CHAPTER 61

Su Wan and Shen Lin packed up their stall and got on the horse carriage back to their home in Qingshi Village. As soon as they entered the house, they smelled the aroma of rice coming from the house.

When Su Wan saw the light in the kitchen, she knew that it must be Mrs. Shen who was preparing the meal.

After Mrs. Shen came back from Qingzhou Prefecture, she felt better day by day. Once she was full of energy, she couldn’t sit still and always wanted to do something.

Su Wan and Shen Lin were going to Qingyun County to set up a stall today. Originally, they wanted to leave Shen Yaya at home to take care of Mrs. Shen, but Mrs. Shen thought that with someone at home, she would inevitably be forbidden to do this or that. She originally wanted to try what kind of work she could do now, and if there was someone around, she would not be able to try.

Mrs. Shen insisted that she could take care of herself and that there would be a lot of things to do at the stall, so she would feel more at ease if Shen Yaya went with them to help. Su Wan and Shen Lin also agreed, but before leaving, they repeatedly told Mrs. Shen not to do too much work, just keep the stove lit so that she could have lunch at noon, and not let her freeze and starve.

But Mrs. Shen still cleaned the house and prepared dinner for Su Wan and Shen Lin.

Shen Lin and Su Wan rushed to the kitchen and saw that Mrs. Shen had already prepared the meal, including two dishes, a soup, and steamed rice. Su Wan and Shen Lin only needed to serve the meal on the table.

While eating, Su Wan asked Mrs. Shen not to work so hard.

Mrs. Shen smiled and said, “Don’t worry, I haven’t worked too hard. You guys have finally cured me, and I can’t let myself get sick again.”

“It’s just that sitting or lying down all the time is not a good thing. I have to stretch my muscles. I just need to clean the house and cook. You have already bought the vegetables, and I don’t have to go out to pick them. Cooking is very simple. As for washing clothes or other chores, I won’t do it, so don’t worry.”

After listening to Mrs. Shen’s words, Su Wan knew that Mrs. Shen was a clear-headed person, so she felt relieved. However, she still reminded Mrs. Shen not to get too tired.

Mrs. Shen smiled and said, “Of course I will take good care of myself. I want to help you, but not at this moment. When I am well again, you don’t have to worry about the things at home.”

The family sat together to eat. Mrs. Shen’s cooking skills were very good, not much worse than Su Wan’s. Shen Lin and Shen Yaya had not eaten Mrs. Shen’s formal meals for a long time. When they ate them again, they felt as if they were in another world. The last time they had eaten them was a long time ago.

After dinner, Shen Lin and Su Wan went to the kitchen to wash the dishes together and discussed the matter of opening a branch elsewhere in the future.

It is obvious at a glance that Malatang will definitely sell well. As long as it sells well, someone will imitate it, and someone will come to steal the business. In this case, why not do the whole business yourself?

Shen Lin had been to Qingyun County many times and was very familiar with it. After he had the idea of opening a branch store, Shen Lin had already thought of a place in his mind. Shen Lin told Su Wan that it was obvious now that Malatang would definitely sell well, so he could take the risk of opening another store. He could open many more stores in Qingyun County in the future, but for now, he could start with a branch store.

Moreover, this branch does not need to be rented in an expensive shop; a small stall will do. There are no other shops selling malatang in Qingyun County, so if people want to eat it, they can only eat it from these two small stalls.

After a while, when you have saved enough money, you can rent a better store and start your business.

Su Wan understood that Shen Lin was taking the route of transformation from low-end to high-end.

Shen Lin added, “Although we are going to open many branches, we don’t have to use one name or even one recipe. This way, diners will have more choices. However, no matter what they choose, all these stores belong to Su Wan.”

Su Wan nodded. Shen Lin not only thought of monopolies but also differentiated marketing, just like the big daily chemical companies in later generations. They have many different brands of shampoos that seem to be in competition with each other, but they are actually all from the same company. No matter which one sells well, the big company will benefit.

Su Wan admired Shen Lin so much. These methods were all experiences from later generations, but Shen Lin had not seen many business cases yet; he had already figured them out with his own brain.

Su Wan couldn’t help but think that if Shen Lin was allowed to go to school, it would be a bit of a waste of his business talent.

Su Wan listened carefully, and Shen Lin also spoke seriously. Shen Lin said, “We will open several Malatang restaurants with different storefronts in Qingyun County and see which one sells the best. In this way, we can use this store as a sign to attract merchants from other counties or even other states to buy our seasonings. At the same time, we only sell seasonings but not the recipes. We want them to use our store name. When they make money, we will take a cut of it, about 20% to 30%. Although it is not as much as we would make if we opened a store ourselves, we can open more stores in this way.”

