Yang Tao brought the business card to Mother Wen, his anger soaring through the roof.
Mother Wen also felt a strong urge to go and confront Sun Mengyun. If serving the same types of dishes wasn’t a big deal, then copying even the business card was undoubtedly an intentional attempt to mislead people!
By nightfall, Mother Wen fully witnessed the extent of Sun Mengyun’s local shamelessness.
Their shop was tucked inside. Although it was next to a crossroad, moving further in led to the back gate of a nearby residential community. Not many people usually came and went that way; most people approached from the other side.
Sun Mengyun took advantage of this gap, standing at the entrance with a beaming smile to pull in customers.
“New shop opening! Braised dishes for twelve, cold dishes for eight!”
Although doing this didn’t attract many people, it was still incredibly sickening to witness.
Yang Hong was a direct person. The moment she found Mother Wen, she said, “Aren’t you going to slap her?”
She had never seen anything like this!
If only the building Sun Mengyun occupied wasn’t her own; otherwise, if she were her tenant, she would rather pay a penalty to kick her out than let her rent it. What she was doing was simply beneath dignity.
Mother Wen spread her hands helplessly. “Who knew she was this kind of person?” She was walking down a dark path and refused to turn back.
Yang Hong had seen plenty of this and sneered. “This person is just playing the rogue.”
She recalled that when she was a child, there was a small steamed bun shop at her doorstep that tasted exceptionally good, and all the nearby residents loved it. Later, another shop opened right next to it, also under the banner of making small steamed buns. They sold their buns for fifty cents cheaper just to piggyback off the other shop’s reputation. The original family was furious, but they were helpless. The newcomers didn’t cause trouble or act jealous; they just shamelessly clung to the other’s fame.
They clung on like that for five or six years before that shop finally closed down, but they had already made enough money, leaving the old man from the first shop so angry he suffered a stroke.
Mother Wen asked, “Then what should we do? Should we change our sign?”
Wen Fan held a cup of Coconut Mango tea, taking a huge gulp through the straw.
Recently, she had finally discovered a new world. Cola had already dropped to second place in her heart; first place was now all kinds of milk tea. Wen Fan never imagined that modern people could play with tea in so many creative ways. These sweet little drinks had captured her taste buds instantly.
“And then when she follows us and changes hers again, we move again?” Wen Fan noted. Sun Mengyun was truly capable of doing such a thing.
“Then…” Wen Fan sucked the drink until it hit the bottom and tossed it into the trash can, still wanting more.
Father Wen said hesitantly, “Should we do some advertising?”
Yang Hong replied, “That’s probably all we can do. Find a few local ‘store review’ bloggers. At least we can promote our storefront so people can recognize the right door.”
Mother Wen never expected that this matter would become so sticky and troublesome. It was as if Sun Mengyun no longer cared about how much money she was making and was doing this entirely out of spite. If she just did the math, she would know that continuing like this would definitely earn her less than selling rice noodles.
“How do we find store review bloggers?”
Yang Tao raised his hand. “Let me do it! I follow several of our local ones!”
Yang Tao pulled out his phone and started scrolling. Local store review bloggers came in all sizes; the big ones were too expensive, but among the smaller ones, there was one Yang Tao particularly liked.
It was a young man known for having a massive appetite. Initially, he did “big eater” mukbangs, but when the platform started restricting traffic for those, he transitioned into local store reviews. However, this person ate so much and so fast that it was easy to get the impression that the food was exceptionally delicious; it looked very appetizing.
Yang Tao pointed at a line of text under the person’s name: “The email address is right here!”
Mother Wen hesitated for a moment. “Maybe let’s wait a bit longer.”
Seeking promotion was a tactic used by many, but Mother Wen always felt it was stifling. Why should they? As the party being imitated, they had to spend money to find promotion? Spending this money felt miserable.
When the accounts were settled at night, business in the shop hadn’t decreased much. Although they had two fewer meal set orders, three new people had come in through word-of-mouth recommendations.
During dinner, a few customers also went to the wrong place, but they were quickly called back by their companions.
“Are you stupid? I told you it’s the one at the very end! It’s right next to this small grocery store. Look clearly at the sign!”
The person who had gone to the wrong place scratched his head. “The signs look too much alike. Besides, that boss just now was wicked; she didn’t say a word about us being in the wrong place.”
Sun Mengyun held the mindset of grabbing whoever she could, but most of the Wen family’s business came from regular customers’ referrals or the traffic Yang Tao generated by posting online. One by one, none of them were intercepted.
Mother Wen closed her ledger. “It’s alright; there’s basically no impact.”
Since there was no impact, she would let Sun Mengyun toss and turn for now to see what kind of results she could produce.
Yang Tao mentioned that Sun Mengyun was even imitating her by giving out drinks; to attract new customers, she had even given a bottle of mineral water with every lunch set. This made her costs even higher. It was unclear what she was aiming for.
