Chapter 246: The Manor’s Signature Dishes
Auntie Pang’s specialty breakfast received widespread acclaim.
Though the price was a bit on the higher side—fifteen yuan for a steamer basket of fresh soup dumplings—the six delicate dumplings featured skin as thin as paper and exceptionally fresh filling. With a single bite, the rich, savory broth burst forth, leaving a lingering, unforgettable aftertaste.
Then there was the sour broth noodles. A special fermentation process gave the sour broth base a robust depth of flavor, which was turned delightfully sour and spicy when combined with Auntie Pang’s homemade chili oil.
The noodles were rolled and boiled fresh to order, yielding a chewy and smooth texture. At fifteen yuan a bowl, it wasn’t expensive at all.
The tourists who had pre-ordered the day before enjoyed a thoroughly satisfying breakfast this morning.
The only negative feedback was—
“Ahhh! Is there really none left? Even though I only pre-ordered one basket, can’t you sell me a second, third, or fourth?”
“You didn’t mention these soup dumplings would be this fresh and delicious!”
Although the wait time was a bit longer, these were buns the guests watched being wrapped, steamed, and taken out of the steamer right before their eyes!
The flavor, authenticity, emotional value, and hygiene experience were all absolutely maximized!
The only issue was that the supply was simply too limited.
Fortunately, the sour broth noodles were able to keep up. Auntie Pang had made a substantial amount of the sour broth base, and whenever they ran low on noodles, she would just roll out a new batch on the spot, managing to satisfy the culinary demands of the tourists.
Auntie Pang was both happy and unhappy.
She was happy because the food she made was incredibly popular, which was a chef’s ultimate honor!
But she was unhappy because the Manor Owner had told her that fifteen people had pre-ordered twenty baskets of dumplings. Thinking that the Manor Owner and everyone else would want to eat, and since she and Madame Lin could spend two yuan each to bring home an additional staff benefit meal, she had wrapped thirty baskets in one go.
Reasonably speaking, that should have been more than enough, right?
As it turned out, all thirty baskets sold completely clean, without a single dumpling left for her!
Auntie Pang: Humph!
This absolutely called for a proper, huffy pout!
While comforting Auntie Pang, Jian Xingxia said, “Let’s make plenty of dishes for lunch today. Chicken, duck, fish, pork—make whatever you like, and you can take a bunch back with you later to stew an old hen for my sister Dahong!”
At the same time, her eyes shone as she counted the money.
Originally, breakfast barely generated any profit and was treated more like a perk.
She hadn’t expected that on the very first day of launching the specialty breakfast, she would make a handsome profit.
Thirty baskets of small soup dumplings at fifteen yuan a basket brought in 450 yuan.
Over thirty bowls of sour broth noodles were sold as well, bringing the combined revenue for both items to 1,000 yuan.
Furthermore, because the sour broth noodles were so sour and spicy, the tourists ate until they were drenched in sweat in the heat of summer, which caused beverages—which usually didn’t sell much in the morning—to move dozens of extra bottles today.
The profit margin on drinks was far from low, and Jian Xingxia happily raked in another tidy sum.
What was even more delightful was that with the morning’s instant success serving as a live case study, the number of guests pre-ordering specialty dishes for lunch today increased significantly, shifting beyond the standard 35-yuan self-select set meal.
No one minded that Jian Xingxia hadn’t ordered specialized insulated lunch boxes or thermal bags yet, happily accepting the specialty dishes packaged for takeout in disposable plastic containers and plastic bags.
Over the course of the afternoon, 48 set meals were sold alongside over twenty orders of specialty dishes.
Nearly half of the tourists ordered extra specialty dishes.
Stir-fried eggs with fresh bean seedlings for 28 yuan, farm-style shredded pork for 38, small river shrimp with chives for 48, taro steamed pork with rice flour for 58, perilla duck for 68, old hen soup for 88…
Even with Auntie Lu and Little Hu sending over pre-prepped meat and side dishes, and with Auntie Chunhui, Ruan Xiang, and Lin Sanniang helping out in the kitchen, Auntie Pang was still kept busily running off her feet.
Jian Xingxia hurriedly stopped accepting orders for specialty dishes and went into the kitchen to help as well.
Several of them busied themselves through the afternoon rush, but amid the chaos, mistakes were still made—two dishes were missed, and three dishes were made incorrectly.
Jian Xingxia let the guests eat the incorrect dishes for free and refunded their money.
