The Lamb Rice Noodles owner pointed around them and chuckled. "Back when I ran a restaurant inland, little places like this would pop up around me every year, then go out of business, then new ones would appear. Do you know why?"
Chen Yu took a sip of soup and shook his head.
"Lots of places went under back then, but lots also made money. There were even old shops that had been around for decades. Now they've all closed. The places left taste terrible, but they have connections and backing, so they can keep going. New shops find that they can work from dawn to dusk and still make no money. When they tally things up at the end of the year, not only have they earned nothing, they've lost a pile of money. Of course they don't want to keep at it. Young people can't see any hope of making money, so naturally they stop playing. How can a place with no young people possibly have a future?"
Wang Shanzhang listened intently and couldn't help asking, "Then how is Longevity Prefecture still managing to keep going?"
"Barely, because there's still a little hope. But if even that hope disappears, Longevity Prefecture will be finished too. All right, I shouldn't talk your ears off. Let me get you another bowl of soup. If you like it, come again."
Wang Shanzhang paid the bill and stared silently at the table for a long time.
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He dipped his finger in water and wrote the two characters for "hope" on the table, then sighed again.
Chen Yu nudged Wang Shanzhang twice with his elbow and looked at him. "Old Wang, what are you sighing about now?"
"I was thinking that the word 'hope' looks so light, yet the more you think