The next day, Qiuhua, Liu Pingshan, Nian-ger, and Aunt Sun went into town together to visit Yan Xiaoyu.

The restaurant was set to open the next day, so Qiuhua and the other woman would be staying here as Yan Xiaoyu’s kitchen helpers. Aunt Sun had been hired to wash dishes and clean the kitchen, so she would be staying as well.

As for Liu Pingshan and Nian-ger, they were in charge of deliveries.

With the restaurant opening, it was essential to buy some meat and vegetables. Nian-ger raised quite a few chickens and ducks, so from then on, the restaurant sourced its chickens, ducks, as well as chicken and duck eggs, from him.

The vegetables were supplied by the Liu family and a few other households in the village; Auntie didn’t have enough manpower on her own, and she was focusing her energy on the tofu and ingredients business, so she hadn’t grown enough vegetables this year.

They also sourced fish, dried vegetables, and pickles—basically, anything they could procure from the village was bought locally, which also served as a way to support their neighbors. Yan Xiaoyu had already entrusted the task of collecting vegetables to Yan Xingmao.

Yan Xingmao was left alone in Xiling Village, and with the dual responsibilities of making tofu and tending the fields, he was bound to be overwhelmed. To address this, Yan Xiaoyu hired a reliable local man from the village to assist with tofu production; as for the fields, he planned to hire additional help when needed.

It was mid-April, and the weather was still cool. This time, Yan Xingmao had gathered two baskets of vegetables from the village and asked Liu Pingshan to deliver them together. Any vegetables that weren’t used immediately were suspended in the well in the backyard; they would remain fresh for two or three days.

Nian-ger delivered six chickens, four ducks, fifty chicken eggs, and thirty duck eggs to the restaurant. The chickens and ducks could be raised in the designated livestock area in the backyard, slaughtered as needed, and guaranteed to be fresh.

When they first leased the shop, Yan Shaocheng had remarked that the annual rent of fifteen taels was a bit steep for a location in the prefectural city, but now he finally understood why it was worth the price.

A well was dug in the back yard, solving the water problem and saving them a lot of trouble; there were plenty of rooms; in addition to the original kitchen, they converted a storage room into a cookhouse dedicated to making tofu and preparing tofu ingredients.

The remaining rooms were more than enough for them to live in.

Yan Xiaoyu and Yan Shaocheng each took one of the two main rooms; the four side rooms were divided as follows: Yan Xiaoyue and Qiuhua shared one, Aunt Sun had one to herself, and the four servants Yan Shaocheng had purchased shared two, which worked out perfectly.

With all of them able to stay, there was no need to rent additional housing elsewhere.

Besides the vegetables, Yan Xiaoyue and the others brought back a piece of news for Yan Xiaoyu on this trip—Yan Xiaobao had been released. Since Yan Shaoxuan had warned him that day, Yan Xiaoyu wasn’t particularly surprised, and it didn’t stir much emotion in him.

Yan Xiaobao was a good-for-nothing. In the past, Yan Xiaoyu might have worried that his father, living alone in the village, would face retaliation from that scoundrel, but now that many villagers had benefited from his kindness, he no longer worried about it.

These days, aside from managing the restaurant, his mind was entirely occupied by another matter; Yan Xiaobao simply wasn’t worth his trouble.

These past few days, he and Yan Shaocheng had been working feverishly to prepare for the restaurant’s grand opening.

Yan Xiaoyu had settled on the name for the new restaurant late last year: “Yuye Pavilion.”

Since the business primarily catered to the scholars at the county academy, the name was deliberately chosen to evoke the symbolism of a carp leaping through the Dragon Gate. It also incorporated the character “Yu” (fish), subtly weaving Yan Xiaoyu’s name into the title.

After Yan Shaocheng joined the venture, Yan Xiaoyu mentioned the name to him, but he paid it no mind, simply saying they should go with whatever Yan Xiaoyu had already chosen.

So the restaurant’s name remained unchanged. While the craftsmen were working, Yan Shaocheng had a signboard custom-made, and it’s now hanging in place. In addition to the restaurant’s name, Yan Xiaoyu had also laid out an initial promotional plan early on, and Yan Shaocheng had been busy with that for the past half-month. Every day, he went to sell stinky tofu near the county school, bringing along flyers and meal vouchers that Yan Xiaoyu had specially had printed at the bookshop.

For the first three days after Yuye Pavilion opens, all food will be 20% off. Anyone who buys stinky tofu from Yan Shaocheng will also receive a food voucher; at Yuye Pavilion, for twenty wen, they could exchange the voucher for a small side dish.

