Chapter 172 - 161: Hitting the Jackpot with the Remark ’666’ (Part 2)

Chapter 172: Chapter 161: Hitting the Jackpot with the Remark ’666’ (Part 2)

The five overjoyed people left with the one person who looked utterly dejected. The box lunches were all sold out, so it was time to pack up and head back to the restaurant. Zhang Dezhen packed up all the items from the stall, said goodbye to a few familiar stall owners next to them, and zipped away on his little tricycle.

After what felt like an eternity, but was really just over half an hour, the taxi finally stopped in front of Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant. Before the car had even come to a complete stop, Xu An and Liu Daxi scrambled out. Xu An carelessly handed some money to the driver, not even checking if the bill was a blue ten-yuan note or a green fifty-yuan one.

’Other taxi drivers are out to make money, but this guy is out for blood!’ Forcibly suppressing a wave of nausea, Xu An glanced back at the license plate and burned the number into his memory. ’If I ever see that plate again, I’m running as far away as I can!’

Leaning against a tree, he rested for a good while before finally recovering and starting toward the restaurant. He had only taken a couple of steps when he saw Xu Heping and the other two, who had just been in a heated discussion, suddenly look up at him in unison. Before Xu An could ask what was wrong, Xu Heping spoke first. "Anzi, have you been running some kind of promotion lately? All three of our stalls had a ton of new faces today. They looked like office workers from nearby."

’A promotion?’ He’d been so busy he hadn’t had a moment to spare. How could he have had time for that? But just as he was about to say so, he suddenly remembered: Meng Huai’s team from the Hai City Food Studio had come to interview and film yesterday. They had even sent him a draft at eight this morning to check for any issues.

’Could it be them?’

Xu An pulled out his phone. As soon as he opened QQ, he saw a small red dot on his chat with Meng Huai. Inside the red dot was the Arabic numeral "1."

"Boss Xu, the article has been posted. (link)"

’It really was them,’ Xu An thought with a sigh of admiration. ’They’re so fast. They just filmed yesterday, and in less than a day, they’ve already edited and published it. That’s some serious efficiency.’ He had already reviewed the article’s content, so after clicking the link Meng Huai sent, he quickly scrolled to the bottom to check the comments from netizens.

The article had been posted at 12:02 PM. In the two hours since then, it had already amassed over two hundred comments. The top comment had an impressive 2,300 likes.

"Haha, I spotted the Xu’s Fast Food stall outside the construction site a long time ago. I’ve been eating there for days. Honestly, it’s really good. (thumbs_up)"

"I’m starting a petition in blood to get Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant to open more branches, ahhh! (tearing_hair_out)"

"How come all the comments are praising it? Are they all paid shills? The boss of Xu’s Fast Food is only eighteen. He must be loaded. (smirk)"

"..."

’So this is the reason,’ he thought. Many commenters said they went to buy a box lunch right after seeing the article. A lot of them managed to get one, but even more didn’t. When he switched to the latest comments, a bunch of "Liar!" and "There’s nothing here!" posts immediately popped up. It seemed these people had all made the trip for nothing.

’Just from a quick glance, there are a lot of people in the comments who wanted to buy a box lunch but came up empty. I wonder if it would be possible to let them pre-order and pick it up at the construction site tomorrow.’

’Feasible or not, I’ll only know if I try. Even if it doesn’t work, I won’t lose anything.’

"Boss Meng, I saw the article. Your team is amazing!"

After that brief pleasantry, Xu An’s fingers flew across the virtual keyboard with a flurry of taps as he composed a long message and sent it.

"I saw in the comments that a lot of people made the trip for nothing. I was hoping you could post an update for me. The pickup locations will be at the three construction sites. For customers who add ’666’ to their order notes, the first ten to order will get their meal for free, and the first fifty will get a complimentary bottle of apple cider vinegar. Would that be possible?"

Xu An wasn’t sure if Meng Huai was on his lunch break, discussing the price with his team, or perhaps considering the feasibility of such a novel promotion. He ended up waiting for nearly ten minutes before he received a reply.

