Jiang Mengzhen was extremely stubborn. Although Old Master Lin was dissatisfied, he still had no way to deal with him: "It's okay for me to help you, but you have to let me see you first. And the betrothal gift, what she brings out can't be shabby..."
Old Master Lin made a number of requests, some of which were reasonable, while some were inevitably too harsh for Hao Cheng.
Jiang Mengzhen said: "I will definitely let you see her when the time comes, but regarding the betrothal gifts, I'm afraid she won't be able to prepare so much in such a short time."
When a wealthy family marries a man of low status, they usually bring out an extremely generous dowry, and the betrothal gift is only symbolic.
Old Master Lin patted his hands and said, "Listen to me on this matter. You stay in the capital. I will have someone write a letter to tell her these conditions and then have that person come back to report back."
Seeing Jiang Mengzhen's expression, he added: "Men should be more reserved, otherwise, if something is too easy to get, the girl will not know how to cherish it. If she really wants to marry you, she will give you this show even if she has to borrow money and sell all her property. What's more, you are marrying her with so much property, how can she not have any sincerity at all?"
Jiang Mengzhen didn't agree with that. Not to mention whether the messenger would tell the truth. Even if she reported it truthfully, different people would describe the feeling differently based on Hao Cheng's reaction.
As for the word reserved, he could be said to be shameless before, but now, to say reserved would only make people feel pretentious. He could listen to Mr. Lin on small matters, and he naturally had his own ideas and sense of propriety on these matters.
However, he did not intend to say these words directly to Mr. Lin. After all, he had to consider the old man's face.
Hao Cheng, who was being thought of, didn't know that Jiang Mengzhen had already settled the marriage with Mr. Lin. After some minor friction with Qiao Mu that day, she still focused on the restaurant's affairs.
On the day of the opening, the first group of people arranged by Hao Cheng entered the restaurant first among the ordinary customers. People tend to follow the crowd, and when they see a restaurant with a long queue, they will praise it and follow it to try something new.
Hao Cheng used common marketing methods, such as discounts in the first three days of opening, a grading system, and the presence of friends and relatives. Whether a restaurant can be prosperous or not, the decoration and service are certainly important, but the most important thing is the taste.
Hao Cheng came to help out in the store three days ago. Although she was the boss, she was exhausted. She had to greet those who were happy and send away those who were looking for trouble. There were also some customers who were fussy and difficult to serve, and small frictions occurred constantly.
But even though she was tired, seeing the silver was worth it. On the first day, the business was good, and the income reached 500 taels of silver. According to the conversion rate of that era, in her living world, the hotel's daily turnover was 50,000 yuan.
This restaurant has three floors. The first floor is for the common people, and there is a stage for storytellers. It doesn't make much money, but it is mainly to attract customers. The second floor is slightly more upscale, with private rooms. The decoration of the third floor can be described as luxurious, and the charges are also high.
However, as the income was high, the costs were also high. Excluding the costs and the expense of treating those people to a meal, the profit on the first day was only one or two taels of silver.
Her investment in this restaurant was almost 40,000 taels of silver. Assuming she made a net profit of 100 taels a day, it would take more than a year to recover the investment.
Fortunately, the income and profit doubled on the second day, and reached a peak on the third day. Hao Cheng checked the account book and found that the main source of income was from the middle and lower levels. After all, her restaurant had just started and was not well-known, and those real rich businessmen who loved to show off rarely came to do business with her.
However, one or two wealthy businessmen like that could equal the daily income of a normal restaurant. Hao Cheng didn't expect such a big thing as pie falling from the sky every day, so he could only keep improving the food at Ruyi Restaurant.
In that era, there was no media advertising, so she relied on books and word of mouth from diners to quickly make Ruyi Restaurant famous.
It was definitely not enough to earn this little money. She had planned to delay the year-end dividends to shareholders until things got on track and then pay both dividends together next year.
The commercial tax in Jin was not as strict as in later times, and Qiao Mu was not short of money. If she really wanted to make money, she would definitely agree considering the future of the restaurant. But she had a conflict with Qiao Mu before, and even when the restaurant opened, Qiao Mu did not come to support it. For this reason, Hao Cheng's attitude towards her became a little unpredictable.
Qiao Mu was not as angry as Hao Cheng thought. She left in a hurry that day because she was unhappy. But later on, Hao Cheng thought that what he said made sense.
But Hao Cheng refused so blatantly, without any room for maneuver, which naturally made her feel very dissatisfied.
