The Tender Beauty is Sweetly Doted in the 20th Century Novel!-Chapter 279 - 277: Ye Xiaotong Starts a Business

Ye Manman getting the top score in the province really took Ye Xiaotong by surprise.

In her impression, her younger sister had never been serious about studying, wasn’t very smart, and was easily controlled in every way.

But from a certain day, everything changed. She could no longer control Ye Manman and instead found herself falling behind.

Now that her husband was in jail and no one was there to help after the child was born, she could only use the few hundred yuan she had to start a business.

If He Chen, a farmer from the countryside, could make his business so successful, there was no reason why she couldn’t do the same in the same location.

After taking over the Love Vine Sweet and Spicy Duck shop from He Chen and Ye Manman, Ye Xiaotong immediately removed the signs and changed all of the second-floor layouts to suit her preferences.

She wanted to sell cold dishes too.

They are convenient and sell well.

However, she didn’t have the time to process and marinate duck meat, nor did she have the capital to start, so she opted to sell marinated vegetarian dishes.

These were simpler, and as long as she prepared the marinade a day in advance, it would be fine.

She also remembered how He Chen had operated on the first day of opening his store.

She mimicked him by setting up a sign at the store entrance, offering a free plastic bowl with every pound of cold dishes purchased and an additional pound for every five pounds purchased.

Believe it or not, the business was booming on the first day!

A lot of people came to buy her cold dishes. However, most people just bought one pound since cold dishes don’t last long; one pound was just enough for a dish, and they could get a free plastic bowl.

The plastic bowls were ones she ordered from a plastic manufacturer. Although they weren’t very pretty, they were practical—currently, the most popular reusable plastic bowls.

Despite the high cost, giving away a bowl to sell the cold dishes wasn’t a big deal.

After working all morning, her hands were so cramped from counting money, but Ye Xiaotong beamed with joy, carrying her child on her back.

"That’s really a big profit this time!"

Although the child had been crying non-stop all morning, she had no time to comfort him, so he cried himself to sleep.

Counting the money now, she felt that the physical exhaustion was nothing at all.

She kept a record of her expenses in the account book.

A batch of 100 plastic bowls cost 10 yuan. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Total expenditure on vegetables was 20 yuan, but she only used half.

Marinade expenses were 10 yuan, and there was enough left to continue.

The total expenditure was only 40 yuan, and she managed to set up shop.

This pile of money was definitely more than 40 yuan!

Ye Xiaotong happily sorted the large and small notes.

One cent, two cents, fifty cents, one yuan... although they’re all small notes, it looks like a lot.

She counted joyfully, but the more she counted, the more something seemed off.

It seemed like there was no big money.

There wasn’t even one large denomination note.

Clearly, she had sold all the dishes she had prepared today, yet she grew increasingly uneasy.

Until she counted the last batch of one-cent notes.

"Thirty-one yuan eight, thirty-one yuan nine, thirty-two..."

Gone.

How could it be gone!

Ye Xiaotong’s heart skipped a beat as she clutched the money, trying to recall any mistakes made in giving change or collecting money from customers.

No matter how hard she thought, she couldn’t find any errors.

She then checked the drawer carefully, only to find it empty!

She hadn’t even made back her capital!

How could that be!

She couldn’t believe it, but felt very anxious inside.

However, looking at the pile of unused vegetables and marinade in the kitchen, she felt relieved.

At least she could sell for one more day!

The next day, Ye Xiaotong got up early, leaving the child to sleep alone in the bedroom so he wouldn’t cry and disrupt the business.

However, without any promotions today, the entire morning only saw two customers buying a pound of vegetarian dishes each!

All the other dishes remained untouched!

Ye Xiaotong was puzzled, not understanding where the problem lay.

She had copied He Chen’s business model, with no significant differences!

The only difference was one sold meat dishes and the other vegetarian.

But vegetarian dishes were cheaper than meat, surely most people couldn’t afford the expensive meat?

She was utterly baffled.

After preparing and eating lunch, she returned upstairs to find that the child had somehow fallen onto the floor!

She was frightened and quickly ran over to pick him up.

"Wu, be good, Wu, be good, mom’s good son, don’t cry, don’t cry~"

She held Xie Yingwu, her tone of comforting the child had become quite practiced.

But Xie Yingwu seemed to have been lying on the cold floor too long, his face was a bit pale, and no matter how she comforted him, he continued crying with a hoarse voice.

Ye Xiaotong’s business hadn’t gone well today, making for a losing sale, so she was already in a foul mood.

Now, listening to the endless crying made her even more irritable. However, she still felt sorry for her son, so she tried hard to kiss him and rocked him gently.

But the more she tried, the harder Xie Yingwu cried, almost to the point of gasping for breath.

Ye Xiaotong suddenly realized the child might be unwell.

Being a new mom with no elders around to guide her, she couldn’t understand what was wrong with Wu, but could see something wasn’t quite right.

Although she had little money left, and the business was in loss, she promptly closed the shop and hurried to a small clinic.

The old doctor at the clinic was very experienced with children. He quickly diagnosed Xie Yingwu with catching a cold and having a fever.

Ye Xiaotong felt extremely guilty, immediately helping the doctor treat Xie Yingwu as instructed, letting him give the shot.

Before heading home, Ye Xiaotong held the continuously crying Xie Yingwu and carried several doses of children’s cold medicine.

The doctor had instructed her to feed the medicine at regular intervals. Although the medicine was more expensive than adult medication, she bought it anyway.

After all, he was her only son, and everything in her future would be for him, so she naturally needed to take good care of him.

That’s what Ye Xiaotong thought.

But when it came to actually feeding Wu the medicine, she almost lost her mind!

Wu was too young to understand what she was saying; whether she cajoled or scolded, he just cried.

When it came to giving him medicine, he refused to open his mouth, and after a struggle to get it in, he would spit it out.

The medication was quite expensive, she herself couldn’t afford such costly medicine, and seeing Wu waste it made Ye Xiaotong furious, joining in the crying.

The two of them faced each other, competing to see who could cry louder.

But in the end, Ye Xiaotong couldn’t bear to ignore her son.

While crying, she patiently figured out a way to feed him. After wasting several packs, she finally managed to get one down.

Going back and forth like this the entire afternoon, another day passed.

On that day, she only sold two pounds of the vegetarian dishes she had prepared.

This day, she had no time to buy more ingredients or prepare new dishes.

Firstly, she was exhausted, and secondly, she thought about the leftover dishes that could be sold the next day.

However, with the weather being too hot and lacking a refrigerator,

In the morning, just as she was preparing to open, she opened the counter to find all the dishes had spoiled!

The sour smell immediately indicated they had gone bad.

But Ye Xiaotong didn’t believe it.

She picked out and tossed the obviously spoiled ones, leaving those that didn’t seem visibly bad in the bowl.

After all, customers didn’t eat on the spot; if they found it spoiled after taking it home, she could always claim it went bad after leaving the shop.