IHOEAYSTTTIW Chapter 59

Chapter 59: The Contradiction Between Lin Yan’s Growing Needs and the Great Zhou’s Deficient Material Foundation

Yi Pin Restaurant hung up a sign saying “Renovating the Old Shop.” When it reopened, the decor had been changed to match Xiang Wei’s style, and the name had also been changed to Xiang Wei, with just three small words “Franchise Store” added in the lower right corner.

Everyone in the Capital City knew that Yi Pin Restaurant and Xiang Wei were at odds. People originally thought that Yi Pin Restaurant had come up with some way to deal with Xiang Wei, but who would have thought that after a few days, even the sign would be changed?

This street was already bustling with people, and now with this incident, it became even more lively.

“How did Yi Pin Restaurant turn into Xiang Wei after renovating?”

“Isn’t that a good thing? Xiang Wei’s dishes are cheap and delicious, and the line stretches from the south of the city to the north. Now the storefront has expanded…”

Luo Shopkeeper, oh no, it should be Luo Xiao Er now, had heard these words many times today. At first, he wanted to find a place to avoid the limelight, but now…

Luo Xiao Er cleared his throat and greeted the customers with exceptional enthusiasm: “Welcome, welcome! Please come inside. What would you like to order today?”

“The service is still so…” The man sized Luo Xiao Er up and down and sneered, “Oh, Shopkeeper Luo? Why are you dressed like this today?”

Luo Xiao Er acted as if he didn’t hear anything, led the two to a seat, and handed them the menu: “What would you like to order today? How about the newly added Spicy Chicken? We use 100-day-old spring chickens…”

The two men had no interest in 100-day-old spring chickens, but were very interested in Luo Xiao Er.

They arrogantly ordered two dishes, then stopped Luo Xiao Er from leaving and began a display of false compassion that was actually mockery: “Shopkeeper Luo, how did you offend Prince An? You’ve fallen to this state. We’re all acquaintances, you can tell us. Maybe we can help you think of a solution.”

“What state have I fallen to?” Luo Xiao Er dusted the ash off his clothes with a rag. The smile on his face disappeared instantly, and his bent back straightened. “Yi Pin Restaurant has Prince An’s backing. My younger brother is very capable with Prince An’s consort. If you offend me…”

Before Luo Xiao Er could finish speaking, a clever-looking worker came out from the kitchen and instructed him: “Old Luo, the manager wants you to come and pick vegetables.”

“Coming, coming.” Luo Xiao Er gave the two a shallow bow, lifted the curtain, and entered the kitchen.

The two men glanced at the kitchen. Seeing that Luo Xiao Er really didn’t come out again, they continued to gossip sourly: “Who is this new manager? Old Luo seems a little afraid of him?”

A person on the side suddenly interjected: “I heard that it’s the younger brother that Old Luo has been suppressing.”

That person was even more disdainful: “With his previous attitude towards Luo Mu, it would be good if Luo Mu didn’t settle the score with him. Still backing him up?”

“Luo Mu really didn’t want to make things difficult for this older brother, but Old Luo used to oppose Prince An, so Prince An’s consort just gave him a small punishment.”

“Prince An’s consort is really kind.” The man looked at the three words “Franchise Store” on the Xiang Wei signboard, his eyes rolled, and his thoughts gradually became active. “Does this mean they’ve also gotten on Prince An’s bandwagon? Brother, do you think we could also…”

Lin Yan, in the backyard of Xiang Wei, didn’t know that the appearance of the franchise store would attract a group of people who wanted to make connections. He was still taking a nap in his small house as usual.

His current identity was Lin Yi, the manager of Prince An’s estate. He could supervise the construction openly and swagger around the Capital City.

Not many people knew his true identity. Besides Cheng Que and Gu Zhan, there were also the Luo brothers from Yi Pin Restaurant. If Shopkeeper Luo hadn’t recognized him directly that day, Lin Yan wouldn’t have wanted to drop this disguise.

However, it wasn’t a big deal. After his coercion and inducement, Shopkeeper Luo wouldn’t say anything.

Lin Yi was just a nominal figure in Xiang Wei. He didn’t have to manage the accounts, cook, or serve tea and water. His courtyard was a forbidden area. The waiters and workers of Xiang Wei didn’t dare to approach it, so it was usually very quiet, but today it was particularly noisy.

“Who’s disturbing my sweet dream?” Lin Yan rubbed his eyes, pretended to be impatient, and opened the door. Seeing that it was Cheng Que standing outside, he dropped his pretense in a second. “Gu Zhan, why are you here? Is the kitchen too busy…”

Gu Zhan gave Lin Yan a shallow bow and smiled: “It’s not meal time yet. Besides, Xiang Wei has hired quite a few workers. They wouldn’t need the Princess Consort to help.”

“What Princess Consort?” Lin Yan’s face turned red instantly. He quickly changed the subject. “So, what’s all the noise outside about?”