If the reason was sufficient, it would be fine, but Hao Cheng said it was for a man who hadn't even settled down yet. Qiao Mu attached great importance to her father and brother, and didn't take other men that seriously, so she couldn't understand why Hao Cheng was unwilling to help her.
She was so angry that she didn't even go to the restaurant for its opening. Of course, she didn't make any trouble, but just ignored Hao Cheng and waited for her to come and apologize in person.
After waiting for a few days, Hao Cheng did not come to visit. She was still too embarrassed to do so, so she sent someone to ask what Hao Cheng had been doing recently.
Hao Cheng was naturally trying to understand and memorize the questions Jiang Mengzhen had given her. The questions for each imperial examination would be made public, and some teachers would also give their students predictions before the exam. If she was lucky, she might even make it to the list.
There is no concept of past exam questions in this world. Some academies will organize this aspect, but after all, they are very few. As a man who does not participate in the imperial examination, Jiang Mengzhen was able to think of such a thing and even predict the questions for her, which was beyond Hao Cheng's expectations.
She certainly wouldn't want to let his efforts go to waste. Even though Jiang Mengzhen's information was of no great use, she decided to memorize the entire thick stack.
Perhaps it was the great power of love. In her previous life, she hated memorizing these things the most, but now, she looked at those manuscripts as if they were treasures. When she memorized them, she would think of Jiang Mengzhen's face and did not feel the slightest bit of annoyance.
After all, it was the first time that Jiang Mengzhen carefully prepared something for her. She had to keep it well after memorizing it, and she could use it as a token of love.
In a blink of an eye, the two had been separated for more than a few months. Hao Cheng wrote many letters to Jiang Mengzhen, but she was not used to writing letters and could not write those cheesy sentences, so she wrote down some interesting things every day.
After saving up about six or seven sheets of writing paper, Hao Cheng bought a beautiful envelope, put a few dried plum petals in it, sprinkled some spices on it, then spent some money and asked the postman to deliver her letter to the capital.
Jiang Mengzhen received a letter from Hao Cheng after Hao Cheng had waited anxiously for seven days. When Jiang Mengzhen came back from the Lin family, the concierge handed him the letter.
.
Jiang Mengzhen only glanced at the signature, then put the letter away and asked, "When did this letter arrive?"
The concierge looked at his expression and told him the truth: "The letter arrived three days ago."
Jiang Mengzhen immediately scolded her: "Why don't you go to the Lin family and give it to me? The next time you see a letter from her, you must deliver it to me as soon as possible no matter where I am!"
Jiang Mengzhen was in charge of the general's mansion, so naturally, letters sent to him would not be secretly intercepted. Letters from important people would usually be delivered by special people, or if Jiang Mengzhen paid special attention to them, even if he was not at home, the concierge would go to look for them.
But Jiang Mengzhen had never given any instructions, and the letter was delivered by an ordinary postman. Jiang Mengzhen had never read most of the letters from strangers, so she had no idea that this letter from Hao Cheng would be so important.
The doorman felt very aggrieved, but he did not dare to refute his master on the spot. His tone was stern, and the doorman dared not utter a word, thinking that he was going to be in trouble. Jiang Mengzhen ordered him: "Seeing that you have kept it well, go to the storehouse to collect five taels of silver later."
"Thank you, Master!"
Jiang Mengzhen didn't even look at the doorman's smiling face. He quickened his pace with the letter in his pocket. He couldn't wait to open it and read it.
As soon as the letter was opened, a few petals fell out. The letter paper was the common kind, slightly yellowed, but the rough edges were deliberately smoothed, and it also had a faint fragrance. He thought Hao Cheng had written some affectionate sentences, but when he looked closely, he found that they were all trivial matters.
Moreover, the ink and handwriting size of different letter papers were somewhat different, which obviously took several days to collect. Jiang Mengzhen was a little amused for a moment, but the next moment he calmed down and read it word by word.
Obviously, it was a very boring matter, but Jiang Mengzhen seemed to have read the letter over and over again under the lamp for more than ten times before he put the letter away with great care and prepared to write a reply.
He wrote several pages, crumpled them up and threw them into the trash can. After writing for several days, he finally mailed the letter.
When Hao Cheng received the reply, she was extremely excited. She held the envelope and felt that it was a thick stack, and she didn't know what Jiang Mengzhen wrote. She returned to her residence, carefully opened the envelope sealed with beeswax, pulled it out, and pulled out a stack of banknotes, all of which were large denominations.
She didn't care how much money it was. She shook the envelope, and a piece of paper folded into a heart shape fell out.
She will carefully open the letter. There are only two big words on the snow-white paper - waiting to be married.