The store renovation was simple. Within days, the custom-ordered large dining tables and small dining stands were arranged on camel-hair carpets. The wall shelves were decorated with flowers and plants—slender bamboo, twisted pine, crab claw-like chrysanthemums, and various trinkets found from the East and West Markets.
Even the kitchen was fully equipped with various pots, bowls, ladles, plates, cups, chopsticks, and cooking equipment for both roasting and steaming—everything was ready, just waiting for the staff to be in place before opening.
The Shao family had been in Chang’an for generations and, being merchants, knew reliable slave traders. Since dividing the work with Shen Shaoguang, Shao Jie had entrusted slave traders to purchase dependable people. While the cooks were certainly important, even more crucial was the “manager”—what would be called a “store manager” in modern times.
With just one branch store, Shen Shaoguang could perhaps manage by being busier, but if there were more in the future, even having a split body wouldn’t be enough. Better to establish systems and rules from the start.
Based on the tavern’s size, each branch store was allocated one manager, two servers, and two cooks (one main and one assistant)—that was about right. Shen Shaoguang also staffed the old store in Chongxian Ward according to this standard.
Shen Shaoguang needed to understand the “career directions” of the old staff.
A Yuan had been with her the longest, loved food, and was somewhat simple-minded. Shen Shaoguang asked if she wanted to learn to cook properly from Yu San Lang or stay by her side. A Yuan answered without hesitation, “Of course, I’ll stay with Young Miss!”
Considering her interests, Shen Shaoguang advised her, “Learning some cooking skills might be useful in the future?”
A Yuan shook her head, “I just want to follow Young Miss.”
Shen Shaoguang felt touched—for a foodie to be willing to give up the kitchen to follow her… Well, running around with her, and learning how to deal with people and manage money and accounts would be useful when she became a household manager in the future.
A Chang was easier to handle—he had no great ambitions, had a good nature, and was content to work steadily in the kitchen as an assistant, which he was happy to do.
Zhang was bought specifically to follow Shen Shaoguang and wasn’t much involved in the tavern’s work.
Yu San “Princess” was the difficult one. Yu San was a good cook, intelligent, and literate, just had a bit of a temper. If he was willing, managing a small tavern wouldn’t be a problem.
Yu San didn’t even look up as he cut diamond patterns into fish, “I’m a cook.”
Looking at his handsome profile, Shen Shaoguang opened her mouth but said nothing. As someone from the Prince of Wu’s mansion, what hadn’t he experienced or seen? Let him do as he pleased.
So besides allocating five people to the new branch store, Shao Jie also provided a manager and two servers for Shen Shaoguang’s old store.
Currently, these people are all “training” at Shen’s in Chongxian Ward.
The manager for the new store in Qinren Ward was named Xu Kai, twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, with complete etiquette and quite articulate. It was said he had been the second steward in a county magistrate’s household. That magistrate had been dismissed from office for wrongly judging a case, and in anger had returned home to farm and study. All the former staff kept for the show were sold, and Xu Kai was among them.
The manager for the old store in Chongxian Ward was named Chen Xing, in his early thirties. He had previously managed a shop for a major tea merchant and had the cheerful pleasantness of an old-style businessman. When the old owner died and his sons divided the family property, there was a complete staff turnover, and Chen Xing was among those let go.
They were both capable people. Though not exceptionally outstanding, managing a small tavern didn’t require world-changing talent—Shen Shaoguang herself was quite ordinary, so she was very satisfied with both of them.
There was also the new store’s head chef Fan Da Lang, only eighteen or nineteen years old but with rich kitchen experience. He had been preparing vegetables in kitchens since seven or eight years old, started cooking at sixteen, and was skilled in both meat and pastry preparation.
The remaining staff were servers aged fifteen to eighteen.
Both managers had families, whom Shao Jie bought along with them: “They can help clean the back courtyard too.”
