The commotion they caused also drew the interest of some people who had come to buy bread.
Especially since none of them were unknown figures.
George from the grocery shop, James from the smithy, Vil-V from the Veteran's Tavern, and, most importantly, Mrs. Field from the tailor's shop-anyone living nearby knew them...
Seeing their reactions, some people had no suspicion that they were shills and simply bought some of this much softer bread to try at home.
For their first day of business, Mo Fei had not made very much bread. If they failed to sell it all, it would be a problem if their orphanage could not finish the leftovers.
But, unexpectedly, the results were actually quite good. In just a few hours, the bread had sold out.
After all the customers left, they excitedly began putting away the long table and baskets.
Compared with the lingering worry they had felt earlier, they were much more excited now.
Even their movements as they tidied up were much lighter.
The neighbors had all left after tasting the steamed buns. Aisha had wanted to stay and help, but Mrs. Field took her away.
"Don't get in the way. Today is their busiest day, so stay out of it and come home with me. Come back after tomorrow..."
Once they had finished putting everything away, Aiwen held the cashbox filled with the day's earnings and looked nervously at Mo Fei.
Mo Fei actually already had a rough estimate of their sales that day. Their final takings should have been between twenty-five and thirty pounds.
Still, they needed to count it accurately.
So, in front of all the children, he poured out all the money inside.
It was worth mentioning here that the children at the orphanage had also been taught some basic arithmetic.
In his spare time, Mo Fei had taught them about money and arithmetic. Looking at it now, these simple calculations were indeed quite necessary.
At least the children recognized the numbers on the money and knew which amounts were larger.
He flattened the banknotes one by one and sorted them: five pounds, ten pounds, and that was all. There were no larger denominations. After all, buying bread did not call for anything larger.
Then there were the coins, shillings and pennies, which were quite difficult to count.
On that subject, Mo Fei was actually rather speechless. British currency at the time was truly troublesome. There were pounds, shillings, and pennies, and it was not even decimal. Calculating it was a real pain.
If he had needed to get used to it from scratch, it would have taken him a long time.
Fortunately, he still had his previous memories, which made it much less troublesome.
After sorting the coins, Mo Fei counted them a little at a time and began adding them up in his head, while also teaching the children bookkeeping. These were things they would need to handle later; he had no desire to keep doing the accounts forever.
But just as he put away the final coin, a voice announced the answer.
"Twenty-eight pounds, ten shillings, and five pence!"
The voice was timid and so quiet that Mo Fei almost missed it.
"What?"
"Twenty-eight pounds, ten shillings, and five pence! Director, we earned that much money today!" This time, the voice was much louder and considerably more excited.
Only then did Mo Fei notice that it was Zane speaking. A little color had come into his thin face, finally giving him something of the look of a living person.
Mo Fei had always paid particular attention to this constantly ill child.
He had worried about Zane's future, and how to treat his illness had also become a problem.
In Mo Fei's limited understanding, congenital illnesses were usually stubborn and difficult to deal with. Curing one might require a very high level of medical skill, or perhaps even treatment through the methods of the Wizarding World.
How to keep him alive until then became very important.
Mo Fei's idea was to keep him from overworking as much as possible and let him do only a moderate amount.
But he was also afraid that treating him differently would upset both him and the other children.
The talent for arithmetic Zane had just displayed gave Mo Fei a new idea. Since he also needed to show his value, the ability to keep accounts would be very useful.
Moreover, compared with other jobs, this work was both important and much less strenuous.
Seizing the opportunity, Mo Fei quickly chimed in, "How clever! It looks like our little Zane has quite a talent for arithmetic. From now on, let's have Zane count all the money we earn and write it down. How does that sound?"
He addressed the first part to Zane, then turned to the other children, who were counting on their fingers, and asked them gently.
The others had no objections. In fact, they were delighted.
"Does that mean we won't have to study math anymore?"
Kyle looked over with a rare look of anticipation.
"Unfortunately, no!"
Mo Fei rejected the idea outright, leaving no room for negotiation.
"All right!" Boer, who had been just as hopeful as Kyle, also muttered helplessly, "Zane's already so good at it. There's no point in me learning this stuff..."
Suddenly entrusted with such an important task, Zane was frightened at first, then excited. At last, he was no longer dragging everyone down. He could make his own contribution.
[The emotions of those around the host have undergone a significant change!]
Mo Fei felt a surge of delight. It seemed that Zane's level of trust had also undergone a qualitative improvement.
What followed was simple. As they ate, they excitedly talked about their hopes for the future.
Such a large sum of money let them see hope for the future. If they could earn this much every day, perhaps they could slowly build up their assets and improve the conditions of the entire orphanage.
"Director, are we going to make this much bread again tomorrow?"
Although Lina was happy too, she had not let the excitement of the moment go to her head.
Mo Fei shook his head. "No, we'll make a little less tomorrow. Sales only went so smoothly today because our neighbors helped spread the word. By tomorrow, many of the people who would buy some will already have done so, and they won't finish all their bread at once. So tomorrow's sales will be much lower..."
It was Lina's first time hearing of this kind of strategy, and she found it rather novel.
Aiwen had already caught on.
"You mean that tomorrow, only new customers will buy any, while today's customers might not buy again until a week later. In that case, sales won't really be all that high..."
He began to ponder.
Watching the children start to think through the problem made Mo Fei happy too. It meant they were truly beginning to grow up.
In an orphanage, growing up was the most beneficial way forward.
And he was not forcing their growth, either. They were doing it spontaneously, driven by their own initiative, which was wonderful.
Unlike the excited people at the orphanage, someone in a small workshop not far away was not so happy.
Some of the bread made at the bakery that day had gone unsold, even though they had made the same amount as before.
This put the owner on his guard.
Still, he did not take it too seriously. This had happened before. Perhaps the people nearby had not finished their bread, or perhaps something had changed at the factories. He merely regretted having earned so much less money.
In the end, to recover some of his costs, he could only unhappily have the female workers buy the bread at cost.
But would things really go as he wished?