It smells good chapter 1

Getting a sluggish business back on track is no easy feat. The magical tool that the protagonist of this story stumbled upon by chance is sure to offer some inspiration for how we conduct ourselves and handle our affairs in the future.

Three months after being laid off, Jack didn’t have a single idle day. He and his wife raised funds and dealt with the business registration, and finally opened a roast duck shop. At the beginning, the business in the shop was really good. Every night, the couple couldn’t even finish counting the money. But such good times didn’t last long. In less than three months, the business in the shop gradually became sluggish. The couple was really worried. Why are people’s tastes so hard to please?

To attract customers, Jack wracked his brains. He imitated others and put up advertising posters and discount banners in front of the roast duck shop. He also specially bought a oscillating fan and turned it to the highest gear every day, blowing towards the road, hoping to spread the aroma of the roast duck as far as possible. But even so, it didn’t work. The number of customers coming to the shop every day was getting fewer and fewer. Jack and his wife were so worried that they sighed all day long. If they closed the shop, they were reluctant to give up after all the hard work. But if they continued, after paying the rent and taxes every month on top of the cost, how could they make a living?

One afternoon, there were only a few customers in the shop. His wife simply went back to her parents’ place. Jack was really bored, so he chatted with the shopkeeper next door at the shop entrance. As they were talking, he suddenly noticed that about seven or eight steps away, there was a little boy standing there and not leaving. He was staring at the roast ducks in Jack’s shop, with saliva hanging from the corner of his mouth.

Jack felt pity in his heart and asked him, “Where are you from? Why aren’t you at school?”

The little boy pointed to the construction site across the road and said to Jack, “My parents are working there. I have to wait for them to earn enough money before I can go back to school. I… I’m waiting for them to get off work.”

“Waiting for them to get off work?” Jack was a bit slow to react. Why did this little boy come here to wait for his parents to get off work? It wasn’t until he noticed that although the boy was answering his question, his two eyes never left the roast ducks in his shop that he suddenly understood: It must be the aroma of the roast duck blown by the high – gear fan that attracted this little boy!

Sure enough, the little boy said to Jack, “Uncle, I smelled the aroma a long time ago. I really want to eat the duck, but my mom doesn’t have money to buy it for me. She said that just smelling the aroma is as good as really eating it. Uncle, is that true?”

The innocent words of the child made Jack’s heart ache. He thought for a while, took half a duck from the counter, put it into a food bag, and handed it to the little boy, saying, “Take it home and eat it with your mom!”

The little boy didn’t take it. He swallowed his saliva and said, “Uncle, I dare not take it. If I do, my mom will scold me!”

Jack grabbed the little boy’s hand and stuffed the duck into his arms, saying, “Tell your mom that this is from Uncle. She definitely won’t scold you.” After all, he was just a child. When he heard what Jack said, he happily ran away with the duck in his arms.

A week later, the little boy came again. He stood at the shop entrance and excitedly smiled at Jack, “Uncle, my mom really thanks you. But she won’t let me come to get your duck again. She boils the duck in the pot every day when she gets off work, and lets me smell the aroma at home…”

Jack was shocked, “You still haven’t eaten that duck?”

The little boy nodded, “Mom only gives me a little bit every day. Mom said that the longer we can eat it, the more days we can smell the aroma!”

“This…” Hearing what the little boy said, Jack couldn’t help but deeply blame himself, because the half – duck he gave the child that day was actually not fresh. So Jack quickly said to the little boy, “That duck has been kept for too long and can’t be eaten. You must tell your mom to throw it away when you get home, or you’ll get sick from eating it.” As he was instructing, he took a duck leg from the counter and gave it to the little boy, asking him to eat it right away.