CHAPTER 154: CHAPTER 154 PROSPEROUS BUSINESS (1)

The Second Princess curiously asked, "Third sister, how did you know she would definitely buy?"

Her third sister was really impressive, she could even predict that the woman would buy the roasted cake.

Li Yuzhu smiled and said, "I could tell she’s a foodie. In her basket, besides buns, there were also some dried fruits, some candied treats, and she was munching on sunflower seeds all the way over here, her eyes fixed on our roasted cakes, never looking away. She’s craving them, she won’t not buy. Besides, we’re not selling them expensively."

The Great Princess laughed, "Indeed, just like the second sister, who only keeps her eyes on food wherever she goes. That woman was eating all the way, she seems to have some money, of course she would buy."

The Second Princess blushed, "I don’t only keep my eyes on food wherever I go, I also look at fun things."

"Stop arguing, more people are coming." Li Yuzhu tugged at their arms.

An old and young pair, grandfather and grandson, walked over.

A five or six-year-old grandson was tugging on his sixty-something grandfather, "Grandpa, I want that to eat."

"Alright, alright, I’ll buy it for you. Slow down, be careful not to fall." The gray-haired grandfather followed, panting.

The grandfather and grandson arrived at Li Yuzhu’s stall, the grandson squatted down, his eyes gleaming and fixed on the roasted cakes, "Grandpa, I want to eat."

Li Yuzhu broke off a piece of a cake and gave a small portion to the child, "Try it, see if it tastes good."

The little grandson chewed a few times, clapped his hands, "It’s yummy, yummy. Grandpa, hurry and buy some."

The old man looked at Li Yuzhu and the others and asked, "How do you sell these cakes?"

This time, the Second Princess hurriedly replied, "One coin each, buy five, get one free, buy ten, get three free."

The little grandson blinked, turned to his grandfather, "Grandpa, let’s buy ten, we can get three free."

"Yes, indeed, you are so smart." Li Yuzhu praised him.

The child was even more proud, "I’ve always been smart, my grandpa says so."

"Alright, alright, let’s buy ten." The old man paid ten coins to the Second Princess.

Li Yuzhu packed thirteen roasted cakes for the old man, "Here you go."

Before the grandfather and grandson left, a middle-aged man carrying a load approached, "Old fellow, is this tasty?"

"It’s tasty." The grandson quickly replied, already grabbing one to eat.

"My grandson says it’s good, I haven’t tried it yet." The old man laughed.

"I want to buy some snacks for my three little ones at home; if your grandson likes it, mine should as well." The middle-aged man put down his load and asked Li Yuzhu and the others, "How much for one?"

The Second Princess delightedly said, "One coin each, buy five, get one free, buy ten, get three free."

The middle-aged man nodded, "Buy ten coins’ worth."

He took out ten coins and handed them over.

"Alright." The Second Princess happily urged everyone to quickly pack the roasted cakes.

The purchase of these two attracted people buying buns to come over and take a look.

Li Yuzhu immediately shouted, "Freshly baked roasted sesame cakes, one coin each, buy five, get one free, buy ten, get three free."

She finished shouting and then urged the Second Young Master and the others to shout as well.

Everyone started shouting.

More people came.

This made the Second Princess very happy, she was so busy that she was receiving money one moment and packing cakes the next.

Li Yuzhu noticed a young man trying to escape without paying amidst the chaos.

"Hey, did you pay?" Li Yuzhu immediately said.

"I... I paid."

"I’ve been watching you, you didn’t pay. You bought ten coins’ worth." Mu Yuanxiu said casually, "Pay first, then hand over the goods. You picked up the cakes first, then didn’t pull out any money."

Mu Yuanxiu held onto him firmly.

"Yes, he didn’t pay." Someone nearby shouted, "It’s not nice to cheat them out of this bit of money in a small business."

The young man felt embarrassed when everyone stared at him, "Can’t I just forget? I’ll pay, I’ll pay, it’s not like I don’t have money."

He took out ten coins from his pocket and threw them on the ground before leaving.

The Second Princess angrily picked them up one by one.

The Great Princess blamed the Second Princess for not watching closely.

The Second Young Master blamed Li Xing’an for only knowing how to pack cakes, not checking if people had paid.

The Xue Family didn’t dare blame everyone; she stood aside, muttering complaints.

Li Yuzhu said, "Let’s stop arguing, when there are more people it gets chaotic, let’s divide the work. This is Second Sister’s business; Second Sister will be responsible for shouting about the business and collecting money. The rest of us will just pack cakes, nothing else. Second Sister collects the money and tells us how many to pack, we’ll pack that many, and give the cakes to whoever she says. If she hasn’t received the money, nobody should pack or pass them out randomly."

