Chapter 275: Making Money, Making Money

Young Master Zhou had never seen someone buy jade like this. He looked at Gu Fei and said, "What did you buy this for? If you need a Jade Craftsman to carve it, you might as well leave it with Old Zheng. He has some good ones at his shop."

Gu Fei waved her hand. "No, that’s alright. I have other uses for it."

With that, Gu Fei took out her silver to pay.

Her entire fortune currently consisted of the two thousand six hundred taels of silver Housekeeper Wu had paid her in compensation, along with the gold and silver Xiao Yu had put in the Treasure Basin. She had weighed it—fifty taels of gold and fifty taels of silver.

In total, it came to three thousand one hundred and fifty taels of silver.

As for the inn’s cash flow, she had set it aside for now and hadn’t yet gone over the accounts.

After paying, she was left with only one hundred and fifty taels. Gu Fei suddenly felt like she was poor all over again.

Three thousand taels of silver bought quite a pile of jade. Old Zheng packed it into a sack, but when he tried to lift it, he couldn’t move it.

Gu Fei quickly said, "I’ll go get a carriage."

Old Zheng replied, "No need. I have a carriage here. I’ll help you deliver it."

The carriage brought her and the jade to the inn’s entrance. Gu Fei called Tie Niu and Pingzi over to carry it into her personal room.

After the two of them left, she closed the door. With a single thought, she moved all the jade into her space.

When she looked at the begonia in her space, she saw it had fully bloomed. Its leaves shimmered with a luster like fine jade, and the blossoms were so breathtakingly vibrant that one glance was enough to know this was no ordinary flower.

And yet, the Spiritual Energy within the space hadn’t diminished in the slightest.

After checking on the begonia, Gu Fei returned to the main hall and began to go over the accounts.

’It’s been exactly one month since opening day. Once the books are done, I can pay everyone’s wages.’

Gu Fei spent an hour on the calculations. For lodging, after the first few slow days, the inn had been almost completely full. The five Heaven-tier rooms, ten Earth Rooms, and thirteen Ren Character rooms brought in about seven or eight taels of silver per day.

As for the main hall’s restaurant, business was getting better and better, especially in the last few days, with many people coming specifically for the spicy dishes.

Yesterday in the main hall alone, the lunch service brought in over thirty taels of silver, and the evening was even busier, with revenue exceeding fifty taels.

Tallying up the entire month, the income from guest rooms was one hundred and eighty-six taels, and the revenue from the main hall was six hundred and thirty taels of silver.

Expenses—for rice, vegetables, lamp oil, candles, firewood, taxes, wages, rent, and other miscellaneous costs—totaled three hundred and forty-five taels of silver.

That left a net profit of four hundred and seventy-one taels of silver.

After finishing the books, Gu Fei counted the silver.

The final count was short by one tael of silver. ’I must have spent it at some point and forgotten to log it,’ she figured.

After just one month, not only had she made back her initial investment of three hundred taels, but she had also cleared a net profit of over one hundred taels on top of that.

’If things keep up like this, the annual profit could be over five thousand taels of silver.’

’Of course, the restaurant business wasn’t always this good. It only exploded in the last few days. It must be the boost from the chili peppers.’

In all of Ping’an City, only First-class Pavilion, Drunken Immortal Tower, and Youjian Inn sold spicy dishes. She predicted that for the next year, the restaurant’s business would continue to do well.

’Hiring another chef is a must,’ she thought.

Just then, Old Huang came over, beaming. "Little Fei," he said, "seeing you smile so happily after doing your books, it looks like you’ve earned quite a bit."

Gu Fei smiled. "It’s all thanks to you, sir. The inn is in a great location, and you give me a good price on the rent."

"That’s good to hear. Seeing your business do well makes this old man happy, too." Old Huang ambled out and crossed the street to find the old man at the chess stall for a game.

Once the lunch rush was over, Gu Fei called all the employees into the main hall.

"Today marks one full month of business, which means it’s time to pay everyone their wages. There’s one more thing—we need to choose this month’s star employee. Who do you all think deserves to get the bonus?"