Chapter 237 - 202: What to Do When the Boss Goes Crazy?

Chapter 237: Chapter 202: What to Do When the Boss Goes Crazy?

「Xu’s Braised Shop.」

The shop opened at 2 PM, and a massive crowd was still gathered outside. The neighboring shopkeepers were not only unfazed by the sight but were actually happy to see it.

After all, people waiting in line for so long would get thirsty and hot, right? So these shopkeepers would pull small wagons through the queue, hawking ice-cold mineral water, portable handheld fans, and even spare batteries for the fans...

’It was a pretty good system,’ they thought. ’Mutually beneficial—a win-win!’

Business at the shop was perfectly normal until 5:30 PM. But once 5:30 hit and office workers started getting off for the day, things took a different turn.

In the three and a half hours from 2:00 to 5:30, they had sold fifty-eight portions of the Hellish Braised Flavor, and the challenge counter had gone through another twenty-one. Both figures were within the normal range. But in the short half-hour from 5:30 to 6:00, the combined total of sales and challenge consumption was thirty-seven portions of Hellish Braised Flavor!

At this rate, the one hundred twenty pounds—or two hundred forty portions—of Hellish Braised Flavor prepared for the day would be completely gone in another hour and a half!

Zhang Dezhen didn’t know what was going on, but he knew he had to report it to the boss. He handed his tasks over to a part-timer, stepped outside the shop to a secluded corner, and dialed Xu An’s number.

When the call came in, Xu An had just finished dinner and washed the dishes. He was lying under a longan tree, scrolling through his phone and enjoying a rare moment of peace, when it rang.

"Uh, Boss, it’s Zhang Dezhen. We’ve got a bit of a situation here..."

After hearing Zhang Dezhen’s description, Xu An was instantly thrilled. ’The reputation of the Hellish Braised Flavor must be spreading! It’s getting everyone’s attention and is about to become a hot topic in Hai City!’

’I have to seize this opportunity, prepare a lot more Hellish Braised Flavor, and turn this hot topic into a full-blown phenomenon. Who knows, maybe we can even get featured on a local Hai City lifestyle news report!’

Xu An told Zhang Dezhen to temporarily hand over the storefront to Wang Fulong, then get back to Xu’s Braised Shop to start an emergency batch of Hellish Braised Flavor. He added that he was on his way over as well.

「In the second-floor office of Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant No. 2.」

After hitting the save button, Tang Wen glanced at the time in the bottom right corner of her screen: 5:55 PM. Five minutes until quitting time. ’My timing is impeccable!’ she thought. ’Still no word from the braised shop, so the first prize probably went unclaimed. We’ll continue tomorrow. Today, I can finally get a proper rest!’

BEEP BEEP BEEP—

Suddenly, the messenger icon in the bottom right corner started shaking frantically. From the profile picture, she could tell it was a message from a colleague and friend.

’Wenwen, did you create this hashtag? It suddenly blew up! It’s already at two hundred seventy thousand views!’

’[Link]’

’Oh my god, your promotional campaign this time is insane! It’s good enough to be in a textbook!’

’The hashtag blew up?’ Tang Wen’s mind instantly flashed back to the thirty-eight hashtags she had created on opening day for Xu’s Braised Shop: "The Spiciest Under Heaven," "Challenge the Nation’s Spiciest," "Shocking! The First Prize is Ten Thousand Yuan in Cash!", "Do You Dare Try This Chili?"...

’With so many hashtags, which one was it that blew up?’

Tang Wen quickly clicked the link. Her browser jumped to a social media page, and the first thing she saw was the title at the top: Hellish Braised Flavor.

’I came up with so many flashy, clever hashtags, and none of them went viral. In the end, it was this simple, unadorned one that blew up?’

’You can nurture a small flame, but a wildfire depends on fate. Some things are just destined for greatness. The heavens were truly on my side.’

