Elena had no idea that her business had spurred competition behind her back.
As she came earlier, she left earlier as well, not noticing any competitors.
But the moment she left, there were many people selling buns for eight to twelve cents, wondering if a stranger could sell, they, with their connections in the village would surely sell it easily.
Of course, they didn’t know that the reason Elena sold them so well was because of the taste and delicious aroma of her buns.
Not anyone could replicate it.
Given they were reluctant to use fine flour and made the buns of coarse grain and cornmeal, it was sure to taste and feel worse.
But some were willing to add fine flour and try to turn a profit.
Anyways it wasn’t easy and many got cursed at.
After all, now they knew that Elena wasn’t a stranger but a resident of Happy Village so their trust inexplicably increased in her.
Obviously it was more so for the reason that they could find her to find trouble rather than trusting her skills or business.
But one had to say, offering a free bun was just as fine a tactic.
With that, the first buyer was guaranteed and once one person bought, others would follow which would lead to being sold out.
It wasn’t hard for her turn a profit but the same couldn’t be said about those who imitated her.
After all, they didn’t have the taste, flavour or recipe to cook it so they could only curse Elena for being a deceiving cunning girl in the background.
They didn’t have the guts to go find trouble because they were basically stealing buisness from her.
Thus, they ended up closing shop within days but some did continue.
Elena also continued and her quantity increased day by day with profits increasing.
There wasn’t much trouble with her family supporting her fully and Mary even help carry and sell the buns everyday.
Much less if anyone really planned to cause trouble, Elena could’ve beaten them black and blue.
This schedule continued for a month and now the Bennet family had six hens, a garden for scallions, leeks, chives and wild vegetables.
It wouldn’t yield results in the short time but it wasn’t like Elena would only be doing this small time buisness.
Her family was worried about the college entrance examination results but since Elena refused to go to the city, they didn’t know what to do.
The results were out and soon Ethan Cole and Lily Shaw would go to different universities.
They had grown up and Ethan didn’t find her worthy to compete with so he ignored the Shaw Family and so did the rest of Colr family because there was no use rivaling a girl who returned from the countryside.
It wouldn’t be fair and winning like that didn’t fit right with the Cole family.
Elena was unaware of all this or maybe she was aware because she avoided heading into the city at all costs.
She had become a regular at the store to buy fine flour, coarse grain and cornmeal, getting discounts every now and then.
She even started buying eggs in town since her profits increased everyday.
She got a discount on all her ingredients and thus she ended up making more than 100 Luni in just one month.
It stunned her family entirely because she was limiting her buns and there was even competition yet none could compare to her taste and quality.
So she ended up making a 115 Luni in net profit.
It was enough to buy a bicycle but she had ended up buying four hens, seeds for planting for the family and some clothes for Emma, it ended up dwindling to 78 Luni, which was still an astronomical sum in the eyes of the Bennet family.
They could hardly believe their daughter earned that much in a mere month.
But Elena had already prepared to invest it in buying meat, it was a tad expensive and she was only selling vegetarian dumplings until now.
Now she intended to sell meat buns but she knew the villagers wouldn’t buy them so her target was inside the town.
The city would’ve been better but it was too far and setting up a stall in the city had restrictions while nothing of that sort existed in the town.
Thus, she began making preparations for her next big booming business.
She prepared the dough at night and also the fillings.
This time, she roasted the cured meat and pork and grounded them into a fine consistency that would be flavourful and juicy in taste on each bite.
The dough was still the same, but the fillings had changed but she ensured the dough had even more fine flour because town folk wouldn’t buy it otherways.
And it wasn’t like she was planning to make only 100, she planned to make at least 250 and sell them at 20 cents each in the town and if anyone from the village wanted to buy, she was willing to sell it at 18 cents.
She was giving them discounted prices simply because they were from the same village and to build goodwill.
After all, building a reputation wasn’t easy.
The more she lived in the village the more she understood these principles.
She had also heard the nasty rumours about herself and how she was selfish, cunning, deceiving and whatnot.
She couldn’t care less though.
It didn’t affect her money making speed so what did it even matter.
Then she woke up in the morning early to head to town with the preapred meat buns.
Naturally, she still had to add the filling to the dough and steam them for twenty minutes.
It wasn’t like it would cook itself.
But she had Mary and Sarah’s help.
The two were also engaged in cooking and helping her as it really was tiresome yet rewarding.
She had given both of them ten Luni for helping her.
Naturally, both had declined but ended up accepting when she explained she was just going to invest again and that much was surplus and they could keep it for safekeeping.
So yeah.
It worked out in the end.
Two hours later, they arrived in town when the early risers were just waking, going around the streets selling meat buns for twenty cents each.
It obviously didn’t sell at first.
Not every time it would be smooth sailing.
But Mary wasn’t disappointed, she had sold two on the way and even felt giving the first for free was a loss but those who bought it had praised it highly.
This meant that it would surely sell.
Just as she was looking around, a man came to stop in front of them.
"Miss, did you make these yourself? They smell delicious."