"Oh, Young Master Meng, what an honor to have you here. Which private room again?"
As soon as they entered, the waiter greeted them with a fawning expression.
"Um."
Meng Yu responded softly.
"Alright, please come upstairs, you two. We are honored guests, please go to room number 8 on the third floor."
The waiter, with his back bent, led the two to the stairs and then called out to the upstairs.
Deng Qiuzhi followed Meng Yu to a private room on the third floor.
As soon as they opened the door, they saw two maids bowing to them.
Tea was served on the table, still piping hot. As soon as I sat down, two maids each handed me a damp towel.
The towel was also warm.
The two wiped their hands.
The maid took away the dirty towel and poured them tea.
Serve a fruit platter.
He then stood aside without saying a word.
The private room was very large.
It's nothing compared to the private rooms at Yanxia Restaurant; one can only fit a table and chairs, while the other is like a two-bedroom apartment.
There are even beds for guests to rest.
There was a guzheng in the room.
I reckon they can still play some music.
It's not much different from a brothel.
As expected of a top-tier restaurant, Deng Qiuzhi, despite having some money, had never been to such a place before. He picked up his teacup somewhat timidly and took a sip.
"Manager Deng, could you please introduce me to Yan's Pastry Shop? I'd also like to collaborate with them."
Meng Yu didn't beat around the bush when she asked.
He took a liking to Yan's Pastry Shop and observed it for several days.
His family was not short of money; he could spend it all in several lifetimes without ever running out of money.
But.....
Meng Yu's eyes flickered slightly; he was the second son of the family.
He was originally the eldest son of the legitimate wife, but the year his father became wealthy, he brought back a woman and a child, saying that the woman was his sweetheart. The child was older than him and was his father's eldest son.
This action infuriated his mother.
The woman took his place and became his stepmother.
She was also the eldest wife of the Meng family.
His illegitimate 'brother' became the eldest son.
Having lost his mother at the age of 8, Meng Yu was raised by his seemingly sweet but ruthless stepmother, becoming a notorious playboy.
He disliked literature and martial arts; he only knew how to eat, drink, be merry, and indulge in debauchery with his cronies.
On the contrary, Meng Zhangting, the eldest son of the Meng family, has a very good reputation. He took over the Meng family's Wanhualou at the age of 14 and ran it very successfully.
Although he was not eligible to take the imperial examinations as the son of a merchant, he could compose poems in five steps, had excellent handwriting, and his literary talent was no less than that of a scholar.
Meng Yu's father, Meng Qianguan, originally held a degree of official rank.
He became a student at the age of 10 and a scholar at the age of 13, but at the age of 15, he was stripped of his scholar title due to a scandal involving buying exam questions and was never allowed to take the imperial examinations again.
Meng Qianguan came from a farming family and lost his father at a young age. His widowed mother raised him by washing clothes for the neighbors. After that, his only widowed mother also passed away, so he simply married into the Bai family.
He became a son-in-law who moved into his wife's family home.
The Bai family are locals from Jiangnan County and run a teahouse, which usually does good business.
There was only one daughter, Bai Mushuang.
Meng Qianguan was handsome and had passed the imperial examinations, so he was naturally very talented in literature. He pretended to meet Bai Mushuang by chance and won her heart with a love poem. The two fell in love at first sight.
In addition, Meng Qianguan was willing to become a live-in son-in-law.
They got married in just three months.
Meng Qianguan was good at sweet-talking and coaxing people. When Bai Mushuang gave birth to Meng Yu in the third year after their marriage, he managed to win over Bai's parents and let him take over the teahouse.
In less than six months, revenue increased several times over.
After the two elders of the Bai family passed away one after another due to illness, Meng Qianguan simply sold the teahouse at a high price and opened the Wanhualou.
Only four years.
He thus became a well-known wealthy merchant in Jiangnan County.
Then he opened restaurants, money exchanges, pharmacies, and so on.
It involves almost all industries.
He also became the richest man in Jiangnan County.
After marrying his beloved Xu Lianrou, he passed on all his knowledge and business acumen to his eldest son.
He completely ignored his youngest son, Meng Yu.
They only give money to spend, never educate.
Meng Yu is eighteen years old this year.
I had planned to live my whole life like this, carefree and irresponsible.
But to everyone's surprise, in the middle of last month, his stepmother wanted to marry him off to one of her mentally challenged nieces.
Meng Yu naturally refused, but what he received in return was a severe beating from his own father.
He even threatened that he shouldn't covet the Meng family's assets, and that at most he would be given a house and a hundred acres of land in the suburbs after the marriage, but nothing else.
Meng Yu wanted to laugh.
His biological father seemed to be blinded by his stepmother.
That's a fool!
He's fat, ugly, and a drooling idiot. Why would he marry someone like that? Just to please his stepmother?
On May 1st, Meng Yu left the Meng family with Xiao Chuan, the servant who had served him since childhood.
He took nothing but his mother's private property, a shop belonging to the Bai family, and his mother's jewelry.
He kept one of his mother's hairpins as a memento, and sold the rest.
He received three hundred taels.
Fortunately, his father was rich enough that his stepmother looked down on his paltry fortune; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to protect her private property.
Meng Yu was not at all like the spoiled brat he appeared to be. He had a photographic memory since he was old enough to understand things. Of course, with such good genes, how could he possibly produce an idiot?
Bai Mushuang was a renowned talented woman, and Meng Qianguan passed the imperial examination at the age of thirteen.
The child born will naturally have an extremely high IQ.
As his thoughts drifted back, Meng Yu looked at Deng Qiuzhi in front of him and spoke again.
"Don't worry, even if I open a branch, it will be at the end of the city, and it will take me half an hour to get there by carriage. It won't steal your business."
"Young master, don't be in a hurry. Manager Yan will be coming to Jiangnan County in a couple of days. I'll be hosting a dinner then, so please do me the honor of attending."
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