Seventies Sweetheart: From Breakup to Billionaire-Chapter 304: Bonus

Lin Xiang: "Does Xingfu Restaurant have a TV? Is it worth waiting in line for hours in this cold weather just to eat here?"

"The food at Xingfu Restaurant is already cheap and tastes great. It’s just a bit far away, which makes people lazy to come. But now that they have a TV installed—it’s a TV! What’s wrong with walking a bit more to watch TV?"

The line was moving quickly, and Lin Xiang and Cheng Jinyun ended up at the end of it.

When they finally got inside, Lin Xiang saw that the hall was already crowded with people.

There were only that many tables, with limited seating, and many people stood around the TV holding their bowls and chopsticks, watching.

The wait wasn’t for others to finish eating and leave; it was for the utensils to be cleaned and ready for the next round.

However, the students were well-mannered. Those who had finished eating voluntarily vacated their tables, and those gathered around the TV agreedably left a pathway so as not to disrupt Xingfu Restaurant’s business.

Seeing the bustling crowd at Xingfu Restaurant, Lin Xiang was grateful she hadn’t sent the neighbors away in the morning and had proposed the idea of working in exchange for a chance to watch TV. Otherwise, Mrs. Lin and a few sisters-in-law wouldn’t have been able to keep up with the workload.

Lin Xiang went to check the kitchen and saw Ren Doudou and the two sisters-in-law working their arms vigorously.

Spotting Lin Xiang, Ren Doudou shouted, "Boss, can you send some more dishes over? Today’s business is unbelievably good, and all the dishes delivered by Quanfu Building are used up!"

And it’s only noon. There’s still the afternoon rush, and the meat dishes are definitely not enough.

Lin Xiang became even more determined to set up a farm.

"Alright, I’ll go buy some more ingredients!"

They were in luck today; when Lin Xiang and Cheng Jinyun rushed to the market, there were still ten pounds of pork left, which Lin Xiang bought.

Lin Xiang also bought all the vegetables available at the market.

Once back at Xingfu Restaurant, Lin Xiang got busy cooking in the kitchen herself.

It wasn’t until 2:30 PM, when the movie finished, that the students gradually left.

After the last person was gone, all of Xingfu Restaurant’s employees, including Mrs. Lin, collapsed into chairs, exhausted.

So tired, utterly tired!

Lin Xiang took a cross-body bag filled with money from Mrs. Lin and unzipped it; the money inside seemed to gush out like a fountain.

Though it was still mostly small bills and coins, the amount was greater than those first three days of trial operations.

And this was just from the morning.

Looking at the employees so tired they couldn’t straighten their backs, Lin Xiang decided to offer rewards to boost morale.

"Today’s business at Xingfu Restaurant was so good, thanks to the TV. But your hard work played a big part too, so I’ve decided to reward everyone with fifty cents each!"

"What?" Aunt Zhang was the first to react, suddenly full of energy, "Xiangxiang, you’re not joking, everyone gets a fifty-cent reward?"

She pointed to the sisters-in-law and then herself, "We’re not employees, do we get rewards too?"

"Aunt Zhang, although you’re not employees of Xingfu Restaurant, you worked hard today, so of course there’s a reward. I’ll personally give each of you fifty cents when we close in the afternoon, paid in cash."

With Lin Xiang’s assurance, everyone felt motivated.

Originally, they came to watch TV, not wanting to take advantage, so they helped out. But seeing Xingfu Restaurant getting busier invigorated them, and they couldn’t stop hustling, so no one was idle.

They didn’t expect they’d get paid.

"Can we come again tomorrow?"

"Why not?" Lin Xiang chuckled. "If business stays this good, I’ll give everyone a reward every day!"

To be honest, fifty cents isn’t much—it’s only half a formal employee’s daily wage.

Although the aunts weren’t impressed with the thirty-yuan monthly salary before, the daily fifty-cents reward now made them quite happy.

It’s hard to say.

The afternoon business was as booming as the morning. Luckily, Lin Xiang bought enough meat and vegetables, but after they were all cooked, there still wasn’t enough for the students in line.

So Mrs. Lin simply let everyone in.

She served each person a bowl of free tomato egg soup, "Today’s business was so good, we had to go buy more ingredients, but it’s still not enough. Have a bowl of soup to warm up, watch TV here for a while, and then go to the canteen or another place to eat. Don’t go hungry."

The kids were around Lin Xiang’s age, and Mrs. Lin felt a pang of pity seeing them looking forlorn.

She originally thought of letting them buy food from other places and eat while watching TV, but then realized if this trend caught on, people would bring food from elsewhere to Xingfu Restaurant. Wouldn’t that hurt their business?

So, while people can watch TV for free, outside meals aren’t allowed inside.

Because the movie hadn’t finished playing, by closing time, it was already 7:30 PM.

At 6:00 PM, Lin Xiang had sent the sisters-in-law home first; their barracks were far away, and since there wasn’t much work left at the restaurant, it was better for them to return to their families.

In the last few days, they could bring home leftover food, but today there was nothing left to sell, but the sisters-in-law didn’t mind—everyone got fifty cents in cash.

At 7:40 PM, after sending off the last guest, the Lin family finally went home.

Mrs. Lin was so exhausted she couldn’t lift her legs, so Cheng Jinyun rode a bicycle to take her home first and then returned to pick up Lin Xiang. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Lin Xiang thought Mrs. Lin was already asleep, but when she got home, Mrs. Lin was sitting on a stool and perked up upon seeing her, "Come quickly and count how much we earned today."

Lin Xiang had no choice but to open the bag’s zipper, and the money almost jumped out.

She still divided the money into three parts, but each portion was more than they had before dividing.

"Dear, you won’t believe how much I have here!" Mrs. Lin whispered, "Two hundred seventy-eight yuan!"

"I have two hundred eighty-six yuan."

"Mine is rather more, three hundred five yuan."

Altogether it was eight hundred sixty-nine yuan.

Because all three automatically rounded off, neglecting the coins, it was roughly eight hundred seventy yuan.

This didn’t count the five-yuan rewards given to employees and helpers.

Today, Quanfu Building delivered food once, and Lin Xiang went to buy more ingredients once—the two expenses totaled about eighty yuan, plus the fixed wages of the employees and costs for rice and seasonings. Today’s net profit was around seven hundred yuan.

Seven hundred yuan at the end of the seventies—that’s a solid amount any way you look at it.

"If every day could be like this, we’d become a ten-thousand-yuan household in just half a month!"