Why bother with dating when you already have a cat?

The cat cafe suddenly became incredibly popular among the surrounding schools.

Chapter 197 Cat Cafe Revenue

Since the little fish was able to turn into a human, everything seems to be moving in a positive direction.

No matter what Ai Qing does, she always gets a good result.

The data for the new book looks pretty good so far.

Despite not showing any signs of becoming a blockbuster, Ai Qing's new book has steadily entered the recommendation process thanks to the loyal readers she had built up with her previous book.

For him now, the four rounds of recommendations during the new book's release period are practically a given.

And the once-advanced Star River Recommendation, it seems now, is not as difficult as it once imagined.

Especially with the warm current from the little fish, Ai Qing's mind often keeps running at high speed when she's typing, and inspiration flows out like a spring.

Although this new book I'm writing is a slice-of-life story about the revival of spiritual energy, it doesn't have any leveling-up storylines.

But thanks to the warmth of the current, Ai Qing was able to write about everyday life in a beautiful way, and each cat in the cat cafe was described in a unique way.

In addition, the cats from the cat cafe were used as inspiration, and after some modifications, the place suddenly became very interesting.

For example, Ai Qing wrote about the Japanese dog in the shop in her novel.

The story describes how he squatted next to the protagonist's table, watched the Bleach anime together, and then awakened the power of his Zanpakuto.

Of course, this is just a joking nickname; in reality, it means that a small dagger can be condensed and held in the mouth of the Japanese soldier.

When he did something wrong and was pinned to the ground by the protagonist, unable to move, he shouted that he would commit seppuku, unable to bear such humiliation.

As soon as he let go of it, he immediately knelt down, bowed, and apologized, saying he would never dare to do it again.

And then they'll do it again next time.

However, in the end, this Zanpakuto was reduced to being used to open packages for the protagonist.

I don’t know if the spiritual energy revival wasn’t thorough enough, but the cats in the protagonist’s cat cafe, although they all awakened their own special abilities, most of them were not very dangerous.

On the contrary, it provides some convenience in everyday life.

However, this leisurely life suddenly changed after the protagonist took a pregnant stray cat home and helped it give birth to a kitten that could grow into a human.

The protagonist, who originally planned to spend the rest of his life with cats and smoothly head towards the end of his life, had his course forcibly reversed and become unpredictable.

Ai Qing's idea was actually very simple: as long as the book could maintain an average of one or two thousand subscriptions, the monthly royalties of around ten thousand yuan would be more than enough for him.

He could even stop writing books altogether and just focus on managing the current homeless shelter account; he could easily make a living from advertising revenue.

But judging from the momentum of this new book, it seems to be getting out of control.

Since the book was released at the end of October, it has already been read more than 5,000 times in just one month.

This tracking calculation is based on the reading data of users who have paid records within the past year.

Five thousand reads means that within 48 hours of his latest chapter being released, 5000 potential paying users read this chapter.

This is already a very strong result.

This immediately secured Ai Qing's place in the top three of the new book charts.

If it weren't for another top author and a veteran level 5 author starting their new books at the same time, Ai Qing would really have had a chance to reach the top of the new book charts.

"It's getting cold now, put your clothes on properly and zip it up." Ai Qing had just changed into her down jacket when she saw Xiao Yu skipping and jumping out. She reached out and pulled her back, then zipped up her jacket.

Little Fish is now wearing a pure white down jacket, a pair of thick, cotton-padded light-colored jeans, and a pair of warm brown leather boots. She looks adorable.

"Brother is so nice~" Little Fish said, but her little hand reached out to Ai Qing's neck without hesitation, and her icy little hand immediately became warm.

Ai Qing looked down at her with affection, not minding at all that she was using her neck to warm herself. Instead, she reached out and wrapped her hand around the back of her hand: "Are you feeling better? Put your gloves on too."

"No, if I wear gloves, we won't feel the same way when we hold hands." Xiaoyu refused, then stood next to Aiqing and put her little hands into Aiqing's pockets to keep them warm.

"Let's go then." Ai Qing also put his hands into his pockets, wrapped his big hand around Xiao Yu's small hand, and the two of them walked out of the house and downstairs toward the cat cafe.

After a month of operation, the cat cafe has become a well-established business.

Ai Qing didn't actually make Li Qiqi work for free; she still paid her the same salary as Hu Tian for the previous month.

Of course, this is also because the cat cafe's earning power last month truly exceeded Ai Qing's expectations.

Although the cat cafe itself doesn't seem to make much money, it only gets about forty or fifty customers on weekends.

Based on this calculation, and including the occasional people who come on weekdays, there are probably around two hundred people.

At least half of these customers used half-price experience vouchers.

So, the revenue from ticket sales alone is only around nine thousand yuan.

Even including the freeze-dried food income from the cats' cuteness, it's only a little over ten thousand yuan.

but.

