Zhou Chen, led by Zhao Pan'er, came to the second floor of the teahouse and sat down in an elegant seat facing the street.
Zhao Pan'er did not leave, but sat down next to Zhou Chen.
"Master Hou, what do you think of the layout here?"
Zhou Chen looked around and said: "It is much more magnificent than the tea house in Qiantang. The environment is good and the location is okay, but if you want to succeed, you can't just rely on these."
Zhao Pan'er smiled and said: "It must be different. This is Tokyo. If we make it as simple as Qiantang Tea House, we won't be able to attract high-quality customers at all. Tokyo is rich and charming, but if you want to make money, you
We have to go with the situation."
"Yes, I have made progress. It seems that my stay in Tokyo these days has not been in vain."
Zhou Chen knew that Zhao Paner would encounter setbacks soon, but he did not rush to remind her that if you don't let her experience some things, she will never realize the problems.
"As I said, if you encounter any trouble or problems in the future, you can go to the Marquis Mansion to find me. If I'm not here, you can go to Uncle Yan and say that I asked you to go."
"Thank you, Lord Marquis."
"We are already so familiar and you are still so polite. I don't believe you can't understand my thoughts at all?"
"Ahem."
Zhou Chen's sudden words startled Zhao Pan'er, and he quickly avoided Zhou Chen's eyes, not daring to look at Zhou Chen at all.
"Master Hou, please stop teasing me."
"Making fun? I don't have time to make fun of you. That's why I haven't taken any action against you because I'm still in the period of mourning. When my period of mourning ends for more than a month, I won't have to avoid you. I hope you can do it.
Be prepared so that when the time comes, you can still avoid me."
"ah?"
Zhao Paner was so frightened that her voice changed. What do you mean by not taking any action? What action will be taken when the filial piety period is over?
Zhou Chen continued: "Sometimes I am very tolerant, but sometimes I am also very domineering, especially when facing people I like and recognize, even if it means robbing me, I will grab them."
"Ah?" Zhao Pan'er was surprised again, what kind of tiger-wolf talk is this?
"Haha, just kidding, I'll scare you."
Zhou Chen laughed and said, "I just want you to prepare in advance. Pan'er, I don't just want to be friends with you."
Zhao Pan'er felt Zhou Chen's hot gaze and became even more panicked. She secretly regretted whether she had made the mistake of staying in Tokyo. Should she have gone back to Qiantang?
Just when Zhao Pan'er was in a panic and didn't know what to say.
"Official Zhou, you are here."
Song Yinzhang came over happily with his pipa in his arms, his face full of joy.
"Ms. Song, what you played just now was really good. I heard it outside the teahouse. It sounded really good."
Song Yinzhang's smile became even brighter. She was good-looking, and she had been in the Jiaofang Division for many years. She had a maid, Yin Ping, to help her, and she was also very good at dressing up.
It's just that in the past, she didn't smile much, she was always a little gloomy and looked depressed.
But I have been smiling more recently, and I look much more energetic and youthful.
"Really? If you like to hear it, I'll play another song for you."
"OK."
Zhou Chen did not refuse. He was also a person who enjoyed himself. Drinking tea alone was nothing compared to red sleeves adding fragrance and a beauty playing the piano.
Song Yinzhang sat down not far from Zhou Chen and was about to play music. Zhao Pan'er stood up, said something about pouring tea, and then ran away.
The pleasant sound echoed in his ears, Zhou Chen leaned on the chair and listened leisurely.
A few days later, when Zhou Chen came to Zhao's tea house again, he found that there was not a single customer inside. Zhao Pan'er and the other girls were sitting there looking around and talking boredly.
Zhao Pan'er and the other girls heard the sound and thought it was a guest. However, when they saw that the guests were actually Zhou Chen and Zhou Huai, they all looked disappointed.
Only Song Yinzhang greeted him happily: "Master Zhou, you are here."
Although she was also worried about the poor business of the teahouse, it was not a big deal compared to meeting Zhou Chen.
Zhao Pan'er and the others also said hello one after another. Zhou Chen looked around and said, "It seems that the business in the store has not been very good these days, right?"
Zhao Pan'er asked doubtfully: "How do you know?"
"Do you still have to ask? You can see it by looking at it. If you usually drink tea, this is the time when there are the most customers, but here you can't see a single customer."
These words made Zhao Pan'er and the girls even more distressed. Zhao Pan'er asked with a sad face: "We don't know what's going on. Mr. Marquis, don't you Tokyoites like drinking tea? We have very few guests here these days. Even if
The customers who come in just order loose tea and leave after drinking it, so there is no profit at all."
