Nearly a year has passed quickly, and a lot of things have happened during this year! First of all, Zhang Shunping found a backer again, the eunuch in charge of one of the four big bureaus, the wine-vinegar noodle bureau! The reason is very strange, it is because the women in the harem love Xuetang, which greatly affects the status of the eunuch in charge!
Since the snow candies made into various shapes were sent to the harem, the women in the harem almost went crazy! Not only did they increase their snow candy consumption to a new level, but they also felt very fond of this eunuch who added new highlights to their boring lives!
With many concubines taking the initiative to put in good words for him, the status of this eunuch in charge has been greatly consolidated! Although he has not yet challenged the strength of other eunuchs, he has formed a small group in the harem! Now he is ready to further accumulate strength and want to challenge for the next position!
Therefore, he admired Zhang Shunping very much for bringing about all these changes. He actually made an exception and did not force Zhang Shunping to hand over the secret recipe, but instead gave him asylum! At the same time, Zhang Shunping also reciprocated and supported his relatives outside the palace.
Now those eunuch relatives who came from the countryside have four shops nearby, which is rare in the capital city where every inch of land is precious! And all the people at home who could study were sent to school! So the two sides formed a strong alliance!
Unfortunately, what the eunuch didn't know was that the emperor he served would not live long! After his death, the new emperor was young and the concubines in the palace would be vacant for a long time. At that time, he will no longer be able to challenge the status of other eunuchs, and his dream of going further may come to an end!
With the help of the power of the palace, Xuetang has been officially launched in the capital! Moreover, through the clever operation of Liu Haojia and Zhang Shunping, they successfully annexed the entire sugar market in the capital without causing too strong a backlash!
The main reason for this is that Zhang Shunping tried his best to purchase brown sugar and white sugar from those merchants as raw materials for snow sugar, without touching the interests of those behind the big merchants too much. So even though they were greedy for the huge profits from snow candy, they didn't rush to do it!
As for when they knew that Zhang Shunping had taken advantage of the palace, they basically gave up the idea of swallowing the snow candy. However, they still squeezed out some benefits from Zhang Shunping, which was reflected in their raising the price of sugar! But Zhang Shunping simply passed this part of the loss on to all the big families who bought snow candy. He didn't lose much!
What’s more, after a year of teaching, the first batch of children bought back have already begun to flow out! During this year, they learned basic writing and simple arithmetic, and then Liu Haojia began to train them separately according to their wishes and expertise.
However, he still did not give up educating them. Except for a few students who are preparing to take the official route full-time, everyone else has entered a work-study status. Moreover, Liu Haojia also selected several potential students for full-time training, and they will become full-time teachers and scientific researchers in the future.
During this process, Liu Haojia couldn't help but sigh at the great potential of people! When he recalled the process of receiving primary education when he was a child, he felt that it was so easy for him at that time!
Except for a few of the children he bought who really had no talent, the rest of them all had a strong desire to learn! Because Liu Haojia told them that if they want to change their destiny, they can only change it through study, otherwise the master will never be polite to them! Therefore, their one-year learning progress is almost equivalent to four years of modern primary school education!
After another year of part-time work-study, they will definitely have the level of a complete modern primary school education! This was enough for this period of time in the Ming Dynasty! As for the several children who specialize in research and have the guidance of Liu Haojia, they will naturally come in handy!
The last thing was that after discussing with Liu's father, Liu Haojia used all his savings to buy a restaurant and expand it. Today is the day when the restaurant officially opens!
According to common sense, Father Liu must be present on such a big day. But he happens to be a distinguished person! If he appeared at a restaurant opening ceremony in his capacity, it would be a huge humiliation for the entire noble class! So he could only regretfully sit on the third floor of the restaurant with seven or eight people, looking down from the window.
Father Liu has not been idle during this year! With money on hand, he naturally wants to make friends, especially to open a channel to enter the circle among the nobles and re-enter the noble class.
As the saying goes, money can make the world go round! This principle can be said to be universal! After spending a lot of money, there was a response soon. Some relatively active noble families have initially accepted Gu Ningbo's mansion! The people sitting next to Father Liu today are all representatives of the earl family!
After all, Gu Ningbo's family background is relatively low, and it will take time to climb to a higher level. However, with these dozen nobles as friends, through a certain exchange of interests, Gu Ningbo's house will definitely be safe without worries, even if it means walking sideways in the capital! This is also the reason why Liu Haojia chose to open the restaurant at this time, at least no one will come to snatch the secret recipe!
Before the restaurant was renovated, it had a three-story structure, which was preserved by Liu Haojia. After the renovation, the appearance still conforms to the traditional construction method. However, in the exterior design, Liu Haojia used a lot of red as the main tone, so it is quite eye-catching among the surrounding buildings! So many people simply call this restaurant the Red Mansion!
At this time, a small high platform was set up on the left side of the main entrance downstairs. Liu Haonian, Liu Haojia and Zhang Shunping were whispering something on the platform. Four chefs had just stood up behind them.
Liu Haojia originally wanted to invest independently in this restaurant, but Zhang Shunping just squeezed in 20% of the shares! But he couldn't refuse! Because during this year, Gu Ningbo's mansion had a lot of expenses, and Xuetang's income was far from enough, so he could only pinch his nose and let Zhang Shunping invest 20% in the restaurant.
However, Liu Haojia did not intend to reveal his secret, so when filling out the contract, the conditions he gave were quite harsh! Although Zhang Ji, where Zhang Shunping works, can participate in dividend distribution and management, he cannot get involved in the secret recipe!
Because the secret recipe belongs to Gu Ningbo's mansion and is only authorized for use by restaurants. So once Gu Ningbo's Mansion no longer provides the secret recipe, the restaurant is destined to decline! In this case, the representatives sent by Zhang Ji will definitely work hard to maintain the cooperative relationship between the restaurant's business and Gu Ningbo's mansion.
