My sister became the empress, but I'm still growing vegetables and raising chickens

Sijia Restaurant proved how clean its kitchen was. After the two customers came out, they praised it highly, saying that it was much cleaner than their own kitchens.

The guests were pacified, but the official who came over only gave the two troublemakers a light punishment and a severe reprimand before letting them go.

The second sister frowned and was about to speak when the youngest sister stopped her.

The younger sister smiled brightly at the two supervisors and said, "Thank you so much for making this trip."

After saying that, he stuffed a purse into one of their hands, which contained three hundred coins.

After the people left, the second sister said unhappily, "The troublemakers didn't even apologize. The city supervisor just scolded them and let them go. And you actually thanked them and gave them money."

"If they don't, the next time something happens in our shop, they'll just have to delay it, and we'll have to work hard for a long time. This is called spending money to avoid disaster."

The second sister strongly disagreed with the younger sister's point of view, but now that the matter had calmed down and business had to continue, she didn't have time to argue with the younger sister.

After returning home, the second sister still looked unhappy, and she was even unhappy helping Si Muyan make the base.

Si Muyan felt puzzled, so she came out to ask her younger sister and found out the reason.

"You mean, Manager Hu from Fu Man Lou came to see you again? Why didn't you tell me?"

The younger sister said, "My younger brother happened to be in trouble that day. I saw that you had to prepare the base every day, comfort my younger brother, and take care of the family. It was too hard, so..."

"However, you handled it quite well. You suppressed Fu Man Lou by spreading rumors. That was great."

Originally, the younger sister felt particularly smug after handling a matter, but today, she was backfired, and her smugness was completely gone. Unexpectedly, after the elder sister learned about this, she did not blame her, but praised her instead.

"Sister, I...but I didn't expect that Fu Man Lou would treat us the same way, so..."

Si Muyan laughed. "I mean, you used the rumor method very well. What you didn't do well was to not prepare in advance. Since we knew that Shopkeeper Hu was going to deal with us, it's good to take the initiative, but you also need to be able to counter the moves. Second sister is very methodical and her reactions are not as quick as yours. She was able to do so well today because she can't tolerate any sand in her eyes and she has enough confidence in our food store's kitchen."

The younger sister nodded. "I understand, Big Sister. But I'm afraid Fu Man Lou won't let this go so easily. I'm afraid there might be more tricks up their sleeves. What should I do?"

Si Muyan thought for a moment, "Fu Man Lou isn't doing well at the moment, so I'm afraid they don't have the energy to bother us. But they're deeply troubled by public opinion. Even if we resolve our current predicament, this public opinion... or rather, the rumors, won't disappear immediately. What we need to do is take precautions."

“How can we prevent it from happening?”

Si Muyan said, "Go ask Dad to write a notice saying that our restaurant will be closed for a day to renovate the kitchen and front hall. Tomorrow, regardless of whether there are rumors or not, you should post this notice and tell tomorrow's customers, and ask them to inform other customers on your behalf. As for us, we can just open the kitchen in the future."

"Ah? Closing Mingchu...what does that mean?"

"That is, people eating in the front hall can see what's going on in the kitchen at a glance," Si Muyan said. "We're preparing and cooking food in the back, and the front hall can see it clearly. If they can see clearly, they won't worry about hygiene issues."

The younger sister said, "We don't have any hygiene problems to begin with. Big sister, you taught us so much before, requiring us to keep everything clean and tidy. Not to mention rats and bugs, even flies and ants are very rare!"

Si Muyan smiled and said, "It's useless to know it by yourself. We need to let everyone know. I'm going to the county town tomorrow to see how to change it. I'm afraid I'll have to go to the Xu family too. After all, if I want to change the layout of the house, I have to ask them."

When she heard that they were going to the Xu family, her face flushed unconsciously and she said, "Well, Fourth Brother Xu comes to our shop every day to sit for a while, so there's no need to go to the Xu family alone."

"Oh? Really?" Si Muyan sensed something was wrong and asked, "What did Fourth Master Xu do in the shop? To eat?"

"No...no, it's just...he's a businessman, and he taught me how to keep accounts, and...something else..."

Si Muyan looked at her younger sister and asked, "Was it his idea to deal with Fu Manlou this time?"

"No, that was my idea," the younger sister said quickly. "Sister, I came up with it all myself. But I was too busy to do anything else, so it was Fourth Brother Xu who helped spread those rumors."

Hearing this, Si Muyan didn't ask any more questions. She didn't know how far along her younger sister and Xu Feng were, and she didn't want to alert them. It wouldn't be too late to meet Xu Feng tomorrow and make further considerations.

The next day, Si Muyan not only asked for the shop's blueprints, but also went to a large garment shop in the county town and customized clothes, hats, and scarves according to the standards of modern restaurant chefs.

Of course, the blue of the dress was dark blue, while the apron hem and hat were light blue. White was unlucky at this time, and she wouldn't be so stupid as to dress everyone in the store in white.

As for the mouth band, it is a piece of fabric at the chin, with the inside made of starched, stiff material like shoe uppers, and the back is a strap that goes around the back of the head. This way it won't be as stuffy as a mask and won't squeeze the ears.

Because the money was needed urgently, Si Muyan gave it generously.

By the time I got back to the food store, it was already closed for the day. After yesterday's incident, business shouldn't have been affected much, but it still ended half an hour later than usual.

When Si Muyan came in, she saw that Fourth Master Xu had already arrived and was sitting next to her younger sister, looking at her with a smile. Her younger sister, with a blushing face, was fiddling with an abacus while talking to her.

Aunt Jin walked over quickly and whispered, "Miss, I see Third Miss and Fourth Master Xu are getting a little too close..."

"I see."

Aunt Jin knew what she was talking about, so she didn't say anything. Si Muyan came today, and she bought all the vegetables for the family. Tomorrow was another day off, so there was no need to buy anything else in the shop.

The younger sister looked up and saw Si Muyan, her eyes lit up: "Big sister is back, big sister, come quickly, I was just talking to Fourth Master Xu about your plan to change the layout of the shop."

Si Muyan sat next to her younger sister, facing Fourth Master Xu, and she nodded.

Fourth Master Xu also nodded and said, "You can do whatever you want with the layout of the shop. This was also arranged by the previous merchant."

"Thank you so much, Fourth Master." Si Muyan didn't say much, but only asked her younger sister, "Why are you so late today?"

The younger sister immediately said, "Sister, I thought everything was fine, but I didn't expect to hear someone say today that we did it on purpose yesterday, just to make everyone think our shop was clean, but in fact it was all hired by someone else. I'm so angry! Fortunately, our shop has always had no shortage of business!"