The whole family traveled through ancient times to start a new business

Zhou Huilan has been busy these days, constantly thinking about the restaurant, and even went to the porcelain kiln to order a lot of tableware. She has also basically decided on the menu.

That night, everyone returned to their rooms. Zhou Huilan said to Su Andong, "Let's look for chili peppers! You know a lot of people, help me find chili peppers! I think there must be chili peppers, but people haven't eaten them yet. If we find them, we can open a hot pot restaurant or a Sichuan restaurant, and it will definitely make money."

Su An Dong nodded and said, "Now that you mention it, I am a little greedy. Ask Yuan Yuan to draw the peppers, and I will ask someone later."

Zhou Huilan said happily, "Okay, I'll let Yuanyuan draw it tomorrow." She was also craving for hot pot. Even if she didn't open a restaurant, it would be nice to find some and cook it herself.

Su An Dong spoke again: "I estimate that in the next two days, the people from the pawnbroker will come to you. The transfer order has been issued, and the prefect will start selling the shop. I guess he wants to sell me a good deal, so he will be happy to sell the shop to you, and the price will not be high. If there is a suitable one, we will buy it if they sell it. As long as the price is not outrageous and is within a reasonable range, we don't have to be soft-hearted, just buy it. But we also have to judge the size and don't fall into their trap."

When Zhou Huilan heard that the shop was promising, she said happily, "Don't worry, I will get the size right."

Early the next morning, before breakfast, Zhou Huilan found Su Yuanyuan, explained the reason to her, and asked her to draw a pattern of chili peppers.

Su Yuanyuan was also very happy when she heard this. If she could really find peppers, no matter what kind, as long as she could find them, she could make a lot of delicious dishes! She didn't realize it until she heard Zhou Huilan mention it. Now that Su Yuanyuan had started to miss hot pot, spicy hot pot, mao xue wang, boiled beef, and twice-cooked pork.

Su Yuanyuan drew many pictures of peppers, of all kinds, everything she had seen, some with only the pepper fruits, and some with the seedlings.

This is also thanks to Su Yuanyuan's childhood memories. When Su Yuanyuan and Su Zhihao were young, they were taken back to the countryside by Mrs. Su. For several years, every summer vacation, Mrs. Su would take them back to the countryside to stay for a few days. So Su Yuanyuan had seen what pepper vines looked like. Otherwise, it would be a little difficult to draw now just relying on Zhou Huilan's description!

After Su Yuanyuan finished painting, Zhou Huilan took the drawing paper and gave it to Su Anton, asking him to find it as soon as possible.

Just as Su Anton said, the next day, someone from the dental clinic came to the door and said that there was a suitable shop and they wanted Zhou Huilan to go and take a look.

Zhou Huilan had known what was going on, so she was very calm. She asked Mrs. Su, Su Yuanyuan, Zhao Yun, and Li Hongmei to go to the dental clinic together. Mrs. Su was too lazy to bother, so she told Zhou Huilan to make her own decision and she would not go.

When they arrived at the brokerage, they saw the man selling the shop. As Su Anton said, the shop belonged to the prefect, and the man selling the shop was the prefect's housekeeper.

The housekeeper was very polite to Zhou Huilan, and the group went to the shop.

The shop is in a great location, on a busy street. The whole street is very lively. It has three floors, an attic, and a spacious backyard. It used to be a restaurant, with the kitchen in the backyard and a well.

Zhou Huilan didn't show it on her face, but she was very satisfied with this shop in her heart.

The housekeeper said, "Before I came here, my wife had already told me that if I am lucky enough to sell this shop to Madam Su, it would be great."

Zhou Huilan said politely, "Madam, you are too polite. If everything is suitable, I will buy it."

The prefect's family did want to sell the Su family a good thing, but after all, their official position was higher than Su Anton's, and they didn't want to appear to be so deliberate, so the shop had to be sold to a pawnbroker and could not be sold to the Su family privately.

The wife of the prefect didn't make much money when she opened a restaurant in this shop before. The business was mediocre, and she didn't want to do it anymore. But she felt it was a bit embarrassing to close the shop, so she just kept on trying to support it. After knowing that she was going to be transferred, she closed the shop as a matter of course. Now that the shop has been sold, the wife of the prefect doesn't feel bad at all.

The housekeeper quoted a price, which was indeed not expensive, 90% of the market price. Zhou Huilan was very satisfied.

