CHAPTER 418: CHAPTER 418: STRIKE WHILE THE IRON IS HOT

On the other hand, after the father and son left, Shu’er turned her gaze towards the vice president of the Commerce Association.

"President, may I ask, once I leave the association, can I not join again?"

The vice president’s eyes flashed, and he didn’t speak.

But it was Sister Xian who spoke bluntly, "Of course not. However, after quitting the association, it takes three months to rejoin, and it also requires the consent of more than half of the recommenders. Otherwise, everyone would think it’s easy to join this association, wouldn’t they?"

Shu’er nodded, "Then what if a new member wants to join?"

Sister Xian said, "It requires ten members to recommend you, then you can join."

Shu’er nodded and smiled at Sister Xian, "I wonder if Sister Xian could recommend me for membership?"

Sister Xian naturally nodded, "Of course I can, but..."

She glanced at the vice president and then sighed.

"I can recommend you to join, but I’m afraid you won’t have ten people to recommend you, and you just offended Liu’s."

Shu’er knew this was the harsh truth, and she needed to join the association to bid on the Thousand-year-old Ganoderma together with others.

The nearest auction is a week away, meaning she must build a reputation in Jingzhou City this week so that the commerce association of Jingzhou City would invite her to join proactively.

Otherwise, with the current exclusionary attitude of the association members, it would be hard for her to integrate.

Shu’er said, "Thank you very much."

Shu’er smiled and looked at Sister Xian, "Sister Xian, I’m thinking of opening a restaurant now. I wonder if you’d like to collaborate with me? We’ll split the investment fifty-fifty, I’ll provide the skills, and we split the profits seventy-thirty."

Shu’er could actually open it herself, but she had a good impression of Sister Xian and wanted to earn money together with her.

Sister Xian hesitated. Shu’er’s pastries tasted good, but honestly, opening a restaurant is different from making pastries.

She didn’t think Shu’er’s restaurant could make much money.

Moreover, with the exclusivity of Jingzhou’s merchants, there’s no guarantee that Shu’er could successfully open a restaurant there.

Sister Xian gave a charming smile and winked at Shu’er.

"Sister won’t play with you, wishing you success in opening your restaurant."

Shu’er nodded, not feeling too disappointed.

For the restaurant’s location, Lin Yu was first sent to find spots. He would note all rental locations.

And Shu’er, taking advantage of Pei’s Pastry Shop’s rising reputation, seized the opportunity to promote Pei’s Pastries.

This time, Pei’s had even greater promotional efforts—every type of pastry was at a 34% discount, and the first hundred customers entering Pei’s would get a free egg cake.

Meanwhile, the matcha cake and flower pastry she’d made in competitions were now in production, although she made these by herself due to limited manpower.

While making them, the cooks would take turns watching her, learning as they watched.

The other cooks not watching would continue making pastries to keep the shop running.

The flower pastries and matcha cakes were limited, but everyone could sample them for free in the shop, as was the case with every pastry.

When tasting the matcha cakes and flower pastries, everyone felt pleasantly surprised.

These pastries were just too delicious, although the other pastries also had good taste.

But they still couldn’t compare to these two.

Everyone finally understood how good the pastries had to be for Manager Zhang and Sister Xian to vote for them.

Anyone who tasted the samples ended up buying these two types of pastries.

These pastries were almost gone as soon as they were brought out for sale.

Moreover, the pastries were limited this time; each person could only buy one matcha cake and one flower pastry.

This made the pastries even more precious.

Shu’er made only five hundred matcha cakes, along with five hundred flower pastries.

She spent almost the entire day in the kitchen.

If Tang Zan hadn’t come to pull her out of the kitchen, she could have gone without lunch and dinner.

The meals were made by Tang Zan, who felt sorry for how hard Shu’er was working, so he’d learned to cook a bit.

He had to say, the taste was good and quite appetizing.

Shu’er initially didn’t want to eat, but she ended up eating a bowl and a half before putting down her chopsticks.

Then she dashed back into the kitchen.

The other cooks came to clean up the dishes, and Tang Zan arranged for his men to help watch over the shop as he headed to the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion.

After the shop closed for the night, Shu’er gathered all the cooks together for a concentrated training session.

"Today I’ve taught you all the methods for making matcha cakes and flower pastries. Now I’ll teach you all once more, watching you as you make them."

"Some will make flower pastries, others will make matcha cakes. Tomorrow, you’ll have to make them yourselves."

"Ultimately, everyone must be able to make both types."

Everyone nodded, naturally eager to learn; they realized they could learn far more from Shu’er than they could elsewhere.

And since they’d signed confidentiality agreements, Shu’er taught them everything without reservation.

By the end of the night, everyone had completed the tasks assigned by Shu’er, and they were familiar with every step without making mistakes.

The taste of what they made went from just passable at the start to almost indistinguishable from Shu’er’s own products.

Even if they couldn’t quite match Shu’er’s creations, they were a class above Liu’s, Ma’s, and Zhang’s Pastry Shops with their sweet taste.

The next morning, as word spread throughout Jingzhou about Pei’s Pastry Shop, more and more people came.

Many came to taste the egg cakes that even Liu’s coveted, and after tasting, they couldn’t help but exclaim.

Truly, it lived up to its reputation.

Then they tried the award-winning matcha cakes and flower pastries from Master Hong, unable to resist reaching for their wallets.

As Pei’s Pastry Shop grew busier and customers lined up, even Manager Liu grew more and more angry.

This Pei’s simply couldn’t be tolerated.

Today, Liu’s had half the customers they used to have and discovered that many old customers had gone to Pei’s.

They were an old pastry shop, but these customers had no sense of loyalty at all.

Early the next morning, Shu’er went to the kitchen, watched the cooks make two batches of pastries, and saw that there were no issues.

As she went out to finalize the restaurant location, she saw Tang Zan standing by the door waiting for her, a few young girls buying pastries blushing as they looked at him.

A few young ladies nudged each other before one plucked up the courage to approach Tang Zan.

"Young Master..."

It was clear these ladies were all quite shy, but Tang Zan’s appeal was impossible to resist.

Tang Zan glanced coldly, making the girl’s face turn even redder and more excited.

"Young Master... I... This is a pouch I’ve embroidered."

Tang Zan lazily retracted his gaze, and when he saw Shu’er, a smile appeared on his icy face.

"Wife, you’re here."