The Evil Mother-in-law: Torment Children, Work Hard, Be Rich!-Chapter 184: Forced Scarcity Marketing

Tong Huaqiong finished breakfast and started heading to town.

She knew the Tong Fusheng family wouldn’t be satisfied without checking out her shop, but she didn’t expect them to want to destroy Gu Taohua completely.

Tong Huaqiong told Gu Dashu not to go anywhere today and to focus entirely on safeguarding Taohua Dessert, especially to prevent the Tong Fusheng family from causing trouble.

"Mom, don’t worry. I can definitely handle their family," Gu Dashu patted his chest in assurance.

The hired carriage was already waiting at the door early in the morning. Tong Huaqiong took Gu Taohua, Liu Yueer, and Chen Sufen onto the carriage.

Gu Dashu and Qin Qingyou followed behind, driving donkey carts borrowed from the Liu Family and Qin Family, with Gu Xiaocao, Liu Qiaoyun, Liu Yueer’s sister-in-law from the Hu Family, and Liu Xiuxiu sitting in them.

Tong Huaqiong gave Gu Dashu some silver to buy two donkey carts, as they couldn’t keep borrowing from the Liu Family.

Gu Dashu was still in the process of selecting donkeys and negotiating.

The carriage swiftly sped towards the town.

Tong Fusheng, with his wife and children, walked towards Yan Guan Town along the shady parts of the fields.

Tong Huaqiong’s carriage sped past, not glancing towards the fields, naturally missing Tong Fusheng and his group.

The wind lifted the carriage curtain, revealing Gu Taohua’s hand resting on the windowsill, her big gold bracelets immediately recognized by Tong Zhaodi as those belonging to Gu Taohua.

Tong Zhaodi pointed at the departing carriage and said, "Dad, Mom, look, that’s Auntie’s carriage."

Tong Fusheng, tired and hot from walking, cursed through gritted teeth, "Wings have hardened, wings have hardened, she doesn’t even care about her brother anymore."

Tong Zhijie gritted his teeth and said, "Dad, wait for me to avenge you."

Originally, he didn’t want to marry Gu Taohua, but now he couldn’t wait to bring her home to repay the humiliation he suffered at Auntie’s house in the past few days.

Tong Huaqiong arrived at Taohua Dessert, first changing into her work clothes. Once everyone gathered, she held a brief morning meeting before tidying up and entering the baking room.

Currently, the baking room was managed by Chen Sufen. Liu Yueer’s sister-in-law, Hu from the Hu Family, was already adept, and Liu Xiuxiu could also help with common tasks. Still, the three of them, working non-stop, found it hard to bake all the day’s needs.

Many customers, having stood in line for a long time, left empty-handed.

Initially, Tong Huaqiong focused all her energy on managing the shop, but now she also had to enter the baking room to bake personally.

This took up too much of her energy, making it impossible for her to manage the shop effectively.

Although Gu Taohua could bear some responsibilities, she was only fourteen and hadn’t yet fully learned how to read the accounts, let alone handle core shop issues like staff wages, store cost control, raw material procurement, and profit ratios.

These days, the baking room was operating non-stop, yet some popular products still couldn’t meet customer demand.

Tong Huaqiong felt a bit anxious.

The so-called "hunger marketing" relies on controlling production to maintain product pricing, enhance product added value, and increase its influence.

It wasn’t meant to be left unable to meet demand due to insufficient production.

Even though hunger marketing is a good strategy, it can’t be used frequently as it will tire and annoy customers.

Besides the production issue, there’s also the cake reservation problem.

Currently, Taohua Dessert has sparked a cake craze in Yan Guan Town and the surrounding area: cakes for opening ceremonies, full moon celebrations, elderly birthdays, birthdays of children from wealthy families... Families come daily to order cakes at Taohua Dessert.

Chen Sufen and Hu from the Hu Family had to save time for making cakes, and Liu Xiuxiu, with her skillful hands, managed the icing and decoration.

Creating a cake, from baking the base to completion, also required significant effort from the baking room.

Tong Huaqiong planned to hire a few more people in the baking room.

She planned to open three separate baking lines for new style pastries, traditional pastries, and cake orders, with each line having specialized masters. This way, the specialization would be stronger, and bakers wouldn’t be overburdened across categories.

Following Hong Xiaoxi’s recommendation, Tong Huaqiong recruited a Master Song from Crispy Food Garden to manage the traditional pastries.

Today was Master Song’s first official working day. With him present, Tong Huaqiong could breathe a little easier.

Hong Xiaoxi, while at Taohua Dessert, maintained contact with the clerks and masters at Crispy Food Garden. He revealed that since Crispy Food Garden changed managers, business had deteriorated, prompting the owner, Ma Ming, to manage the shop personally.

Yet even under pressure from Taohua Dessert, things had not improved.

There was no need for Hong Xiaoxi to report to Tong Huaqiong; passing by Crispy Food Garden’s front, she could see their sparse customers and knew that Crispy Food Garden was declining.

Tong Huaqiong had some admiration for Manager Feng; though he was somewhat unscrupulous, he did indeed have some skills.

He had managed to have Crispy Food Garden dominate Yan Guan Town for over a decade, which was quite an ability.

If he wasn’t of poor character and hadn’t become an enemy, Tong Huaqiong would have considered hiring him to oversee her shop.

According to Hong Xiaoxi, several clerks and masters had approached him, inquiring if Taohua Dessert needed staff, as they wanted to find a new path before Crispy Food Garden closed.

Taohua Dessert naturally needed people.

But besides hiring a baking Master Zhou, Tong Huaqiong wasn’t planning on accepting anyone else easily.

She was waiting for Ma Ming of Crispy Food Garden to approach her.

Crispy Food Garden was essentially dragging out its decline; Ma Ming, if smart, would likely come to offer the shop to her. If events played out as Tong Huaqiong anticipated, she wouldn’t mind acquiring the shop and its staff altogether.

Tong Huaqiong could seek out Ma Ming actively, but doing so would put her in a passive position.

She didn’t want Ma Ming to use the opportunity to raise the price.

Customers were constantly coming to Taohua Dessert; the first batch of pastries was snapped up in no time.

Considering the intense summer heat and customers waiting in line, Tong Huaqiong instructed the shop to prepare green bean soup so that everyone visiting could enjoy a bowl for free, even if they weren’t buying anything.

This gesture helped alleviate the frustration caused by queuing, earning praises that Taohua Dessert was a conscientious shop.

Even if some didn’t intend to buy pastries, they would swing by Taohua Dessert to enjoy a bowl of green bean soup.

While Tong Huaqiong was busy in the baking room, Gu Dashu kept an eye on the queuing customers, just in case Tong Fusheng brought his family to cause a scene, per Tong Huaqiong’s reminder.

Tong Fusheng, with his family, finally reached Yan Guan Town after a long walk from the mountains.

Tong Zhaodi, having learned from Liu Yueer that Tong Huaqiong’s shop was called Taohua Dessert, began asking around for its location upon arriving in town.

As a popular spot in Yan Guan Town, both the residents and visiting villagers knew the address of Taohua Dessert.

Just after asking a couple of people, Tong Fusheng learned the exact address of Taohua Dessert.

And so, the family headed towards Rouge Alley.