CHAPTER 153: CHAPTER 153: SEARCHING FOR A BOOTH TOGETHER (3)

"What are you selling?"

The Second Young Master pointed at the two big jars on the small cart, "Selling baked pastries."

"Five coins."

The Second Young Master handed over five coins.

A man handed over a piece of paper stamped with a seal and date, "Hold onto this. It will be checked later. If you lose it, it counts as tax evasion, and you’ll be fined ten times the amount."

"Got it." The Second Young Master took the paper and placed it securely in his coat pocket.

Everyone continued moving forward.

Soon, they reached the place where they had bought buns last time.

Li Yuzhu said, "Hold on a moment."

She stood next to the bun shop, surveying the surroundings.

Opposite the bun shop was a noodle shop. To the left of the noodle shop was a dry goods store.

The left of the bun shop sold sesame oil, and on the right, where she stood, was an empty space. Walking back from there would lead to the market exit.

This was the edge of the market stalls.

The Second Princess hadn’t done any business today, and seeing the buns didn’t whet her appetite.

She urged Li Yuzhu, "Third Sister, why aren’t we moving? What are you looking at?"

Li Yuzhu smiled and pointed at the ground, "Let’s set up our stall here."

The Second Princess blinked in surprise, "Huh? Set up a stall here? This... this is the market entrance, there’s hardly anyone here."

Li Yuzhu replied, "No matter if there are people on the street or not, as long as the bun shop is open, if we set up a stall, there will definitely be customers."

The Great Princess said, "Li Yuzhu, are you out of your mind? Setting up a stall next to a bun shop? If people buy buns, would they still buy dry pastries?"

The Second Princess frowned, "Yeah, Third Sister, the Big Sister is right."

Li Yuzhu smiled, "How will you know it won’t work if you don’t try? If we can’t sell here, we can just move on."

"Right, Third Sister makes sense. If it doesn’t work, we’ll just move to another spot. The workshop supervisor didn’t say we can’t change locations." Li Xing’an agreed with Li Yuzhu’s suggestion.

Second Young Master saw a lot of people buying buns over at the bun shop, and urged, "Quick, get the jars down, look, there are a lot of people buying buns over there."

Xue Family lightly grunted, "But none of the people buying buns are looking this way."

"Get the jars down and put a few baked pastries on top of them." Li Yuzhu instructed.

Second Young Master lifted one jar.

Mu Yuanxiu wanted to lift the other, but Li Xing’an got there first, "Leave it, I’ll do it. How can we let an outsider always do our family’s business? It would seem like my sister doesn’t have brothers."

He gritted his teeth and used all his strength to lift the jar off the cart.

Mu Yuanxiu raised an eyebrow, "Third Brother Li, I didn’t think that much."

"Alright, from now on, whatever involves my sister, her brothers will take care of it, you don’t need to worry." The Second Young Master patted Mu Yuanxiu on the shoulder.

If Mu Yuanxiu did everything, the sisters would think their brothers are useless and might fancy other men, and that’s unacceptable.

Li Yuzhu laughed, watching the two brothers bicker again.

"I’ve wrapped the pastries now, so all of you help call out, as loudly as possible." Li Yuzhu said.

She packed two bags of baked pastries.

One bag had six, the other had thirteen.

The bag of six was a deal where you buy five and get one free, and the bag of ten was buy ten and get three free.

Li Xing’an and the Second Young Master looked at each other, neither daring to speak first.

The Great Princess, the Second Princess, and Xue Family didn’t dare shout either.

Li Yuzhu was speechless, "Fine, I’ll do it."

She cleared her throat and was about to shout when Mu Yuanxiu next to her called out first, "Freshly baked pastries, crispy and golden on both sides, one coin each, buy five get one free, buy ten get three free!"

Li Yuzhu was surprised as she looked at him. This boy, who usually wasn’t talkative, dared to loudly advertise their wares?

Once he shouted, Li Xing’an and the Second Young Master, unwilling to lose face, immediately started shouting as well.

The three handsome young men stood in a row, alternately shouting loud and soft, attracting quite a bit of attention.

The Second Princess, emboldened for her own business, shouted along, "Buy one get five free."

After shouting, she was so scared she wished she could bite her own tongue off.

Oh no, what did I just shout?

C’mon, passersby, please don’t hear what I just shouted. Please don’t hear it, Amitabha.

The Great Princess secretly pinched her and whispered, "Li Yu En, are you crazy? Buy one get five free?"

"I-I-I... I accidentally shouted wrong," the Second Princess wanted to cry.

