Vol 8 Chapter 264 – Mother of Creativity

XH 264 - Mother of Creativity

The town was not huge, but it was filled with people of different classes, living harmoniously with each other. The rich did not look down on the poor and the poor did not treat the rich any differently from others. They were friendly and helpful to one another, giving off a contrast that warms Xiao Hua's heart.

This town was named Lucky Rock because the founder found a special rock at an abandoned land that changed his life. Reluctant to part with it, the founder built his first house nearby it, before bringing the rest of his family and friends over as his neighbours to share the luck.

The lucky rock was located right at the center of the town, where visitors could only look but not touch. For fear of thievery, there were two guards tasked to guard over the rock at all times.

Long Lian may have invited her out to meet up at Lucky Rock Town, but Xiao Hua also has another purpose of coming to this town. It was to conduct her monthly visit to her restaurant, which Duan XiYing handled the business on her behalf.

The shop was a street away from the tourist attraction, named 'Xiao Bao', courtesy of Xiao Hua's decision to have steamed pork buns as the main menu, before introducing a variety of fillings.

In the beginning, everyone doubted that chili pork bun or yam meat bun would be delicious, but once one started to taste it and gave an honest review, 'Xiao Bao' restaurant became one of the best shops in Lucky Rock town.

"She is rather impatient." Yu Zheng saw that 'Xiao Bao' restaurant was crowded with two long lines, thanks to the newly release of two different type of crispy potato slices. One was with onion flavour while the other was chili flavour.

Understood that the 'she' that Yu Zheng was referring to was Duan XiYing, Xiao Hua swiftly spoke up. "I'm the one that gave her the green light to do so." The chef had done the best he could to replicate the taste from Xiao Hua's memory but without all the ingredients, the taste still fall behind from the potato chips she remembered. "All that's left is to see how well the mass reacts to potato chips before launching for real."

The one thing that caught the customer's loyalty towards their shop was 'Xiao Bao' would ask for feedback after they tasted the new product with a cheaper pride before the official launch and the shop was willing to change the taste for them.

Xiao Hua was aware that not everyone has the same taste. What she and her modern citizens would find delicious might not be so to this world's citizens.

Feedback was needed to prevent losses.

Fortunately, the customer's taste does not differ much from Xiao Hua's, other than saying the taste was a little heavier than they were used to. Though there were some that were rather nit-picky down to even the smallest detail for no reason that to do so. They were suspected to be 'Xiao Bao's business rivals.

Since the entrance was blocked and Xiao Hua does not want to be publicly known as the owner of 'Xiao Bao', they went to the backdoor to enter the shop.

A young girl at the age of a high schooler was the first to notice them. "Owner!" She greeted respectfully but was unable to hide her energetic mood.

She was wearing an apple green apron with a cute big meat bun sewed on it. The design was done by Heise, and the color of the apron was chosen by Long Lian, with Xiao Hua accepted the choices without any opinion. Although the color would make dirt on it very obvious, it helps the wearer look more bright and friendly.

As for Long Zhu, he contributed by writing the name on the signboard of the shop beautifully. 

"Han Mei," Xiao Hua greeted with a smile. "How are you and your mother doing?"

Han Mei grinned, showing her dimples. "We are doing well, thank you!"

Han Mei's mother was actually the principal wife of a late nobleman. After his death, his family heartlessly threw the mother and daughter out of the house, unwilling to feed them. With no place to go, they went back to their hometown and coincidentally heard that 'Xiao Bao' restaurant was interested in hiring some workers with very detailed requirements.

Duan XiYing's little snakes confirmed they were genuine and hired them, especially when the mother was good at handling difficult customers.

Noticing Xiao Hua was looking around, Han Mei guessed that she must be looking for the manager. "Manager Duan is at the front store with my mother, serving the customers."

As Han Mei was still young and inexperienced with dealing with the customers, she was tasked to help out transferring the crispy potato slices from the kitchen to the front shelf while slowly learning from her mother.

Xiao Hua's eyes brightened. "What does the customer think about the taste?"

"I don't know. But I managed to hear some of them praise the potato slices to be delicious and out of the ordinary."

Xiao Hua grinned upon hearing that, just as the sounds of coins became her background music in her mind. Delicious food was one of the things people do not mind spending their extra money on.

"Have the package arrived?" Xiao Hua asked with hardly restrained eagerness.

"Yes. Manager Duan had placed it in your room."

"Got it. You can return to help out."

Xiao Hua and Yu Zheng went to the office room to wait, with a basket of the recently fried potato slices prepared by the chef for them to eat. But no one expected Duan XiYing would come to them right before they could even take a bite of the goods.

