Thinking of this, Zhao Xian spoke up:
"Manager Lu's suggestion is excellent, but I don't currently have any plans to run a restaurant. How about this, let me think about it, and I'll give you an answer tomorrow."
Seeing that Zhao Xian neither refused nor agreed, this gave Manager Lu some hope. He decided to wait until tomorrow and figure out what to do. He figured that with such generous terms, Young Master Zhao would surely agree.
In fact, Zhao Xian had already decided to cooperate with Manager Lu to open a restaurant, but he couldn't just agree so readily. He wanted to keep Manager Lu from seeing through his thoughts.
The next morning, Manager Lu asked Zhao Xian how he had decided and whether he was willing to cooperate with him.
“I have thought it over. I agree to cooperate with Manager Lu and I also agree to the profit-sharing plan you proposed. But I have one more request: I will arrange for someone to be in charge of the restaurant’s kitchen. Of course, the kitchen staff can continue to be employed.”
Manager Lu immediately understood Zhao Xian's meaning. Zhao Xian's suggestion to let his people manage the kitchen was to prevent the secret recipe for making delicious food from being leaked.
This is completely understandable. This secret recipe is the key to the restaurant's continued operation, and Zhao Xian doesn't want it to be leaked, including to his business partners. This is perfectly normal.
My purpose in running this restaurant is to make money. Besides, my initial intention in cooperating with Zhao Xian was not for this secret recipe. As long as I can make money, it doesn't matter whether I manage the kitchen or not.
Thinking of this, Manager Lu nodded and agreed to Zhao Xian's request.
“I’m not good at running a restaurant. Since we’re going to run it together, shouldn’t the restaurant be renovated to give customers a completely new feeling, different from the original restaurant?”
"That's for sure. Not only will the restaurant be renovated, but it will also be renamed to reflect its unique characteristics."
"The food we offer at our restaurant will be unparalleled, and we'll also provide the finest wines in the world. Business is sure to boom then," Manager Lu said happily.
It seems that Manager Lu is a shrewd man. Once Qinghe wine is launched, it will definitely be in short supply. Under any circumstances, he will definitely ensure the supply of fine wine in the restaurant. It will be difficult not to make money then.
Manager Lu was going back in the afternoon, so Zhao Xian told the employees to hurry up and blend the liquor. It wasn't until the afternoon that they had blended more than 200 jin of liquor, which was then stored in eight jars.
Each wine jar contained thirty catties of liquor. Since there were no other merchants today, except for two jars of liquor to be given to Prefect Shen, the remaining six jars were all sold to Manager Lu.
After loading the liquor onto the carriage, Manager Lu prepared to return. Zhao Xian then entrusted Manager Lu to take the two jars of liquor from Prefect Shen back to the government office, as Prefect Shen would have a great use for them.
After seeing Manager Lu off, Zhao Xian was still considering the idea of opening a restaurant in cooperation with Manager Lu. He planned to discuss it with his family and bring it up for discussion.
During this time, Zhao Xiaoshan had figured out how to do business. Because he often delivered kimchi to the town, he gradually became familiar with most of the restaurant owners in the town. Zhao Xiaoshan used this as a breakthrough and closed many deals, which greatly increased the sales of kimchi.
Once the business strategy was established, Zhao Xiaoshan wanted to further promote the pickled vegetable business. He took Zhao Tiezhu to Yingkou Town and successfully sold the pickled vegetables to several restaurants, while also boosting the sales of preserved eggs.
This necessitates increasing the production of kimchi, but fortunately, the raw materials for making kimchi are plentiful, so increasing production is not a problem.
Making kimchi at home is too cramped, so Zhao Xiaoshan moved the kimchi making area to the workshop, finding two rooms as production workshops to ensure that the kimchi produced meets market demand.
Because of a shortage of manpower, Zhao Xiaoshan asked Zhao Dani to come and help, and paid her wages.
Zhao Dani was very happy. She didn't get a single penny for working at home, but she got paid for helping Zhao Xiaoshan make kimchi. Although she had to give the money to her family, she could keep some for herself.
Mrs. Wu was also happy for Zhao Dani to work, so that Zhao Dani would have to hand over her wages, and Old Mrs. Zhao wouldn't be able to say anything.
Zhao Dani is sixteen years old this year. Now that the family's conditions have improved, the food has naturally become better as well. All three of Wu's daughters are at the age of growth, especially Zhao Dani, who has gained some weight and is no longer thin. She is becoming more and more beautiful.
Zhao Dani was already of marriageable age, and many people came to propose marriage. However, the Zhao family's situation was different from before. They had made a lot of money from making kimchi and were now considered wealthy in the village.
Marriage at any time emphasizes matching social status, and the matchmakers who came were almost all from the village or from other villages. Naturally, Wu looked down on them. She wanted to marry Zhao Dani to someone in town, but the people in town looked down on people from the countryside.
Because of this indecisiveness, Da Ni's marriage was delayed.
Zhao Dani is usually quiet, but she works very hard, is quick and efficient, and can also cook delicious meals.
Watching Zhao Dani's diligent figure, Zhao Xian seemed to be deep in thought. After considering it for a while, he called Zhao Dani over.
When Zhao Xian called him, Zhao Dani went over.
"Brother, is there something you need?"
"Da Ni, don't make kimchi for a while. Go help out in the kitchen and learn to cook from the two soldiers. They used to be military cooks and can cook very well."
“Okay, brother, when are we going?” Da Ni didn’t understand why Zhao Xian had arranged for her to learn to cook in the kitchen. Since he had arranged for her to go, she was determined to do it well and learn to cook as soon as possible.
"Go there now, I'll take you to meet two military cooks, you should follow them closely and learn from them."
It was already time to prepare dinner, and the two servants had arrived at the kitchen. Upon seeing Zhao Xian approach, they quickly stopped what they were doing.
"Master, what are your orders?"
"You've all worked hard during this time." Zhao Xian was always quite polite to these family soldiers.
"You're too kind, Master. It's not hard work for us at all. When we were in the army, we had to cook for hundreds of people every day and march every day. That was hard work."
Zhao Xian nodded, pointed at Zhao Dani, and said to the family soldiers:
"She is my cousin Zhao Dani. She will be learning cooking techniques from you during this period. You must use your best skills to teach Dani how to make various specialty dishes as soon as possible."
"Don't worry, Master. We will do our best to teach Da Ni how to cook all kinds of delicious dishes. We will not let you down."
Zhao Xian nodded, then looked at Zhao Dani and said:
"Da Ni, from now on, you will seriously learn cooking skills from these two. In the future, you will be able to do important things."
“Okay, brother, I understand.” Zhao Dani nodded seriously.
Zhao Xian's words surprised and delighted Zhao Dani. Zhao Xian said that he had something important for her to do. What could it be?
She knew that her scholar cousin was very capable and that everything he did was very important. The fact that her cousin wanted her to do something important made her very excited.
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