Chapter 167: Officials and Businessmen (Part 3)
With so many halos on his head, Su Luo couldn't think of any reason for this kid from the Liu family to give up his official position and go into business. Although the strokes of the characters "official" and "businessman" are similar, and everyone is used to calling them "official businessmen", the official comes first and the business comes second, and the gap between them is not a little bit.
This in the end is why?
If she wasn't so familiar with him, Su Luo really wanted to go over and touch Liu Chengxuan's head to see if he had a fever, or give him an IQ test or something.
Liu Chengxuan kept smiling , "I just particularly like the feeling of making money, so I gave up my official position to go into business."
Answering the question without being asked, it seems this has become his habitual opening remark.
Su Luo's mind was rapidly calculating Liu Chengxuan's gorgeous group of relatives and friends, and compared them with his own side one by one, and found that he did not have any advantage. Although he had Wanli's help, Liu Chengxuan was his cousin in terms of seniority, and with the addition of the Empress Dowager, even the share of Concubine Zheng was offset, and he did not even have a chance to charge.
"Haha." Su Luo smiled and walked forward, standing next to Liu Chengxuan and looking into the shop. The decoration of the shop was similar to that of Su Luo's clothing shop. Su Luo suggested to Liu Chengxuan sincerely, "Our shop is so big, we can make a few shorter display stands, arranged irregularly, and put a piece of clothing on the stand, just laying it out, which can reduce the distance between customers and products."
Liu Chengxuan was a little surprised. He turned around and looked at Su Luo and chuckled, "I am trying to steal Boss Su's business."
Su Luo smiled and waved her hand. "It's so polite to say that. The scale of the garment market is far beyond the scope of one or two stores. Even if Brother Liu doesn't show up, someone else will. To me, it's all the same. And Brother Liu and I are related, so it doesn't matter. If Brother Liu has any questions, I will answer them."
Liu Chengxuan frowned and smiled, waving his fan for a long time, "Dry kiss?"
"That's right." Su Luo imitated Liu Chengxuan's smile, "My mother and Princess Huairou are . The princess is the emperor's aunt, and the empress dowager's aunt. You are the nephew of the empress dowager, and the emperor's cousin. You should call the princess aunt. I am the princess's adopted niece, so... aren't you also my adopted cousin?"
Qin Huai couldn't help but chuckle after hearing this, and Li Rusong also laughed. It was indeed Su Luo's character to try to get close to someone when he couldn't beat him.
Liu Chengxuan closed his fan and propped up his chin, still calculating. As he calculated, he said, "What I don't understand most is ranking the generations."
Su Luo was happy, "It's good that you don't understand, it's good that you don't understand."
"So you are my adopted cousin?" Liu Chengxuan saw that she was still confused, so he made a conclusion to avoid being laughed at.
Su Luo nodded seriously, then grabbed Liu Chengxuan's sleeve and said sadly: "Cousin! I finally found you..."
“Ah? Ah…”
Liu Chengxuan didn't look excited, but rather frightened. Su Luo didn't care about that! She dragged him forward and said, "It's not easy for us to recognize each other as siblings today. He'll treat us at Hongyun Tower at noon."
Li Rusong pointed at himself and said, "Why should I treat you?"
"I was in a hurry to come out and forgot to bring any money." Su Luo was not embarrassed at all. "Besides, my brother and I finally recognized each other. Shouldn't you celebrate for us?"
It only took Su Luo two sentences to upgrade from "cousin" to "cousin", and then from "cousin" to "brother", and he had no psychological barriers at all.
Liu Chengxuan gave up on calculating seniority and resumed his status as a rich young man who wasn't handsome but had a lot of money. He waved his fan and smiled at the best angle, "Let me be the host. Lord Li is young and promising, and I've wanted to get to know him for a long time."
Su Luo and Li Rusong were not polite and nodded at the same time, with a look of joy on their faces that they had saved money, which was very obvious at a glance.
Qin Huai still had some sense of shame, "Brother Liu, you don't have to be polite. Since we came to your door today, you should be entertained by us."
Liu Chengxuan nodded immediately like Su Luo and Li Rusong, so quickly that it almost made people think that he didn't bring any money and that he was just being polite.
Hongyunlou is considered one of the best restaurants in the capital. A normal meal would cost fifty or sixty taels of silver, not including drinks.
Liu Chengxuan was obviously used to this kind of place. As soon as he entered the door, the restaurant owner came to greet him personally. Liu Chengxuan waved his hand casually, "Open a room."
The shopkeeper quickly gave instructions, and a waiter led everyone through the lobby to the backyard. The backyard was not big, but the environment was extremely quiet. It didn't look like a restaurant, but more like the garden of a scholarly family. There was a two-story independent building in the yard. Two girls of about sixteen or seventeen stood at the door. They bowed slightly when they saw everyone, and then led the way.
The small building was full of private rooms, three on the first floor and four on the second floor. The two girls led Su Luo and the others into a private room on the second floor. The room was very spacious and looked no different from an ordinary room at first glance, but the details were meticulously arranged. A candlestick, an incense burner, a vase... None of them looked ordinary.
Of course, a vulgar person like Su Luo who has no artistic sentiment would not know how to appreciate it. She was only interested in the large piece placed by the window.
There were no less than a hundred flowers of all sizes gathered together, some as big as a fist, and some smaller than the tip of a pinky finger. Regardless of the size, the flowers all had distinct stems and leaves, and the petals were layered. I don't know what material it was carved from, it was crystal white and delicate, and it didn't look like jade. Su Luo remembered watching a movie before, where a chef carved an Arhat out of tofu, which was also the same color. Maybe it was also carved out of tofu. Su Luo couldn't help holding her breath, and she didn't even dare to touch it, for fear that the noise would break it. Although she had the money to pay for it now, she didn't have the perverted desire to destroy beautiful things.
