After ten days of hustle and bustle, it was finally the eve of the grand opening of Li Wanming's three stores!
The staff allocation for each store had already been properly arranged.
At Changxing Inn: Li Wanming, Xiao Jingnan, Su Xiaozhu, Ruer, and other girls from Zhaoyu Academy who were willing to perform on stage.
At Wanfu Pawnshop: Prince Ning, Princess Ning, Uncle Zhong, Nanny Yu, and several girls who were willing to learn pawn appraisal.
The paper - making shop in the south of the city was handed over to Tian Erya and her two younger siblings... In addition, there was Qinglan.
Seeing that Tian Erya's younger siblings were only ten and eight years old and too young, Qinglan was afraid that Tian Erya would be too tired, so she volunteered to go and help.
When Li Wanming saw Qinglan's initiative, she was touched on the one hand and a little worried that she might be wronged on the other.
"Have you thought it through? That's a paper - making shop."
Qinglan gave a faint smile. "Whether it's a paper - making shop or a shop selling funeral items, it's all my cousin's shop. I may not trust the shop, but I trust my cousin and... Erya."
Qinglan told Li Wanming something.
That day, she asked Tian Erya if she wanted to change her name now that she was going to be the shopkeeper, to a more elegant and catchy one.
Tian Erya said no.
This was the name her father had given her. Even if it was rustic, vulgar, uneducated, and not nice, it was still her name.
"Academy head, a person runs a shop with their ability, not their name. I'm confident that with my craftsmanship and the academy head's knowledge, our paper - making shop will surely thrive!"
Tian Erya smiled, her round eyes narrowing into slits.
...
"So, cousin, with such an excellent shopkeeper in charge, what else do I have to worry about!" Qinglan said with a smile.
With Qinglan taking the lead, several other girls from the academy also put aside their concerns and decided to join the paper - making shop.
After they got there, they found that they had made the right decision.
The decoration of the paper - making shop was much more luxurious than that of the inn and the pawnshop. It was nothing short of resplendent...
With the staff finalized, it was time for the grand opening.
On the second day of the fifth lunar month, it was an auspicious day for betrothal, alliance, travel, and opening a business.
The divine light shone on the blue dragon, and good fortune was overflowing.
It was extremely auspicious.
Changxing Inn, Wanfu Pawnshop, and the paper - making shop in the south of the city all opened on this day!
Li Wanming rented out the entire Hongbinlou Restaurant. With both the upper and lower floors, a total of thirty - six round tables were set up to entertain relatives, friends, colleagues, and old acquaintances in the capital.
At the same time, thirty more tables of flowing banquets were set up along the street outside Hongbinlou, with an endless supply of wine and food, as a way to give back to the common people in the capital!
Xiao Jingnan also found a lion - dance troupe. They came to Changxing Inn early in the morning.
There was a large open space in front of Changxing Inn. Xiao Jingnan asked the lion - dance troupe to prepare there. After the opening performance, they would follow the route of the inn - pawnshop - paper - making shop - Hongbinlou and make a circle around the capital.
He also prepared tens of thousands of flyers printed on gold - powdered red paper, clearly stating the addresses and business scopes of the several stores.
In front of Changxing Inn, a flower float as tall as a person had been set up, and the entire inn was decorated like a garden with roses, peonies, alfalfa, and crape myrtles, exactly like the scene in "The Peony Pavilion" where Du Liniang went on a spring outing in the garden.
The inn was close to Liuyuan, which was originally a popular destination for people in the capital to go on spring outings.
Now, with the bright spring scenery, green willows and red peaches, it was the most beautiful time of the year in Liuyuan.
At this moment, there was a sea of people in front of the inn.
The common people in the capital had never seen such an inn before. They were all full of admiration and surrounded Chuntao and Liuyiyi, asking questions non - stop.
On both sides of the main entrance, there was another row of flower baskets congratulating the opening, lined up in a row.
