If the storefront is twenty bucks, she’ll have to pay for three months and leave a deposit for one month, just the rent alone will cost 80.
The remaining two hundred yuan should be enough to buy some items for the shop.
At noon and in the afternoon, she’d wander around the hospital area. Sometimes she’d even take a special trip to the inpatient department to understand the needs of the patients.
A day after half a month passed, Lin Wan confirmed renting the store next to the pharmacy.
"My storefront is right next to the hospital entrance, not to mention its good location, and the size is bigger than theirs, plus it comes with a small utility room. It was just renovated last year, you almost don’t need to do any renovation if you rent it. I can guarantee, once you rent this, you’ll definitely make money," the landlord said confidently, sitting beside them.
Lin Wan thought about it and decided to rent it. When she went home to get the money, she also requested to see the landlord’s property deed.
She worried about running into a second-hand landlord and didn’t want to get scammed.
Though the landlord seemed annoyed by the hassle, he agreed readily.
After returning home, Lin Wan told Liang Hongmei that she found a place, and Liang Hongmei went with her to see the shop.
Upon entering, they saw a few heavy wooden tables, leading directly to a door that opened into a small storage room, cluttered with random stuff.
Overall, it was okay; their only task was to partition an operation room.
Liang Hongmei hesitated when she heard the rent—it was too expensive, she thought. So she started discussing the price with the landlord.
Lin Wan, on the other hand, looked at the property deed and lease contract the landlord provided.
The property was indeed his, and the rental contract was designed for mutual benefit. It was well-written; Lin Wan mostly glanced at it.
By then, Liang Hongmei had negotiated the rent with the landlord: twenty bucks a month, not including utilities. Utilities should be paid according to usage.
When Lin Wan signed the contract with the landlord, she requested half a month’s time for renovation.
The landlord disagreed. They spent over two hours in the shop negotiating until the landlord reluctantly agreed to give them a week.
After signing the contract, both parties pressed their fingerprints and looked at each other’s documents.
Once they got the keys, Liang Hongmei and Lin Wan reveled for a while before starting to clean the shop.
There were four tables inside; the landlord said they were discarded by the hospital canteen, and he salvaged them. The tables were cumbersome and quite wide, taking up space. However, Lin Wan didn’t plan to replace them; they were just starting out and didn’t have much capital.
"Xiao Wan, what are we planning to sell? I recently noticed that people around here are making dumplings. If we make dumplings, will anyone eat them?" Liang Hongmei asked Lin Wan worriedly.
"Mom, let’s not do dumplings this time. We’ll make our local clay pot dishes. I’ve already planned the menu. Lotus root pork rib soup, potato chicken, braised tofu, clay pot stew, clay pot meatballs, mixed vegetable clay pot. For lunch, we’ll pair clay pots with rice, and in the evening, we’ll add some clay pot porridge, like preserved egg and lean meat porridge, red date rice porridge, pumpkin porridge."
Liang Hongmei thought it over and nodded, "You’re right, the hospital is full of patients, and the food needs to be nutritious. Mom is good at cooking the dishes Xiao Wan mentioned."
The cleanup was quite swift; in one afternoon, they tidied up the outside quite a bit.
Once the interior was cleaned, all that was left was to partition the kitchen.
The landlord knew some people and helped them find two men for ten yuan to put up a partition wall. They also hired someone for three yuan to build a stove near the wall, and Lin Wan even went to the market to buy some floor tiles to place on top.
The partitioning and bricklaying took three days. Once finished, Lin Wan and Liang Hongmei quickly sorted everything.
"Mom, let me help you."
"You go clean out the storage room, toss anything unnecessary. I see the space is big; if utilized well, it can hold a lot of stuff."