Why bother with dating when you already have a cat?

By around 10 a.m., I had finished today's writing task.

Looking at the dozen or so drafts lying quietly in the drafts folder of her writing software, Ai Qing's face showed a relieved expression.

At this moment, Lang Xiangying had already arrived at the store.

I had originally planned to come with Ae Jong-kook and the others in the afternoon, but I was still thinking about these little rascals.

After cleaning the house, I had nothing to do, so I decided to wander over here.

When the cats in the house saw Lang Xiangying enter, they all rushed to her feet and rubbed against her ankles, looking very affectionate.

Even the beautiful Maple Leaf briefly abandoned her reserve, walked to Lang Xiangying's feet, and meowed twice in a very sweet and melodious voice.

Lang Xiangying chuckled and squatted down to touch their bodies.

Meanwhile, Xiaoyu was chatting with Hu Tian and Li Qiqi about the specific procedures and regulations for opening a store.

Hu Tian's situation is relatively simpler.

Simply prepare the drinks according to the guests' requests.

The beverage area uses a standardized QR code for ordering and payment, which Hu Tian can manage on her own.

Li Qiqi's job is relatively simple: she greets customers at the entrance of the cat-petting area in the cat cafe.

I usually stay in the cat-petting area and watch over the cats, making sure they don't hurt the guests.

If a customer wants to enter the store, collect the entrance fee at the door, then instruct the customer to disinfect and explain the precautions before inviting them in.

After a guest enters, if they have bought a drink, guide them to a table to choose a place to rest and put their drink in the cup holder on the table.

Then hand over a small bag of cat food that you have prepared to the other party.

Cat cafes don't get many customers, especially newly opened ones.

Despite the fact that the online promotion was indeed very popular and the number of views on various platforms was quite good.

But when it comes to actual offline customer traffic, that remains a major problem.

However, the cost of cat cafes is not high now. Even if you only consider the ticket price, you only need about six customers a day on average to cover the costs.

Of course, this is just a rough estimate.

If these customers can all buy a drink, or after using up the free cat food in the cat petting area, they can't resist spending money to buy freeze-dried food or something, then they will definitely break even.

The question now is, can we really expect an average of six customers to come in and spend money every day?

Six guests on average seems like a small number.

But in reality, almost no one comes to our door on weekdays.

The real peak season for cat cafes is during summer and winter vacations, as well as weekends and holidays.

After all, the main consumers are young people and working people who love cats but whose current circumstances are not suitable for keeping a cat.

So on weekdays, having one or two customers is considered a blessing.

Ultimately, we can only observe the visitor flow during holidays and weekends.

Generally speaking, guests who come to pet cats don't stay for very long.

Some people might leave after an hour or two, while others might stay for three or four hours before getting bored.

It doesn't matter if you occasionally encounter one or two people who stay there all the time.

The space in the cat cafe, including the tables and chairs arranged by Xiaoyu during the renovation, can accommodate about 16 guests at the same time.

While it can still hold more, the experience won't be as good.

So theoretically, their cat cafe can only accommodate a maximum of about forty or fifty customers a day.

If you want a more comfortable process, treatment, and experience, having 20 to 30 people a day would be more suitable.

It's neither too deserted nor too crowded, so the cats won't get too tired.

However, these are only ideal scenarios.

Fortunately, Ai Qing and Xiao Yu's goals are simple: as long as they can break even, they don't care whether they make a profit or not.

If we could at least recoup the cost of the renovation, that would be even better.

After all, the two of them spent nearly 100,000 yuan to renovate this cat cafe.

Fortunately, thanks to Xiao Youqian's connections, the renovation itself, plus the purchase of various cat supplies, was much cheaper.

Otherwise, opening a cat cafe would require at least 100,000 to 200,000 yuan as a starting point.

As for cats.

For cat cafes, as long as there are channels, purebred cats can be very cheap, so there's not much cost involved.

However, for Xiaoyu's cat cafe, the source of cats is an extremely profitable business with no cost. It's all about kidnapping cats to replace buying them, so it's completely cost-free.

"Alright, alright, thank you both for your hard work."

After Xiaoyu rehearsed the process with Hu Tian and Li Qiqi, she clapped her hands and said with a smile, "In that case, there shouldn't be any problems."

Seeing that Xiaoyu had finished her work, Lang Xiangying, who was petting the cat, asked with a smile, "Xiaoyu, what should I do?"

"Oh, Grandma, you can come whenever you want." Xiaoyu walked over, helped her sit down in a chair, and then said, "You can help brush their fur, trim their nails, or clean up the automatic litter box bags."

"Anything is fine, anything is fine," Lang Xiangying said with a smile. "I can also do some cleaning here from time to time."

After saying that, Lang Xiangying saw that there was nothing else to do, so she got up and said, "I just came to check on things. If there's nothing I can help with, I'll go buy some groceries first. I still need to make lunch for the old man. Are you two coming to eat today?"

"Not today." Xiaoyu quickly waved her hand, then explained, "I have plans with two employees and Sister Youqian to have a meal at the small restaurant next door later."

"Okay, okay, then I'll head back first." Lang Xiangying waved her hand and said, "If you two are at the cat cafe at noon in the future, just come to my place for lunch."