For the three incorrect orders, aside from issuing a refund, she gifted them another dish.
They kept busily working until past two in the afternoon before the lunch rush finally concluded.
Even someone as capable as Auntie Chunhui couldn’t resist finding a stool for herself, sitting down by the sink to wash the dishes.
Auntie Pang pounded her lower back, so exhausted she couldn’t even stomach any food.
Amid the rush, Lin Sanniang still needed to tally the supplies. “Manor Owner, setting aside the matter of manpower, we need to buy quite a few more pots, bowls, ladles, and basins.”
Jian Xingxia hurriedly recorded it. “Tell me what needs to be bought.”
Lin Sanniang reported the accounts: “We need six red-clay charcoal stoves for making soups and stews, along with twelve large pottery jars for replacements. We should also procure twenty small pottery jars.”
“Add fifty large bowls and fifty small bowls, two hundred plates, thirty soup tureen basins…”
Jian Xingxia noted them down one by one. “I’ll buy them tonight!”
She was a wealthy woman now!
The 48 set meals at lunch brought in 1,680 yuan, and the twenty-plus specialty dishes brought in over 1,400.
In a single afternoon rush, the turnover topped 3,000 yuan.
Jian Xingxia had already paid for all the ingredients out of her existing inventory, so this three-thousand-plus was pure net profit.
Combined with breakfast and the Hanfu garments, Jian Xingxia’s balance had smoothly broken past ten thousand from yesterday’s 5,880, achieving a breakthrough to 12,579 yuan.
With no debt, she enjoyed the lighter-than-air feeling of being debt-free, operating on a cash-on-delivery basis with an air of pure generosity.
Adding a few extra supplies was no problem at all. Buy!
Ruan Xiang performed three shows today—one each in the morning, afternoon, and at seven in the evening—lasting ten minutes per show.
This tiny workload felt like child’s play to Ruan Xiang.
She asked Jian Xingxia, “Manor Owner, if I perform a few more dances, would it bring more business to the manor?”
Jian Xingxia recalled the tourists’ reactions and felt there was a strong possibility it would.
However, she still declined Ruan Xiang’s proposal. “It’s best to only eat until you’re seventy percent full, and it’s the same for our dancing. Let alone adding more shows, I’m actually planning to only feature them on weekends—just two or three shows over the weekend to let the tourists thoroughly enjoy themselves, with no performances at all on weekdays.”
Rarity enhanced value. While a short-term explosion of popularity was exciting, it didn’t benefit the manor’s long-term development.
Most importantly… Jian Xingxia currently only possessed two dancing girls, Shaoyin and Ruan Xiang, and Shaoyin’s leg injury hadn’t completely healed yet.
Combined, the two of them could only visit for twelve days a month, so Jian Xingxia figured it was more appropriate to only open the shows on weekends.
Sigh, once you became the boss, you couldn’t just do whatever you pleased, hiring people for as long as you wanted. You had to look at what was beneficial for the manor, coordinate employee working hours, and maintain a sense of freshness for the tourists.
Ruan Xiang felt a tiny pang of disappointment in her heart—she only knew how to dance, and it was the only thing she could use to share the Manor Owner’s burdens.
But if the Manor Owner didn’t require daily performances, she wouldn’t be able to come to the manor.
Ruan Xiang silently went to help in the kitchen, only hoping that since the kitchen’s business was booming now, the Manor Owner would need help and choose her.
How could Jian Xingxia fail to read Ruan Xiang’s thoughts? It was just a pity that her current employee quota was still too small. She also hoped the system would step up and issue her a few more missions; even if they were difficult, it would unlock more employee slots for her.
Anticipation was fine, but she couldn’t just wait around idly. She still had to exhaust every option to pave her own way forward.
Jian Xingxia pondered. Since she could help the people of the Great Yan Dynasty through Shang Yue and unlock temporary worker slots by gaining reputation from the longevity plaques, could she perhaps try the same thing in the Great Liang Dynasty and the Dayong Dynasty?
After all, across those two worlds, she had already secured the gratitude of quite a few people through Lin Sanniang, Shaoyin, and Ruan Xiang. Now she just needed to link them to “Xingxia Manor.”
While keeping busily engaged with business, Jian Xingxia turned over ideas on how to execute this.
However, before that, she wanted to take a look at the first mall product she had proactively purchased—the Manor Restroom.
