"We could add some other items, like milk tea or grilled sausages," Yanjie suggested.
Jiang Xu nodded, "Not a bad idea, you handle it.
Keep the earnings from this section."
"Sure thing." Yanjie rubbed his hands together, full of excitement.
Both of them stayed at Jiang Xu's house.
By two o'clock, they began handling the food ingredients.
Nuonuo wanted to help, but Jiang Xu stopped her.
What a joke, how could his future wife spend time with other men?
Even if one of them was his best friend, it was still off-limits.
Jiang Xu continued writing until four o'clock and wrote another twelve thousand words.
His second novel had already reached over a hundred and twenty thousand words.
If he wrote a little more at night, he could finish it in a few days.
Later, he and Nuonuo cooked together.
The quick sales of the packed meals were closely linked to the couple's culinary skills.
By five and a half, all the meals were ready.
There were only one hundred and twenty portions in the evening.
They decided to wait and see how sales went that evening before deciding whether to increase or decrease production tomorrow.
After everything was done, Nuonuo went home.
Jiang Xu continued writing.
Around eight in the evening, Lin Nan sent a message.
His first novel had reached its final issue.
The market reaction was excellent, and several publishers had approached him, hoping to get it published.
However, the copyright was in Jiang Xu's hands, and the offered price was average at best.
So they asked him if he wanted to sell it.
Naturally, Jiang Xu wouldn't sell it so easily.
Once he produced several more works and raised his popularity.
At that point, the price would be significantly different.
Additionally, the serialization of his second novel had also begun.
It had claimed a prime spot in the story forum.
Jiang Xu inquired whether the payment for his second novel's manuscript could also be advanced.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to buy the office space at the end of the month.
Without hesitation, Lin Nan agreed.
Once he submitted all the copies of the second novel and they were verified without issues, the advance could be paid on her end.
Such an offer was exclusive to an author of his status.
Around seven o'clock in the evening, Yanjie returned.
All the evening meals had sold out as well.
Deducting the cost, Jiang Xu earned nearly four hundred yuan that night.
So, the total daily earnings were about eight or nine hundred yuan.
Yanjie took home a little over a hundred yuan, grinning from ear to ear, showing off his big white teeth.
After they left, Jiang Xu continued to write.
His mood was exceptionally good that night, and he was writing at the speed of four thousand words per hour.
By ten past ten, he had written another fifteen thousand words.
The total word count was over one hundred and forty thousand words now.
He turned off his computer and went to bed straight away.
He planned to get up early tomorrow and try to complete the book by noon.
The next day.
Jiang Xu woke up before six o'clock.
After brushing his teeth and drinking a cup of warm boiled water, he turned on his computer and started typing.
With only eight thousand words left, he finished it within two hours.
At eight o'clock, Jiang Xu typed the last punctuation mark.
Done!
After sending all the copies to Lin Nan, Jiang Xu stretched lazily.
Following tax deductions, the second book's royalties summed up to around twenty thousand yuan.
Jiang Xu didn't yet know the price of office buildings in Jiang City, but assumed that one square meter could not be more than five thousand yuan.
At first, he didn't need a large place.
Sixty to seventy square meters would be sufficient.
He wanted a separate office and a bathroom, with the remaining area used as a common area.
If he planned for a sixty-square-meter office, it would cost about three hundred thousand yuan.
That was still a long way off.
It all depended on how well his second novel did.
If it performed better than the first one, he could boost his pay rate per thousand words, and that would make things easier for him.
An Nuonuo arrived, still carrying her backpack, with soy milk and a fried dough stick in her hand.
Today, she was wearing the pink, knee-length dress that Jiang Xu had bought for her.
She even put on white stockings.
Her beautiful legs were slender and straight.
Today she didn't tie her hair into a ponytail, her stunning, long black hair was simply tied with a pink ribbon.
Her whole being radiated with a strong youthful aura.
I couldn't handle it, I simply couldn't.
Sis, you're playing too dirty!
"What's wrong, don't I look good?"
Seeing Jiang Xu's expression, the young girl awkwardly fiddled with the hem of her skirt.
This was her first time wearing such clothing.
Today, she didn't even dare to ride a bike, she walked all the way here.
Despite, she also wore shorts underneath.
"Not bad." Jiang Xu sounded insincere.
He was worried that if he praised her too much, the little girl would become too conceited.
"Oh, eat breakfast."
After eating breakfast, Fu Yanjie came over.
With some annoyance, he said, "Zhang Zhiqiang quit, now we have to find someone else."
Zhang Zhiqiang was the one who had come to help yesterday.
Jiang Xu didn't think much of it: "It's okay, I'll help you today."
Today he had to go get a bank card and register the studio.
By eleven-thirty, everything was taken care of.
Today there was a bit more,150 portions.
Jiang Xu told An Nuonuo to just stay home and read a book, there was no need for her to come along.
She had gotten used to following Jiang Xu's commands and obediently agreed.
"Hey, isn't that Zhang Zhiqiang?"
The two of them arrived outside the first internet cafe, and Fu Yanjie sharp-eyed.
Immediately spotted Zhang Zhiqiang, also with a classmate.
It's none other than Cheng Fei.
They were also selling boxed lunches.
Furthermore, the price was two yuan lower than what Jiang Xu sold.
Fu Yanjie got angry.
He immediately went over: "Zhang Zhiqiang, what is the meaning of this!"
Zhang Zhiqiang was startled, looking somewhat guilty.
But soon enough he regained his composure: "No one said I can't sell boxed lunches!"
Yesterday he saw Fu Yanjie selling boxed lunches, the day's revenue was nearly two thousand yuan.
And he only made ten yuan in a day.
The disparity was too great, naturally he felt aggrieved.
So, he found Cheng Fei.
Told him about it.
They both agreed on it instantly, and started doing it.
And the first step to stealing customers from Jiang Xu was to lower the profit.
They had calculated it, even at six yuan, there was still a profit.
"You're really shameless!" Fu Yanjie was fuming: "You're plagiarizing our idea!"
Cheng Fei scoffed: "Did you invent selling boxed lunches? Are you the only one allowed to sell it, not anyone else?"
"You!" Fu Yanjie was furious, but he couldn't refute.
While they were arguing, a few people walked out of the internet cafe and bought boxed lunches from Zhang Zhiqiang.
Jiang Xu glanced at theirs.
He didn't know the taste, but the portion sizes weren't small.
Even though they couldn't sell in the internet cafe, walking a few steps to save two yuan was something people were willing to do.
Angry as he was, Fu Yanjie was at a loss.
Should he lower the price as well?
But what if the other party also dropped the price?
Wouldn't he have lost everything then?
He couldn't help but cast an inquiring look at Jiang Xu.
Letting Fu Yanjie take the brunt was alright.
But asking him to use his brain, that was impossible.
Jiang Xu had expected this situation and had already prepared a countermeasure.
He just didn't expect that his competitors would be classmates.
Jiang Xu patted Fu Yanjie on the shoulder: "Small obstacles, don't worry, we have the upper hand."