"This is made of ivory." Liu Chengxuan seemed to have told the waiter something. He came in after a while, stood beside Su Luo, and said with a smile.
"Turns out it's ivory." Su Luo exclaimed in admiration. Indeed, the flowers were distributed from many to few, ending with two slightly curved branches, exactly the shape of an ivory tusk.
Qin Huai and Li Rusong were already seated, chatting deliberately and pretending not to notice Su Luo searching the room. Hmm... maybe Su Luo did it on purpose to get closer to Liu Chengxuan.
The two people found excuses for Su Luo, and at the same time sympathized with her. To be honest, this girl made a lot of money, but I never saw her buy an antique vase or a jade ornament for her home. She only had a few sets of clothes that were suitable for people, even though she was the owner of a ready-made clothing store that led the fashion trend. Her gold and silver jewelry were even more limited, and she even wanted to melt the few pieces of jewelry into gold, saying that it would preserve its value.
If she didn't seek pleasure, then what was she trying to do by making money? From this point of view, as long as she could run a small shop and earn a hundred or eighty taels of silver a month, she would be able to live happily. Why did she have to open this business and run a shop?
Qin Huai and Li Rusong shook their heads, obviously confused. Su Luo finally finished the tour and sat next to them, "What's wrong?"
Li Rusong said we are discussing the purpose of your business. Su Luo was stunned for a while, and he also held his cheek and began to think, until he thought of the dishes, and then he came to an end, picked up the chopsticks and put them on the table, "Let's eat!"
Qin Huai asked, "Have you thought about it?"
Su Luo picked up a piece of food with chopsticks and ate it, then shook his head, "Think about it when you have time."
Li Rusong and Qin Huai were silent, picked up their chopsticks and started eating. Liu Chengxuan kept asking, "What are you talking about?"
Su Luo asked back, "Brother, when did we order this dish?"
Liu Chengxuan couldn't keep up with Su Luo's jumping thoughts, and answered reflexively, "If there are no special instructions in Liujian, there are matching dishes." In other words, what is served now are just Liujian's most basic dishes.
"Oh oh." Su Luo continued to eat her, "What does leaving a room mean?"
"Leaving a room means..." Liu Chengxuan felt more and more puzzled as he spoke. He was the one who asked the question just now, so why was he being asked the question now?
Qin Huai saw that Liu Chengxuan was a little distracted, and continued with a smile, "The reserved rooms are rooms that will not be open to ordinary guests no matter how busy the restaurant is. They are prepared for special guests. These guests must have a very close relationship with the restaurant, or they must be very important people."
Liu Chengxuan nodded, "Brother Qin is right." Then he asked Su Luo, "Isn't that what we were talking about just now?"
Su Luo smiled and said, "I haven't figured out that question yet, so I'm just asking you. Brother, what is the purpose of your business?"
"Purpose?" Liu Chengxuan said naturally: "The purpose is of course to make money."
"What are you going to do with the money you earn? Have fun?"
Liu Chengxuan said inexplicably: "If you make money, you can do whatever you want. If you don't have money, you can't do it."
Su Luo suddenly pointed at Qin Huai and Li Rusong and laughed, "Did you hear that? Money is not everything, but being without money is absolutely impossible. In order to avoid being without money, we must work hard to make money. This is to be prepared for danger in times of peace."
Qin Huai and Li Rusong shook their heads at the same time. Only Su Luo could come up with such a seemingly plausible reasoning. Liu Chengxuan nodded repeatedly beside them, "That's right."
Su Luo disagreed with him again, "I have been poor, so I know that money is important. You were born in a wealthy family, how could you have such an idea?"
Liu Chengxuan unfolded his folding fan and nodded with a smile, "That's true. A wealthy family is full of flowers and brocade. I really shouldn't have such thoughts."
Liu Chengxuan's seemingly straightforward attitude made Su Luo stunned. Looking at the smile on his lips, Su Luo put away her laughter and said seriously, "I believe you now."
Liu Chengxuan's eyebrows moved slightly, but they didn't really raise. Su Luo smiled at him again as if changing her expression, "The food here is really good. After eating it once, you should think about it every day."
Liu Chengxuan couldn't help but reflect on whether he was too old or had a generation gap with the young people. This shouldn't be the case. He was only thirty years old, so how could he not keep up with Su Luo's thinking? Or was this girl deliberately playing with him?
In fact, Su Luo didn't have the time to do that. She was just speaking based on her feelings.
Several people ate and chatted, and after the meal, both hosts and guests were happy. Su Luo waved her hand generously and said, "Check out." She acted as if she was rich again.
One of the two girls who had come in earlier went out and came back a few moments later carrying a tray, followed by the owner of Hongyunlou.
"How are you using it?"
Su Luo gave a thumbs up and said, "It's delicious."
"Thank you for the compliment, young lady." The shopkeeper turned around, took out a note with the prices of the dishes from the tray in the girl's hand, and handed it to Qin Huai.
Qin Huai smiled slightly, took the note, put it on the table without even looking at it, stood up and said to Liu Chengxuan: "Today, Qin is the host, so of course I won't be stingy. If Boss Liu wants to collect as much as he wants, just go to Qin's house and get it. Doing this will make Boss Liu look stingy."
Liu Chengxuan was slightly surprised, then laughed, "I thought my acting was very good!"
