In a blink of an eye, half a month passed, and the business of Dingxianglou was getting more and more popular. The guests who came to listen to books filled the lobby. There was no longer a long bench in the lobby. Many guests who came late could only stand and listen to Ma Jin's storytelling. In this way, new guests joined in every day.

However, facing the endless crowds of guests, Ma Jin and Zhou Fuhai were not so happy.

Dingxiang Building

Just at the hour of Hai (9 pm), the guests had already left one after another. Lu Er and Bao Bao were studying new dishes in the kitchen with the recipe given by Ma Jin. Quan Fu, with Shui Gen, Jin Bao and two other friends, was packing the small yard where the miscellaneous items were placed.

Only Ma Jin and Zhou Fuhai with ugly faces sat in the lobby of the huge Dingxiang Building.

"Today's turnover is less than eight taels of silver. No one believes it if we say it, just by the popularity of our store."

Ma Jin threw the account book on the table and complained to Zhou Fuhai.

"Oh, there are many people coming to the store to listen to books, but not many people eat. Some customers don't even order a cup of tea all day, and leave after listening to books.

Our store is profitable by catering, so don’t look at how many people come to Dingxianglou every day, but we can’t make much money.”

Zhou Fuhai smiled bitterly and explained helplessly.

"We can't continue like this. Today's turnover has dropped a lot compared to yesterday. This shows that fewer and fewer customers are willing to spend money in our store. If this continues, our Dingxiang Building is just a sign of its appearance and has a hot popularity, but it actually won't be any benefit."

Ma Jin's face looked very ugly. He was exhausted all day long, but someone came to take advantage of it. With someone's stingy personality, he was not angry to tell fortunes.

Ma Jin actually knew what Zhou Fuhai said. Many of the guests who came to Dingxianglou now came to listen to books for free on purpose. Every time Ma Jin's awakening wood sounded, they started to leave.

At first, they didn't dare to be too presumptuous, but just stood behind them and listened. Later, when they saw that no one was in the store, some scoundrels began to get more and more arrogant. They came early to occupy the tables and stools to let the guests who really spent money on Dingxianglou stand. If Ma Jin's storytelling was not really attractive, I was afraid that these customers would have left long ago.

"This matter cannot be delayed anymore. Today, many guests came to express their dissatisfaction with me. These guests asked me why they paid for dinner, so why there were no seats standing behind, while some people sat in front without paying a penny.

Manager Hao from Zilin Street even said on the spot that the way we do in our store is really the heart of Old Han’s regular customers.”

Zhou Fuhai's face was solemn. Now it was time to resolve this matter, otherwise the reputation of Dingxianglou would have to be reduced.

Bang

Ma Jin slapped the table angrily, and he made the rogues furious.

He is a lazy person who wants to be in bed every day. In order to make a living, he tells books during the day and organizes manuscripts at night. On stage, it is almost an hour. In order not to interrupt the performance of the storytelling, he dare not even drink saliva, because he is afraid that he will suddenly urinate and go to the toilet.

He worked so hard that these damn guys were still trying to make him a fucking place, and Ma Jin's temper was not that good.

"From tomorrow, our store will also learn the opera troupe. We start to enter the store to listen to books and collect tickets. The one with a table is called Yazou. One Yazou costs one ounce a day, and at most six guests are seated.

Then pack the long benches and pack the bread and cushions, and call them the seats. One seat is fifty cents a day.

There are also station tickets, and those who listen while standing still have to charge money, and one person will be 20 cents a day.”

Ma Jin was also forced to do it. Don’t you think Dingxianglou is honest? Then I will show you the profiteer. I will collect tickets. Don’t you want to listen to it, pay the money by obediently.

"This..., our Dingxianglou is a restaurant, and it is not appropriate to collect tickets like a troupe?" Zhou Fuhai was a little hesitant.

"Uncle Zhou, please relax. I carefully observed that if you have time to come to listen to books every day, except those rogues, most of them are shopkeepers of surrounding shops and some rich children. Ordinary people do not have so much leisure time and spend a day listening to books.

And these tickets are a drop in the bucket for these people. They wish we could collect the money to make them quiet for a while." Seeing that Zhou Fuhai was hesitant, Ma Jin quickly spoke out to comfort him to show that he was not aimlessly.

Zhou Fuhai was still a little hesitant. He was an old-fashioned person, with a perseverance and abide by the rules, so it was normal for him to disagree with Ma Jin's behavior of collecting tickets.

"Uncle Zhou, there is no other way now. Let's try this method first. If the customer really resists, we won't do it."

Seeing that Zhou Fuhai was still wandering, Ma Jin proposed to try it first. Zhou Fuhai was touched when he saw Ma Jin's persistent eyes and nodded helplessly.

"Uncle Zhou listens to you!"

"yeah!"

Seeing Zhou Fuhai agreeing, Ma Jin was as happy as a child. He jumped up and waved his fists excitedly. Seeing Zhou Fuhai looking at him with kindness, Ma Jin smiled at him awkwardly and secretly complained about himself! He was almost thirty years old, why was he still so second-class?

In fact, after so many days of getting along, the old man's generous and gentle personality and meticulous care for him made Ma Jin accept this elder from the bottom of his heart, so he unconsciously showed some childishness.

Zhou Fuhai looked at Ma Jin with a smile and scratched his head. Since the young master passed the imperial examination and his temper has become more and more stubborn, the relationship between the two has become a little distant. Now the young master has taken over the Dingxianglou and his personality is becoming more and more lively.

Ma Jin was embarrassed for a while, ran to the counter and picked up the abacus, and settled the accounts.

"One elegant seat is one qian, and Dingxiang Building has thirty-six elegant seats, a total of three or six qians. The single seat is counted as fifty, one is fifty, two thousand and five hundred qians, which is two or five qians. If you stand in the tickets... Looking at the situation in the past two days, it is counted as one hundred, and one charges twenty cents, which is two qians. If the tickets are sold smoothly, then the tickets will be all the money in one day..."

"The ticket price is 8 taels per day, which is more than the current flow of money in the store. If you add the tea, wine and food ordered by the customers, the profit will be very considerable."

Zhou Fuhai kept staring at the abacus, watching the numbers Ma Jin typed out one after another, which made him very excited, and even the fat on his face trembled.

"It's eight taels a day, plus the flow of money in the store, even if it's fifteen taels, it's four hundred and fifty taels a month, and five thousand four hundred taels a year. Haha, I'm going to get rich!"

Ma Jin laughed loudly. He was not far from the dream of a rich man with hundreds of wealthy houses, thousands of fertile land, many servants, and many wives and concubines.

"Owner, boss!"

The little fat man Bao Bao ran out of the kitchen panting and shouted at Ma Jin.

"What's wrong?"

"I have made all the snacks you asked me to make. Go and try it if it tastes the flavor." Bao Bao smiled silly.

Whoosh

As soon as Ma Jin heard this, he threw down his abacus and ran to the kitchen.

When I arrived at the kitchen, I pulled away Lu Er, which was blocking the front, and four white plates were exposed on the chopping board, with four kinds of snacks on it.

Donkey rolling, mung bean cake, sauerk, and shrimp dumplings, known as the head of the four kings of morning tea.

Ma Jin didn't take the chopsticks, and grabbed a shrimp dumpling and threw it into his mouth. After biting it, the shrimp meat was smooth and fresh and sweet. The familiar taste almost made Ma Jin cry.
Chapter completed!