The Ace Bigshot Becomes A Farmgirl

Chapter 1318: Chapter 1318: Shu Yu: Our Costs Are High

Roasting melon seeds isn’t exactly a technical job, like peanuts, chestnuts, watermelon seeds, and other roasted goods have similarities in their preparation. So it’s not really a secret recipe, no need to avoid people.

Especially for someone like Ren Huai, whose family runs a business in nuts and preserved fruits.

But Shu Yu’s five-spice flavor isn’t found elsewhere, she uses a lot of ingredients, generous portions, and the proportions are carefully researched and tested, which is why the melon seeds taste good and smell wonderful.

Naturally, this aspect is not something outsiders should know.

Thus, when Luo Chun saw Shu Yu bringing guests in, she put away the more private parts, only letting people do routine tasks.

Ren Huai knew well enough not to insist on seeing.

Both he and Shu Yu understood that this visit was mainly to check the environment and the atmosphere of the staff at work.

Ren Huai wanted to use these two points to be somewhat picky and seize the chance to negotiate the price down, but clearly, he was now at a loss for words.

He looked at the staff wearing something on their faces and asked in confusion, ”Why are they covering their faces like this?”

Shu Yu explained with a smile, ”It’s not exactly covering their faces, just covering the mouth. Everyone’s working, it’s inevitable to talk. Sometimes when raising their voices, there might be saliva, so it’s just to prevent saliva from falling on the melon seeds.”

Shu Yu didn’t wear a mask, since the weather wasn’t really hot yet, wearing a mask could keep them warm. But once it gets hot, wearing a mask would be torture.

Nowadays in many places that sell cooked food, the staff wear transparent plastic food masks. But there’s no plastic in this era, so Shu Yu thought and thought, and temporarily used bamboo slats instead. She figured she might switch to something better in the future.

Actually, melon seeds have shells, so it’s not necessary to go to such lengths.

But Shu Yu also sold melon seed kernels here, even though the melon seeds should be cracked open by oneself for their soul. Yet for many of today’s aristocratic ladies, this act is somewhat inelegant, making melon seed kernels a good choice.

Ren Huai hadn’t expected her to consider this far, as he looked at the mask, he became thoughtful.

However, the next moment, he heard Shu Yu sighing, ”Young Master Ren, you can see, the melon seeds in our shop are clean and high-quality. We put in a lot of effort for this, which leads to a lot of expenses. Not to mention the melon seeds themselves, look at these shoe covers, these masks, these clothes, all prepared by the workshop itself. To treat the staff kindly, we use good things for them as well. This cost, well, it just went up.”

Ren Huai’s eyelids suddenly twitched upon hearing this and laughed awkwardly, ”Monarch Lu Xiang is a conscientious boss.”

”Yes, I see everyone having tough lives and working hard in earnest. As for me, I can’t help with anything else but to think of ways to help improve their lives, so their families can live better. Only then can they work without worries, right? But I can’t openly raise their wages, as other workshops might not be happy if there’s too big a difference. After considering, I can only occasionally give them rewards, and during festivals, distribute some good things. But doing so raises the costs again.”

Ren Huai, ”...”

Steward Xu silently hung his head; he didn’t even have the chance to speak up and try to press the price, what to do?

He quietly glanced at Ren Huai, seeing that he also seemed unable to respond, secretly heaved a sigh of relief.