When Mrs. Su heard that Master was about to leave, she turned around and said to A Ni: "Send me back, I'm tired too."
Ah Ni quickly ordered someone to prepare the sedan chair.
Mrs. Su went down to the first floor and saw shopkeeper Wang. She stopped and asked, "What did you say just now? Is this shop opened by Zhao Ling'er?"
Shopkeeper Wang cupped his hands and said with a smile: "Yes, yes, madam, you are so lucky to have such a smart and capable daughter-in-law!"
"snort!"
Mrs. Su snorted coldly, ignored him, and went straight to the sedan chair.
This Zhao Ling'er, I asked her to serve Yi Ning well while studying, but she opened a hot pot restaurant for me outside! I really can't tell which is more important. Did the Su Mansion let her earn the money from a hot pot restaurant?
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. When Mrs. Su returned home, she ordered Ani to call Zhao Ling'er.
When Zhao Ling'er heard that Mrs. Su called her, she felt a little uneasy.
Does she want to praise me or scold me?
Zhao Ling'er couldn't guess, so she had no choice but to follow A Ni to the hall without saying a word.
"Sit down." Mrs. Su ordered angrily.
Zhao Ling'er secretly glanced at Mrs. Su. She didn't have any expression. What was going on?
Mrs. Su watched Zhao Ling'er sit down and asked, "Do you open that hot pot restaurant?"
Zhao Ling'er nodded and said, "I drove it."
"You drove it," Mrs. Su repeated in a low voice, "Why didn't you tell me that you drove it? Don't you even know to tell me about such a big thing? What if something happens?
Our Su family's business has always been honest and aboveboard. If you open a hot pot restaurant quietly and someone is killed, I won't know what's going on!"
Mrs. Su reprimanded loudly, and then said: "I will close the hot pot restaurant tomorrow so that I don't have to worry!"
Zhao Ling'er frowned, stood up, and said: "It took a lot of effort for me to open the hot pot restaurant. Now that the business is stable and making money, how can I just close it?"
Mrs. Su thought for a while and then said: "Since you have started to make money, let your elder brother watch it. His Yingbin Building is so good, your small hot pot restaurant must be no problem."
Zhao Ling'er was furious. How could I just give it to others if I finally opened a hot pot restaurant?
He saw Zhao Ling'er staring at him and saying nothing.
Mrs. Su said: "What? You don't want to?"
Zhao Ling'er said: "I have invested ten thousand taels of silver in this hot pot restaurant, not to mention manpower, material resources, finding workers, finding materials, spending time, etc. This is all my hard work! How can I say it to my elder brother?
Just give it to eldest brother?"
"Hmph! Does this mean you still want money? What dowry did you get when you got married? Ten thousand taels of silver? Yi Ning didn't get this money for you? Besides, you gave the hot pot restaurant to
Your brother, after making money, why don’t we spend it as a family? What? Aren’t you happy that the whole family is spending some money on you?"
That's not what they said!
Zhao Ling'er was furious, but couldn't refute for a while. Tears welled up in her eyes and she didn't speak.
"Okay, you go back. When your elder brother comes back, I will ask him to find you and ask for the seal."
After Zhao Ling'er heard this, she turned around and left without replying.
"You have a bad temper at such a young age!" Mrs. Su said coldly from behind.
When Su Yining came back, Zhao Linger angrily told him about the incident.
Su Yi Ning was also very angry with his mother after hearing this.
He knows best how much effort Zhao Ling'er has put into this store. She will definitely be very sad if she is asked to give this store to her elder brother.
Su Yi Ning comforted: "Okay, okay, don't worry, let's find a solution together, I won't let you give up the hot pot restaurant to big brother."
After dinner in the evening, Su Yining went to the west courtyard.
Su Yixiang was resting in the room with his eyes closed.
