Lily: Please Let the Pounds Keep Pouring In
Lily and Petunia enjoyed a comfortable Christmas holiday, but it passed quickly. Lily tearfully said goodbye to Petunia and was alone again. Fortunately, her eleventh birthday was just around the corner. While she waited to start school, Lily also worried about her business. Once school began in September, she would no longer be able to attend to the supermarket business in town whenever she pleased. If Tales of Blossoms couldn't keep its shelves stocked, it would be finished.
To avoid a collapse from stock shortages later on, Lily spent all day in the warehouse, manually taking out goods again and again. It was simply too inefficient. At last, she opened Pindaodao and reluctantly asked how to obtain goods in bulk.
"Why don't you enter a plural quantity before taking them out?"
Lily froze, utterly dumbfounded.
Was it possible she simply hadn't known, and Pindaodao simply hadn't told her? "Why didn't you say so earlier?"
"You didn't ask." Pindaodao also felt it had been unfairly blamed, and even sounded a little innocent, as though it had never been at fault.
Lily clenched her fist. I can endure this.
She immediately opened her list of saved products and gritted her teeth as she entered a quantity of one hundred. The next second, piles of goods appeared out of nowhere and landed neatly stacked in the empty warehouse, instantly filling more than half its storage space.
Honestly, what did that make her, when she could have taken everything out at once but had insisted on doing it one item at a time?
"Someone with time to spare, I guess," Pindaodao added mercilessly.
Lily clenched her fist again and silently recited a calming mantra. I'll endure it again.
With her worries about the supply of goods resolved, the days flew by. Before she knew it, January thirtieth had arrived—Lily's eleventh birthday.
That morning, Lily rose early, before daybreak, and kept watch by the window. She paced back and forth, her eyes fixed on the sky outside as she quietly waited for an owl.
Mr and Mrs Evans stood behind her, watching their younger daughter fidget with anticipation. They couldn't help exchanging a smile and chuckling softly. She was exactly like Petunia when she had been waiting for her letter; even the way the sisters looked in anticipation was strikingly similar.
Before long, a nimble owl pierced the morning mist and landed steadily on the windowsill, clutching a parchment envelope bearing the Hogwarts wax seal in its talons.
Lily's heart pounded as she reached up with trembling hands and took the letter. At last, she had received her own magical acceptance letter.
Within a week of sending her reply, the professor who had once taken Petunia to Diagon Alley came calling again. It was Professor McGonagall.
Lily gazed up at her with shining eyes, full of curiosity and excitement, unable to hide her delight. The moment Professor McGonagall saw the lively, enthusiastic, open and pure-hearted Lily, she was certain the little girl was the very picture of a Gryffindor.
The trip to Diagon Alley went exceptionally smoothly. Lily displayed her curiosity and liveliness to the fullest, exploring the magical shops on every street and alley, filled with boundless anticipation for the magical life about to begin. She obtained a wand of her very own, bought a complete set of first-year magic textbooks at Flourish and Blotts, and had her measurements taken at Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions for a fitted wizarding school uniform.
Fortunately, she already had an owl of her own, saving her the trouble of buying one.
Once all her school supplies had been purchased, Professor McGonagall took her safely back to her home in town.
Clutching her brand-new wand and magic books, Lily cheered inwardly.
This was wonderful. From now on, her magical life had officially begun.
With the ability to retrieve goods in bulk, Lily had completely put her worries about supply shortages behind her. Mr Evans expanded the stock warehouse for her, and Lily stocked up in bulk with a single click, filling the enormous warehouse completely. All kinds of snacks, daily necessities and general merchandise were neatly stacked, with enough stock to keep the stores running for a long time.
With a stable supply of goods, Lily was no longer limited to two stores.
She quickly began planning a location for the third Tales of Blossoms store. At first, Mr Evans did not support opening new stores so frequently within a short period. In his view, the two stores were operating steadily, and rushing to expand carried too much risk, making management oversights and staff shortages more likely. Steady progress was the way to ensure long-term success.
But as he looked at his daughter's thorough plans and her business acumen far beyond her years, the inexplicable yet infectious confidence Lily possessed won him over.
