Chapter 304: Super Popular

The carriage raced ahead, gradually closing the distance to Shuangxi City, where the fifth branch was located. Traveling day and night, on the morning of the eighth day, the rolling wheels, laden with dust, finally entered the gates of Shuangxi City.

Upon arriving at Lin Ji Inn, still somewhat dazed from the journey, Lin Dong—whom even meditation sometimes made difficult to focus—sent Liu Hua and Wu Guang away before hurrying into the storage room. After checking the situation outside the storage room at Lin Ji Inn in Qiufeng City, he pushed open the door and quickly headed to the room where the disciples of the Gu Huan Sect were practicing.

After knocking on the door and asking Jiang Zhen to go call Ma Chun, Lin Dong sighed. Unable to stay in the room waiting for Ma Chun, he strode straight to the back courtyard to wait. About ten minutes later, Ma Chun rushed in excitedly.

“Ma Chun!” Lin Dong called out.

“Boss, have you arrived in Shuangxi City?” Ma Chun asked eagerly.

“Yes,” Lin Dong replied impatiently. “What’s the reaction from Fenglin Restaurant?”

Ma Chun grinned widely and laughed, knowing Lin Dong was anxious. Not daring to keep things mysterious, he explained, “On the day the Spirit Stone Fan was introduced, Ling Zhengyang came over, but I sent him away with a vague reply. For the past few days, he’s come to Lin Ji Inn every day to inquire about you. These days, he’s even stayed here at Lin Ji Inn.”

“He’s staying at Lin Ji Inn?” Lin Dong pressed urgently. “What’s happening at Fenglin Restaurant?”

“Nothing much. They’re just wasting time,” Ma Chun explained. “The price has always been at a discount; further cuts won’t help. One of those restaurants that defected from our alliance even closed down the day before yesterday. In my opinion, we don’t need to wait until summer ends—within a month, the remaining six will surely close. Wait, it should be seven, including Fenglin Restaurant.”

Lin Dong swung his right fist fiercely. Last time when Yu Mudan and the others arrived at Lin Ji Inn, Fenglin Restaurant showed no signs of activity, which made him feel that Ling Zhengyang, unwilling to admit defeat, must have some backup plan. But this time, with still no signs of activity, he was convinced that Ling Zhengyang had completely given up.

“How’s the Spirit Stone Fan?” Lin Dong asked.

“It’s only been seven or eight days, and the prices of food and drinks in our inn have gone up by 20%. Meanwhile, the number of silver cards given away hasn’t decreased—it’s actually increased. We’ve given out over 1,300 silver cards, 76 gold cards, and 2 diamond cards,” Ma Chun said excitedly. “This is still because we don’t have enough dining tables and private rooms. If we had enough of those, we could give out even more cards. Judging from the trend, we’ll need to give out 100 to 180 silver cards and 6 to 7 gold cards per day for at least another five to six days. In the future, although the numbers will drop, they certainly won’t be as low as before, where only one silver card was given out every two or three days.”

Lin Dong’s eyelids twitched. 100 to 180 silver cards meant the inn would generate at least 10,000 taels of silver in revenue per day. With the number of dining tables on the second floor, it could only accommodate around 300 large customers per day.

Given the spending habits of these large customers, most of their orders would include one or two spirit beasts or spirit materials, costing at most 2 to 3 taels of silver, with no more than 5 taels even in the best cases. That meant the total daily revenue would be around 1,800 taels of silver.

10,000 taels of silver per day—this was just from the newly issued silver and gold cards, not including those existing customers who came to the inn for banquets.

Undoubtedly, the bulk of this revenue came from the super-large customers on the third floor. Only these customers, who spent over 10 taels of silver on a single meal, could generate such high revenue for Lin’s Inn.

To put it simply, for ordinary large customers, the requirement to obtain a silver card was to spend at least 100 taels on food and drinks. With the allure of spirit stone fans, even if they didn’t get food and drinks in exchange for spending 100 taels on a meal and getting a fan, they would still pay without hesitation just to get the fan.

But for a large family, one spirit stone fan was definitely not enough. Not to mention the need for ceiling fans in the dining hall and smaller spirit stone fans for carriages, in these days, which large family didn’t have multiple wives, concubines, and children? Just taking care of them required more than ten fans.

One fan could cost 100 taels of silver, but needing a dozen or even dozens at once made the price too steep for ordinary large customers. Even if they had food and drinks to offset the cost, it still seemed expensive. Therefore, while ordinary large customers might spend 100 to 180 taels on food and drinks for the first few fans, they could only gradually accumulate enough spending to get more fans later on.

The super-rich patrons are different. Eight or ten thousand taels of silver mean even less to them than a hundred or eighty taels do to ordinary wealthy clients. When they come here, they’re likely to disdain the cheap food and drinks at Lin’s Inn. They won’t stop until at least three or five spirit stone fans are ordered for each table; otherwise, they wouldn’t have managed to accumulate over seventy gold cards and two diamond cards in just seven or eight days.

The accumulated value of food and drinks for gold cards reaches as high as a thousand taels, while diamond cards reach ten thousand taels. Two diamond cards mean that two super-rich patrons have ordered food and drinks worth over ten thousand taels in seven or eight days—amounting to at least one day’s worth of revenue for Lin’s Inn. If this level of revenue could be sustained daily, it would be hard for Lin’s Inn not to become prosperous.

