Chapter 756 The restaurant isn't important, what's important is her.
Hearing her mother say this, Li Yao laughed smugly: "Mother, do you also think that I have found a very reliable person to cooperate with this time? Have you also been persuaded by the Second Young Madam that our Zuixianlou can surpass Qingyunlou and become the number one restaurant in the capital? I told you, I am definitely no worse than my eldest and second brothers. Do you believe me now? I won't have to go on dates with those stinky men anymore, right?"
Looking at her daughter's innocent face and naive eyes, Madam Li sighed and shook her head: "How could I have given birth to such a naive girl like you? It's a good thing that the second young mistress is kind-hearted, otherwise you would probably be dismembered and swallowed whole, and you would still be laughing like an idiot! However, you are right about one thing: you don't need to go on any more matchmaking with those men."
Li Yao automatically ignored the first part and only listened to the second part.
She was overjoyed: "Really? Mother keeps her word? She's not forcing me to go on a blind date?"
Madam Li patted her daughter's head. Looking at her daughter dressed in men's clothing, she smiled gently: "Everyone thinks it's ridiculous for you to dress as a man and run Zuixianlou. But who would have thought that this 'fuss' would lead to such a great opportunity? My daughter is destined for greatness. In the future, she may be different from the other members of the Li family. Naturally, she won't need to go on blind dates with those merchants' sons anymore."
Li Yao didn't understand the deeper meaning behind those words. She thought Madam Li was praising her for her abilities, and she happily took Madam Li's arm: "Mother really loves me the most! I just wonder how much silver we'll need to buy Zuixianlou? Will Grandfather and uncles try to raise the price?"
Madam Li was quite confident in this regard: "Your father is, after all, the head of the Li family, and the one who makes the most money. My daughter and I didn't ask for Zuixianlou for nothing, and we were even willing to pay for it. We've already been very sensible. If they dare to raise the price of a restaurant that's about to fall into ruin, I'm not someone to be bullied. I'll make a huge scene and see who dares not to sell to me."
Li Yao flattered with a grin, "Mother is indeed amazing, I admire you!"
Madam Li smiled, took the dowry list from Chun's mother, and began to count each item: "Two strings of coral court beads, two amber bracelets, two beeswax necklaces, a pair of jade bracelets, a pair of jade ruyi scepters, two pairs of 'Blooming Flowers and Wealth' porcelain vases... five hundred hectares of fertile land in the suburbs, one estate in the southwest, two estates in the southeast, shops..."
She read out a long string of numbers, then asked, "Yaoyao, have you figured it out yet? How much silver are all these things worth in total?"
The smile on Li Yao's face vanished, replaced by guilt and unease: "Mother, aren't you going to sell most of your dowry? This was all left to you by your maternal grandparents for your own survival, I..."
“It’s nothing. I originally intended to leave these dowries to you. Your brothers all have the Li family’s businesses to rely on, while you have nothing. Naturally, I have to plan more for you, otherwise you won’t be able to gain a foothold in your husband’s family in the future.”
"But……"
Li Yao had originally planned to use her mother's dowry to buy a restaurant, but when she actually watched her mother count her dowry items one by one, preparing to sell them to buy the restaurant she liked, she still felt very uncomfortable.
She even felt that she was extremely unfilial, making her mother sell her belongings for her own selfish desires.
She bit her lip and said, "How about I go and discuss it with the second young mistress again? She said she wants to take 60% of the shares in the restaurant. Shouldn't she also contribute some money? We can't be expected to pay for everything, can we?"
Madam Li immediately rejected her suggestion: "Absolutely not!"
"Why not? Doesn't Mother think that 60% is too much?"
“I don’t think it’s much. As I just said, the second young mistress of the Gu family is a kind person. It’s because she only wanted 60% of the shares. In fact, even if she wanted 90%, I would have agreed.”
Li Yao was shocked: "Huh? You agree to 90%? If we only take 10%, wouldn't that be a huge loss?"
"Silly child, even if she takes 90%, we won't lose out."
"Isn't this a loss? Mother, am I the fool or are you? She didn't spend a single tael of silver and got 90% of the shares in Zuixianlou!"
Madam Li said earnestly, "Because what she provides is something that cannot be bought with silver; the value she brings cannot be measured in silver."
Li Yao stroked his chin: "Mother means that she can bring big business to the restaurant?"
"I'm not talking about the restaurant, I'm talking about the Duke's Mansion behind it."
Madam Li's eyes sparkled with an unprecedented hope: "Yaoyao, actually, the restaurant is not important to us at all. What is important is that the second young mistress can bring you into the circle of nobles. In the future, your status may be able to break away from that of a merchant and you will no longer have to be looked down upon."
"But I don't think being a merchant is bad at all. Who looks down on me? They all think our family is rich and they fawn over me all the time!"
Madam Li glared at her: "You're surrounded by maids who are poorer and of lower status than our family, of course they'll fawn over you. Try it if you were a young lady from a noble family, and see if anyone would fawn over you. I've protected you too much and spoiled you too much, which is why you're so arrogant and ignorant of the wickedness of people!"
Li Yao said nonchalantly, "I just don't associate with the young ladies of noble families. It's no big deal. I just enjoy managing the restaurant and making money."
"My cooperation with that second young mistress wasn't because of the Duke's mansion behind her. I just saw that she was very capable. She could point out the problems with Zuixianlou in just a few words. She could even pinpoint the problems with the chef's dishes and know how to improve them! I think she is a very intelligent woman, which is why I brought her back to meet you."
Madam Li agreed with this point: "She is naturally intelligent, otherwise she wouldn't have made the arrogant Second Young Master Gu lower himself to ask for her hand in marriage, nor would she have made the Prince of Ning, who is used to seeing beauties, snatch her away in the street. I think that her beauty is probably her least noteworthy advantage. She has many other admirable qualities."
Li Yao felt a little jealous: "Mother only met her briefly, yet she praised her to the skies. Why don't you praise me like that? Anyone who didn't know better would think she was your daughter!"
Madam Li looked at her with a mixture of amusement and exasperation: "I've lived all these years, and I'm not doing this for nothing. To judge a person, you don't have to spend a year or two getting to know if they're good or bad. Often, you can tell what kind of person they are just by meeting them."
"If you want me to praise you, then you should learn from other people's calm and composed demeanor. You're always so impulsive and rash. You're already of marriageable age, but you're still like a little kid."
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