Yang Yi had prepared more than just pudding and barbecue for the children. He had also carefully made pastries like pea cake, pumpkin pie, mango mille-feuille, and egg tarts with blueberries and cranberries, along with desserts such as mango sago and double-skin milk.
It could be said that everything was both beautiful and delicious. Not only the little ones, but even the adults found their mouths watering.
However, children’s appetites were limited after all. Even the chubby little girl Lan Xin felt full after eating a few pieces of barbecue and drinking some sago.
While Yang Yi was sharing cooking tips with a few mothers who were homemakers, Xixi led the well-fed little ones noisily upstairs to play, saying she wanted to show them her toys!
Lan Xin, without even wiping her greasy mouth, giggled and followed along. Lan Xin’s mother quickly called out to Ding Xiang, who was acting as the full-time babysitter for the day, asking her to help call her daughter to wash her hands and face.
The children had their fun, and the adults had their topics of conversation. Except for a few worried mothers who went upstairs to check on the kids, the rest of the adults chatted downstairs.
As Yang Yi mingled with the crowd, real estate tycoon Lanzhou Kai, eating a grilled chicken leg in a very undignified manner, looked at Yang Yi’s shop with keen interest.
“Brother Yang, is this coffee shop your only business now? The location isn’t great!” Lanzhou Kai suddenly called out to Yang Yi as he passed by, chuckling. “No offense, your shop is nicely decorated, but from a businessman’s perspective, opening a shop at this gate of Jiangcheng Media University isn’t the best choice.”
“What advice do you have, Brother Lan?” Yang Yi asked.
“To run a coffee shop, especially if you want to build a brand with your own personal touch, you need to consider your customer base. Your current coffee shop has two problems with its clientele. First, the foot traffic at this back gate is low, which severely limits your sales from the start.”
“Second!” Lanzhou Kai finally sounded like a businessman, speaking methodically. “Students’ purchasing power is much weaker. Unless you sell cheap coffee and rely on volume, but you’re selling handmade coffee, so the price can’t be set too low. You should consider targeting white-collar workers with higher incomes and a demand for quality of life.”
Lanzhou Kai had a good impression of Yang Yi. Not only did he offer advice on business, but he also patted his chest and promised that if Yang Yi wanted, he could provide him with a storefront in the Binhai commercial area at cost price.
But Yang Yi politely declined. He briefly revealed that his main occupation was writing, then smiled and said, “Opening a coffee shop is just a personal hobby. Setting it up near the university lets me enjoy some peace and soak up the artistic vibe of Jiangchuan. It’s not about making money.”
Lanzhou Kai wasn’t very interested in literature and didn’t press further, but he expressed admiration for Yang Yi’s simple intentions and asked him to brew a cup of coffee.
“Not bad, not bad! Your skill is way better than my secretary’s. Damn it, I think I’ll have him come learn a thing or two from you,” Lanzhou Kai said, laughing heartily after tasting the Blue Mountain coffee Yang Yi specially brewed for him.
Just then, the little ones came rushing downstairs in a swarm. An excited Xixi bounced over to her father, grabbed his hand, and said eagerly, “Daddy, Daddy, can you do it like Sun Wukong and whoosh the golden cudgel for us?”
The little girl pouted her lips to mimic the “whoosh” of the stick and swung her hand as if holding a stick to demonstrate to her father.
Yang Yi, unable to resist her persistence, made an apologetic gesture to Lanzhou Kai.
“Go ahead, go ahead. You don’t need to entertain us. Just take care of these little ancestors!” Lanzhou Kai laughed heartily.
The shop was too cramped to move around, so Yang Yi was led by the little ones to an open grassy area outside. In his hand, he carried a “golden cudgel.”
That’s right!
It was no longer the pitiful broom from before. Ever since Yang Yi performed once, Xixi had loved it. Sometimes, while listening to Journey to the West stories at night, she would excitedly ask Yang Yi to perform again.
So Yang Yi had this “golden cudgel” custom-made, proportioned to his height and crafted according to his drawings. It had flowing cloud patterns and was painted, looking especially nice!
“I want to play too,” said Chen Shiyun, who had a bit of a violent streak, with envy in her eyes.
“This is super heavy, you can’t lift it!” Xixi waved her hand and explained to her, “My daddy won’t even let me touch it, says if it drops on your foot, it’ll hurt like crazy.”
The kids huddled together, giggling as they watched Yang Yi. He didn’t shy away, striking a pose like he was about to perform on stage. First, he held the stick and cupped his hands in a salute to his young audience.
“Hehe, this is so fun!” The kids cheered up first; everything was new and exciting to them.
Yang Yi set his stance and began his performance. Without any buildup, he immediately grabbed their attention with a flashy stick spin.
“Wow!” As Yang Yi spun the stick with both hands, the windmill-like shadow of the stick made Lan Xin and the others gasp in amazement. Where had they ever seen such a display?
When Yang Yi started spinning the stick with one hand, twisting his body, passing it from his right hand to his left, the whistling wind and powerful momentum left the little ones dazzled.
Chen Shiyun even screamed loudly, watching with the most excitement, wishing she could take Xixi’s dad’s place and do such cool moves!
If she could, she’d definitely become the most popular kid at Spring Kindergarten!
But as Yang Yi twirled the stick, the smile on his face began to falter.
He noticed the only two boys among the kids, Nan Zhaoyu and another little boy. Where did they have to stand? Right next to Xixi, one on each side!
What made Yang Yi’s eyes blaze with fury was that Xixi was holding Yang Luoqi’s hand with one hand and Nan Zhaoyu’s with the other!
How old is he? Still needing to hold hands? How childish is that?!
Alert, top alert, red alert!
At that moment, Yang Yi only regretted that the golden cudgel in his hand wasn’t a Green Dragon Crescent Blade...
“Ahem!” Yang Yi stopped, pretending nothing was wrong, and walked over to direct the kids. “Uncle is going to do a big move now, so stand back a bit. Leave a path in the middle. Yes, come on, Zhaoyu and that little friend, stand over here. Xixi, you and Qiqi stand over there...”
To isolate Xixi from the danger, Yang Yi even had his loyal fan Chen Shiyun hold Xixi’s now-free hand.
Now that looked right!
Without a trace, Yang Yi resumed his performance, doing a “dragon coiling around the pillar” move and then a “heavenly punishment roar”—slamming the golden cudgel into the ground.
The kids watched with great interest, none of them noticing Yang Yi’s little trick earlier.
Of course, Yang Yi also made use of the path he had cleared. He executed a “tiger leap forward,” doing a somersault on the grass, then shading his eyes with his hand for a classic “looking back at the moon” pose.
The stance was quite impressive, even drawing applause from the parents who had gathered at the shop’s entrance.
“Youth is something else!” sighed Nan Yiyun, who was already fifty.
“I just think him jumping around like a monkey is a bit too unserious,” muttered a parent.
Standing nearby, Yang Guo retorted, “How can you call it unserious? This is monkey play, an art form that evolved from the monkey performers passed down since the Han Dynasty.”
This world had something similar too!
Lanzhou Kai also chuckled, “Whether it’s art or not, I envy Yang Yi for having such great physical skills. Look how popular he is with the kids! That’s an achievement we parents dream of reaching, isn’t it?”