Li Zhiyue was pondering how exactly to open a theater.

Buying an existing shop was unrealistic because all the current shops were too small and cramped, leaving no room to fully expand.

So the only option was to build one herself.

In the capital city, there was basically no available land left; it was all snapped up by wealthy families. That left only the outskirts of the city.

Early in the morning, Li Zhiyue planned to personally go to the suburbs to look at land.

After she finished her breakfast, Mo Yu came in and said, “Miss, Shopkeeper Chen is here to see you.”

Li Zhiyue felt something was wrong.

She usually went to the shop to check around in the mornings. If there was something, Shopkeeper Chen could wait until she arrived—there was no need to come so early to the Hou residence.

It seemed Shopkeeper Chen was facing some problem he couldn’t solve.

She immediately had someone bring Manager Chen in.

“Miss, it’s bad!” Shopkeeper Chen was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. “Early this morning, I arranged people to go fetch the goat milk, but the milk merchants said the goat milk has all been bought by the Jiang Teahouse! All the milk from other merchants was also completely bought up by Jiang’s!”

Li Zhiyue narrowed her eyes.

Previously, the Hou residence had spent a large sum to establish a preliminary cooperation with the milk merchants.

Every day before dawn, people would be sent to fetch the milk, paying upon delivery, and everything went smoothly.

Now Jiang’s could intercept the supply, which meant Jiang’s was offering a higher price.

And Jiang’s teahouse clearly could not sell that much milk tea in a day—it was deliberately monopolizing the milk source to sabotage Li’s Tea Pavilion’s business.

If they monopolized the milk for three to five days, the paying members would be unhappy and cause trouble, and Jiang’s would win.

One had to admit, Jiang’s crafty manager was quite skillful.

However, he greatly underestimated Li’s Tea Pavilion.

Li Zhiyue spoke: “Then this is the perfect chance to launch our new products these few days—Refreshing Limeng Water, Golden Taro Glutinous Rice Balls, Longan Pudding Dew, Oolong Jade Tea…”

She listed six fruit tea names in a row.

Shopkeeper Chen paused. “So, are we giving up on the milk tea business?”

Li Zhiyue smiled faintly.

If she tried to outbid Jiang’s for the milk, it would drag her into a vicious price war, raising costs and lowering profits—not worth it.

When raw materials were controlled by others, one could either produce the raw materials herself—which was hardly feasible due to the long timeline she couldn’t afford—or have the merchants voluntarily bring goat milk to her doorstep, which was more achievable.

..

Meanwhile, at Jiang’s Teahouse…

Manager Diao was sitting proudly, stroking his beard.

Last night, the Madam gave him a large sum of silver to monopolize all the goat milk in the capital city at any cost—and he succeeded.

From today onward, Li’s Tea Pavilion would no longer have any milk tea.

Those wanting milk tea could only come to Jiang’s. If the monopoly lasted three to five days, Li’s Pavilion would definitely have trouble.

Remember, the paying members were mostly from powerful and wealthy families in the capital, and if they united, it was enough to sink Li’s Tea Pavilion.

When Li’s fell, the milk tea business would naturally belong to Jiang’s.

Manager Diao calculated on his abacus. The cost of monopolizing goat milk for five days was about two thousand taels of silver.

Though that sounded like a lot, it was basically the cost of two thousand cups of milk tea. As long as he took over this business, making a profit wasn’t a worry.

After calculating, he looked around the shop.

Strange—usually after the third hour, customers gradually came in for tea, but now it was almost noon and only a few people were inside—and those were the old customers who liked tea.

Where were the milk tea lovers?

Could it be that Li’s Tea Pavilion bought goat milk from somewhere else?

“Manager, we miscalculated!” The waiter ran in sweating. “Li’s Tea Pavilion indeed stopped selling milk tea, but they started selling fruit tea!”

Manager Diao couldn’t believe it.

Fruit tea?

By definition, it was tea made from fruit.

Jiang’s had produced this kind of product before but it had no market.

Why was Li’s so popular?

He exhaled heavily and slowly said, “Let’s go see.”

Standing at Jiang’s door, he could see the bustling scene at Li’s Tea Pavilion.

The shop was full, many people queued outside, and there were even tents with ice to keep customers cool.

“Buy, buy one, I want to try!” The waiter hurried to place the order. After half an hour, he brought a cup of Limengzi Water.

Manager Diao took a sip, hardly able to believe it. The sour and bland Limengzi, despised by rich families, turned into a fruit drink with such a stunning taste?

So it wasn’t that people didn’t like fruit drinks—it was just no one could make one this good.

Manager Diao closed his eyes in despair.

Monopolizing goat milk was possible.

Monopolizing Limengzi fruit was probably difficult.

This fruit was rare in the capital and large-scale purchase had to be made from Yuzhou, which took five days round trip—by then it would be too late.

Moreover, he suspected that even if he monopolized all the fruits, Li’s Tea Pavilion could still research new products.

They couldn’t compete.

Simply couldn’t compete.

Manager Diao clearly realized this fact and closed his eyes.

Li’s Tea Pavilion’s fruit teas caused a craze, especially the Refreshing Limeng Water, which was more popular than bubble tea in the hot summer.

Li Zhiyue thought Jiang’s would monopolize goat milk for at least three days, but to her surprise, by the next night, the milk merchants came to her.

There were only three well-known milk merchants in the capital.

Every night, they collected fresh milk from goat farms and small vendors, then sold it at dawn to wealthy families.

Since Li Zhiyue started the milk tea business, other teahouses imitated her and the milk business suddenly boomed.

Before, some milk would remain unsold daily and go to waste, but now it sold out and earned piles of silver every day.

Yesterday Manager Diao came, offering 600 copper coins to buy out all their goat milk.

Merchants being profit-driven sold all the milk to him without hesitation.

But the next day, no one came to buy milk.

Li’s Tea Pavilion no longer wanted it, Jiang’s Teahouse also didn’t come, and most of the milk was wasted.

Goat milk was precious and even with various preservation methods, in summer it only lasted two or three days. Unsold milk meant huge losses!

Losing money for one day was already unbearable—several days would wipe out their capital.

Jiang’s Teahouse was no help.

Frantically, the merchants came to find Li’s Tea Pavilion’s person in charge and were brought to see Miss Li at the Hou residence.

“I can’t help you,” Li Zhiyue shrugged. “Our tea pavilion now mainly sells fruit drinks. Fruits cost less and bring more profit. Why should I risk the milk tea business? If one day I can’t get goat milk, this shop might have to close. Doesn’t that make sense?”