vrcanaries Chapter 253 Prosperity
Chapter 253 Prosperity
As soon as the two got off the carriage, they saw Su Wangyan, dressed in black, standing in front of the shop, looking at Ye Yuwu.
Su Wangyan acted as if he didn't see the two of them and continued talking to Ye Yuwu.
"There's nothing happening at the military camp today, so I thought I'd drop by and take a look, and offer you some advice," Su Wangyan chuckled softly.
Ye Yuwu didn't notice anything unusual, she just wondered why so many people were coming to look at the shop today.
She didn't say anything more, but nodded.
At this moment, Xiao Yulan stepped forward and said with a slight smile, "I didn't expect that General Su would still have time to come here after the recent addition of new land in Youzhou."
Su Wangyan looked at him calmly, "I am just a military officer. These matters should naturally be left to the government to handle. Otherwise, what's the point of keeping them around?"
The tension between the two was palpable on Ye Yuwu's face, and she immediately realized that going out today was a mistake.
Thinking this way, she decided to ignore them and walked into the shop on her own.
This shop looks very clean and tidy; it must have just moved out.
The furnishings are nice, and the location is good too, right at the intersection of the two sides.
This is a commercial street that Youzhou will focus on developing next, which was also proposed by Ye Yuwu.
Although it looks desolate now, in the near future, as the border between the two regions, merchants will inevitably come here to do business, and it will naturally become more and more prosperous.
After Ye Yuwu ignored the three of them, the atmosphere between them actually improved a lot.
He even carefully examined the shop for Ye Yuwu.
The group agreed that the shop was pretty good.
It was decided very quickly.
Of course, in addition to this shop, she also took over the restaurant next door.
This restaurant has been abandoned for a long time, and it is full of dust and cobwebs. Although it is small, it can be expanded in the future.
There is only a second floor, and the second floor was previously used as guest rooms.
This requires some maintenance.
Ye Yuwu quickly settled on the two shops with a wave of her hand. The smaller shop didn't need to be renovated; all that was needed was to hang a new signboard.
The restaurant next door required more effort. Ye Yuwu hired people to clean it up, then found someone to repair it and add new furniture and decorations.
The new bookstore and teahouse were completed in no time.
Her two shops opened at the same time, and she hired dragon and lion dancers to make it lively. There were only a few shops on the street, and the rest were small vendors setting up stalls along the street.
However, there were still quite a few pedestrians shopping on this street. It was rare to find a newly opened shop in Youzhou, and the event was so lively, so naturally people came to support it.
Of course, many people come specifically for a free bowl of tea and pastries.
It is said that there will be free tea and Southern opera performances for the first three days after the opening.
Driven by the mentality of "why not take a look if you're going to miss it," a large number of passersby flocked in.
Since the territories of the former small countries had been incorporated into the border region, and her shop was located at the border, the two former small countries, now merged into Mi Province, were also considered to be within the border region.
During this period, Ye Yuwu's shop actually brought the people on both sides of the border closer together.
The lifestyle of the people in Mizhou was similar to that of Youzhou. Because of their equally harsh and remote geographical location, they were not very prosperous. Their restaurants were all dilapidated, except for the restaurants near the imperial city, which looked relatively luxurious.
There were no teahouses, but because of poverty, the entertainment districts were more developed, and the poor people sold themselves to make a living.
Therefore, Ye Yuwu's teahouse can be considered the first teahouse on the border.
Therefore, if she wanted to find a storyteller, she could only contact people in Chizhou.
Manager Gao quickly arranged for two storytellers for her, both of whom were extremely experienced.
Previously, the storytellers in Chizhou were recruited from neighboring states. After the reputation of Chizhou teahouses spread, many people came from far and wide, and they naturally made a lot of money. Therefore, the wages in their teahouses were higher than in other places, and many people wanted to come here to make a living. So now, the teahouses have no shortage of storytellers.
Because the two had "shared the profits," Ye Yuwu would receive a bill from Chizhou every month, and they would split the money among themselves.
Ye Yuwu used the money he earned in Chizhou during this period to open a "branch store" in Youzhou.
Upon hearing this, Manager Gao immediately prepared a storyteller for Ye Yuwu.
His idea was to have Ye Yuwu take on a few more apprentices, have the storytellers from Chizhou teach them until they could stand on their own, and then have the storytellers from Chizhou return.
In this way, you can consider that you have trained a new storyteller.
With the storyteller's matter settled, there were no further problems.
The teahouse has just opened, and people from the border region have all come.
The people on the border had never seen Southern Opera before, let alone heard stories about it, which completely captivated them.
The opera troupe that Ye Yuwu invited was the same one he had worked with before. They had gone to a teahouse in Chizhou to support him and had already left, but Ye Yuwu specifically asked Manager Gao about their whereabouts and then invited them to perform at the border.
Other opera troupes probably wouldn't have been willing to come, but Ye Yuwu personally invited him and offered a lot of money, so the troupe leader was naturally willing to come.
There's nothing interesting to do at the border, and entertainment is even scarcer than in Chizhou. So the arrival of such a novel attraction naturally draws many people here.
Before long, Southern Opera became popular. After the teahouse closed, some villages even invited opera troupes to perform in their villages.
Even a small amount of money is still money, and although the earnings are meager, the troupe leader still takes his troupe with him.
The teahouse business is booming, but the bookstore business is not as good as in Bianjing and Chizhou. Although they can also make money, it is much less than that of the teahouse.
There are few literate people in the border areas, and even fewer who read books. Most of these people come from poor families, and they spend all their savings on writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones. Those who have a little money can only afford to buy the Four Books and Five Classics, as well as literary collections and poetry.
Moreover, the border area is mostly populated by soldiers and officers, so naturally not many people would buy it. Most of the buyers are young ladies from wealthy families and rich young men.
Although the border region is still poor, some people do have some money.
It will be a long time before the people on the border become wealthy, and before the children in the new schools grow up.
Having no other option, Ye Yuwu tried to spread the name of the bookstore from Youzhou.
After all, the states near the border are much richer than the states right on the border, and naturally there are more wealthy people there.
However, the best way to spread the word about the bookstore was through theatrical troupes.
So Ye Yuwu negotiated with the troupe leader, asking them to promote her bookstore while they performed in several prefectures around the border. She then gave the troupe leader some money as payment.
The troupe leader naturally agreed. After all, their troupe made a living by traveling all over the country and performing. It was not unreasonable for them to mention it to the employer after the performance.
After thinking it over, Ye Yuwu finally decided to give the newly written storybook to the troupe leader.
"This is a new script I wrote today. It has already been sent to Bianjing, but it has not been printed yet. Could you take a look and see if it can be staged as a Southern opera?"