My wife and I are both time travelers.

Chapter 117 A Different Kind of New Store
And so, they returned to the hotel from the storefront, and Ge Xianlin took Lin Ying and Xie Xiangrong to his office.

In his office, the two parties drafted a cooperation agreement, which listed many clauses, established their respective powers, and addressed the issue of profit distribution.

In addition, Lin Ying seized the opportunity to propose her ideas for renovating the storefront and hoped to open a back door for the coffee shop and allocate a portion of the hotel's internal garden for them to use as their business premises.

After considering the matter, Ge Xianlin replied that he could accept it as long as it did not violate certain regulations and requirements. Finally, the agreement was put in black and white. Once both parties confirmed that the contents of the agreement were correct, they signed and stamped it on the spot, and the contract was thus finalized.

"Xiao Lin, do you think this thing is really useful?" Xie Xiangrong asked, still somewhat worried, on the way back.

"Uncle, how can I put it..." Lin Ying sighed, "It's either useful or useless."

"Sigh, that's what I'm worried about."

"However, it doesn't really matter to us. Anyone can make coffee, but there aren't many experts like Uncle. What does running a restaurant depend on? Isn't it the chef's skill and the quality of the food? Would the food be the same if you changed the chef?"

"Besides, Uncle Xianlin is right. There's no precedent for privately owned coffee shops in Shanghai yet. This way of cooperating actually avoids our risks. Think about it, firstly, we don't have to pay rent, secondly, the hotel covers the renovation costs, and they can even provide some equipment. These investments would add up to a lot. Now it's great, we've saved on everything. We don't have to spend much money at all."

“Let’s get started and see how things go. Maybe in two or three years, when the policy opens up further, private individuals will be able to do it on their own. At that time, whether this agreement continues or we find another place to open a shop will be entirely in our own hands, Uncle, what do you think?”

“That’s true…” Xie Xiangrong nodded. In fact, Lin Ying had already said these words when she was trying to persuade him earlier, which was the main reason why Xie Xiangrong finally agreed.

In the days that followed, Xie Xiangrong and Lin Ying went to the hotel every day to discuss with the construction team how to renovate and what equipment to equip it with.

Lin Ying offered many suggestions regarding the renovation, as her aesthetic sense and vision were unmatched by people of this era, even Xie Xiangrong. Although Xie Xiangrong came from a coffee family, the coffee shops of his time were decades ago, and their styles had changed and were no longer suitable for the present. However, in terms of technology and equipment, Xie Xiangrong was the primary choice, something Lin Ying could not do.

In addition, there is the design of the coffee shop sign. At present, there are only simple graphic designers in China, and there are no advertising companies. Therefore, Lin Ying has to do the design herself. The design of the shop sign is not a big problem for her. After all, Lin Ying has seen too many novel and beautiful shop signs from later generations. She can easily take some out and make them far superior to those of this era, leaving a deep impression on people.

However, Xie Xiangrong insisted on using Violet as the store name.

Lin Ying initially thought the shop name was the name of Xie Xiangrong's former coffee shop, but later learned that it wasn't at all. The reason Xie Xiangrong used this name was because Fang Manxia's English name was Violet.

Hearing this explanation, Lin Ying didn't know what to say.

However, Violet is also a good name; violets are quite suitable for a coffee shop name. Lin Ying used cursive English, patterns, and colors, along with her modifications to classic shop sign designs from later generations, and finally produced a beautiful sketch. After seeing this sketch, Xie Xiangrong decided to use this design without hesitation and personally supervised the construction. In his words, this coffee shop must be made unique in Shanghai and even the whole country.

As time went by, Lin Ying and Xie Xiangrong were busy every day, and the storefront gradually changed from its original inconspicuous appearance.

With all the trash removed and the construction team in place, the coffee shop's renovation began.

A door was broken open at the back of the coffee shop, and a fence was erected around the hotel's garden and lawn to serve as the future operating space for the coffee shop.

The lawn is paved with bluestone slabs, and the layout is designed in the style of Suzhou gardens, creating a winding, exquisite, elegant, quiet and beautiful style.

In addition, a semi-open glass canopy was built along the back wall of the store, which, combined with the garden scenery, gives it a modern and simple style.

Inside the store, the street-facing area retains the original entrance and exit, and large floor-to-ceiling windows have been added to the walls. This not only allows for better lighting and makes the store look more grand, but also allows passersby to see what's inside clearly.

The shop features wooden flooring, which is inexpensive these days, much cheaper than marble. Plus, Shanghai's winters are damp and cold, and wooden flooring provides warmth compared to stone, making it particularly suitable for a coffee shop. The ceiling wasn't heavily decorated; Lin Ying rejected the construction team's original plan for a suspended ceiling, proposing a simple, post-industrial style instead. The interior walls were similarly simplified, mostly just plastered with cement and then finished with decorative patterns to maintain a rough look. Lighting fixtures were then added to complement the overall design. Combined with the custom-made Western-style wooden chairs and soft furnishings, the overall effect is a uniquely upscale feel.

