Compete for the Song Dynasty

When Wang Pang came to Jinxiulou, he recalled countless lovesick memories, remembering meeting Yuexia here; thinking of having a grand banquet here and getting married under Yuexia;Today, the place is deserted and dilapidated. There are only a few tables in the lobby on the first floor of the huge restaurant on the upper and lower floors.

Cui Fu, the old shopkeeper, is nearly [-] years old this year, and he is still greeting customers back and forth. Now Jinxiulou's business is in a downturn. Since Renzong's death, after a few months of national mourning, the reopening of the trading store is not as good as before.Cui Fu had no choice but to resign a lot of kitchen workers and reduce costs to support the store.In the past two days, Cui Fu vaguely heard that Wang Pang was back, and he always wanted to visit the mansion, but because there was no one to take care of him in the shop, Cui Fu didn't dare to neglect even if there were a few scattered tables of guests.

Cui Fu had just finished counting the food bills for a table. He looked up and saw someone entering the store from the corner of his head. He saw Xiao Er busy paying the bill, so he walked out of the counter and greeted him personally, saying, "Guest officer, please come inside!" Greeting the king.

Wang Pang knew Cui Fu for four or five years, but there were many events in this year: first, Renzong died, and then Bao Zheng passed away. Originally, the people in the capital were always sad, and Jinxiu Tower met Wang Pang again. Due to expenditures, the business in the capital suffered a setback, and Wang Pang's mansion was not peaceful.This old shopkeeper Cui Fu has been very troubled and anxious for more than a year. His temples are gray and his eyes are blurred after more than a year. When he approached Wang Pang and spoke, he did not recognize Wang Pang.

"Shopkeeper Cui, how have you always been?" Seeing Cui Fu's appearance, Wang Pang couldn't help sighing in his heart. Back then, he persuaded Cui Fu to continue operating Renhe Building. The shopkeeper took great pains to work hard, and he treated it as his own business. [

Cui Fu heard the voice of the man was familiar, squinted his eyes carefully, and recognized Wang Pang, immediately the wrinkles on his face piled up, and the man burst into a smile: "Young master, are you here?! I was talking about today Go to the mansion to take a look. Hurry up, Xiaoer, make some hot tea for the young master." He hurriedly greeted.

Wang Pang found a table and sat down, and let Cui Fu sit down. The old and the young hadn't seen each other for more than a year, and they always wanted to talk. Wang Pang said, "Old shopkeeper, thank you for your hard work. It's so deserted, why didn't you tell the family? The labor cost of this huge store is not small, how can it maintain with so few customers?"

Cui Fu smiled foolishly: "What are you talking about, the business of the house is not limited to this one, if I said that the house should subsidize this side, now the house is also difficult. I won't talk about it!"

Wang Pang took Cui Fu's hand and said, "Old shopkeeper, what are you talking about? At the beginning I advised you to stay and manage this store. You are so meticulous. Now that the business is not good, it should be subsidized here."

Cui Fu patted Wang Pang's hand. In his heart, Wang Pang was his boss and a child at the same time.Cui Fu has watched Wang Pang grow up these years, and he said with shame: "Young master, thanks to your help, I was able to stay and watch this business. It has been difficult to do business in recent years. Steward Lu knows the truth. I don’t ask the store to pay the bills for a month. If I took care of the shop myself in the early years, I’m afraid I wouldn’t even be able to pay the rent and government tax. We have no rent for the store now, and a few customers are enough to pay the government tax. Qingshan will not worry about running out of firewood, as long as you come back, the days will be long."

Listening to Cui Fu's words, Wang Ping knew that Xiao Lu had done enough to take care of Jinxiu Building, but now how could the meager income be enough for labor?He looked into the store and asked, "Master Cui, why don't you see your nephew Cui Xi?"

"Well, to tell you the truth, my son, when the business of our store started to go downhill, I sent Cui Xi back to his hometown first. Back then you gave the store money, and I gave some to the child so that he could go back to his hometown to marry a wife and farm the land. He is worthy of the child. If he is determined, he can learn a lot here. It would be better to open a small inn or something like this than to waste time here. I am also afraid that he will learn to be smart and lazy."

Cui Fu pointed to the mistress in the store and said to Wang Pang: "The mistresses left now are all helpless children. These are still young masters, so they will listen to your master Zhang Yi and help arrange some homes. Returnable children. The children taken in by your master at that time are now able to do something at the age of [-], and it is better for them to be apprentices here than to go outside to suffer."

Wang Pang nodded. Master Zhang Yi, the leader of the group, has adopted many orphans. In recent years, some children have gradually grown up. He himself was entrusted by the master. Just set up some work.Thinking about it, Wang looked at the dishes ordered by the scattered tables.

Seeing Wang Pang staring at the food on the table, Cui Fu suddenly remembered that it was time for meal, and hurriedly said, "My lord, you haven't eaten yet."

It is true that Wang Pang still had an empty stomach after running around all morning. He nodded and said, "You can just let them order food. I haven't eaten Jinxiu Lou's food for a long time. You can accompany me and our men to have a drink or two."

