097 Hongfu Building on Qixi Festival
Su Qingluan looked at the top layer again and couldn't help but gasp -
She had little experience, but if she saw correctly, the thing hanging on the top floor should be a jade pendant, right?!
Judging from the fact that the third prize was worth a stationery set worth twenty or thirty taels, Su Qingluan said she really couldn't imagine how much this piece of jade was worth.
...Speaking of which, wouldn't Shopkeeper Liang be completely out of pocket by giving away such valuable items as prizes? Su Qingluan stared at the pearl headpieces and the jade pendant on the top shelf, muttering to herself.
Not only Su Qingluan, but even Su Guangfu and Yang were discussing in amazement. It was just a lottery to add some fun to the festival, but the prizes were so generous?
There are conspiracy theories out there, saying that those valuable prizes will definitely not be won.
As soon as these words were spoken, someone retorted, "You are being mean-spirited. Since the opening today, we've already won three third-place prizes and one second-place prize!"
"Yes, I just saw the second prize winner's name called out!"
"Yeah, didn't they just win a third place award?"
Those who are curious observed carefully and found that there were indeed several empty spaces on the sides of the four shelves. If no one paid attention, no one would notice.
These sentences confirmed each other. Although there was no information about the first prize, one thing was clear: those prizes were not just gimmicks, but could really be won!
These few words were like cold water dropped into boiling oil, making the customers of Hongfulou more eager and they seemed to be more active in placing orders.
The waiter on the first floor naturally recognized Su Qingluan, so when he saw her, he ran over to her very attentively and asked, "Madam Su, are you dining with your family? Have you reserved a room on the second floor?"
Reservations are naturally not reserved.
After all, coming here for dinner today was a spur-of-the-moment decision, and the family felt that even without side rooms, having dinner in the hall on the first floor would still be a lively scene.
However, when Manager Liang heard that Su Qingluan had arrived with her family, he hurried down from the second floor.
Although Liang Youdao and Su Qingluan have collaborated many times and can be considered familiar "friends regardless of age difference", for Su Guangfu and his wife, Boss Liang is still the "big boss of the town's number one restaurant" who is far away from home, and they were very restrained at the beginning.
However, Boss Liang has been dealing with all kinds of people for many years, and he subtly picked up topics that interested Su Guangfu and Yang and chatted with them for a few minutes, which greatly reduced this feeling of restraint.
"Since you are my niece's parents, you are also my brothers and sisters," said Shopkeeper Liang, as he led Su Guangfu and his wife and their three children upstairs with a warm and non-offensive smile. He then opened the door to an elegant wing and said, "This is where I usually take a short nap. If you don't mind, please come in."
Although it was called a "nap", Su Qingluan knew that for a businessman like Manager Liang, the temporary resting place during the day would not be used for taking a nap. At most, he would drink tea and chat.
Sure enough, when he pushed open the door to the room, he found that the layout was almost exactly the same as the room where Su Qingluan had signed the contract before.
Strictly speaking, Su Qingluan could be considered the "technical shareholder" of Hongfulou. In the eyes of Manager Liang, she was also his savior who had helped him solve a big problem before. Naturally, she was different from ordinary guests.
Therefore, although there was a waiter waiting for orders on the side, Manager Liang was also accompanying them on the other side with an attentive attitude.
Su Qingluan smiled and said, "Uncle Liang, there's no need to be so polite. How about we sit down and eat together? Otherwise, it would be awkward for you to stand while my brother, sister, and I would sit."
Since Su Qingluan called him "Uncle Liang", the seniority was clear. Although Su Qingluan would never be polite to those who took advantage of their seniority, she still had to show due respect to a kind elder like Liang Youdao.
Su Guangfu and Yang repeatedly invited him, but Shopkeeper Liang smiled and waved his hand: "I'll chat with you for a while. I still have to go and greet the guests. Thanks to my niece, we have a constant stream of guests today!"
As he spoke, Manager Liang nodded slightly at Su Qingluan, and then pointed out the direction of the downstairs outside the window with his peripheral vision.
The window of this box happened to give a good view of the situation in the lobby on the first floor. Su Qingluan immediately understood that Manager Liang was talking about the "lottery".
In fact, Su Qingluan initially came up with the idea of "having a chance to win a grand prize if you spend a certain amount" mainly because she thought that since the taste of Hongfulou's dishes could not be improved quickly in a short period of time, she could at least use a gimmick to attract new customers and then slowly retain them.
However, according to her original idea, the prizes were far less valuable than what Manager Liang was offering now - according to her idea, the first prize was only worth thirty or fifty taels of silver. She never expected that the third prize prepared by Manager Liang had almost reached the cost limit she had imagined.
In addition, in order to prevent the prizes at higher levels from being drawn out too quickly and the guests from losing their anticipation, Su Qingluan had previously told the shopkeeper Guo Liang to pick out the first, second and third prize chocolates in advance and divide them into five parts.
Each portion is filled with one second-prize winning chocolate and four third-prize winning chocolates. Only the last portion is filled with the only chocolate filled with egg yolk. Then each portion is mixed with nearly two hundred of the most common red bean paste chocolates.
After each portion is mixed, a bowl of chocolate cake is placed at the checkout counter. The bowl contains exactly one portion, and if the previous portion is not divided, the next portion will not be served.
This method ensures that a winner of the top three prizes will occasionally be sung out, which will not make the lottery too boring, and it will not lead to several winners appearing at once, which will reduce the guests' expectations.
In an environment where everyone has a chance of winning, everyone subconsciously imagines themselves to be the lucky winner. Furthermore, with Qixi Festival being the Chinese Valentine's Day, many people are eager to try their luck.
Shopkeeper Liang laughed and said, "There are indeed those who are so cunning that they spend dozens of taels of silver at Hongfulou just to have a chance to win the 'lucky draw' a few more times, and they specifically choose the most elaborate and elaborate food, just to win the grand prize."
"And what happened next?"
"Yes, did that person win the prize?"
The two children asked impatiently, and were gently scolded by Yang, "Don't interrupt."
Shopkeeper Liang didn't mind. Instead, he smiled and said, "That person was quite unlucky. He spent a lot of money, but in the end he only got a bunch of Qiaoguo and paper-cuts. It can only be said that he lacked a bit of luck."
"Wow...he is so unlucky..." Su Xueyan sighed.
The five members of the Su family ordered eight dishes, four cold and four hot, two kinds of steamed buns and a soup. Su Guangfu also ordered a pot of "Bamboo Leaf Green" wine. While waiting for the dishes to be served, they listened to the shopkeeper telling various anecdotes he encountered while doing business.
At this time, I heard a noise downstairs, and it was getting louder and louder.
Su Qingluan raised her eyebrows: What happened?
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