She Became A Downfall Noble Lady
Chapter 83: Quiet Opening

Chapter 83: Chapter 83: Quiet Opening

Ye Xinyan found a mediator, and with the help of Shopkeeper He, she managed to rent a small, unremarkable shop adjacent to Great Crane House.

At that time, business wasn’t like the modern era, where you could open a small tobacco and liquor supermarket beneath a big restaurant and expect it to do well. Back then, if a small shop was next to a restaurant, it really couldn’t benefit much from the proximity and would be overshadowed to the point of being inconspicuous.

It was a languishing grocery store, whose owner was hesitating whether to continue running it. Hearing that someone was inquiring about renting a shop nearby, he quickly started calculating.

Rather than strenuously running a grocery with little profit, it made more sense for him to rent out the space and earn a comfortable income from the silver.

The mediator Ye Xinyan had entrusted was specifically targeting this poorly-performing grocery store. As soon as they inquired, the grocery store owner showed interest. After several more questions and a back-and-forth negotiation, they settled on renting the space for five taels of silver a month.

Ye Xinyan planned her budget and signed a year-long lease, paying the rent quarterly. To reassure the owner, she also put down a deposit of five taels of silver.

After renting the shop, the decoration was all up to Ye Xinyan, and the five taels of silver spent on this little shop were not at all a waste. Not only did the shop have a storefront and a small compartment for storage, but it also came with a backyard equipped with a kitchen, which matched Ye Xinyan’s requirements for a snack shop perfectly.

Ye Xinyan spent a total of twenty taels of silver to meticulously decorate the storefront.

As a high-end snack shop, the appearance of the storefront had to exude certain taste. Ye Xinyan repainted all the doors and windows, abandoning the bright red and purple-red used by most shops at the time, and chose a silver-brown lacquer instead. The shop’s fascia was fitted with horizontal silver-brown grills, and on top, the words "Leisure Snack Shop" were inlaid in snowflake-bordered cursive.

The shop wasn’t big inside, but since leisure snacks catered to the wealthy, the high-profit food didn’t require closely packed tables and chairs. Guests who came into the snack shop wouldn’t be in large, noisy groups. Therefore, there were only two tables placed in diagonally opposite corners of the snack shop. In addition, there were some thick screens, which could be arranged into private booths.

The tables and chairs were purchased by Ye Xinyan from a second-hand shop. Even as second-hand, she couldn’t afford those made of fine wood, so she picked out two sets of old elmwood furniture that were of good quality and style.

After bringing the tables and chairs back, she didn’t repaint them. Instead, she hired two people to carefully clean and sand them down with a fine cloth until they reached a soft and smooth finish, struggling just enough to appear to have a trace of depth.

The other decorations in the shop were also done on a budget, fully showcasing Ye Xinyan’s modern expertise. She made several fabric appliqué paintings of different sizes to fill the space.

The fabric appliqué paintings were usually simple or whimsical images such as smooth sailing, underwater worlds, autumnal wheat waves, and winter cottages. To elevate the decor, Ye Xinyan also hung a fabric appliqué painting with a "Jiangxue" ambience. A figure wearing a conical hat, sitting still amidst the continuous snow mountains and winding rivers, looked quite evocative... at least, that’s what Ye Xinyan thought.

Additionally, with a couple of vases containing a few branches of oddly shaped dried twigs, the shop’s decoration was pretty much complete.

For everything else, there were the carpenter, mason, and painter to handle.

This assortment of simple and unconventional decorations didn’t seem to matter to Qi Younian, but it was an eye-opener for Nanny Jin and Shopkeeper He, eliciting their repeated praise.

While planning the decorations for the dessert shop, Ye Xinyan also tried out several sweet treats, light snacks, and soups.

Dumpling soup, hot and sour soup, and egg soup were essentials, though these were as common as it gets, the richness of ingredients within the soup could greatly vary the quality.

Then there were sweet soups such as red bean paste, green bean paste, and fish maw stewed with milk, intended for women to enjoy during their leisure time.

As for checkerboard scallion pancakes, mahjong scallion pancakes, and stuffed scallion pancakes, as well as egg tarts, sugar cakes, and green bean cakes, Ye Xinyan knew her abilities were limited, so she hired a pastry chef skilled in making "white-case" pastries, a woman named Yun Niang. She wrote up a five-year contract, planning to guide Yun Niang in making modern snacks.

If one was not a professional pastry chef, even knowing the recipe wouldn’t guarantee a good taste. Hiring a professional was a necessary expense.

After half a month of busyness, all the utensils and raw materials were ready, and the day to open the business had finally arrived.

Owing to the grand advertisement of the Great Crane House, Ye Xinyan couldn’t be bothered to strategize any marketing. Once customers tasted the ice drinks and double-layered milk custard in the Great Crane House, they would naturally learn that these snacks came from her leisure snack shop, and would visit in due course.

For now, even with the most enticing descriptions, people of standing wouldn’t patronize such an inconspicuous little shop.

And the flavor and style of her little shop wouldn’t allow for promotional efforts like offering samples to taste. Therefore, she could only pretend to wait with composure, hoping that after customers had tried the ice drinks and double-layered milk custard at the Great Crane House, there would come a day when they fancied a cold and refreshing ice cream and a quiet, leisurely moment, prompting a visit to her store.

Another troubling matter was the fact that she was running out of money. If the Great Crane House ordered too much, she couldn’t possibly make it through a month to settle accounts with them.

Settling accounts early or taking an advance from the Great Crane House was a bit... embarrassing...

Renting the shop, paying the mediator fee, renovating, and buying all the necessary items for the store had emptied her family’s purse. If the Great Crane House’s business boomed and required a large supply of snacks from her little shop, she’d have to invest all her savings upfront—leaving her without the capital to run the business. Wouldn’t that be a dire situation?

While most people feared their business wouldn’t be booming enough, she was uneasily hoping that the business at the Great Crane House wouldn’t get too good too soon. She needed her own shop to develop a customer base and earn more silver, so she could gradually purchase more raw materials and utensils to make various snacks to support the massive supply to the Great Crane House.

Thus, with these various factors converging, the snack shop had a round of firecrackers to celebrate its quiet opening. Next to a behemoth like the Great Crane House, the beautifully decorated and leisurely snack shop didn’t even catch the attention of passersby.

Ye Xinyan was preparing quietly in the shop and occasionally checked on Yun Niang’s pastries in the backyard. There were no customers in the shop, and Qi Younian didn’t have much to do, so he played with Qi Jia in the backyard.

Close to noon, when Ye Xinyan estimated the Great Crane House would start receiving guests, she sent Qi Younian to deliver a small tub of free ice cream and several portions of double-layered milk custard to the Great Crane House, hoping to attract business for the ice drinks and gain some popularity.