"You are leaving an inexperienced staff to handle the store?" Yu Zheng was the first to speak first.

"Lin Fei is doing well on her own. The customers are behaving well and most of them have left after leaving their feedback."

Lin Fei was Han Mei's mother, the young widow. Calling Han Mei as inexperienced was rather harsh when she had displayed her potential. But it still did not change the fact that she had only joined their workforce for half a year when she was previously a noble lady without experience.

Towards Duan XiYing's respectful demeanor towards Yu Zheng, Xiao Hua could only watch at the side, unable to interfere.

During her stay at Bai land, she finally figured out the reason behind the bad blood between Doctor Bai and Duan XiYing. The reason was unreasonable yet unable to get angry left Xiao Hua a headache.

To make things worse, Yu Zheng liked it when Bai Chuan was angry with Duan XiYing, because it shows that he was important to his lover.

It was not that Doctor Bai was not 'forgiving', for he did accept Duan XiYing's apology after she finally gets the chance to give him one. However, the apology does not shorten their social distance or had Doctor Bai warm up to her.

Xiao Hua could only feel apologetic to Duan XiYing because she could not do anything other than assuring her that Doctor Bai was not angry with her.

After knowing Bai Chuan for more than two years, Xiao Hua knew that Yu Zheng was his inverse scale, and Duan XiYing had touched it. Even if Yu Zheng in his ginseng form was unharmed at that time, it would be a different case if Doctor Bai was not there at the time. Yu Zheng could have died if Duan XiYing swallowed him.

Bai Chuan was the strict parent, while Yu Zheng was the fun parent. Once, Xiao Hua tried to speak up for Duan XiYing, only to find that when one parent gets angry, it was scary. But when two parents get angry at the same time, it was hellish to endure.

The only thing Xiao Hua could do was to insert pleasant topics. "XiYing, how does everyone think about the crispy potato slices?"

Giving Xiao Hua a soft smile, Duan XiYing reported, "Potato slices was not a new dish for them, but Xiao Hua's recommended seasoning is one they had not tried before. Most enjoyed the new flavor and look forward to the official release to buy more."

"That's good!" Xiao Hua's face brightened. Yu Zheng was eating the crispy potato without any remark, but his hand continuously went back to the basket meant that the taste was not terrible.

Xiao Hua reached for the large package wrapped with cloth placed at the corner of the table and untied the knot. Her eyes brightened when she saw a palm-sized box. There was a picture of a large rabbit occupying the center of the box, nibbling a meat bun cutely. She rotates the box at every angle to check the quality.

"It's quite cute," Yu Zheng praised and Xiao Hua grinned joyfully.

"If you say it's cute, Long Lian will think it's cute too!" Xiao Hua said it confidently because Yu Zheng's taste was good. And he does not have her color blind. She had picked a light pink color for the box, and white for the rabbit.

Positive that the box was alright, she pulled out a bag of her spatial bracelet. Carefully, she transferred the items of the bag onto the cute box, slowly turning it into a medical kit box suitable for travel use.

"There are some customers asking if Xiao Bao will be opening during New Years. They would come to purchase some of the special filling meat buns if Xiao Bao do," Duan XiYing asked with a smile.

Xiao Hua shook her head in negative. "We won't be opening during the New Year. Our staff will need to celebrate with their family."

Duan XiYing nodded in agreement. "Actually, there are some problems related to Xiao Bao's products."

"Problems?" Xiao Hua's heart clenched.

Duan XiYing barely concealed her murderous aura. "Some shops started to imitate Xiao Bao's steamed buns."

Xiao Hua could not stop a heavy sigh from escaping her mouth. She had expected it would happen one day, but when it comes, it still feels unpleasant.

"Just ignore them." Xiao Hua does not have time to deal with those copy cats, nor have the energy to fight with them. In her world, having products being plagiarized and fine-tuned was rather normal. She was also unsure how the law in this world works, and it was a headache to start looking at it.

It was just an idea and she had plenty of them! Let them all know her as the Mother of Creativity and learn from her! Be calm and treat it as doing charity work!

Besides, she was also plagiarizing other people's works anyway... (⌐■_■)

"As your parents, we will deal with your dowry. The profit from your shop can be treated as your savings," Yu Zheng said. It means that she does not need to work hard to raise 'Xiao Bao' shop high up.

Although she felt bad for taking advantage of Yu Zheng and Bai Chuan, she did not reject their kind gesture to help with her dowry. She does not wish the matter of her dowry to be used by others to mock Long Zhu.

"Thank you, but I cannot be so shameless as to force you two to pay for all my dowry without offering some myself!"

She had long ago promised to herself to take care of her foster parents as a good daughter should.