The white rose I picked up cried and said she liked me.

"Great idea! This is really a great idea!"

"This is a brilliant idea! No wonder I've seen Xinian Dumplings staying open very late every day these past few days; they've got a delivery service!"

"I wanted to find two students to help me deliver it, but I'm worried about it. I don't know any of them, and if they pick up the food and then don't deliver it, I'm in big trouble!"

......

Seeing that everyone was in high spirits, Xu Xi smiled slightly.

She raised her slender little hand, held up two fingers, and waved them in front of everyone.

"However, we won't deliver meals for free."

"We charge a 20% commission on each takeout order as a delivery fee."

Upon hearing this, everyone began to discuss it animatedly.

"Twenty percent? That's way too high!"

"Our profit margins are already very low. How can we make money if so much is taken away all at once?"

"Meituan and Baoleyao only take 25% of the profits and even help with promotion, while 20% is just for delivery? That's way too much..."

......

Faced with the crowd's doubts, Xu Xi raised an eyebrow at the sushi restaurant owner sitting in the crowd and gave him a look.

The sushi restaurant owner understood, stood up, and called out to the crowd.

"Everyone, please be quiet and listen to me!"

His tone was not as gentle as Xu Xi's; it carried the anger of a rough man, which immediately intimidated everyone present.

"You've all been in business for years, don't you realize that sticking to dine-in service is suicide?"

"You want students to deliver your food without paying them? That's a pipe dream!"

"Is 20% a lot? We're all in the food and beverage industry; which one doesn't have a gross profit margin of over 50%? Is giving up 20% really that unreasonable?"

"The person who brought up Meituan (a food delivery platform), can their riders deliver your food to school or something?"

"I'll take 20% of that from Sakura Sushi! You can choose not to send it to the school if you think it's too expensive, or find someone else to do it yourselves."

"Think about it yourself, how much would it cost to employ a group of delivery drivers who can deliver food to you anytime, anywhere, even if they're from male or female dormitories?"

"Let me be clear from the start: once we've delivered meals to the school and taken over all the customers, and nobody comes to your restaurant anymore, don't blame us for stealing your business!"

After the sushi restaurant owner said this, all the other owners present lowered their heads.

They all knew that although they would take a 20% cut from delivering meals to dormitories, they could still make a 30% profit margin.

If I don't let students deliver the food, I won't earn even a fraction of the profit, because there will be no customers at all.

All this commotion is just an attempt to reduce the commission rate and earn more for myself.

At this moment, Xu Xi cleared her throat and stepped in to smooth things over.

"Uncles and aunts, I know that taking 20% ​​of the profits at once is indeed very high."

"However, let me explain the facts to you."

"The average price of food sold in our food street is around 15 yuan, so 20% is 3 yuan."

"We will arrange for someone to pick up the meals from each store and deliver them to the pick-up point near the school, so that the uncles and aunts don't have to go out in the sweltering summer heat and freezing winter wind. This only requires one dollar in labor costs."

"After receiving their meals, students on campus need to walk ten minutes to their respective dormitories, climbing the stairs step by step to deliver the meals to their rooms. This also requires a labor cost of one yuan."

"The remaining dollar is used to cover food damage. If a meal is lost, or if a student receives the meal and finds that the container is broken or the soup has spilled, and wants to cancel the order, we will cover that loss."

"Now, does everyone still think that 20% is too much?"

After he finished speaking, everyone began to whisper among themselves.

However, their discussion was no longer about complaining about the high commission rate, but rather about whether to wait and see how other stores fared.

Many business owners have already stood up, intending to sign food delivery agreements with Xu Xi.

Xu Xi wasn't in a hurry. She took her phone out of her leather jacket pocket and glanced at the time on the screen.

"Of course, I also know that everyone in the catering industry earns their money through hard work. My brother has to get up at three or four in the morning to knead dough and prepare fillings, and I can only finish cleaning and closing up around ten o'clock at night."

"We're all just trying to make a living. I have no intention of using you uncles and aunts as tools to make money. I just want to help my neighbors get out of the predicament of years of losses."

"Here's the arrangement: it's 9:30 PM now. For restaurants that sign a delivery agreement with us before 10 PM, we'll only take a 15% commission!"

"Furthermore, we'll be giving away one free flyer distribution service, limited to the first ten restaurants that sign up. If you need our help distributing flyers in the future, it will be charged at 100 yuan per building."

These words caused another uproar in the room.

"I'm signing first! Nobody can take my spot in the top ten!"

"Count me in! I was here first!"

"Don't push me! Don't push me! I was here first!"

...

"Hehe, little girl, we have a deal. I'll help you promote it, and you'll only take a 10% commission from me."

When it was the sushi restaurant owner's turn to sign the agreement, he scratched the back of his head and chuckled sheepishly.

"Don't worry, Uncle, I keep my word!"

Xu Xi's small hands moved lightly and quickly wrote down a 10% commission rate in a food delivery agreement.

The sushi restaurant owner signed his name and the restaurant's name without hesitation. When he left, he had a smile on his face, as if he had gotten some huge advantage, which puzzled the other owners.

"Tsk... Xi Bao is truly a business genius..."

Wen Yao crossed her arms over her chest, clicking her tongue and shaking her head.

"She really took the marketing lesson to heart..."

Zhao Lin brushed her bangs aside and said, both amused and exasperated.

Whenever she heard the bald marketing professor lecturing on various mind-bending theories, she felt drowsy.

She has lamented more than once, "Who is actually listening to these classes? Are they really useful?"

Yes, there really are...

"I never expected that after finally getting rid of the delivery driver's hat and entering the university campus, I would still be a delivery driver."

Qi Yu chuckled self-deprecatingly.

However, he didn't feel wronged at all.

Xu Xi demanded a 15% commission from the merchants, and that commission was for their benefit.

If the number of orders is large enough, I might be able to earn more money in my spare time than I used to earn as a full-time food delivery driver.

Xu Nian looked at her younger sister's back, her ponytail swaying slightly, and was filled with emotion.

He didn't understand a single word of what they meant by "one playing the bad cop and the other the good cop" or "hunger marketing."

But that didn't stop my sister from bringing these quirky ideas to life, negotiating with so many businesses on her own, and turning a thankless task into a profitable business.

Thinking about it carefully, I realized that my sister's involvement was indispensable to the success of my business.

The warm yellow streetlights illuminated Xu Xi and the fountain pen in her hand, casting a petite and delicate shadow in front of Xu Nian.

Without realizing it, I've become someone standing behind my younger sister.

A gentle autumn breeze swept by, softly stirring up the golden leaves that had fallen along the street.

Xu Nian reached out her hand, wanting to take the leaf that had drifted onto her sister's shoulder in the wind.

But his calloused hands hung in mid-air before slowly falling down.

Touching her now would probably disturb my sister who is concentrating on the negotiation.

Xu Nian's vision was somewhat blurry.

He had a premonition that the little fledgling that once fluttered its fragile wings and followed behind him would one day grow into a phoenix and fly into the deep sky that he could only look up at.