My CEO Baby Daddy Keeps Falling for My Tricks
Chapter 598 - 605 Learn to Whet Appetite_1

Chapter 598: 605 Learn to Whet Appetite_1

The next day, as soon as Lin Xiangwan opened the restaurant door, people started coming in.

The visitors were local residents, a group of elderly men and women, each holding a basin filled with various washed vegetables.

"We heard your place can process our vegetables into Spicy Hot Pot, is that true?" the elderly women asked.

Faced with more than a dozen elderly men and women, Lin Xiangwan was a bit scared, she hurriedly explained. "Folks, in the first few days of my trial operation, I allowed everyone to bring their own vegetables to attract you all to taste my healthy Spicy Hot Pot. I charged some processing fees for that. This isn’t a profitable business model, I can’t keep doing it like this."

When dealing with this group of square dancing elderly people, who were once part of the main force in supermarkets scrambling for eggs, Lin Xiangwan tried to put it nicely to avoid them getting too used to bargains and causing issues.

The elderly men and women nodded without saying much, hurrying her to start cooking.

Of course, there was some bargaining when it came to calculating the processing fees.

Lin Xiangwan’s brain was about to explode from it all. Luckily, Shen Hanqian had a way of dealing with this crowd, and thus their bargaining was kept to a minimum.

As the lunch rush hour drew near, the nearby office workers started coming in, swelling the crowd further.

Everyone in the small shop was so busy, Lin Xiangwan had no time to feel happy or upset, she just kept adding ingredients to the cooked vegetables non-stop.

This went on all the way until three in the afternoon.

After a two-hour break, they hadn’t fully recovered before the work rush started again.

By the time Qin Muchuan arrived at the small shop at seven in the evening, every table was occupied.

Even the image-conscious Shen Hanqian couldn’t maintain her appearance. Her hair was casually tied back, her makeup was a mess, and she had eaten away her lipstick.

Standing at the cashier, she yawned endlessly.

Qin Muchuan approached her and greeted her. "Thank you for your hard work!"

Shen Hanqian was in the middle of a yawn, finishing before she could respond. "Initially, I really admired you for this brilliant idea. But after this morning’s rush, I started to hate you. There are just too many people coming to eat. I can’t take it anymore, I feel like you’re torturing me to death!"

"Hehe..." Qin Muchuan smiled. "Since the beauty is tired, let’s close up for the day!"

Shen Hanqian shrugged indifferently. "After all, it’s your business, if you want to close up early, I have no objections!"

Just then, another customer walked in. Qin Muchuan walked over to them and apologized. "I’m sorry, today our shop’s operating hours are from nine in the morning to seven-thirty at night. We’re closed now. If you’re interested, please come by again tomorrow!"

A few young customers were disappointed to hear they were closing. "Why are you closing so early? Other places are open until eleven!"

Qin Muchuan pointed at the shop sign and explained the situation.

Even though the few customers were very disappointed, they accepted the situation and left, promising they would come back tomorrow.

Lin Xiangwan didn’t hear clearly how Qin Muchuan had explained, all she saw was him turning people away.

She hastily pulled him aside, asking angrily, "What’s the meaning of this?"

"..." Qin Muchuan looked at her, perplexed.

She started accusing him. "Don’t pretend you don’t understand. Seeing that my place is doing well, are you getting jealous and driving my customers away?"

Qin Muchuan frowned, looking somewhat amused and surprised. "Do you really think I could do something like that?"

After cooling down a bit, she had to admit that he probably wasn’t capable of such petty behavior.

However, she decided to stick to her guns. Looking at him sarcastically, she said, "That’s hard to say. Feelings aren’t always reliable. I never thought you could cheat on me, but you did. I also never thought that Tongtong and Ranran could dislike me, but it turns out, they really do!"

She had been away from home for such a long time and neither of the children had called her even once.

Those Qin family members, not a single good one among them.

"Tongtong has been sensitive since she was little, she’s very afraid of being abandoned, especially by you, her mother. So if a child can’t comprehend something at first, they choose to hold a grudge. However, the more she resents you, the more she actually needs you, her mother!" Qin Muchuan tried to reason with her.

Lin Xiangwan couldn’t help feeling guilty at the mention of her children, she really missed them.

But were all these things really her fault?

"Qin Muchuan, don’t talk to me about this matter. You should know whose responsibility it is. Even though I don’t blame you for changing your heart, you can’t blame me for the children’s behavior!"

Qin Muchuan nodded and gracefully shifted the topic. "Let’s discuss this later. About just now, I didn’t drive your customers away, I just told them to come back tomorrow!"

"Tomorrow? Why tomorrow? When customers come, I should serve them. It’s not even eight o’clock yet!"

"But the workers are already tired!" Qin Muchuan said with a serious tone.

Lin Xiangwan’s anger subsided a bit, realizing she hadn’t consider everything. "Indeed, today’s customer volume was quite high, but I don’t know what tomorrow will be like, whether it’ll be as crowded as today. If the customer volume continues to be high, then I’ll need to hire more people!"

"Whether you need to hire more people depends on your own judgment. However, my suggestion is to start no longer accepting customers from seven o’clock onwards. You can tell them about our takeout service if they still want to eat, and close promptly at seven-thirty. Make sure the working hours are clearly posted!"

"Why? I think seven-thirty is a bit too early! Now, most people finish work at five, seven is exactly dinner time!" Lin Xiangwan didn’t understand.

Actually, Qin Muchuan had his own motives. He didn’t want her to spend all her time in the small shop, he wanted her to be able to take care of the children once he got off work.

Of course, he couldn’t tell her that. He had a great set of reasonings. "For dining, the most important thing is to keep people longing for more. Not everyone would eat fast food for every meal, especially Spicy Hot Pot, girls wouldn’t eat it in the evening fearing it would make them gain weight. So, they wouldn’t eat at night, maybe occasionally. You don’t need to tirelessly wait here for their occasional visits. Remember, keep everyone longing for the fast food of Ai Shang Jia, let them know it’s not something they can just have whenever they want, they need to spend some time and wait for it!"

Lin Xiangwan nodded. "That makes sense!"

"And since your work hours are shorter, customers coming to dine will all be within that time period, which significantly increases your hourly profit. At the same time, the workers don’t have to work too long, everyone is happy, right?" Qin Muchuan chimed in.