Chapter 1 How Far is the Decisive Decision to Go to the Capital From Actually Being Able to Leave?

How far is the decisive decision to go to the capital from actually being able to leave? It has been more than a month since Princess Zhaohua, Tan Weixin, returned to the capital, yet Ye Tao is still stuck in the complicated affairs of Yicheng. How easy is it to leave?

The second senior brother, Suo Yong, and the third senior brother, Zhao Dazhu, who decided to go to the capital together to build the capital branch of the Ye Family Workshop, are both married men. Of course, in this era, when the head of the family makes a decision, his wife and children can only follow, but there are many detailed and trivial aspects that need to be prepared to move the family to a city that they have never been to before. Compared with those students and apprentices who volunteered to go to the capital to become founders of the workshop, they have more ties and need to care about more things.

And the bigger problem is how much funds can be transferred, and how to safely transport large sums of money to the capital. Although the Ye family's several industries are quite profitable, building the magnificent, comfortable, and warm nine courtyards in Qingquan Village, and even the Chun Nuan Residence (Spring Warm Residence), a courtyard that is rare in this era and pursues comfort as its highest goal, has cost the Ye family a lot of money. When it really came time to use money, the Ye family's several enterprises, which precisely meshed the flow of funds like gears, surprisingly had a total of less than 200,000 taels of silver on their books. Faced with this embarrassing problem, Ye Tao really had to consider selling Chun Nuan Residence to Old Master Qi. However, Old Master Qi was very satisfied with the new courtyard designed and built by Ye Tao, which he eventually named Zhenhai Mountain Villa, but he lost interest in Chun Nuan Residence. Old Master Qi's statement was also very straightforward: if Ye Tao wanted to borrow money, no problem, everyone was old friends, but he would never buy anything from Ye Tao when he was short of money, so as not to let others say that he was taking advantage of the situation.

Old Master Qi was straightforward, but now Ye Tao was very embarrassed. Although he came from an era where borrowing money was not taken seriously, with all kinds of corporate and personal loans flying around in his original time and space, this era was not like that. Borrow money? If the interest is calculated too high, he may not be able to repay it, after all, he is going to use the funds for infrastructure construction, which has a long cycle. But if the interest is calculated low, or even if no interest is calculated as Old Master Qi said, then he would owe a huge favor. Favor debts are the most terrible things in any era.

Twenty days after Tan Weixin left, the shopkeeper sent by the princess to be in charge of Feng Yu Sheng Jian came. After visiting Ye Tao, this oily-faced man named Sun Xing officially began to manage the Feng Yu Sheng Jian chain store in Yicheng. In less than half a month, Yicheng's No. 2 and No. 3 stores opened. This joint venture small shop, which was created on a whim, truly became a chain store. According to Sun Xing, there will probably be a Feng Yu Sheng Jian chain store in the capital soon. However, Sun Xing's arrival did not change the problem of the single food list of Feng Yu Sheng Jian. It seemed that Sun Xing did not regard this as a problem at all. After tossing around for a while, the only food added to the menu was "Seaweed and Egg Drop Soup".

And Sun Xing, it seems, is not a person who can become a bridge of communication with Tan Weixin, because Sun Xing does not know that his big boss is the famous Princess Zhaohua, only thinking that he is a young master from a "Zhuo" family in the capital. Being able to climb up to such a noble person is already something that Sun Xing can't imagine. Although managing Feng Yu Sheng Jian seems to be too small a business, Sun Xing, who is familiar with business, quickly discovered the huge development prospects of chain food enterprises. For nothing else, the daily profit of Feng Yu Sheng Jian, which only has two kinds of food, can actually抵得上 (dǐ dé shàng, be equivalent to) a general restaurant with a not-so-bad business. Sun Xing, who used to be in charge of running a restaurant in the capital, besides coming to harass Ye Tao every few days to report on the recent business situation to this big boss's partner and sending a large number of flattering words, almost put all his energy into developing the only chain catering enterprise in this era. That serious and cautious posture really made Ye Tao struggle for a while, whether to introduce the characteristics of those chain catering enterprises that he knew to Sun Xing, after thinking about it carefully, he felt that it was better not to cause trouble for himself for the time being.

Waiting for the senior brothers to arrange the affairs at home, waiting for the sales profits of Yijia Home Furnishing and Yi Zhan Lou to converge... perhaps also waiting for that interesting princess to finally lose her temper and urge him to go to the capital, now, all Ye Tao can do is wait.

But Dai Yuege couldn't hold his breath like Ye Tao. He knew that as long as the funds arrived at that time, once Ye Tao and the others arrived in the capital, that huge building complex would have to start construction immediately. Although he also had to face the problem of arranging for the construction team employees under his command to settle their families and decide whether to follow them to the capital, the construction methods in different regions were very different in this era. Dai Yuege handed over all the miscellaneous affairs to his deputy and ran to the capital first with a few foremen to investigate the geological and hydrological conditions, and by the way, tried to poach the corners of his competitors.

