Chapter 144

Xu Qinyu first booked the restaurant, paying a rent of two thousand taels a year. She did not use her own name to rent the restaurant, but instead used the name of Lianhua.

Although there is no rule that the Huan family cannot do business, she is the queen after all. Xue and Wen both suggested that if he wants to open a restaurant, he should rent a shop under the name of the grandmother or the son of the family. Even if it is a wealthy family doing business, they will use close and trustworthy servants to do the business.

Xu Qinyu thought about it and used the name Lotus.

After having lunch at Jixianglou that day, a few people went to the restaurant and booked a seat.

This shop was the family property of Duke Changshan. To be more precise, it was the dowry of the deceased wife of Duke Changshan. However, the wife had already died of illness. Later, Duke Changshan married a second wife, and the wife left behind a child.

When the wife of the former Duke Changshan married into the royal family, her dowry was so generous that it would have made even the most aristocratic families in the capital jealous.

Because the wife of the former Changshan Gong was a merchant.

The Duke of Changshan was a hereditary family, and was considered a century-old family in the capital, having been passed down for several generations. However, the previous Duke of Changshan embezzled more than one million taels of silver in military rations.

The first Duke of Changshan had fought for his title following Emperor Taizu, so the late emperor turned a blind eye and would let it go as long as the old Duke of Changshan could return the money. So the old Duke of Changshan had no choice but to marry a merchant to his eldest son. The merchant's family was indeed rich, and she brought a dowry of one million taels of silver, as well as other non-industries.

Later, the merchant's dowry of one hundred taels of silver naturally helped to pay off the military rations that Changshan had embezzled.

But because of this incident, the family of Duke Changshan was not valued by the previous emperor, and gradually declined. Except for a title, no one in the family of Duke Changshan was still alive.

This merchant was not very lucky. After she married into the family of Duke Changshan, she did not have a good relationship with her husband because it was the Duke Changshan who arranged the marriage. Later she found out that her husband already had a lover. The two of them lived a lonely life, but she respected her husband. Even when he was alive, he did not have a concubine in the house. When the merchant gave birth to her eldest son, she lost his son. Later, she died of illness within two years, leaving behind a three-year-old son.

At that time, Lord Changshan had not yet passed the title to his eldest son.

The eldest son's first wife died, so naturally he had to remarry. This time he was lucky because his sweetheart became a widow and returned to her parents' home. The Prince of Changshan naturally wanted to marry his sweetheart, but the old Duke of Changshan was not happy about it, thinking that being a widow would give her a bad reputation. Later, he was unable to defeat his son and felt that if he had not embezzled military supplies, causing his son to marry a merchant, his son would have married his sweetheart long ago, and the girl would not have ended up being a widow now. It was a happy marriage between him and his son.

Finally, Lord Changshan agreed to let his son marry the widow.

After the widow came into the family, she became very pregnant and gave birth to two sons and a concubine for Mr. Changshan, which also made Mr. Changshan's family prosperous.

Later, the old Duke Changshan passed the title to his eldest son, and Shang Hu's eldest son, Luo Tangping, born to his first wife, became the heir apparent of the Duke Changshan's mansion.

This Prince Luo is already twenty years old this year, but he has never married. It is not because he is unwilling to get married, but because he has a bad reputation. He is domineering and always causes trouble.

His stepmother treated him well and raised him from the age of three to twenty. But no matter how well she treated him, there was a problem with the child. A child born from a merchant's belly, no matter how well the stepmother educated him, was still not presentable and would only attract cats and dogs and cause trouble.

This is what people in the capital say.

But Luo Tangping is the eldest son after all. According to the system of hereditary nobility, the title is passed on to the eldest son, who is the crown prince. Unless he has done something illegal and has been deprived of his title of crown prince, he cannot inherit the title. Otherwise, even if he has no knowledge and is mediocre, the title will still be inherited by the eldest son.

