The next day.
I left Clear Wave Pavilion as I watched the sun go down.
“Where are we going today, Young Master?”
At Palgap’s question, I pointed toward the tavern I had in mind and answered.
“Moon Wine Pavilion.”
It meant “moon wine” – on nights when the moon rose, if you tipped your cup there, the moon would reflect in the liquor.
The inn originally had a different name, but people kept saying, ‘Let’s go drink Moon Wine,’ because it felt like you were drinking liquor brewed from the moon itself, and in the end even the tavern’s name changed.
But that wasn’t the only reason the place was so popular.
Obviously, since it was a tavern, the alcohol itself was excellent.
It had a sharp, sparkling freshness, and people said its flavor felt like a cold moon on the tongue, so they named it Moon Wine.
Before, the place had been packed with people flocking to drink Moon Wine, but with the prohibition edict in effect now, well…
In my previous life, the one who bought this place was the Murim Alliance.
They brewed Moon Wine here and sold it to the Great Yue Kingdom, making a hefty profit.
The cool, refreshing taste matched Great Yue’s climate perfectly, and they loved the name as well.
Not just Great Yue – neighboring countries even sent people to buy Moon Wine, so what more was there to say?
At my answer, Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am spoke up.
“If you mean Moon Wine from Moon Wine Pavilion, I’ve actually tried it once.”
“You have?”
“Yes. That chill that runs from your throat all the way down to your stomach… ah, just imagining it makes me happy. Hahaha.”
I nodded along and laughed with him.
A place like this, I absolutely had to acquire.
When we stepped into Moon Wine Pavilion, a server hurried over to greet us.
“Welcome! This is Moon Wine Pavilion!”
“Where’s the spot with the best view?”
“Why, of course, this floor.”
Normally people recommend the higher floors for the view, but here, oddly enough, the first floor had the best scenery.
That was because the outdoor seats on this level were the perfect place to drink Moon Wine.
“Because of the prohibition, you can’t have Moon Wine, but you can drink as much Moon Tea as you like.”
“Then we’ll just have to make do with Moon Tea.”
I took the menu the server handed me and placed my order.
“We’ll go with the course at the top – ‘Clear Moon Course’ – set the table with that.”
“Certainly. Ah, I’m sorry, but our tavern operates on advance payment.”
At that, I pulled some money from my pouch and handed it over.
“Thank you. Please wait just a moment.”
I could have moved straight to buying the place, but I planned to have dinner first.
It was a small gesture for the escort guards who’d been working hard, for Palgap, and for Lady Seohyang.
I did feel a little bad for Escort Guard Seo Wu, who couldn’t come because he was guarding Madam Cheongpa.
Of course, if he were here, he’d just say, “I’m fine. Your orders come first, don’t they?”
I’ll bring him here another time.
After a little while, the dishes started arriving.
They were all quite high-class dishes.
This time, I hadn’t asked Yangyang Martial Hall to deliver food.
This place was a fair distance from Yangyang Martial Hall.
And like that, we began our evening meal.
The moon reflected on the surface of my teacup gave off a strangely pleasant mood.
With a place like this, of course it had been one of the famous spots in Hangzhou before the prohibition.
Once the famine ended, the tavern had been packed with customers again.
That was how the Murim Alliance, after getting their hands on it, made a tidy profit just from this one tavern.
This time, I was never going to let the Murim Alliance have it…
I was sipping my tea when my eyes went wide.
Huh? What’s this? What am I drinking right now?
A kind of coolness I’d never felt before spread through my mouth. It tasted like Dragon Well tea, but… somehow fresher than Dragon Well.
Tilting my head, I poured myself another cup and tasted it again.
It seemed I wasn’t the only one who found the flavor strange; the others at the table were tilting their heads as well.
“The tea’s hot, but it feels cool going down.”
“Yeah, it’s definitely hot.”
“It’s really unusual.”
I pulled the bell cord to call the server.
“Yes, did you call for me?”
“What do you call this tea?”
“Ah, that tea is a new blend our master tea artisan created. We call it Moon Tea.”
I’d thought “Moon Tea” just meant to enjoy the moon floating in your cup, but it was actually the tea’s name!
There was no way a tea with a flavor like this hadn’t become famous in my previous life.
So what on earth had happened?
I mulled it over for a moment, then shook my head.
I could figure out the reason later.
There was one thing I was sure of.
This Moon Tea was going to be just as big a hit as Moon Wine.
