Chapter 258 - 221: A Low-Investment, High-Return Fundraising Method

Chapter 258: Chapter 221: A Low-Investment, High-Return Fundraising Method

Last night, after hearing from Xu An that the Taobao Store had received three thousand orders, Zhang Dezhen quickly did some mental math.

Three thousand orders meant a quantity of at least three thousand jin. The braised food shop needed to prepare eight hundred jin, and Liu Zhaowen had pre-ordered three hundred jin. That was a total of four thousand one hundred jin.

There was no way they could finish it all in one day, but Zhang Dezhen wanted to try and get it done within two. Finishing a day earlier meant he could get back to his job at the braised food shop a day earlier, and a daily wage of over a hundred yuan was nothing to sneeze at.

So, at four-thirty this morning, Zhang Dezhen got up, washed up, and headed to Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant.

’The fruits and vegetables won’t be delivered this early, but I can start by stir-frying the spices! I can get the marinade boiling first! That way, once the vegetables arrive and are prepped, they can go straight into the pot. I can get an extra batch done in the morning!’

But when he arrived at the restaurant’s entrance, he found the lights blazing.

Parked outside were delivery tricycles, vans, and even small trucks, one after another...

Lu Ziyue, who was in charge of procurement, was shouting at the top of his lungs as staff moved all sorts of goods into the restaurant in a state of organized chaos.

Four people jumped down from one of the small trucks. Working in pairs, they carried a machine up to the second floor of Restaurant No. 1. Zhang Dezhen recognized these machines; they were vacuum sealers...

"Ziyue, what’s going on? Why are you here so early today?" Zhang Dezhen sidled up to Lu Ziyue and patted him on the shoulder as he asked.

"Oh, Master Zhang, you’re here!" Lu Ziyue turned his face, sporting two huge dark circles under his eyes. The moment he saw Zhang Dezhen, a look of pity filled his eyes. He patted Zhang Dezhen’s shoulder in return. "This is going to be tough on you! Really tough on you!"

Hearing "tough" twice in a row left Zhang Dezhen completely bewildered. ’Wait, what’s going to be tough?’

’I may have come to work an hour early, but I did it willingly. It’s not tough at all!’

Before he could ask, Lu Ziyue flashed a wide, toothy grin and asked mysteriously, "Do you know how many orders the Taobao Store has?"

Zhang Dezhen thought back. When Xu An had called him last night at 8:45 p.m., the order count was three thousand. But everyone had to rest at night, so at most, it should be around five thousand, right? Still, for Lu Ziyue to ask like that, the number must be significant.

"Six thousand?"

Lu Ziyue shook his head, his grin growing even wider.

"Seven... eight thousand?"

"Bolder," Lu Ziyue prompted.

"Then... ten thousand!" Zhang Dezhen felt his heart start to pound violently.

"Even bolder!"

"Twelve thousand!" Seeing the strange look in Lu Ziyue’s eyes, Zhang Dezhen felt his fragile little heart couldn’t take it anymore. He cut him off, "I’m not guessing anymore, I’m not guessing! Just tell me!"

"Heh heh!" Lu Ziyue rubbed his hands together like a fly and slowly announced a number: "Eighteen thousand!"

If Lu Ziyue had previously thought the expression "eyes wide as bronze bells" was just an exaggeration, he now knew it was nothing short of realism. The moment he said the number, Zhang Dezhen’s eyes seemed to pop out as if with special effects, taking up half his face.

’Eighteen thousand orders! Even if each order was just two jin of vegetarian braised dishes, after deducting costs, that’s still two yuan. The commission on eighteen thousand orders of braised food is 1,800 yuan! That’s almost half a month’s salary for half a day’s work!’

After doing the math, Zhang Dezhen felt he could work for twenty-four hours straight and still be full of energy!

He didn’t even feel the sting of losing out on the hundred-plus yuan daily wage from the braised food shop anymore.

「Xu Family Village.」

Xu An didn’t get home until almost one in the morning. By the time he returned, the two little ones were already fast asleep.

Maybe it was a habit they had picked up after so many days at kindergarten, but they no longer slept sprawled every which way. Instead, they were lying neatly on their sides. However, they had still kicked off the blanket, and their pajamas had ridden up, revealing their round little bellies, which rose and fell with each breath.

After covering them both with a small blanket and turning the fan up a notch, Xu An also lay down on the bed and drifted off to sleep.

It felt like he had only been asleep for a short while when his alarm clock started ringing. He groggily reached out to turn it off, but instead of the clock, his hand touched a chubby little hand...

’Holy crap!’

Xu An shot up from the bed in a single motion, staring in shock at the small hand he was holding. He only breathed a sigh of relief when he realized it was Xu Le’s.

For a split second, his mind had been flooded with images of Taoist priests, talismans, and temples. Thankfully, it was a false alarm.

While Xu An was still dazed, Xu Kang and Xu Le had already groggily sat up in bed. They rubbed their eyes with their chubby little hands and yawned, looking like they were still sleepy and wanted to go back to bed.

"It’s only five o’clock. It’s not time for you guys to get up yet..."

Before Xu An could finish, the two little ones scrambled to the edge of the bed, hopped off, and trotted toward the window on their short little legs.

"What’s wrong? Do you need to use the bathroom?" Xu An quickly got out of bed and followed them.