Therefore, no matter how much trouble Luo Tangping caused, as long as he did not break the law, he would be the eldest son of Changshan Mansion and the heir to the title in the future.

The restaurant that Xu Qinyu liked was the family business left by Luo Tangping's mother.

Luo Tangping's mother's surname was Wei.

When Wei married into the Changshan Mansion, she brought two million taels of silver notes. In addition to the two million taels of silver notes, she also had numerous shops, farms, and land as her dowry.

One million taels of silver helped Mr. Changshan make up for the money he had embezzled. The remaining one million taels were spent gradually over the past twenty years, leaving only some shops, farms and land.

However, a skinny camel is bigger than a horse, and the dowry left by Wei is really not enough.

Before Wei died, she left a grandmother to her son and told the grandmother that the money could be spent by the whole family, but the shop, farm and land left behind could not be sold and would all be left to her son. Even Luo Tangping's father was present at the time and promised his wife that his dowry would be left to Luo Tangping.

So after Wei died, with the help of her grandmother, all the shops, fields and farms left by Wei were still there and in the hands of Luo Tangping.

The restaurant that Xu Qinyu valued was the one that Luo Tangping wanted to try on his own to see if he could open a restaurant and make some money. However, the business was not good and he could not sustain it for half a year and had to close it down and rent it out.

Xu Qinyu also asked Lianhua to inquire about this restaurant.

Knowing that the wine shop is in the hands of Luo Tangping, all Lianhua needs to do is go over and let Luo Tangping sign the deed.

As for the family background of the Luo family, Lianhua had inquired about it clearly. On the way to the wine shop, she whispered to Xu Qinyu, "My queen, you don't know that the successor of Changshan looks kind on the surface, but she is actually a smiling tiger. At that time, Luo Shizi's biological mother left behind about one million taels of silver, and half of it gradually went into the pocket of this successor. Even the shops, farms, and fields left to Luo Shizi, a small part of them were borrowed by this successor for business purposes. However, with the old grandmother left by the original wife of Changshan, these family properties were only borrowed by this successor. The deeds to the land and houses are not in her hands yet. They are still in Luo Shizi's hands."

They, the secret guards, naturally knew much more than others. For example, the one million taels of silver left by Wei were all thought to have been lost by the Changshan Mansion over the years, but in fact half of it had gone into the hands of this successor wife.

And there is this Ji family, who appears to be very nice to the prince, but only he knows what she is really like.

Anyway, one of my two sons and one of his concubines was educated to be sensible, and this is what he said on the surface.

Only this Prince Luo, when outsiders hear his name, they just shake their heads and sigh.

Lotus said, "But don't worry, Madam. As long as you sign the lease for this wine shop, you can use it as you like. Since you have the lease, you can sign for a few more years. The location of this shop is still very good, but you have to grab it, otherwise it will be easily rented out."

This shop was also the most valuable item in the dowry left by Mrs. Wei. After all, it was worth almost 100,000 taels of silver.

Everyone was sitting in a carriage, and Xue and Wen also heard what Lianhua said.

Xue frowned slightly. She had also heard of this successor of the Luo family. Just like what Lianhua said, on the surface this successor could not be faulted at all, but she also felt that something was not right. She was also worried that something might happen after renting the restaurant.

But then Xue thought, her daughter is already the empress, so as long as the contract is signed, it will be impossible for the Luo family to regret it.

Only then did I feel relieved.

They soon arrived at the restaurant. It was just past noon and the restaurant was still open.

Xue didn't often go out for social events and didn't have many close friends, so even if she came out now, no one would recognize her as the Queen's mother.

Needless to say, Xu Qinyu, Lianhua and Wen Shi had been away from the capital for seven years. Even when they returned, they rarely appeared in public, so naturally no one recognized them.

A few people entered the restaurant and saw the shopkeeper. Lianhua directly explained the purpose of their visit, and the shopkeeper immediately led them to the backyard.

Prince Luo Tangping happened to be in the restaurant today.

