
The temple has an entrance with two courtyards, and the space is quite large.
Due to being abandoned for a long time, the courtyard is overgrown with plants, and the steps and eaves are dilapidated from being battered by wind and rain.
Tong Huaqiong thought for a moment and realized that the space in the front courtyard could be expanded into a pig farm, which could easily accommodate hundreds of pigs.
There is also a well in the yard.
It’s just what Tong Huaqiong had hoped for.
A pig farm needs a lot of water, so there will be no need to fetch it from the village anymore.
Although the paint has peeled off the buildings, the construction materials are made of solid high-quality blue bricks, which can be repaired to house people and store a lot of pig feed.
The abandoned statues of Buddha are cracked or broken, with some entwined by vines. Tong Huaqiong planned to move them to an empty room.
Before cleaning, Tong Huaqiong sincerely lit an incense stick.
Having taken over the abandoned temple as a pig farm, Tong Huaqiong could finally put her mind at ease and planned to leave the expansion work to Gu Dahuan, while she returned to oversee the shop in town.
"Can I leave the pig farm work to you without any problem?" Tong Huaqiong asked Gu Dahuan.
"No problem at all. Mom, don’t worry; the pigs will definitely be fat and sturdy by the end of the year." Gu Dahuan promised confidently, patting his chest.
Tong Huaqiong believed in her stepson’s talent in farming and pig raising.
"Since you’re setting up a pig farm, you don’t need to do everything yourself. You can hire people from the village to clean up the temple. Just offer some wages, like to Uncle Guangkui," Tong Huaqiong suggested to Gu Dahuan.
Gu Dahuan had the same thought.
However, his stepmother was being too formal with her business dealings in town; villagers help each other without needing money.
They are not employees of the shop, after all.
"...Mom, there’s no need to pay. We all live in the same village and everyone is willing to help out. Just provide a good meal," Gu Dahuan said.
Tong Huaqiong nodded; since she entrusted it to Gu Dahuan, she would not interfere.
The idea of paying wages was influenced by her experience in the modern business world, forgetting the neighborly ecosystem of the village. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚
In the village, whether it’s building a house or hosting an event, neighbors always pitch in to help.
Gu Dahuan often helped villagers with their work.
Paying wages could seem too formal and make those helping feel uncomfortable.
If employees are needed when the pig farm is running, then they could discuss wages.
Once the pig farm arrangements were settled, Tong Huaqiong went to town early the next day before dawn.
She rolled up her sleeves, donned a head cover, and entered the bakery, getting busy with Chen Sufen.
Liu Shan’s wife, Hu Family, assisted on the side, and Liu Xiuxiu, who came to learn, handed things over.
Everyone in the bakery wore clean uniforms, head covers, shoe covers, and gloves the entire time while working.
This was Tong Huaqiong’s rule.
Since these are pastries, they must meet hygiene standards.
As the first batch of fresh pastries came out, a long line had already formed outside Taohua Dessert.
The desserts at Taohua Dessert were divided into two main categories: those that could be made a day in advance and those freshly baked.
The ones made in advance were cheaper, while the freshly baked ones were slightly more expensive.
But they basically met everyone’s needs.
Since the wheat harvest season had passed, Yan Guan Town’s market became lively again, and Taohua Dessert’s business returned to its initial bustling state.
Tong Huaqiong stayed in the kitchen from morning till night, so busy that she couldn’t straighten her back.
At closing time, Tong Huaqiong flipped through the ledger, a satisfied smile on her face.
"Mom, we received a few new orders today: three birthday cakes for children and two birthday cakes for adults. The two kids’ cakes are to be picked up the day after tomorrow, and the remaining three orders will be delivered then," Taohua said, organizing the orders.
Currently, Taohua Dessert has three business lines.
The first line is traditional Chinese pastries, managed by Chen Sufen, with Hu Family assisting.
The two work very well together.
