"Oh?" Bai Ruozhu raised her eyebrows, she was curious to see what kind of gift Shen Lu could offer.
Shen Lu smiled, attempting to make himself look less shrewd, appearing as benevolent as a regular elder.
"To prove my intentions, I plan to give you the bonus in advance, but it’s hard to calculate the exact amount, so I decided to simply give you a shop in Beiyu City. I will transfer the deed to you, so you don’t have to worry about me cheating you," Shen Lu said.
Bai Ruozhu was genuinely surprised. Not because she was a country bumpkin, she knew perfectly well when she had previously leased a shop in Beiyu City, while it couldn’t be compared to Capital City, it was still known as the most prosperous city in the northwest. Here, the land value was extremely high. Even if you had money to buy a shop, there might not be anyone willing to sell.
Yet, Shen Lu intended to gift this valuable asset to Bai Ruozhu. How could she not be surprised?
"If you’re not busy, want to take a look at the shop later?" Shen Lu couldn’t help but laugh like an old fox. He felt Bai Ruozhu wouldn’t refuse.
Bai Ruozhu indeed could not refuse. Such a show of good faith had been displayed, if she rejected it would be failing to honor it. Besides, she truly couldn’t bear to let a shop in Beiyu City go.
"So why don’t we walk and talk?" She thought for a while and said. Before discussing conditions, she needed to see the shop first, right? The location and size of the shop would influence how much she would need to contribute in the collaboration.
Shen Lu let out a laugh, "Sounds good. It’s not far from here, let’s walk over."
"Okay." Bai Ruozhu was secretly delighted. The vicinity had a booming property market. This showed that Shen Lu’s sincerity was indeed substantial.
She followed Shen Lu out of the restaurant and instructed Wa San to take her mother and Guizhi home. She figured that she would be occupied for a while.
"Yes, miss, I’ll return here later to wait for you," Wa San said.
Bai Ruozhu nodded and appreciated Wa San’s meticulousness, "Good, thank you for your hard work."
Wa San was flattered and said, "I should, I should."
He was still not used to Bai Ruozhu’s politeness. Before being hired by Bai Ruozhu, he had served many customers: from the arrogant to the kind-hearted, but rarely had he met someone like Bai Ruozhu, who treated him - a coachman - with such respect.
Bai Ruozhu and Shen Lu walked as they talked. Shen Lu stroked his beard and declared, "Honestly, my business is doing increasingly well. There are those who want to get a share of it. However, I have high standards for business cooperation. I refuse to work with anyone I do not trust."
"Oh? Is Old Shen complimenting my trustworthiness?" Bai Ruozhu laughed.
Shen Lu also burst into laughter, saying, "We’ve known each other for almost a year. I’m quite clear about your character, Miss Bai."
Bai Ruozhu smiled and said nothing more.
"Right here." Shen Lu suddenly spoke, pointing to a shop diagonally in front.
Bai Ruozhu looked in the direction he was pointing at. It was a ready-made clothes shop. Although it was smaller than Hua Xiangrong where Bai Ruozhu rented, it had two floors. Considering its prime location, the shop was definitely worth much more than the one at Hua Xiangrong!
"If you take it over and want to continue the business of selling ready-made clothes, I can lend you some of my workers. My contacts will make sourcing stock easy, so it won’t be too much of a hassle. If you want to switch to a different business or rent it out, that’s fine too. I can vacate the place for you in three days." As Shen Lu spoke, he took a thin paper from his bosom and handed it to Bai Ruozhu.
Bai Ruozhu took it and saw that it was the deed to the shop. With the deed handed over to her, all that was left was to transfer the ownership of the shop. Then, it would truly be hers.
Shen Lu had already given her the deed to the shop before they had reached an agreement, clearly showing immense trust in her. This move made Bai Ruozhu somewhat touched. She smiled graciously at Shen Lu, saying, "Old Shen, thank you."
"There’s no need to be polite. It’s not like I don’t get anything out of gifting you the shop." Shen Lu responded bluntly, matching Bai Ruozhu’s temperament. When everyone in a partnership is honest and straightforward, it becomes easier to clear up any issues in the future.
After turning a round in the ready-made clothes shop with Shen Lu, they went back to the backyard of the inn, where they finally started to discuss the content of the collaboration in detail.
Although there was a big age gap between them, Bai Ruozhu was just as shrewd as Shen Lu. Hence, after negotiating for almost two hours, they finally reached an agreement.
Firstly, Bai Ruozhu’s shares were raised to one and a half percent. She originally wanted two percent. If Zhang Liliang heard this, he would know it was Bai Ruozhu’s compulsion at work. She liked the idea of owning exactly two percent of the shares, nothing more, nothing less.
However, Shen Lu, the old fox, didn’t agree to it. In the end, they settled on one and a half percent. The half percent of shares shouldn’t be underestimated. For a thriving business like the inn, half a percent can amount to quite a bit of silver.
Secondly, Bai Ruozhu’s fresh soup noodles would be supplied exclusively to the inn. The purchase price remained the same.
Last but not least, Bai Ruozhu would occasionally brainstorm ideas on behalf of the inn, such as coming up with new recipes, to help boost its business.
Of course, there were other minor details, but I won’t go into details.
Shen Lu was a decisive man. He immediately took Bai Ruozhu to the Commerce Association to sign the contract, and he also transferred the shop over to Bai Ruozhu. By the time Bai Ruozhu returned home, she still felt like she was in a daze. Did she really just acquire a shop? Even if she didn’t operate a business, the yearly rent she could collect was quite a sum. Did she just hit the jackpot?
Just as she was about to share this great news with her family, she found that everyone in the main hall had a furious expression. It seemed like they were discussing something extremely infuriating.
"What happened?" Bai Ruozhu asked in surprise.
"You’re finally back, Ruozhu. Someone made trouble at Hua Xiangrong today. If it weren’t for the guards, Lai Fu’s family would probably have been beaten up." Lin Pingr was the first to speak, explaining the situation rapidly.
Bai Ruozhu’s face darkened instantly, "What exactly happened? Could it be Yun Xiaorong’s people?"
Fusa’s eyes were still a little red. She sniffled and said, "I can’t be sure, but it’s most likely them. The woman who came today was the same as the one who came last time, insisting on seeing our pattern catalogue. When I told her that the catalogue hadn’t been updated recently and it was all old patterns, she demanded to see it anyway. She accused us of hiding new patterns and not allowing her to see them because she was stingy. Then she started screaming at everyone. Despite me trying to reason with her, she and her maid still pushed me down..."
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I’m really not feeling well today. It’s the time of the month, you all should understand... I’m going to post this Chapter first, debug later, and provide another update later in the day~