Chapter 16: The First Hotpot Restaurant of the Ming Dynasty

Zhu Cilang hummed a little tune on the way back to the palace, looking very pleased with himself.

Wu Zhong and Xu Sheng were utterly bewildered, not knowing why His Highness was so delighted, yet not daring to ask. Perhaps it was because of the firearms matter.

They had no idea that Zhu Cilang already had a grand plan brewing in his mind — with chili peppers, he could rake in mountains of silver!

For instance, opening a hotpot restaurant, a spicy skewer shop, a barbecue joint — expanding into nationwide chains, growing bigger and stronger. Just think how popular these establishments were in later generations to know the national palate; he was bound to make a fortune. And with cumin now available too, everything was falling into place!

Though the Ming had many poor folk, it certainly had no shortage of rich ones, especially in the capital and Jiangnan, where merchants worth a million taels were as numerous as ox hairs!

Zhu Cilang intended to seize the commercial initiative, planning to open the Great Ming's first hotpot restaurant. He would start on the high-end luxury route, milking money from the wealthy, and later use these chain hotpot restaurants to develop an intelligence network!

Just as he entered the Forbidden City, Zhu Cilang paused and said, "Companion Wu, last time you mentioned you had a younger brother named Wu Cheng, who ran a restaurant back home but was squeezed out of business, and came to the capital to seek refuge with you?"

Wu Zhong didn't know what the Crown Prince meant, but still answered honestly, "He's already arrived in Beijing and is working as a helper to a cook at some tavern."

Zhu Cilang said, "Companion Wu, I intend to arrange something for this brother of yours."

Wu Zhong said with some concern, "Young Master, this brother of mine hasn't seen much of the world — I'm afraid he might bungle things for you."

Zhu Cilang smiled and said, "With you here as a benchmark, he can't be too far off, can he? As long as he's loyal, I'll certainly give him a good post."

Wu Zhong quickly said, "Then this servant thanks Young Master on behalf of my brother. May I ask what Young Master has in mind?"

Zhu Cilang told Wu Zhong to relay to his brother Wu Cheng that he should find a high-end storefront on Chessboard Street outside the Chengtian Gate, to prepare for opening an upscale hotpot restaurant.

Zhu Cilang wanted to bring modern business concepts to the Ming dynasty, and whip up some of the signature eating styles of later generations — barbecue, spicy skewers, and the like — which was sure to be a sensation.

Once profits rolled in and the time was ripe, he'd expand into a nationwide chain. Only with money could he get things done and build up his own power base.

Of course, he wouldn't open the hotpot restaurant under his own name, so he found Wu Zhong's younger brother to put it under his.

The next day, Zhu Cilang found some free time and slipped out of the Forbidden City in plain clothes with his entourage. He wanted to meet Wu Zhong's younger brother Wu Cheng in person.

Wu Cheng was a young man. His family had been too poor to afford food when he was little, which was why his elder brother Wu Zhong had entered the palace as a eunuch at a young age, sending back a little silver every year to help support the household.

After the Wu family's circumstances improved, Wu Cheng — perhaps having been scarred by hunger — developed a great passion for cooking as he grew up. He opened his own small restaurant, hoping to save up some money through his skill and hard work to marry a wife and carry on the Wu family line.

Thanks to his decent culinary skills, his little restaurant did fairly good business, and life was reasonably comfortable.

But good times didn't last. Because he was too honest, he was targeted by competitors who colluded with the town's local bully, who came to his restaurant to cause trouble every few days, eventually forcing him to close up and sell the place.

After Wu Cheng arrived in the capital to seek out his brother Wu Zhong, he discovered that although his elder brother was a favored figure by the Crown Prince's side, he had no extraordinary abilities either, and hadn't found him a position.

Wu Cheng was decent enough not to complain about his brother. He found work on his own at a tavern in the capital as a helper to the cook, learning new skills while he was at it.

Just today, his elder brother Wu Zhong suddenly came to find him, saying the Crown Prince wanted to see him. Wu Cheng was stunned for a long while, feeling as if he were dreaming.

