Cheng Huan flipped over a few of the skewers and turned back over. The man next to her thought she was going to talk to him again. Just when he started to put on a smile, he heard her saying to him, âPlease excuse me.â
He gritted his teeth and didnât move. Someone pushed her way over. The older woman, a plate in hand, used her thicker body to squeeze him over to one side. After she had put the plate down, she said to him, âHey there, handsome, which order is yours? I will go and check on it for you.â
That person was just here to hit on a woman and didnât order anything, never mind whether it was ready or not. He buckled down and wanted to say something else to Cheng Huan, but he was already completely derailed by the other woman.
âDonât worry, handsome. Your order will be ready soon.â
After she had chased away the flies there were bustling around, Xu Li went back over to Cheng Huan and said to her in a low voice. âThis is not going to work with you by yourself. These people come and hang around every day. I donât want to scare you, but some unwanted incident just might happen one day.â
Cheng Huan paused a little in the middle of her action.
Ever since she had started her booth, she had never stopped being hit on. Some of them even waited for her outside for her to close up and wanted to ask her out.
She would be lying to say she wasnât worried; which was part of the reasons that she hired on Xu Li.
Xi Li was in her 30s or 40s. She was experienced and has an explosive temperament. Having her here saved her a lot of trouble.
Except that Xu Li didnât live with her. She might be able to help her block out some of the unwanted attention during work, but not much she could do after they have closed up. Just like she had mentioned, who knows if there were some more reckless ones among them. Itâd be too late to regret if something really happened.
Cheng Huan sighed to herself and pondered over her options.
She hadnât run into the same issue before in her real life. When she had a booth back then, she was still young, plus her booth was located right next to her school and most of her customers were her classmates. Nobody would do anything too crazy. When she went to college, she had already rented a place and wasnât really there very often. After she started running her private home cuisine after graduating college, there was even less traffic. Private home cuisine was on the higher end in terms of pricing, most of her patrons were of higher caliber. They were used to being around attractive women and respected mutual consent and chivalry.
The one next to her was still jabbering on. âMaybe you can have your husband pick you up and drop you off? That way it will be safer.â Xu Li knew that Cheng Huan had a 4-year-old who just started kindergarten. She naturally assumed that there was a dad in the family, which was why she gave that advice.
Cheng Huan: ââŚâŚâ
Where was she going to find this husband from?
âLet me think about it.â
âWell, go talk to him about it. If your husband doesnât want to come. Iâll see that you get home safely. It is just a matter of a few extra steps for me anyway.â
That would work too. Worse case scenario, she could walk her back. Cheng Huan nodded and said, âThank you so much.â
Xu Li took the orders out and Cheng Huan continued to work nonstop as she continued to mull over the issue.
Her work ended late and it was always more dangerous at night than in the day time. Even with Xu Li with her, there was no guarantee on her safety. She recalled her earlier plan â to save up enough to have her own storefront and hire someone to do the barbequing also. She would only be responsible for the sauce.
That way she wouldnât need to be out at night anymore and wouldnât be harassed as much.
Business has been going well and she was making about 2,000 yuan in pure profit a day, give or take 60,000 yuan a month. Rent for the storefront in the area went for about 20,000 ~ 30,000 yuan a month. That and cost for remodeling and hiring help.
Adding them all upâŚ.
That was way more than what she had saved up.
Cheng Huan did her math. Subtracting all her normal expenses, it would take at least three months to save up enough.
Three months was a long time.
Would she really need to find herself a âbeauâ to turn away some of the attention that she has been getting?
Cheng Huan shook her head violently and got rid of the crazy ideas in her head.