Xiao Changyi said quietly, "Can’t bear to."
An Jing was even happier, her heart sweetened to death, until they left the county and there were no people on the road. Then An Jing turned back and gave Xiao Changyi a big kiss on his lips.
Xiao Changyi then felt discontent.
Before they knew it, it was the second day of the second month. That day, Wang Youbao came to find An Jing and Xiao Changyi to give them the money the tavern had earned the previous month.
By the beginning of last month, Qian Wei Tavern had already broken even and entered the profit-making state. By the end of the month, Qian Wei Tavern had earned a total of eight thousand taels, split fifty-fifty; both An Jing and Xiao Changyi received four thousand taels each.
"Here," Wang Youbao placed four one-thousand-tael silver notes on the table, and then pushed them across to An Jing and Xiao Changyi.
Regarding the tavern’s speed in making money, it was a bit beyond An Jing’s imagination. She looked at the four silver notes for a long while before sighing, "The business of this tavern is just too good."
"Isn’t it," said Wang Youbao with a smile all over his face, "at first, the business was good enough because of the secret seasoning you guys provided. Later on, you introduced the double compensation rule, and now the business is simply too good. The servers are too busy to keep up. I had to hire a few more servers to work at our tavern a few days ago."
At this rate of earning money, it would take less than four years for her to buy at least two hundred thousand dan of grain for storage.
Thinking this, An Jing was very happy, naturally tightening her interlocked fingers with Xiao Changyi under the table.
Xiao Changyi felt An Jing’s joy and slightly curved the corners of his mouth. As always, when she was happy, he was happy.
"Changyi, An Jing, there’s something I want to discuss with you," Wang Youbao suddenly spoke up again, his expression quite serious.
An Jing asked, "What’s the matter?"
Wang Youbao then said, "It’s about my Hundred Dishes Restaurant. I’m thinking of converting it into a branch of Qian Wei Tavern, selling the same dishes as our Qian Wei Tavern does. Then, the money earned will also be split fifty-fifty... What do you guys think?"
An Jing laughed, "As long as you don’t think you’re at a loss, we have no objections."
"How would I be at a loss?" Wang Youbao laughed, "The dishes enhanced by your secret seasoning are selling extremely well at Qian Wei Tavern, and that’s why I thought of converting Hundred Dishes Restaurant into a branch. I will not lose out."
Hearing this, An Jing no longer talked about whether it was a loss or not, but said, "Since you want to convert Hundred Dishes Restaurant into a branch of Qian Wei Tavern, don’t waste the dishes sold previously with fermented tofu. Continue to sell them in the tavern. It means Qian Wei Tavern will have quite a few more signature dishes."
Wang Youbao said, "That’s exactly what I was thinking." The more unique signature dishes that other taverns don’t have, the busier the business at their tavern.
"By the way," An Jing suddenly remembered something, "Youbao, we were thinking of buying some farmland from you. I don’t know if you’re willing to sell. If not, it’s okay, we’ll just buy from the government."
Wang Youbao said, "That depends on how much you want to buy from me. My father left me ten thousand mu of good farmland. I’m only willing to sell up to thirty percent of it. The rest, I need to keep for collecting rent."
Ten thousand mu of good farmland...
If she didn’t know Wang Youbao’s character, An Jing really would have thought he was showing off to them.
An Jing was silent for a moment then exchanged a glance with Xiao Changyi before saying, "We’re not buying that much, just three mu. We would prefer if these three mu were close to our home and contiguous. What do you think?"