Chapter 58 Liu Yao's Distress

The Prince's mansion of King Jing, which has been roughly repaired, seems very empty at this time. This huge mansion has a total of more than 20 servants. These people were all selected by Liu Yao and Liu Ming to go to the hospital. In addition to four twelve- or three-year-old teenagers who want to follow him as attendents, there are also four families. He followed Liu Ming's advice and bought the whole family. In this way, he will hold the deed of their family in the future, and they will not dare to betray him at will.

Generally speaking, the mansions of rich families are permanently equipped with gatehouses, accounting rooms, kitchens, flower rooms, sewing rooms... These are the settings needed for daily life and need to be taken care of by servants. In addition to these, the main courtyard where Liu Yao lives, the guest courtyard for guests to live in, the west courtyard where the concubine will live in the future, as well as the inner study and the outer study... It needs to be managed by someone from time to time.

But if you want to take care of everything, these more than 20 people are really far away and not enough. In order to save money, Liu Yao did not want to add more manpower. In addition, he is the only master in this house now. He believes that there is really no need to make those things out and squander money. Therefore, in his newly released son's house, there was only a door and kitchen, and the rest were not needed, not even an accounting room. And in those famous courtyards in the backyard, he waved his hand and closed all the newly bought housekeepers, not even a guest house.

Now, only the main courtyard and front hall have been opened in his house. The outside study is still empty, and now he has no spare money to buy books. If you only open an empty study room for guests, Liu Yao feels that it is really wasteful. Because there is a front hall. In the inner study, there are only a few books that he grinded from Liu Ming, all of which are his favorite miscellaneous books. There are no four books and five classics at all, because he doesn't take the exam for Xiucai. Usually, he reads and practices calligraphy to cultivate his sentiment, and there is really no need to get so many books to fill the scene. Anyway, no one came to see it.

The problem is that even if he has saved so much, his small vault is still in crisis.

In the front hall, Liu Yao held a thin account book in his hand and stared at the middle-aged man kneeling in front of him coldly. His voice asked coldly, "At the beginning of the month, you said that you should be able to make a profit this month, but why is this book still short?"

The man in front of him is also the big shopkeeper he bought from the hospital, named Hu Qing. Because his age is too high, no one has bought him. At the beginning, Hu Qing said that he had more than ten years of experience as a shopkeeper, but not many people believed him. Because if what he said is true, how can he be so depressed that he can't redeem himself and his wife and children to eliminate slavery?

To take a step back, even if what he said is true, his family must have done something wrong if he failed to eliminate slavery, so the former owner's family did not want to make a personal relationship with them and help them eliminate the fingerprints of slavery.

In the Southern Tang Dynasty, ordinary people's foreign shopkeepers, even if they are domestic slaves, if they do well, who will give the owner's fingerprints and ask them to take them to the government to eliminate slaves? A ousted slave like Hu Qing's family is still a slave even if he regains his freedom. Because they can't go to the government without the fingerprints of the former owner's family.

At the beginning, it was after Liu Ming's examination of Hu Qing that he persuaded Liu Yao to buy their family. Therefore, Liu Yao believed his words. As for whether he was kicked out by the master because he had done something wrong before, this is not his concern. The Hu Qing family has a weak wife and an unordered son. Liu Yao bought their family, but Hu Qing was the only one who could really come out.

After trusting Hu Qing, Liu Yao asked him to take care of his three new shops. The original deficit last month has made Liu Yao doubt his claim that he has more than ten years of experience as a shopkeeper, and almost removed Hu Qing as a big shopkeeper. But Liu Ming advised him that it was impossible to make money in the first month of business. Let Hu Qing do it for another month.

Liu Yao listened to Liu Ming's suggestion and felt that it seemed to be a little difficult to make money as soon as he started a business, so he didn't have the value of Hu Qing and resell their family.

The silver that King Jing gave him at the beginning. He spent 2,000 taels of silver just to repair the broken garden. Later, he bought two Zhuangzi under the control of Liu Ming, and went to another 3,000 taels to clean up the two shops given to him by his father. He also took a small storefront in a good location and bought it and cleaned it up, which cost another 2,000 taels. In less than two months, the money in his hand has been spent seven or eight. But now not only did he not see the entry, but the three shops are still empty!

"The prince is angry, and Rong Xiao will report to you." Hu Qing knelt on the ground carefully and dared not look up at Liu Yao's expression. Although he was just a twelve- or three-year-old baby in front of him, he knew that his life was in the hands of this baby, so he naturally dared not neglect it at all.

"You said!" Liu Yao suppressed his anger and threw the account book in his hand and stared at Hu Qing to listen to his defense. He had already made a decision in his heart, and he must go to Liu Ming again. In any case, he had to dig a shopkeeper from him to take charge of the shop for him. Otherwise, how much money can he have left if he continues to lose money like this?

