Seeing the enthusiasm of the crowd, Zhao Hao immediately spread out a large piece of rice paper, took out the sheep-hair brush, Hui inkstone and She inkstone he bought for Zhao Shouzheng, and personally served them, inviting Zhao Jin to write the name on the plaque.

"This is inappropriate." Zhao Jin was quite tempted, but he considered the overall situation and said, "How can I, a soldier, write my humble name on a plaque? It's unlucky..."

Zhao Hao said with emotion: "Sir, you are wrong. You are a Jinshi who passed the imperial examination twice and you are the emperor's minister! If you had not been persecuted here, how could a small hotel in Caijia Lane have the honor of asking you to write an inscription?"

Everyone also tried to persuade him that it was not a big deal.

Zhao Jin insisted on not taking the pen and said, "It will affect the business."

Now everyone was silent, after all, no one wanted to affect the business.

"As the saying goes, justice is in the hearts of the people. Sir, you are pleading for the people and taking the blame on their behalf! At least those with a conscience will definitely not come to our door for this reason." Only Zhao Hao still insisted on his own opinion and said, "It is better not to do business with those who cannot distinguish right from wrong and have no vision!

Gao the blacksmith naturally followed Zhao Hao's lead and immediately said loudly: "Young Master, you are right. The person I admire most is Mr. Zhao! If those bastards don't come, then we won't serve them!"

As for Fang De, everything was awarded by Zhao Hao, so of course he would not go against his boss and immediately spoke out in agreement.

Yu Jiachang had always been a couple with Zhao Jin and they were close friends, so naturally he could only be happy for him.

The old captain gently stroked Zhao Jin's back and choked up, saying, "Old Zhao, I told you, you've got a good disciple, your luck is about to change..."

Zhao Jin couldn't hold back any longer and burst into tears.

Since January of the 32nd year of the Jiajing reign, he had been convicted for his words for a full 14 years, and had been exiled to various garrisons, not only displaced, but also subjected to humiliation and torture. Although Zhao Jin was still alive during these years, his heart had already been dead and cold...

But at this moment, with the young man's sincere words and kind actions, he felt his heart warm again, and his tears became hot.

If he had accepted this apprentice from the breakfast stall before, it was a bit like forcing him to do something. But now, he no longer had any reluctance, but instead began to worry about losing this apprentice...

After a long while, Zhao Jin finally calmed down. He then took the pen handed to him by Zhao Hao and wrote the three powerful characters "Very Fresh" in Zhao's regular script on the paper.

Although Zhao Hao couldn't understand calligraphy, it was right for him to praise it freely.

After everyone finished drinking and the ink dried, Zhao Hao asked Gao Wu to take the words to the street outside the Drum Tower to carve a plaque. Such a delicate work was not something that the carpenter shop in Caijia Lane could do.

He assigned tasks to the rest of the people. Zhao Jin was asked to assist Fang De in designing the restaurant's style, Yu Jiachang was asked to contact carpenters and bricklayers and other decoration workers, Gao Lao was responsible for supervision, and Qiaoqiao's mother was asked to cook for everyone...

As for hiring a cook, hiring waiters, and ordering menus, how could anyone else do that? Fang De had to do it all.

"Although you can't give them shares, you might as well tell them that you can give them 10% of the monthly profit as performance... uh, bonus... anyway, it's a reward or something like that." Zhao Hao arranged the division of labor and reminded Fang De. When Fang De nodded in agreement, he did not forget to ask Zhao Jin for instructions.

"Sir, is this arrangement appropriate?"

Zhao Jin had been trying his best to help him fill in the gaps, but after listening to Zhao Hao's well-organized arrangements, he found that it was even more thorough than he thought. After holding it in for a long time, he finally uttered a word.

"Okay."

Seeing the old man's face turn red, Zhao Hao couldn't help but secretly reflect on himself. He was so busy doing his job that he forgot to deliberately miss one or two key points to give Zhao Jin a chance to show his ability...

