What happened afterward went much as Mo Fei had expected.
Bread sales on the second day were far below those of the first. They even had several small loaves left at the end.
The contrast left the children deeply disappointed.
They had all thought that, starting that day, the orphanage would set out on a glorious, smooth road, racing straight toward making big money.
But the harsh wake-up call still caught them off guard.
Fortunately, Mo Fei had anticipated this from the start and had not made too much bread. What remained was only enough for a few meals.
That evening, they sat at the dining table again. Zane carefully counted the money in the cash box, then announced the total in disappointment.
"Five pounds, three shillings..."
The children's beautiful vision instantly dissolved. With earnings down to roughly one-sixth, confusion appeared in their eyes.
Mo Fei, however, carefully put the money away and smiled at the others as they sat in a daze.
"Well? How does it feel? Disappointed? Does running a business feel difficult?"
From the very beginning, Mo Fei had understood one thing.
Britain in this era had never been the same as twenty-first-century China.
As the staple food here, bread was a necessity, but it was not something people bought every day.
Buying a week's supply at once was the norm.
Moreover, with the publicity they had done before, reaching a large number of people was practically impossible. At most, they could reach some of the people nearby, and among those, there were bound to be people who thought it was too expensive and would not buy any.
So this result was perfectly normal.
After he explained this to the children, some of them understood.
Their disappointment did ease somewhat.
"Then, Director, how much should we sell on ordinary days? And when should we sell more? We can't keep having this much left over every day. That would be such a waste... Even if we can finish it ourselves, still..."
Lina was the one who asked the crucial questions.
"Hasn't today's sales volume given us the answer?" Mo Fei pointed at the bread left before them. "Until the day off, we only need to make half as much as we did today. That should let us sell almost everything. Even if some people end up unable to buy any, there won't be many, and that can actually give us a little publicity..."
This sort of business strategy was still somewhat advanced for the children, but in reality, it was nothing more than the simplest business logic.
Fortunately, the children's trust in Mo Fei had recently reached a very high level. Although they did not understand, they seemed reassured.
Sales afterward went according to Mo Fei's plan as well.
On ordinary days, they sold small quantities. They did not earn much, but it covered some of the orphanage's expenses and even left a little over.
On the day off itself, they made large quantities of various breads, along with a set quantity of steamed buns to meet different people's needs. In just a month, the orphanage's bread business had begun to take shape.
Moreover, Mo Fei did not sell only outside the orphanage. Every week, he also took Aiwen and one other child to the West End to hawk their goods along the streets.
The orphanage's bread gradually made a name for itself, and everything seemed to be moving in a better direction.
But because of this, a new problem came knocking.
After the bread business began to pick up, some lowlifes seemed to get ideas as well. Seeing what appeared to be only one adult man with a large group of children, they developed ill intentions and planned to get some spending money out of them.
At times like this, the orphanage's name was not quite so useful.
That name worked quite well in some dealings out in the open, but it offered little restraint against scattered thugs like these.
Fortunately, a solution arrived as well. After hearing about the matter, Vil-V said they could leave it to her.
Her method was indeed better. Many veterans might have retired from the army, but they still retained their military contacts, and some of them had considerable influence.
With Vil-V's capabilities, a small matter like this took no more than a word.
Once the veterans passed word of their stance along, some of the larger gangs nearby learned of it.
Using evil to control evil had always been the most effective method.
Before long, the trouble at the orphanage died down.
However, Vil-V also took the opportunity to make a request. She hoped they could deliver some steamed buns to her every day. She was not asking for them for free, either; she would pay the regular price.
She had recognized their value to some older people and intended to make them a specialty of her tavern.
Mo Fei certainly had no intention of refusing. He could not have asked for more than another steady sales channel.
He readily agreed to this mutually beneficial arrangement.
Moreover, since steamed buns were not that difficult to make, he also took this opportunity to teach the children how to make them.
After opening up their sales channels, he once again turned his attention to the children's talents, such as Lina's talent for cooking and Zane's talent for arithmetic.
On one hand, it was to lighten his own burden. He was not going to cling to his skills and keep toiling away all by himself. Passing those skills on would make things easier for him, too.
On the other hand, it was also to find the children some paths for their future.
Aiwen's situation was already troublesome, and the others were not much better off.
People who came to adopt from a private orphanage like this were a rare breed, so mastering a trade might be the key to gaining a foothold in their future.
Lina also sensed Mo Fei's intention to train her, so whenever he made and baked bread or prepared lunch, she followed along and learned eagerly.
Whenever Lina ran into problems, Mo Fei would personally show her the details, such as how much force to use when kneading dough, how to control the heat when baking, and how to combine ingredients.
It was just like the most traditional form of master-and-apprentice instruction. Under his constant guidance, Lina's skills improved rapidly.
The other children, however, did not have nearly as much patience.
Teaching them to make steamed buns was one example.
After a few days, many of the children felt they could produce something reasonably similar and began to slack off. Kyle, in particular, had treated the dough in his hands as a medium for his imagination from the very beginning.
He made plenty of steamed buns resembling Gnomes and furry monsters. Of course, those buns all ended up in his own stomach.
Even the other girls lacked Lina's talent.
So after observing them for a while, Mo Fei discovered that Lina seemed to be the only one in the orphanage with a chance of inheriting his cooking skills.
What about Aiwen? The less said about him, the better. His usually nimble hands simply refused to obey him when he kneaded dough, as though heaven had stripped him of the ability to cook.
Not only that, he even did a poor job of something as straightforward as tending the fire. The fire was either too strong or too weak, to the point that anything he handled, whether bread or steamed buns, always ended up being the worst batch.
In the end, Mo Fei simply threw him out and sent him back to leveling the ground and feeding the cow.
At least he did those things fairly well.