Chapter 120: Too Many Visitors

Chapter 120: Chapter 120: Too Many Visitors

The documentary finished playing around nine o’clock. On a normal day, most people would already be in bed by this time.

But tonight, everyone was too excited to sleep. They ended up moving a few square dining tables outside, sitting around to chat and shoot the breeze. The happy atmosphere didn’t disperse until after ten.

Xu Kang and Xu Le had also gone wild, having more fun than they had in a long time. When it was time to go home after ten, they didn’t want to sleep, clamoring to play some more.

Their mouths said they wanted to play, but their bodies were honest. The moment they hit their beds, they switched to sleep mode, even letting out soft snores.

The word "Excellent" that appeared at the end of the film kept replaying in Xu An’s mind, keeping a smile on his face.

’This is an official endorsement! I have to seize this opportunity.’

’Tomorrow, I’ll go to the print shop and order a banner to hang over the entrance. Hmm, the slogan should be—Rated as an Excellent Fast Food Restaurant by Hai City Local TV’s "Visiting Fast Food Restaurant" Documentary.’

The documentary just aired, so its influence was at its peak right now. This was the perfect time to ride the wave of popularity.

’When I replace the sign in the future, I can even engrave this phrase on it!’

’Next, I’ll find someone to edit out the clips about Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant from the "Visiting Fast Food Restaurant" documentary. I’ll hang a big-screen color TV by the entrance so that anyone passing by can see it!’

’I’ll add this promotional content to the flyers, my QQ Space, and the online ordering page—all of it. I’ll let everyone know that Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant is officially certified, not just some unknown little shop!’

As he kept planning, Xu An slowly drifted off to sleep.

「A good night’s sleep.」

At 5:20 in the morning, Xu An yawned as he got up to wash his face. There were faint dark circles under his eyes, though they weren’t very noticeable against his darker complexion.

At 5:25, he rode his electric tricycle to the Qianhai Town wholesale market. In the past, some people would greet Xu An when he entered the market, but not many.

But today, as he walked into the market, it seemed like every single person was saying hello. Even the dog lying by the roadside was roused to give its tail a couple of wags.

This sudden warmth left Xu An a little flustered.

’The power of Hai City’s local TV station is really something else in Hai City!’

Before he even reached Bald Chen’s stall, he saw it was surrounded by a dense crowd, three layers deep.

Xu An waited for three or five minutes but couldn’t find a gap to squeeze through. He had no choice but to clear his throat and shout Bald Chen’s name.

Hearing his voice, Bald Chen finally looked up. When he saw it was Xu An, he quickly darted out of the crowd.

"Over here, over here! After that documentary aired last night, my phone hasn’t stopped ringing. It’s all people wanting to order ingredients from me. I don’t even have enough in my warehouse to go around." As he spoke, Bald Chen patted Xu An’s shoulder. "But Younger Brother Xu, I already set your share aside. I guess I’m basking in your glory this time."

With that, Bald Chen furtively wheeled a fully loaded cart of ingredients out from a neighboring shop’s warehouse and helped load them onto Xu An’s tricycle.

"Your tricycle’s almost full."

"Soon, soon. Once I get my driver’s license, I’ll start driving a small truck to pick up goods," Xu An said with a smile.

He had already passed the first subject test. He just needed one more practice session before he could take the second. With only the third subject test left after that, getting his license was just around the corner.

Back at Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant, Xu An sat down behind the cash register to add some content to the online ordering page. Just as he finished his edits and was about to save, a message popped up on the page—"Current visitor count is too high. Please try again later."

’No way! Ye Ning said this webpage could handle a thousand concurrent visitors. How did it crash?’

He glanced at the time. It was only 6:30 in the morning. Office workers hadn’t even started their day yet. ’How strange.’

Then, a possibility occurred to Xu An. ’Could it be a malicious attack?’

He opened QQ and clicked on his chat window with Ye Ning.

’God Ye, you there? The ordering page says there are too many visitors. Are we under attack?’

The moment the message was sent, Ye Ning’s avatar immediately turned from gray to green. He had just been in invisible mode.

’Let me take a look.’

Ye Ning’s avatar went gray again in an instant, then turned green again less than three seconds later.

’There’s nothing wrong with the page. There are just too many people trying to access it. The server couldn’t handle the high traffic and crashed.’

The best way to solve this problem was to spend money and add more servers.

Thinking about the influence of Hai City’s local TV station, Xu An shelled out several thousand yuan to add two more servers, increasing the capacity to three thousand concurrent visitors.

After waiting for more than ten minutes, Xu An refreshed his admin panel and found he could finally operate it normally. He quickly added the content he wanted, including a new spicy and numbing flavor of braised dishes to the braised food section.

The reason the server was overloaded with visitors could be traced back to the "Visiting Fast Food Restaurant" documentary that aired on Hai City’s local TV station the previous night.

On the day of filming, most companies in the Silver Star Office Building had heard something about it. But aside from the four floors that had witnessed the filming, the other companies just treated it as gossip and forgot about it.

But last night, the documentary officially aired. Many companies and many people remembered the gossip and started discussing it in various group chats.

