However, when word got out that someone had added opium to braised meat, which could cause addiction, Meng Zhao's shop was inevitably implicated.
First, people in the county were clearly not very confident about food safety outside, so they reduced the frequency of eating out. Second, some people didn't listen to the instructions completely and only heard about braised meat, so they came to Meng Zhao's shop to cause trouble.
If they hadn't explained things so quickly, her shop probably would have been shoved with dirty things too.
In the following days, the number of customers in the shop decreased significantly, and even the number of people coming to eat potato noodles was reduced by half. A large part of the reason was that many people on Xishui Street had become addicted to drugs and were feeling unwell.
The county magistrate led the people from Huichuntang to treat the patients. In the end, they found that there were as many as 300 patients with mild addiction symptoms and about 50 or 60 patients with moderate addiction. Several of them were employees of Zhao's braised pork shop. Fortunately, because Meng Zhao discovered it in time, there were no patients with severe addiction.
Business was slow at the shop, so Meng Zhao gave the employees time off and let them take turns resting.
There were only Meng Zhao, Xiao Chuan, Lin Qiu Niang, Meng Jian Qiu, and He Jian Xia in the shop today. Meng Zhao was cutting braised meat for customers at the counter when two familiar faces came in.
It was Steward Zhou and Chef Zhou. The two of them used to work under Zhao Shida and were against her, but they were somewhat forced to do so. Moreover, Chef Zhou had taken the initiative to warn her to be careful and later even risked his life to help her steal the ingredient package, so he could be considered to have helped her.
Therefore, when he saw them coming, Meng Zhao greeted them with a smile and invited them into the shop. He first inquired about Manager Zhou's health and then asked about the two of them.
Chef Zhou said with a face full of gratitude, "Madam Meng, you have saved the lives of many of us. We have never heard of this thing called opium, let alone known that it is addictive."
Because he disliked Steward Tian, he refused to eat the braised meat he made, which is why he was lucky enough to avoid getting sick. However, many of the shop's employees ate quite a bit. After the court session that day, the magistrate did not let them leave but locked them up together.
He witnessed firsthand the condition of those men; after only two or three days without braised meat, they were all sickly and weak.
The most serious case involved a man who, unable to get any braised meat, knelt down and begged the constables to bring him some. Naturally, the constables refused, and he began to suffer from an unbearable headache. Unable to control himself, he started banging his head against a pillar in his room, which frightened him so much that he couldn't sleep well for several days.
Meng Zhao humbly shook his head, "This is not my achievement. I just accidentally discovered the anomaly and told the two doctors at Huichuntang. Later, it was the county magistrate who ordered the arrest of the person."
"Madam Meng, don't be modest. I've heard about it. If it weren't for your keen observation, it would have been difficult to discover this. I originally thought that the man surnamed Tian was just a bit unscrupulous in his business dealings, but I never expected that he would dare to do something as disregarding human life as a matter of life and death. It's outrageous!" Manager Zhou was also furious with Tian Hongwu.
Meng Zhao's gaze swept lightly over Steward Zhou and Chef Zhou. After a moment of contemplation, he suddenly asked, "What are you two planning to do next?"
Zhao's Braised Pork Offal has gone out of business. Although it may not necessarily affect the foundation of the Zhao family, Chef Zhou is not planning to go back. Manager Zhou said:
"I'm not planning to stay in Qingshi County anymore. I'm going back to my hometown, Qinyang County, to see if I can buy a shop and start a small business."
Meng Zhao knew about Qinyang County, which was not far from Qingshi County. She had passed through there before when she went out. Compared to Qingshi County, Qinyang County was indeed smaller in scale, but the population was relatively concentrated.
So Meng Zhao extended an olive branch at the opportune moment, "Would you two be interested in joining my Meng's Restaurant?"
Manager Zhou frowned slightly, somewhat confused by the term "franchise." He thought Meng Zhao was trying to recruit him. On one hand, he felt honored, since he had once opposed her, and now she still thought highly of him.
On the other hand, he hesitated. After all, having learned his lesson from the Zhao family, he no longer wanted to work under someone else.
So he shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, Madam Meng, Qing Shi County is only so big. I just left the Zhao family. If I were to work under you now, I would inevitably be gossiped about and it would probably damage your reputation. Let's just forget about it."
Meng Zhao smiled, knowing that Manager Zhou had misunderstood him, so he explained, "Manager Zhou, you misunderstood. I don't want to recruit you, but rather to support you in opening a Mengji shop in Qinyang County. Once the shop is open, our relationship will not be that of master and servant or superior and subordinate, but a completely new upstream and downstream cooperative relationship."
Seeing that Manager Zhou was very interested in the upstream and downstream relationships she was talking about, Meng Zhao asked Xiao Chuan to boil another pot of tea and slowly explained to the two of them what franchising was.
Meng Zhao had always wanted to expand, but based on his previous experience, opening a branch would require a lot of money, from purchasing property and finding stable and reliable suppliers to training employees and conducting initial promotions.
If he chooses to rent a shop to open a store, the investment is smaller, about several tens of taels of silver. However, renting a shop is not very safe. He is currently trying to persuade the shop owners on Tongfu Street that he intends to buy the shops.
If she were to buy a shop and open a store, the investment would be even greater, requiring at least two or three hundred taels of silver. If she were to wait for the money to be saved little by little, she probably wouldn't be able to open more than a few shops in a year.
In addition, transportation was underdeveloped in ancient times. If a direct operation model were adopted, supply alone would be a major problem. Moreover, she currently has very few people she can use, and without a suitable talent pool, the direct operation model cannot be expanded.
Therefore, Meng Zhao plans to use a franchise model in the early stages. This way, when funds are not sufficient, she can leverage the funds and resources of others to accelerate the expansion. Once she has sufficient funds and her talent training plan has yielded results, she will then adopt a combination of franchising and direct operation.
After Meng Zhao gave a brief introduction to the franchise model, Manager Zhou was immediately interested. Although he had only been running his braised pork shop for a few days, he could tell that the profits were considerable. Moreover, he had experience, and his nephew had some skills, so opening a food shop would be suitable.
"Mrs. Meng just said that she's willing to let me use Meng's brand, allow me to use Meng's spice packets, help me choose a shop location, train my staff, and even provide me with supply channels for some of my products, right?"
Meng Zhao nodded. "That's right, but these aren't free; you need to pay a franchise fee."
"So... how much is the franchise fee?"
"Fifty taels of silver."
"Fifty taels!" Cook Zhou was somewhat shocked. This was no small sum. Manager Zhou, on the other hand, was relatively calm. After all, he had been with the Zhao family for more than ten years and had saved up a lot of money. Otherwise, he wouldn't have said that he was planning to go home and buy a shop.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
