I've been possessed by a culinary genius, and I've turned Shaxian snacks into a rip-off!

"Sir, do you think a small-time Shaxian shop owner like me could afford your shop? Even if you gave me a 90% discount, I still couldn't come up with that much money!"

"Of course, if you're really willing to give me a 90% discount, I might consider taking out a loan to get it," Li Zhibai said shamelessly.

Grandpa Huo was amused by him and tapped him twice with his index finger: "You really dare to open your teeth, kid. A one-fold reduction is impossible. I'm not senile yet."

"However, I can offer you installment payments. You don't need to take out a bank loan. Just give me the money whenever you have it. There's no interest, and I won't pressure you to repay. How about that? Isn't that a great deal?"

Upon hearing this, Li Zhibai was taken aback: "Sir, are you serious?"

If that's really the case, then he's actually quite tempted.

Installment payments are available with no interest, which is an excellent offer. Normal mortgage loans have very high interest rates, so this can save you a lot of money. Most importantly, the old man doesn't chase you for payment.

At worst, we can just outlive the old man. Once he's gone, we won't have to pay back the money, right?

He nipped the thought in the bud as soon as it crossed his mind.

There should be a bottom line in life. If you're going to be ruthless, be ruthless openly. Being able to rip off customers is Li Zhibai's skill, but not paying back the old man is a sign of a problem with his character.

Grandpa Huo: "Of course I'm serious, but you have to agree to one condition first."

Li Zhibai: "What are the conditions?"

Grandpa Huo: "We'll talk about that later. Just tell me if you want it or not."

Li Zhibai hesitated for a moment and said, "Sir, let me think about it first. With my current circumstances, I can't afford to buy it even in installments."

"Alright, take your time to think it over," Old Master Huo didn't press the issue, then changed the subject: "Young boss, I have a piece of advice for you: no matter what a man does, he must have a foundation to rely on."

"I think you'll definitely need a place where you can truly feel at ease cooking in the future. No matter how good a rented shop is, it still belongs to someone else. Only a shop you buy yourself truly belongs to you, and you won't have to worry about the landlord raising the rent or kicking you out one day."

Li Zhibai wholeheartedly agreed with what the old man said.

The rented shop is indeed unstable. His biggest expense every month is rent, which is 300,000 yuan a quarter. That means he owes the landlord 3300 yuan every day as soon as he opens his eyes.

This doesn't even include the bad debts owed by the previous tenant.

If his business really takes off one day, and the landlord gets jealous of how much he's making, he might suddenly decide to raise the rent drastically. Wouldn't that mean he'd be working for the landlord?

He's a ruthless business owner who rips off his customers, but then he gets ripped off by his landlord – that's just awful.

If possible, he would certainly like to own his own shop. With his own shop, no matter how good the business is, he wouldn't have to worry about the landlord and could do whatever he wanted.

The problem is, he really can't afford it right now.

"Alright, I'm not going to argue with you anymore. I'm going back to sleep." Huo Wang knew that Li Zhibai needed time to think, so he didn't continue the conversation.

Just as he stood up and walked to the door, he remembered something, turned back, and gave a special instruction: "Oh, by the way, I'm bringing the kids over for dinner tomorrow night. I hope you can bring the highest standard of service, so that my kids will want to come back for more."

Li Zhibai instantly understood what the old man meant. The old man had summoned all his children from far away, both domestically and internationally, ostensibly for a family gathering, but in reality, he hoped to use his cooking to keep the children, who rarely returned to Jiangcheng, in the city, or at the very least, to encourage them to come back and visit more often.

The old man really had good intentions!

"Don't worry, sir, I'll definitely use all my skills to make sure they're begging to be transferred back to Jiangcheng after they finish eating," Li Zhibai assured him.

At the same time, he thought to himself: It wouldn't be too much to arrange a luxury family bucket meal for each of your children and grandchildren, would it?

"Okay, then I'll leave it to you tomorrow." Huo Wang waved goodbye and slowly disappeared into the night.

Li Zhibai stood at the door and watched the old man walk away before pulling down the roller shutter and closing the shop.

After washing up, he lay down on the hard bed on the second floor, took out his phone, and opened the bank app.

Balance: 966247.36 yuan.

96 million.

This amount of money would probably only be enough to buy a small shop in the Financial Street area, but it's not far from paying off the rent.

"The foundation of one's life." Li Zhibai repeated what Grandpa Huo had said, then put his phone on the bedside table, put his hands behind his head, and stared blankly at the ceiling.

Actually, he felt that he was doing quite well as he was.

He owns his own shop, has a group of customers who come very frequently despite being ripped off every day, has a cheap apprentice who works for him at his own expense, and has a nouveau riche old man who occasionally comes to eat braised pork and likes to make grand promises to him.

Although life isn't incredibly wealthy, it's much better than the aimless days I spent sending out resumes and searching for jobs right after graduation.

Let's talk about buying the shop later.

Besides, he's only twenty-three years old, what's the rush?

………………

Li Zhibai got up at eight o'clock the next morning.

It wasn't that he didn't want to sleep more; it was that he dreamt about Grandpa Huo's bank deposits of over 50 million yuan and two shops in Financial Street.

In his dream, he called Uncle Huo "godfather". The old man was so happy that he slapped the property certificates of the two shops into his hand and said happily, "Work hard, and these two shops will be yours from now on. Grandpa doesn't have any other requests, just don't charge Grandpa for braised pork anymore."

Then he woke up laughing.

Then I couldn't fall asleep.

"Password, it seems all the good things happen in dreams."

After washing up, Li Zhibai checked the quantity of ingredients in the kitchen and sent a voice message to Su Su.

"Sister Su Su, Grandpa Huo and his family are coming to the restaurant for dinner today. Please replenish the ingredients for me, especially the pork belly. It must be the top-grade black-haired local pork, with a perfect five-layer fat-to-lean ratio. Not even one layer less will do. Also, please bring a few more bottles of rose-flavored fermented bean curd. And please send me some other ingredients as well."

Su Su replied within two minutes of the message being sent.

"Received, Master. I'll arrange for someone to deliver it to you this afternoon."

Around 1 p.m., the small van arranged by Su Su arrived at the store entrance on time.

Two deliverymen deftly carried boxes of ingredients into the kitchen, while Li Zhibai checked the delivered goods list in the kitchen.

Soon after, Su Su arrived, carrying several bags in his hands.

"Master, I brought you a tablecloth and napkins." She placed the bag on the table and pulled out a dark gray linen tablecloth and a stack of napkins in the same color scheme, which looked quite high-end.

"Sister Su Su, what are you doing?"

"Master, your shop usually has no problem serving ordinary customers, but today is a family banquet, so we should decorate a bit. These things aren't expensive; consider them a small token of my appreciation for Uncle Huo."

Li Zhibai felt a warmth in his heart. This apprentice was so thoughtful and sensible that he felt embarrassed to raise the tuition fee again.

"Okay, thank you, Sister Su Su."

"Master, why are you being so polite with me?"

Su Su helped lay out the tablecloth, arranged the tableware neatly, and even took a few fresh flowers from her car to put in the water glass on the table as decoration.

After her makeover, the originally simple and shabby Shaxian snack shop actually had a bit of a family banquet atmosphere.

Li Zhibai looked at the arranged table and nodded in satisfaction: "Not bad, not bad. It's so well arranged. It shouldn't be too much to charge a bit more today, right? After all, the environment has been upgraded, so the average cost per person should also be upgraded."

Su Su: "..."

Master, you're saying all this without trying to hide it from people now?