What was she aiming for? Wu Daneng was asking the same thing.
Throughout the entire evening, the shop had only a few measly orders. And those were all from people who had come to the wrong place; they barely ate a couple of bites before putting it down and heading to the Wen family’s shop instead.
The large pot of braised food from noon was currently soaking in the pot, and even the lunch food had a lot left over because they hadn’t gauged the quantities correctly.
Sun Mengyun cursed him in a shrill voice for wasting things. Wu Daneng already felt aggrieved, and hearing this, his lips trembled with rage.
“I told you, I don’t know how to make meal sets!”
“Then learn! And the braised food—what on earth did you make? Even I don’t want to eat it; will others buy it?”
Sun Mengyun was also suppressing her anger. After the lunch sets were delivered, three people had messaged her privately, saying the food arrived but had a weird smell and demanding she refund them. Another dozen or so said nothing at all tonight, clearly indicating they wouldn’t be ordering tomorrow.
Facing those who wanted refunds, Sun Mengyun initially wanted to argue back, but she didn’t dare. Now that they had lost the rice noodle business, if they lost the meal set business too, how would they survive?
So, after clarifying the details and paying the refunds, she returned to the shop and scolded Wu Daneng.
“When you deliver the food, don’t you know to cover it with a cloth? The sun is so strong on the way there, and you use a transparent box to carry the food. Can it still be eaten after being stifled for half an hour?”
Wu Daneng let his wife berate him, but Sun Mengyun’s anxiety and fear clearly wouldn’t subside so easily. She had also realized that changing their product line wasn’t as easy as it seemed. The ten-yuan price point was too low; with low profits, they could only scrimp on costs bit by bit. As a result, after selling all day, there were still so many leftovers in the shop.
The braised food could barely be used for another day, but what about the rice and dishes?
Sun Mengyun cursed as she poured the things away, her heart bleeding at the waste.
“Fine, no need to cook tomorrow’s dishes either. Just use those braised items—chop them up and pair them with some greens.”
Sun Mengyun was bold; she had braised too much today, and the remaining chicken wings, drumsticks, and pig trotters were filling a whole pot.
“It’s their gain. Tomorrow’s meal will just be one yuan more.”
The cost of braised food was high; Sun Mengyun felt that adding one yuan was not excessive at all.
But when she posted this item in the group chat, there was dead silence. When Sun Mengyun counted that night, only about fifty people remained for ordering. Some had even left the group directly, making it clear they wouldn’t visit again.
Sun Mengyun then turned to cursing those people.
“Not even willing to spend one yuan—a bunch of paupers!”
“No wonder people say don’t try to earn money from paupers; they have little money but lots of trouble!”
“If you don’t want to eat, then forget it. I’m not even willing to serve you!”
But no matter what she said, Sun Mengyun couldn’t help but feel uneasy in her heart. If this didn’t work out… She shook her head; it was impossible for it not to work! This was just the beginning. As long as she persisted, and as long as the Wen family’s business got better, how could she fail to pick up some of their business?
The next day, Sun Mengyun started a delivery service.
Unlike Mother Wen, Sun Mengyun immediately bought a “New Shop Week” promotion. Imitating the Wen family’s style, she took a photo of her storefront as the shop image. Sun Mengyun used a little trick, cropping the sign so one character was missing. The “Wu” character only showed half, making it look almost identical to Mother Wen’s shop.
On the second day, Sun Mengyun also bought noodles, cooked two pots of rice, and started selling rice bowls and noodle bowls with toppings.
It must be said that she had found a strategy; the delivery aspect was actually the weakest part of the Wen family’s shop. Business had improved slightly recently, but it remained around twenty-some orders a day. On Sun Mengyun’s first day of delivery, she received over thirty orders during lunch.
Sun Mengyun shoved her phone in front of her husband’s eyes. “Look, look! What did I tell you!”
As long as there was a direction, there was no fear. Since she was already piggybacking, she would piggyback to the end!
She had looked at Mother Wen’s delivery shop; not only were there few orders, but the prices were expensive—a single meal cost over twenty yuan. Unlike her, with “10 yuan off for every 15 spent,” she didn’t believe anyone wouldn’t be tempted by this price!
Sun Mengyun’s delivery business did indeed do well for a few days.
During these days, Mother Wen received more and more complaints. Regular customers kept saying that when they searched for her shop online, two results came up.
“I saw the two sign photos were similar, so I just clicked one at random. Who knew I clicked the wrong one!”
“When I called them, they even cursed at me.”
Mother Wen said with a hint of apology, “I am truly sorry.”
the regular customer waved it off. “This isn’t your fault. It’s that shop that isn’t acting human. I gave them a bad review.”
Not only did they leave a bad review, but they also posted a comparison photo of the two signs below, clearly written to guide future customers. The customer pulled out their phone to show Mother Wen, but after scrolling up and down for a long time, they couldn’t find their bad review.
