"Little Zhu? Oh, why are you here so early? This guy just arrived, perfect timing for you!"
Liu Fang said with a smile, then turned to open the cold storage door. She took out a box of pancakes and placed it at the corner of the ice cabinet, so it wouldn't damage the glass. Then she turned and went back into the cold storage to get another box.
Wang Dong quickly helped place the pancakes onto the customer's small cart.
Xiao Zhu looked at the pancakes and asked Liu Chen, who was sitting behind the desk, "Two boxes of pancakes, how much?"
Liu Chen estimated. The cost price of a box of pancakes was now 93 yuan. Theirs was the first batch selling this product, so they could make a quick profit before the market reacted.
"One hundred and fifteen per box. If you buy five boxes at once, it's five yuan cheaper per box, only one hundred and ten."
Xiao Zhu smiled upon hearing this and said, "Your younger sister is quite a salesperson. However, five boxes is really too many. We still have some inventory at our breakfast shop. Today, we primarily came to get some pancakes to try. We originally said one box would be enough, but thinking about the fuel cost, we called for two boxes to split it."
"It's fine. If you sell them all today, maybe tomorrow you can buy five boxes at a time!"
"Hahahaha, sure, sure. If I can sell two boxes a day, I can come and pick up ten boxes tomorrow!"
Liu Chen saw the look of disbelief on Xiao Zhu's face, which her mother mentioned. But Liu Chen wasn't worried at all. Just wait and see. Hand-grabbed pancakes could remain popular for a long time in the future, all thanks to their delicious taste!
Just as the money was put into the drawer, Liu Chen's eyes caught sight of her mother standing up from her chair. She walked to the ice cabinet, holding a ledger, and smiled at an old lady outside.
"Elder sister, you're here to get supplies so early today? It was pouring outside just now, but you don't seem to be wet! You're lucky!"
The elder sister Liu Fang spoke of had short, gray and white hair, with some age spots on her face. However, she was tall and sturdy, estimated to be about 1.7 meters. Her hands, in particular, looked as big as a typical man's.
Liu Chen quickly tore open the plastic wrap and served her mother a bowl of rice, adding some dishes. Business was important, but if things continued like this, her mother might not get to eat until one in the afternoon.
After setting aside the food, Liu Chen stood up and called out,
"Auntie, you tell me what you want, and I'll write it down. Once it's written, you can go get your goods, okay?"
The elder sister, called "auntie" by a teenage girl, heard this and quickly said to Liu Fang with a smile, "Sister, go eat quickly. Let your daughter handle it. My memory is poor, and by the time you finish eating, I might still be listing what I want to buy."
The entire noon, after the heavy rain stopped, the entrance of "Sister Liu's Frozen Goods" was never empty. Customers came one after another, and sometimes even two or three at the same time.
Many other shops selling frozen goods watched them, and during their lunch break, they couldn't help but wonder what kind of pancakes Sister Liu was selling that had such good sales.
Chen Jie, who sold pork offal diagonally opposite "Sister Liu's Frozen Goods," went to Liu Chen's shop and asked Liu Chen, who was busy taking orders, with a smile.
"Have you eaten lunch?"
"Yes, Aunt Chen, why are you here?"
Chen Lu, who was looking at the products in the ice cabinet to see if there was anything different, was suddenly asked this and forgot what she was going to say, just staring blankly at Liu Chen.
"Uh, Aunt Chen, if there's nothing else, you should go back. You're standing at the door, and it would be bad if my mom or Aunt Li bumped into you when they're bringing out the goods."
Liu Chen could see through her intentions at a glance. However, her mother and Wang Dong had just signed the exclusive agency agreement. Currently, there was only one local manufacturer of hand-grabbed pancakes. If Chen Jie wanted to copy them, she would have to source them from out of town. In the heat of July, unless she hired a refrigerated truck, the goods would spoil halfway. With the cost of a refrigerated truck, she wouldn't be able to make much profit.
"This corridor isn't yours, I'll stand here. If your mom throws something at me, she'll have to pay me!"
Being slighted by a child, Chen Lu retorted unhappily. But just as she finished speaking, Liu Fang threw out a box of glutinous rice balls from inside.
Chen Lu saw that just as she finished speaking, a box of goods was thrown out. She thought Liu Fang had seen her snooping and wanted to teach her a lesson, so she quickly stepped back. As she retreated, her high-heeled shoe somehow twisted, and she immediately fell backward.
The customers who had been waiting by the ice cabinet for their goods saw the woman who had just threatened them with compensation falling towards them. They dodged with all their might.
Suddenly, the few people standing outside scattered, and Chen Lu fell directly in front of her own ice cabinet.
It had just rained, and the corridor was covered with mud and water brought in from outside, along with the fishy smell from the seafood wholesale stall.
Chen Lu, lying on the ground, immediately vomited.
The few customers nearby were stunned by this scene. They hadn't done anything, so why was this woman sitting on the ground and vomiting?
The three people in the cold storage also came out with hand-grabbed pancakes. A few customers ordered their goods and quickly pushed their small carts away, to avoid being entangled by that shrew!
As they left, everyone in the corridor saw Chen Lu lying on the ground and refusing to get up. Of course, everyone knew what Chen Lu was there for.
"Someone's hitting me! Someone's hitting me!"
After a few fake cries, no one in the alley paid any attention. It was because Chen Lu usually liked to gossip about everyone, and there was no one in the wholesale market she spoke well of!
Only then did Chen Lu get up from the ground and limp back to her stall. After all, she knew that she had stumbled due to a misunderstanding. If she had attracted the market administrator, she wouldn't have fared well.
Liu Chen didn't have time to bother with that Sister Chen. She was busy taking orders for new customers, so that the three people in the cold storage could deliver the goods.
It was another half an hour of busyness. Liu Fang and Sister Li managed to eat a few bites during the brief lulls. Wang Dong had it even worse. He had planned to return to the factory after delivering the goods, but he was forced to stay for lunch. In the end, he didn't get a single bite of lunch, but he had been moving goods for over an hour.
What made it worse was that he couldn't slack off, as they were selling hand-grabbed pancakes from their own factory.
However, no matter how busy she was, Liu Fang did not forget about her child going to tutoring class. She glanced at her phone during a break from moving goods and saw it was already past 12:40. She quickly called out to Liu Chen,
"It's almost one o'clock! Chenchen, hurry up and go to class!"
Liu Chen handed out the last order, put the received money through the counterfeit detector, and then methodically made change before locking the drawer and handing the key to Liu Fang.
"Then I'm going to class. All the orders I gave you have been paid for, so don't mix them up!"
"Got it, got it. Hurry up and go!"