Chapter 48 Middle-aged Artistic Man
"Take a look and have a taste. My cakes are delicious."
"The main feature of Taohua Dessert's pastries is sweetness. If they are not sweet, they will not cost money. If they are not fragrant, they will not cost money."
“All cakes are free to taste.”
As several customers tasted the food and bought it without hesitation, Gu Taohua's confidence was fully aroused and she turned into a human loudspeaker and actively promoted the product.
Tong Huaqiong stood in front of the stall introducing and selling products to customers.
"what is this?"
"We have some jujube paste cakes for tasting. Please try some."
"What is this? It has a very nice shape."
"Look at the cookies. There are flower-shaped ones and pig-shaped ones. Buy some for your children. They will definitely like them."
"This is a date cake. It is loose, soft, fragrant and sweet. It is good for teeth and appetite. It is perfect for the elderly."
"Yes, yes, yes, either one can be sold in retail."
......
Tong Huaqiong was surrounded by customers, and as she and Gu Taohua sang in unison, the atmosphere around the stall instantly heated up.
"Hey, hey, hey, old lady, you can try the food, but don't take the plate away from me after you're done."
Tong Huaqiong quickly snatched the tasting plate from an old lady and took a look. Wow, she had already eaten half of the plate.
Auntie is so fierce!
"Auntie, would you like some?" Gu Taohua asked at the right time.
The old lady shook her head like a rattle. She heard from her sister-in-law that day that she could taste free pastries at the pastry stand opposite Sushiyuan, so she ran to take advantage of it, but found that Tong Huaqiong had already withdrawn from the stand and missed the chance. After two days of waiting, she finally caught her. Her sister-in-law did not lie to her. As expected, she could taste all kinds of pastries for free.
She spends money to buy something when it’s free. How stupid!
"This lady is really like a Pi Xiu." Gu Taohua was so angry that she wanted to curse.
"Why rush? Everyone who comes is a customer and they will buy something sooner or later," said Tong Huaqiong.
Since she started offering free tasting, she knew there would be customers who only wanted to try the products but not buy.
But such customers will definitely be the main force in clearing inventory in the future.
She cannot guarantee that all the pastries will be sold out on the same day. The remaining pastries or those that are not so popular in the market need to be cleared out. When there are discounts and promotions, the motivation of these ladies to take advantage will be stimulated.
"The small cake is like chewing the moon, with crispy and sweet fillings inside."
Tong Huaqiong looked up and saw a middle-aged man wearing green clothes who looked quite literary. He had his hands behind his back and was watching Gu Taohua packing pastries while reading out the words on the wrapping paper.
Some of the poems on these wrapping papers were thought up by Gu Jingzhe, and some were thought up by Tong Huaqiong.
For example, the poem read by the middle-aged literary man on the chestnut crisp packaging was plagiarized by Tong Huaqiong from a poem by a poet from Suzhou University.
"The packaging of this pastry is quite interesting." The artistic middle-aged man said with a smile.
“Not only is the packaging interesting, the pastries are even more delicious,” said Tong Huaqiong with a smile.
Both the signboard and the packaging of Taohua Dessert have a fatal appeal to such middle-aged artistic men.
Tong Huaqiong was happy to have such literary men come, as their mouths and pens could be powerful tools for publicity.
"How does your dessert compare to Sushiyuan's?" asked the middle-aged artistic man.
"It's hard to compare. Customers have their own standards for judging whether something tastes good or not. Brother, why don't you try it and compare it." Tong Huaqiong smiled like a flower.
Bring various food samples to the artistic man.
The middle-aged artistic man picked up a cookie with a fork, put it in his mouth, and then chewed it.
The smell was so delicious that he almost spun and jumped with his eyes closed.
Keep calm, keep calm, he is the Master!
"I've never seen this kind of cake in Sushiyuan. This is the first time I've eaten such cake." The literary middle-aged man nodded with satisfaction.
That's right. Even though cookies were the most common biscuits in Tong Huaqiong's previous life, they were the first of their kind in this era.
"You have a really good taste. You immediately picked out the cookies for tasting. I dare not say anything else. These cookies are currently unique to my family." Tong Huaqiong smiled and pointed at the cookies on the stall.