Meng Huai had just returned to his computer after his lunch break when he saw Xu An’s message. His first instinct was to figure out how much to charge for such an advertisement. But a moment later, he realized that this kind of hard-sell ad was something his other two accounts usually handled. The account that had promoted Xu’s Fast Food was targeted at office workers. Wouldn’t posting this be a bit off-brand?

But when he saw the comments on the article he’d posted before lunch, he immediately understood why Xu An was making such a request. Suddenly, he felt a stir of excitement. A promotion like this, basically a "free-meal giveaway," was extremely beneficial for increasing follower engagement and improving the account’s reputation.

He had previously felt that this particular account was mainly about cheap, delicious food, so he only accepted promotions from restaurants that approached him directly. He’d never even considered something like a free-meal giveaway. After all, a box lunch cost only nine or ten yuan, twenty or thirty at most. Running a promotion for something so cheap felt like it lacked a certain cachet.

’However, with the numbers Xu An was proposing, the cachet suddenly went way up. Plus, fifty promotional slots would attract at least a hundred fans eager to participate. In the future,’ he mused, ’I can try to get similar deals from the other businesses I film for free. A few free meals, twenty or thirty discounted spots... Even if the service is free, I still gain traffic. It’s a win-win.’

Friendship was one thing, but this was business, and it had to be handled according to the rules of business. Doing it for free was absolutely out of the question; he had to charge what was due. However, seeing as the other party had given him a new promotional strategy for his account, he should offer a discount.

"Boss Xu, this falls under promotional advertising, which requires a fee."

"How much?" Xu An’s reply was short and to the point.

"But your restaurant’s data is excellent, so I can give you a discount. The original price for this kind of promotion is 1,500 yuan, but you can just pay 1,000. If that works for you, I’ll post the promotion now, and we can sort out the contract and payment later, Boss Xu."

Xu An quickly sent back an "OK" and followed it up with the link to his restaurant’s online ordering page. The price was cheaper than he’d imagined. In his past life, Xu An had worked with a blogger who had 100,000 followers and charged 800 yuan for a text-only post, 1,500 for a post with images, and 3,000 for a video. Meng Huai’s account had 600,000 followers. This price was a real bargain.

After about ten more minutes, the Hai City Food Studio account was updated with a new post containing the exact text he had just sent to Meng Huai. The moment the post went live, Xu An, sitting behind the cash register, pulled up the restaurant’s online ordering backend. He hit refresh and immediately saw two new orders with "666" in the notes.

As Lin Mengjuan started her afternoon work, her mind kept drifting back to the box lunch she’d eaten earlier. ’I wonder what I should have tomorrow,’ she thought. ’I remember someone in the food delivery group chat posted a link to Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant’s ordering page. It has the daily menu. Maybe I should go take a look?’

She had just moved her mouse when her phone buzzed with a notification: an account she followed had a new post. Glancing over, she saw it was from Hai City Food Studio. ’Two posts in one day? That’s really rare!’

Lin Mengjuan clicked on the ordering link for Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant. While the page was loading, she picked up her phone to check the new post, and the words "First ten orders free" were the first thing she saw.

’No way! What a deal!’

Just then, the webpage finished loading. With no time to even look at tomorrow’s menu, Lin Mengjuan randomly selected an option, filled in her address, name, and phone number, added "666" to the notes, and confirmed the order to submit payment. The entire process took her less than ten seconds.

Only after placing her order did Lin Mengjuan read the post’s details more carefully. She discovered that it wasn’t just the first ten who got a deal, but the first fifty! ’Getting a free drink is still a great deal,’ she thought. Satisfied, Lin Mengjuan put down her phone to wait for Hai City Food Studio to announce the final results.

At four in the afternoon, her phone buzzed again. Lin Mengjuan snatched it up with lightning speed. As expected, Hai City Food Studio had announced the list of winners!

"The winners of the top ten free meal slots are: ...Lin Mengjuan..."

’I won!’