Gu Zhan put away his auntie-like smile and sighed deeply: “It’s that group of people asking about you. They saw that Old Luo had joined Xiang Wei, and they’re all vying for a piece of the pie.”

“How many people are there?”

“Xiang Wei is already full, and it looks like it’s just the beginning.”

Lin Yan felt like he had contracted the same disease as Yun Qi. He was starting to get a headache.

He cooked because he liked it, opened Xiang Wei because he thought it would be fun, and started a franchise store purely on a whim.

Now, to make him open hundreds of franchise stores, make it bigger and stronger, and have them everywhere…

Lin Yan couldn’t do it. Lin Yan was incapable.

A perfectly adequate reason flashed through Lin Yan’s mind, a reason that could easily block back however many franchise stores: “The Capital City doesn’t need so many Xiang Wei restaurants. Two are enough.”

Gu Zhan raised his leg and started to walk out: “I’ve been waiting for you to say that. I’ll tell them to leave now.”

“Wait.” Lin Yan suddenly had other ideas. He put on his disguise under Gu Zhan’s puzzled gaze and waved at Gu Zhan. “Let’s go. I’ll go and meet them myself.”

Although the Capital City didn’t need two Xiang Wei restaurants, it could open another milk tea shop, dessert shop, roasted nuts shop, snack shop…

Lin Yan had a lot of miscellaneous recipes that were enough for these shops to open. As for new product innovation later… Lin Yan believed in the wisdom of the Great Zhou people. He definitely wouldn’t have to worry about it.

Lin Yan described his plan with great enthusiasm. The people below listened in a daze, but they all nodded repeatedly.

They were just treating it as listening to a story anyway, and they didn’t have to pay anything.

The “franchisees'” reaction was a little different from what he had imagined. Lin Yan took a sip of water and made his words clearer: “So, is anyone willing to join?”

It was okay to be indifferent, and it was okay to listen to stories, but when it came to actually spending money…

In the next fifteen minutes, Lin Yan witnessed the diversity of excuses, including but not limited to “My wife is giving birth today,” “My mother is sick,” “Dahuang won’t eat,” “The legal wife and concubine are fighting”…

The excuses became more and more diverse, but the number of people in Xiang Wei became less and less.

Lin Yan was not discouraged, not at all. “Even though half have run away, there’s still half left. Look at that white dough ball, isn’t he here to join?”

The white dough ball didn’t talk nonsense and directly placed the purse on the table.

Lin Yan weighed it and felt it was a little light, but it was enough to open a small milk tea shop.

“The shopkeeper has good eyes…” Lin Yan said, opening the purse. After seeing that it contained bank-notes, the rest of the words he wanted to say got stuck in his throat.

Taking a 30 million dollar check to buy lemonade, who would dare accept that?

Seeing the purse being pushed back to him, the white dough ball immediately flattered and pushed the purse into Lin Yan’s hand: “This is two thousand taels. Do you think it’s enough, sir? If it’s not enough…”

Two thousand taels, not to mention a milk tea shop, but even if Lin Yan opened all the shops he had mentioned just now, it would be more than enough.

But the pie wouldn’t fall from the sky. Such a good thing couldn’t happen to Lin Yan for no reason. Moreover, Lin Yan hadn’t touted how much money the shop would make. On the contrary, he had made it clear that he only knew how to cook and didn’t know anything about running a shop.

Lin Yan narrowed his eyes slightly. He took all the bank-notes from the purse and slapped them on the table: “You don’t need that much money to open a shop. You want to get on the bandwagon of Prince An’s estate, right?”

The white dough ball wiped his sweat, tried to maintain a flattering smile, and tried hard to explain: “Sir, what are you talking about? How could I think like that? I just think Princess An is intelligent…”

Lin Yan looked around the shop and regretted that none of the people left in the shop were interested in opening a shop. They were all thinking of ways to give money to Prince An’s estate, make connections, and go through the back door.

The white dough ball was still chanting, but Lin Yan felt very bored. He threw the purse into the white dough ball’s arms, turned around, and left.

It was within Lin Yan’s expectations that no one supported him. It was really annoying to have attracted so many people with ulterior motives.

Lin Yan unusually holed himself up in the courtyard.

Cheng Que thought Lin Yan was sad about the messy shops, so he specially ran from the warehouse to comfort him: “Yanzi, what you… what you make is really good. You can try it out in Xiang Wei first. If the profits are good, then slowly promote it.”

Lin Yan nodded absently, but he didn’t really listen to these words.

He wasn’t doing it to make money, and he didn’t want a slow and steady stream. He wanted to drink milk tea and eat snacks, watch immortal dramas flying around in bed sheets, he wanted arcade centers, board game halls, he wanted…

The small county towns of Great Zhou were not fun, the Capital City was not fun, and the mountains and countryside were even less fun.

There were too many rules, too much emphasis on things, and feudal dregs were everywhere. The freedom and democracy that he advocated had become dregs instead.

Lin Yan… wanted to go home.

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