"Cookies? This name is quite unique. What does it mean?" said the middle-aged literary man.
"This cookie was made by my little granddaughter accidentally. The name was also picked by her casually when she was a child. It has no meaning." Tong Huaqiong said.
"Oh?" The middle-aged artistic man was indeed interested.
"When I was making pastries at home, I was afraid that she would mess up, so I gave her a ball of dough and let her play with it by herself. Who knew that she mixed sugar, almonds and other ingredients, kneaded them into various shapes and put them in the oven to bake. After they came out of the oven, I found that they tasted better than any other biscuits."
"So I re-mixed the ingredients based on the idea she came up with by accident, and baked hundreds of batches until the taste was so delicious."
Tong Huaqiong began to tell the story.
Such food stories are common in later generations, such as beggar's chicken and cross-bridge rice noodles.
Like Qianlong’s cabbage and Cixi’s steamed corn bread, they are similar.
There are not many celebrities in Qinghe Bay. If there were any celebrities, Tong Huaqiong would have been honored with the title of Taohua Dessert.
"So food is very similar to life. Sometimes deliberate pursuit may lead to a dead end, while letting nature take its course may bring unexpected scenery." Tong Huaqiong said with a serious look on his face, expressing his insights and conclusions about life.
The middle-aged artistic man's face was moved after hearing this.
I didn’t expect that a woman selling cakes at a small stall would have such an understanding.
Sure enough, the master is in the folk.
"Give me two pounds of cookies, two pounds of chestnut crisps, and two pounds of date cakes that look good too." The middle-aged literary man said, pointing casually.
Tong Huaqiong took the money, and Gu Taohua packed it neatly and handed it to the middle-aged literary man.
"Where is your home, brother? If you want to eat it in the future, you don't have to bother coming here. You can make an order in advance and I will deliver it to your door." Tong Huaqiong asked casually.
"Widow Tong, don't you recognize him? He is the famous Master Su in our private school." said someone nearby.
"Oh, Mr. Su from the private school? Isn't that my third brother's teacher?" Gu Taohua said.
"Who is your third brother?" Master Su asked as he took the pastry.
How come he didn’t know which student’s mother and sister were selling cakes at the market?
"My third brother is Gu Jingzhe, and he passed the examination to become a Tongsheng last year."
Tong Huaqiong didn't have time to interrupt Gu Taohua, who excitedly revealed the name of Gu Jingzhe.
At this time, Tong Huaqiong didn't want to have anything to do with Gu Jingzhe. Based on her understanding, Gu Jingzhe was probably a disliked person in the private school, and the bad things between him and the Zheng family were probably spread all over the private school.
What if Master Su knew that he was Gu Jingzhe's mother and taught her a lesson in public, wouldn't it affect the reputation of Taohua Desserts?
She didn't want Peach Blossom Dessert to fail right from the start.
Master Su looked Tong Huaqiong up and down while holding the cakes, thinking that this was a bit inconsistent with the legendary image of a vicious and unreasonable widow.
He heard that Gu Jingzhe's widowed mother was the most unreasonable person, and that Gu Jingzhe's character was a little bit crooked because of his widowed mother's indulgence. Therefore, Tong Huaqiong was already on his blacklist without even meeting him.
He always felt it was a pity that Gu Jingzhe dropped out of school. If such a talented young man could be straightened out, he might have a chance of survival.
"Master Su." Tong Huaqiong laughed awkwardly.
"I know that my son has caused the teacher a lot of trouble in the private school. He relies on the fact that he passed the imperial examination at a young age and becomes arrogant. I think that since he is like this, there is no point in studying for him. So I let him drop out of school and let him temper his temper before thinking about anything else." Tong Huaqiong took the initiative and put the blame on Gu Jingzhe.
What I mean is that I am his mother and I wanted to take care of him. I was also anxious because of his bad character, so I simply let him drop out of school.
She felt that she, as a fake mother, had done Gu Jingzhe a good job. At least she had not destroyed his character.
Instead, he was guided in the direction of passing the imperial examination at a young age. This way, when Gu Jingzhe straightened out and returned to the private school, at least people would not look at him with tinted glasses because of his character.