Dai Yuege's wife was in poor health and had been resting in bed, so the responsibility of taking care of his "fiancée", Dai Qiuyan, unexpectedly fell on Ye Tao's head. Having just completed the design and production of the music box, Ye Tao was again considering what to come up with, considering what could be made with the technical level of this era, or rather, the current technical level of the Ye Family Workshop, that would not be too shocking. At this moment, with Dai Qiuyan, such a quiet and docile little girl, by his side, not only did it not affect his thoughts, but the peaceful and happy emotions made Ye Tao's thinking extremely active. In order to reward his "fiancée" for her contribution to his thinking, Ye Tao had to tell Dai Qiuyan stories for more than an hour every day.

And every day after lunch, after listening to Ye Tao's stories, Dai Qiuyan would enter dreamland with a brain full of beautiful fantasies. And now, in the cool and breezy quiet room of Chun Nuan Residence, which seems to not feel the heat of summer, using Ye Tao's thigh as a pillow for a nap is a very comfortable thing.

"Sigh", as another day was about to pass like this, as Ye Tao waited for Dai Qiuyan to wake up after sleeping enough so that they could go to dinner together, a soft sigh quietly entered the quiet room. "If you two were both 10 years older, or maybe 15 years older. Or just if you were 10 years or 15 years older than you are now, this would be a beautiful scene of family happiness. But why does it look so awkward now?"

"Guan Huan!" Hearing this voice, Ye Tao happily called out the visitor's name, "Why are you here? Out of travel expenses again?"

A young man of about 20 years old walked out of the shadow of the thick pillar, dissatisfied: "How can I spend money so quickly? Besides, your things are really quite valuable." Guan Huan was wearing a dark blue coarse cloth suit, with a big knife hanging on his waist, looking like a heroic young swordsman.

Guan Huan's name is very well-known in the martial world. His beautiful swordsmanship is one of the best among the younger generation, and what makes him even more famous is his unrestrained temperament. He spends 10 months of the year traveling around, from south to north, across the east and west, leaving his footprints everywhere. When he runs out of travel expenses, he doesn't mind occasionally working for a month or two in some镖局 (biāojú, security/escort agencies) or going to some military families to be a swordsmanship instructor or even a bodyguard for a while, but more often he finds those corrupt officials or gentry who exploit tenant farmers, and does some Robin Hood-style robbing the rich to help the poor.

It was an accident that Ye Tao met Guan Huan. Ye Tao would never have thought that his eldest senior brother, Guan Haishan, was actually Guan Huan's cousin. Guan Huan came to Yicheng, and after meeting his cousin, he was accidentally attracted by the various small things in the Ye Family Workshop. He often came to ask Ye Tao about the principles and uses of various things, which actually made the two of them become close friends. When Guan Huan was finally about to leave, Ye Tao originally wanted to send him a sum of travel expenses, but Guan Huan was embarrassed to ask for it. In the end, Guan Huan took away the woodcut samples made for the stone carvings for Old Master Qi Zhentao's house: the Ten Li Misty Waves Picture. It was Guan Huan's handiwork to turn this set of woodcuts into window lattices to sell in the capital, and finally get a very good price.

"I came from Old Master Qi's place. Old Master Qi asked you to go over for dinner. It seems like there is something. What? Do you want to bring your little wife?" Guan Huan also obviously liked the smooth and bright mirrored lacquer floor very much. Learning from Ye Tao, he sat on the floor so casually, without even a cushion.

"Did Old Master say what it was about?" Ye Tao has really been a little afraid to see Old Master Qi recently. When he learned that Ye Tao was preparing to develop in the capital, Qi Zhentao's attitude seemed to become a little strange. He never said a word of support, but he never said anything disappointing like the future is dangerous, and he did not doubt whether Ye Tao could gain a foothold among the dignitaries in the capital, but he showed an intention to partner with Ye Tao to do something.

What could Ye Tao, with the capital of the Ye family, partner with Qi Zhentao to do? Ye Tao had no idea. He knew Qi Zhentao's appreciation for him, but the more this was the case, the more uneasy Ye Tao, who didn't want to take advantage of others, felt. Before he figured it out, he felt that it was better to keep a certain distance from Old Master Qi.

Guan Huan shrugged and said, "God knows. Old Master Qi looks very happy. Just go eat a meal with him. At least today there is fresh shark to cook soup and eat meat."

If Guan Huan hadn't mentioned fresh shark, Ye Tao might have made all kinds of excuses, but with delicious food in front of him, Ye Tao wasn't so restrained. Old Master Qi wasn't going to eat him, at most he would just ask what was going on. And fresh shark is not something you can eat all year round. Old Master Qi has been on the sea for decades, and he himself doesn't remember having eaten fresh shark many times. You know, there are no water tanks that can keep sharks alive for a long time now. The larger sharks that are caught die almost every minute, and eating shark on the sea, without seasoning and without a chef who can prepare the meat to taste good, is really a bit of a waste of natural resources.