Cui Fu's eyes turned red with joy: "Okay! I'll go right away!" As he said that, he went to Zhang Luo himself, and came back after a while, holding a plate in his hand with a jug of wine and some cold dishes on it.

"Come on, shopkeeper Cui, I'll fill you up!" Wang Pang said, pouring warm wine into Cui Fu's wine glass. "Treasurer Cui, I just looked at the food on these tables, and the money collected is really not enough for the expenses. I heard Xiao Lu said that you subsidize it yourself every month. How embarrassing is that to me."

"Hey, I'm an old man. I made a lot of money with my son in the past few years. Now my nephew is considered stable. I just leave a coffin book. There are no pictures. I know everything about Jinxiang Mansion. , and, alas! Misfortune also happened to Madam. Not to mention anything else, I, an old man, will have hope if I can survive until you come back." Cui Fu said with red eye circles, and hastily wiped it with the sleeve of his robe.

After hearing this, Wang Pang's heart felt hot, and just as he was about to speak, Xiao Er Duan brought out some hot stir-fried vegetables and put them on the table. Some guests who were eating raised their heads and asked, "What's the smell? It's so fragrant?"

"Shopkeeper, you are partial, why don't you serve us this stir-fried dish." The person who spoke was a regular customer of Jinxiu Building, and when he came, he just had a sip of wine and some noodle soup.He asked Cui Fu with a haha.

Cui Fu squinted his eyes and replied loudly with a smile: "Now that coal is in short supply, we dare not make a fuss. Isn't this our son's return? From now on, the old ones will have a good fortune!"

The guest laughed and said: "That's great, it's a good thing that the prince is back, come and give me a toast!" He raised his glass to the table next to the king.When the other customers heard that Wang Pang was back, although there were not many tables in the store, they immediately became lively and shouted: "Your Majesty!"

Wang Pang was moved in his heart, raised his glass and said: "Thank you for your care, I Wang Pang is back, don't worry, everyone, our Jinxiu Building will become the first one in the capital!" Huo, everyone here today will get a stir fry for each table, and it will be counted on my account." [

After a while, the dishes of Jinxiulou were fragrant and the guests were smiling. Cui Fu felt the long-lost joy rushing over his face. "It's good that the son is back." He couldn't help muttering.

Wang saw that Cui Fu had drunk a few glasses of wine, his face was flushed, and he asked Cui Fu while drinking: "Cui shopkeeper, you are very experienced. Our business in Jinxiu Building is slow now. What is the reason for your analysis? Now the restaurant business in the capital How? What are the dishes in the market that attract customers?"

Hearing Wang Pang's question, Cui Fu put down the cup in his hand and said, "To tell you the truth, my lord, Jinxiulou used to be famous, and many outsiders came here from the capital. Didn't we have people everywhere in the first few years? What do you say about that?" For the franchised stores. Those stores have not been able to supply coal in the past year, and many of the hot dishes have stopped. Now some of our Jinxiulou's stores in other places have lost their signs, which has also affected our main store. What's more, our Here, there is not so much coal, so I dare not open a fire. This is one of them!"

"Secondly, now the big and small shops in the capital are basically not much better than our business. We are not the only one that lacks coal, and we don't do other shops that we don't do. Besides, we haven't had new dishes for a long time, so we can't attract customers. Also, you see In our store, there used to be birthday banquets, and dignitaries often came here when you were here. Now that Emperor Renzong passed away, the imperial court changed officials like a lantern. How dare you hold a big banquet in such a ostentatious manner."

Listening to Cui Fu's words, Wang Pang thought to himself, it seems that the restaurant is in a downturn, and it's not his own family.Cui Fu was still talking: "Don't say that people can't buy coal now, but there are a few good restaurants that can buy some coal at a high price, but their food prices are also expensive, and they may not be able to make more money looking at the boom. My son, I Seeing that this coal is not easy to buy, it is difficult for us to do business, and we may have to wait until the beginning of next spring." Cui Fu sighed again as he spoke.

Wang Pang took a sip of wine, his body gradually became warmer, but he still felt that the store was a little cold, the diners had almost left, Xiao Er was busy cleaning up the leftovers.Wang Pang knew that not only were there few guests, but they also sat there for a short time.He pondered in his heart that the coal issue might not be easy to solve, and the most he could think of right now was to solve the temporary coal consumption of the people in the capital. Where could there be more to take care of the hotel's consumption?He touched the plate, and the dishes he had just fried had become cold.

Have!Wang Pang rolled his eyes: "Master Cui, is mutton expensive in the market now?"

"Mutton? Most of those fishy things are eaten by the Khitan people. There are few people who eat mutton in the Central Plains. We don't have much mutton in our dishes. The mutton in the market is not expensive. Why did you think of asking this? " Cui Fu returned puzzled.

"Okay! I remembered that when I was on a mission to Xixia, I once cooked a dish for the emperor of Xixia. Shopkeeper Cui, now that there is less coal, can there be more carbon?"

Cui Fu thought for a while: "Carbon is easy to find, but carbon can't be used for heating or cooking, so what is it used for?"

"It's easy to handle. If you come to my house tomorrow, I have a good idea to revive our Jinxiu Building!"

"Okay! I knew it, you must have a solution when you come back!" Cui Fu said happily.