Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

March 15th, Thursday…

Pei Qian arrived at the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. After breakfast, he sipped his coffee as he thought about the other businesses.

"Hmm… I feel like I haven't heard from the Cold-Faced Lady for some time."

"I wonder how things have been recently."

Pei Qian's impression of the Cold-Faced Lady was still from a month ago. At that time, Tengda's various physical industries had begun to enter Beijing. Pei Qian had specially opened a Fish-Catching Take-Out shop diagonally opposite the Cold-Faced Lady's shop.

The shop should have officially opened for business judging from the time passed.

In fact, the Cold-Faced Lady had always been Pei Qian's main focus. However, he had spent most of his time and energy on the Bunny Tail Live-Stream after all. What's more, Beijing was too far away from Jingzhou. He could not visit it often. Thus, his information was lagging behind.

However, Pei Qian did not panic. It had only been a month. There was no news about the Cold-Faced Lady on the internet.

If Meng Chang was still the boss of the Cold-Faced Lady, he would have to be more vigilant. Meng Chang was too good at causing trouble after all. However, Meng Chang was no longer in charge now. The Cold-Faced Lady's original employees should have lost their fighting spirit and slacking every day, right?

However, to be safe, Pei Qian used his cell phone to search for 'Cold-Faced Lady'.

A video that had just been posted on Aili Island last night suddenly appeared.

The Stalls: Episode One!

The keyword of this video was 'Cold-Faced Lady'. Moreover, it seemed to be quite popular on Aili Island. That was why it was searched out.

This video was so refreshing and out of place among the many articles that used the media to ride on the popularity of the Cold-Faced Lady.

Pei Qian was stunned.

What the hell was this?

He quickly clicked on the video.

There was an old city wall at the beginning of the video. The green bricks under the city wall were covered in moss. A misty rain was pattering down. It was getting late.

The pedestrians on the road were in a hurry, but there were many small shops on the streets and alleys of the ancient city. Even the drizzle could not extinguish the vigorous smoke and fire.

Accompanying the video was a steady male voice.

"Smoke and fire. It's the soy milk and fried dough sticks from the corner shop. It's the roasted sweet potatoes on the stove, the lamb skewers from the barbecue shop, the roasted cold noodles from the stall…"

"Food all around, placing oneself above the common populace."

"China's food culture has been around for a long time. Many night markets are famous throughout the country. Night markets are a gathering place for delicacies and a good place to set up stalls."

"There would be a hubbub of voices every night. The streets, alleys and the city wells are the most beloved environment for many people. Many people can only relax their tense nerves when surrounded by smoke and fire. Forget a day of fatigue, and release their emotions to their heart's content…"

This video was not short. It lasted about thirty minutes.

The film was shot in Chang'an. It was basically one part every ten minutes. The first part was a simple introduction of local cuisine in Chang'an and the more famous local delicacies. The second part was focused on a certain street. It mainly introduced some small shops and vendors with good flavors, introduced their life experiences and sad journey. The third part was introducing their exclusive delicacies.

The entire film highlighted a kind of smoke and fire. The scenes were all taken at night, when the market was at its most popular. All sorts of customers came and went. During the filming of delicacies, the slow-motion scene vividly displayed the color and fragrance of delicacies.

In the beginning, the tone of the video was relaxed. The diners on the stalls laughed heartily, infecting the audience. However, in the second part, when the content talked about the life experiences of the shop owners and vendors, it carried a little sadness. Finally, when it was time to show the delicacies, the suppressed emotions from before were finally released. The audience's emotions were pushed to the peak.

At the end of the video, a logo of the Cold-Faced Lady appeared on the black screen. There was a line of small words at the bottom: "Cold-Faced Lady's Gourmet Laboratory, brings you to taste the original local flavor!"

…

Pei Qian took a look. This video was released yesterday. It was now very popular and had more than a million views!

The dense bullet screen comments in the video showed how popular it was.

"I'm so hungry I'm crying!"

"I'm just a local in Chang'an. I didn't know that there were such delicacies…"

"Some famous shops are actually not delicious, but some nameless stalls on the streets are very delicious!"

"The production team is very considerate. This film is very sincere."

"They all look delicious. I must try them when I have the chance!"

"I had always thought that these vendors would definitely make a lot of money since their business was so popular. Now, I know that most of them only set up their stalls because they were forced by life. It is not easy."

"It's quite touching. Such a down-to-earth film is especially moving!"

"I'm craving for it, but I'm not in Chang'an. I can't eat it!"

"This is a documentary produced by the Cold-Faced Lady? What's the situation with the Cold-Faced Lady? Have they switched from having a restaurant to filming documentaries?"

"I remember that the Cold-Faced Lady used to be on hot searches every three days. After a few months of silence, I thought that it had already turned cold. I didn't expect them to release another documentary!"

"The Cold-Faced Lady now gives people a much better impression. I don't know if it's my own feeling or not."

"What does the last line mean?"

"I've checked. It seems like the Cold-Faced Lady is building a food laboratory. They want to search for delicacies from all over the country, poach people, buy recipes, and turn these local delicacies into food for the Cold-Faced Lady."

