Courtyard House: Is Xu Damao a childless man? Let me help.

So with that in mind, Uncle Yi finally handed the money over to Bang Geng. Bang Geng was overjoyed and immediately started arranging his fourth business deal.

However, this transaction was almost the same as the third one, and it was still about opening a restaurant. Because of the experience from the last time, Bang Geng was quite familiar with the business. He immediately went to find Liu Guangtian again, hoping that Liu Guangtian could introduce him to another chef.

Well, even at this point, Bang Geng still hadn't realized that the chef Liu Guangtian had introduced to him was the problem.

Although the previous incident was indeed the cook's fault, Bang Geng thought that the cook had a gambling addiction and had been tricked by the gamblers, which is why this situation occurred.

Moreover, my own supervision is not very strict. In the future, I should not leave the task of buying groceries to the chef. It would be better to do it myself!

That's certainly a correct summary of 'lessons learned', but here's the problem: the chef Liu Guangtian introduced to you before, he did so precisely because he knew there were problems with him!

Now... Among the people Liu Guangtian knows, although there are still several cooks, such as the head chef at the waterworks, if he really wanted to help make contact, Liu Guangtian actually had that connection.

But here's the problem: Liu Guangtian doesn't want to help you contact a 'respectable' chef! And those less-than-clean chefs like the one from last time are a minority. Very few people can commit a crime, get caught, and still survive ten years!

刘光天这边也没有什么‘合适的人选’了，所以棒梗就算再次开价了五十块钱，刘光天最终也还是『内，部/群』:9.8"0'2？0"5。8'5,6绝了对方。

After failing to get the results he wanted from Liu Guangtian, Banggeng was in a dilemma. The reason he was so confident that his restaurant could still be opened was because he had already had a successful experience last time!

But now the first step in my successful experience has been put on the brakes. How can I keep my restaurant running?

Are we going to have to hold a public recruitment drive again, just like last time? Bang Geng still vividly remembers the results of the last recruitment drive. More than a dozen chefs came, but none of them were good enough to be the head chef of the restaurant.

If I need to recruit people like this again, wouldn't it take ten days to half a month?

Left with no other choice, Bang Geng thought of Sha Zhu again. If he could get Sha Zhu's help, it definitely wouldn't be a problem. Although Sha Zhu had clearly rejected him last time, asking again wouldn't hurt, so he might as well shamelessly ask again!

Then... Sha Zhu readily agreed, which made Bang Geng extremely happy. Immediately, under Sha Zhu's guidance, he found the chef his restaurant needed.

So why did Sha Zhu help Bang Geng? Well, actually it was because Sha Zhu himself was having some bad luck, and his "good apprentice" Fatty was starting to get a little "arrogant".

Originally, I brought Ma Hua and Fatty here to open a restaurant, and the treatment they received was quite good.

But the fat man started to feel that his wages were not commensurate with his skills, so recently he started to make sarcastic remarks, saying things like that Sha Zhu was being bullied by his brother-in-law, that he didn't even come to the shop, and that he wanted half of the money, and so on.

Chapter 298 The Fatty Wants to Copy Homework? He Has No Advantages Whatsoever!

After the fat man's sarcastic remarks, some unpleasant noises started coming from the kitchen below, which put Sha Zhu in a very difficult position, as he was torn between his 'prodigal disciple' and his brother-in-law.

If you're asking if you really have a problem with your brother-in-law? That's impossible! After all, Sha Zhu himself knows that he was able to quit his job at the steel mill and open his own shop entirely because of Ye Jianchuan's idea.

The fact that this store was able to open and grow into a large and successful business is all thanks to Ye Jianchuan's advice and planning. Therefore, Sha Zhu definitely has no objections to Ye Jianchuan.

So what about Fatty, this 'traitorous disciple'? Well, because unlike in the original series, Sha Zhu was promoted to deputy director, so Fatty hadn't shown any disloyalty before.

So whether it was Ma Hua or Fatty, Silly Zhu still gave them serious pointers on cooking skills, and they could both be considered his 'good apprentices'.

But now that Sha Zhu can no longer be considered a leader, and the fat man is a little envious of others taking the lion's share, he starts making sarcastic remarks.

Under these circumstances, if Sha Zhu doesn't come up with a way to deal with Fatty and the other kitchen helper who had been instigated by Fatty and had some complaints, the atmosphere in the kitchen will only get worse.

And just then, Bang Geng unexpectedly delivered himself to their doorstep, which was exactly the best way for Sha Zhu to deal with the fat guy.

So, before Bang-ge could even properly appeal to his emotions and reason with him, Sha-zhu actually agreed.

Then... Sha Zhu directly introduced the fat man and the kitchen helper to Bang Geng.

Since he was going to be the head chef at Bang Geng's restaurant, the pay would indeed be better than at Sha Zhu's restaurant. So when Sha Zhu told Fatty this, Fatty immediately agreed.

