He was even more shocked; this young lady from a wealthy family was not easily fooled.

Look at that, just one look from him, and it's enough to send shivers down your spine. It really scared him to death.

Despite the pressure, Qiu Yin truthfully explained his family's current predicament, and also did not hide the fact that it was caused by his special abilities.

After hearing this, Zhao Daya became interested in Qiu Yin's tongue.

He then asked Qiu Yin to describe the ingredients of the dishes they had eaten, and nodded.

"Young Master Qiu's skill is truly remarkable."

"Tell me, what kind of help do you want from me? Do you want to borrow the power of my Zhao family or something?"

Upon hearing this, Qiu Yin was immediately invigorated, but hesitated for a moment before speaking.

He swallowed his previous plans.

"To be honest, Miss, before meeting you, I was indeed thinking that if I could use your family's influence, I could stop those restaurants from targeting my Qiu family."

At the same time, we must not let that village head have such a big appetite again.

Our family, a mere merchant, truly cannot withstand the exploitation by these corrupt officials.

Of course, I really do intend to exchange some of my recipes for this help.

Now, I'd like to hear what the young lady of the house has to say.

If this is all that can help my Qiu family through this difficult time, whatever reward the young lady of the house desires, my Qiu family will do its utmost to fulfill it.

"I only ask that my Qiu family have a chance to live."

It was indeed him before, and even his family members underestimated the situation.

The difference between officials and merchants like them is like heaven and earth. Just a mere village head can plunge the Qiu family into a quagmire. If it were the Zhao family, who are related to the imperial family, would they even have a chance to survive?

Instead of playing mind games, we should reveal our hand directly; perhaps we can still seize a glimmer of hope.

Judging from Miss Zhao's appearance, she doesn't seem like a malicious person.

If Zhao Daya could hear Qiu Yin's inner thoughts, she could only say, "Young man, you haven't been beaten enough."

Of course, Zhao Daya herself wasn't very old, but in the Zhao family, the elders never stopped teaching children just because they were young.

Therefore, none of the children in the Zhao family are naive or innocent.

The two talked in Zhao Qingyan's study for about an hour, and finally, Qiu Yin left with a happy heart.

However, when they returned to the front gate of the Qiu family home, Qiu Yin's legs began to tremble again.

He was genuinely afraid of being beaten to death by his father.

Who told him, in order to preserve the Qiu family's business, to agree to give Zhao Daya a 40% cut of profits from the Qiu family restaurant in the future? At the same time, the restaurant also had to be renamed.

In return, Zhao Daya would provide her with management plans and recipes.

Of course, the 40% profit that Zhao Daya wanted was the profit of all the restaurants owned by the Qiu family.

In terms of appetite, Zhao Daya's appetite was clearly even greater than that of the village head.

However, in return, Zhao Daya would offer something in return.

Moreover, Zhao Daya also plans to build a food city in the area.

The so-called food street is just a place where buildings are built and restaurants and snack shops are brought together to do business.

In this way, the strengths of each company can be highlighted.

For example, the Zhou family's fish, the Li family's pork, the Yang family's mutton soup, and the Liu family's four-happiness meatballs.

The advantage of doing this is that in the future, when someone wants to eat, they will have access to the food street.

By highlighting each restaurant's signboard, the other restaurants will naturally overlook the disgusting things Qiu's restaurant did before.

However, there's nothing that can be done about it, since the Qiu family didn't actually steal the recipe from their restaurant, nor did they send anyone to learn it.

They're just exceptionally gifted people in their family.

After Qiu Family Restaurant changes its name, everyone will know who will be protecting it from now on.

However, Zhao Daya strictly forbade Qiu Yin from going out to imitate other people's dishes in the future.

With such great talent, why not create it yourself?

When Qiu Yin arrived home, he almost got beaten to death by his hot-tempered father as soon as he mentioned that Zhao Qingyan wanted 40% of the Qiu family's profits.

In the end, he was persuaded by his family to listen to Qiu Yin's words.

Sacrificing 40% of the profits at once, and that includes all the restaurants, is tantamount to taking away half of the Qiu family's profits.

It would be better to offer more tribute to the village head or the county magistrate.

What convinced the Qiu family head was his last sentence.

"Miss Zhao said that the reason why our Qiu family is controlled by others is mainly due to our family's status."

If the Qiu family had produced even one scholar who passed the county-level imperial examination or the provincial-level imperial examination, things might not be like they are today.

After the collaboration, Ms. Zhao can arrange for our nephews and nieces to attend the county school, or help us find renowned teachers to instruct them.

The Qiu family is not short of money, they just lack an opportunity.

The younger generation in the clan are indeed all studying, but failing the imperial examinations repeatedly has almost become a curse.

The best scholar was only a child prodigy.

He then failed the imperial examination.

It's not like we can't afford the tuition. If one teacher can't teach well, we can always find a few more to help us improve.

In fact, although the imperial court did not prevent merchants from taking the imperial examinations, there were always people who harbored ill intentions towards them.

The children of merchants who were able to enter the private school were almost all assigned to the same classroom.

The fact that the teacher could teach arithmetic and literacy already showed that he was kind-hearted.

Passing the imperial examination at the lowest level (童生) is absolutely a stroke of good luck.

Therefore, the last condition Zhao Daya gave was undeniably tempting.

If the Qiu family could produce someone with an official title, they probably wouldn't have to feel so frustrated in the future.

The following day, the Qiu family head personally went to the inn and signed a contract with Zhao Daya.

As for providing recipes or management solutions, these are no longer within the scope of the Qiu family head's consideration.

If it could provide the Qiu family's descendants with an opportunity to rise above their station, the Qiu family would be willing to give up 80% of their wealth.

Although Zhao Daya has learned the profit-driven nature of business people to the fullest extent, she is still a kind person.

After signing the contract, considering the Qiu family's situation, Zhao Daya decided to have her family find a few well-educated tutors.

The Qiu family was wealthy; they could easily set aside a courtyard and build a clan school.

The Qiu family head almost wept with joy at this suggestion.

"There is hope for the Qiu family, there is hope."

It was quite an eyesore to see an old man in his fifties or sixties crying so hard.

What puzzled Zhao Daya the most was that the Zhao family had been in business for so many years, and with money they should naturally have a solid foundation, so why couldn't they produce a single person with an official title?

She wasn't the type to suppress her feelings, so she asked the question as soon as she thought of it.

"Alas, our prefecture and county are already poor."

The officials who have served in various positions have at least earned a considerable amount of money over three years.

Naturally, we merchants are their money bags. In order to keep the merchants obediently becoming their blood bank, they must be suppressed.

Even if we know that our Emperor is a wise ruler of our time, it can't stop the scourge from multiplying.

Suppressing our businesses has become a routine practice for successive officials.

The imperial examinations had to be conducted in the place of one's registered residence.

If he could, the old man would rather move the whole family. It's just a pity that without a suitable reason, leaving this place is so difficult…