Chapter 18

The queue at the entrance of Fu Rui Fang moved slowly forward, with people occasionally joining the end of the line.

The shop assistant had a stack of small slips of paper in his hand, and he distributed them one by one from the front. The slip of paper in Yu Wan's hand was number 134.

The last person in line was number 200, and the rest of the people had to leave with regret.

Yu Wan carefully examined the handwriting on the piece of paper. It was written in the Wei-Jin style of small regular script, a style she had always found very charming.

"These characters are written quite nicely."

She smelled the paper. "It was most likely made by a young woman."

He Jing said in a deep voice, "Is your nose really that sensitive?"

Yu Wan glanced at him, feeling that this person hadn't finished speaking.

"Are you trying to call me a dog?"

He Jing, his thoughts exposed, looked embarrassed and scratched his forehead awkwardly.

After waiting in line for half an hour, it was finally their turn. When they entered the store, they found that the display case was mostly empty, and there weren't many options left, only mung bean cakes, qingtuan (green rice dumplings), and sesame cakes.

Just as Yu Wan was about to let He Jing take a little of everything, she saw that the people behind her in line had already come in and were frantically grabbing things.

"Mine! Mine! Don't try to take it from me! I've been queuing for three days already, anyone who tries to take it from me is my enemy!"

"Why should we give way to you? We all have numbers, and besides, your number was right after mine.

"I said it's mine, so it's mine. If you disagree, let's fight, and whoever wins takes all!"

Two young women started fighting in public, disregarding everything else, tearing at each other's hair ornaments. The shopkeeper was so anxious that he spun around in circles, unable to stop them.

They wrestled together, and those who were nearby were caught in the crossfire and knocked off balance.

If He Jing hadn't reacted quickly and shielded Yu Wan with his body, she would have been hit as well.

Yu Wan stood behind He Jing, watching the spectacle. "Isn't this a bit too much?"

Her eyes were full of envy. Although the restaurant was very popular now, it couldn't compare with big shops like Zuixianlou and Furuifang in the county town.

At this moment, a beautiful young woman wearing a veil, dressed in a cross-collar ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress), and with an elegant hairpin walked out from inside.

"Please calm down, everyone." The voice was gentle and pleasant.

Yu Wan's eyes lit up, and she murmured, "Could this be the girl who writes?"

He Jing ignored the girl and pulled her aside.

"You step aside, I'm going to buy something."

Yu Wan gave him the money, saying, "Okay, go buy it. One of each, not too many." After giving her instructions, she continued watching the commotion.

The young woman calmed the two fighting women down with just a few words, then accompanied them to choose their favorite pastries, and finally personally saw them to the door.

No one dared to disagree with her; they all whispered their praises of Lady Guan for her good character, beautiful appearance, and talent.

It turns out she was the shopkeeper's daughter.

Even through the veil, Yu Wan could tell that this was indeed an extremely beautiful girl.

She was staring blankly when suddenly a package swayed in front of her; it was He Jing returning with the things he had bought.

What are you spacing out for?

Yu Wan was completely captivated by Lady Guan's extraordinary and refined temperament, and couldn't help but admire her.

"What a beautiful young lady!"

He Jing followed her gaze for a moment, then looked away. "How long are you going to stay? Didn't you say you were going back before dark?"

Yu Wan finally came to her senses. This was the important matter. She had to go home and prepare all sorts of ingredients for tomorrow, so she could only leave reluctantly.

She observed that some customers had ulterior motives, their real intention being to catch a glimpse of Lady Guan's beauty.

Oh right, how could she forget about that?

In the past, many stores became popular for various reasons, such as having good products, good service, or something that appealed to customers' preferences.

Currently, there are still shortcomings in the restaurant's service. She spends most of her time in the kitchen, while Yu Cheng and He Jing work at the front desk, with her mother also helping out.

I can manage the workload, but I can't do any further optimizations.

and……

She glanced at the boy beside her. He usually had a cold face and was taciturn. It was impossible to expect him to provide emotional value services to customers like a waiter.

Yu Cheng is too young, so I plan to find a private school in a few days and send him to school.

It's time to expand the team.

They arrived home just as the sun was setting.

The group carried all the purchased goods into the house, unloaded the cart, led the horses to the stable, and put out hay and fodder.

After Yu Wan finished preparing dinner, she told her mother and Yu Cheng to go back to their room to rest, while she and He Jing started working on the ingredients in the kitchen.

Some ingredients need to be marinated in advance to make them more flavorful and delicious, while some vegetables and meats need to be washed and cut in advance.

After all that work, Yu Wan couldn't even straighten her back.

Seeing this, He Jing said in a deep voice, "You go upstairs, I'll clean up the rest."

Yu Wan trusted him completely. He wasn't talkative, but he was very smart and could learn quickly. If he weren't such a good helper, she didn't know how exhausted she would be.

"I have one more thing to do." She took out paper, ink, brush, and inkstone, and with a flourish of her brush, filled a sheet of paper with her writing.

Although the handwriting isn't great, it's passable.

satisfy!

He Jing placed the chair backwards on the table and inadvertently passed by her, noticing a list of keywords on the paper.

He is eight feet tall, has a dignified appearance, is cheerful, and has a humble attitude...

"This is... a notice seeking a son-in-law?"