And so, the guy who almost bankrupted Lao Yan's restaurant in the original series became the head chef of Bang Geng's restaurant.

In terms of cooking skills, although the fat man's cooking skills are not as good as the previous chef, they are still much better than those of ordinary family chefs.

After all, Sha Zhu had given Fatty a lot of pointers on cooking, so making him a chef at a small restaurant would definitely not be a problem.

Of course, there's a prerequisite: ...the fat guy doesn't have any ulterior motives, but is it even possible to get him to settle down and cook peacefully?

The answer is obviously unlikely. After arriving at Banggeng's restaurant, Fatty still dutifully cooked for a while. Just like last time, Banggeng's restaurant did quite well for the first two months.

Although business is slightly worse each month compared to before, since the chef's skills are not as good as the previous one who wasn't very clean, at least I can still make a few hundred yuan in net profit each month.

However, just when Bang Geng thought he had finally succeeded again, the fat guy started causing trouble again.

Fatty's cooking skills are decent, but only decent. They're nowhere near as good as Sha Zhu's. Well, let alone Sha Zhu, even the famous chefs in Beijing who still work with Sha Zhu are all a level above Fatty.

So theoretically speaking, if Fatty were to work at Bang Geng's restaurant for a few years, save some money, and then open his own restaurant to support his family, that would be his best option.

But who told Fatty not to know his own limitations? After learning a little bit from Sha Zhu, he thought his cooking skills were unbeatable. After working for Bang Geng for two months, Fatty started to discuss 'expansion' with Bang Geng.

Okay, to put it bluntly, Fatty felt that he had worked in Sha Zhu's shop for so long that he had learned all the 'essence' of Sha Zhu's shop.

Since Sha Zhu's shop is so profitable, why don't I learn from him and open some private rooms or high-end private kitchens?

Since Sha Zhu's brother-in-law provided all the start-up capital, and Sha Zhu only needs to work as a cook to get half of the profits from the store, why not do the same? When the store becomes successful, will I also be able to get half of the profits?

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If this were someone else, the suggestion would most likely be rejected quickly. After all, most people know that to open a restaurant like Sha Zhu's, you need the right timing, the right location, and the right people—all three are indispensable.

Timing... Bang Geng's shop definitely won't catch up, after all, Sha Zhu's shop was just in time for the reform and opening up. Going back a little further, opening a shop without government officials involved in public-private partnerships would be illegal.

And going a little further on, if you haven't been able to get the first taste of success, then it will be extremely difficult to grow and become stronger by following in the footsteps of others.

.. ......... 0

As for location, it's relatively simple: just choose a place with enough foot traffic from all directions to open a shop! The shop Ye Jianchuan chose was in such a place with enough foot traffic, so he had secured a good location.

The last one is about people. To put it bluntly, it means having a benefactor. This benefactor doesn't just refer to Ye Jianchuan giving advice behind the scenes, nor does it just mean that Sha Zhu's cooking skills are truly unparalleled.

Rather, it refers to the fact that after the restaurant opened, all sorts of people of certain status and position came to patronize it, and then word of mouth spread, making the restaurant famous.

To reach the level of Sha Zhu's restaurant, all three elements are indispensable. As for Bang Geng's shop? The timing is definitely out of the question, and the location... with Bang Geng's limited funds, renting a shop in a prime location will be extremely difficult.

So you lack the advantage of location, and as for the people? Sorry, you're an unknown person, who's going to come back to eat at your restaurant just because of you?

Who would spontaneously tell their friends that a restaurant is good just because they ate food cooked by a fat man with terrible skills?

Therefore, the three conditions of favorable timing, location, and human factors were not met in Bang Geng's restaurant. So, it was obviously unlikely that they would succeed in copying Sha Zhu's restaurant.

Chapter 299 The Rip-off Restaurant with Sticky Rice

Most other people would probably be able to analyze this situation, but what can we do when our punt is so 'gifted'?

After hearing Fatty's plan to copy homework, all Bang Geng could think about was Fatty's words, "Then we'll be able to earn as much as Sha Zhu and the others."

What does it mean to earn the same amount as Sha Zhu and his friends? Although Bang Geng didn't know exactly how much money Sha Zhu and his friends could earn in a month, he did know that from Sha Zhu and Ran Qiuye down to the children in Sha Zhu's family, they were all very 'generous' with their money every day.

Moreover, the prices of the dishes upstairs at Sha Zhu's restaurant are already "famous," with some people reportedly spending several hundred yuan on a single meal!

In an era when an ordinary worker's monthly salary was only a few dozen yuan, spending several hundred yuan on a single meal was comparable to the news of "400,000 yuan sky-high-priced dishes" in later generations.

Of course, they didn't know that the so-called several hundred yuan was actually only a little over a hundred yuan, and although it was said to be upstairs food, they were actually eating customized Tan family dishes, and the portions were quite large.

I estimate that the materials alone would cost several tens of dollars, so I only charged them a little over a hundred dollars, which is not a high price at all.

