The waiter was stunned. Seeing that he didn't speak, Zhilan asked again, "Where is your manager?"

The waiter jumped in surprise and stammered, "The manager is gone..."

Ning Yao frowned. What did "gone" mean? Dead? Ran away?

Zhilan slammed her hand on the counter: "Stop stammering! Explain yourself!"

"The shopkeeper ran away!"

"Zhilan is closed and temporarily closed!"

"Yes, Miss."

After the group was seated in the private room, the waiter finally snapped out of his daze.

Wait a minute? How did I end up coming in with them? And why did they close the door?

What if they're not the new owners? But these people all look extraordinary, and I can't afford to offend them.

The guy was extremely conflicted.

Ning Yao looked at the nervous young shop assistant in front of her, then said to Zhi Lan, "Let him take a look."

Upon hearing this, Zhilan handed the contract to the shop assistant, dispelling his suspicions.

"Tell me about the situation at the restaurant."

The waiter calmed down and answered Ning Yao's question.

"The restaurant was called Shuiyunjian. There were nineteen people in total: one manager, three head chefs, three kitchen helpers, seven waiters, and five general helpers."

"Later, the restaurant lost business and laid off the waiters and helpers one after another. The head chef and the kitchen assistant also left."

“A month ago, the manager also ran away. Now the restaurant only has one junior waiter, a head chef and a kitchen helper left.”

Ning Yao said to Zhi Lan, "Go and call them over."

"Yes, Miss."

Ning Yao continued to ask the young man, "What's your name? Where do you live? Why didn't you choose to leave?"

The man answered truthfully: "My name is Liu Zi. I live alone here and am responsible for guarding the gate at night. Where can I go if I leave? When the previous master left, he said that a new master would come and that we should just wait patiently. Who knew that this wait would lead to a drought?"

"Those who could leave have left, but the younger ones had nowhere to go, so they stayed behind."

Ning Yao then asked, "What's the situation with the two people in the kitchen?"

The waiter replied, "The head chef and the assistant chef are Uncle Li and his son. Their family lives here, and they have elderly parents and young children to support. They've been at Shuiyunjian the longest and are reluctant to leave."

Ning Yao nodded. There are only three people in Shuiyunjian now, and their relationships are simple and easy to understand.

The door to the private room opened, and Zhilan walked in with two men.

The middle-aged man at the head of the group should be Uncle Li, whom Liu Zi mentioned, and the young man following behind should be Uncle Li's son.

"Uncle Li, this is the new master of the house, Miss Ning the Third."

"Li Dashan greets the Third Miss."

"Li Lang greets the Third Miss."

"Yes, no need for formalities, sit down and let's talk."

After the two sat down, Ning Yao continued, "I've heard about the current situation at Shuiyunjian from Liu Zi. I still want to ask you, are you willing to stay? If you want to leave, I can give you money and food."

Without hesitation, Li Dashan replied, "I've worked at Shuiyunjian for over ten years; it's more than just a job for me now, so I definitely want to stay. It's just that this drought is truly devastating!"

“I’ll listen to my dad. If he wants to stay, I’ll stay too.”

Liu Zi is an honest man: "I want to stay. Uncle Li said something, but the drought is terrible, and the restaurant is losing money."

He scratched his head and said with a simple smile, "If you are really just guests, then we can only offer some simple food, which is nothing compared to what we usually serve."

"But I believe in the Third Miss; she'll definitely be able to revitalize Shuiyun Pavilion!"

The sincerity in Liu Zi's eyes was so profound that Ning Yao couldn't help but sigh.

If we don't revitalize this Shuiyunjian area, it seems like we'd be letting them down.

Ning Yao smiled and said, "Since you've stayed, I won't let you down. Shuiyunjian will be closed for a while to rest. You've worked hard during this time. Your monthly wages will be suspended, but I will send someone to deliver your daily food. We will reopen Shuiyunjian after it has been reorganized!"

"I'll do as Miss says!"

No one objected to suspending the monthly allowance; the restaurant wasn't making any money, so how could the owner pay them?

However, they never expected that their master would provide them with food, since at that time, food was more valuable than money.

After Ning Yao left, Shuiyunjian closed its doors completely and hung up a sign saying it was temporarily closed.

I visited a few more shops and found that all the doors were tightly closed, and the entrances were covered in a thick layer of dust.

Ning Yao went through the back door and found that whether it was the cloth shop, the pharmacy, or any other shop, there were still quite a few goods inside, enough to keep them open for business even if they were about to open.

Especially in the grain shops, although there wasn't much grain, there were still several hundred kilograms of rice, flour, brown rice, millet, and so on.

Ning Yao grabbed a handful: "It seems that we'll have enough food for Pinglanlou and Shuiyunjian for the time being."

She gave Zhilan a look, and Zhilan immediately understood.

"Let's go to the last place."

The group walked ahead, with Zhilan bringing up the rear. She collected all the grain from the grain shop into her storage space.

Yingkelai is one of the top inns in Licheng. Although they are all owned by the same family, they are located in different places.

Yingkelai was even quieter than Shuiyunjian; there wasn't a single person behind the counter.

Zhilan stepped forward and called out, "Shopkeeper? Is anyone here?"

The old lady Jiang upstairs was having a headache when she heard the shout, and she became instantly irritated.

Hearing that there were people outside, a young man dressed in a coarse cloth long gown appeared.

"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! We're short-staffed. How many rooms do our guests need?"

Zhilan asked, "Are you the manager?"

The young man nodded: "Exactly!"

"That's perfect. This is the new owner of the inn. I need to find a room to talk to him."

Zhilan didn't waste any time and directly showed him the contract.

A look of surprise flashed across the man's face, followed by an expression of relief.

"Third Miss, please come with me!"

"My name is Song Wu. I have been the manager of Yingkelai for several years. Before Yingkelai, there were several employees, but I dismissed them all because of the poor business."

"Only once every six months or so do we get a group of guests who look like wealthy people, and they're staying in rooms upstairs now."

"If the host doesn't come soon, I'm planning to close this inn and go back to my hometown."

Zhilan asked, "Where is your hometown?"

Song Wu replied, "I went back to settle my family in the countryside of Qingzhou when the drought first started, and then came back. It's been more than half a year since I last went back, and I'm really worried."

Ning Yao nodded: "Alright, we'll close Yingkelai for now. Why don't you go home and check on things?"

Song Wu was taken aback: "You're going to fire me?"

Ning Yao realized that what she had just said was indeed somewhat inappropriate.

"It's not like I'm firing you. Business is bad, but you don't have to keep going like this. Go home and check on things. If necessary, we can bring them over."