Of course, over time, the demand for spirit stone fans will gradually saturate. Only when a fan breaks would someone think of using a silver card for replacement, causing revenue to drop sharply. If Lin’s Inn’s core strength—its food and drink quality—is insufficient, it’s likely to become deserted within three to five months. Fortunately, Lin’s Inn has strong core capabilities. Coupled with its success in bringing down Maple Forest Restaurant, Lin Dong believes that the three to five months of advantage gained from spirit stone fans is enough to retain most super-rich and wealthy customers with its food, drinks, and atmosphere.

“Did the aunt you asked about get found?” Lin Dong couldn’t help but think of that basket-wearing aunt who used spirit stone fans as tools for drying cured meat. For Lin’s Inn to completely defeat Maple Forest Restaurant and establish an unshakable position in Autumn Wind City, core strength was the foundation, but spirit stone fans and the storage-capable VIP cards also played a crucial role. Without these, relying solely on core strength, it would take at least ten to eighteen years to truly become invincible in Autumn Wind City.

Both spirit stone fans and VIP cards were invented by Peng Qiao. For Lin Dong, finding her an assistant or even a research team was just as important as hiring top chefs and training a guard team.

“She was found. Believe it or not…” Ma Chun said with admiration, “That aunt is truly remarkable. She invented a stone mill that grinds tofu faster than usual, a spoon for cleaning ears, and something even smaller than scissors for cutting nails—hard to describe exactly. She created tons of such gadgets all by herself. I’ve discussed each one with Liu Hua, and if mass-produced, they could all fetch good prices.”

Lin Dong was amused. What is vision? This is vision! He had indeed discovered an inventor. Though it were just small gadgets, it proved his earlier guess—that this basket-wearing aunt indeed had the ability to come up with brilliant suggestions when Peng Qiao hit a bottleneck.

If the problems of imitation and mass production could be solved, it might even be possible to build a factory specifically for Auntie Cai Lan. After thinking for a moment, Lin Dong asked, “Can these small gadgets be produced in large quantities?”
“Of course,” Ma Chun nodded firmly. “Although Auntie Wang spent quite a bit of effort making them, most of these gadgets can be made from iron. We can create molds, and as long as we have enough iron ore, we can produce thousands or even tens of thousands of pieces a day.”
“What about the cost?” Lin Dong pressed further. “For example, this gadget that’s more convenient for cutting nails than scissors—would its cost be higher than that of a pair of scissors?”
Ma Chun pondered. “What Auntie Wang made consisted of two small iron pieces, with the rest carved from wood. Although the materials aren’t expensive, the labor cost alone is at least two or three hundred wen. If we use molds and replace everything with iron, the total cost, including materials and labor, should be around one wen.”
Two small iron pieces? Lin Dong smirked. He had a hunch that this unnamed gadget by Ma Chun was likely nail clippers. A cost of one wen might be a bit high compared to the previous world, but in this world, as long as it was cheaper than scissors, it would still be attractive.
As for imitation, such small items didn’t require much advanced technology, so it was impossible to ensure monopoly like with VIP cards or spirit stone fans. To remain competitive, the only options were to sell in large quantities at low profits and continuously improve quality.
After careful consideration, Lin Dong decided, “Organize all the items Auntie Wang made by herself. Identify those that can be produced in large quantities at an acceptable price. Then categorize them—those needed by every household or individual, like these more convenient and better nail clippers. And then those not needed by every household, like stone grinders for tofu. After organizing them, have the blacksmith analyze the costs and possible improvements, then give me a list.”
“Mm!” Ma Chun nodded firmly.
“Also…” Lin Dong asked, “How much does Auntie Wang earn as wages?”
“Five taels of silver per month,” Ma Chun replied.
Lin Dong almost spat blood. “Hiring an inventor for five taels of silver a month? You’re really bold.”
“An inventor?” Ma Chun was completely confused.
“One hundred taels of silver per month,” Lin Dong said without hesitation. “Plus one percent stake in the profits from mass production of these gadgets. If things go well, her wages and stake can increase further.”

“So much?” Ma Chun murmured, “Five taels of silver a month is already equivalent to two months’ worth of income from her family’s tofu shop.”
“How much money her tofu shop makes each month is none of my concern; I only care about how much she can earn for me. If you want a horse to run fast, you need to feed it plenty of fodder,” Lin Dong explained. “We don’t just need one Aunt Wang—we need many more. Just by chance meeting them on the road, it might take ten or eight years to find one. Only by willing to spend silver on wages will capable people come to us on their own.”
Ma Chun still couldn’t understand why spending so much silver just to cover the cost when five taels a month would suffice, but he didn’t know how to argue back.
“Again, with more silver, Aunt Wang and her family might have other ideas,” Lin Dong instructed. “Draft an employment contract with a term of fifty or sixty years. Also, make sure to suppress them if necessary—don’t let them get complacent, thinking that with just 1% ownership, we’re getting an unfair advantage.”
Ma Chun nodded firmly. He understood that giving too much silver and benefits could easily make people demand more.
“Alright, bring in the third young master.”
Lin Dong waved his hand and strode toward the stone table. Once Fenglin Restaurant was taken care of, Jin’s Inn’s dominance over Qiufeng City would be just around the corner.