Chapter 196 Prosperous Restaurant
After leaving Zhang Zhaodi's shop, Sheng An rode his horse to his family's Shengshi Restaurant, which opened at the beginning of the year.
The restaurant had made a name for itself in Qingzhou City in less than a year, making the nearby restaurants extremely jealous.
It wasn't lunchtime yet, and the staff were preparing to serve the guests.
Upon seeing his master, Sheng An, the shopkeeper quickly put down his abacus and greeted him: "Master, you've arrived."
Sheng An nodded slightly: "You go about your business, I'll just take a look."
Knowing her temperament, the shopkeeper didn't dare to fawn over her, and simply responded before continuing to calculate the accounts at the counter.
Sheng An wandered around the lobby, casually wiping the table with her fingertips. Seeing that there was no dust or grease, and it was spotless without even a fly, she nodded in approval.
After inspecting the cleanliness of the lobby, Sheng An went up the stairs to the second floor. Seeing that the air in the private rooms was fresh and there was no undue dirt, he went downstairs to the kitchen.
The weather was still hot at the end of July, and the kitchen was even hotter than outside. As soon as Sheng An pushed the door open and walked in, a wave of heat hit her.
Bao Xiang was the first to see her, and quickly put down the kitchen knife, wiped her hands, and came over: "Master, what brings you here?"
Upon hearing her words, Bao Lan and Bao Yun also put down their work, thinking that Sheng An had something important to tell them.
Since handing the restaurant over to the three of them to manage, Sheng An has rarely come here. Even the restaurant's accounts are delivered to Sheng Yuan by them at the end of the month.
Seeing the three equally serious faces, Sheng An couldn't help but chuckle: "It's nothing, I just happened to be passing by and stopped by. You don't need to be nervous."
After saying that, he looked at Baolan and said, "You and Shuqi are both busy. You said you wanted to set a wedding date, but you still haven't. How about I give you a day off so you can discuss it properly?"
Not long after the restaurant opened at the beginning of the year, Baolan and Shuqi confessed to Sheng'an that they had fallen for each other and asked for his consent.
Both of them were working for themselves and were of marriageable age, so Sheng An naturally wouldn't interfere and happily offered them her blessings.
However, the two are usually very busy, and now they work in different places, sometimes not seeing each other for ten days or eight months at a time, so the wedding date seems to be far away.
Seeing that Sheng An was worried for them, he offered to give Bao Lan a day off.
Meeting Bao Xiang and Bao Yun's teasing gaze, Bao Lan blushed for once, but still generously replied, "Thank you for your consideration, Master. Tomorrow I will return to Sheng Garden to discuss the wedding date with him."
Sheng An smiled and nodded: "Okay, once the wedding date is set, I will prepare a bridal chamber for you at Sheng Garden. You can decide how to decorate it."
Bao Lan was deeply moved and thanked him again: "Thank you, Master!"
Over the years, she and Shuqi had saved up a lot of money and originally planned to buy a small courtyard in the city as their wedding home.
Now that Sheng'an is willing to vacate a room for them in Shengyuan, they are not in a hurry to buy a wedding house. They can buy one later when they have children.
The three treasures were very busy, so Sheng An didn't stay in the kitchen for long. He went back to the main hall to ask the manager for this month's account book.
He took the ledger to the lounge to calculate the profit, and finally found that the profit for the month exceeded three hundred taels, which was not much different from the previous months.
Shengshi Restaurant has a very stable business.
Unlike Shengyuan Restaurant, Shengshi Restaurant targets all the people of Qingcheng, focusing on affordability, large portions, and unlimited food.
The people who come to the restaurant every day include ordinary people from ordinary families as well as small business owners with considerable wealth.
The three chefs' skills were not as good as Baoxiu's, but they were no worse than the chefs in other restaurants, which is why they accumulated a large number of repeat customers.
Every day at mealtimes, the lobby and private rooms are almost always full.
