Manager Wang
The meeting
One month after the fifth imperial exam, the head of the family of the Chou Dynasty, Zhang Chou, sent a letter to Manager Wang, requesting his urgent presence at one of the family's Restaurant.
The Chou dynasty had a large chain of restaurants with at least one branch in every province. For many generations, the business flourished, but for the past two years, the business had seen a drastic decline.
To save the business, the head of the Chou families, Zhang Chou and his wife Min Chou, called on the help of the famous Manager Wang.
When manager Wang received the invitation, he was quite shocked; he knew of the Chou chain of restaurants and how they had been in business for generations, but he was quite perturbed about why they would need him when they had the resources to call any of the qualified imperial managers.
Non the less Wang Joshi honored the invitation to meet with Senior Chou.
The meeting took place in one of the chou restaurants in town.
When Zhang Chou saw Manager Wang at the entrance of the restaurant, he was quite shocked by how young he was. He welcomed him into his ailing establishment with a smile.
Wang Joshi took the seat right across from his host and took a quick glance around the establishment. Manager Wang noticed that apart from a hand full of persons, the restaurant was practically empty.
Zhang Chou quickly signaled the server, who quickly stepped forward and placed a tray of teacups filled with the best tea the restaurant had, and Zhang Chou offered Wang a cup of the fine tea. He was quite eager to see if the young man in front of him could help. Everyone in the family, both old and young, had done all they could to revive the business; they had even employed the services of the best imperial Managers but none had been successful, so as a matter of speaking, Manager Wang was their last option. Zhang Chou took his own cup of tea and the meeting begun.
Chou commented on how young Manager Wang was and also complimented him on his achievement. After that, he told him about the ailing establishment and officially asked Manager Wang to help use his talent to restore the chain of restaurants back to its glory. Chou said he could not afford to lose the legacy that was handed over to him by his forefathers.
Wang sat back and listened attentively to what his host had to say. Wang was quite skeptical about what he could do. He knew he had a reputation for reviving dying businesses, but he wasn't sure he could help the chou's. Probably after his talk with the family's head, he could recommend someone more competent than himself. This was his original thought, but after listening to Senior Chou, he realized that there was no way he could recommend anyone for senior Chou. He feared the challenge but Senior Chou changed his mind by offering him ten times what he had ever received in his entire life on jobs like this and this instantly had Wang accepting the offer, much to the delight of Senior Zhang Chou.