Chapter 278: The Real Change
Chapter 278: Chapter 278: The Real Change
Lu Ma’s eyes widened as she explained.
Xiao Lu was astonished.
"Huh? What shop is that in-demand? Did you buy them online?"
His first thought was to call it scarcity marketing.
But then he recalled the taste... ’Mmm, I guess they don’t need to use scarcity marketing. The product is good enough on its own.’
Beside them, Mr. Lu also chimed in cautiously.
"That’s right! Give our son the shop’s name so he can order two more boxes. No, wait, five more boxes!"
He had also fallen in love with the taste of the pastries.
Lu Ma rolled her eyes.
"As if you can just ’get’ them! You have no idea. Their livestream sells out every day. I nearly broke my finger tapping away just to snag these four boxes, and the two of you have already devoured almost all of them in a matter of minutes!"
"There’s still half left, still half left."
Xiao Lu explained awkwardly, but he didn’t forget his original question.
"So, where exactly did you buy these pastries?"
Lu Ma jutted her chin toward the living room behind her.
"See? Isn’t your dad always watching that variety show? The one called *Cub Observation Diary*! I bought them from their livestream!"
Mr. Lu’s face lit up with excitement.
"Are these the ones from Master Nan? Oh, my heavens!"
He looked grief-stricken, as if he had just committed a terrible sacrilege.
Xiao Lu was completely lost.
He’d heard of the show, of course. It was a huge hit lately, and his coworkers were always talking about it.
But he spent all his free time immersed in video games, so he had no time to keep up with variety shows or celebrities.
"Master Nan? Is it a cooking show?"
Before Lu Ma could answer, Mr. Lu chuckled and explained first.
"It’s a show about kids."
Xiao Lu: "Huh??"
He was utterly bewildered.
As angry as Lu Ma was, she couldn’t exactly rip her own husband and son to shreds, could she?
So, in the end, she could only order Xiao Lu to make up for his mistake by snagging ten more boxes of pastries.
Then, Lu Ma asked.
"So, were the pastries any good?"
Xiao Lu and Mr. Lu exchanged a look, then replied in perfect, unspoken unison.
"We don’t think ten boxes is enough. Let’s make it twenty."
Later, back in his room, Xiao Lu couldn’t stop thinking about the taste of those pastries.
Unfortunately, Lu Ma had already packed up all the remaining pastries. She said she was going to use them to bribe her friends on the square dancing team to help her become the team captain.
’Heh, women,’ Xiao Lu thought.
’...I wonder if their square dancing team accepts young, able-bodied male members?’
Thinking the whole situation was hilarious, Xiao Lu decided on a whim to post about it online.
He was a decent writer—his job was in copywriting, after all—so whipping up a post like this was second nature. He even managed to infuse it with his unique, witty sense of humor.
Xiao Lu had posted about his daily life on his account before, but sadly, no one ever paid attention.
He naturally assumed this post would be ignored just like all the others.
But then...
Likes: 999+. Comments: 999+.
His account blew up because of that one post!
The next day, Xiao Lu was stunned when he saw the result.
"What in the world happened?"
His phone was even starting to lag from all the notifications.
After a few minutes, he finally managed to open the app. Scrolling through the comments, he realized everyone was treating his post like a hilarious food review.
[I’m so jealous of the OP! You got to eat the Nan Zhi brand pastries so quickly!]
[Flexing! This is definitely a flex!]
[OP must be from Guisheng Province to have gotten the pastries so fast. My order is still nowhere in sight!]
[Ugh, damn these pre-orders! Why do they have to do pre-orders? Why can’t they just fly directly into my mouth?]
[Emmm... does no one suspect the OP is a paid shill?]
[We’re not blind. We can tell the difference between a bot and a real person!]
[Right? What’s the point of hiring shills? Besides, do you really think that rinky-dink little food factory has the money to throw at a marketing campaign?]
[Hahaha, I can’t tell if that’s an insult or a compliment!]
[Also from Guisheng! I got mine this afternoon too! They’re just like the OP said, super, super delicious! (Sorry, I’m not very eloquent...)]
[Who gets it? These mass-produced *suhuangdu* are actually tastier than the ones I’ve had at some time-honored traditional shops! So authentic!]
[If Nan Zhi makes it, it must be a masterpiece!]
...
It wasn’t just Xiao Lu’s accidental food review. As others gradually received their pre-ordered pastries from the factory, more and more people came forward to share their feedback, all of it glowing.
Perhaps, in the beginning, the pastries’ explosive popularity was due to the effect of the livestream.
But later on, it was their genuinely incredible taste that kept the momentum going.
Who would have ever thought that a completely unrelated show about kids could single-handedly reverse the fortunes of a small-town food factory on the brink of bankruptcy, breathing new life and vitality into it!
With the product selling out nationwide, the production lines ran day and night at full capacity, but they still couldn’t keep up with the explosion in orders.
Consequently, the factory manager and his team had no choice but to hire new staff and expand the production lines.
The new production lines churned out even more pastries, which were then shipped from the small town, through a vast logistics network, to every corner of the country.
Soon, other businesses spotted the opportunity. They traveled from far and wide to this tiny food factory in a remote town, just to discuss distribution deals and brand partnerships with the factory manager.
As the factory’s capital grew, it underwent expansion, production line upgrades, packaging redesigns, and the hiring of new employees...
The entire factory thrived and grew, completely avoiding the "flash in the pan" fate that many had predicted.
So when people later analyzed the food factory’s path to success—
First, they naturally acknowledged Nan Zhi’s pivotal role. It was her contribution that gave the factory a flagship product powerful enough to compete with national food corporations.
Second, they had to give credit to the factory’s leadership for staying true to their roots, for not losing their way or changing the flavor after their sudden rise to fame.
This persistence allowed the factory to go from being the largest in town, to the largest in the province, and eventually to one of the top-ranked food companies in the entire country.
The ripple effect from this one factory’s operations alone was enough to revitalize the economy of the remote little town, bringing in more tax revenue and creating countless jobs.
Locals who previously had no choice but to seek work in coastal cities no longer had to leave their homes. They could find good jobs right there, and their children no longer had to be left behind.
Even local farmers who didn’t work at the factory benefited. The huge demand for raw materials meant they could switch to growing more valuable crops, leading to greater profits.
...Everything was changing.
It reached a point where people later started comparing Chang Mu’s charity work to the changes brought about by Nan Zhi.
The comparison made the difference in impact immediately obvious.
What good were a few spots to study abroad?
Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.
What Nan Zhi had brought to this land was true hope.
...Of course, all of this would happen much later.
For now, Nan Zhi was simply facing the end of filming for the third installment.