When Shen Shaoguang met them, they were capable women, both with children, so she arranged for them to live in the back quarters of the two stores—the new store also had living quarters with five main rooms, east and west wing rooms, and a small courtyard. Apart from two main rooms and a storeroom reserved for Shen Shaoguang, the rest were fully occupied.
After half a month of training and instruction, the new store opened at the end of August.
As Shen Shaoguang and Shao Jie had expected, the new store’s business was very good.
Standing by the counter with Shen Shaoguang watching the diners, Shao Jie felt the same satisfaction as Emperor Taizong when he stood at the palace gate watching the new imperial examination graduates file out, saying “All the heroes under heaven have fallen into my trap.”
Seeing a server carrying two plates of chrysanthemum fish, Shao Jie praised Shen Shaoguang: “This is the young lady’s wall painting achievement!”
Like the Chongxian Ward store, the Qinren Ward store also left large sections of wall for poetry—in fact, larger than Chongxian Ward’s poetry wall—for customers with literary inclinations to write poems.
Shao Jie fully agreed with this, after all, his friend Yang Jing had caught Minister Li’s attention because of this poetry wall. Stories of gaining fame through writing poems in taverns were naturally good for business.
Originally, Shao Jie thought the poetry wall would only be useful after opening when customers filled the place, but three days before opening, the young lady started “wielding her brush” at the wall.
She painted the sweet and sour chrysanthemum fish.
This dish, which Shao Jie had eaten at the Chongxian Ward store, was fish with beautiful knife cuts, fried and topped with sweet and sour sauce, resembling a chrysanthemum, crispy and fragrant with sweet and sour flavors—chrysanthemum fish was indeed suitable as a signature dish for autumn.
Shen Shaoguang held a small pre-drawn sample, using light charcoal to draw grids and points on the wall.
“Is this to prevent distortion?” Though Shao Jie wasn’t versed in painting, he could guess.
Shen Shaoguang nodded, “I’ve never painted a seven or eight-foot-long fish before.” She also asked Shao Jie, “A fish this size should be visible even to someone riding quickly past on the street, right?”
Shao Jie nodded deeply, “Don’t worry, everyone passing on this street, except the blind, will know our tavern sells chrysanthemum fish.”
While sketching the base drawing, Shen Shaoguang said to Shao Jie: “No need to worry about the blind people, their noses are keen, they’re the best at dismounting for fragrance and stopping their carriages for flavors.”
“So we’re not letting anyone pass by?”
“Of course! Except those without money.”
They both laughed heartily, sounding like highway robbers.
The fish was first outlined in monochrome, then colored layer by layer, point by point. This fish took Shen Shaoguang three dragging days to paint.
After some color was applied, passersby started coming to look, and Shao Jie, who had been hanging around these days, explained to them. The sweet and sour chrysanthemum fish attracted its first wave of fans with its artistically filtered portrait.
Shao Jie would sometimes go in to watch the cooks prepare ingredients and the servers clean, and sometimes come out to watch Young Miss Shen color the painting. She added some red to parts of the golden-yellow fish meat, and somehow she had mixed something into the colors that made the red appear oily, as if it was sweet and sour sauce.
Shao Jie couldn’t help but swallow—it was almost lunchtime.
Watching her apply color inch by inch, painting for a while then lowering her arm to shake her wrist, Shao Jie advised her: “This is too detailed, customers won’t look this closely, roughly similar would be fine.”
Shen Shaoguang shook her head, “This isn’t detailed. I’ve seen someone paint a bowl of rice, retouching it grain by grain.” Shen Shaoguang was referring to her former colleague who retouched photos for rice advertisements in Photoshop. At first, Shen Shaoguang didn’t know what that pixelated area was, later when zoomed out she realized, oh, a grain of rice, zoom out further, wow, a bowl of rice!
Shao Jie nodded, “If we don’t sell seventy or eighty plates of this fish a day, we won’t do justice to your effort.”
Shen Shaoguang turned and smiled: “Young Master Shao, you must ensure we have seventy or eighty fish to sell!”
This was Shao Jie’s pride, “Don’t worry, I’ve contacted Chang’an’s largest fish merchant. As long as His Majesty has fish to eat, we’ll have fish to sell!”