Anyway, once Bang-geung heard that he could earn the same amount of money as Sha-ju, he immediately stopped thinking. As long as he could make money, nothing else mattered!

And so, this restaurant, which had only been open for two months, couldn't wait to begin its 'promotion journey'.

The fat man first went to the steel rolling mill to find a former 'colleague' to take charge of the stir-fries in the lobby on the first floor. In fact, the other person's skills were not much different from the fat man's.

Although Fatty is nominally Sha Zhu's apprentice, Sha Zhu isn't too stingy. He would occasionally give pointers to the cooks who weren't his apprentices. So, even though Fatty wasn't Sha Zhu's apprentice, his skill level was actually not much different from Fatty's.

Because their cooking skills are actually quite similar, the dishes prepared by the 'first-floor chef' and the 'second-floor chef'... won't taste much different.

If people can't tell the difference, will your expensive dishes on the second floor still be able to command a high price?

As for the third floor over there by Sha Zhu? Sorry, Fatty didn't learn Tan Family Cuisine from Sha Zhu, so even if Fatty wanted to copy the recipes from the third floor, he wouldn't be able to.

Oh, right, although it's called the second floor, there's really no second floor to the shop that Bang Geng rented. So, the so-called second floor, after thinking it over, was just that Bang Geng and his friends rented the shop next door and then put up some partitions to make it look like a private room.

After completing the preparations, Bang Geng began to "promote" his shop's new services. Whenever a customer came to eat at his shop, Bang Geng would go up to them and recommend that they go to the private rooms.

At first, some people would go to the private rooms to experience this kind of sales tactic. After all, who would want to sit in the main hall if they could eat in a quiet environment?

However... Fatty's attempt at copying this assignment didn't seem to be entirely successful. Although the methods for promoting private rooms, or rather, promoting the 'second floor,' were the same, Fatty forgot a very important thing: he didn't tell people in advance that the private rooms would be a 'slightly' more expensive.

The price might not be a major concern for first-time diners, but those who have eaten in the main dining area before are less likely to be happy about it.

So, less than a week after the private rooms were launched, Banggeng's restaurant had already experienced two conflicts because the prices of the dishes in the private rooms were much higher.

After the two conflicts, even the regular customers who used to dine at the restaurant were so disgusted by the atmosphere that they never came back.

However, Bang Geng was unaware of this, as he was still happily counting his money! Although there had been two conflicts in a week, what could he do when he had received more money in this week than he had in the previous two weeks?

So Banggeng immediately felt he had found a 'path to riches', without ever considering changing his business strategy or giving customers a subtle hint when promoting his private room services...

Need I say more about the consequences of being unrepentant? Originally, neither the fat man nor the chef he hired had any particularly good skills.

The problem is that the two chefs are about the same skill level, with neither being particularly outstanding. So those who have eaten in both the main hall and the private rooms have noticed that the private rooms charge much more money, but the food is basically the same. Isn't this just blatant ripping people off?

Then... these people felt cheated and stopped coming to Bang Geng's shop. As a result, over the next week, Bang Geng noticed that his shop's customer traffic was decreasing.

Although the number of customers has decreased, the income has not decreased by much. There's no way around it; although many people only come once and never come back, there are still quite a few new customers. As long as you can bring one or two people to the private room every day, the money can basically be the same as before.

To put it bluntly, Banggeng has now become the kind of tourist trap that rips off 2.5 million tourists. They don't plan on making repeat customers; they just grab a customer and rip them off once, and then they'll rip you off to your heart's content!

This kind of shop, although it doesn't have a very good reputation, is still able to exist in later generations, and there's a reason for that. After all, it can always make money, whether it's good money or bad money!

However... such shops also have certain risks, namely, they can easily get into conflicts with customers. Therefore, those shops that rip off customers in later generations all had some kind of connections behind them, or they had to rely on having many siblings to bolster their reputation.

But Banggeng is unaware of all these intricacies! With no reliable connections and no one to "keep things in check," if he encounters a tough customer later on, he'll be completely finished.

Chapter 300 The Sticky Meme Went In

While Beijing lacks everything, it has no shortage of tough guys with status, position, and background. So, Bang Geng's "rip-off shop" successfully welcomed its first tough guy in less than a month.

It's the same old routine: after the new guests enter the store and sit down, Bang Geng goes up to 'greet' the two guests and asks them if they want to go to a private room to eat.

Then they started introducing the features of the private room, making up all sorts of nice things as if they didn't care about the cost. One minute they said the private room was quiet and had a good environment, and the next minute they said the dishes in the private room were made by a special chef and tasted better.

After a barrage of praise, the two men were naturally tempted. Bang Geng immediately led them to a private room and served them the menu.

However, it's worth noting that while the menu offers a wide variety of dishes, it has one notable feature: no prices are listed.

This is actually quite normal. If prices were clearly marked, how could they rip off customers?