A little later.
After we finished eating, I called the server over again.
“We ate very well. Please give my thanks to the head cook.”
“Of course.”
“And I’d like to meet this tavern’s owner.”
By “owner,” I meant the one who actually owned the place, not the manager.
Clear Wave Pavilion and Drunken Moon Pavilion were unusual cases; most taverns or pleasure houses had different people as owner and operator.
Usually, merchant groups owned taverns, but here in Hangzhou, most of them belonged to local landlords.
That was why Landlord Seong, envious of them, had recklessly gotten into the tavern business.
Anyway, thanks to that, I could smoothly acquire Hangzhou’s taverns.
If merchant groups had owned them, they would’ve been less affected by the famine and able to hold out.
That was also why I was so aggressively buying up taverns in Hangzhou right now.
If I missed this chance, acquiring businesses in Hangzhou would become nearly impossible.
In setups like this, the Madam usually handled day-to-day operations, while the real owner stayed behind the scenes.
“Our tavern’s owner is already waiting on the second floor.”
“Huh?”
He’s waiting for me?
“If you’d like to speak with him, I can prepare a room for you on the fifth floor.”
Shortly after.
I went up to the fifth floor and waited there for a bit, and soon a man came up, panting for breath.
He was a little on the plump side, with two bodyguards following behind him.
I rose from my seat.
“I’m Eun Seo-ho, Deputy Merchant Lord of the Eunhae Merchant Group. Are you the owner of Moon Wine Pavilion?”
“That’s right. My name is Man Jin, a landlord who owns a bit of land and a few buildings here in Hangzhou.”
“Then would it be all right if I called you Landlord Man?”
“Everyone else calls me that as well, so it’s no discourtesy.”
He looked quite a bit older than me, yet instead of talking down, he was practically bowing and scraping.
Don’t tell me…
I decided to probe him a little.
“I came because I really liked this tavern, and it truly is impressive.”
“I’m grateful to hear you say so. Hahaha.”
I kept on praising the tavern without immediately saying anything about buying it.
As I did, his expression gradually grew more anxious.
That settled it.
He was hoping I’d buy this place off him.
They’d said he’d been waiting on the second floor earlier.
He’d probably rushed over as soon as he heard I was here.
And then waited until I finished my meal.
To be honest, I’d started by buying Clear Wave Pavilion and Drunken Moon Pavilion hoping for exactly this kind of chain reaction, but things were going even smoother than I expected.
Time to get to the point.
“I’d like to purchase this tavern. How much do you think it’s worth?”
“Just five hundred silver taels.”
Huh?
Five hundred silver taels?
It was so much cheaper than I’d expected that I couldn’t help being taken aback.
“Did you say five hundred silver taels?”
“If that’s too much, four hundred… is fine as well.”
Maybe he’d misread my surprise, because he hurried to lower the price.
I took a closer look at Landlord Man’s appearance.
He still had some flesh on him, but parts of his face were gaunt, and his sagging skin said he’d lost weight rapidly.
For the owner of a tavern and a landlord to end up like this, the reason was obvious.
Things were much worse for him than I’d thought.
Landowners with farmland had it a little better, but if they kept spending the way they used to, it was still tough.
When a famine was this severe, harvests would drop to half or even less.
Then you’d be running a deficit of hundreds of taels every year.
There’s a saying.
You have to earn while you spend – eating through money you’ve already made happens in no time.
Right now, Landlord Man was watching me carefully.
By the way, in my previous life the Murim Alliance bought this place a bit later.
Which meant the Murim Alliance had purchased Moon Wine Pavilion for four hundred silver taels or less.
Seeing how Landlord Man had dropped the price the moment he saw my face, it wasn’t officially up for sale yet, but it wouldn’t be strange if he went bankrupt any day now.
For a moment, I considered driving the price down even further.
I only thought about it, though.
I could easily have haggled him below that, but there’s still such a thing as business ethics.
Besides, this was where Yangyang Martial Hall was located, and anyone who mattered would know how close my relationship with them was.
On top of that, I was the Young Palace Lord of Snow Wind Palace.
As Young Palace Lord, I couldn’t do anything that would reflect badly on Yangyang Martial Hall.
Owning a tavern like this and being called a landlord meant he was one of Hangzhou’s local notables.
In other words, he could later become someone who would side with us between Yangyang Martial Hall and Landlord Seong.
“All right.”
