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Lin Yuan was startled, then burst into laughter, slapping Xia Zheng on the forehead, annoyed that she had worried for nothing.

"What do you think of this design?"

Xia Zheng clapped his hands in praise, "What do I think? Of course it’s great! I guarantee that as soon as you open this restaurant, it will definitely attract everyone in the world!"

Lin Yuan pursed her lips, not fully believing his blatantly flattering words, but still quite pleased that her design had received approval from others.

To be honest, she had thought about this design in her previous life, but with no funds and no connections, she was truly in a position where her aspirations exceeded her capabilities.

"So you’ll take care of the renovation?"

Tasked with the assignment, Xia Zheng assured her with a thump on his chest, "Don’t worry, tomorrow I will close Yi Ran Residence for remodeling. Although your drawings are complex, if we hire more people, it will be completed in no more than one and a half months at most."

A month and a half would be enough, and she not only wanted to renovate the storefront but also to retrain all the employees and chefs in the kitchen.

"Besides the storefront, I also want to see what the people you’ve hired are like."

Speaking of the people he had recruited, Xia Zheng put away the blueprint and sat at the table, saying, "I followed your requirements, all the women are young girls aged fourteen to seventeen with ordinary family backgrounds, skilled hands, and decent appearances."

But that still wasn’t enough, Lin Yuan added, "What about their height?"

Xia Zheng lifted the corners of his lips and playfully tapped her nose, saying with a smile, "They were all chosen according to your specifications; their heights do not differ by more than two centimeters."

"And..."

"Not to mention the ten with tall figures!" Before she could finish, Xia Zheng interrupted her, saying with a laugh, "I really don’t understand your thinking. Others’ restaurants are full of young servants running around, but you, on the other hand, have exclusively chosen young girls. To the uninformed, they might think we’re not opening a restaurant, but a. .."

He didn’t have the nerve to finish his sentence, but the look on his face showed he’d made his point.

Lin Yuan raised an eyebrow, scolding, "What? A brothel, right? Hmph, you have such a narrow view. Let me tell you, I treat these girls like treasures. If anyone dares to touch them, they’d better be careful, or they’ll leave without hands or feet!"

Having said this, Lin Yuan also realized a problem and instructed him, "However, what you’ve mentioned is worth considering. Find me some bodyguards later, they must be highly skilled, regardless of the cost."

No sooner had she finished speaking when she saw Xia Zheng wearing a mysteriously amused smile, his eyelids even slightly upturned.

Lin Yuan rolled her eyes and probed, "What, you wouldn’t already have found them for me, would you?"

Xia Zheng smirked, shaking his head, "Do we need to find more? Yi Ran Residence already has plenty of bodyguards. Do you think my brother just keeps Yi Ran Residence for nothing? There are more than twenty bodyguards there, and every single one of them is extremely agile. Do you know why?"

Lin Yuan opened her mouth to venture a guess but got cut off by Xia Zheng again, "It’s because those men are all personally trained by my brother. Whenever he is free, he comes to Yi Ran Residence to teach them martial arts."

Tsk, tsk.

Lin Yuan couldn’t help but click her tongue in wonder; so Xia Zhen had a passion for teaching martial arts!

However, after hearing all this, Lin Yuan also understood why Yi Ran Residence was doing such poor business. If even the boss wasn’t focused on the business, how could the staff be expected to work hard and earn money?

Shaking her head discreetly, Lin Yuan sternly asked Xia Zheng to have those bodyguards in the restaurant summoned so that Lin Yi could properly test them – not only their skills but also their character.

Lin Yi’s martial arts prowess was well-known and his ability to assess skills needed no explanation.

Just a couple of moves would reveal the true nature of his opponents.

However, their character wasn’t something he could assess.

Xia Zheng clicked his tongue, knowing that this would be his task to tackle.

Besides the women, Lin Yuan also had Xia Zheng recruit several young men for her.

However, compared to finding women, it was a little more difficult to find available young men at that time.

The good-looking ones were usually scions of wealthy families or servants in rich households, which was much better than being a young servant in a restaurant.

Those willing to endure hardship often weren’t presentable.

Therefore, Xia Zheng only managed to find seven or eight such young men. Fortunately, there were some from the previous staff at Yi Ran Residence, and if a few suitable ones were added, there should be no issue.

Next up was the major task of hiring kitchen staff, which naturally required Lin Yuan’s personal attention.

Early the next morning, Lin Yuan arrived at Yi Ran Residence with Xia Zheng. Shopkeeper Xiao had already summoned the chefs to wait for her in the main hall in advance.

To her astonishment, despite Yi Ran Residence’s business being poor, there were indeed no shortages of chefs. Not including the helpers, there were six head chefs alone!

Six head chefs! If one head chef was paid at a rate of five taels of silver per month, that would be thirty taels of silver in total!

Lin Yuan’s delicate brows furrowed tightly together, looking reproachfully at Xia Zheng.

Upon seeing these chefs, Xia Zheng too was taken aback. Lin Yuan’s gaze made him feel guilty, and he awkwardly touched his nose, muttering to himself, "This is all my brother’s doing, not mine."

Lin Yuan wasn’t interested in hearing him make excuses for himself anymore.

Stepping in front of the chefs, she cleared her throat and said, "Gentlemen, I am your new boss.

As the new boss, I naturally have my own management methods.

As long as you are skilled and diligent, I will never shortchange you. "

The chefs had already heard about Yi Ran Residence being given away by Xia Zhen; what surprised them was that it had been given not to the Second Young Master of the Xia family but to a young lady instead.

With Xia Zheng present, those with ulterior motives nodded and bowed, not saying much.

Lin Yuan glanced indifferently over the group and got a general idea about them.

She comfortably settled into a chair behind her and said seriously, "Today is our first meeting, and there’s no need to rush introductions because, after what comes next, we might not maintain an employer-employee relationship. "

Her words immediately provoked murmurs among the crowd, and even Shopkeeper Xiao felt a stir of alarm and inquired with a bow, "May I ask Miss Lin, what did you mean by your last statement...?"

Shopkeeper Xiao was a bit older, shrewd, yet lacked some zeal, which didn’t fully satisfy Lin Yuan. She planned to select a more capable person from among the stewards to act as Second Shopkeeper so that there would be someone to take over when Shopkeeper Xiao got too old to work.

But, of course, she wasn’t going to mention this idea now.