Chapter 59: Counterattack Plan

The moon shone brightly in the open backyard. Lin Shuang held the silver rabbit, gently stroking its soft, silvery fur with her small hands. Her usual expression was rarely one of deep thought.
Over by the side, Lin Dong asked in detail about Tian Hao’s experiences at the Gu Huan Clan, occasionally glancing at the little girl and regretting having told her about the troubles at the inn.
“Dad!” Lin Shuang suddenly called out. When Lin Dong turned to look, she said helplessly, “I think for running an inn, the most important things are food, drinks, and the environment. Then there’s whether the staff are friendly and if the prices are fair. It’s hard to surpass Fenglin Restaurant in a short time, unless…”
Food, drinks, environment, friendliness, fairness…
Lin Dong pondered for a while before gradually realizing that these were indeed the foundations of running an inn. He had known this before but hadn’t delved into it—first because he was busy with cultivation, and second because he was focused on finding ways to turn things around quickly.
After hearing Lin Shuang’s words, Lin Dong came to his senses. The foundations were the most important. As long as they kept improving, Lin’s Inn wouldn’t have to worry about competition.
Remembering that she had said “unless” earlier, Lin Dong asked after making up his mind, “Unless what?”
“To surpass Fenglin Restaurant in a short time, unless we use special methods to attract wealthy customers, just like them.” Lin Shuang’s face showed remorse. “I can’t think of any special methods right now.”
“It’s okay!” Lin Dong shook his head with a smile. The girl was only eleven years old. No matter how talented she was, it was impossible for her to come up with a solution in just a few hours. It was enough that she understood the basics of running an inn.
If nothing else worked, they could take their time. Once their foundations surpassed those of Fenglin Restaurant, customers would naturally know which inn to choose. Things like poetry, calligraphy, and cards were just gimmicks. No matter how much they were promoted, they couldn’t withstand a solid foundation.
“Dad, maybe we should set up something like poetry, calligraphy, and cards too?” Lin Shuang asked softly.
Lin Dong shook his head. What’s the point of following in their footsteps? Besides, the main goal of an inn was to gain experience points. There weren’t that many scholars in Xilan City who would eat on the first floor.
Lin Shuang clenched her fist and promised, “Dad, don’t worry. I’ll definitely find a way.”
Lin Dong smiled and rubbed her head. “You don’t need to worry about it. It’s unattractive to be gloomy all the time. Dad will find ways to improve those aspects you mentioned. Then, customers will come on their own.”
Lin Shuang wanted to argue, but seeing Lin Dong’s determined gaze, she could only nod softly.

“Alright, it’s getting late. Let’s all go to bed!” Lin Dong waved his hand.
“Mm!”
The brother and sister nodded quickly and headed to their new rooms respectively.
It seems we have to take things slowly. Lin Dong smiled bitterly. Having been exposed to so many gimmicks and hype on Earth, he expected to be better at this in a world with less developed business models, but it turned out he wasn’t.
Gimmicks and hype…
Lin Dong’s body trembled slightly. Fenglin Restaurant relied on poetry, calligraphy, paintings, and cards to attract scholars, who then helped attract wealthy patrons. The little girl had quite sharp insight—although she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she immediately understood that Fenglin Restaurant’s ultimate goal was to attract wealthy customers.
Most of those wealthy customers were merchants, and there must be something even more appealing to them than having scholars around.
Lin Dong tapped his head. Merchants were profit-driven, and their greatest passion was making money. If they were to come to the inn, it was hoped they would bring silver, so to attract them, opportunities to make money had to be provided…
Information!
If the inn had plenty of news from various places, supply and demand information, and government policies, it could easily attract merchants.
To achieve this, it was necessary to have many informants throughout the Han Empire and in the imperial court.
Lin Dong frowned and pondered for a moment before a smile appeared on his face. The inn didn’t yet have the capability to provide extensive news and policies, but that didn’t stop him from turning the second floor of Lin’s Inn into a gathering place for merchants.
A bulletin board could be set up on the second floor where merchants could post free notices seeking partnerships or offer information they didn’t need. By revealing just a little, those who needed it could negotiate with the poster to purchase the information—this way, both sides would benefit.
The more Lin Dong thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. He couldn’t wait to take out pen and ink from the mobile counter, spread out a piece of rice paper, and write down his ideas, gradually refining them.
After working for most of an hour, a plan to compete with Fenglin Restaurant in the short term was finally ready. After thinking it over, Lin Dong didn’t put down his brush.
The foundational aspects also needed to be addressed quickly—rules and regulations had to be established.
As for food, although the kitchen’s skills added value, chefs and ingredients were the most important. Jiang Kui had the talent of an excellent chef, but his level was still low, and he could only prepare simple home-cooked dishes.
A low level could be improved through practice. With the first floor always full of customers, that should be sufficient. If he couldn’t prepare rare delicacies, he needed to find opportunities for him to practice.

After pondering for a while, Lin Dong gave up the idea of going to Qiufeng City or Lingnan City to make purchases. Lin’s Inn wasn’t a chain restaurant like Fenglin Restaurant, where high demand meant lower prices; buying there would be too costly. After all, there were plenty of magical beasts on Guhuan Mountain. He could wait for that old fox, Xiao Tianchi, to arrive and see if he could exchange silver or other items for them—if possible, that would solve the problem of ingredients as well.

