Chapter 89 Betting on Your Teahouse
After dinner, the teahouse owner Ge Baoquan came knocking on the door with clothes in his hand. “Knock, knock, knock!”
"Lin Guihua, I'm here to bring you some clothes!"
It was Liang Jingyao who opened the door. With a dark face, he said, "From now on, you can just call me Miss Lin!"
Ge Baoquan didn't know how he had offended this man, and walked into the room puzzled, "Ms. Lin, these are brand new clothes."
Lin Xiaoyue tried hard to hold back her laughter. Just now, when Ge Baoquan called out Lin Guihua outside, Liang Jingyao's face immediately became stinky and long! But when Ge Baoquan asked her name, she didn't have time to think about it, so she blurted out the names of Lin Guihua and Lin Yongsheng.
It’s a bit rustic, but it’s easy to remember!
She stepped forward to take the clothes, held them against her body, and nodded, saying, "Okay, thank you, boss! When does the storytelling start tonight?"
Ge Baoquan smiled and said, "There are already some guests outside. Since this is Miss Lin's first time on stage, you can go out and get used to the place. It should be full in a while."
Lin Xiaoyue nodded and said, "Okay, then please go and warm up the place first. I'll come out after I change my clothes."
"Okay, okay!" Ge Baoquan's scalp numbed under Liang Jingyao's gaze. When he heard that Lin Xiaoyue agreed to go on stage now, he quickly left the west wing.
Lin Xiaoyue glanced at Liang Jingyao who was still standing stupidly in the room, coughed twice, and said, "Ahem! Brother Liang, I need to change my clothes. Could you please go out for a moment?"
Liang Jingyao scratched his head embarrassedly and took out a new mask that was as thin as a cicada's wing and looked like human skin from his arms. "There are too many people outside, so change into a different mask before you go out."
This was exactly what Lin Xiaoyue wanted. She happily took the mask and said, "Thank you, Brother Liang. And since you've seen the men of the man in black, you should get one too!"
"good!"
Liang Jingyao immediately took out another new mask and put it on his face. He took a few steps towards the door, and suddenly thought of something. He turned around and asked, "By the way, where did you hide that man in black?"
Lin Xiaoyue reached out and wiped her neck, "Feed the dog!"
"You did better than me! I'll be waiting for you outside!"
Liang Jingyao gave a thumbs up and strode out of the room.
In the room, Lin Xiaoyue put on a new mask, then changed into men's clothes, tied all her hair up high, and inserted a wooden hairpin. She asked Liang Jingyao to buy this wooden hairpin on the street. It looks like an ordinary wooden hairpin on the outside, but it actually contains a mystery!
When the head of the wooden hairpin is twisted, four silver needles can be shot out at a time. It can be twisted ten times in total, and a total of forty silver needles can be shot out. The silver needles are poisonous and will kill anyone who touches them. The tail of the wooden hairpin can be pulled out to become an extremely sharp bayonet, and the blade is also coated with poison!
Lin Xiaoyue believed that Liang Jingyao definitely did not buy such a safe and exquisitely designed wooden hairpin from a street stall, but no matter how she asked, Liang Jingyao refused to say. In the end, she had to give up. Anyway, no matter whether it was robbed or stolen, the key was that it was a gift for her!
Lin Xiaoyue touched the wooden hairpin curiously, then walked over and opened the door. "Let's go, I've already finished it."
Liang Jingyao took a look at the wooden hairpin on Lin Xiaoyue's head and felt secretly happy. He had been worried that Lin Xiaoyue would not want to wear the wooden hairpin he gave her, but it seemed that she still liked it!
"Well, Yangming Town is very unsafe right now. Be careful!"
Lin Xiaoyue nodded, said "OK", and walked towards the front yard.
The front yard was where storytelling and tea were served. Lin Xiaoyue stood on the stage, picked up the fan on the table, and opened it with a snap. With a broad smile, she said, "Today, I, Lin, will tell you a story. If it goes well, I'll give you a tip for your hard work. If it doesn't, please forgive me! Today, as a beginner's first move, I'll tell you the story of a four-person master and apprentice on their journey to the West!"
