Finest Servant

Chapter 24 Easily Distracted (Part 1)

"Dad and little brother have never seen so much silver before. They want to stay at home for another day and feast their eyes," Dong Qiaoqiao walked in from outside and said with a smile. She held some vegetables in her hand, freshly picked from the garden, which glistened with a watery shine.

Dong Rende's old face turned red, and he smiled awkwardly. "To be honest with you, I do have this idea. I'm almost fifty years old, but I've never seen so much silver before."

As it turned out, Old Dong was not even fifty yet, but he looked like he was sixty years old. In Lin Wanrong's former world, people in their forties and fifties were in their prime of life, enjoying mistresses and sugar mommies, and living it up. Perhaps because the average lifespan here was shorter, Dong Rende, who was under fifty, called himself an old man.

"Look, look, have a good look," Lin Wanrong took a cucumber from the basket carried by Dong Qiaoqiao without washing it, snapped it in half, and chewed on it without any manners.

Dong Qiaoqiao looked at him with amusement, but her eyes were filled with joy.

"Young Master Lin, what do we do next?" Dong Rende reluctantly tore his gaze away and slapped Dong Qingshan's shoulder. He had been staring at the silver coins with reluctance.

"Uncle Dong, as agreed, we split it fifty-fifty. There must be five thousand taels of silver here, and I have some more," Lin Wanrong took out all the silver he had sold in the afternoon. "Tomorrow, you go and exchange all this silver for silver notes. You can take half of it directly, and you can also keep the other half for me for the time being."

"No, no, no..." Dong Rende quickly waved his hand and said, "Young master, a fifty-fifty split is absolutely not acceptable. These are all talents earned by the young master, and also the young master's capital. I will only take a modest fee for my services, plus some labor costs, for a total of fifty taels of silver, okay?"

Having witnessed the deceitful ways of the business world, Lin Wanrong was impressed with Dong Rende's sense of loyalty in the face of profit. He couldn't help but nod secretly and say, "Uncle Dong, this is not just my own affair, but also your contribution. I have always said that I want to prepare a substantial dowry for Miss Qiaoqiao. Consider this my heartfelt gesture."

Qiaoqiao blushed, but looked at Lin Wanrong seriously and said, "Brother Lin, although we have also contributed to this money, you are the absolute leader. Even without us, you could have found anyone else to do it. You just gave us this opportunity. Although you have our best interests at heart, if we really accepted this money, we would not feel at ease."

"Yes, big brother, we only want what we deserve, nothing more," said Dong Qingshan. Although he was young, he was very ambitious and echoed Qiaoqiao's opinion.

What more could be said at this point? Lin Wanrong sighed inwardly. The Dong family, father, son, and daughter, were all poor but ambitious. If he continued to push the issue, he would underestimate them. He nodded and said, "Since that's the case, I have a proposal."

"What proposal?" The Dong family had already been in awe of Lin Wanrong's intelligence and eagerly asked.

"Well, since none of us wants these five thousand taels of silver, why not use it as capital and invest in some other business to make more money?"

"Invest in business?" Dong Rende pondered for a moment and said, "Young master, what kind of business do you think would be best?" Five thousand taels of silver was not a small amount, nor was it a large one. They needed to think carefully about what kind of business to invest in.

"Qiaoqiao, what kind of business do you think we should do?" Lin Wanrong asked as he noticed Dong Qiaoqiao seemed lost in thought. Dong Qiaoqiao was an extremely clever and wise woman, and should not be underestimated.

After thinking for a moment, Dong Qiaoqiao said, "As ordinary people, we are concerned about the four basic necessities of life: clothing, food, shelter, and transportation. Clothing has already been monopolized by the Xiao family and a few other wealthy families, and the competition is intense. We don't have enough capital to enter the market. However, when it comes to food, we can consider it."

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After speaking, she looked nervously at Lin Wanrong, afraid that her words might offend him. After all, it was a disgrace for an educated person to engage in business. She was also unsure whether Lin Wanrong, who was quick-witted, would approve of her idea. If he rejected it, she wouldn't know what to do.

"Qiaoqiao, you are thinking just like me," Lin Wanrong exclaimed with a loud laugh. Dong Qiaoqiao breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Lin Wanrong with joy, eager to hear more of what he had to say.

"As the saying goes, 'food is the paramount necessity of the people.' Starting a restaurant business requires a certain amount of capital, and the size of the business is determined by the amount of capital invested. It's also relatively easy to get into the industry. However," Lin Wanrong's tone suddenly changed as he continued, "if we're only opening a small restaurant, the capital investment may not be much, but the return on investment is too low. If we're going to do it, we should aim big."

"Go big?" Dong Qiaoqiao and her father both exclaimed, not understanding what he meant.

"Yes, go big. The restaurant we're going to open not only needs to have a large space and a prime location, but also skilled chefs, excellent service, and clever pricing," Lin Wanrong said deliberately.

Even Dong Qiaoqiao, who was clever and quick-witted, didn't fully understand Lin Wanrong's words. She could understand the first few points, but how could she understand the last sentence?

Lin Wanrong looked at the three people with a puzzled expression and said with a smile, "You can understand the previous points, right? Our restaurant not only needs spacious premises, but also needs to be located in the busiest golden area. As for the craft and service, I don't need to say much. As for the pricing, hehe, we need to allocate it reasonably, with low, medium, and high levels, all of which must be available. We want the guests who visit our store to have a high-end experience and feel that we are different from others. As long as the level goes up, even if our prices are slightly higher, others can understand it. After all, you get what you pay for, and everyone can understand it. What’s more, we can also take care of our mid-end and low-end customers to ensure that they come in droves."

This speech left the Dong family father and son puzzled for a long time, and only Dong Qiaoqiao bit her lip and thought carefully about what Lin Wanrong had said, seeming to understand something.

"And," Lin Wanrong said with a mysterious smile, "we will also have occasional promotions for each level of customers, to ensure that they come in droves."

"Promotions?" This time, not only the Dong family father and son, but even Qiaoqiao was stunned. They had never heard of this term before and naturally didn't understand what it meant.

Lin Wanrong had to waste a lot of saliva explaining this new term to them. After thinking about this promotion carefully, you can't deny that it was really tempting.

The Dong family had blind trust in Lin Wanrong from the beginning. Hearing him say this, they suddenly thought that he was a master of this industry and their desire to open a restaurant became unprecedentedly strong.

This move by Lin Wanrong was very risky because he had no experience in opening a restaurant. However, this kid was bold and shameless, and dared to do anything. Besides, this five thousand two silver was earned out of thin air. Even if he lost it, he wouldn't bat an eye.

The minds of several people became active, and Dong Rende said, "Listening to Master Lin's words, I remembered something. A few days ago, the owner of Meiwei Restaurant by Xuanwu Lake said that he was getting old and wanted to pass his shop to someone else and retire to his hometown in Suzhou."

"Oh?" Lin Wanrong was very interested. Xuanwu Lake was a good place, with beautiful scenery and many people. As long as it was managed properly, the profit would not be small.