Yu Wan then noticed that there was no title, so she quickly added the job posting.

He Jing's stern face showed great confusion. "You're paying a waiter five taels a month? Even the most famous restaurant in the capital, Furonglou, only pays its waiters two taels."

Yu Wan blew on the ink to dry it, patted the paper with satisfaction, and said, "You don't understand. When the restaurant grows bigger, we'll definitely need to hire more people. I'm not saying everyone has to be good-looking, or that we need such high standards. Others just need to be hardworking and able to endure hardship. But right now, I'm looking for the restaurant's face, its visual representative. Just being good-looking isn't enough. They need to be eloquent, cheerful, humble, polite, and have a good personality that people like. They can't just stand at the entrance like a statue, right? I might as well spend money to sculpt one. They need to be quick and efficient, and not lazy. A visual representative also needs to work hard; they can't be a useless pretty face. Their character has to be good; they can't be a scumbag! Such a person is so charming and perfect! It would be best if they had some personal skills, like hairpinning or eyebrow drawing. The more advantages the better. As long as they can do a good job, the money is worth it. So, there are high standards for high-priced jobs."

They are essentially spokespeople for restaurants.

He Jing shook his head helplessly after hearing this and silently went to mop the floor.

Yu Wan watched the boy's retreating figure with regret and murmured, "What a pity."

This person already meets most of the criteria. First of all, he is unusually good-looking, and every time they go out to buy groceries together, there are always young girls staring at him.

However, his personality is a problem, and we don't know when he will leave. There are too many unstable factors, which is not conducive to the development of the restaurant. We have to find another candidate.

The next day.

It was another busy day. Before dawn, the four of them got up early, with clear division of labor and orderly work.

They spent several hundred taels of silver on a trip to the county town. They were happy, but who wouldn't feel the pinch? This was money they had worked hard to earn, and they had to work hard to earn it back!

Vegetarian buns, meat buns, various fillings, brown sugar steamed buns, sugar triangles, scallion rolls, are all put into the steamer one after another, so they can be eaten when the first wave of diners arrive.

Yu Wan took some time to post the job advertisement on the door, but every passerby who looked at it shook their heads.

"This isn't hiring a waiter, it's hiring a son-in-law!"

"But five taels a month is quite a lot of money. If I were even a little bit good-looking, I would have tried my luck."

"Come on, everyone knows you're lazy and good-for-nothing. Madam Yu wouldn't even look at you."

Many people came to the restaurant to eat all morning, but no one dared to apply.

Yu Wan wasn't in a hurry. She had long known that this was a rare opportunity, and she simply treated it as a chance to showcase the doorway, in case someone came looking for her.

At this moment, two men and two women walked in. They were Mr. Chen, the owner of the cloth shop, and Mrs. Wan, along with Mrs. Wan's best friend and her husband.

Yu Cheng noticed that the guests looked very unnatural and frighteningly serious. His chubby little face was tense and taut. He forced himself to invite them to sit down and poured them hot tea.

Seeing this, He Jing went over and asked what ingredients were needed, telling Yu Cheng to do something else.

Yu Cheng ran to the kitchen as if he had been rescued and found his sister. "Sister, sister! Something bad has happened! Those guys from the fabric shop came to cause trouble yesterday!"

Yu Wan was making a dish of garlic eggplant, which would be ready to be served soon, and she was somewhat puzzled when she heard his words.

"Looking for trouble? Why?"

She spent so much money at the cloth shop yesterday, there's no reason for her to come all this way to cause trouble, is there?

Yu Cheng said urgently, "Yesterday, that Madam Wan slapped herself in front of so many people. She must be holding a grudge. I saw her looking around after she came in just now. She's probably looking for you."

Yu Wan had already plated the garlic eggplant and handed it to him, saying, "It's from table number twenty-three. Don't overthink it. I'll go check it out."

Yu Cheng walked slowly, clearly scared himself but still trying to comfort his sister, "Sister, don't be afraid, Brother A-Su will definitely protect us."

The two arrived in the hall and saw the four people sitting at table number fifteen.

Yu's Restaurant is quite spacious, with the upstairs used by the family and the downstairs seating up to thirty tables. Because of its undesirable location, it is both large and inexpensive.

All thirty tables were occupied, and there were dozens of people waiting in line outside with numbers. Although the scene couldn't compare to Furuifang in the county town, it was still quite impressive.

Yu Wan is busy in the kitchen every day and rarely shows herself in the dining room. She wanted to meet this young female boss, but she came several times without success.

Everyone exclaimed "Wow!" in surprise when they saw a beautiful young woman walking out of the kitchen.

"I never expected that the young proprietress of Yu's Restaurant would be such a beautiful woman, and so young too!"

"They said that Madam Yu was very beautiful. I didn't believe it at first, but I didn't expect her to be even more stunning than they said."

Everyone's eyes were glued to her, and they even forgot to eat for a moment.

Yu Wan greeted everyone with a smile: "Are you all satisfied with the dishes at my restaurant? How is the taste? If you have any comments, please feel free to make them. You can tell my waiter or write them in the suggestion book on the counter."

Everyone gave a thumbs up, "Delicious! Delicious!"

The atmosphere was peaceful and harmonious, which was the most gratifying scene for a chef.