The reason why it was 90% was because the transfer order was very tight, and this shop was not profitable, so the wife of the prefect wanted to sell it as soon as possible; and a shop with poor business was indeed not as easy to sell as a shop with good business. In addition, there were many transfers of officials in Nanling Prefecture recently, and many shops would suddenly emerge on the market. It was not appropriate to sell at a high price at this time. In addition, she really wanted to sell Su Anton a good one.

Zhou Huilan did not bargain, but only asked to sell the chairs and other things in the shop. The housekeeper agreed very happily. In this way, the restaurant shop was sold smoothly, and the group went to the government office to handle the contract.

The housekeeper said to Zhou Huilan politely, "Madam Su, my family still has a few shops to buy. I wonder if you are interested in buying them. I can take you to the shops to have a look."

Zhou Huilan was naturally interested when she heard this, and the group went to look at those shops again.

These shops are not far from this restaurant.

There are three shops next to each other, two of which are two-story shops and one is one-story. All of them have courtyards, but the sizes of the courtyards are different. And they are just across the restaurant shop they just bought. Zhou Huilan and Su Yuanyuan think it is very suitable to open Lanhuifang and Xunxiangfang.

Xunxiangfang was the name Su Yuanyuan gave to the shop that sold facial cream and perfume. She even had a name for the beverage shop, which was called Fruit Drink.

The two of them thought about buying all three shops. One would be used to open Lanhuifang, and one would be used to open a beverage store. As for the remaining two-story shop, they would buy it first, as it was rare to find shops that were next to each other for sale. If there was no suitable business to do after buying it, they could just rent it out.

There were several more shops, but none of them were suitable, so Zhou Huilan didn't buy any. After all, the Su family wasn't that wealthy now, and didn't have the financial resources to buy any shops at will.

I bought these shops smoothly, and went to the government office to transfer the ownership and get the title deeds.

After buying the shop, the group returned home.

In the evening, Su An Dong returned home, and Zhou Huilan told him about buying a shop today.

Su An Dong said, "We haven't bought all the shops yet! There's also a beverage shop and a hot and sour noodle shop. Go to the dental shop next time and help me keep an eye out for shops. I want to buy a shop for the office to sell its products. It'd be better if it's bigger, a two-story one would be fine."

Zhou Huilan said, "Okay, no problem. I'll help you take a look. Can't I just pick the second-floor store that has more shops than the one I bought today?"

Su An Dong said, "No. It's not good to be right next to our shop. It can be closer, but not right next to it. And you've already bought it, so it's not good to buy it from you. We should avoid suspicion. Let's just keep the shop for ourselves! Just think of it as accumulating family property."

Zhou Huilan nodded and said, "I see. I also want to tell you about the hot and sour noodle shop. I plan to let my eldest and second sisters-in-law run the shop, and I won't get involved. I think, just treat this shop as my mother's family. I will ask them to give 20% of the profit to my mother, what do you think?"

20% of the profit from the hot and sour noodle shop is given to Old Lady Su, which means that Old Lady Su can spend the 20% of the profit as she likes, and it is entirely up to Old Lady Su to decide. Su Anton naturally understood what Zhou Huilan meant.

Su An Dong replied: "Okay, you can do whatever you want. Don't worry! Our family won't have any objections."

Su An Dong thought that the Su family would not have any objections given their character. Moreover, even if they had any objections, they probably wouldn't dare to express them. Moreover, the shop was run by his wife, and she could do whatever she wanted. It was her freedom. Who dared to have any objections?

The next day, Zhou Huilan told the Su family about the hot and sour noodle shop. As Su An Dong expected, no one in the Su family had any objections.

Zhou Huilan went to her eldest and second sisters-in-law to tell them about this. When they heard it, they felt a little embarrassed. This was clearly taking advantage of Zhou Huilan. Originally, she went to work in the store, but later it became a profit sharing. Now, it almost became their Zhou family's store.

Mrs. Zhou said, "Little sister, this won't work. Let's just do it the way we did before. Giving you only 20% profit is too low. We can't do that. This is already very considerate of us. You tell me who you hire to work, you just pay them wages, you can't give them so much profit! That's it, we have already borrowed a lot from my family."

Zhou Huilan said, "You also said that you are my mother's family. We are not outsiders, so I will naturally side with you. And I am doing this for the children in my family. They will need money to get married in the future. And Jiazhi and Jiaxin are also taking the imperial examination, and studying is very expensive."