He was not short of money. The shop, farm and land his mother left him generated rent-free income every year.

The reason why he wanted to use the shop left by his mother to open a restaurant was because he had a quarrel with his father more than half a year ago. His father said that he had nothing and was inferior to his younger brothers and sisters in every way.

He then thought that instead of studying, he should make some achievements in other businesses to impress his family. However, he did not expect that even making a living was so difficult. Others would not come to his house just because the restaurant was opened by him, Prince Luo. It had only been half a year and he could not hold on any longer. He told others that he made a lot of profit every month, so he did not want to continue running the business.

But only he knows that he is losing money every month.

Luo Tangping was naturally in a bad mood at this moment.

He had only put up the notice for renting out the shop for one day, and someone came to rent the shop today.

Luo Tangping saw a few people, but he didn't expect that they were a few women and young ladies who came to rent a shop.

He couldn't help but take one more look at Xu Qinyusheng's face before he asked weakly, "Who is going to pay the rent? The rent is two thousand taels of silver a year. Not a penny can be paid. You have to pay a year's rent at a time. The rent starts from one year."

Lianhua said, "I'll rent it. I've brought the banknotes. Two thousand taels of banknotes will be used to pay one year's rent first. But I plan to rent it for a minimum of five years. How about paying the rent annually? The signed contract also states that the minimum rent is five years. During these five years, you cannot rent the shop to anyone else."

On the way, Xu Qinyu had already thought that five years was enough time.

During these five years, you can continue to keep an eye out for other good shops in the capital. If you can find one, you can open your own shop.

Moreover, within five years, a restaurant can be opened. Even if there are no other shops in the city, it will not be closed.

It was the first time that Luo Tangping heard someone say that the minimum lease term for a shop was five years. He didn't have any objection. Five years was five years. Anyway, they would have to pay compensation if the lease did not last for five years. But if he changed his mind and did not rent it, the amount he had to pay would not be enough.

Since Luo Tangping had decided to rent out the restaurant, he did not hesitate at all. "Okay, write and sign the contract now, and I will immediately dismiss all the employees of the restaurant. You can use the restaurant tomorrow." After he finished speaking, he could not help but ask one more question, "I wonder what kind of business you are going to do by renting this restaurant?"

Lianhua smiled and said, "We'll continue to run the restaurant, so you don't have to lay off the waiters and cooks in the restaurant. You can keep them for us to use, and we'll pay them when the time comes."

Luo Tangping nodded, "That's good, I wish you a prosperous business."

However, he still reminded her, "But the chef of my restaurant is just average in cooking skills, so he can stay as an assistant chef, and you can find a few chefs with good skills yourself."

It was he himself who couldn't find a good chef. This chef was introduced to him by his stepmother. His stepmother always treated him very well, and it was he who didn't argue.

Lianhua said: "Thank you for the reminder, it's natural. We have already hired a chef."

Luo Tangping then said no more and discussed with Lianhua about writing the contract. After the two signed the contract, Lianhua paid Luo Tangping two thousand taels of silver and then left.

As long as the two people's fingerprints are pressed, the contract will take effect, even if they don't go to the government office to stamp it with an official seal.

When Lianhua and Xu Qinyu just left and walked to the door of the restaurant, they passed by a middle-aged man with a mustache. The middle-aged man looked at Xu Qinyu for a few times, his eyes lingered on Xu Qinyu's face, showing some surprise, and then stared at Xu Qinyu.

Xue, Wen and Lian Hua all frowned. Lian Hua directly hit the middle-aged man on the knee with a hidden force. Then the middle-aged man fell to the ground with a thud, his face hitting the ground, and began to wail.

Luo Tangping heard the silence in front of him, came out to take a look, and said quickly, "Manager Zheng, how did you fall? Are you okay?"

The middle-aged man groaned twice, "Prince, I am fine. I came here to tell you that Madam wants to invite you back to the mansion. It's about this restaurant. Madam told you not to rent it out in a hurry..."