"Okay!" Little Fish smiled happily. "If Grandma doesn't mind, Little Fish would love to eat at your place every day."

“Then come, come every day.” Lang Xiangying laughed happily, her wrinkles turning into a chrysanthemum. “You also need to take Ai Qing home more often, instead of always staying cooped up in the room.”

"I know writing novels is hard work for him, but he also needs to take care of his health, right?"

"Xiaoyu, you are more sensible than him, you should keep a closer eye on him."

Hearing this, Ai Qing, who was typing nearby, immediately turned pale.

He's typing, he's not deaf. Grandma, why are you speaking so loudly? Are you afraid he won't hear you?

However, when he turned his head, Lang Xiangying had already waved to Xiaoyu and walked out of the store to go to the nearby vegetable market to buy vegetables.

"Let's take a break then," Xiaoyu said to Hu Tian and Li Qiqi. "We'll go eat at 11:30."

Hu Tian and Li Qiqi both nodded in agreement.

Afterwards, Li Qiqi couldn't wait to pull Hu Tian to sit in another corner. It was clear that they were old friends reunited and needed to have a good chat after finishing their business.

Xiaoyu sat quietly beside Ai Qing, keeping him company as he typed.

Ai Qing typed on the keyboard, while Xiao Yu took out her phone, opened the editing software, and did some simple processing on some recently recorded footage.

After several months of learning, Xiaoyu has become quite proficient in video editing.

Although she can't compare to professional editors yet, Xiaoyu is quite adept at producing video content in a smooth way.

"Brother, are you still coding?" Xiaoyu asked during a break.

"I've finished coding," Ai Qing said matter-of-factly. "Now I'm trying to write as much as possible so I can have more drafts saved up."

"Brother, you're so mean!" Little Fish wrinkled her nose and said, "You wrote it but didn't send it out. You secretly saved it. I wanted to see when I would appear on screen."

"I only drew inspiration from you. It's just that the character's prototype was partly based on you, not that the character in the story is you," Ai Qing corrected sternly.

"I don't care, when exactly will this character appear?" Xiaoyu pressed. "I heard you say before that she can transform into a human and merge with the male lead! I'm not that powerful."

“That’s why it’s a novel.” Ai Qing smiled helplessly and reached out to pat her head.

Chapter 195 Trial Operation

At noon, Ai Huijun and her husband visited Ai Zhongguo's home, bringing Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake gift boxes and a new outfit for Ai Lisong and Lang Xiangying.

After chatting all afternoon, the three men realized they weren't very interested in cats. After lunch, they decided to go fishing, and Ai Lisong asked his friend next door to keep an eye on the supermarket.

Lang Xiangying, with the two children in tow, headed towards the cat café across the street.

"Speaking of which, Ai Qing is quite an idea; she writes novels and runs a cat café," Ai Huijun said with a smile.

"It's all stuff young people tinker with; he just likes to tinker around." Yao Qiang chuckled and shook her head. "I haven't been to his shop yet, Mom. What do you think?"

"It's great, it's great." Lang Xiangying said with a smile, "I think the decoration of Xiaoyuguan is pretty good. Those little rascals seem to be having a lot of fun in there."

The three people walked to the entrance of the cat cafe.

It was already 2 PM, and the cat cafe had entered the trial operation phase.

Hu Tian waited in the beverage area, while Li Qiqi stood in the cat petting area and could see the three people walking to the store entrance from afar through the floor-to-ceiling glass window.

So she couldn't resist strolling out, but still maintained the basic professionalism of an employee, suppressing a laugh as she said to the three of them, "Welcome! This is the beverage area; you can buy whatever drinks you need here."

"The seats over there are free to rest, and you can look at the cats through the glass windows. Tickets for the cat petting area are 60 yuan each, with no time limit."

"They look quite professional." Ai Huijun glanced at her daughter, chuckled, and went inside first. Then she said, "Give me a glass of orange juice, what would you like to drink?"

"I don't need it," Lang Xiangying waved her hand.

Yao Qiang, who was standing next to her, stepped forward and glanced at the tea: "How about a cup of red bean milk tea?"

After saying that, the three of them sat down on the stools and looked inside.

At this moment, Ai Qing was still typing away in the corner.

Little Fish was checking on the cats' condition.

Li Qiqi stood in the aisle behind the three of them and silently handed two QR code screenshots to her mother's table: "A cup of orange juice and a cup of red bean milk tea, totaling 31 yuan. May I ask if you will pay by Alipay or WeChat?"

Ai Huijun glanced at her daughter, looking at her with a half-smile, then gave a soft hum and took out her phone to scan a QR code.

Seeing her mother enter the number 31 yuan, Li Qiqi coughed lightly and then reminded her, "The ticket is 60 yuan per person. Would the three of you like to visit the cat petting area?"

Seeing that Ai Huijun's finger paused for a moment, Li Qiqi smiled considerately and said, "Including the ticket price, the total is 211 yuan."

Ai Huijun rolled her eyes at her and changed the number to 211 yuan: "I haven't seen you get a 211 degree yet."

Li Qiqi secretly pouted, but after seeing her mother successfully make the payment, she immediately put on a beaming smile again.