Su Wan admired Shen Lin so much. He also thought of using big data such as sales volume to select the most popular ones, that is, the ones with the highest return rate, and then focus on developing them. This can be considered a development in the form of franchising.

In this way, this small business can indeed be expanded.

Su Wan asked Shen Lin to help her for another day tomorrow. After she hired someone tomorrow, Shen Lin would go to take care of another stall. Su Wan had already thought about it. All that was needed for the Malatang was soup and seasoning. She could just prepare the soup and seasoning herself and then sell them at another stall. There was no need to worry about the recipe being leaked.

It is always better to strike first than to be strong. Although other businessmen in Qingyun County will not be able to develop a Malatang recipe and open branches so quickly, there is no doubt that others will imitate them soon. People say that speed is the essence of war, and the same is true in business. Speed is also the essence of the matter. If you seize the initiative, you can greatly gain an advantageous position.

Shen Lin and Su Wan washed the pot together, and then Shen Lin asked Su Wan to sit by the stove where the water for washing in the evening was burned to warm herself, while Shen Lin filled the water tank.

Su Wan remembered that when the original owner was in the Wang family, she was always alone in the kitchen when cooking, washing dishes, and doing chores. No one accompanied her, and no one talked to her.

The happiness in her heart came entirely from the satisfaction of providing convenience to the Wang family.

Wang Luosheng had never helped her with any chores, and in the eyes of the Wang family, these were all her chores.

And Shen Lin has always taken on more responsibilities silently. Since coming to the Shen family, Su Wan has been doing things that she likes. Shen Lin, the Shen family, and even Shen Yaya will take the initiative to take on the trivial and hard work, and if they cannot bear the responsibility, they will share it with Su Wan.

This is what it feels like a home.

The fire in the stove was burning very vigorously. Su Wan felt warm and comfortable. Su Wan thought of the special examination in March. It was almost December, and there were still four months before the examination. If Shen Lin could go to the academy to study earlier, the possibility of him passing the special examination would be greater.

When she sold Malatang, she just wanted to make money, but she didn’t think about how big it would be. Since Shen Lin has come up with these ideas, she needs to implement them quickly. All these things need Shen Lin to take care of, and there is really no way for him to make time to go to school early.

According to this plan, it seems that we can’t count on this year’s march exam and can only rely on the autumn exam.

If Shen Lin went to school for a few months in March or April, he might be able to pass the examination and become a scholar.

Su Wan thought about it and decided not to be too hasty. It would be better to do the things in front of her first. What she was doing now was to lay the foundation for earning more money. Only by earning more money would Shen Lin go to school without worrying about spending money and having no worries.

Thinking of this, Su Wan was not as anxious as before.

After Wang Luosheng came back from school, he felt cold all over. In his previous life, he rarely suffered such suffering. During the meal, Wang Luosheng solemnly told his father and mother about moving his home and the mill to Qingyun County. Without a doubt, he was scolded by his father again. His father scolded Wang Luosheng for planning to ruin the family and daydreaming of going to the city to pick up gold.

Wang Luosheng was secretly sad. The good business at Shen Lin and Su Wan’s stall today hurt Wang Luosheng deeply. He was still a useless scholar, but Su Wan and Shen Lin had already made a lot of money. Wang Luosheng felt a little bit helpless. In short, he felt that everything was not going well, as if he was inferior to Shen Lin everywhere. Before that, he had looked down on Shen Lin for two years.

Wang Luosheng returned to his room in a daze. As usual, the room was as cold as an ice cellar. Now, his mother and sister couldn’t take care of other things at home, let alone light a fire in his room.

Lying on the bed and thinking carefully for a while, Wang Luosheng felt that he was too pessimistic. After all, he was a famous scholar in Qingyun County. Even if Shen Lin was good at business, he was just an ordinary person and could not be compared with himself. As for Su Wan, compared with Yunyan, one was a country duck on the ground and the other was a white swan in the sky.

Although Su Wan is not so rustic now, she is still a duck at heart. Compared with marrying a woman who sells food on the street, marrying the talented Yang Yunyan is obviously dozens or hundreds of times more glorious.

He was just stimulated by their good business at first sight, which led to all these wild thoughts. In fact, Yunyan and him are thousands of times better than them. How can he be sad about these things when compared with such people?

Thinking of this, Wang Luosheng felt relieved. It seemed that he had to speed up to marry Yunyan. After marrying Yunyan, everything would go smoothly, and his good life would begin.