However, the signatures on the red silk of the flower baskets were a bit strange.
Some said "Respectfully presented by the Zhang family", some said "Congratulations from the Zhao family", and some were even more mysterious, leaving Li Wanming completely confused.
She asked Xiao Jingnan, "What does 'a golden thread without silk' mean?"
Xiao Jingnan replied, "Remove the silk - radical from the character 'thread' and add the 'gold' radical. It's 'qian' (money)."
"What about 'half of the Spring and Autumn Annals'?"
"Take half of 'spring' and half of 'autumn'. It's 'Qin'."
"And this one 'Wishing for a good wind but sighing without words...'"
"Remove the 'speech' radical from 'wind'. It's 'Zhou'."
...
Li Wanming was utterly perplexed.
If they were going to send flower baskets, why did they have to be so secretive?
Xiao Jingnan said, "You should also understand them."
"Now everyone knows that your three stores are challenging the Imperial Academy. If they send flower baskets openly and you happen to lose in the end, wouldn't they completely offend Lord Chen from the Imperial Academy?"
Li Wanming glared at him. "Who said I'm going to lose?"
Xiao Jingnan said, "Of course my wife won't lose, but we should allow them to hedge their bets. Sending the flower baskets like this gives you face and doesn't offend the Imperial Academy. Isn't it a win - win situation?"
"They're clearly just fence - sitters, but you can make it sound so noble!"
Li Wanming snorted and walked up to Caiwei, who was recording the flower - basket gifts at the door, and said,
"Just record the names as they're written. Whether they want to be the wind, the flower, or the grass is up to them. It's actually a good thing that we don't know their real names. We don't have to return the gifts in the future!"
Xiao Jingnan gave her a thumbs - up from afar. "My wife is brilliant."
His explanation for this matter wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth either.
These noble lords and ladies who sent the flower baskets secretly weren't actually that afraid of the Imperial Academy. Instead, they were more afraid of Prince Ning Xiao Yuancheng and General Feng Yuanji, the Protector of the State.
Because Xiao Yuancheng and Feng Yuanji had repeatedly ordered that Xiao Jingnan's identity must not be revealed, they didn't dare to send the congratulatory flower baskets and gifts under their real names.
Otherwise, if the names of noble lords and ladies were written all over in front of a small inn, even if Li Wanming was really stupid, she would have noticed something was wrong.
In addition, there were rumors in the court that there seemed to be the shadow of the Empress Dowager behind the bet between the Imperial Academy and Zhaoyu Academy... Everyone was even more afraid to act rashly.
But it seemed they couldn't not send the gifts.
— The future mistress of Prince Ning's Mansion, the princess of the heir apparent, was opening a store. They couldn't really pretend not to know, could they?
Just when they were in a dilemma, Feng Xiao came up with a good idea for them.
He told them to hide their surnames in the form of character - splitting and riddles. In this way, they could both send the gifts and hide their identities.
Anyway, they were sending the gifts to Prince Ning's Mansion. As long as Xiao Jingnan could understand, it was fine.
Feng Xiao put his arm around Xiao Jingnan's shoulder. "How about it? Was my idea good, bro?"
Xiao Jingnan pushed his hand away. "It was good. It would be even better if you could stop them all from coming!"
"That's impossible. My grandfather can stop everyone from talking about your identity, but he can't stop them from coming to see your grand opening!"
Feng Xiao was like a piece of chewing gum, wrapping his arms around again.
Xiao Jingnan looked at the shiny armors in front of the door and felt a headache.
Those who knew his identity were all high - ranking military generals. He could understand that they wanted to come and show their support.
But did they have to dress so formally?
They were all in armor, holding swords and spears. If someone didn't know, they would think they were going on a military expedition today!
Fortunately, Li Rusong and General Liang Xiong, the Commander of the Cloud - Banner Army, were also here today. It could be said that everyone was dressing so formally out of respect for them. Otherwise, he really wouldn't know how to explain it.