Yan Shaocheng’s stinky tofu was quite popular among the scholars at the county academy. Since he was opening a restaurant, his regular customers were genuinely looking forward to it, and the meal vouchers were being collected with great enthusiasm.

Yan Shaoxuan had also been tasked by Yan Xiaoyu: on the day Yuye Pavilion opened, he was to treat his classmates and close friends to a meal there, promoting their business.

Fearing that the scholars might be too busy with their studies to make the trip, Yan Xiaoyu and Yan Shaocheng discussed the matter and thoughtfully arranged for a delivery service to bring meals.

This was also one of the reasons Yan Shaocheng decided to hire workers—they needed extra hands to deliver the meals.

That day, when Yan Shaocheng went to the labor agency to hire helpers, he happened to run into a steward from the Household Department who was there to buy laborers. A thought struck him, and he decided to buy some laborers himself.

His tofu business has been integrated into the restaurant, which supplies several restaurants and eateries in the county with tofu, dried tofu, tofu skewers, and more—all of which require staff to prepare.

Yan Xiaoyu and he each had their own duties to attend to, so they certainly wouldn’t have time for this work. Hiring people through an employment agency, though bound by a contract, still carried the risk of hiring someone of poor character—it would be disastrous if the recipes for these ingredients were stolen.

Someone has to do the work.

It would be better to spend a little more silver and simply buy a few servants—it would save him the trouble. In fact, it wasn’t just the eateries; his younger brother was also in need of an assistant.

Scholars at the county academy, provided their families were well-off, were usually attended by a servant or two, but Yan Shaoxuan had none.

Their farming family didn’t place much importance on such things, but since Yan Shaoxuan was heading to the prefectural capital in July, he needed someone to help drive the carriage so he could rest along the way. Yan Shaocheng, as the restaurant’s manager, certainly couldn’t leave, so they’d have to hire someone. If Yan Shaoxuan passed the provincial exams and went to the capital next year for the imperial exams, he’d need someone to accompany him as well.

Once Yan Shaocheng had made up his mind, he put the matter of hiring someone on hold and immediately went to consult with Yan Xiaoyu and Yan Shaoxuan.

Yan Xiaoyu didn’t really mind, but Yan Shaoxuan said he didn’t need a page; he’d just hire a coachman for the provincial exams. If they were going to buy people, there was no need to take his needs into account.

In the end, Yan Shaocheng bought two young men and two gers, dividing them into two groups according to their temperaments: the lively and quick-witted ones worked as waiters and kitchen helpers and handled errands and meal deliveries; the more reserved and diligent ones were assigned to the backyard to make tofu and prepare tofu ingredients.

Yan Xiaoyu gave Yan Shaocheng the tofu recipe as well, but Yan Shaocheng refused to take advantage of the situation and paid for the servants out of his own pocket.

Over the next few days, Yan Xiaoyu trained the staff, teaching them how to make tofu and prepare tofu ingredients, while Yan Shaocheng took the meals he had prepared to the county school to sell stinky tofu, making a final push before the restaurant’s grand opening.

These dishes would be the ones sold at Yuye Pavilion after it opened. Testing them at the county academy served both to promote the restaurant and to gather feedback from the scholars, allowing them to adjust the menu in a timely manner.

After a few days of trial sales, the response was quite positive, and Yan Shaocheng felt even more confident about Yuye Pavilion’s prospects.

Xiling Village was quite a distance from the county seat, and fearing it would be unsafe to return late at night, Liu Pingshan prepared to leave after delivering the food. But Nian-ger refused to go, saying that since Yuye Pavilion was opening tomorrow, he wanted to stay to support Yan Xiaoyu.

In reality, it was to act as a matchmaker.

A few days ago, this young man kept saying some weird and rambling things to Yan Xiaoyu. Yan Xiaoyu got fed up and called him a pimp, which really pissed him off—he didn’t speak to Yan Xiaoyu for several days.

Perhaps because he was still mindful of his promise to Yan Shaoxuan, he was the first to volunteer to deliver the chickens and ducks this time.

He insisted on staying, but Yan Xiaoyu wasn’t keen on the idea. With Liu Pingshan leaving today, he was worried about the young man going back alone tomorrow.

In the end, Nian-ger offered to stay a few more days and help out for free, planning to return only after Liu Pingshan came back to deliver the vegetables. Yan Xiaoyu hesitated for a moment but eventually agreed.

It wasn’t that he valued the free labor; he knew full well what Nian-ger was after. He had matters of his own that required confirmation from him.