With no issues found in the accounts, Sheng An returned the ledger to the shopkeeper.
Seeing that it was getting late, she was too lazy to rush back to Shengyuan for lunch. She casually ordered two light dishes and sat down to eat in the restaurant's main hall.
Before Sheng An could finish eating, guests began to come in one after another.
In a short while, all the tables in the lobby were full, and three tables of guests arrived at the private rooms upstairs.
During the visit, a guest praised:
"The head chef of Shengshi Restaurant comes from the famous Shengyuan Restaurant. The taste of the food is excellent and no worse than those ridiculously expensive restaurants!"
"That's true. I come here to eat every now and then, and to be honest, the food is better than at Zuixianlou."
"The best chef at Zuixianlou is Boss Chen. The delicacies Boss Chen makes are for the rich. When ordinary people like us go there to eat, we can only eat the dishes made by ordinary chefs."
"Tsk, even in the same restaurant, you have to be divided into different classes when you eat. Shengshi Restaurant is much better. Everyone who comes in gets their food cooked by three chefs."
"..."
Sheng An felt a surge of joy as she listened to the praise around her.
She didn't intend to compare this restaurant to Zuixianlou, but the guests insisted on doing so.
That night, Sheng An leaned against the bed reading a storybook. A gentle breeze drifted through the open window, bringing a touch of coolness.
A mosquito repellent incense stick was burning in the corner, driving away the mosquitoes that tried to sneak in.
Not long after, Xu Jinnian walked in wearing only a pair of thin silk pajama bottoms, his upper body bare, exuding the damp scent of a post-shower bath.
With broad shoulders, a narrow waist, a strong bottom, and long legs, Sheng An's eyes unconsciously drifted towards the man.
Two years had not left any marks on Xu Jinnian's face. The boyishness he once had had disappeared, replaced by the charm of a mature man, making Sheng An increasingly unable to look away.
Xu Jinnian was used to his wife's burning gaze. He picked up a handkerchief to wipe his damp hair, then casually draped it over the back of a chair and strode over to sit down on the bed.
"What are you looking at?"
Xu Jinnian took the storybook from Sheng An, closed it, and looked at the line of text on the cover: "Xiangmange? Is it about incense making?"
As he spoke, he casually flipped through the book.
Sheng An hadn't expected the man to read the contents, and reached out to snatch it back: "What's so interesting about incense making? Give it back to me!"
Xu Jinnian stepped aside, quickly flipped through two pages, and then looked up at the anxious woman with a half-smile.
Sheng An felt her face burning from his gaze, so she decided to throw caution to the wind: "What's wrong with reading erotic novels? If they dare to write them, I dare to read them. It's not illegal!"
The name "Xiangmange" is elegant, but as for the contents, well, the aroma of meat is irresistible, comparable to that of crabapple blossoms.
Taking advantage of Xu Jinnian's inattention, Sheng An pounced on him, snatched the item, and stuffed it under her pillow, intending to burn it in the kitchen the next day.
She only needs to fall into the same trap once. That previous book of exquisite erotic illustrations almost drove her to the brink of death from exhaustion. She absolutely cannot let this book from Xiangmange fall into his hands.
What is An'an afraid of?
Xu Jinnian stretched out his long arm and pulled her into his arms, his eyes flashing with a playful light: "I just glanced at it, so why don't you tell me what's written inside?"
Sheng An gritted his teeth and pinched him hard on the waist: "Knowing what's written inside won't make you pass the imperial examination, so hurry up and go to sleep!"
Xu Jinnian held her hand, his fingertips caressing her wrist, bringing a tingling, itchy sensation.
"I can't make my husband pass the imperial examination, but I can make An'an happy, can't I? I seem to have seen some descriptions of binding and foot-binding, but I only glanced at it and didn't finish reading it. I don't know how to perform these practices. An'an, could you please explain them to me?"
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