The next day, Li Yuemei and Yu Ge'er followed Lin Yan and the others to the town. Li Yuemei planned to take Yu Ge'er to find out which embroiderer was good at embroidery and was willing to accept apprentices.
It was still early, so the two of them helped sell tofu at the stall for a while, and Li Yuemei chatted with Zhou Chunlan at the same time.
"My dear, I've heard that there are a few embroiderers in Liushu Lane. You can go there and take a look later." Zhou Chunlan told Li Yuemei what she knew.
Li Yuemei nodded gratefully: "Oh, I understand."
Seeing that it was almost time, Li Yuemei stood up and told Yu Ge'er to stop working and go for a walk with her in Willow Lane.
Yu Ge'er was chewing a piece of fragrant tofu and making a "wuwu" sound. He quickly put down the bamboo stick, wiped his mouth, and followed Li Yuemei.
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Recently, several more shops have started selling fragrant tofu, including the one that previously sold pancakes. They already have the tools, so just adding tofu is a piece of cake. Lin Yan wasn't familiar with the shop, so he took a look from a distance and thought the sales were pretty good.
Business was still somewhat affected. Sometimes the seven sheets of tofu he brought in were not sold out by the evening hour. Lin Yan reduced the quantity to only five sheets, which he would still sell out by about a quarter past the hour.
Selling new food was imminent, and Lin Yan was a little anxious. Today they only brought three plates of tofu, and planned to sell them out as soon as possible so that they could go to the yamen to ask if there was a suitable stall.
The three-plate tofu was sold out after noon. Lin Yan and Zhao Shiyun packed up their things, informed Zhou Chunlan, and walked towards the management office where the yamen people were.
The management office is in a small house at the end of West Street, where there are fewer people and it's quieter. It was originally located on North Street, but North Street was full of livestock, making constant noises and the smell was unpleasant, so they moved to West Street.
Yang Tao, the yamen runner in charge, had just locked the door and was about to go out when he ran into Lin Yan and his companions.
"Brother Yang, do you want to go out?" Lin Yan called out quickly.
"Brother Yan? I'm planning to go home for lunch. Is there anything wrong?" Yang Tao opened the door again and let the two in.
"We want to rent a bigger stall. Is there any available?" Lin Yan went straight to the point.
Yang Tao took out the rental book and looked at it. "We don't have any at the moment. What size do you want?"
“As big as a wonton stand.”
"Then there are no more. It's not spring planting time yet, and many people want to do business, so all the land has been rented out." Yang Tao said helplessly.
Lin Yan's shoulders slumped instantly. Zhao Shiyun patted his hand in comfort.
Seeing how frustrated he was, Yang Tao suggested, "You could go to a dealer and see if you can rent a shop there."
"The shop is a bit expensive, so I won't consider it for now." Lin Yan sighed.
"Go and take a look first, maybe there's something suitable." Yang Tao advised.
Lin Yan and Zhao Shiyun looked at each other and decided to go to the broker first.
"Okay, thank you, Brother Yang. We'll be leaving first."
After leaving the management office, the two of them headed straight for the brokerage. As soon as they entered, a broker greeted them enthusiastically, "Would you like to rent a house or buy someone?"
"We want to rent a shop and sell food."
"How big do you want it to be?"
Lin Yan explained his requirements to the agent. The agent took out a blueprint and circled a few locations. "These haven't been rented out yet. Do you think they're suitable?"
The entire West Street is lined with stalls. Because it is surrounded by walls on both sides, there are no shops. There is only a small building at the end that serves as a management office. Originally, West Street was not a place for stalls, but other streets were lined with shops, and small vendors had nowhere to go, so they set up stalls on West Street. When the government saw that there were so many people, they arranged for officials to manage the stalls and collect stall fees.
East Street is a more suitable place to buy a shop, but the shops on East Street are generally larger and more expensive.
Lin Yan suddenly saw a small shop a little further into the north street and asked, "What about this?"
The broker replied, "This shop isn't very big, but it's on North Street, near the livestock market. The smell is bad, so it's never been rented out."
Lin Yan looked towards South Street again. There were several empty shops there. The dealer pointed at one of them and said, "This one fits the bill. South Street is full of jewelry and jade. Ordinary people don't go there often, so there might not be that many people."
Lin Yan looked at Zhao Shiyun and discussed with him: "What do you think is good?"
Zhao Shiyun pondered for a moment and said, "Although South Street is less crowded, if we make our food unique, we might be able to attract customers from the jade shops. It's definitely better than the stench of North Street." Lin Yan thought this made sense and said to the broker, "Then we'd like to go to the shop on South Street and take a look."
The broker led them to the shop on South Street. It was a few hundred meters down the street, close to the main street. It wasn't too big, and the interior was clean and tidy. Lin Yan imagined setting up tables and chairs and selling food, and he suddenly felt excited. He looked around. The shop had a backyard with two small utility rooms, but there was no well, making it difficult to get water.
The broker saw their interest and said, "The rent for this shop is three taels of silver a month, which is much cheaper than East Street and very cost-effective. There's also a well next to the shop, so people coming to get water can see that we have opened a food shop, which also serves as publicity."
There are several wells in this market, all dug by the government for the convenience of people to get water. Of course, some people think it is far away and dig their own wells.
Lin Yan and Zhao Shiyun discussed it quietly for a moment before gritting their teeth and deciding to rent it. After paying the deposit and signing the lease agreement, they walked out of the rental agency, filled with joy.
On the way back, Lin Yan excitedly started planning, "We can make the sign more eye-catching and introduce some new dishes." Zhao Shiyun smiled and nodded, "Yes, and the customers on South Street might have a higher spending power, so we can raise our prices appropriately."
The two walked briskly towards the stall, their hearts full of anticipation for the opening of the new shop.
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