“Then at five hundred silver taels…”
“I’ll give you eight hundred silver taels.”
“What?”
His eyes went round.
I attached a reasonable explanation to flatter him a little.
“How could I buy such an excellent tavern for the bargain price of just five hundred taels?”
“Exactly! Exactly! You have no idea how famous this tavern was before the prohibition.”
“Do you have any conditions you’d like to add?”
“Nothing like that. Just do whatever you wish.”
Landlord Man’s face was filled with nothing but joy at being able to sell the place.
Well, when a tavern makes money, it makes a lot, but when it doesn’t, it’s a monster that devours silver.
And so we drew up the contract, and I officially acquired Moon Wine Pavilion for eight hundred silver taels.
We went down to the first floor.
Everyone who worked at the tavern was waiting there. Of course they were – the owner was changing hands.
Naturally, everyone’s nerves were on edge.
Depending on the new owner’s intentions, some of them might be replaced.
Among them, a beautifully dressed woman stepped forward toward us.
When Landlord Man saw her, he pointed to me and said,
“Pay your respects. This will be your new owner.”
“I’m Eun Seo-ho, Deputy Merchant Lord of the Eunhae Merchant Group.”
“I’m Madam Hong Mae of Moon Wine Pavilion.”
She bowed her head in greeting, then looked up at me with an anxious expression.
It was only natural; when ownership changed, the Madam was often the first to be replaced.
But I had no intention of doing that.
“You’ve worked hard keeping this tavern running through such difficult times.”
“Ah, yes… you flatter me…”
“I’ll be counting on you from here on as well.”
“What?”
She stared at me as if she couldn’t believe what she’d heard.
“Why are you so surprised?”
“Then I… I’m not being dismissed from the Madam position?”
“Why would I dismiss the Madam? Haven’t you been running this place wonderfully until now? The recent poor numbers were just unavoidable bad luck from the famine and the prohibition.”
Smiling, I continued,
“So I’m saying I hope you’ll keep taking care of things.”
At my words, she prostrated herself, overcome with emotion.
“This girl will do her utmost to run the tavern well.”
“I’ll trust you on that.”
Listening to our exchange, Landlord Man spoke up.
“Well then, I’ll be taking my leave.”
“Ah! I’ve kept you here without realizing.”
“Not at all. Hehe. It pains me to hand over a tavern I’ve grown attached to for so long, but giving it to you, Deputy Merchant Lord, eases that pain.”
He sure knew how to talk.
I laughed and went along with his words.
“I’m just grateful you trusted me enough to hand it over like this. Have a safe trip back.”
“Let’s meet again if we get the chance.”
After seeing Landlord Man off, I turned to Madam Hong Mae.
“Then, please introduce me to everyone who works here.”
She nodded at my words.
“First, over here…”
She introduced the tavern’s staff one by one, and at last, the group I’d been waiting for stepped forward.
“These are the artisans who brewed the Moon Wine that used to be Moon Wine Pavilion’s pride.”
There were ten of them in all.
Every single one of them looked gaunt and thin.
Well, of course they did.
It had already been over two years since the prohibition had stopped them from brewing.
With not much work to do and no idea when they might be dismissed…
But these men were the main reason I’d bought this tavern.
“Moon Wine wasn’t just Moon Wine Pavilion’s pride in the past; it will be its pride in the future as well.”
“Thank you for saying that.”
I spoke to them.
“I’d like to make a separate contract with all of you.”
“What?”
“Because I place a high value on your skills. You may not be able to brew right now, but that’s only temporary. Soon, the time will come for your craft to shine again.”
I smiled.
“So I want to sign with you in advance for that time. I’ll add fifty percent on top of the wages you were originally receiving.”
At that, their eyes went wide.
“A–are you serious?”
“Yes. I’m serious.”
“Thank you! Thank you so much!”
They dropped to their knees and bowed low before me.
“Deputy Gwak.”
“Yes.”
“Draw up the contracts.”
“Understood.”
Lady Seohyang brought ink and brush, sat down at the table, and we discussed the terms back and forth.
And just like that, the contracts were signed.
Perfect!
This way, I’d secured the brewing artisans who made Moon Wine before the Murim Alliance could get to them.
I could practically hear the sound of money pouring in!
– Kui! Kui!
Geumryeong, from how excited you are, I guess you heard that money coming in too.
Huh, wait…
How does Geumryeong know that?
Did you really hear the sound of money coming in?
–TL Notes–
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