Mu Yuanxiu said, "That’s a good idea."

"Yes, yes, that is a good plan." Li Xing’an said.

"Now we’ve divided the work, no more arguing." The Second Young Master also said.

After dividing the work and cooperating, the order indeed improved a lot.

Sometimes, even when seven or eight people came to buy, nobody panicked, and no mistakes were made.

Everyone was busy in an orderly manner.

Business was better than expected, and by the middle of the morning, more than half of the four hundred baked pastries were already sold.

Only about a hundred pastries were left.

The Second Princess touched her bulging cloth backpack, full of happiness, and said, "Wow, so heavy."

Three hundred coins, that’s almost three pounds, of course, it’s heavy!

"Look at you." The Great Princess rolled her eyes at her.

As the baked pastries were almost sold, the Xue Family urged Li Yuzhu, "Third Sister, the business here is almost done, shouldn’t we go sell the herbs now?"

Li Yuzhu nodded, "Yeah, let the Second Sister sell the remaining pastries by herself, we’ll go sell herbs, and by the way, buy some rice and oil on our way back."

"Take care of your own matters. We’re going to buy rice now." Li Xing’an turned the cart around.

The Great Princess patted her sleeves and followed Li Xing’an.

Mu Yuanxiu picked up and put on his own basket.

The Xue Family was already on their way.

The Second Princess was stunned.

She was going to sell the baked pastries by herself?

What if someone stole things or didn’t pay?

The Second Princess was so scared she almost cried, "Don’t leave, can a few of you stay with me?"

The Great Princess said, "You’re a grown person, why do you need company? There are plenty of people in this marketplace; no one will dare to trouble you."

The Xue Family also said, "We’ll be back to pick you up soon."

"But... but..." The Second Princess blinked her tearful eyes, "What if suddenly there are many people, and I can’t keep up, like just now when someone bought things without paying and ran away?"

That could be a problem.

Li Yuzhu looked at the Second Young Master, "Second Brother, you stay with the Second Sister. The rest of us will go sell the herbs and buy things."

As a brother, seeing the little sister about to cry, he couldn’t not help.

The Second Young Master had no choice but to say, "Alright, I’ll stay here with the Second Sister, you all go quickly and come back soon."

Only then did the Second Princess breathe a sigh of relief.

Li Yuzhu, Li Xing’an, Mu Yuanxiu, the Great Princess, and the Xue Family headed towards the pharmacy.

However, this time, Mu Yuanxiu didn’t take Li Yuzhu to the pharmacy they went to last time.

"At the far end of the marketplace, there’s another one. Let’s go to that one." Mu Yuanxiu said.

Li Yuzhu wasn’t familiar with the pharmacies here, so she didn’t mind Mu Yuanxiu’s suggestion, "Okay."

The Great Princess and Li Xing’an were indifferent, saying nothing.

The Xue Family asked, "Why change the pharmacy for selling herbs? Did the previous one stop accepting them?"

Mu Yuanxiu didn’t answer.

Li Yuzhu thought about the last time, the issue with the attendant lowering the price, and said, "The business last time wasn’t fair. We’ll try this one."

The Xue Family didn’t ask anything further.

Everyone followed Mu Yuanxiu and arrived at a new pharmacy.

This pharmacy was smaller, with only one attendant and an old shopkeeper inside.

Mu Yuanxiu walked up, "Shopkeeper, the ginseng you wanted has arrived."

The shopkeeper was flipping through an ancient book. Seeing them approach, he smiled and said, "Mu Yuanxiu, you’re really on time. How many pieces did you bring?"

"Three pieces." Mu Yuanxiu replied, then pointed to Li Yuzhu and the others, saying, "They also brought some herbs over for you to check the prices."

The shopkeeper came out from behind the counter, first looked at Mu Yuanxiu’s ginseng, "Each piece weighs less than half a pound, and they are not very old, so the price isn’t high. Let’s calculate at eighty silver per pound."

The three pieces together weighed only seven ounces.

The shopkeeper took the herbs and gave Mu Yuanxiu fifty-six silver.

The sight of sparkling silver in Mu Yuanxiu’s hands made Li Xing’an’s eyes burn with envy.

He silently swore to himself that he must dig up a few pieces of ginseng too!

Then, the shopkeeper looked at Li Yuzhu’s herbs.

There were several small bundles, with seven types of herbs.

"These are all common herbs, so the prices aren’t high." The shopkeeper inspected each one and quoted the prices.

Li Yuzhu noticed that even though the shopkeeper said the prices weren’t high, the quoted prices were not lower than those of the previous pharmacy they visited.