Chapter 215: Chapter 215: The Leader

But Jessie Sterling quickly realized, ’Isn’t this a business opportunity right here?’ A smile immediately appeared on her face as she warmly greeted the customers in front of her.

“No rush, no rush. Take your time.”

Joanne Warren voluntarily gave up her spot, then moved to the side to maintain order and start collecting money.

After a little over an hour, Jessie Sterling got ready to close up shop.

By her calculation, they had now earned fifty-five yuan, enough to buy breakfast for the remaining people at home.

Joanne Warren was worried Jessie Sterling’s wrist wouldn’t hold out. Earning money was everyone’s responsibility, and they couldn’t rely solely on Jessie. It was best to quit while they were ahead.

“What should we bring back for them for breakfast?” Jessie Sterling asked.

“Steamed buns, maybe? I see they’re steaming some over there. Fifty cents each, and they’ll fill you up,” Joanne Warren said. “And then let’s buy some vegetable seeds, like bok choy or lettuce, things that sprout quickly.”

Jessie Sterling nodded. Although they had talked about buying steamed buns, she ended up buying a mix of breakfast items like cornbread buns and stuffed buns.

Soon, they only had a little over ten yuan left.

Jessie Sterling was tempted to spend it all. After all, a little over ten yuan wasn’t enough to feed eight people lunch anyway.

After discussing it with Joanne Warren, the two of them bought two kilograms of rice to take back.

By the time Jessie Sterling got home, it was almost noon.

The group of late sleepers was also starting to get up one by one.

Shaowei was one of the earlier ones to wake up. When she came out of her room and saw no one else was up, she had no choice but to wait in the living room.

She wasn’t just sitting there motionlessly, though; she was organizing the clothes she had brought from home.

She had over a dozen original Hanfu sets, and since they had been crammed into a suitcase, they were inevitably wrinkled. So, she was hanging them up and steaming them one by one.

When Jessie Sterling and Joanne Warren walked in, they were greeted by a room full of Hanfu.

“Wow!” Jessie Sterling couldn’t help but exclaim in amazement.

Even though she wasn’t part of that niche community’s target audience, it didn’t stop her from appreciating beautiful things.

Hearing the sound at the door, Shaowei instinctively turned her head.

Seeing it was Jessie Sterling and Joanne Warren, she gave an apologetic smile. “Sorry, I’ll clean this up right away. I won’t take up too much space.”

“Oh, don’t.” Jessie could see that Shaowei was still holding the head of the garment steamer. “Aren’t you still steaming them? Just leave them hanging. We can deal with it after they’re completely dry.”

“Will it be in the way?” Shaowei asked.

She didn’t know anyone well, so she felt a little awkward taking up so much of the common area.

“Not at all,” Jessie Sterling said. “These clothes of yours are gorgeous. It’s like a mini-exhibition, and we get to see it for free.”

Shaowei smiled faintly, pressing her lips together.

Actually, she had noticed Jessie Sterling yesterday. It wasn’t just because Jessie was the one among them who wasn’t a celebrity but carried herself more like one than any of them. It was also because, in the first round of voting, Shaowei couldn’t figure out how Jessie had managed to get four votes.

Someone who clearly wasn’t in the entertainment industry, but seemed to have a good relationship with everyone.

A person like that was hard not to notice.

“You can finish up later. Come eat first, or it’ll get cold and upset your stomach,” Joanne Warren said. She had already set the breakfast they bought on the table and gestured for Shaowei to come eat.

Shaowei walked over, a little surprised. “You bought all this?”

“Mhm.”

“But didn’t they take all our money?” Shaowei asked.

Joanne Warren briefly explained what had happened at the market earlier. “We couldn’t just let you all starve. Hurry up and eat.”

When Shaowei looked up at Jessie Sterling again, her feelings toward her had subtly changed.

“Thank you so much,” she said.

“Haha, it was nothing. Hurry and eat,” Jessie said.

As the three of them were talking, Wendy Lawson and the others also woke up and came out of their rooms.

Joanne Warren called everyone over to eat together.

“Whoa! Money that Jessie earned?!” Wendy Lawson’s face lit up with surprise after Joanne Warren explained again how they got breakfast. “Does this mean I’m being kept by a rich lady now?”

Jessie Sterling didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“We have Ms. Sterling to thank for this!” Jade Moyer exclaimed with emotion.

The dining table was instantly filled with a chorus of thank-yous.

Jessie Sterling felt a bit overwhelmed by the scene and quickly changed the subject. “Just eat, you guys. But we do need to think about how to make money. We made over fifty yuan this morning, but we’ve already spent most of it. If we don’t start earning more right away, we won’t have anything for lunch.”

“I can farm,” Haydn said, raising his hand. “I still grow my own vegetables at home. Since you bought seeds, I can try planting them in that patch of land in front of the door.”

Jade Moyer raised her hand. “I only know how to sing and dance and stuff. Should I go busking?”

“Busking probably won’t work well here,” Jessie Sterling said. “This isn’t some cultural plaza. The local Tibetans are also great singers and dancers. If you go out busking, they probably won’t pay you any mind.”

Jade Moyer deflated. “Then what can I do?”

Shaowei also looked at Jessie Sterling then. She couldn’t think of anything she could do either. Normally, she designed Hanfu, made them herself, then took them to a factory for patterning and supervised every step of the process.

But here, her skills seemed to have no place to be used.

There was no fabric, no factories, and her main customer base wasn’t here.

Perhaps because Jessie Sterling had successfully earned money that morning, Shaowei subconsciously looked to her, hoping she could offer some advice.

Jessie Sterling hadn’t expected that she would inadvertently become something like the group’s backbone.

She steadied herself, thought for a moment, and said, “About a kilometer from here, there’s a tree-lined avenue. But since it’s late autumn now, the leaves there have all turned yellow, and it’s become a popular photo spot for enjoying the autumn scenery.

“We could offer a photography service over there. I asked around at the market today; the foot traffic is huge. After all, this area is considered one of the top spots in the country for autumn scenery, a legendary paradise for photographers. There must be a lot of people who want their pictures taken.”

After saying this, Jessie Sterling looked at Shaowei. “Shaowei, did you bring a lot of clothes? Are they all for you to wear?”

Shaowei was surprised that Jessie Sterling had already noticed her. She nodded. “I brought several suitcases full of clothes. They’re not all for me. I wanted to give them to everyone as a first-meeting gift. It’s just…” She glanced at the clothes hanging in the living room. “When I arrived yesterday, they were all wrinkled from being packed in the suitcases. I was thinking I’d give them to you after I finished steaming them.”

“In that case, would you mind if we rented these clothes out?” Jessie asked.

“Huh?” Shaowei asked.

“I don’t mean I don’t like your clothes! I think they’re beautiful. It’s just that we don’t have any money right now, right? We all need to start a business. You have so many outfits, and if you just give them to us, they might not create as much value. What if we rent them out first, for something like destination photoshoots? The only thing is, we don’t have a makeup artist here. But, I know how to do makeup…”

By the time Jessie Sterling got to this point, Shaowei had completely caught on.

Her eyes lit up. “I do!”

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