Versatile Mage: Soul and Demon Dual Cultivation.

Chapter 399 The Yan Family Opens a Restaurant
Xu Damao had planned to open a branch store a long time ago. In addition to private dishes, Xu Damao was also planning to open a hotpot restaurant.

Compared to private dishes, hot pot restaurants are much simpler.

As long as the base ingredients are fixed, it is not a difficult task for Xu Damao. Xu Damao can even open a hot pot restaurant without the two chefs of the He family.

The hot pot base of later generations has long been recorded in the spiritual world.

We have everything we need right now except management talent, otherwise the hot pot restaurant would have been opened long ago.

Xu Damao does not want to make himself too busy, so he will go to Hong Kong Island to recruit management talents in this area in a few days. Not only hot pot restaurants, but private dishes also need market-oriented management.

Considering the level of the He family father and son, it is impossible to hand over Yipintang to them. Once it is handed over to them, it might close down one day.

It is simply impossible to find management talents in this area in the old city, so Hong Kong Island is imperative. After discussing with He Yushui, He Yushui and Xu Damao have almost the same idea. The father and son of the He family have no problem cooking, but if you want them to manage it, you'd better think about it.

The supplies in Xu Damao's spiritual world were released, and so was He Yushui. Within half a year, Yipintang opened three branches in Sijiu City. The development of the hot pot restaurant was even faster, with 23 branches in Sijiu City alone. The hot pot restaurants were also spreading to several first-tier cities, especially Shanghai. People in Shanghai like fashion, are willing to spend money, and pay attention to the bourgeoisie. The hot pot restaurant opened by Xu Damao is not cheap, but the service is good and the ingredients are fresh. It has become a trend in Shanghai.

Despite this, the food consumed by Yipintang and the hot pot restaurant is still a drop in the bucket compared to the resources in the spiritual world.

Seeing that Xu Damao's business was booming, Yan Jiecheng and his wife also wanted to open a restaurant.

"Dad, Yu Li and I also want to open a restaurant. Can you lend us some money? Or you can invest money and we'll count it as your shares!" Yan Jiecheng said to Yan Bugui.

"Opening a restaurant? Opening a restaurant is not an easy thing. Have you thought about it carefully?" Yan Bugui said, adjusting his glasses.

"After thinking about it, we have inspected several restaurants, including Xu Damao's Yipintang. Opening a restaurant is definitely a good idea and we will definitely make money!" Yan Jiecheng affirmed.

The Yan family's ability to calculate can be said to be ingrained in their bones. They indeed observed Yipintang for a long time, calculating the customer flow, rent, ingredients, and wages, and finally found that this was a big and profitable business, so they decided to become self-employed and even asked Old Man Yan to borrow money.

In addition to Yipintang, they also inspected Xu Damao's hot pot restaurant. The service was excellent, the ingredients were fresh, and it was easy to operate. It made as much money as ordinary restaurants. It seemed to be a top-notch business, but the results of the inspection were not ideal. Ultimately, the problem lay with the hot pot base.

The service can be imitated, the ingredients are not a problem, but without the hot pot base, everything is empty talk. The couple also consulted professionals, but it is simply unrealistic to imitate the taste of Xu Damao's hot pot base, which is a unique recipe.

Knowing the difficulties of opening a hotpot restaurant, they decided to open a restaurant. As long as they found a good chef, they would not have to worry about the restaurant having no business.

In this day and age, as long as you have decent skills, opening a restaurant is really a way to make money. The only difference is how much you earn.

Yan Bugui pondered for a moment, and a light flashed across his lenses.

"I think the risk is too great. Forget about investing. This is your mother's and my retirement money. But I can lend you the money, 10% of the money. How about that?"

Yan Laoshen is indeed a stingy man. He lent money to his own son and asked for 10% interest, which made Yan Jiecheng laugh. "Ha, Dad, you are really amazing. You lend money at high interest to your own son!"

Hearing this, Yan Laokou was not angry, but said with a smile: "Hey, this is a matter of mutual consent. I am not forcing you to borrow it!"

"You should keep your money for your retirement!" Yan Jiecheng and Yu Lila failed to make an investment and did not want to borrow high-interest loans, so they turned around and left.

But in less than a month, they still had to borrow high-interest loans from Yan Laokou to open the restaurant. There was no other way. A penny could make a hero fail. They could not borrow from others, so they could only swallow their anger and go back to Yan Laokou.

The restaurant was opened, but they discovered that the chef's cooking skills were poor. Business was mediocre in the first two months, and the profit was only slightly better than their salary, which was a huge difference from what they had imagined.

Considering that Yan Laoxi's loan sharking was too brutal, and that it was easier for them to borrow money now that they had an industry, they gritted their teeth and borrowed from everyone they knew, and finally paid off Yan Laoxi's principal and interest in full.

Yan Bugui felt very sorry about this. The average monthly return on investment was as high as 10%. It would have been much better if it had been delayed a few more months.

"The chefs in our restaurant are not very skilled. What do you think about us poaching people from Yipintang?" Yan Jiecheng said to Yu Li.

"Will this work?" When Yu Li heard that they were going to Yipintang to poach people, she hesitated and her original courage was gone. The bosses of Yipintang were Xu Damao and He Yushui. If it was Sha Zhu, he would at most be beaten up, but Xu Damao and his wife's methods were not comparable to Sha Zhu's. Even though they always smiled at everyone they met over the years, when it came to their own interests, who knew what they would do? Yi Zhonghai and the old deaf man were the best examples.

The mere mention of He Yushui is enough to make people shudder. Back then, He Yushui would either not take action or be fatal when he did.

There was an old deaf man in the wall. An old lady died of illness a few years after being in there. Yi Zhonghai was not much better off. I heard that he spent ten years in there and finally passed away.

"We live in a civilized society now. We are not doing anything illegal, so what are we afraid of!" Yan Jiecheng said confidently.

Yu Li pondered for a moment and asked uncertainly, "All the chefs at Yipintang are Sha Zhu's apprentices. How many apprentices does Sha Zhu have?"

Hearing this, Yan Jiecheng's eyes lit up, and he slapped his thigh and said, "Hey, you asked the right question. Sha Zhu has an apprentice who works as a kitchen team leader in the steel mill. His cooking skills should be pretty good, otherwise he wouldn't be able to be a team leader. How about we invite him over?"

"I think it's okay. We're only cooking dinner anyway. Let him come here after get off work. Pay him 100 yuan a month. I don't believe he won't come!" Yu Li said shrewdly.

Not long after, Yan Jiecheng and his wife found Sha Zhu's apprentice.

"Master Li, how about it? Go and earn some extra money after get off work, and I'll give you 100 yuan a month!" After Yan Jiecheng and his wife explained their purpose, they directly stated the conditions.

"Haha, you two probably don't know how much the Yipintang offers to its kitchen staff. Do you know how much my senior brother Ma Hua makes every month? One thousand yuan!"

(End of this chapter)