The only remaining issue was whether Jiang Kui could stay at the inn. If he really had to follow Wen Ying back to Shili Street, all the efforts would be in vain.

Lin Dong felt overwhelmed. No matter what he did, he still ended up back at Wen Ying. Unfortunately, Wen Ying only liked scholars, and no matter how much Jiang Kui tried to change, he couldn’t become one in a short time.

Unless…

An idea struck Lin Dong—unless he worked on changing Wen Ying’s preference for scholars.

“Why do I only think about how to make Jiang Kui meet Wen Ying’s standards, without considering making Wen Ying see more than just scholars?”

Lin Dong was overjoyed. The fog in his mind cleared instantly, as if swept away by a gust of wind. It would be much easier to make Wen Ying notice Jiang Kui’s qualities she liked—qualities that scholars didn’t possess—than to turn Jiang Kui into a scholar himself.

As for Jiang Kui’s strengths, honesty and kindness were probably the most prominent. Wen Ying was also kind-hearted, second only to her predecessor, so she surely wouldn’t dislike these qualities in Jiang Kui.

As for scholars, the virtues of benevolence, wisdom, propriety, righteousness, and faithfulness used to be their foundation, but that was hundreds or even thousands of years ago. Today’s scholars only cared about becoming officials; those who couldn’t pass the exams were seen as having only one virtue—integrity.

In their eyes, scholars held a noble status, and their integrity was supreme. Merchants were seen as greedy, while peddlers and laborers were considered lowly occupations. These people were deemed crude, and if disaster struck, it was only deserved—they didn’t deserve sympathy at all.

True scholars didn’t completely disappear, but they could no longer be called scholars, as they had been excluded by the rest. Like Zhou Zhengye, who advertised for Xiao Shuang to relieve his parents’ burden, even if he was highly talented, scholars would disdain to associate with him.

If thoughtfully planned, even if he couldn’t help Wen Ying overcome her blind admiration due to never having attended an academy in her youth, at least he could make her realize that Jiang Kui wasn’t as terrifying as he seemed.

With a common language, Jiang Kui would have the chance to get close to Wen Ying. Success would be ideal, but even if Wen Ying still couldn’t like Jiang Kui after overcoming her biases, he could at least give up completely.

By then, as long as Jiang Kui could be helped to overcome his decadence, there was also a possibility of him focusing entirely on staying at the inn. Lin Dong exhaled heavily—a sigh of relief. The two problems that had troubled him for over a dozen days now seemed to have solutions at the same time. Luck, it seemed, was returning once again.

As for drinks, since Lin’s Winery wasn’t competitive yet, it would be sufficient to send people to the large wineries in Lingnan City to purchase supplies. With the Wine King formula, lower-quality drinks could be sold as high-end ones, so there was no worry about not making a profit.

Next was the environment—primarily decoration and hygiene. For decoration, he could send people to visit other inns and restaurants in Qiufeng City to see how they arranged tables, chairs, and decorated rooms, allowing them to learn from others’ strengths. Hygiene was even simpler; Lin Dong had plenty of ideas and could easily come up with a long list of areas needing improvement.

As for whether the staff were enthusiastic and whether the prices were fair, these were Lin’s Inn’s advantages. He just needed to write down the tasks to be assigned to the staff and establish rules for rewards and punishments.

Working until late at night, Lin Dong finally finished writing everything down. After stretching lazily, he went back to his room to practice cultivation, satisfied with his work.

The next morning, after preparing breakfast for the siblings and seeing them off to play, Lin Dong called Wang Liuzhi to his room and handed him the plan he had written the previous day.

Taking the three pages filled with notes, Wang Liuzhi carefully folded them and tucked them into his sleeve. After listening to Lin Dong’s explanation, he was beaming with joy.

Used to earning hundreds of silver taels a day, Wang Liuzhi was somewhat unaccustomed to having little to no profit for over a dozen days. But now, although he didn’t understand business management, Lin Dong’s plan was easy to understand, and it was clear that it could turn things around.

“By the way, boss, what if Maple Forest Restaurant does the same thing as me?”

Lin Dong paused. Indeed! Maple Forest Restaurant was wealthy and had branches all over the Great Han Kingdom. If they also set up information boards, although they might start a few days later, they could provide information on supply and demand across the country and government policies ahead of the inn.

However, if Maple Forest Restaurant wanted to do this, they would have to report to their headquarters. If approved, they wouldn’t just put up information boards in their branches in Xilan City—they would also need to collect information, which would take at least half a year.

Half a year would be enough time for Lin’s Inn to improve significantly. Opening branches elsewhere might become troublesome, but crushing Maple Forest Restaurant in Xilan City would be no problem.

After thinking it through, Lin Dong said, “It’s fine. Let me think first. As long as we plan well and attract all the big clients at once, we’ll gain the upper hand. We don’t have to worry about Fenglin Restaurant copying us.”
“Okay, then I’ll go arrange the other matters right away.”
Wang Liuzhi nodded.