Shen Shaoguang gave him a paint-stained thumbs up.
By the afternoon of the third day, with opening day tomorrow, the large sweet and sour chrysanthemum fish painting was finally complete. Shen Shaoguang’s calligraphy, unlike her person, had plenty of strength but lacked flowing grace. This style would be suitable for carving seals or writing official documents but for this period’s advertising text…
When she said she wanted to write “Beauty Good Enough to eat,” Shao Jie nearly collapsed with laughter.
Shen Shaoguang was puzzled—was it that funny? How open-minded were the Tang Dynasty people? Not to mention the songs sung by courtesans, the romantic stories in bookstores, the mind-boggling erotic art in painting shops, even the poetry of noble officials, and even some writings from aristocratic ladies that had leaked out were more excessive than this. This idiom barely qualified as innuendo, surely it wasn’t that bad?
Shao Jie quickly waved his hands: “I didn’t mean anything else, just that—” Shao Jie laughed again, “it’s just a bit too playful.”
Shen Shaoguang felt that while Tang Dynasty people were certainly well-versed in certain aspects, their sense of humor was quite simple.
The more Shao Jie thought about it, the more he felt these characters were well-chosen. How did the master explain “The Book of Songs” back then? “Joyful without being licentious”—Shao Jie was quite surprised that he still remembered this phrase. This phrase “Beauty good enough to eat” was appropriate to the context, playfully interesting, with a hint of that meaning, but making people want to smile when they saw it—good, very good indeed.
Shen Shaoguang was still hesitating about what font style to use. After careful consideration, she surprisingly chose the solemn Han clerical script.
Though Shao Jie wasn’t an expert in this field, he also felt her choice was somewhat—unconventional, perhaps running a script would be better.
However, after she finished writing and carefully examined it, it seemed quite harmonious—the rich and grand chrysanthemum fish, the dignified and elegant Han clerical script, combined with the meaning of the characters…
Shen Shaoguang also stepped back several paces, squinting to examine it. These characters with these words felt like Deputy Magistrate Lin being improper while maintaining a serious face.
Shao Jie nodded: “It’s like a dignified gentleman telling a bawdy joke, with its unique charm.”
Shen Shaoguang tilted her head to look at him—what sharp insight!
Under such an eye-catching painting, the tavern opened, with customers arriving like clouds!
Pei Fei, who had been quarreling with Princess Fuhui and hadn’t seen her for days, rode aimlessly to Qinren Ward after finishing his duties. Seeing this big fish at a glance, and the four large characters beside it exuding solemn dignity, he burst out laughing—who was this, being so playful!
Wait… the sign said Shen’s! Not just any Shen’s, but the Shen’s from Chongxian Ward—the characters were the same. Looking at the “Beauty Good Enough to eat” characters, though, in a different style, the brush strokes were similar. Ah, had Young Miss Shen opened another tavern here?
Pei Fei went in and could tell from the furnishings that it was indeed the same establishment.
Pei Fei was particularly interested in the large dining tables—sitting with feet dangling, how relaxed, excellent!
It was a pity that Young Miss Shen wasn’t here, only a young manager.
Flipping through the renewed menu, Pei Fei finally found his reason for coming to Qinren Ward—there was a Shen’s here.
The next day, Pei Fei told Lin Yan about it and invited him to try the new Shen in Qinren Ward.
Author’s Note:
① The anecdote about retouching rice grain by grain comes from the article “Use These Small Tricks, Customers Will Remember Your Restaurant” by a Jianshu account called Huacan Wang (though I’m not sure if they’re the original creator).
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Lin Yan: Ah Qi, our way of speaking is what the master called “joyful without being licentious.”
Shen Shaoguang: Oh—not licentious…
Lin Yan clears his throat, smiling: Actually, we shouldn’t take everything the master said literally.
(The mini-scene is purely for entertainment. “Joyful without being licentious” is generally interpreted as being happy without going too far.)