Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

November 29th, Tuesday afternoon…

In Beijing, Cold-Faced Lady's first shop.

Li Shi and Xue Zhebin could already see the long line in front of the store from afar.

Xue Zhebin could not help but feel shocked. "There are so many people queuing? Just for roasted cold noodles? Moreover, it's a Tuesday."

Li Shi did not comment. "It might be because it's almost lunch time, or it might be because the marketing is very successful. The people nearby want to have something fresh to eat. Let's go."

Xue Zhebin said, "Should we call Meng Chang directly?"

Li Shi shook his head. "There's no need. We can only discover the details if we observe them in secret. The details determine success or failure."

Xue Zhebin nodded and stood at the end of the line with Li Shi, just like two ordinary passers-by.

Li Shi and Xue Zhebin had just finished their work at GOG Club. They rushed to the capital without stopping to check on the Cold-Faced Lady.

While many of Meng Chang's characteristics looked like liars, as Li Shi had said, there was a difference between genius projects and fraud projects. What's more, it was not impossible to invest in fraud projects.

No matter what, given the current momentum, the cold-faced lady was a project worth investing in and further investigation.

The queue was quite long. However, perhaps because the cold-faced lady was mainly fast food and the roasted cold noodles could be mass-produced quickly, so even though most customers came to eat cold noodles, the queue moved very quickly.

Xue Zhebin noticed that some customers would choose to take the food away. Some customers would choose to eat in the hall, and some delivery men were waiting to take the food.

All of these were no different from those popular fast food restaurants, proving that the Cold-Faced Lady was indeed as popular as the internet said.

After queuing for about ten minutes, the two finally ordered their food and sat down in the restaurant.

Coincidentally, both of them were a little hungry since they had not had their lunch yet. Thus, they ordered their signature dishes: Best Seller Roasted Cold Noodles, Fancy-Style Cold Noodles, Side Dishes, Traditional Cold Noodles, and Nutritious Porridge.

Fancy-Style Cold Noodles and Traditional Cold Noodles were the staples.

Fancy-Style Cold Noodles seemed to be a special method to stir-fry the cold noodles. The raw ingredients included eggs, tomatoes, ham, cucumbers, onions, and so on, cut into small cubes, then they used about six slices of cold noodles to cut into long strips that looked like wide noodles. They were finally fried in the pot.

That seemed to be a little like ordinary stir-fry noodles, but the difference was that the cold noodles were very flexible and tasted much better than ordinary stir-fry noodles.

The yellow ham, eggs, red tomatoes, and green cucumbers were mixed together. They were served on a dark green porcelain plate. It gave off a good feeling and was quite appetizing.

There was nothing much to say about traditional cold noodles. The noodles were served after going through cold water, ham, cucumber shreds, carrot shreds, lettuce strips, and special cold noodles sauce.

The traditional cold noodles here were not much different from traditional Chinese noodle restaurants. The quantity was the same, but there were much more ingredients.

As for the Best Seller Roasted Cold Noodles, they were the most standard type of cold noodles. After the cold noodles were fried with eggs, they would be wrapped in onions, coriander, sausage, and other side dishes. Then, they would be diced into small pieces with various dips.

However, it was different from those being placed into paper cups at roadside stalls. The grilled cold noodles were neatly arranged on a long porcelain plate like sushi. It looked much better.

The side dishes were common side dishes, and the Nutritious Porridge was not much different from the porridge found in common buns and porridge shops. It was split into two small bowls.

On the whole, the quantity was not small. The ingredients were good, and the main point was that they looked much better indeed after some packaging.

The price was not considered very expensive. All of these added up was enough for two people to fill their stomachs. It was a total of 65 yuan.

Compared to ordinary buns and congee shops, this was slightly more expensive. However, considering that this was a downtown area in Beijing and that Cold-Faced Lady was an internet celebrity product, this price was far from being unacceptable.

As for the environment of the entire restaurant and the service attitude of the waitresses, they were similar to all the chain fast food restaurants. Moreover, the waitresses were quite pleasing to the eye.

Li Shi and Xue Zhebin began to taste their food.

"Boss Li, what do you think?" Xue Zhebin asked after taking two bites.

Li Shi chewed the cold noodles carefully, not knowing what to say.

Both of them were regular customers of the nameless restaurant. They had eaten a lot of good food when they traveled around the country. Thus, even though they could not compare to professional food connoisseurs in terms of taste, they could still distinguish between good and bad.

However, both of them were caught in a dilemma because the current situation had touched on their blind spot.

