Chapter 122 - I Am a Doctor

Given the situation of this Huaiyang cuisine restaurant, Ye Qiu knew that it wouldn’t be long before a direct shutdown was a possibility.

“Actually, I am a doctor,”

Ye Qiu said.

“Such a young doctor?”

Li Fu was very surprised.

“You seem to have chronic insomnia and severe hair loss.”

Now Li Fu is a middle-aged man with a receding hairline, but before he had rented this place, his hair used to be very thick.

His frequent insomnia and severe hair loss naturally had a lot to do with running this restaurant.

Li Fu was surprised; he didn’t expect this young man to see through him on the spot.

He had already taken many sleeping pills.

At the beginning, the effects of the sleeping pills were quite strong, but as time went by, the dependency became stronger, and the side effects increased.

Now, it was impossible for Li Fu to sleep without taking sleeping pills.

As for severe hair loss, he wasn’t too concerned about it at his age; he didn’t care much about such things.

However, if the frequent insomnia persisted, it would be extremely painful.

“I can treat you,”

Ye Qiu said.

“Really?

That’s great, come with me to the office, and you can check me out,”

Li Fu said eagerly.

Li Fu took Ye Qiu up to the second floor, where Ye Qiu saw that it was also a dining area, but now there were just empty tables and chairs with nothing else.

As for the third floor, it was originally planned to be another dining area too, but since the first and second floors weren’t filling up with customers, the third floor was empty.

The fourth and fifth floors were the same.

Li Fu’s office was on the third floor, and upon entering, Ye Qiu could still smell the strong scent of smoke inside.

He knew Li Fu must be smoking there often, and the ash in the ashtray was already quite full.

“May I know your name, young man?”

Li Fu went to a drawer to get a packet of West Lake Longjing tea, then boiled water to make tea for Ye Qiu himself.

“My name is Ye Qiu.”

“Dr.

Ye, my main issue isn’t the hair loss, but the insomnia and frequent dreams.

Sometimes I barely get three to four hours of sleep a day, and it’s extremely painful.

The worst part is, I’ve become heavily dependent on sleeping pills, but they have serious side effects and are addictive.

The doctor advised me to stop taking them, but without sleeping pills, I just can’t sleep, and every day is agonizing.”

“I can start by taking your pulse,”

Li Fu extended both hands for Ye Qiu to diagnose his pulse.

According to his pulse, it was weak and thready, and his tongue was a reddish color with a white coating.

“Boss Li, besides insomnia and severe hair loss, you also seem to experience palpitations, dizziness, forgetfulness, and irritability,”

“How did you know that?”

Li Fu was very surprised.

He indeed often felt dizzy and lightheaded, with symptoms of forgetfulness—things he had planned to do before, he would soon forget.

As for irritability and anger, ever since he had been running this restaurant and business was bad, he had become like this, and he had been harsh with the chefs, the waitresses, and the back-office staff.

“As a doctor, of course, I know,”

Ye Qiu said.

“So what can be done to treat it?”

“Sell your restaurant and through traditional Chinese medicine treatment, in about half a year, you can fully recover.”

“Sell the restaurant?”

Li Fu was even more surprised.

He hadn’t expected that Ye Qiu would know about this idea he had.

However, it wasn’t about selling but subletting, because the restaurant was also rented from someone else.

“Business is indeed very tough now.

Since I took over this restaurant, the monthly rent is fifty thousand, utilities add up to a few thousand, then payroll, including the chef, logistics staff, waiters, is about one hundred thousand.

Each month, excluding my own salary, the minimal expenses are one hundred seventy thousand.

Over a year, that adds up to a baseline of almost two million.

But since I’ve taken over, the restaurant has been running at a loss for five consecutive years.

All the money I made from my previous business has been put into covering the expenses here.”

This was roughly what Ye Qiu knew.

Current payroll expenses are getting higher and higher.

As for those chefs, without a salary of four to five thousand, or even five to six thousand, nobody will do the job.

As for the wages of female waitstaff, they might be lower, around two to three thousand, but on average, it would still add up to three or four thousand a month.

Considering the current turnover here, it doesn’t even reach two hundred thousand a month, and this includes the cost of ingredients.

How could it not lead to a loss?

“So, what does Boss Li plan to do about it?”

Ye Qiu inquired.

“Given the situation here, I fear it won’t be easy to sublet.

I’m thinking of transitioning to the sauna and bathing service industry, but this sector is tightly regulated by the government.

Moreover, this place is a bit far from the city center, and the renovations will cost a considerable amount of money.

On top of that, I’d need to hire a new set of service staff, which is another headache.”

However, he was puzzled why he would share such problems with this young man he was meeting for the first time.

Was it perhaps because the other person is a doctor?

“So, you’re very conflicted,”

Ye Qiu said.

“Exactly.

It’s like I bought a junk stock—can’t get rid of it, and if I don’t, I fear it will waste more of my time and effort.”

“Actually, your problem isn’t the location; it’s that the dishes your chef makes are too bad, simply not good enough.

If you want to keep running the restaurant, I suggest you hire a new batch of truly skilled chefs.”

“I’ve thought about changing chefs for a while now, but those better chefs demand even higher wages, which I can’t afford anymore.”

The salaries for chefs in high-end restaurants are already quite high.

An average one might earn six to seven thousand, and better chefs make over ten thousand.

If he were to replace them all with better chefs, Li Fu felt he would need even more money each month.

The money which he simply couldn’t afford.

“Chefs are the soul of a restaurant; only when the food is delicious will customers come to eat.

If you can’t afford good chefs, you might as well not run a restaurant at all.”

Li Fu also understood this principle, but he lacked the capability now.

“Doctor Ye, I didn’t expect you to understand all of this.

You’re absolutely right.

But I no longer have the capacity, and the contract for subletting this restaurant is thirty years long.

I’ve only endured eight years, and with twenty-two years left, if I keep losing money this way, I’ll have to leave in debt much earlier.”

“Therefore, my method to cure your illness includes figuring out a way to sublet this restaurant, and then you can start taking the herbal formulas I’ll prescribe for your treatment.”

“Many people are aware of the situation here; how could it possibly be sublet?

If it were possible, I would have done so long ago!”

Li Fu had asked many business owners in Jinling, but no one was willing to take over.

So, Li Fu was conflicted, unsure whether to continue managing the restaurant or switch to a different industry.

However, he wasn’t familiar with other industries.

“If you’re looking to sublet, that’s not an issue!”

“Really?

How is that possible?”

“My father should be willing to take over!”

Li Fu had just heard that Ye Qiu was a doctor, and he didn’t expect Ye Qiu to quickly mention his father being willing to take over the place.