The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 476 - 475: The Sugar and Wine Fair

Chapter 476: Chapter 475: The Sugar and Wine Fair

"Xiaoguo, are you here to check out the trade fair?"

Upon seeing Guo Xin, Shen Mingzhu was somewhat surprised.

"I have the day off today, so I came over to look around."

"Alright then, take a look around, and come over to play later."

After saying a few words, Shen Mingzhu turned back to her busy work.

Guo Xin didn’t leave, but instead began to help her arrange the packaged snacks and candies from the cardboard box onto the display stand.

Shen Mingzhu glanced at her, smiled, and said nothing.

Yet Guo Xin took the initiative to start a conversation, "President Shen, I’m sorry, but I’ve discussed it with my family, and we’ve decided not to change jobs for now."

"I was actually quite keen to go, but my family has a heavy burden, my in-laws are both in poor health, and my child is still young. It’s just my husband and me earning money to support us all."

"Mm, don’t worry about it. Work is, after all, a mutual choice. If you come, I welcome you, if you don’t, we can still be friends."

Seeing that Shen Mingzhu understood her, Guo Xin couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief, "You’ve treated me to meals and given me gifts, I feel a bit guilty. I have the day off today, so I thought I’d come and lend a hand."

It was clear that Guo Xin was independent and strong-willed, not liking to feel indebted to anyone.

Shen Mingzhu cheered her on with a smile, working alongside her while they chatted about household matters like friends.

Although the trade fair started at nine o’clock, city residents began trickling in after half-past eight.

Several female employees, wearing uniforms with the company’s logo, were handing out free candies and spicy strips to the passing locals and tourists around the booth.

It was the weekend, and many residents had brought their children along.

Shen Mingzhu’s booth was stocked with snacks that children love, and it also had gifts like keychains and plush toys. Together with the free samples, it wasn’t long before a crowd began to gather.

"Mommy, I want the panda!"

A child, munching on a spicy strip, pointed at the panda doll on the display shelf and clamored.

Shen Mingzhu seized the moment to explain, smiling, "Little friend, the panda doll is a free gift. If you make any purchase amounting to fifteen yuan or more, you get a little panda for free."

The panda dolls were 20 centimeters tall. If you bought one from a toy store, it would cost about thirty to forty yuan.

Here, if you spend fifteen yuan, you’d get one for free, which seemed like a good deal to the parents.

People come to the fair to buy food and drinks anyway, and if there are gifts to be had, why not take them?

The parent quickly picked two packs of assorted fruit jellies, bought some spicy strips and dried bean curd, and just as the freshly baked flower cakes were ready, Shen Mingzhu immediately cut one for the parent and child to try.

After tasting, the parent decided to buy another two pounds of flower cakes.

In total, it came to thirty yuan.

Besides the panda doll, Shen Mingzhu also gave them an additional panda keychain as a gift.

Both the parent and child left satisfied, and Shen Mingzhu was equally content.

These panda dolls and keychains had been custom ordered from the manufacturer half a year in advance; their cost wasn’t high.

The cost of the keychain was about fifteen cents, and the doll was one yuan.

Selling thirty yuan’s worth of products and giving away a gift that cost one yuan and fifteen cents meant the discount was even less than five percent off.

Seeing this, other children also started to clamor for panda dolls.

Real giant pandas are rare to see, so taking home a fake one isn’t too excessive, right?

While the children adored the dolls, the adults were quite interested in the keychains.

Shen Mingzhu had designed the keychains herself; a pigeon egg-sized plastic panda hung from each metal keychain, all in different poses—some eating bamboo, some walking, and others sitting or lying down, all of them irresistibly cute.

In addition, the keychain came with other accessories such as nail clippers and earpick.

These days, with mechanical locks, everyone needs to carry keys, and an attractive, distinctive keychain is very handy.

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Thanks to the promotion giving away panda toys and keychains, customers streamed in all day long. Before three in the afternoon, the flower cakes and snowflake crisps had sold out, and other snacks had been restocked twice.

Just as Guo Xin had said, she helped out for free the whole day, only saying goodbye to Shen Mingzhu after the expo had ended.

"President Shen, I’ll be heading back now."

Shen Mingzhu stopped her, "Let’s go together, I can give you a lift on the way."

Du Juan’s rented house wasn’t far from Guo Xin’s home, and it was Guo Xin who had helped her find it in the first place.

There were still two days left for the expo, and there was no need to pack up the ovens and equipment. They only needed to fold up the exhibition tables and cover everything with tarps.

There would be security personnel watching over the exhibition hall at night, so there was no fear of anything being stolen.

After tidying up, Shen Mingzhu treated the staff members who had participated in the expo to a simple meal of stir-fried dishes before they all went home.

Shen Chaobei drove, with Du Juan in the passenger seat, and Shen Mingzhu and Guo Xin in the back seat.

"President Shen, you gave away so many toys and keychains today. That must have cost quite a bit of money."

Du Juan turned back and said to Guo Xin, "Xiaoguo, do you know how much we sold today?"

Guo Xin thought for a moment and said, "It should be over ten thousand, right?"

Du Juan laughed softly, "No less than fifty thousand at the very least."

Guo Xin gasped in surprise.

At its busiest, their department store had daily sales of tens of thousands.

But now, it was hard to even break ten thousand in a day’s sales.

Among all the businesses at the food and liquor expo, if there were not a hundred, there were at least eighty, and Shen Mingzhu was just one of them, managing to sell tens of thousands.

All the businesses combined, it must be several million, surely?

After three days of the expo, the total transaction volume was likely to reach ten or twenty million.

Moreover, many out-of-province businesses would set up branches in Rongcheng to attend the food and liquor expo, a surefire strategy for attracting investment.

No wonder the municipal government placed such importance on the food and liquor expo, even going as far as to build a new convention center just for it.

Shen Mingzhu explained, "Our purpose in attending the expo is to better understand and communicate with others in the industry, to promote and advertise our own brand, and to seek various partnerships. Sales are actually secondary."

Guo Xin nodded, her gaze filled with admiration as she looked at Shen Mingzhu.

"President Shen, you are truly impressive."

Shen Mingzhu smiled, "I built it step by step, from starting the factory to establishing the company. I’ve made many mistakes and taken many detours to reach today’s stable development."

"Everyone is afraid of failure, but if you don’t have the courage to take the first step, you’ll never know where your limits are."

Guo Xin seemed thoughtful.

Beep beep.

Shen Mingzhu took out her pager, and seeing the number on the display, a smile lifted the corners of her mouth.

"President Shen, it’s Brother Pei paging you, isn’t it?"

Guo Xin teased with a smile, her tone revealing a hint of envy.

Meng Qi had a pager too, one her sister had bought for her.

As a woman of a similar age, while others enjoyed a bountiful harvest in both family and career, having everything they wanted, she had nothing and lived a hard life.

Who wouldn’t want to live a better life?

Back at the hotel, Shen Mingzhu headed straight for the front desk to use the phone.

The phone was picked up in less than three seconds, "Mommy~"

Hearing her daughter’s sweet baby voice, Shen Mingzhu felt her heart melt.

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