The shops were already available. Not only did Ye Yaming own several storefronts, but Princess Imperial Yü’an also had quite a few.
In the end, everyone agreed that Princess Yü’an would provide the storefront, Madam Yin would supply the cooks and ingredients, and they would divide responsibilities with one managing the accounts and the other managing the staff. The profits would be split 50-50. If Madam Yin returned to Lin’an, the shop would be managed by Princess Imperial Yü’an, with profits divided 30-70, with Princess Imperial Yü’an taking seventy percent.
The shop that Princess Imperial Yü’an offered was quite different from the one in Lin’an City. The one in Lin’an was just a small shop of about a hundred square feet, with the sales counter placed directly at the entrance. Customers stood outside, pointing at the menu to tell the shop assistants which pastries they wanted and how many pounds they needed, without even entering the door.
Before her marriage, Princess Imperial Yü’an, even though she wasn’t favored, was still a princess, and her dowry was regulated and naturally generous. The Prince Consort she married was from a prominent family and had his fortune. In previous years, though the Prince Consort kept a mistress, he never dared to move the family’s wealth to her.
Princess Yü’an had no sons. In most families, after a husband’s death, the property of that branch would be absorbed back into the family’s common holdings. But who would dare to claim Princess Imperial Yü’an’s property? Thus, it all remained in her own hands.
Now that she finally had a business venture of her own, she naturally wouldn’t be stingy and had cleared out a large shop space.
This shop was magnificent—two floors, each about three hundred square feet. Such a space was suitable even for a restaurant.
“With such a large shop, our pastries are so few that they would look sparse even if we displayed them all on the first floor. What would we use the second floor for?” Madam Yin was quite worried.
Ye Yayin and Ye Yayu also racked their brains for ideas.
This business was a partnership with Princess Yü’an, so it wouldn’t be appropriate to involve the two of them. Ye Yaming intended to train them, so since Yü’an and Madam Yin’s shop was in the east of the city, she had the two open a shop in the west. They would appoint their managers and handle it themselves, without adult interference.
Their shop followed the style of the Lin’an shop. They had brought the head manager, second manager, cooks, and assistants from the Lin’an pastry shop, while the Lin’an branch was now run by apprentices trained by these people.
These experienced workers didn’t need the owners’ supervision. Once the location was confirmed, they could open the shop directly. Ye Yayin and Ye Yayu’s shops were already in business.
Now with nothing to do, weren’t they just worrying on behalf of their mother (aunt)?
“What about opening a restaurant?” suggested Ye Yayin.
As soon as she spoke, she rejected her idea: “No, that won’t work. We’ve already told the Princess Imperial we’re opening a pastry shop. If we change our minds now, she’ll think we’re unreliable and impulsive.”
Ye Yayu said softly: “Besides, running a restaurant involves many more concerns and troubles. We’ll have to return to Lin’an soon. Would Third Sister have to worry about managing a restaurant?”
Having experienced her father’s early death and her mother keeping a lover, despite her grandmother repeatedly telling her that she was the only bloodline of the third branch and that the third branch’s property was more than enough to support dozens like her, encouraging her to buy whatever she wanted and do whatever she wished without psychological burden or feeling dependent on others, and despite her aunt from the second branch and her cousin being extremely kind to her, with Third Sister frequently guiding and caring for her…
But she was naturally timid, sensitive, and thoughtful, often overthinking things. Under the inspiring influence of Ye Yaming’s example, she also wanted to be like her Third Sister, with her money-making abilities, so that after marriage she wouldn’t be bullied or mistreated, and she could feel secure.
Therefore, after opening the pastry shop in Lin’an with Madam Yin and Ye Yayin, she had thought about opening a restaurant.
But after going out to investigate restaurant business models, she gave up the idea.
The pastry shop’s cooks stayed at home making pastries, and once finished, handed them over to the managers and assistants to sell. They didn’t interact with the outside world, kept a simple mindset, and wouldn’t be poached by others.
Furthermore, once a pastry was made, it was sold to countless people. Customers couldn’t eat a piece of pastry and then falsely accuse the shop of poisoning or being unclean. After all, if everyone else was fine and only you had an issue, you were making trouble. They weren’t afraid even if it went to court.
Restaurant dishes were prepared one by one, offering too many opportunities for tampering. After a customer ate it, it would be impossible to prove anything.
With this analysis, not only was opening a restaurant rejected, but even the idea of selling meals on the second floor was directly dismissed.
Ye Yayin said dejectedly: “Let’s ask Sister.”
So Madam Yin had Ye Yayin write a letter and sent a servant to deliver it to the Xuanwu Marquis’s Manor.
After receiving the letter, Ye Yaming didn’t come until the following afternoon.
She took the teacup and gulped down the tea, then said: “You should open a milk tea shop on the second floor.”
In this era, without plastic or sealing machines, milk tea couldn’t be taken away and could only be consumed on-site. Placing some tables and chairs on the second floor, with a few private rooms, letting customers enjoy pastries with milk tea, would become a popular gathering place for young ladies of the Capital.
“Milk tea? Is that sheep’s milk added to tea?” Ye Yayin asked curiously.
Two years ago, Third Sister had ordered people to raise sheep on the estate, delivering sheep’s milk to the manor daily. She not only forced her and Ye Yayu to drink two cups each day but also compelled their grandfather and grandmother to drink it.
However, sheep’s milk boiled with almonds had no gamey smell and tasted quite good, so everyone accepted it even if they didn’t particularly like it.
This wasn’t Lin’an. After receiving the letter, Ye Yaming had people search everywhere for cow’s milk or sheep’s milk. After finding some, she went to the kitchen to teach Jia Chun and Jia Qiu how to make milk tea, then came to the Ye residence after it was prepared.
“Let’s go to the corridor. I’ll have the cook show you,” she said.
Everyone followed her out curiously and saw that the cook Ye Yaming had brought had already set up her equipment.
The Ye family loved tea, so the water-boiling stove was already there. Jia Chun and Jia Qiu had specially brought a small pot.
Now Jia Chun dissolved brown sugar in the pot, put in tea leaves to stir-fry, and after the tea was fragrant, poured in the processed cow’s milk. An environmentally-friendly cup of caramel milk tea was ready.
Milk tea was a woman-killer, appealing to all ages. Madam Yin and the two young ladies, Ye Yayin, were no exception, falling in love with the taste in one sip.
“It’s sweet, fragrant, and smooth. I never thought sheep’s milk could be drunk like this. It’s wonderful. Our business will be good,” Ye Yayin said excitedly.
“There’s more.”
Ye Yaming gestured to Jia Qiu, who brought forward a tray.
On it were yogurt, ginger milk curd, double-skin milk, and a version of burned fairy grass jelly.
After receiving the letter yesterday, Ye Yaming had people search for ingredients. She spent yesterday afternoon and this morning in the small kitchen of the Xuanwu Marquis’s Manor, finally producing these three items. All four were brought ready-made from the Xuanwu Marquis’s Manor.
The reason the burned fairy grass jelly was called a “version” was because Ye Yaming couldn’t obtain burned fairy grass powder. She remembered it was a traditional drink from southwestern Fujian, but hadn’t thought of it when she went to Minzhou, so naturally didn’t have the raw material now.