Zhou Chen said: "This is why you didn't investigate carefully. It's not that people in Tokyo don't like to drink tea, but there are many people who like to drink tea, especially those literati, who can often drink it for a long time."
"Then why is there no one here? And I only recently discovered that there are no restaurants or restaurants on this street. This is really strange."
"It's up to you to think about it yourself."
Zhao Pan'er frowned slightly. Zhou Chen meant that he knew the reason, but he just didn't tell her and wanted her to figure it out on her own.
Not only her, but also Sun Sanniang, Song Yinzhang, and Yin Ping also started thinking seriously.
It's just that they were racking their brains and couldn't think of the reason. Finally, Zhao Pan'er thought of something.
"In the first two days after we opened, business was still very good, but after a few days, business plummeted, and we didn't even see many customers in the past two days."
"Master Hou, was there any important festival a few days ago?"
Zhou Chen did not speak, but looked at Zhou Huai, who said: "Ms. Zhao, there is a Guanyin Temple nearby. When your tea house opened a few days ago, it happened to be the Buddha's birthday, so there were many pilgrims."
"I see."
Only then did Zhao Paner understand why business was so good in the first two days of opening. It turned out that it was not because she had a unique vision and saw business opportunities, but because she benefited from the Buddha's birthday.
"Then why are the few guests these days still ordering some loose tea, and they are all in a hurry?"
Zhou Huai continued to explain: "That's because this is Maxing Street. Although Maxing Street is also a street where many people gather in the city, there is a reason why it is called Maxing Street, because horse dealers and horse markets gather here.
, Tokyoites have known since childhood that you can buy herbal medicines at the Medicine Alley Bureau, buy clothes at Pan Loudongtou, and if you want to drink tea, you have to go to Tea Soup Alley."
"Most of the people who come and go on Ma Xing Street are Ma Market merchants. They don't have as much time as the literati. They just want to drink tea as soon as possible and leave to do things. So Madam Zhao, if you open your teahouse here, it will be really difficult to attract customers.
"
Zhao Pan'er's expression kept changing. After making trouble for a long time, she didn't know anything, so she opened the tea house in a hurry.
"I see, people in Tokyo still have such a habit. This is my problem. I didn't investigate clearly."
Zhou Chen suddenly said: "But this is not your biggest problem. In fact, with your intelligence, as long as you are given a little time, you can discover these problems. But, your biggest problem is that you are anxious. You are too anxious. When you are anxious,
You will ignore many problems, so in the final analysis, it is not that you are incompetent, but that you are too eager to prove yourself."
Zhao Paner was silent. Zhou Chen was right. She was indeed too anxious. She was eager to prove that she could survive in Tokyo with Song Yinzhang and the others. At the same time, she also wanted to open a teahouse to keep herself busy and quickly forget her sadness.
things.
Seeing that Zhao Pan'er looked unhappy, Zhou Chen said: "Since you now know the reason, you should think carefully about how to change. Either continue here, or go to Tea Soup Lane and rent a new shop.
Start all over again.”
Zhao Pan'er thought for a while, then gritted her teeth and said, "I don't believe it. It's impossible to open a tea house on Ma Xing Street."
She is confident in herself, but mostly because she doesn’t have much money anymore.
It doesn't take much to think about it, but the rent for the shops in Chatang Alley is definitely not cheap, and her current money can no longer support her starting over.
"Confidence is a good thing, then I will wait for you to reopen the teahouse."
…………
Xijing of the Great Song Dynasty!
Ouyang Xu set out from the capital and traveled hundreds of kilometers along the way, riding a carriage and stopping, and it took him nearly ten days to arrive in Xijing.
When he was in Tokyo, he just wanted to escape Tokyo and Zhao Pan'er as soon as possible, so he had to accept the official position of palace watcher.
Although others looked down upon him, he felt that this was the right path. At least he no longer had to be threatened by Zhao Pan'er, and he could escape from that place.
But when he arrived in Xijing, he realized that he was too naive. The palace official said he was an eighth-grade official, but in fact he was not even as good as a yamen servant.
In Xijing, the government did not recognize him as a palace official at all. While he did not enjoy the benefits, he had to pay for the place where he lived.
What made him even more desperate was that the officials asked him to invite Master Bao Yi to return to the capital. If he could not be invited, he would not be able to return to the capital.
To be continued...