Tong Ya hurriedly took out the tissues she carried with her and wiped Tuan Tuan's little face.
"Oh, what happened? You were fine just a moment ago, how did you turn into a little crybaby so suddenly?"
Tuan Tuan rubbed his eyes, pretending to be aggrieved.
"My dad is just a fried cake seller now, the teacher won't look down on him, will she?"
"How could she? To the teacher, your dad is a very responsible man!"
"Then, Teacher Tong Ya, you promised, after school this afternoon you'll come with me, it's very close to here, just two blocks away!"
As he spoke, Tuan Tuan held out his little pinkie, wanting to make a pinkie promise with Tong Ya.
Tong Ya smiled lightly and did not hesitate to make the pinkie promise with Tuan Tuan.
"Alright then, go practice now! Today's movements are quite difficult!"
"Got it, Teacher!"
Tuan Tuan tiptoed with delight, twirling around and gracefully made his way to the dance area, looking as though he had successfully schemed something.
The dance they practiced today was the ballet Swan Lake, which is simply hell-level difficulty for beginners.
But for a prodigy like Tuan Tuan, it was a piece of cake; she even started dancing to the music, leading the other children along with her.
Lunchtime arrived, and after settling the kids in the dance class, Tong Ya served herself a meal and sat in the corner while dialing a number on her phone.
"Xiaowei, I'm going to have to skip the hot pot we scheduled today. I might be back late!"
Tang Xiaowei, apparently still half asleep, replied, "Why? What's up?"
"I have an appointment with someone, going out for fried sugar cakes!"
"What? You're going out for fried sugar cakes instead of having hot pot? Do you have a boyfriend?" Tang Xiaowei suddenly jumped up from the bed, fully alert.
"That's not the case, it's not confirmed yet!"
"Who is it that could make Miss Tong Ya care so much? You never just go out to eat with someone casually."
At that point, Tang Xiaowei seemed to remember something, "It wouldn't be that guy you had a crush on in college, would it?"
"You know and still ask!"
Tong Ya blushed slightly, "If you want to have hot pot, you can eat it by yourself! Don't wait for me."
"Oh my God! Ya Ya, you need to calm down, it's been so many years of unrequited love, that man has never even seen you! And besides, isn't he already married? Are you planning to be the other woman? The Tong family elders would have a fit if they found out!"
"What nonsense are you talking!"
Tong Ya hurriedly explained, "He just got divorced yesterday!"
"Holy moly, that works! You didn't stir things up, did you? Remember, we both snuck out, don't stir up too much trouble!"
Tong Ya was exasperated, "Do I look like that kind of person?"
Tang Xiaowei breathed a sigh of relief, "That's true! But you sure are passionate about your secret crush! It was just one glance at the freshman welcome party, and here we are now! You're even ready to be a stepmother."
"Mind your own business! I know what I'm doing!"
After hanging up the phone, Tong Ya suddenly became nervous, constantly thinking about the date that evening, and was even fretting over what to wear.
At this moment, Chen Yu was already busy in his food cart.
With the rush of last night and this morning, he was practically preparing raw materials while selling fried cakes on the side.
Even with the system boosting him, things were a bit chaotic.
Having some free time during midday, he could prepare all the remaining ingredients into semi-finished products, so in the afternoon, when customers arrived, he could just fry them directly.
The simple preparation of semi-finished products made the process much faster, and in just an hour and a half, Chen Yu managed to make eight hundred of each of the five flavors of sugar cakes.
All told, he could make a semi-finished fried cake every second.
Roughly calculating in his mind, eight hundred of each flavor amounted to a total of five thousand six hundred yuan.
That was pure profit!
But working so efficiently and rapidly on the fried cake semi-finished products, Chen Yu's physical strength had reached its limit.
From four in the morning until noon, he had barely stopped at all.
Just as he had stored away the semi-finished products and was about to take a break, a group of over a dozen girls suddenly ran over.
"This is the place! The fried cakes this owner makes are simply peerless!"
One of the young girls praised and then leaned over the food cart counter.
"Boss, do you remember me? I bought some fried cakes from you last night when I was working! We just got off work, and we're famished. Could you fry some up for us?"
Chen Yu had wanted to refuse because he was truly tired.
However, looking at these dozen or so factory girls, dragging their weary bodies and standing in front of him with dark circles under their eyes and growling stomachs, he couldn't bear to do so.
He had once experienced that kind of factory life, and not just these frail young girls, but even he had nearly been unable to cope with it.
"Sure, what flavor would you like?"
Chen Yu stood up, instantly causing the group of factory girls to scream with excitement.
"Wow, the boss is so handsome! Did you bring us here to buy fried cakes, or was it to sneak a peek at the owner?"
"Not at all, it was too dark to see anything while working last night. You'll know how delicious these fried cakes are once they're out. Wait and see."
"Never mind the taste of the fried cakes, it's true that the boss has some serious charm."
Amidst the girls' chatter, Chen Yu fried up twenty of each of the five flavors of the fried cakes.
When the girls bit into the fried cakes, their conversations suddenly stopped.
"Oh my goodness, it's really so fragrant!"
"The boss is handsome, skilled, I'd want to have his babies!"
"Dream on, the boss has a five-year-old daughter who is super cute!"
Just then, Zhang Fan hurried over to the food cart.
"Old Chen! Everything's designed for you, with maximum space utilization. You can even put a fridge in there to use as storage, and if you drive away, you can take the trailer with you!"
As he spoke, Zhang Fan laid out a blueprint in front of Chen Yu.
Zhang Fan was indeed a professional vehicle modifier. In just a few hours, he had already produced the blueprints.
"It's fine, do as you see fit!"
After discussing some details, Zhang Fan took the blueprints back to the vehicle modification shop and started working energetically.
After sending off the dozen or so factory girls, Chen Yu quickly closed the serving window of the food cart.
If more customers were to come, he wouldn't have enough fried cakes to sell that night.
But at the rate things were going, he would probably need to double the raw materials by tomorrow morning.
After carefully cleaning the food cart, Chen Yu ordered a Huangmen chicken from next door.
After eating his fill, he set an alarm for two hours and lay down in the driver's seat, falling into a deep sleep.
In his dream, he was counting money…