Coincidentally, the group chat created by the Silver Star Office Building management for announcements had just posted a notice about cleaning the glass curtain walls the next day, bringing the chat window to the top of everyone’s list.

Several people who were discussing the documentary with colleagues and friends accidentally sent their messages to this group chat, and a conversation actually sparked...

And so, the link to Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant’s ordering page was exposed in the group. From there, it spread like wildfire.

Everyone, whether they were within the delivery range or not, clicked the link to see what was so special about this Xu’s Fast Food that could deliver box lunches to their offices.

And just like that, the ordering page for Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant was literally crashed by the sheer volume of traffic.

After resolving the issue with the ordering page, Xu An went to the print shop to order the banner.

Since his requirements for the banner weren’t complex, the whole printing process took only half an hour.

While waiting for it to be printed, Xu An also went online, found the nearest electronics store, and ordered a 52-inch large-screen LCD TV.

The brand-new banner, still practically hot off the press, had just been hung below the main sign when a minivan pulled up in front of Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant. Two technicians got out and unloaded a large-screen TV from the back.

"Boss Xu, where do you want the TV installed?"

Xu An directed them to mount the TV on the wall between shop #1 and shop #3. It was a wall-mounted installation, so the TV could be detached and brought inside after closing.

If he didn’t bring it inside, the TV would probably only have a one-day lifespan. It was best not to test human nature.

Once the TV was installed, he connected it to the computer inside the shop and began playing the segments from "Visiting Fast Food Restaurant" that featured Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant. The narrator’s voice from the two small speakers below the TV attracted the attention of some passersby...

At eight o’clock, the order deadline arrived.

Xu An opened the admin panel and exported the order data. He discovered that orders from the Silver Star Office Building had exploded from just over fifty to more than five hundred—a tenfold increase.

The spreadsheet also showed many new addresses that had never appeared before. Some were even outside the restaurant’s delivery range.

Counting carefully, there were quite a few orders outside the delivery range—over thirty orders, totaling nearly fifty box lunches.

For these, Xu An could only offer an apology. With limited manpower and delivery capacity, there was nothing he could do.

’Looks like I need to add a distance restriction. I’ll have to prevent people with addresses outside the delivery range from placing orders. Otherwise, just sorting out which orders are too far will be a huge chore every day.’

The growth in orders exceeded Xu An’s estimates. He had no choice but to call Aunt Hong and Bald Chen to purchase another batch of ingredients.

The total box lunch orders for the day came to 2,376. ’Another tough battle ahead!’

Aunt Hong relayed Xu An’s needs to Uncle Lin. Upon receiving the request, Uncle Lin got into his minivan and drove toward his greenhouses.

Just as he got out of the minivan, he saw three men standing furtively in front of his greenhouse, trying to peek through the flap...

"Hey, you three!" Uncle Lin shouted sharply. He strode briskly over to them. "What are you doing skulking around here!"

When the three men saw Uncle Lin, their eyes lit up. He looked exactly like the person they had seen on TV—he was the one they were looking for.

"You’re Uncle Lin, one of the suppliers of fruits and vegetables for Xu’s Fast Food, right?"

"Yes," Uncle Lin nodded, puzzled. ’I don’t know these three. How do they know me?’

"We’ve heard so much about you!" one of them said, grabbing Uncle Lin’s hands and shaking them vigorously. "We saw on TV that the produce from your greenhouse is of exceptional quality! We wanted to ask if you have any opportunities for outside sales. Please consider us! The price we offer will be absolutely fair, no cheating young or old!"

After hearing him out, it finally clicked for Uncle Lin. These three must be vegetable vendors who had learned about him from the "Visiting Fast Food Restaurant" documentary and had come to buy his produce.

If they had come to him with this proposal a month ago, or even half a month ago, he would have agreed without a second thought.

He had long been displeased with his previous vendor, who always short-changed him on weight, constantly found fault with the produce, and pushed down prices.

But after he had a falling out with that vendor, it was Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant that gave him a lifeline, saving his greenhouse’s harvest from piling up unsold and preventing a total loss.

It was also by basking in the glow of Xu’s Fast Food that others now knew about his greenhouse. If he were to break his contract now to work with someone else, it would be a complete betrayal.

He, Lin Xingtao, was not that kind of person. He couldn’t bring himself to do such a thing.

Therefore, Uncle Lin directly refused the trio’s offer, telling them to find other growers to partner with.

With that, he took out his key, opened the flap, and entered the greenhouse, ignoring the three men.

The three men stood outside the greenhouse, muttering amongst themselves for a while. Having apparently reached a decision, they left one after another, setting off to search for other potential growers in the vast sea of greenhouses.

But everywhere they looked, the greenhouses were mostly empty, with only scattered patches of green. There were no signs of a bountiful harvest.

After walking a bit further and seeing the same scene in various greenhouses, the three men couldn’t help but curse under their breath.

"That damn Victory Supermarket! What kind of shitty, messed-up business are they running?!"

Still unwilling to give up, they walked a long way further. In a corner, they spotted four greenhouses where the crops were growing lush and vibrant. Their eyes lit up, and the three men squatted down at the entrance, waiting for the owner to arrive...