After several rounds of discussion and consideration, Mr Evans ultimately chose to compromise and cooperate with his daughter's plans, personally handling the choice of location, research, paperwork and other matters.
The third Tales of Blossoms store was ultimately set up in the town next to the second store's. From site selection and renovation to hiring and the official opening, it took just two months—a startling pace.
The first store had never stopped being upgraded and improved. The first and second stores were expanded at the same time, staff were recruited on a large scale, and management procedures were refined. The entire operating system grew increasingly mature and standardized.
As she became more familiar with magical knowledge and studied spells over and over, quite a few more puzzle pieces in her mind lit up. Progress was slow, however, and had yet to reach two-tenths, leaving plenty of room for growth.
With the three Tales of Blossoms stores making steady profits, the constant flow of money completely transformed the Evans family's circumstances.
The once comfortable, ordinary middle-class family had leaped into the upper middle class, just one step away from becoming a wealthy, high-income family. The dramatic change in their circumstances gave the whole family new plans.
After careful consideration, Mr Evans made a major decision: he would resign from his job as a factory supervisor. Once Lily left for Hogwarts in the autumn, operations at the stores could easily fall into disarray without anyone in charge. The steady income from the three stores was the family's financial foundation, so Mr and Mrs Evans ultimately took over the overall management of Tales of Blossoms themselves, devoting all their energy to the business.
The profitability of the three stores far exceeded expectations, with monthly net profits holding steady at £18,403—a considerable return. With ample working capital on hand, Mr Evans purchased several large warehouses over time and built a comprehensive warehousing and supply chain, fully integrating the operation of supply, storage and retail.
Once supply and operations were completely stable, Lily moved beyond selling snacks and daily necessities and began expanding her business into clothing. Through the system, she retrieved fashionable clothes in bulk, with trendy styles, refined cuts and excellent value for money, and put them directly on sale in Tales of Blossoms department stores on a trial basis.
Sales in the first trial month alone took the market by storm. The novel, fashionable designs and affordable prices perfectly matched local young people's tastes and spending needs. Sales soared, and the response was unprecedentedly enthusiastic.
The impressive results strengthened Lily's determination to expand, and before the summer holidays arrived, she finalized another plan to open a store.
Mr Evans seized the opportunity and registered Blossom Tales Limited, completing the transition from a sole proprietorship to a formal company and making the brand's development more standardized and professional.
Before long, the fourth Tales of Blossoms store opened successfully in Guildford, Surrey, expanding the business's reach once again.
Even though she spent her days busy with store expansion and business planning, Lily did not disrupt her usual routine. She always found spare time to visit the town park and meet Snape as promised, discussing Potions and exchanging ideas about magic.
On the eve of the summer holidays, Petunia came home early and made up her mind to finish all her homework before relaxing and having fun. With no one to keep her company, Lily spent an idle day at home before she could no longer contain her restlessness and found it dull and boring.
Her thoughts began racing, and a new idea came to her. Since she and Petunia would eventually venture deeper into the magical world and fully integrate into wizarding circles, why not plan ahead? They could start in an area where Muggles and wizards lived together and quietly establish a foothold in everyday wizarding life.
As soon as the thought occurred to her, Lily went to discuss it with Mr Evans and proposed opening a new store in Godric's Hollow. Mr Evans promptly investigated the area in person. From a purely commercial perspective, the local foot traffic and scale of consumer spending offered no advantage. It was not the best location for a store, and he did not recommend moving in rashly.
But when Lily told him that it was a special area where Muggles and wizards lived together, Mr Evans immediately changed his mind. On second thought, both his daughters were witches, destined to put down roots in the magical world. Establishing a business and building a foundation in a mixed wizarding community ahead of time could only benefit them in the long run.
After several rounds of on-site investigation and location screening, the fifth Tales of Blossoms store was finally established in the Muggle residential district of Godric's Hollow. This avoided the awkwardness of abruptly entering an exclusively wizarding circle while allowing them to connect the resources of both communities, laying the groundwork for fully entering the wizarding world in the future.