Su Yi Ning said: "Brother, mother wants Ling'er to let you give the hot pot restaurant to you, but you also know that we borrowed money from you to open this hot pot restaurant. We finally opened it, and now you want... me
It’s not that I don’t want you to take care of it, I mean that this is Ling’er’s hard work, and she will feel uncomfortable if she is left to anyone to take care of her. But mother, she insists…”
Hearing this, Su Yixiang already understood the general idea, so he interrupted Su Yining and said, "You tell Ling'er so that she doesn't have to worry. I'll just tell mother directly that I don't have time to take care of it."
Su Yining was overjoyed when she heard her elder brother say this.
After thanking him, I told Zhao Ling'er when I got home, and Zhao Ling'er felt relieved a lot.
Mrs. Su heard her eldest son say that he didn't have time to take care of it, so she nagged him a few words.
But she had no other choice but to let Zhao Linger take care of it first.
However, she warned Zhao Ling'er that although she opened the store, she could only go there once a week, and she couldn't let everyone see the Su family's daughter-in-law being the shopkeeper in a arrogant manner. In addition, how much money did she earn from the business every month?
How much money has been lost? How many people in the store now have to report to her.
Zhao Linger also agreed.
In the early morning of this day, after Zhao Ling'er paid greetings to Mrs. Su, on the way back, she saw A Fei gathering a group of servants to pull a cart and didn't know what they were doing, so he asked curiously.
A Fei said: "Second Young Mistress, at this time every year, our Su family will go to the upper reaches of the Yunzhou River to collect ice, transport these ice cubes back, and put them into the ice cellar for next summer."
"Ice harvesting?" Zhao Ling'er was a little curious, so she simply packed up and followed A Fei and the others to the ice harvesting site.
It turned out that they first used a wedge to pry open a crack in the ice, and then used a hammer to drive the wedge deep in, thus cutting open large ice blocks one by one, and then had people lift up the ice blocks and pull them back to their cellar.
I never thought ice in winter could be used like this!
Zhao Ling'er suddenly remembered that the seasonal items such as tripe, duck intestines, meat, and fruits in the hot pot restaurant would definitely not be able to be stored in the summer, and of course they would have to be iced. So when shopkeeper Wang came into the house to report, he asked him to find them too.
People go to collect ice.
Shopkeeper Wang said: "Miss Ling'er, it's easy to collect ice, but where should we put it?"
Zhao Ling'er said: "It's just in the backyard. Can't we just dig a big cellar?"
Shopkeeper Wang said: "Our backyard is too small. Although we say we store ice, two-thirds of the ice will melt in summer, and only one-third can be left at most. Our hot pot restaurant is doing so well now.
, if we open another branch next year, we will definitely not be able to store so much ice in our backyard! I think you should find a way to find a larger open space so that we can dig a deeper ice cellar and store more ice."
Zhao Ling'er thought about it. The hot pot restaurant business has just started to make a profit. She hasn't even saved enough money to repay her eldest brother, and has to spend more money to buy land. Where will the money come from? The Chinese New Year is coming soon, and everyone should not be rich.
Wang Ruoxi!
She suddenly thought of her.
But that's all the dowry prepared by her parents for her. Isn't that not good?
Anyway, let’s ask first.
Zhao Ling'er came to Li Heng's house, and Wang Ruoxi was lying on the bed boredly reading a novel. Since her house also had a heated bed, she didn't get out of bed almost every day.
After Zhao Ling'er explained her difficulties, Wang Ruoxi immediately sat up and said excitedly: "I have it! What's a piece of land? My mother gave me 300 acres of fertile land when I got married. How much do you want to use?"
When Zhao Ling'er heard that it was fertile land, he immediately shook his head and said, "How can that be done? A piece of wasteland is enough for storing ice. Why would you want to use fertile land? You should keep it to collect land rent."
Wang Ruoxi agreed when she heard that she couldn't use such good land to dig an ice cellar.
then what should we do?
Wang Ruoxi couldn't think of a good solution for a while.