Chapter 202: Selling Noodles? You’d Be Better Off Feeding Pigs
Chapter 202: Chapter 202: Selling Noodles? You’d Be Better Off Feeding Pigs
Shen Lu was startled when she came out to find the waiting area packed to the brim.
She quickly tried to disperse the crowd. ’If everyone is crammed in here, how are the customers who’ve finished eating supposed to leave?’
After a few unpleasant exchanges, they finally managed to clear a path.
Even more fans, their eyes gleaming with anticipation, waited to see the poster in her hands.
Shen Lu didn’t unroll it. She handed it directly to the girl who had won, telling her to take it and leave quickly, and not to have so many people crowding the waiting area.
The girl, surrounded by an eager crowd, left the restaurant and carefully unrolled the poster on the street outside.
It depicted the scene where Li Zexing, as Dog Hero, wore the Biting Inhibitor for the first time. The naive Dog Hero didn’t yet know the inhibitor would be used to restrain him; he thought it was a reward from the Doctor, and his face was lit with a joyful smile.
"It’s this poster!" The girl who won was ecstatic. "This is the exact one I was missing!"
"I love this poster so much! Brother Xing’s expression is so innocent and pure. I’m obsessed!"
"Can I buy it off you? Please, girl, I just need this one to complete my collection!"
"Don’t listen to her, she’s lying! Sell it to me! I’m the one who’s *really* just missing this one to complete the set!"
The girl who won rolled the poster back up. "No way. I would never give away a Brother Xing poster. If you want one, go enter the lottery yourself."
With that, she pushed her way out of the crowd and left without a backward glance.
The fans left behind all turned their gazes toward Little Deer Cuisine in unison. The previously boisterous crowd fell silent.
More than half of them had punch cards, but not everyone came every day to get a punch. After all, you needed ten punches to enter the lottery once, and with so many prizes, there was no guarantee you’d get Li Zexing’s merch.
But today, the very first person to enter the lottery had won a Li Zexing poster on their first try. This created the illusion that his merchandise was easy to get.
Someone broke the eerie silence, taking the lead and rushing into the restaurant.
"Boss, I need to eat!"
The girl was frantic. She had already gotten three punches sporadically. To get to ten on her own, she would need to make a purchase at Little Deer Cuisine another seven times.
If she couldn’t buy someone else’s punch card, she’d have to wait seven days for her one chance at the lottery.
’Heaven knows if someone else will be as lucky as that girl today and win some of Li Zexing’s merch, too.’
’If someone else really does win, that means my own chances will get even smaller.’
’No, that can’t happen.’
The thought of missing out on Brother Xing’s merch made her chest tighten.
The others quickly caught on and swarmed into the restaurant like a plague of locusts, their overlapping shouts demanding food.
This mob of fans was giving Shen Lu a massive headache. She had to resort to using a megaphone to control the crowd, finally getting them in line with a mixture of coaxing and threats.
Those with money to spare naturally ordered set meals, but some who were on a tight budget only ordered a cup of the cheapest mint water.
Shen Lu didn’t care how much the customers spent. As long as she could complete her daily mission and get some more recognition and positive reviews, that was all that mattered. So, she treated everyone with the same level of service.
[DING! Detected sales: Braised Pork Set Meal 500/500, Kung Pao Chicken Set Meal 400/400, Steamed Fish Head with Chopped Chili Set Meal 30/30. Total revenue has reached 99,000 Star Coins, and customer satisfaction is three stars or higher. Mission complete. Reward: one Lottery Ticket.]
Amid the chaos, Shen Lu hadn’t even noticed she’d already completed her daily mission. The Lottery Ticket landed securely in her possession.
All the food was sold out, but many customers still hadn’t gotten a chance to eat.
The main issue was the sudden, uncontrollable surge of fans. The news that you could actually win Li Zexing’s merchandise at her restaurant—spread by word-of-mouth from the fans who had witnessed it firsthand—was blowing up in the Lower City District.
Nearly every fan who lived nearby and could join the frenzy had shown up, resulting in a situation where many customers were left without any food.
The problem was, Shen Lu couldn’t just kick them out. And she knew without a doubt that even more people would show up tomorrow.
Shen Lu sighed. ’This is so stressful.’
’Having business be *this* good is a sweet-but-heavy burden.’
In the evening, the Wang sisters and Fang Ming arrived together to deliver scrap metal. It was obvious the three kids had collected significantly more materials than usual.
Shen Lu didn’t know the backstory between the Fang family and the Wang Family, so she didn’t find it strange at all to see the three of them together.
After accepting the scrap metal they brought, she paid them. The Wang sisters still asked for steamed buns, but Fang Ming requested Star Coins.
Once they were paid, Wang Daguo led the three children home. Shen Lu watched the sunset for a moment, then turned to head back into her restaurant when someone called out to her.
"Shen Lu, you stop right there!"
The voice was strangely familiar. She turned and saw it was Boss Cao, whom she hadn’t seen in a long time.
Boss Cao looked haggard. He had lost a lot of weight and no longer had his formerly plump, prosperous look.
"Well, if it isn’t Boss Cao." Shen Lu stopped at her doorway. "Do you need something?"
"How can you be so vicious?! Are you only happy when you’ve driven everyone else out of business?" Boss Cao seemed to be on the verge of a breakdown, and Shen Lu was completely baffled by his words.
’Vicious? Me? Again?’
’I swear, if Boss Cao hadn’t shown up, I would have completely forgotten he even existed.’
"Boss Cao, don’t just throw baseless accusations at me. If you’re going to say something, you need proof."
"You dare deny it?!" Boss Cao looked as if she’d struck a raw nerve. "You lowered your set meal price to 90 Star Coins, stole every last one of my customers, and you have the nerve to say it wasn’t on purpose?!"
Before she lowered the price, the customers who ate noodles at his stall had figured it wasn’t worth it to split one of her set meals with someone else. On top of that, Boss Cao had added stir-fried bean sprouts as a new side dish, which had helped him barely maintain his business.
But ever since Shen Lu dropped her set meal price to 90 Star Coins, everything changed.
Boss Cao’s customers vanished completely. Not a single person was willing to stay for his noodles. Their logic was simple: 45 Star Coins might only buy half of a set meal, but if you added a couple of Insect Cakes, it was basically a full meal. You even got to eat meat—a much better deal than his plain noodles.
In just two or three days, Boss Cao’s business had completely dried up.
He refused to believe Shen Lu had lowered her prices because of ingredient costs. He was convinced she just wanted to destroy him, deliberately cutting her prices to steal his customers!
Shen Lu was utterly exasperated.
’Does this Boss Cao think too highly of himself? I’ve never once considered him a rival from the very beginning, let alone gone out of my way to target him.’
There was no one else at the entrance, so Shen Lu didn’t mince her words. "Don’t blame others just because things aren’t going your way. Maybe you should take a good look at yourself and ask if you’ve made any real effort over the years, or if your cooking has improved at all."
"In the food business, the most important thing is that your food has to be delicious. Boss Cao, do you know why I’ve never seen you as a competitor?"
"With skills like yours? I could grab a random customer from my restaurant, and they could out-cook you."
"Honestly, you should stop running a stall and selling noodles. Go feed pigs instead. Maybe that’s your true calling."