When Mrs. Zhou and Mrs. Zhou Er heard what Zhou Huilan said, they knew that she was right and were shaken, but they were still afraid of being blamed by their father-in-law.

Zhou Huilan knew their concerns and continued, "Don't worry, I'll talk to Dad, he won't blame you. Our family needs this business. But I still want to leave 20% for my mother-in-law."

Mrs. Zhou hurriedly said, "It's only right to keep 20%. This is already too little. Little sister, if you do this, will the Su family have any thoughts about you?"

Zhou Huilan smiled and said, "Don't worry, sister-in-law. I've already told the Su family, and no one objects." She raised her eyebrows and continued playfully, "You don't know what I'm capable of. No one will object to what I do."

Zhou Dasao and Zhou Ersao were relieved when they heard this. They were very grateful that their sister-in-law cared so much about them, and they remembered this kindness.

Zhou Huilan found Zhou Lizheng again and told him about the hot and sour noodle shop.

Zhou Lizheng was silent for a few seconds and then said, "Huilan! Thank you! I won't make excuses. The Zhou family took advantage of you. I will explain this matter to the children at home. Our entire Zhou family will accept your kindness."

When Zhou Huilan heard this, she hurriedly said, "Dad, don't be so polite. I am also a daughter of the Zhou family, so I naturally hope that our Zhou family will get better and better. This is my contribution to the Zhou family as a daughter."

Zhou Lizheng was moved to tears by what Zhou Huilan said. He really didn't expect that one day he would borrow the strength of his little daughter like this. It really paid off that he loved her so much.

Afterwards, Zhou Lizheng gave the Zhou family a good lesson, emphasizing Zhou Huilan's contribution to the Zhou family, so that the Zhou family would remember Zhou Huilan's kindness. He also told the children in the family, especially the students, to study hard so that they could support Zhou Huilan in the future and let her have a family to rely on.

The children of the Zhou family were all sensible and they all remembered the kindness of their aunt.

After deciding on the hot and sour noodle shop, Zhou Huilan began to work on the decoration of the shop.

This is when the advantage of having manpower comes into play. No matter what ideas Zhou Huilan has, as long as she speaks them out, someone from the Zhou family will carry them out.

In order to save costs, Zhou Huilan repainted all the semi-new tables and chairs in the restaurant and shop, intending to continue using them. In addition to the tables and chairs, all the places in the shop that needed to be painted were repainted, and the walls were also repainted.

I have to say that the former prefect's wife had a good vision. The foundation of this store is not bad and the layout is also very good. It does not need too many changes. Just make the private room more refined and take care of some details, and that will basically be it.

The plaque had to be remade, but Zhou Huilan hadn't picked a name yet. After two days of struggling, she really didn't want to pick this name, so she went to find Old Lady Su and said, "Mom, please pick a name for the restaurant!"

Mrs. Su knew that her daughter-in-law was really unwilling to choose this name, so she took over the task. She really thought about it for two days and finally chose the name "Huiweilou".

Zhou Huilan was quite satisfied with this name.

Zhou Huilan started to try cooking with Li Hongmei at Su's house again. Every time a dish was ready, they would arrange it on a plate and ask Su Yuanyuan to draw it to use for making the menu.

Su Yuanyuan specially prepared paints to make the menu colorful so that it would be more eye-catching. Su Yuanyuan tried her best to make it look more like the real thing and more beautiful, but it was certainly not as good as the photo, but she tried her best to make it perfect.

The paper used for the menu was also specially selected by Su Yuanyuan, and several layers were glued on to make the paper hard. After drawing one set, Su Yuanyuan drew seven more sets according to the one she had drawn, making a total of eight menus.

Each page of the prepared menu will have several holes punched on the left side, and then be strung together with a braided colored string, so that if a page of the menu is damaged, it can be easily replaced.

Su Yuanyuan also classified the menu, with hot and cold dishes divided into meat dishes, vegetarian dishes, staple foods and desserts.

Zhou Huilan and Li Hongmei loved the menu as soon as they saw it, and praised Su Yuanyuan. Zhou Huilan even said, "She is worthy of being my daughter, she is so smart."

Su Yuanyuan thought to herself: Yes, yes, the good ones are like mothers, and the bad ones are like fathers. But she only dared to say this in her heart, and she didn't dare to say it directly to Zhou Huilan.