The guests in the audience prefer to listen to some gossip and dirty jokes, and are not so interested in storytelling. This cannot be blamed on the guests. The main reason is that Yangming Town is just a small place with low cultural literacy.
The lackluster reaction worried the shopkeeper, Ge Baoquan. He even ran up to the stage and whispered, "Miss Lin, for the first time, you should talk about something men like to hear. "Journey to the West" sounds like childish stuff. Why don't you change it up?"
Lin Xiaoyue is quite confident in the Four Great Classics, especially Journey to the West, which is absolutely loved by people of all ages, both men and women! How could such a good book not be popular?
She calmly rejected Ge Baoquan's suggestion: "Boss, I can make a bet with you. If one customer runs away, I will compensate you for the tea money of ten customers. And we have to keep this bet for a full month! If none of the customers leave and the tips they give exceed five thousand taels, then I will buy your teahouse for ten times the revenue tonight. What do you think?"
Ge Baoquan couldn't help but gasp. Ten times the price! If it was five thousand taels, that would be fifty thousand taels. If he earned ten thousand taels tonight, he would have one hundred thousand taels! This teahouse was rented, which meant he only paid for the furniture and tables, but he could make so much money in one go!
You have to know that drinking tea and listening to stories only costs five cents. After deducting the cost of tea, the wages of the storyteller and the waiter, and the rent, how can you earn that much?
On the other hand, if one customer leaves, he can earn the money of ten tea customers. Each customer pays five coins for tea and reading, so ten customers would earn fifty coins. Because of their daytime schedule, only twenty customers came tonight, so that's a thousand coins. A thousand coins is one tael of silver, one tael per day, which makes thirty taels per month. But if more people come, he can earn more, which is much more than he usually earns!
Ha, since there is no loss in any way, why not give it a try!
Ge Baoquan readily agreed: "Okay! Let's bet! I hope Miss Lin won't regret it!"
Of course Lin Xiaoyue would not regret it, she made this bet just to buy the teahouse!
"Of course, boss, please rest assured!"
Ge Baoquan walked back to the stage happily, completely free of his initial anxiety.
"Snap!" The fan was opened again. Lin Xiaoyue knocked on the wooden block beside her and began to tell a story in a low voice. "It is said that in the Flower-Fruit Mountain in Shenzhou, which is full of spiritual energy, there is a stone that has been nourished by the spiritual energy of heaven and earth for billions of years. One day, the stone made a loud 'bang' sound, and a clever monkey jumped out from it. This monkey was brave and resourceful. He jumped into a waterfall that no other monkey dared to enter and discovered a huge water curtain cave. The monkeys on the mountain were convinced and supported this clever monkey. The monkey immediately took over the mountain and became the king, calling himself the Monkey King..."
Lin Xiaoyue used hand movements and some unique ventriloquism to tell the first two chapters of Journey to the West in a fluent and vivid manner, which made the guests listening to the story in the audience so mesmerized that they felt as if they were there themselves!
When Lin Xiaoyue finished and returned to the backstage, the guests noticed for the first time how quickly the storytelling had flown by. Could it be that the owner had deliberately shortened the story?
"Boss, how come it's over so quickly? You actually blackmailed us for money!"
"Yes! Shopkeeper, you have to compensate us, or else you can let the storyteller come out again!"
"We can afford any amount of money sir. We won't leave until we've heard enough today!"
…
Some people were throwing money, some were cursing, and Ge Baoquan was completely dumbfounded, because he was also listening with great interest. But Lin Xiaoyue's words, "To know what happens next, please wait for the next episode", made him feel like his heart was being tickled, and he felt so uncomfortable!
But the incense on the table had already burned out. Would Miss Lin still be willing to come out and talk? If she didn't come out, would these guests let him go? He would have a hard time ending today!
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