Princess of the 19th Century Department Store - Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The sky grew darker and darker. In the blink of an eye, night had fallen. Warm yellow light spilled from the semi-basement tavern across from their home, where shadowy figures moved back and forth inside.

Before long, Hank and Fred returned with two buckets of water, and Mary called from the kitchen for everyone to come in for dinner.

Daisy got up, went to lock the front door, and only then headed into the kitchen.

A gas lamp hung in the kitchen. The table had been moved to the center, with several chairs and stools crowded around it. There was barely enough room to turn around.

And that was with Lisa unable to come downstairs for dinner. On an ordinary day, the kitchen would only be even more cramped at mealtimes.

Still, in her previous life, Daisy had endured plenty of hardship when she and her partner had first started their business. Conditions like these were no longer enough to stir much emotion in her.

Lifting her skirt, she squeezed into the innermost seat. As soon as she sat down, Mary brought her a heaping plate of food and poured her a cup of hot milk.

Compared with breakfast and lunch, dinner today was much more generous.

On the plate were two pieces of buttered bread, several strips of bacon, a fried egg, fried blood sausage, beans baked with canned tomatoes, mashed potatoes, and cabbage.

It was an utterly classic old London spread.

Daisy took a sniff, then picked up her utensils and tried a little. Unexpectedly, the food was not nearly as bad as she had imagined. It actually tasted all right.

After Fred finished delivering a meal upstairs and sat down, he took one look at the table and could not help saying, “Are we celebrating Christmas again today?”

It seemed that as long as she did not have to watch the shop and had plenty of time to work, Mary could still make very tasty meals.

The five of them gathered around the small table and ate with relish. A little bottle of sea salt and pepper was passed back and forth between them.

At the dinner table, Grandfather was the first to ask Daisy how things had gone at the shop today.

Daisy pressed her lips together. Still cutting her bacon, she slowly recited everything she had recorded in the ledger that day.

At once, everyone in the kitchen stopped what they were doing and looked up at her in blank astonishment.

Mary had been home all day. Knowing there had not been many customers, she had not paid much attention to the business out front.

She never would have imagined that on Daisy’s very first day watching the shop, she would have sold so many things.

There had not been many customers, but each one had bought quite a lot. That took no small amount of persuasion from the person behind the counter.

Everyone present had taken turns minding the shop for a month, so they naturally understood that very well.

Fred found it even harder to believe. He knew Daisy was not an outgoing girl. She was even somewhat reserved and had never watched the shop alone before. Yet today, she had acted completely unlike her usual self.

Hank, on the other hand, had witnessed Daisy’s silver tongue while she was purchasing stock. He explained it to himself by thinking that perhaps it was also because she had gone to school.

In short, not a single person present knew that the girl in their family had already been taken over by the CEO of a retail brand.

Daisy had expected their reaction. She lowered her head and continued eating, her eyes shifting as she said,

“I just wanted business to be a little better, so Grandmother wouldn’t get upset every day and insist on working herself.

“With her health the way it is, she still needs several more months to recover. If she gets hurt again during that time, it will be difficult to treat.”

Hearing this, everyone more or less lowered their heads in shame. When they had taken shifts, business had never been this good.

But her? She was clearly such a quiet, well-behaved girl, yet for the sake of Grandmother’s health, she had pushed herself this hard!

However, watching the shop required talent. Learning it took a long process. Unless someone was like her, with every business skill already maxed out, an ordinary person would need at least a full month of uninterrupted training to get the hang of it.

Seeing that she had laid enough groundwork, Daisy brought up the idea of taking a leave from school and staying home full-time to watch the shop.

The kitchen fell silent again. This time, even Penny bit through her bacon and stared at her in confusion.

There was only a little more than half a year left before she could get her graduation certificate. Taking leave now would mean having to make up another half year of classes later. It was far too much trouble.
“It’s fine. I’ve already learned everything I was supposed to learn anyway. I can make up a few classes later. That’s still better than the shop not being able to stay open now. If that happens, I won’t even have the money to get my diploma.

“With me at home focusing on the shop, business might even go back to how it used to be.”

Daisy’s words made perfect sense.

Only then did her grandfather nod. “All right, then. Tomorrow, I’ll bring a few things with me and go to the school with you to speak to the Headmistress.

“As for your grandmother, you’ll have to persuade her yourself.”

Daisy gave a soft “Mm.”

After dinner, she decisively carried the change box and the account book upstairs and knocked on her grandmother’s bedroom door.

When she went in, her grandmother had just finished dinner and rinsed her mouth, and was getting ready to rest.

Daisy shook the money box. “Don’t go to sleep yet. Help me tally the accounts.”

She walked over, handed the account book to Lisa, then passed over the cash box as well.

Lisa took the cash box. Feeling how heavy it was, her eyes immediately lit up.

She opened the account book and looked it over from top to bottom.

“We actually sold this much today!”

The more Lisa looked at the accounts, the more surprised she became. Then she asked Daisy about what had happened.

Daisy told her everything she had done that day, detail by detail.

Including bundling the paper packages, writing notes, and making those little advertisements.

As someone who also ran a shop, Lisa’s eyes grew brighter the more she listened.

She slapped her thigh and nearly made her fracture worse. Of course! This was exactly how business should be done! Why had she never thought of it before?

But then Lisa could not help wondering how Daisy had come up with so many ideas in such a short time.

Daisy knew that her personality was now rather noticeably different from the original owner’s, but she had already found the best possible reason: filial piety.

So she clasped her grandmother’s hand tightly.

“I’m doing all this only because I want you to recover in peace!

“If I can, I’m willing to take care of the shop full-time.”

Lisa was stunned again, her aged face going blank.

It seemed she had never imagined that Daisy was willing to do so much for the shop because of her health.

This child might usually look quiet and gentle, as if she did not care about anything, but when something really happened, she truly could shoulder the burden!

Lisa was immediately moved to tears, but she soon realized what Daisy meant.

“Then what about your studies?” she asked softly, confused.

Daisy repeated her plan: she intended to suspend her studies for now, then finish her courses once her grandmother recovered. It absolutely would not delay her future prospects.

As for when that time truly came, the business would definitely already be unable to do without her. Wouldn’t everything be up to her then?

In this life, she had no desire to become a female typist secretary in some office, then marry an ugly coworker. Nor did she think that counted as a good future.

Because it would not help her make money in the slightest.

At the family level, if her social circle had not risen along with the family’s capital to the point where marriage could be used as an exchange of resources to expand influence and gain greater benefits, she would not consider personal matters.

Likewise, although the family before her all looked perfectly ordinary, each of them had their own strengths and was worth cultivating.

She knew the original story like the back of her hand, and she understood the background of the era even better.

She knew even more clearly that London at this moment was full of opportunities.

The system was loose, riddled with corruption, and not strictly regulated. In some ways, it was even more favorable to the wild growth of business.

And she had precious practical experience. Other than making money, she knew how to do nothing else.

It was nothing more than taking the path that had succeeded in the millennium era in her previous life and walking it again in the nineteenth century.

What was so hard about that?

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