The revenue from the beverage section is a bit outrageous.

It's fairly average during the day; from morning to afternoon, we can sell about twenty or thirty cups.

But as soon as school is over, the place becomes a huge crowd of children who come to see the cat.

Ai Qing's check-in card allowed children who checked in for a full week to pet the cats for free, instantly making her a shining star among the children.

So, although many children came to see the cats for free, a small group of students chose to buy drinks there.

Starting from four or five o'clock, elementary school students and some day students in junior high school get out of school, and then high school students get out of school at eight or nine o'clock in the evening. During this period every day, at least a hundred cups can be sold.

Sometimes they can sell more than two hundred cups.

Over the course of this month, the turnover is probably around 70,000 to 80,000.

After deducting labor costs, utilities, rent, and material costs, the actual profit from 70,000 to 80,000 yuan is probably around 20,000 to 30,000 yuan.

Ai Qing and Xiao Yu calculated their bills last night, and their income in November was around 30,000 yuan.

If they can maintain this income level, they should be able to recoup their investment in the store in about six months.

Logically speaking, it shouldn't be that exaggerated.

After all, their beverage shop isn't a franchise and doesn't have a brand effect.

There are so many schools around, and they're not the only shop making milk tea.

On this street alone, there's a homeless shelter right across the street, and at the other end of the street corner, there's a bubble tea shop.

Not to mention the streets closer to the school.

Normally, it would be good if the surrounding milk tea shops could get a small portion of the revenue from students buying drinks.

We sell dozens of cups offline every day.

The rest mainly survive on food delivery orders.

These days, it's quite rare to find a beverage shop like Home for the Homeless where offline sales far exceed online sales.

After all, Ai Qing initially thought that it would be good enough if customers could buy a drink before entering the store and increase the average transaction value.

So we didn't think much about online food delivery beforehand.

For small, non-branded beverage shops like theirs, getting featured on food delivery platforms is inherently difficult.

Without buying traffic and ratings, you can't even get ranked, and online orders are naturally pitifully few.

However, no one in the nearby milk tea shops expected that someone would be so heartless as to build a super luxurious cat cafe specifically for the beverage shops to lure students.

The speed at which information spreads among students is quite fast.

In addition, many girls like these fluffy little animals, and many boys can't resist the temptation. So, word spread quickly, and everyone soon knew about this store.

Even though they go in the completely opposite direction home, some students come in groups specifically to visit the homeless shelter and see the cats there.

Upon hearing that collecting seven stamps from a card would grant free access to the cat-petting area, many students immediately became interested.

I drink milk tea quite often anyway, and they all taste pretty much the same. Since I'm going to spend money on milk tea anyway, why not collect stamps here?

Driven by this desire to find a bargain, students from the surrounding area were naturally drawn to them.

There have even been cases where, in order to pursue a girl he liked, he spent half a month coming here every day to check in, and after collecting two cards, he invited the girl to go play in the cat-petting area together.

Finally, a legend also circulated.

As long as you collect enough cards, you can confess your feelings to the cat-petting area with the person you like, and the cats will help you succeed in your confession and even give you their blessings!

I don't know who spread this idea, but Ai Qing herself didn't do anything fancy like that.

But sometimes you really can't underestimate the students' chuunibyou imagination. Although it seems very unreliable, after hearing about it, Xiaoyu secretly added some training content to the stray cats, making them pay extra attention to customers who come into the store together as a man and a woman.

If they can really make a pair, the little fish will reward them.

Ai Qing was speechless when she found out, thinking to herself that these stray cats were really becoming sentient.

Could it be that after training the little fish for a long time, they will all be able to understand human speech in the future?

Chapter 198 Childbirth

It was morning, the quietest time in the shop.

Apart from the occasional passerby buying a drink or stopping to admire the kitten in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, there was hardly anyone else around.

However, Li Qiqi, who was in the shop, was not idle either. Together with Lang Xiangying, who came to stroll in the shop, they brushed the stray cats' fur and trimmed their nails.

I also need to give a few cats some eye drops.

Sometimes you have to check if there's poop on the butt of a big orange dog like this.

After all, thin cats can clean themselves, but this big orange cat can't even lick its own belly, so it has to help manually.

Li Qiqi did this a lot when she was at the pet adoption center, and she didn't mind at all; in fact, she enjoyed it very much.

Yesterday she received her salary from Xiaoyu. Although she politely declined at first, she happily accepted it in the end.

After returning home, he showed off to Ai Huijun, stepping onto the sofa and personally opening the envelope in his hand, taking out the five thousand yuan in red banknotes, and patting them in his palm.

Ai Huijun found it amusing, but seeing that she was happy working at the cat cafe and even getting paid, she let her be.

Especially after hearing that the cat cafe had made a lot of money, Ai Huijun was completely relieved.