Naya stayed in Helian Mansion and went to the palace to pay her respects to the emperor and queen every day. It was said that the emperor was persecuted by her and the queen also had a headache.
Of course, the queen’s headache was fake, and she wanted Helian Xuan to return to Jinling quickly. Helian Xuan was the greatest supporter of the prince.
Su Yi and Zhao Qixuan left for the south on a sunny morning.
The branch in Suzhou had already been set up and the floor in Hangzhou had also been found. It would have been best to send Zhong Xiang to be in charge of there, but Zhong Xiang was also responsible for the teaching of the training course, and the marriage between Zhong Xiang and Jiang Yue had also been settled. Ye Jiayao was embarrassed to let the couple separate two places and dismissed the idea of sending Zhong Xiang.
In addition to Zhong Xiang, only Wang Mingde and Cui Dongpeng were suitable candidates. However, the course of Cui Dongpeng’s training class was not over yet, and Wang Mingde might not be able to take on a great job. Ye Jiayao planed to postpone it until Cui Dongpeng finished.
Tianshang Ju had launched new dishes for the New Year at a stroke, and all kinds of promotional activities were still popular. Moreover, Tianshang Ju had vigorously cultivated chefs during the closing of the national mourning, and several good budding chefs had emerged, so that Tianshang Ju would not face a situation of shortage of personnel after Wang Mingde and others left.
Everything was moving towards normal, stable and good development. Ye Jiayao was free from worries and hardly needed to take care of it. She could only turn around once in a while and be the shopkeeper without doing anything in peace and mind.
When someone started a business, he/she had to work hard for themselves. When the business reached a certain scale, it was not a good thing for he/she to do everything on their own. He/she should learn to delegate power, train all kinds of talents, give people room to play fully. Planning their own strategies and controlling the overall situation was the key. Ye Jiayao knew this.
This day, Ye Jiayao called aunt Jiang over and gave her the makeup she had prepared.
Ye Jiayao had always regarded Jiang Yue as her younger sister. Zhong Xiang was the main force in Tianshang Ju and was also her good brother. Ye Jiayao naturally could not be stingy.
Aunt Jiang looked at the gift list and was very uneasy: ” The second lady, this … this is too much. How can I take these? You have already given the Yue cake room a 20 % share. We can’t take these any more.”
Ye Jiayao said with a smile: ” Most pastry houses are staffed by Jiang Yue, and it’s right to give her a share. Besides, I regard Jiang Yue as my younger sister, and your whole family is also my family members. Do you regard me as an outsider?”
Aunt Jiang was embarrassed to say, ” We’re not welcome. It’s really the second lady who pays too much gifts to us …”
A pair of gold bracelets, a pair of golden steps, a pair of jade bracelets, a pair of jade hairpins, and a full set of silver jewelry. Damask satin could not be worn out in our lives, plus 5002 silvers and 502 golds. This was … really too much and too expensive.
These were too much more than what the Jiang family had. How could aunt Jiang feel at ease? they were not insatiable people.
” Take it, if you don’t take it, I’ll be angry,” Ye Jiayao said with a smile.
However, Aunt Jiang prevaricated and said sincerely, ” The second lady, it’s a blessing that we have been able to meet you and Heir-son Lord. Without you, we’d have to live in Black Wind Ridge in our lives. We can’t even think about the family reunion, let alone live such a safe and comfortable life now. The second lady, you and Heir-son Lord are the great benefactors of our Jiang family, and we can’t repay your kindness even doing anything for you.”
Ye Jiayao laughed: ” Don’t say that, Aunt Jiang. It’s all fate. Don’t say anything about kindness. There will are same gifts when Li marries a wife.”
Ye Jiayao was such a person. She would only be good to he/she with all her heart if someone did same to her. She wouldn’t be polite to he/she if someone wanted to hurt her.
Although aunt Jiang said that Jiang’s family benefited from she and Chunyu, if it wasn’t for uncle Jiang’s help, Chunyu’s task wouldn’t have been so smooth.The pastry house and dessert house would not have had such a good business if Jiang Yue hadn’t done her best.Last time she was imprisoned in Datong Hui, if it wasn’t for Jiang Li and uncle Jiang, Maybe Little Jing could not even know the door of the backroom.
Everyone in the Jiang family deserved her treatment.
” Ah, Li, the child, is not satisfied with several girls who I recommend to him, well, now, his younger sister will marry before him.” When it came to Jiang Li’s marriage, aunt Jiang was worried.
Arguably, the young and the old were in order. Yue would not be able to marry until Jiang Li married, but Yue was 19 this year and Zhong Xiang was 23, so she couldn’t afford to wait.
Ye Jiayao comforted: ” Marrying is the most important event in one’s life. There is no rush to get married. I go by the principle of quality over quantity. Li is now highly valued by the manufacturing bureau and has a bright future. He can find a good wife definitely.You can relax and wait slowly.”
Aunt Jiang said with a wry smile, ” I’m in a hurry to hold my grandson. I can help them with their children while I am still strong, but don’t wait for the time when I can’t hold them any more.”
