Fu Xiaoxiao stopped and listened intently. In the quiet night, even the slightest sound was amplified.
The room was silent, and Fu Xiaoxiao's suspicions were dispelled.
Fearing that things might change if they delayed any longer, Su Huaiming took Fu Xiaoxiao's hand and said, "It's getting late, let's go back to sleep."
Fu Xiaoxiao was full of energy just now, but upon hearing the word "sleep," it was as if a strange button had been pressed, and she immediately became so sleepy that she couldn't keep her eyes open, letting out a big yawn.
Su Huaiming immediately carried Fu Xiaoxiao back to the room, glancing towards the kitchen before closing the door.
*****
Despite the ordeal during the night, Su Huaiming's biological clock was incredibly strong, and he still woke up early.
He was usually the first to leave his room, but this time, apart from him, Ji Mingzhe and the others were all sitting in the living room.
Su Huaiming walked over and asked, puzzled, "Why are you all up so early?"
Yu Ruicheng and Zhou Hanyan froze, burying their heads in their bowls of porridge.
Ji Mingzhe, completely unaware of what had happened, explained, "Sun Siyuan ate something bad yesterday and had diarrhea all night. He was restless for a long time and almost had to be taken to the hospital. He only felt a little better after taking the medicine provided by the production team."
Su Huaiming: "..."
He wasn't surprised at all when he heard this; in fact, he had a feeling that it was true.
The other three were light sleepers and were woken up by Sun Siyuan, but Su Huaiming was completely unaware of what had happened.
After dinner, everyone assigned tasks and continued preparing for the opening. They wanted Sun Siyuan to sleep a little longer, so they didn't wake him.
But Sun Siyuan's door opened, and Sun Siyuan walked out with messy hair, his eyes barely open, his face pale, and his aura heavy.
Ji Mingzhe asked, "Are you feeling any better?"
Sun Siyuan nodded. He had stopped having diarrhea, but he hadn't slept at all all night and had been running back and forth between the room and the toilet. He was exhausted and had a headache.
Su Huaiming said, "Do you want to go and rest for a while longer?"
Sun Siyuan shook his head, feeling that everyone was busy while he was sleeping in the room, which was beneath him and didn't suit his class at all.
Everyone tried to persuade Sun Siyuan, but Sun Siyuan remained steadfast and unmoved. Seeing this, Ji Mingzhe decided to assign him the simplest task.
To everyone's surprise, Sun Siyuan was unwilling. He looked at the task list, pointed to one of the items, and said, "I'll go shopping."
This task was originally intended for Su Huaiming, but since Su Huaiming can't drive, Zhou Hanyan with him. However, Sun Siyuan felt that he could drive and insisted on completing the task alone, no matter how much everyone tried to persuade him.
Sun Siyuan was a larger version of a brat, even more of a headache. Everyone had no choice but to give Sun Siyuan a few words of advice and let him get on the bus by himself.
Sun Siyuan did the work that would normally be done by two people, which made things easier for the others, who then threw themselves into the busy preparations, hoping for a better opening ceremony.
Sun Siyuan wandered around outside for three hours before returning with bags and packages with the help of the production crew.
Everyone immediately crowded around him enthusiastically, knowing that Sun Siyuan cared about his image, so they praised him in an exaggerated way.
"Siyuan, you're amazing! You completed the procurement task all by yourself, which was a huge help to us!"
"Yes, you must be tired carrying so much stuff."
"Sun Siyuan, you've really impressed me!"
Everyone chimed in, praising Sun Siyuan until his face flushed, his hands on his hips, and his nose practically pointing to the sky.
Seeing this, Fu Xiaoxiao was unhappy. She ran over to Su Huaiming, pouted, and said, "Isn't Xiao Xiao amazing? Xiao Xiao was very diligent, and Xiao Xiao helped everyone. Why isn't anyone praising Xiao Xiao?"
