Tong Ya hurriedly took out her tissue and wiped Tuan Tuan's little face.
"Yikes, what happened? You were fine just a moment ago; how did you turn into such a crybaby?"
Tuan Tuan rubbed her eyes, feigning aggrievement.
"My dad is just a fried cake seller now, will teacher look down on him?"
"Of course not! To the teacher, your dad is a very responsible man!"
"Then, Teacher Tong Ya, we agreed, didn't we? After school this afternoon you'll come with me. It's very close, just two blocks away!"
Saying so, Tuan Tuan extended her little pinky, wanting to pinky promise with Tong Ya.
Tong Ya smiled lightly and without hesitation, made the pinky promise with Tuan Tuan.
"Alright then, go practice! The move we're doing today is really difficult!"
"Got it, teacher!"
Tuan Tuan was very cheerful as she went on her tiptoes, twirling her body and gracefully making her way to the dance area, acting as though some scheme of hers had succeeded.
Today's dance practice was the ballet Swan Lake, which was hellishly difficult for a beginner.
But for a prodigy like Tuan Tuan, it was a piece of cake; she even started dancing along with the music and brought the other kids along with her.
At lunchtime, after settling the children in the dance class, Tong Ya made a call on her phone as she sat in a corner, with a plate of her own packed meal.
"Tang Xiaowei, I won't make it to the hot pot arrangement we had for today; I might come home late!"
The person named Tang Xiaowei on the other end of the line seemed to have just woken up, "What's up? You got something going on?"
"I've made a promise with someone to go out for fried sugar cakes!"
"What? You're skipping out on a good hot pot to go eat fried sugar cakes with someone? Do you have a boyfriend?" Tang Xiaowei suddenly sprang out of bed, full of energy.
"No way, it's not set in stone yet!"
"Who exactly is it that can make our Miss Tong Ya care so much? You never just casually go out to eat with people."
At that point, Tang Xiaowei seemed to remember something, "It couldn't possibly be that guy you had a crush on in college, could it?"
"You know, yet you still ask!"
Tong Ya instantly felt a bit sheepish, "If you really want to eat hot pot, just go by yourself! Don't wait for me."
"Oh my God, Ya Ya, you need to stay calm; after all these years, it's been unrequited love, and that man has never even seen you! Plus, isn't he already married? Are you planning to become 'the other woman'? If those old fogies of the Tong Family get wind of this, there'll be hell to pay!"
"What are you talking about!"
Tong Ya hurriedly clarified, "He just divorced yesterday!"
"Holy smokes, that works! But you didn't have a hand in this, did you? Remember, we snuck out, so let's not stir up too much trouble!"
Tong Ya had a face full of black lines, "Do I look like that kind of person?"
Tang Xiaowei breathed a sigh of relief, "That's true! But your crush is really strong! You only saw him once at the freshman welcome party, and it has lasted until now! You're even willing to become 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, even fussing over what clothes to wear.
At this moment, Chen Yu had already started working busily inside his food stall.
Having been rushed both last night and this morning, he was almost prepping ingredients and selling fried cakes at the same time.
Even with the help of the system, he was a bit flustered.
It was finally quiet at noon, the perfect time to make semi-finished products out of the leftover ingredients so that he could simply fry them up when customers arrived in the afternoon.
With such a simple preparation of semi-finished products, Chen Yu sped up his work significantly. In just one and a half hours, he had made eight hundred pieces of sugar cake in five different flavors.
By his count, he could make a semi-finished fried cake every second.
He did a rough calculation in his mind: eight hundred of each flavor, which amounted to exactly five thousand six hundred yuan.
That was all pure profit!
However, preparing the fried cake semi-finished products at such a high efficiency and speed pushed Chen Yu to his limits.
From four in the morning until noon, he had barely stopped at all.
By the time he had stored the semi-finished products and was ready to rest, a group of more than ten girls suddenly came running over.
"This is the place! These fried cakes made by the boss are absolutely unique!"
One of the girls praised him and then leaned on the food cart's counter.
"Boss, do you remember me? Last night when I was on my shift, I bought a few fried cakes from you! We just got off work, and we're so hungry; could you fry some for us?"
Chen Yu initially wanted to refuse because he really was quite tired.
But looking at the dozen or so factory girls, dragging their tired bodies and standing in front of him with dark circles under their eyes and growling stomachs, he couldn't bear to turn them away.
He had once experienced that kind of factory life. Not to mention these delicate girls, even he had almost not been able to endure it.
"Alright, what flavor would you like?"
Chen Yu stood up, and the group of factory girls squealed in excitement.
"Wow, the boss is so handsome! You didn't take us here just to buy fried cakes; you wanted to sneak a look at the boss, didn't you?"
"Of course not. It was so dark when I was working last night, I couldn't care less about what the boss looked like. You'll know how delicious these fried cakes are once he fries them up."
"It doesn't matter how the fried cakes taste; the boss is genuinely attractive."
Amid the girls' chatter, Chen Yu fried twenty pieces of each flavor of fried cakes.
As soon as the girls took a bite of the fried cakes, their conversation suddenly stopped.
"Oh my, it's really delicious!"
"The boss is good-looking, and his cooking is excellent. I could bear his children!"
"Don't even think about it. The boss has a five-year-old daughter who is super adorable!"
At that moment, Zhang Fan hurried towards the food cart.
"Old Chen! I've designed it all for you. The space inside is maximized for use, and there's even room for a fridge to use as storage. Plus, if you drive off, you can still bring the trailer along!"
Saying this, Zhang Fan spread a blueprint out in front of Chen Yu.
It had to be said that Zhang Fan was truly a professional at vehicle modifications. It was only a few hours, yet he already had the blueprints ready.
"It's okay, just go ahead and do it."
After discussing some details, Zhang Fan directly collected the blueprints and went back to the vehicle modification shop, starting to work enthusiastically.
After sending off the dozen factory girls, Chen Yu quickly closed the food cart's window.
If any more customers came, he wouldn't have enough fried cakes to sell in the evening.
But looking at the pace of things, it seemed that he would have to double the ingredients for the next morning.
Chen Yu thoroughly cleaned the food cart and then ordered a serving of braised chicken from next door.
After a satisfying meal, he set an alarm for two hours and lay down in the driver's seat to fall into a deep sleep.
In his dreams, he was counting money...