It was her first day doing business, how did she get it so wrong?

Soon enough, a middle-aged plump woman, who had just bought some buns and was carrying a basket, came over with a smile.

Judging by her outfit, her family should be quite well-off.

Because she had a golden hairpin in her hair, golden earrings dangling from her ears, and was wearing fine cloth clothing.

Although the gold accessories were of poor quality and were the cheapest jewelry, compared to people in the village, this was wealthy.

People in the village, you hardly see anyone wearing gold accessories on their heads.

The Xue Family, seeing her hair accessories, mocked silently in her heart, such an outdated style; in the Capital, women stopped wearing such patterned accessories ten years ago.

"Hey, little lads, are the pancakes really buy one get five free for a coin?" The woman walked up, staring at the two bags of pancakes on the jar and asked.

The Second Princess was startled, waving her hands repeatedly, "No, no, no, no, no, it’s buy five get one free. Five pancakes for five coins, and you get one extra."

The plump woman rolled her eyes, "I’m sure I heard you say buy one get five free."

Is she here to pick a fight?

The Second Young Master and Li Xing’an immediately frowned, ready to argue with her.

Li Yuzhu quickly said, "Auntie, anyone can tell you’re from a wealthy family. If you were to buy a ’buy one get five free’ item, wouldn’t your neighbors laugh at you for buying lousy goods instead of praising your purchase? As the saying goes, ’you get what you pay for.’ These days, if someone sells something at ’buy one get five free,’ how bad could it be? Is it usable, is it edible? Auntie, what do you think?"

The plump woman snorted, "You were the ones shouting it, not me demanding it."

Li Yuzhu laughed, "You must’ve misheard. We shouted ’buy five get one free, buy ten get three free.’ We used to set up stalls in other towns, and it’s our first time here today. Since we are new faces, we are offering special discounts to attract people: buy five get one free. Next time we come to sell roasted pancakes, it won’t be buy five get one free anymore. Five coins for five, ten coins for ten, and not one free."

The plump woman hesitated on whether to buy or not.

Li Yuzhu handed her a portion of a pancake, breaking off a third and putting it in her hand, "Auntie, try it. If it’s tasty, buy a few. If you don’t love it, just shout a few times for us to help draw in some crowd."

"Let me have a taste." The plump woman, even more ample than the Second Princess, with that figure, looked like she could eat.

As long as it’s not extraordinarily bad, they’ll normally accept new food.

Sure enough, the moment a small piece of the crispy, tender on the inside, sesame-crusted roasted pancake touched her mouth, the plump woman’s eyes lit up.

"Young lady, did you just say, buy five get one free? Buy ten get three free?"

Li Yuzhu nodded, "Yes, buy five and you get one more, only five coins. Buy ten and get three extra, just ten coins; you’d better go for ten, it’s a better deal. With a large family, thirteen roasted crisp pancakes will be gone with everyone having one."

The plump woman began bargaining, "How about buying ten and giving me four for free? I’ll buy if that’s the deal, otherwise, I won’t."

The Second Princess was delighted, business was coming in, "Ah, that, Auntie—"

But was held back by Li Yuzhu.

She shook her head with a smile, "No deal, giving away one more would be at a loss. Our pancakes have filling inside, far more complex than making buns. You bought so many buns, and the shopkeeper didn’t give you any free, did he? Yet you want us to give you four, this... this business won’t work, we can’t sell it."

The Great Princess, Second Princess, and the Xue Family all stared at her.

Li Yuzhu would have to be a fool not to do business!

The plump woman was persuaded by Li Yuzhu to look at the buns in her basket, indeed, she bought ten buns, and the bun shop’s shopkeeper didn’t give a single free one.

So buying ten roasted crisp pancakes was obviously more affordable.

"Okay, okay, you young girls and boys are working hard doing business, I’ll be a good Samaritan and help you out." She fished out ten coins from her pocket, "Buy ten, get three free."

"Alright." Li Yuzhu happily took the money and urged the Second Princess to pack the roasted pancakes.

"Ah, ah, coming." The Second Princess came to her senses and quickly packed them up.

She carefully handed them over to the woman.

The woman tossed the pancakes into her basket and walked off happily.

The Second Princess glanced at the ten coins in her palm and breathed a sigh of relief. She cheerfully put them into her pocket.

"Third Sister, I was scared to death just now, I thought when you chased her away, she wouldn’t buy." The Second Princess patted her chest and exhaled.

Li Yuzhu laughed and said, "How could she not? I guessed she would buy, and that’s why I said it that way on purpose."