To everyone's surprise, Fu Xiaoxiao was jealous. They couldn't help but laugh and immediately changed the subject of their praise, showering Fu Xiaoxiao with compliments.
Sun Siyuan's face was a little sour, but he hadn't completely lost his temper. He still vaguely remembered that he was an adult and didn't argue with Fu Xiaoxiao.
After calming Fu Xiaoxiao and Sun Siyuan down, Su Huaiming and the others went to organize the things Sun Siyuan had bought.
Su Huaiming looked at the cream in the bag and frowned slightly. "Why did you buy this kind?"
Sun Siyuan glanced at it and casually said, "The cream my pastry chef uses has a pure flavor and is definitely better than the brand you originally specified."
Su Huaiming had a bad feeling. He stared intently at Sun Siyuan and asked, "How much is this box of cream?"
Hello, you come from a wealthy family and have never worried about money. You casually mentioned the price.
This is an astronomical figure for cream.
Upon hearing this, the others were stunned.
Sun Siyuan sensed something was wrong and asked, "What's wrong? Is this cream fake?"
He was about to pick up the bag and go argue with the shop owner.
Su Huaiming stopped him, saying, "This cream is all real."
Sun Siyuan raised an eyebrow in confusion, "Then why do you all look so pale?"
"The problem is that all this cream is real," Zhou Hanyan said with difficulty.
Sun Siyuan:???
Su Huaiming sighed deeply, "The quality of this cream is very good, but the price is too high. Our funds are limited; if we use them to buy this kind of cream, we can only afford a few boxes."
Upon hearing this, Sun Siyuan, vaguely aware of the problem, froze.
Su Huaiming continued, "We're going to open a shop, so naturally we need to meet the needs of our customers. But this amount of cream is only enough to make one type of ice cream, and it'll probably be sold out after just a dozen or so customers come."
Sun Siyuan: "..."
He didn't sleep all night and his mind was a bit muddled. When buying things, he only thought about high-quality cream, thinking that the ice cream would taste better. He wanted to do his part, but he overlooked such an important issue.
Seeing that Sun Siyuan had realized the problem, Su Huaiming said, "Can we cancel it?"
After a few seconds of silence, Sun Siyuan shook his head amidst everyone's expectant gazes. "The shop owner repeatedly emphasized to me that once the cream is sold, it cannot be returned or exchanged."
"But we haven't opened it yet." Ji Mingzhe paused, then said, "Let's go, I'll go with you to find the shop owner."
To make matters worse, before the two even left the house, the director arrived with a task.
"The next phase is the trial operation. Eight customers will be coming to the store. Please prepare as soon as possible and treat them well."
Su Huaiming: "..."
Everyone: "..."
There's only one hour left before the soft opening. If we go to get more cream, we definitely won't have enough time. But if we use this cream to serve the customers, they won't have money to buy other cream.
Sun Siyuan realized he had made a serious mistake and wanted to take responsibility, so he said, "How about this, I'll pay for the rest of the cream."
The production crew promptly reminded them, "We can only use the originally allocated funds; we can't use our own money."
Upon hearing this, Sun Siyuan became agitated and wanted to argue with the production team.
Su Huaiming stopped him, "The most important thing now is to recruit these eight customers. We'll figure out the cream issue later. If all else fails, we can get an advance on the funds for the next few days."
This is the trial operation phase, and we don't know if the production team has found real customers. If they are real customers, we must satisfy them in order to maintain a good reputation.
Ji Mingzhe, adept at easing tensions, said, "Yes, there will be various problems during the process of opening a store, this is just one of them. Everyone, don't panic. The most important thing now is to take good care of these eight customers."
Yu Ruicheng and Zhou Hanyan both nodded.
Sun Siyuan awkwardly approached Su Huaiming, wanting to help him, and repeatedly assured him that there would be no problems.
Su Huaiming knew that Sun Siyuan was upset, so he didn't say much and simply assigned him a task. Sun Siyuan immediately went to get busy.
They had just finished preparing when customers began arriving one after another.