In addition, a lot of effort was put into the counter, which was made into a ruler-shaped wooden frame combined with a large glass counter. This is similar to many coffee shop counters in later generations. However, considering that there is currently no technology and equipment to combine such a refrigerator, it is not possible to combine the refrigerator with the counter, which is a pity.

The store's appearance changed every day, gradually taking shape from its initial ordinary state. Seeing these changes, both Lin Ying and Xie Xiangrong were extremely happy.

Judging from the progress, because the decoration was designed by Lin Ying, the progress is much faster than ordinary decoration. The entire coffee shop decoration will be completed in about a month. Only about two weeks have passed so far, and there is still half of the time left. However, considering the subsequent operation and opening, Xie Xiangrong has already started to have Lin Wen and Lin Xi learn to make coffee with him.

Although the two girls couldn't possibly learn it all in such a short time, and even if they did, they wouldn't reach Xie Xiangrong's level of skill, it was still essential to learn. Furthermore, given the different needs of running a coffee shop and its customer base, they also needed to learn necessary etiquette and basic foreign language conversation. Xie Xiangrong was an expert in these areas, and under his careful guidance, Lin Wen and Lin Xi made remarkable progress.

That morning, Lin Ying arrived at the still-unfinished coffee shop on time, just like always. The workers were still busy there, while the storage room at the very back had been installed a few days earlier. Xie Xiangrong was there arranging things, and when he saw Lin Ying, he greeted her with a big smile.

"Kobayashi! Come and see! Look at this!"

Lin Ying went over and saw two burlap sacks stacked in front of Xie Xiangrong, one of which was already opened.

"what is this?"

"Coffee beans!" Xie Xiangrong said cheerfully, reaching in to grab a handful and showing them to Lin Ying. Lin Ying looked at them but couldn't understand them either, so she asked him where these coffee beans came from.

"Old Ge just brought these over. Look at these beans, how good they are! How beautiful they are! These are genuine Lujiang No. 1 beans. This stuff is very difficult to obtain. The yield is low and most of it is exported. You can hardly find any in China. I didn't expect that when I mentioned it to Old Ge a couple of days ago, he actually managed to get some for me."

Seeing Lin Ying's blank expression, Xie Xiangrong realized that Lin Ying didn't know much about this stuff, so he immediately introduced her to the origin of Lujiang No. 1 coffee beans, telling her that these coffee beans were the highest grade coffee from Baoshan, Yunnan, and had been rated as first-class coffee beans in the London market as early as 1958, making them the best quality coffee beans exported from my country.

Such coffee beans are simply unavailable on the market. Even the renowned Shanghai coffee factories don't have many quotas per year, with most going overseas as export goods to earn foreign exchange. If it weren't for the special nature of the hotel catering to foreign guests, Xie Xiangrong, no matter how capable he was, wouldn't have been able to obtain them. But now, he had suddenly acquired two large bags, each weighing 25 kilograms, totaling 100 kilograms in total. He was overjoyed.

"I knew it! There are benefits to cooperating with Uncle Xianlin. And here they are!" Lin Ying joked with a smile. Xie Xiangrong nodded repeatedly. Right now, all he could see were these coffee beans. He didn't care about anything else. With these top-quality coffee beans, he was confident that he could roast and make amazing coffee.

"Come help me move these inside. These things can't get damp. I'd be heartbroken if they got ruined. I'll bake a few pounds in a few days and let you try them then."

Xie Xiangrong called Lin Ying over to help. He dared not let anyone else handle such a treasure. The two of them carried it together and put it into a specially made storage room. The temperature and humidity inside were specially controlled. Although it was relatively simple due to the current technology, it could still meet the requirements.

After closing the storage room door and checking the thermometer and hygrometer hanging on the wall, Xie Xiangrong was finally relieved, and a smile still lingered on his face.

"The oven was installed this morning. What are you planning to do with the pastries in the shop from now on? If all else fails, I'll ask Lao Ge to borrow a pastry chef from the hotel."

Pointing to another corner, Xie Xiangrong said this. Following his finger, Lin Ying noticed that there was an oven there.

After taking a look, Lin Ying nodded with satisfaction. Although the oven wasn't big, it was enough. Besides, they were a coffee shop, not a bakery. They mainly sold coffee, not pastries. As for Xie Xiangrong's suggestion to borrow someone, Lin Ying felt it was unnecessary. She could make small pastries herself. It was her specialty back in the day. She had even made videos for Douyin and uploaded them, gaining a lot of likes and followers.

Moreover, she can make quite a variety of pastries, and in that respect, she's definitely a cut above the hotel staff. Lin Ying had already planned to teach this skill to her two younger sisters; how much they learn will depend on their talent.

(End of this chapter)