To run a private business, it’s not as simple as just setting up a storefront—you also need to apply for something called an “individual business license.” Although the state claims to support the development of private businesses, it still exercises caution in issuing these licenses, fearing that letting them spring up everywhere could lead to unpredictable consequences. Samuel Lawson invited Ethan Franklin to work in the capital and asked if he had any concerns that needed to be addressed. The only request Ethan Franklin made was for Samuel Lawson to help him obtain an individual business license, so that his younger brother Lucas Franklin could open a business legally.

For someone without connections, getting a license is certainly a difficult task, but for Samuel Lawson, it was just a matter of saying a word. Ethan Franklin persuaded his family with both sound reasoning and practical arguments, then took Liam Franklin and Lucas Franklin, along with the approval slip Samuel Lawson had obtained from the provincial economic commission, to the all-powerful “relevant department” and received the individual business license. With that, the process of opening the shop was officially underway.

According to Ethan Franklin’s plan, Lucas Franklin would start out in the food and beverage industry, opening a small restaurant as the foundation. As for how things would develop in the future, Ethan Franklin didn’t tell his parents, but he did hint at a few things to his younger brother, which got Lucas Franklin so fired up that he couldn’t wait to get started.

Back then, there were still very few private restaurants, while state-run restaurants had a notorious reputation for being “hard to get into, unfriendly service, and terrible food,” making people avoid them. Opening a private restaurant, as long as the service was decent and the food was passable, was basically a guaranteed money-maker.

Both Liam Franklin and Susan Harris had some practical knowledge of life and knew that opening a restaurant was a good business. However, asking Lucas Franklin to give up the opportunity to take over a position at the Metallurgical Bureau and become a full-time private business owner was a bold suggestion that the couple did not approve. After a complicated and intense internal debate, they finally accepted a compromise: Lucas Franklin would still go to the Metallurgical Bureau as a temporary worker, and the restaurant would be opened under Susan Harris’s name, with Lucas Franklin managing it in his spare time to gain experience. If the policies remained stable in the future and the restaurant really made money, then they would consider Lucas Franklin quitting his job. As for the daily operations of the restaurant, someone else would need to be hired to manage it.

This plan was not exactly what Ethan Franklin had originally envisioned, but it wasn’t far off. In fact, Ethan Franklin had planned from the start to bring in a partner, because he knew that his younger brother Lucas Franklin neither knew how to cook nor had any management experience, and at such a young age, he wouldn’t be able to handle complex interpersonal relationships. His idea was for Lucas Franklin to serve as chairman and chief financial officer, while hiring someone else as a professional manager—the person he had in mind was Hannah Brooks.

Back at the educated youth settlement, Ethan Franklin already knew that Hannah Brooks was skilled in cooking and, having gained life experience as an educated youth, was more than capable of handling such a task. Even more valuable was that Hannah Brooks was kind-hearted and upright—a “Chinese partner” that would be hard to find even with a lantern.

Liam Franklin and his wife were not unfamiliar with the name Hannah Brooks; they knew she had once taken care of Ethan Franklin and could be considered his benefactor. From what Ethan Franklin had told them in the past, the couple also had a good impression of this young woman. Ethan Franklin accepted his parents’ plan for Lucas Franklin to take the temporary job at the Metallurgical Bureau while also managing the small restaurant, and suggested inviting Hannah Brooks to handle the restaurant’s daily operations, which led to the The Franklin Family brothers’ visit this time.

Hearing what Ethan Franklin said, Hannah Brooks was momentarily surprised and a bit excited. In fact, having already lost hope in being assigned a job by her work unit, she had once thought about opening a restaurant to support herself. But she had neither the ability to obtain a license nor the means to raise startup funds, so the idea had died before it could even begin. Now, hearing that her close younger “brother” was actually going to open a restaurant and wanted her help, she didn’t even know what to say.

Chapter 11 Partner

“What? You’re going to work in the capital?”

“The individual business license was arranged by a leader from above?”

“Opening a restaurant costs quite a bit—can your family afford it?”

“What, you’re giving me a 20% stake, no, no, I don’t want it, I really don’t want it…”

Hannah Brooks felt as if she were sitting on a bamboo raft in the countryside during her time as an educated youth, her whole body rising and falling with the river, her mind dizzy, overwhelmed by the flood of information.

To open a restaurant, you certainly can’t go in empty-handed. Renting a place, buying tables, chairs, kitchenware, and all the daily necessities—all of it costs money. Ethan Franklin didn’t want Lucas Franklin to open a shabby roadside stall; he hoped for a decent business space, a simply decorated dining area, and tableware that looked somewhat upscale. Roughly calculated, this would cost about seven or eight hundred yuan, which to Hannah Brooks was simply an astronomical figure.

But the The Franklin Family could actually come up with this money, and this had to do with William Franklin. Before the political campaigns, William Franklin was a senior engineer at the Metallurgical Bureau, earning over 200 yuan a month. During the campaigns, he was labeled a reactionary authority and his salary was cut in half, but even then, he was still considered high-income for that era. This was quite an interesting phenomenon: many toppled officials and experts were still quite well-off financially, and some even continued to enjoy their original political privileges, such as access to internal documents appropriate to their rank.