"No!" Xu Kang shook his head. He unzipped his Ultraman backpack, rummaged inside for a good while, and finally pulled something out. He presented it to Xu An as if it were a treasure and instructed with a serious expression, "Brother, Brother Heping said you’re really busy and don’t even have time to eat lunch! Here’s a chocolate for you. If you get hungry, you can eat it. I asked my teacher, and adults can eat chocolate too, so you can eat it, Brother! It’s sweet and really yummy!"

Before he had a chance to ask where the chocolate came from, Xu Le also came up to Xu An and handed him a small portable fan. Acting like a little adult, he said, "Brother, when you feel hot working outside, you can use this little fan. It’s super cooling!"

"Aww, Kangkang and Lele are so good!" Xu An took the small gifts from them and pulled them into a hug, smiling. "Thank you for the gifts. Brother will definitely enjoy the chocolate and make good use of the little fan!"

"Can you tell Brother where these gifts came from?" Xu An asked cautiously.

Because the two little ones were so young and didn’t need money at kindergarten, Xu An hadn’t given them any pocket money. Their grandmother gave them fifty cents a day at most, and even if they saved all of it, it wouldn’t be enough to buy a portable fan.

"We get little red flowers for eating properly! We get little red flowers for sleeping properly! We get little red flowers for washing our hands before meals! We get little red flowers for telling stories to the other kids..."

The two little ones eagerly counted out the little red flowers they had earned for Xu An on their fingers, their expressions growing prouder with each one.

Soon, they ran out of their own fingers and toes. They reached out, grabbed Xu An’s hand, and continued counting. After finishing his fingers, they even wanted to count his toes, but Xu An quickly stopped them.

"Do these little red flowers have anything to do with the gifts you gave Brother?" Xu An steered the conversation back to his question.

"We can trade the little red flowers with the teacher for gifts! We have lots and lots of little red flowers, so we can get lots and lots of gifts! The teacher has sweet and sour candies, pretty stickers, beautiful hair clips..."

The two little ones recited the list of gifts they could remember as if they were rattling off a menu. As they finished, they smacked their lips, as if savoring the memory of those tasty little snacks.

"We didn’t have enough points to trade for this little fan." After reciting the "menu," a rare hint of shyness appeared on Xu Le’s face. He scratched his head with his small hand and said, "But we told the teacher that you work really hard, Brother, and that you really need this fan, so she agreed to let us trade for it early for you."

"How did you describe Brother’s work to the teacher?" Xu An’s right eyelid twitched violently, and a bad feeling crept into his heart.

"We told the teacher that Brother has to get up at five every morning to go to work and comes back very, very late at night. He’s so busy he doesn’t even have time to eat. We said Brother works at a construction site where it’s very, very hot, so he really needs a fan..."

AHEM—

Xu An nearly choked on their words. No wonder the teacher had agreed to let them trade for the fan early. Based on the kids’ description, an image formed in Xu An’s own mind: a dark-skinned young man, a father figure to his younger siblings, who toiled from dawn till dusk and ate only one meal a day just to save money for the little ones’ schooling...

"Brother eats properly, Brother’s workplace has air conditioning, and Brother isn’t having a hard time!" Though he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, Xu An still tried to explain.

But unfortunately, it seemed the early-rising pair had run out of battery. As Xu An spoke, they were already leaning against him, dozing off, not looking like they had heard a single word.

Xu An could only sigh. He carried them back to the bed, covered them with the small blanket, and turned the fan down a notch before heading to the courtyard with his little gifts to wash up.

While brushing his teeth, he thought about what the two little ones had just said and couldn’t help but laugh.

’This kindergarten is really interesting. They can actually trade little red flowers for small gifts. That’s great. To earn those flowers, the kids are surely very obedient. It makes things easier for the teachers and also teaches the children. It kills multiple birds with one stone!’

’It feels a bit like the membership points on all those apps from later generations. You accumulate a hundred points and can redeem a one-yuan coupon; five hundred points get you some useless little trinkets; a thousand points can be exchanged for some practical household items...’

’It seems a lot of restaurants have similar point systems too. Once you reach a certain number of points, you can exchange them for side dishes, drinks, or even main courses...’

’Membership cards... points...’

His right hand, which was brushing his teeth, suddenly stopped. Xu An abruptly recalled something from his past life related to membership cards.

Back then, he had just brought Xu Kang and Xu Le home. Out of guilt and a desire to make it up to them, he would buy them all sorts of tasty snacks every day after work.

Sometimes it was sweet and sour gummy candies, sometimes crispy little cookies, and sometimes soft, sticky, and sweet roasted chestnuts...

One time, on his way home, he discovered a new bakery and bought some cute little buns for them. He found that they loved the bread from this bakery, so he started bringing it home for them every few days.

Later, the bakery launched a membership top-up promotion: top up one hundred yuan and get an extra twenty, top up two hundred and get an extra fifty, or top up five hundred and get an extra one hundred.

Since the two little ones loved the bread so much, Xu An went straight for the highest tier, topping up five hundred to get one hundred free. It then took him almost half a year to use up all the money on the card.

’Membership cards... top-up discounts... exchanging points for small gifts...’

’Isn’t this an excellent, interest-free, low-investment, high-return, and completely legal method of fundraising, right here in front of me?!’