Grandmother Left Half the Onsen Inn to the Chef novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Second Offer

On the second of January the hotel group's man came back in a grey coat, with a leather folder and two assistants.

He asked for both owners, and Genji brought them to the lobby, where eleven staff had somehow found reasons to be standing nearby.

Sakura took the chair behind the front desk.

Yuzu perched on the edge of it, with her arms folded and a tea towel over her shoulder.

"Two hundred million yen," the man said, and slid a sheet across the counter. "For the building, the land and the name. The staff keep their posts for three years, with raises. I came in person because I wanted you to see the figure."

Sakura read the number twice.

It was more than she had ever imagined holding.

"It's a generous offer," she said.

"It is the best you will ever receive."

"Yes."

"The season has seven weeks left. You can sign tonight and walk away rich at twenty-eight and twenty-four."

Sakura looked at Yuzu.

Yuzu did not look back at her.

She picked up the sheet, and read the number out loud so that all eleven staff could hear it.

"Two hundred million yen."

The lobby went silent.

The head maid put her hand over her mouth.

"That's the kind of money that opens a restaurant in Kyoto," Yuzu said. "My grandmother wanted one, once. It's all she ever wanted."

She folded the sheet in half, then in quarters, and handed it back.

"No."

The man blinked.

"I beg your pardon?"

"No, thank you. We do two seatings of trout every night with sauce my grandmother and her best friend wrote together. There is a chair in the office that belongs to the okami. There is an old man in the corner who has not slept properly since September." Yuzu smiled, small and sharp. "This isn't for sale. Not for two hundred, not for two billion. Please give your card to someone who needs it."

Behind her, somebody began to clap.

It was the old head cook, and then Genji, and then the whole line of staff, applauding in the quiet lobby.

The man picked up his folder.

"You are making a mistake."

"Probably," Sakura said, with her chin up. "We will make it together."

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