“Huh? I clearly sent it out yesterday!”
Mother Wen: “…It was probably deleted.” You could pay money to delete bad reviews.
The customer slammed the table in anger. “Too wicked, too wicked. Isn’t this just bullying people?”
“Why hasn’t anyone come to expose them! It’s truly infuriating,” the customer cried out in frustration.
On the other side of the city, a young man in his twenties woke up groggily from his bed.
After a simple wash, he habitually clicked on the livestreaming setup on his desk.
“Good afternoon, everyone. Today it’s time for our delivery store review segment. Next, everyone follow me and let’s see what delivery we’re ordering today.”
The young man’s livestreaming screen displayed the name “Da Tuanzi Reviews,” and below it was the follower count: over 1.3 million.
As the largest local store review streamer, Da Tuanzi’s method was quite unusual. His main method was to order a delivery, and after finishing it, he would go out to find the actual shop.
This started by pure accident. Previously, Da Tuanzi was just an ordinary person who occasionally posted a video. The content was about him ordering delivery at his company, and on his way home, he had a sudden whim to see what the shop he frequently ordered from looked like.
As a result, when he arrived at the shop, Da Tuanzi had a breakdown. His favorite delivery shop, which he would order from three times a day, was actually located in a tiny alley. Not only that, the dark environment, the ingredients placed casually on the sewage-soaked ground, and the boss smoking while clattering away at the stir-fry were deeply branded into Da Tuanzi’s heart.
That video surpassed a million likes, and the comments were full of memes.
[Hahaha, his soul must have collapsed. He’ll have to go home and vomit for three days.]
[So funny. That’s why people say don’t look at the kitchen; after seeing the kitchen, you’ll lose your appetite.]
[Don’t laugh, those above. Do you think what you eat isn’t like that? Everyone is the same!]
[A paradise for flies, a hometown for rats.]
[Stop talking, I’m about to throw up. I feel for the vlogger.]
…
Da Tuanzi later tentatively started a few livestreams and found that the traffic was strangely good. Of course, this was also thanks to the fact that he had studied broadcasting and hosting in college; his image and speech were both up to standard.
So, Da Tuanzi tried filming a few more times, and each time he got hundreds of thousands of likes. Gradually, Da Tuanzi resigned from his job and specialized in store reviews.
The shops Da Tuanzi ordered from were divided into two types: genuine reviews and collaborations. However, even for collaborations, Da Tuanzi would strictly inspect them. For the genuine reviews, Da Tuanzi would find them in the fans’ comments.
Today, someone was frantically recommending in the livestream chat.
[Streamer, streamer, you should review Wen Ji Restaurant! The one opposite Qunying Middle School!]
[Streamer, streamer, look at me! Their rice bowl is the number one I’ve ever eaten! But I’ve never been to the shop, I really want to see what it looks like!]
Da Tuanzi let out a “Hahaha” laugh. “Alright then, today we’ll review this one.”
He searched on the delivery platform, and two search results appeared. Da Tuanzi’s phone was placed under the livestream camera, so many people were watching him click and making comments.
[This is a new shop.]
[Exactly. Could it be the boss intentionally using our Da Tuanzi for advertising?]
[Didn’t Da Tuanzi say before that he wouldn’t review new shops? Did you all forget that time?]
Da Tuanzi’s hand paused. Previously, there was a new shop owner who came to him for collaboration, and he rejected it. Later, the owner didn’t give up and pretended to be a passerby in the livestream chat. As a result, when Da Tuanzi went there, the other party acted very familiar, giving out free dishes and proactively introducing things, making many people think he had taken money.
From then on, Da Tuanzi stopped accepting review invitations from new shops.
But…
Da Tuanzi looked at these two search results; one photo was more unpretentious than the other, not looking at all like they had the money to seek promotion.
“This shop’s sales seem okay. Let’s order once and see.”
Da Tuanzi clicked on the one at the top. Someone in the livestream chat was sharp-eyed.
[You clicked the wrong one! It’s ‘Wen,’ not ‘Wu’!]
[Forget it, forget it, it’s all food anyway.]
[Aside from anything else, this shop is truly cheap.]
[Hahaha, did you guys forget that this guy previously spent two yuan on a meal and ended up with vomiting and diarrhea after eating?]
[It’s over, I feel like he’s going to crash today.]
[Crash +1]
[Crash +2]
[Am I the only one curious why these two are the same? I just went to search, and these two are on the same street.]
[Now it’s getting interesting. Streamer, streamer, order from both and take a look!]
[Yeah! Order both. It’ll be more interesting when you go to the shops later!]
Da Tuanzi’s heart stirred; this was indeed a very good gimmick.
So he opened his phone and ordered another meal.
“Alright, now we just wait for the food to arrive.”