Ancient times were not like modern times, and opening a large company required a certain number of shareholders. For a restaurant like Hao Cheng, as long as she was strong enough, it would be no problem for her to invest alone.
If Hao Cheng accepted the investment from Qiao Mu and other female monarchs, he would have to listen to their instructions. If only Jiang Mengzhen and she opened a restaurant together, Hao Cheng would have a much greater say.
But she also had her own concerns: "I have considered what you said. It is not convenient to talk outside. I will talk to you in detail after we get inside."
The alley was not very far from Hao Cheng's residence. The two walked side by side for a while. After all, they had no official relationship, so they did not walk together hand in hand in public. Instead, they kept a distance of 20 centimeters between them and then entered the courtyard one after the other.
Hao Cheng waited for Jiang Mengzhen to enter her bedroom, but she didn't say anything. She went into her room, thought for a while, and then put down the bolt. She then mentioned the reason for her repeated concerns: "I mentioned before that Sister Qiao is the second daughter of the mayor of Mingzhou City, and Qiao Yu is her most beloved brother. If you have enough money, it would be no problem for the two of us to open a restaurant. But after opening the restaurant, it will only depend on the two of us in the future, which may cause a lot of trouble."
Officials are required to be honest, at least they cannot do business in a serious manner, but those shops have such high profits that it is impossible for officials not to be jealous. The husbands of officials can open shops directly, and officials can also actually control profitable shops in secret.
This is the most famous brothel in the red-light district of Mingzhou City, and the backers behind it are people in the imperial court. Since she wants to do business, Qiao Mu is the best person to protect her. With Qiao Mu around, she can avoid a lot of troubles. Even if someone wants to cause trouble, it will be easy to solve it with the power of the Qiao family.
Jiang Mengzhen owns many shops, so of course he cannot be ignorant of the intricacies involved. He does not have much power in Mingzhou City, so it is not impossible for him to take care of this one frequently, but it is troublesome and takes time.
Qiao Shan has been the city lord for more than ten years, and the Qiao family has flourished here. If he wants to intervene, he will definitely not be as good as Qiao Mu, the daughter of the Mingzhou City lord.
Jiang Mengzhen looked gloomy: "Then you can't bring that Mr. Qiao with you either."
Hao Cheng looked at him and said, "If I let Qiao Mu get involved, do you want me to close this restaurant?"
Jiang Mengzhen remained silent, but his expression showed his attitude. Hao Cheng felt like he was holding his breath, but he couldn't let it out at once, so he said patiently: "This restaurant is my own business. Even if Qiao Mu is there, I have to run it well. Even if you are unwilling, I will not give in on this point."
Jiang Mengzhen's family background was obviously extraordinary, but Hao Cheng never thought of relying on him to get rich. If they were already married, husband and wife, and the resources in the hands of the other party could help her achieve her goals more easily, she would not be stupid enough to suffer all kinds of contempt, look at other people's faces, and work hard to achieve results that were not even worthy of Jiang Mengzhen's eyes.
But their relationship now is nothing but that of a benefactor and a rescued person. When they talk about feelings, it is just a period of adjustment in which they are secretly determined to fall in love. In ancient times when marriages were arranged by parents and matchmakers, it meant nothing.
Even though it was very important to Jiang Mengzhen, if her career was all completed by Jiang Mengzhen, she would feel that she was inferior. It sounds ridiculous. It is the same whether you rely on outsiders or insiders. The key is to strive for success yourself to climb up step by step. But for Hao Cheng, this is very different.
Jiang Mengzhen's expression changed several times, but it was never very good. He paused and wanted to say something, but Hao Cheng changed the subject at this time.
"Let's not talk about the restaurant for now, let's talk about your family background first. You know everything about me. My parents were born and raised in Xinghua Village, but they passed away early. When I saved you, it was not long after their seventh day of mourning. Other than that, I only have one relative in this world, my uncle, but I don't have a good relationship with him."
She thought for a moment and explained her property. "I have three thousand two and a half taels of silver and a set of tools for making pancakes. I rented this house. There are about eight months left before the lease ends. I bought Dong Xue and Wang Yang with my own money, and they signed life contracts. As for the rest, my current plan is to open a restaurant and prepare for the imperial examination next year. The origin of this money is absolutely clean."