Traditional Chinese pastries are the core business of the shop.
After all, in this era, most people commonly eat traditional pastries, which are also easy to store and make great gifts for visiting friends and family.
This line of business at Taohua Dessert is already very mature, and Tong Huaqiong has no worries about it.
The second line consists of innovative pastries like cake rolls and taro puff pastries, managed by Tong Huaqiong.
Chen Sufen has been learning for a while and has already caught on.
The reason Tong Huaqiong doesn’t fully involve her is that many of the ingredients need to be obtained from her spatial resource.
These innovative products are priced relatively high due to their rarity, making Taohua Dessert stand out from other pastry shops.
Due to the difficulty of obtaining many ingredients in this era, they are considered secret products of Taohua Dessert, and even though the prices are slightly high, they are still popular with customers.
Beyond that, Tong Huaqiong has independently developed a cake reservation business line.
This line is handled by Gu Taohua.
All cakes of any form need to be reserved at least a day in advance. Tong Huaqiong and Gu Taohua prepare them in their spatial resource before bed, and Man Er retrieves them the next day.
The business volume on this line isn’t large yet, and Tong Huaqiong and Gu Taohua can handle it.
When the cake business line expands, Tong Huaqiong plans to spin it off to develop a high-end customization line as in her previous life.
This will require a professional cake designer.
And this cake designer is different from traditional pastry making. Since it’s high-end customization, the designer needs to have a good aesthetic sense and be able to create cakes based on different customer needs.
Training someone like this isn’t easy.
Gu Taohua is a suitable candidate, but she hopes to groom Gu Taohua to oversee product and store operations as a whole because Gu Taohua can do more than just be a cake designer.
Tong Huaqiong sighed, thinking it would be great if the bakers from Crispy Food Garden were willing to come to Taohua Dessert.
One should not underestimate the bakers of Crispy Food Garden, who have dominated Yan Guan Town for more than ten years. Besides Manager Feng’s strong methods, their success is also due to the bakers’ contributions.
The reason they couldn’t outperform Taohua Dessert wasn’t because of lack of skill, but because Tong Huaqiong had access to special resources.
No matter how good the technique, it can’t perform well without the right ingredients.
At the current stage, she dared not poach talent openly.
So she would take it one step at a time.
Given the declining business of Crispy Food Garden, perhaps one day those bakers will voluntarily switch to Taohua Dessert, just like Hong Xiaoxi.
"Taohua, you should learn to keep the books with me." Tong Huaqiong took out the ledger and said to Gu Taohua.
Since she was grooming Gu Taohua to take over Taohua Dessert, understanding the accounts was essential.
Gu Taohua wasn’t very enthusiastic. She was already exhausted from the day’s work, and now her mother wouldn’t even give her a breather by asking her to review the ledger at night.
"Taohua, you told me the other day that you wanted to learn how to run the business well. Now I’m asking you to look at the books and you’re not willing?" Tong Huaqiong scolded.
Gu Taohua could only sit beside her mother and start flipping through the ledger.
To be honest, she struggled to understand it.
"Xiao Ma," Tong Huaqiong called out to Ma Huateng.
"Shopkeeper, what do you need?" Ma Huateng came over and asked.
"Starting tomorrow, teach Taohua how to use an abacus to keep accounts," Tong Huaqiong assigned Ma Huateng a new task.
Ma Huateng glanced at Gu Taohua and said, "Isn’t that beyond my work scope?"
Tong Huaqiong rolled her eyes, understanding that the youth wanted to negotiate.
She knew he was angling for a pay raise.
"I’ll add one hundred wen to your monthly salary," Tong Huaqiong said.
"Alright!" Ma Huateng agreed with delight.
After Ma Huateng left, Tong Huaqiong told Gu Taohua, "That one hundred wen per month is the tuition I’m paying, so study hard—there will be a test."
Seeing no way to escape, Gu Taohua had to agree.