Some came with their children, while others were women in business attire; they were clearly genuine customers.
Seeing this, Zhou Hanyan breathed a sigh of relief, still shaken.
Fortunately, they prepared carefully; disappointing real customers would be a fatal blow to a store.
Several customers ordered quite a lot; one person even packed five or six portions to take back and share with his colleagues. The ice cream was running out, almost empty.
They were all very worried, but they couldn't show it in front of the customers, and they were suffering greatly.
By the time the seventh customer was served, the ice cream was already empty, meaning that when the last customer arrived, there was nothing left to buy.
Sun Siyuan felt extremely guilty and was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, constantly pacing back and forth in the kitchen. He came up with many ideas, but they were all rejected by the production team.
He instinctively turned to Su Huaiming for help, "What should we do?"
With so little time, Su Huaiming couldn't think of a solution until he saw the next customer.
Everyone present was stunned, unable to believe their eyes. They stared at the man standing at the door, then turned to look at Su Huaiming, winking and making faces at him.
Su Huaiming was also very shocked. He had not received any prior notice and had no idea that Fu Jingfan would come, let alone why.
Fu Xiaoxiao didn't care about any of that. When he saw Fu Jingfan, he excitedly ran over and hugged his father's leg, acting like a spoiled child.
Fu Jingfan bent down, touched Fu Xiaoxiao's hair, and whispered a few words. Although he didn't show any tenderness, you could feel that the atmosphere between father and son was particularly good.
After calming Fu Xiaoxiao down, Fu Jingfan raised his head, his gaze passing through everyone present, and landed heavily on Su Huaiming, his dark eyes reflecting Su Huaiming's figure.
Ji Mingzhe was the first to react, treating Fu Jingfan as an ordinary customer and going up to greet him.
Fu Jingfan appeared somewhat aloof, but was polite and considerate, which was his usual style.
Guided by Ji Mingzhe, Fu Jingfan arrived at the counter.
Zhou Hanyan and the others were very perceptive and quickly made way for them. Sun Siyuan was also pulled away, leaving only Su Huaiming standing behind the counter.
Having only been out recording a variety show for two days, Su Huaiming felt like he hadn't seen Fu Jingfan for a long time. Even now, he still felt like he was in a dream.
"What's your signature dessert?" Fu Jingfan asked, but received no response. He looked up at Su Huaiming, a slight smile playing on his lips, his tone tinged with helplessness, "Why are you so dense?"
Su Huaiming suddenly snapped out of his reverie, coughed twice, and then adopted the proper attitude of a waiter, introducing, "Our signature dessert here is coconut milk. Sitting by the window, enjoying the sea view while savoring coconut milk is a unique experience."
Fu Jingfan had deep-set eyes and brows, and when he looked at people intently, he gave the illusion of deep affection. His slender fingers tapped on the counter, the sound crisp and clear, as if striking the heart.
Fu Jingfan raised an eyebrow and asked, "Isn't your signature dessert ice cream?"
Everyone: "..."
Fu Jingfan bluntly exposed their lies, and everyone panicked, looking at Su Huaiming with pleading eyes, hoping he could quickly deal with the situation.
Su Huaiming was already used to dealing with Fu Jingfan, that old bastard, and didn't reveal a single flaw. He said confidently, "You misunderstood. The signature dish is coconut juice, and I think coconut juice suits you better."
After staring at each other for three seconds, Fu Jingfan relented and said in a low voice, "Then please, Mr. Su, give me a glass of coconut juice."
After saying that, he turned and walked towards the window.
Seeing that Fu Jingfan didn't pursue the matter further, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and went to the kitchen to prepare coconut juice for Fu Jingfan.
They decorated the coconut, but still felt it was too simple to serve it to Fu Jingfan as is. Moreover, Fu Jingfan's aura was too strong, and the rumors from the outside world were quite intimidating, so none of them dared to approach him. The task of serving Fu Jingfan fell to Su Huaiming.