When she came here, she only had a few hundred taels of silver in her hand. She earned only a few hundred taels of silver from selling pancakes for less than a month and a half. The remaining two thousand taels of silver was earned from selling the house. The buyer asked her to keep it confidential, and she did not intend to reveal the detailed source of the money.
Jiang Mengzhen didn't plan to ask her where she got so much money. After all, several thousand taels of silver was not a large sum of money for him. "Only three thousand taels of silver, is it enough to open a restaurant?"
Land in the center of Mingzhou city is extremely expensive, and just buying the deed for the restaurant would cost almost this much.
"The land was bought by Sister Qiao, and she used the land deed as a share of the restaurant. I provided the manpower, and was responsible for the redecoration and design, as well as the money for the various dishes."
When it comes to contribution, of course she, who is responsible for the restaurant, has to contribute more. Qiao Mu's existence is to provide shelter and collect bonuses. When the restaurant's operation is on the right track, she can also be a hands-off manager, leaving everything to the subordinates and keeping a tight control on the account books.
"If you don't like Qiao Yu, I will discuss it with Sister Qiao, but I'm not sure. Others are already on the sidelines, so it's okay to refuse." She was not sure about Qiao Yu's matter, and she couldn't say it too firmly. After all, judging from Qiao Mu's attitude, she was a doting brother. If she refused Qiao Yu's investment on the grounds that she didn't like Qiao Yu, Qiao Mu would probably turn hostile too. She could only see whether Qiao Yu was interested in it or not.
After saying this, Hao Cheng realized that he had been diverted from the topic again: "Okay, let's not talk about this this time. Let's go back to the past. Tell me who you were originally, what kind of life you lived, and whether you have any brothers and sisters at home. What happened when you fell off the cliff? Even if you were being hunted by someone, I can accept it. I just don't want you to hide anything."
The family situation of the scholar couldn't be simpler, but Jiang Mengzhen's was much more complicated. He hesitated for a long time, but under Hao Cheng's gaze, he still told his own situation. Of course, he was vague about the details, and mainly talked about the results rather than the process.
He began by talking about his family background: "My biological father died young, my grandmother passed away when I was three, my grandfather passed away four years ago, and my mother remarried the son of the Minister of Revenue when I was seven. My mother never took a concubine, but she had a docile concubine. When I was ten, my stepfather gave birth to a younger sister for the Jiang family. As for my grandmother, I have a good cousin who is the granddaughter of the Duke of Ying. She also opened a fairly large bookstore, and I also have a share of the annual dividends from that bookstore."
Hao Cheng nodded, the structure was not too complicated.
He glanced at Hao Cheng's face and said carefully, "In addition to the bookstore, I also own two jewelry stores, both in the capital, as well as a restaurant and a teahouse. All in all, I make several thousand taels of silver a month."
This was only the apparent income, his income was even greater in secret. After his previous wife died, the general's mansion was basically emptied by him, not to mention his dowry. His stepfather had successfully tricked him in choosing a marriage partner. The dowry was prepared by his biological father a long time ago, and even his mother would not treat him harshly in this regard. Hao Cheng's several thousand taels were really not taken seriously by him.
She knew Jiang Mengzhen was rich, but she didn't expect him to be so rich. It's like she was an ordinary salaried worker with a monthly salary of 10,000 yuan, but the person she was dating suddenly told her that her family had assets worth hundreds of millions and had millions of income every month.
The income gap was so huge that Hao Cheng's first reaction was not to be happy that a big pie had fallen from the sky, but to retreat, for she was afraid that the pie was so big that it would choke her to death.
Seeing her expression, Jiang Mengzhen no longer cared about the reservedness that a man should have, and hurriedly grabbed her hand: "You said it yourself just now, you will never back down."
Hao Cheng forced a smile: "I promised, I will never regret it, go on, tell me, what is the identity of your dead wife, why did your stepfather let you marry her? Why did she die? What happened?" She would not easily regret what she promised. They had already kissed, and Jiang Mengzhen was a serious person. She had to bite the bullet and go forward even if there were mountains of swords and seas of fire ahead.
Modern boyfriends and girlfriends will also ask about their exes when they are in love. She didn't know Jiang Mengzhen at all, and this aspect might very well involve the difficulties and obstacles she would encounter, so she had to ask clearly.
Jiang Mengzhen grabbed her hand tighter, but his thoughts suddenly drifted back to several years ago.