Chapter 33: Opening a Branch?

When Ye Feng came back that night, he was shocked when he found out about this.

“How did Prosperous Flavor provoke these people?”

He had a deep impression of the Buried Love Family. To put it simply, they were a group of non-mainstream people who hated everything.

In Xuanhuan[1] novels, they were an existence that would go against the heavens whenever the heavens wanted to kill them.

In particular, since they were all middle school and high school students, their minds were not mature yet. This group of people did not even respect the law, so what else could they possibly fear?

Ye Feng didn’t think that Prosperous Flavor would really use inferior ingredients. After all, only a fool would kill a chicken to get its eggs.

“Who knows?” Qi Yun suppressed his laughter. “Do you know how this matter ended?”

“How did it end?”

Ye Feng’s interest was piqued.

“Later on, the police came — and the blonde lying on the ground really spurted diarrhea all over on the spot!”

When he thought of that scene, Ye Feng was stunned.

“In the end, Prosperous Flavor had no choice but to accept it and pay them their compensation.”

Ye Feng knew that there was nothing they could’ve done about it. This was like having mashed potatoes stuck on one’s hands. It was simply terrible. More importantly, that person had actually spurted diarrhea all over!

“This is the funniest part. The compensation for those non-mainstream teenagers was — for Prosperous Flavor to get them a Hedilao membership card worth 500 yuan!”

“Huh?”

Ye Feng’s jaw dropped.

“Don’t you think it’s funny?!”

With that, Qi Yun burst into laughter.

Ye Feng thought about that scene…

He saw a Prosperous Flavor employee, filled with humiliation, walking towards Hedilao while biting his lips. Then, he would offer up all the money he had on him to Hedilao.

It was just like a classic NTR[2] scene.

“I know it’s unkind, but…”

“Hahahaha…”

Ye Feng laughed without restraint.

However, even though he was laughing, Ye Feng still reminded him, “When those non-mainstream teenagers come to eat, don’t provoke them. Don’t give them the chance to cause trouble.”

If these people came to cause trouble, Ye Feng thought for a moment. Besides calling the police, there was really no other way.

“I know, boss.”

Qi Yun nodded seriously.

…

At 10pm, Tianda Plaza was closed for the day. Hedilao’s results for the day were out as well.

There were a total of 120 tables and a private room in the restaurant. Each table had an average turnover rate of six times, and there were more than 2,000 customers.

It could be said that there were no empty seats.

He estimated that the revenue today would not be lower than 250,000 yuan!

Furthermore, the number of members had also reached an astonishing 500. In the afternoon, there was a sharp increase of 230 members!

Their results over two days had exceeded that of Prosperous Flavor’s over three days!

Furthermore, these were all real numbers. Meanwhile, Prosperous Flavor’s results included many fake numbers. After all, according to Li Xin’s reward policy, the Prosperous Flavor employees would be rewarded if the number of members exceeded 500.

“With these results, when Zhao Zhen returns, it will definitely give him a surprise!”

That night, Ye Feng tossed around in bed and was unable to fall asleep.

…

At Bluebird Cafe…

Even though Ye Feng said that he would be a stupid person if he came back here, he still invited Zhao Zhen here out of convenience.

As soon as they met, before Ye Feng could speak, Zhao Zhen reported a piece of bad news.

“You didn’t come to an agreement?”

Ye Feng asked as he looked at Zhao Zhen’s expression.

“That’s right!” Zhao Zhen picked up his cup of coffee and downed it in one gulp. “They think that our demands are too small and are unwilling to give us a separate supply chain.”

“I see…”

Ye Feng tapped his coffee cup as he pondered.

The hotpot factory in Tai City was the largest and most trustworthy one around Quan City. Thus, this was Ye Feng’s first choice.

However, they had refused.

It was because there was too little demand…

This was easy to resolve. After all, Hedilao was about to expand. When that time came, the demand would increase exponentially.

However…

No matter how reputable a factory was, it was still someone else’s factory.

“What if we build a factory ourselves?”

Ye Feng said with a smile.

“What?”

Zhao Zhen was stunned and quickly said, “It’s too wasteful to open a factory with our current demand. Furthermore, it’s very difficult for us to receive orders from other parties.”

For a hotpot restaurant to hand over their recipe to another restaurant… Even a pedantic scholar would call this person a saint.

Ye Feng didn’t directly answer his question. Instead, he gave him a set of data.

He gave him two numbers: 336,000 and 523.

Facing Zhao Zhen’s puzzled gaze, Ye Feng explained, “Over the two days you were away, the total sales volume of Hedilao has reached 336,000 yuan. Meanwhile, the number of members has reached 523.”

He was stunned!

Zhao Zhen was completely stunned!

“This, this, this…”

He hurriedly stood up and asked in disbelief, “Are the results actually so ridiculous?!”

The sales from this shop was even higher than that of two Prosperous Flavor outlets combined!

“I was confused at first too.” Ye Feng stirred his coffee slowly with a calm expression.

Did Zhao Zhen think that Ye Feng was very boastful?

That was right, he was showing off!

“It was not until later that I learned that we were on the headlines of Quan Food World, and that we were extremely popular among several epicure groups in Quan City.”

“Quan Food World?”

Zhao Zhen was even more shocked.

Perhaps Ye Feng not know about this, but Zhao Zhen knew very well that as the best-selling and top-notch food magazine in Quan City, the influence of Quan Food World was immense.

In the past, Prosperous Flavor had once offered a high price of 1 million yuan for a feature, but they were rejected by Quan Food City.

In the words of the person-in-charge, their Editor-in-Chief didn’t lack money. In fact, he only reported real delicacies.

“This opportunity is really…”

Zhao Zhen didn’t know what to say.

It was understandable that they had been noticed by the epicures. However, they were ridiculously lucky to be able to be noticed by Quan Food World in a short span of two days.

“It’s also because we are strong enough.”

Ye Feng said.

If it wasn’t for the taste and service of Hedilao, how would they be noticed by Quan Food World?

“We must thank the people who reported us.”

Zhao Zhen immediately said.

If he could make use of this opportunity to build a relationship with Quan Food World and appear in a few more issues in the future, this would bring endless benefits to Hedilao.

“Yes, I’ve already asked someone to find out.”

Ye Feng was not foolish. He had already made arrangements.

“With these results, we can definitely start opening other branches,” Zhao Zhen said. “However, even if we open branches, it would be too wasteful for us to build our own factory.”

Actually, there was something else that he didn’t say. If they built their own factory… All kinds of investments and land would cost several million yuan.

“What if we’re opening not just one branch?”

Ye Feng spoke in a light voice.

Right now, the reputation of Hedilao was still growing. If they continued to hype it up, it would not be difficult for them to gain some fame in Quan City.

This way, he would have the qualifications to open more branches.

Previously, it was his first time starting a business, so he had to be careful. After all, this 50 million might be his only chance to change his fate.

If he bet all of his capital on his business in one go, he would be a gambler.

Even though Ye Feng was not a gambler, he never lacked courage.

When it was time to strike, he would never show mercy!

What he wanted to do was to completely open up all the Hedilao branches before the other chain hotpot restaurants in Quan City could react!

Of course, he had to consider this carefully and choose the right time to do so. He also had to let the reputation of Hedilao grow in Quan City through word of mouth.

Even though he would lose if he hesitated, he would also lose his investments for nothing.

[1] a genre of fictional stories that mixes Chinese folklore with foreign elements

[2] a genre where the protagonist has their partner stolen by someone else