"Alas, I've been too arrogant recently and made such a low-level mistake. Be careful next time..." Zhao Hao said to himself in shock, this would affect the heat of the stove.

Fortunately, Zhao Jin now felt that his influence was insignificant and he did not have any other thoughts. Instead, he told Zhao Hao, "You must come to pay your respects to me at 1:00 a.m. tomorrow. If you are late, it will be impolite."

"Don't worry, sir. It won't be too late." Zhao Hao finally felt relieved.

~~

In the evening, when Zhao Shouzheng came back, Zhao Hao informed him about opening a hotel and becoming his apprentice.

"What? My dear nephew wants to open a restaurant?" Fan Datong was overjoyed when he heard this and said, "Now we have a place to have banquets in the future."

"We don't sell on credit in this store. Please don't blame me for the resistance." Zhao Hao sneered.

"My dear nephew, if your uncle eats and drinks a little, how can he eat you out of money..." Fan Datong begged pitifully.

"It's fine if you eat at my house, but you dare to go to Wei Ji Xian to get money?" Zhao Hao rolled his eyes and said, "I have already told the shareholders to close the shop and let the dogs out if they see you."

"Oh, really..." Fan Datong looked at Zhao Shouzheng for help, and said with a smile: "Brother, you don't need to pay for it, right? Can't I just eat with you?"

"I won't go and cause trouble." Zhao Shouzheng shook his head and said, "It's not my son who runs this shop alone. It's not good for them to accept money, and it's not good for them not to accept money either. Why go and cause trouble?"

Zhao Hao's eyes were filled with tears of satisfaction again. This old man is becoming more and more sensible...

Before I could praise Lao Zhao, I saw him patting his bulging wallet and saying, "Let's go eat somewhere else..."

"Then you should just take care of your own business. I'll ask them to give you a discount. Isn't that reasonable?" Zhao Hao didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Well, that's fine." Zhao Shouzheng nodded with satisfaction, and after considering his words, he slowly said, "Son, I am very pleased that you can think of becoming a disciple and studying. But..."

After a pause, he waved his hand, motioning his son to follow him into the house.

The two of them went into the east room, and when no one else could hear them, Zhao Shouzheng said with a look of disgust, "You took a thief as your master, what the hell is that?"

Zhao Hao had expected Zhao Shouzheng to have this reaction.

Although the Zhao family was defeated, Zhao Shouzheng still regarded himself as the son of an official, and often boasted that the Zhao family was a descendant of the royal family of the Song Dynasty. Naturally, he was very particular about some strange things.

He was not impatient and spoke softly to Zhao Shouzheng, "To be honest, I opened this 'Wei Ji Xian' restaurant for Zhao Jin."

"Ah, for him? I thought you were doing it for... that someone else." Zhao Shouzheng's eyes widened in shock and he asked, "Is an old man worth your time?"

"Father, haven't you heard of the story of Lu Buwei and Qin Yiren?" In order to make it easier for Zhao Shouzheng to understand, Zhao Hao reluctantly showed off his book bag.

"You mean rare goods are worth keeping?" Zhao Shouzheng really understood, but it seemed that he over-understood. "Then who is Zhao Ji?"

"No Zhao Ji." Zhao Hao rolled his eyes at him speechlessly and said, "In short, if the restaurant wants to continue, it cannot do without Mr. Zhao. If my father wants to become an official in the future, he also cannot do without Mr. Zhao!"

"Well... okay." Zhao Shouzheng struggled for a moment, and as expected, his doting on Zhao Hao prevailed. He no longer asked why Zhao Hao was so sure, and began to worry:

"Have you prepared the six gifts? You need ten dried meat strips, tied up with silk..."

"I've bought everything. You can just pick it up tomorrow."

"Oh, you should buy raw meat and cook it yourself and dry it. It's not sincere to buy cooked meat directly."

"Father, aren't you reluctant?"

"You can't worry less about your child. Haven't you heard that 'if a child is not well-educated, it's the fault of the father'?"

ps. Thank you to my old friend Guagua for your support over the years. Please vote for me and give me comments~~~~~