"Really? That's great. When will these new products be released? I'll be in Beijing. I'll definitely try them when I have the time!"

The netizens' attitudes were very positive. Even their attitude towards the cold-faced lady improved greatly!

There had been news that Tengda Corporation had taken over the Cold-Faced Lady recently; there had been no news of the Cold-Faced Lady since the Street Food Contest. It had gradually faded out of the public eye.

The popularity of the internet came and went quickly. Most netizens had goldfish memories.

Many people's impression of the cold-faced lady was still on "Meng Chang", "hot searches", and "disgusting roasted cold noodles". When they saw this video, their eyes lit up!

Strictly speaking, it was difficult to determine if this video was a promotional video or a documentary.

On one hand, it was to promote delicious food and the Cold-Faced Lady's Gourmet Laboratory. On the other hand, it was filming all sorts of details using documentaries. It gave people a strong sense of authenticity.

Delicacy had always been a topic that could easily accumulate popularity on video websites. Many UP Masters who had millions of fans had started their lives with food-related content.

Thus, this well-rehearsed and sincere video immediately became extremely popular and attracted widespread discussion!

The various details displayed in the video made people feel that it was realistic. Naturally, they had a better impression of the brand 'Cold-Faced Lady', which had already been partially cleared.

The video was indeed popular, but Pei Qian felt light-headed.

When was this video filmed?!

The video was posted using Fei Huang Workspace's official account. Obviously, Huang Sibo and the others were the ones who filmed the video.

More importantly, what was the Cold-Faced Lady's Gourmet Laboratory?

Pei Qian immediately felt a sense of danger.

He had suffered with the Gourmet Laboratory before!

Pei Qian also asked Rui Yuchen to build a food laboratory and develop new dishes regularly in order to allow Fish-Catching Take-Out to burn more money.

He had thought that Fish-Catching Take-Out's taste would not improve much. However, he had not expected that the Gourmet Laboratory would come up with many special dishes, including fitness meals, "food and harmony", and so on. It had made an indelible contribution to Fish-Catching Take-Out's profits!

A person should not fall at the same place twice.

The Cold-Faced Lady's Gourmet Laboratory was obviously similar to Fish-Catching Take-Out's Gourmet Laboratory. What's more, it was even more dangerous!

That was because the Fish-Catching Take-Out's Gourmet Laboratory basically relied on one's own research and development. There was a high chance of failure in developing new dishes.

However, the Cold-Faced Lady's Gourmet Laboratory was more special. It sent teams to search for delicacies all over the country. Once they found it, they would take videos to promote it. Then, they would poach people or buy recipes and copy them directly!

This was definitely much more efficient than doing their own research!

Most people were very convinced from the reaction of the bullet screen comments on the video.

The reason why Cold-Faced Lady was criticized was mainly because the taste was not good.

There was no need for the Cold-Faced Lady to completely reproduce the taste of the nation's specialties. There would definitely be many people who would eat it as long as there was an 80% similarity!

On the surface, this promotional video was promoting local food and culture. In fact, it was advertising Cold-Faced Lady!

Pei Qian suddenly felt a strong sense of danger.

Fish-Catching Take-Out's failure was still fresh in his mind. What if the Cold-Faced Lady made the same mistake again?!

Pei Qian felt a lump of blood in his throat, ready to spew out at any moment at the thought that the Cold-Faced Lady would open shops all over the country like Fish-Catching Take-Out.

"Calm down, calm down.

"Think about how to solve this Gourmet Laboratory."

"It's definitely not appropriate to ban it directly. There's no suitable reason at all. Perhaps… I can think of another way to turn the huge profits into small profits?"

"It would be a good idea to earn less even if I can't keep incurring losses!"

Pei Qian was not too worried about a single shop.

It was just like the nameless restaurant. There were limited customers even though it was very popular.

The profits it would generate would be limited as long as he could not open a chain restaurant and expand and replicate it without limit.

Unfortunately, the Cold-Faced Lady was a fast-food model. It could expand and replicate without limit. Once the new food products of the Gourmet Laboratory were successful and the Cold-Faced Lady's shop started to generate profits, a new branch would definitely be opened. There was no doubt about this.

Could he find a reason to interfere with the current model of the Cold-Faced Lady?

Pei Qian thought hard for a long time before his eyes lit up.

"Aha!"

"Break up the Cold-Faced Lady!"

"As long as we open a new project, let it and the Cold-Faced Lady restrict each other and snatch each other's resources, wouldn't we be able to perfectly limit the development of the Cold-Faced Lady?"

"Set up a 'snack market' in Jingzhou and poach all the vendors that the Cold-Faced Lady had worked so hard to poach over here so that they can continue to set up stalls."

"Give them the best setting and treatment."

"As long as the treatment here is better, they will naturally not follow the Cold-Faced Lady and develop new dishes blindly!"

"At that time, even if this snack bazaar becomes popular, it would not open a chain. The number of customers it can accommodate would also be very limited. The money earned would be completely within my control!"