How could they differentiate… if the roasted cold noodles was nice or not?

If the cold noodles here were compared to the cold noodles on the streets, they would definitely be more delicious. After all, there were obvious improvements in both the raw ingredients and the chef's cooking methods.

However, the problem was, how much 'more delicious' did it taste?

Would the diners be willing to bear the premium, and would they soon get tired of it?

No one could say for sure.

Li Shi tasted all the dishes and said, "Actually… it's better than I imagined. It's considered quite delicious among the internet celebrity brands."

"Speaking of which, cold noodles are not that bad to begin with. What's more, I would subconsciously compare it to the cold noodles sold by roadside stalls. Thus, I would subconsciously lower my expectations for the taste. That's why I think it's not bad…"

"As for the cold noodles and porridge, they're just average."

Xue Zhebin asked, "So… Should we invest in this project? At the moment, there doesn't seem to be any major problems."

Li Shi shook his head. "I'm not sure yet."

"Strictly speaking, what we're doing right now is demining. We have to look for flaws and problems that could cause the project to fail from the details. We can't invest if we find them, but that doesn't mean there are no other problems with the project."

"From the looks of the current situation, even though the Cold Faced Lady's project is burning money like crazy, the product is still passable. The taste is not outstanding, but it would not cause it to deduct a lot of points."

"It means that Meng Chang spent all his funds on marketing and did not do anything outrageous if this is the result."

"The marketing aspect is indeed considered successful. At least, many people already know about the Cold Faced Lady brand. It's hard to say if… these people can recognize this brand and become loyal customers though…"

Xue Zhebin scratched his head speechlessly. "How troublesome!"

"We've been eyeing this project for so long, but we still can't tell if we can invest."

Li Shi smiled slightly. "Young people get impatient easily. Investment requires patience."

"Real experienced investors know that investments should never be afraid of trouble. Otherwise, they would be making things difficult for themselves."

"Many investors might be meticulous and cautious in all the details, but they would still fail in the end and lose everything."

"As for those careless investors who lack patience and only want to invest money to get a quick return, they would basically lose everything."

Li Shi paused and continued. "Why do you think I like investing with Boss Pei?"

"That's because if you invest with Boss Pei, you would be able to make money no matter what project you invest in. The only difference is whether you earn more or less, earn earlier or later. Isn't it easier for me to copy the standard answers instead of painstakingly screening these investment projects?"

Xue Zhebin was full of admiration. "Boss Pei's reputation as an investment genius is really deserving."

"Sigh, Boss Li, do you think that Boss Pei would do the same field inspections and repeated confirmations as us when he invested in these projects? He still has so many businesses. Where would he find the time?"

Li Shi shook his head. "I'm not sure about that. Boss Pei appears and disappears unpredictably. Who knows what he's usually busy with?"

"As for investing, I think Boss Pei has a better way to save time, but ordinary people would not be able to learn it."

"Take what happened before…"

"Didn't you notice that Meng Chang has almost stopped trying to ride on Tengda's popularity recently? He has been much more restrained since that news conference."

Xue Zhebin recalled carefully. "I think so. Recently, Meng Chang has been doing a lot of marketing, delivering cold noodles in a sports car. However, he hasn't mentioned Tengda's investment anymore."

"Could it be that Boss Pei used Boss Ma to give Meng Chang a warning at the last news conference and it worked?"

Li Shi nodded. "That's right. That means that even if Boss Pei did not come personally, he would be able to find out the truth through some clues. All sorts of details could not escape his eyes."

"On the other hand, Boss Pei can use these details to understand the general situation and predict the direction of the entire project. I think this is his exclusive investment method."

"It's a pity that there's a mysterious meaning behind this investment. Ordinary people would never be able to learn it."

Xue Zhebin thought for a while and sighed. "Sigh, investing is too difficult. Indeed, it's better to copy the correct answers directly from Boss Pei."

Li Shi smiled. "It doesn't matter. As long as we follow the projects that Boss Pei invested in and slowly study them, we will definitely improve."

"Investment geniuses like Boss Pei, who are so young and have already planned everything out, are one in a million. You are still young. You can learn these things slowly. Don't think about flying before you learn how to crawl."

Li Shi stood up. "Let's go. The GPL competition is about to start. We'll go back and arrange for the new team members. GOG's competition is much more important than this project in Boss Pei's eyes."

"I've more or less understood this project. I'll observe it for a while more and take into account Boss Pei's attitude… I'll arrive at a final answer soon."