” Aunt Jiang, look at what you said. You and uncle Jiang will still be so strong in ten years. Otherwise, you can go back and ask Li what kind of woman he likes, and I will help him pay attention to it.” Ye Jiayao laughed.
” That’s good.” said aunt Jiang. ” The second lady’s sight is sure to satisfy him.”
After the two women spoke for a while, aunt Jiang left first, and Ye Jiayao asked the servants to help bring the makeup to Jiang’s house.
Now Jiang’s family had set up a house outside, not far from marquis house, although it was a small house, it was very nice and warm.
Quiet down in the room, Ye Jiayao asked Qiao Xi to brew a pot of tea, and sat in front of the book case to continue her food ceremony.
This was the work that began during the period of imprisonment and it was out of control, Ye Jiayao had sorted out the dishes of northeast China, Shandong and Sichuan cuisine, and many other dishes also were sorted out. When this set of gourmet treasures was completed, it would be the most detailed and comprehensive menu book in history and would become a milestone in the history of food culture.
This job was very meaningful.
” Ah … time has passed so quickly that Jiang Yue sister is married.” There was a gentle sigh of Xiangtao from outside.
” What? You also want to get married?” Qiao Xi laughed and joked.
” I don’t want to get married. I’ve been ready to serve the second lady in my life.” Xiangtao skimmed her mouth and said.
” Come on, if you marry him, you are also able to serve the second lady. Hey, what does he mean? Why don’t you mention it? Do I help you ask him?” Qiao Xi laughed.
Xiangtao shyly said, ” I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
” Hey, you still pretend not to know. Nothing like that, huh? All right, then I don’t know anything. Don’t cry when the second lady marries you to others.”
” Come on, you’re older than me. You must marry before me.” Xiangtao said.
Ye Jiayao frowned, Xiangtao, this girl, has a sweetheart? Who? Why doesn’t she find out?
The implication in Qiao Xi’s words clearly referred to the people in marquis house, otherwise she would not have said that she could still serve her.
Who was he?
Ye Jiayao thought, suddenly it occurred to her that the man was Song Qi…
Well, she would find a chance to ask Qiao Xi.
If it was Song Qi, it would be a good marriage and she would be happy to get this marriage done.
Just thinking about it, someone outside reported that Cui Dongpeng had asked for a meeting.
Before Qiao Xi sent a message, Ye Jiayao put aside her pen and went out. She saw that there was still a suspicious flush on Xiangtao’s face, which was clearly the blushing appearance of a girl in love.
Ye Jiayao’s eyes flashed a subtle smile.
The message came from the maid of the outer court. After Ye Jiayao asked where the person was, she went straight to the antechamber.
Cui Dongpeng saw the second lady and sprinted forward: ” The second lady, Tianshang Ju is in trouble.”
Ye Jiayao looked calm and sat down: ” You speak slowly.”
Cui Dongpeng said: ” Before lunch today, many beggars came outside Tianshang Ju. At first, we didn’t care, but they still didn’t leave, so we advised them to walk away. They just sat at the door but didn’t fight or scold. A group of people dressed in rags and stinking were scared off. Beggars only left one after another after lunch, but at this moment, they came again. The second lady, depending on the situation, they clearly do it on purpose. Maybe they are instructed. What do you think we should do?”
Ye Jiayao frowned. There was something like this?
” Are they all local? Does this kind thing just happen in our Tianshang Ju or do other restaurants also have?” Asked Ye Jiayao.
Cui Dongpeng said: ” There are local accents and foreign accents, but it is not clear whether other restaurants have such a situation.”
” Didn’t they ask for anything?”
” We asked them, but they ignored us. They ate what we gave, still sat when they finished eating.” Cui Dongpeng said glumly.
Ye Jiayao wanted to think and said, ” You go to other restaurants first to find out whether there are the same matter.”
If so, there could be a famine. Communication was not developed in this era, and news was lagging behind. If the famine was caused, then she was willing to help them.
If not, they were only aiming at Tianshang Ju, so there was no doubt that this was a plot against Tianshang Ju.
A band of beggars were sitting at the door, the guests would have no appetite. If she was the guest, she must turn around and go.
Using beggars to affect the business of Tianshang Ju was hardly to be dealt with. You couldn’t beat or scold them yet. If there was a conflict, maybe those beggars would recriminate and say that you were bullying the weak in Tianshang Ju.
This kind of method was really disgusting and extremely harmful.
” In addition, you let brothers pay attention to where these beggars will go since they leave and who they contact with. ” Ye Jiayao ordered.
Originally, this kind of matter was easy to solve by asking the Ninth Lord’s people to deal with it and letting gangsters deal with beggars, but she didn’t want to trouble Ninth Lord with anything.
If they reported to an official, the government could only drive them away. If they returned after be driven out, they couldn’t do anything about it. The law didn’t stipulate that beggars couldn’t beg in front of restaurants, and they couldn’t let officers and soldiers keep at the entrance to restaurant. In this case, everyone thought that Tianshang Ju would be sealed up!
Therefore, Ye Jiayao should first find out what was going on and then decided what to do.
Cui Dongpeng was instructed to do it immediately.