Urged on by Wu Zhong, Wu Cheng hastily changed into a clean set of clothes and came for the audience.

In a luxurious private room at some tavern in the capital, Zhu Cilang looked at Wu Cheng, who was trembling and stammering as he spoke, and felt fairly satisfied.

After learning about Wu Cheng's situation firsthand, Zhu Cilang decided to put him in charge of the hotpot restaurant business.

For developing a side business to make money, he needed exactly this kind of honest, dependable person — someone who could strictly execute his plans without cutting corners or playing tricks.

For the whole afternoon, Zhu Cilang worked with Wu Cheng on the hotpot restaurant plans. Zhu Cilang dictated the recipes and the restaurant's management rules while Wu Cheng took notes.

Several of Zhu Cilang's ideas and concepts left Wu Cheng utterly astounded, feeling like his brain couldn't keep up.

Still, having run his own restaurant before and gained experience working at a large tavern, he managed to grasp things reasonably well after Zhu Cilang's explanations.

Finally, Zhu Cilang told him this was top secret — he was not to leak anything without permission, on pain of losing his head.

After Zhu Cilang left, Wu Cheng suddenly felt a wave of relief wash over him. Everything felt like a dream — the Crown Prince had personally summoned him and chatted with him for so long. He was truly overwhelmed by the honor.

But when he recalled the Crown Prince's final words, he instinctively touched his own neck and gave an involuntary shiver.

Wu Cheng wasted no time. That very day he scoured all of Chessboard Street and found a tavern in an excellent location.

It was a three-story tavern facing the street on two sides, eight bays wide, luxuriously decorated, fully equipped inside — ready to operate upon purchase. Behind it was a sizable courtyard with seven or eight brick-and-tile rooms.

The owner, drowning in gambling debts, had been forced to sell at a low price. What had originally been a property worth over ten thousand taels now went for only six thousand taels of silver.

Wu Cheng had gotten lucky. After carefully inspecting it for the better part of an hour, he finally made up his mind and took over the tavern.

Wu Cheng worked efficiently — it only took him a few days of simple repairs and redecorating, plus a fresh layout, before the Great Ming's first hotpot restaurant was ready to open for business.

Zhu Cilang was fairly satisfied with Wu Cheng's work — he didn't drag his feet, a man who could get things done.

During this period, Wu Cheng asked his brother Wu Zhong to request that Zhu Cilang bestow a name upon the hotpot restaurant. Without a second word, Zhu Cilang personally smoothed out a sheet of rice paper and wrote four large characters — Dezhuang Hotpot!

On opening day, Dezhuang Hotpot's business wasn't particularly good. Zhu Cilang had anticipated this — after all, many people still didn't dare eat such spicy food. So he'd long had a plan: all hotpot would initially be mildly spicy, letting people acclimate to the flavor first.

Furthermore, Zhu Cilang had Wu Cheng organize a promotion for the opening — hiring beggars to distribute flyers and paste up small advertisements across the city: Dezhuang Hotpot's grand opening celebration, with all hotpot free for the first five days.

Under the banner of free food, a flood of people immediately rushed to Dezhuang Hotpot for a taste. Sure enough, led by those first brave souls, within a few days many people had fallen in love with this new dish called hotpot.

As word spread from mouth to mouth, Dezhuang Hotpot's reputation grew ever greater, and gradually even the capital's high officials and nobles came to sample it.

During the free promotion, Wu Cheng couldn't quite understand why His Highness would sell at a loss, giving away free food and drink to draw in crowds.

It wasn't until later, when great piles of gleaming silver came in every day, that Wu Cheng realized — the Crown Prince was a true genius!

Status update: those who invested in this book are seeing returns now. I threw in a few thousand points myself and made a tidy little profit.

Starting today, I'll basically update two chapters daily, occasionally three, and if we get a major recommendation there'll be a burst of extra chapters. Please rest assured and add this to your collection!