After transmigrating into the body of a widow, I became the richest man in the capital.

Chapter 164 The Eight Immortals Restaurant's Business Encounters a Crisis

When it comes to doing business, no restaurant can compare to Ruyixuan.

Qian Musheng had been learning business from his father since he was a child and had never seen this company before. The special offers were endless.

In fact, Qian Musheng said at the beginning that this store is just starting to take off. After all, it has just opened. Let them work hard for a while. Our main focus is on long-term growth.

As it turned out, they had a lot of tricks up their sleeves, and as time went by, their business became increasingly booming.

Qian Musheng then began to realize the crisis.

People from all over town flocked to Ruyixuan, so naturally fewer people came to Baxianlou to eat.

Early in the morning, Su Xiaoxiao and Qian Musheng arrived at Baxianlou Restaurant and found that the signboard had just been hung up and the waiters inside were still lazily yawning, while Ruyixuan Restaurant across the street was already bustling with customers.

"Isn't that outrageous? People are lining up first thing in the morning?"

Su Xiaoxiao could hardly believe her eyes as she followed Qian Musheng up to the third floor of the Baxianlou restaurant, to Qian Musheng's office.

Opening the window allows you to see what's happening across the street. Sure enough, people are coming and going. They also have special offers in the morning, but most people are there for the performance at noon.

They invited Jiu'er, a famous courtesan from the capital, to perform songs and dances. Although her cooking skills were good, they weren't particularly outstanding. However, this was a rather attractive tactic.

In the morning, Su Xiaoxiao and Qian Musheng asked the waiter to arrange a table for them. The two went into Ruyixuan and found a window seat. Su Xiaoxiao then ordered several of Ruyixuan's best dishes, such as braised pork head and braised pork hock, braised lion's head meatballs, and West Lake Spring Colors, among other hearty dishes.

These dishes are a good test of the chef's skill. After all the dishes were served, Su Xiaoxiao found that the dishes looked okay, but she felt that although they looked good, they didn't taste that good.

Actually, it was just average. Qian Musheng quickly tried the dishes and found them to be ordinary. It seemed that what really attracted these customers to come and eat was the song and dance performance.

They supposedly found top chefs, but these chefs were just average and didn't have any particularly special dishes.

Qian Musheng gave the same assessment after taking a bite.

"It's not good. It's not as good as what our chef makes."

Sure enough, the two noticed that the guests at Ruyixuan were not very enthusiastic about eating. Everyone was waiting for the song and dance performance. It was almost 11:00 a.m. when the first climax of Ruyixuan finally began.

Just as Su Xiaoxiao had expected, the guests were extremely enthusiastic when the famous courtesan Jiu'er from the capital arrived.

When Jiu'er played "Dong Feng Po" on her pipa, it was truly exhilarating for everyone present.

How beautiful it is! Although Jiu'er was wearing a veil, her every smile and frown still captivated the hearts of countless people present.

Of course, the vast majority of them were men, and everyone cheered.

"That's great, play one more song."

Sure enough, eating is just an excuse; looking at beautiful women is the real reason.

Su Xiaoxiao made a helpless gesture towards Qian Musheng, "What should we do? Are we going to lose to them because of this? This is so frustrating."

“Miss Jiu’er is our friend. Why don’t we go and tell her not to perform here anymore?” Su Xiaoxiao retorted, “Is Miss Jiu’er your friend? You’ve only met her once. This is her opportunity to perform. How can she just stop coming like that?”

Su Xiaoxiao thought Qian Musheng was joking; Jiu'er was just trying to make a living.

In fact, Qian Musheng didn't have much interaction with Jiu'er, which is a rather strange relationship.

If Su Xiaoxiao used to approve of such a relationship, now she feels that a large part of the reason for the relationship between people is that they imagine that they have such a relationship.

After Jiu'er finished her performance, Qian Musheng said he wanted to go backstage to find her, but Su Xiaoxiao stopped him.

"It's better if you don't go. I think Miss Jiu'er doesn't really want you to go see her either; she's out earning money..."

"It's alright, it's just a little money. I'll just offer Yixuan a higher price to invite Miss Jiu'er to perform here!"

Su Xiaoxiao couldn't stop him, so Qian Musheng went to find Jiu'er.

They didn't even get to meet him; they were turned away and kicked out.

"This……"

Qian Musheng had never suffered such injustice in his entire life.

"It's Jiu'er's own decision to make, and where she performs is her own business, so don't meddle. Let's focus on making the dishes at Baxianlou more appealing to attract customers!"

Su Xiaoxiao made this suggestion, and Qian Musheng looked very disappointed. He always thought that he and Miss Jiu'er had some relationship, so it shouldn't be that they couldn't even meet?
Holding her homemade dark soy sauce, Su Xiaoxiao knew that people nowadays preferred strongly flavored food. She thought it would be good for the restaurant to offer dishes with strong flavors, such as braised pork or braised spare ribs, which might attract customers from across the street.

As a result, without discounts, the dishes failed to attract the diners, since their minds weren't on the food.

Some of the people who come here to eat are regular customers of Baxianlou Restaurant; they still come here to eat.

Instead of lowering the price to the lowest possible level, Su Xiaoxiao gradually added some stronger flavors to the dishes, which was quite important.

However, despite their best efforts, they only managed to win back a small number of people, and did not win back many of the original guests of Baxianlou.

The charm of Miss Jiu'er is so great that all the guests who come to eat at Ruyixuan do so because of her.

Until one day, Jiu'er unexpectedly came to their door. After meeting Su Xiaoxiao and Qian Musheng, she cried and complained in front of them.

"Actually, I didn't want to come and perform; they forced me to."

Qian Musheng quickly asked, "Are you the owner of Ruyixuan?"

"No, she's the proprietress of our Yihong Courtyard. But I know that she didn't do it voluntarily. She was forced by a high-ranking official in the capital named Liu. Our madam said we couldn't afford to offend such a big shot. Actually, we did this entirely to compete with Baxianlou for business."

Jiu'er finally revealed the truth, and also said that she was actually not in control of her own destiny.

(End of this chapter)