novelhk Chapter 254: Alarming the Snake
Chapter 254: Alarming the Snake
The business of Longmen Restaurant was surprisingly good, which made all the restaurant owners on the street sigh in admiration.
Before the establishment of Longmen Restaurant, Yuelai Restaurant was the restaurant with the best business on this street. Now, it seems that the business of Yuelai Restaurant is not as good as before.
Si Wei Zhong had an extremely ugly face every day. He owned many shops in the capital, the most profitable of which was Yue Lai Restaurant, and the other one was the Rouge Shop.
Yuelai Restaurant not only has branches in the capital, but also in the entire Tianwu Kingdom. With these shops, although his rank is not high, his food, clothing and other expenses are no worse than those of the first and second rank officials in the court.
He has been a competitive person since he was young, but his status as a concubine's son always makes him feel inferior in the marquis's mansion.
So he had to make more money. As long as he had enough money, he would feel that although his status was not as good as Si Zhenglin, he could always surpass him in terms of money. He could use money to narrow the gap between him and Si Zhenglin.
Originally his life was dull and satisfying, but the appearance of Li Xiaoxiao broke this balance. Moreover, Li Xiaoxiao's identity was something he could never accept: she was the daughter of the eldest lady whom he had once sold.
Now Li Xiaoxiao's shop has seriously affected him. She shouldn't have opened a shop on this street. Since she insists on making things difficult for him, don't blame him for being rude.
Longmen Restaurant was doing a booming business. When it first opened, it borrowed a few servants from Si Chengxu's house to help out temporarily for a few days. Later, Li Xiaoxiao found a few more waiters.
These waiters are all locals, and after a few days of training they all stayed officially. Li Xiaoxiao is not a stingy person, and before the business opened, she had inquired about the wages here.
The shop waiters usually received 30 wen per day. Li Xiaoxiao wanted to pay them more, but it was difficult for her to break the rule, so she stipulated that in addition to the wages, she would give them a bonus of 200 wen per month.
Two hundred wen is equivalent to more than six days' salary, and it is given every month. Not only the waiter but also the people helping in the kitchen and the guys helping in the store are all so happy that they can't stop smiling.
It's like picking up this little money for free every month, so everyone is very motivated, fearing they will be fired if they don't do well. It's basically impossible to find another job like this.
Moreover, Li Xiaoxiao provides two meals a day, and these two meals are better than those in other restaurants. Many other restaurants eat the leftovers of the customers. Not to mention the taste, at least it is unhygienic.
In Longmen Restaurant, anything left over by customers, whether touched or not, will be destroyed. It will not be sold again, nor will it be given to the store staff to eat.
The shop assistants cook and eat the food every day. Li Xiaoxiao eats with them, and this practice is unanimously approved by the shop assistants.
In fact, this is also a disguised means of winning over people. Li Xiaoxiao has been very successful. Although there are many people, how much money can they spend on food? The restaurant is a long-term business, and the employees are down-to-earth and motivated. Are they afraid of not making money?
Seeing that the restaurant business was getting better and better, Li Xiaoxiao became interested in opening a branch. If he really wanted to open a branch, he would have to have his own people. Perhaps he could ask Damao and Ergou to come to Beijing.
Ever since opening the restaurant, Li Xiaoxiao has been worried that someone might come to cause trouble, so she specifically told Li Dahai to keep an eye on the waiters in the store. Li Xiaoxiao spoke so seriously that Li Dahai naturally did not dare to let his guard down.
Two waiters came to the store recently. Both of them look smart, but one of them has been acting a little abnormal in the past two days. He always wanders around the kitchen when he has nothing to do.
Most waiters only greet customers in the front and usually do not go to the kitchen unless there is something else. Everyone's tasks in the restaurant are arranged, and they just need to do their own job.
This waiter is called Erlengzi, he is sixteen years old and lives not far from here. He is thin and small, but he works very efficiently and speaks very actively. He can chat with everyone in the store.
Li Dahai told Li Xiaoxiao about this in private. Li Xiaoxiao narrowed her eyes and felt something was wrong. She had an impression of the waiter, but he didn't look like a scheming person.
As the saying goes, you can never know a person's heart through his appearance. This matter still needs to be investigated carefully. We must take precautions against any problem. If he just went to take a look, it would be fine, but if he has other intentions, don't blame her for being rude.
Li Xiaoxiao told Li Dahai not to alert the enemy and wait and see if he would take any follow-up actions.
At the same time, please ask the company to check who he contacted after returning home?
Si Yi soon received a reply. After Erlangzi returned home, he had not contacted anyone in the past few days as usual.
Li Xiaoxiao was still worried, so she asked Si Yi to send someone to follow him. When they were in the store, they observed him intentionally or unintentionally.
After observing for several days, Li Xiaoxiao also found that something was wrong with his condition these days. Finally one day, Erlangzi took a morning off and came at noon with a cloth bag in his hand.
Si sent someone to deliver the information early in the morning. As for the contents of the cloth bag, Li Xiaoxiao also knew it clearly. She remained calm and composed as usual.
Maybe because he was too young and had never done such a thing, he looked obviously nervous and kept hiding the cloth bag in his hand behind his back.
"You idiot, go to work." Li Xiaoxiao shouted at him.
"Okay, I'll go right away." Erlangzi agreed, but his eyes were constantly looking around the restaurant hall to see where would be the most convenient place to start. Originally he wanted to put it in the back kitchen, but then he thought, the back kitchen wouldn't have any guests and there would be a lot of people, so the front hall was the best place, with a lot of people and eyes around and it wouldn't be easy to be discovered.
He looked around the entire hall and finally chose a corner in the southwest corner, which was blocked by a row of shelves and the corridor behind it.
If he secretly put the contents of the cloth bag out and then walked out through the corridor, no one would notice.
Erlangzi greeted the guests while carefully putting the cloth bag behind his waist, trying not to touch anyone. He slowly walked to the southwest corner and when no one was paying attention, he quickly ran behind the shelf.
He kept his eyes on the situation in the hall to see if anyone had noticed him. At this moment, the hall was filled with various voices and no one paid any attention to him.
Erlangzi untied the cloth bag around his waist and made sure that no one was looking at him. With his hands trembling slightly, he tried to pour out the contents of the bag. Beads of sweat could be seen on his forehead.
Previously he was afraid that the contents of the cloth bag would fall out, so he tied a knot. Now he really couldn't open it, and the more he tried to open it, the tighter he tied it.
It took me a long time to finally untie the rope and I was just about to pour out the contents.
Suddenly, a hand stretched out from somewhere, grabbed the cloth bag and held it tightly in its hand. Erlangzi, who was originally nervous, was frightened by the hand that suddenly stretched out, and he squatted on the ground.
Subconsciously, he looked at the person next to him and saw a handsome, tall young man. Erlangzi had never seen him before, let alone recognize him.
Before the fool could react, the young man moved aside, and behind him was Li Xiaoxiao.