"The little one thinks so. We have three shops, one is the water and wine business, the other is the restaurant shop, and the other is the snack pastry fruit business. There is nothing to say about the wine business. As long as the wine sold is good and there is a good supply of goods, people can send it to several large restaurants several times, and the price is slightly reduced, so you don't have to worry about selling it. This month, the water wine shop has begun to make a profit. Of course, this is also a big reason that Yumeizhai specially ordered Jinhua wine in our shop, so it can make a profit so quickly. But now, in addition to Yumeizhai, several other restaurants have come to the shop to discuss the supply. When the business is negotiated, the liquor shop can make a lot of money. Even if the small ones can't be talked about, the name of our shop has been called out. We will do it well later. If we have a reputation, we won't be afraid that no one will order. Hu Qing stared at the ground and reported the good news to Liu Yao first to prove that he had really done something during this period.

Liu Yao narrowed his eyes, picked up the account book, began to look through two pages carefully, turned to the account of the liquor store, and looked at the final result. It was indeed profitable. Although it's not much, it's only a hundred taels in half a month. But this is the profit after offsetting the capital of the shop, which is a real profit that can be seen.

Liu Yao looked better, nodded and slowed down slightly. He asked, "Since this liquor store has made money, why is the general ledger still short? Don't the other two shops make money?"

Hu Qing replied with a sweat on her forehead and said, "My son, our restaurant is not open in the downtown area, and the store is really small. We can't find a famous chef in other big restaurants for a while. Therefore, the little ones think that we don't make big banquets, but only cook small dishes, mainly for civilians with a little money or students in nearby colleges. I know a cook named Lin Yue. Although he is not as good as some famous chefs in cooking, he can't cook some dishes at banquets. But he is really good at some home-cooked dishes, and he also has many specialty pasta pastries, and he also has a good experience in the seasoning of some common soups. Xiao thought he was quite suitable for us, so he hired him to be the chef of our restaurant. I reported this to you at the beginning..."

"Well, I remember this. At present, I don't know how to do business, that is, if you are asked to be a big shopkeeper, you will naturally manage it first. Go on." Liu Yao waved his hand to indicate that he was not unhappy with Hu Qing's unauthorized use of acquaintances.

Hu Qingxin breathed a sigh of relief and quickly continued: "On the opening day of the shop, Lin Yue made a lot of small dishes and pastries, which were divided into butterflies for people to give people on the street to taste for free. But after half a day, someone came into our restaurant. Lin Yue is indeed good at craftsmanship. In half a month, there were some repeat customers in the restaurant. Now when it comes to lunchtime, our restaurants are basically full. It's just that the business of restaurants is less profitable. Although restaurants have begun to make money, they are not worth our capital. However, it is estimated that in more than ten days, the restaurants should be able to really start making money.

Liu Yao turned over the account book again. After seeing the results of the accounts of the restaurant, he nodded and looked better. However, in a blink of an eye, he realized that since both shops were making money, the books were still short, which showed how bad his pastry shop was. So, his face sank in an instant and asked Hu Qing, "What about the snack shop? Has it not made any money for such a long time?

Hu Qing's face began to sweat. He gritted his teeth and said bravely, "My lord, the best location of our three shops is that pastry shop. However, the little one tried his best, but still failed to make it make money. Little incompetence, ask the prince to punish him.

Liu Yao stared straight at Hu Qing with sweat on his face, thinking carefully about his reply, and had a certain understanding of him in his heart. This man didn't lie to him. He really can do business. But since he can do business, why can't the best shop make money?

"Try to me, why is our dim sum shop not profitable?"

Hu Qing saw that Liu Yao did not punish him immediately and knew that he was gambling right. Although the teenager in front of him is only 13 years old, his mind is mature enough. It is actually very surprising that he can endure it until now and ask himself to ask questions. Because Hu Qing agreed with Liu Yao, he respected him more in his attitude: "Master, our shop is indeed in a good location, but there is only three shops on the same street, there is a branch of Yikouyuan, a famous pastry shop in the capital. Yikou Garden, both young and old in the capital, knows that their snacks are indeed good, and we can't compare with them at all. Therefore, even if the small one tried his best, he still couldn't let the shop make money. The small one is really..."

"Ok, you don't have to say, I understand." Liu Yao stopped Hu Qing's words with a bitter smile.

Nayikou Garden is the industry of Qingwang Mansion. Throughout the capital, there are their branches on every street, and there are 12 branches! How can his small store be compared with the famous Yikou Garden? At first, he just knew that Jiang Ting liked to eat some snacks, so he thought that women all over the world liked snacks, so he decided to make this pastry fruit business...

Oh, it's a mistake. Now he finally understood what Liu Ming meant when he heard that he was going to do a snack business.