After confirming the name of the viral hashtag, Tang Wen looked at the real-time stats compiled by the website below it: Today’s Reads: 276,000. Today’s Discussions: 19,000!

The top three trending posts were all from the same blogger. The blogger’s account name was: Yu Liang Takes You to Eat All Over Hai City!

Clicking through to the blogger’s profile page, Tang Wen discovered that every single post he had made in the last three days was related to Xu’s Braised Shop!

On opening day, the first day, he had published slightly fewer posts—only nine. But by the second day, the number of posts had jumped to an astonishing thirty-two! That’s more than triple!

On the third day, today, the number of posts had reached a staggering fifty-three. Forty-one of those were related to the first-prize challenge at Xu’s Braised Shop. Each post detailed a challenger’s time, how much Hellish Braised Flavor they ate, how many drinks they consumed, and so on—every aspect was meticulously recorded.

Under the posts about the only three challengers today who made it to the Shuanshuang Spicy stage, the comment engagement was over three thousand! It was from these three posts that more and more people started mentioning the Hellish Braised Flavor!

Suddenly, a thought struck Tang Wen. She quickly opened a browser and logged into the Xu’s Catering account. The follower count had jumped by a full twenty thousand compared to just two hours ago...

She used a web scraping tool to organize the data. The most prominent metrics all came from users outside Haiyang Province. They were all posting about wanting to try the "Hellish Braised Flavor," and many even said they had already bought tickets.

The data points shot up one after another, climbing as fast as a drop tower ride. Tang Wen’s face flushed with excitement, and the hand holding her mouse trembled slightly.

’Mamma mia! In less than a week, a campaign that cost less than one hundred thousand yuan has brought in 41,329 real followers and made a hashtag go viral! This kind of result is absolutely top-tier in the entire marketing world! My friend was right, I’m going to be immortalized in the history of marketing!’

She had piggybacked on the trend, engaged with users, reposted content, sent private messages, and compiled all the data. Only then did Tang Wen finally remember something extremely important: she hadn’t reported to the boss yet!

She hurriedly finished organizing the data and sent Xu An a message.

’[File]’

’Boss, can I apply for some event funding to reward our followers? Not much, just one hundred pounds of Hellish Braised Flavor will do!’

「Xu’s Braised Shop.」

Xu An rushed over and finally arrived at Xu’s Braised Shop before seven. Thankfully, he had arranged for Wang Fulong to be in charge today. So, when the Hellish Braised Flavor sold out, the crowd was informed that the kitchen was making an emergency batch and that another wave would be ready at 8:30. With that, everyone found their own places to wait.

Wang Fulong breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Xu An arrive. He immediately stepped back, heading to the register to help with payments, while Xu An took charge of the scene.

He glanced at the Hellish Braised Flavor pre-order list that Wang Fulong handed him. Fifty-seven people had already ordered a total of thirty pounds. Added to the one hundred twenty pounds prepared for the day, that was already one hundred fifty pounds!

Before he could even process that shock, Xu An received Tang Wen’s message and was stunned all over again.

Seventy thousand users from outside the province were following the Hellish Braised Flavor trend. Among them, eight thousand had followed the Xu’s Braised Shop account, sixty-four people had posted their travel tickets showing they were coming to Hai City, and 5,732 had expressed their desire to try the Hellish Braised Flavor!

’A giveaway for the fans?’

’Even though the Hellish Braised Flavor has a slightly longer shelf life than regular braised food, that’s only if both are kept in a freezer! Otherwise, in the summer heat, even if you put it in a sealed box with tons of ice, it wouldn’t last the night.’

’Standard shipping usually takes two to three days. Even with an express courier, cross-province delivery would still take until the next day. It’s one thing if the food spoils, but it would be a major incident if someone got sick from it.’

Xu An sighed. He was about to type a reply to shoot down Tang Wen’s idea when the name "Xinyang Commercial Kitchen Technology Co., Ltd." suddenly flashed in his mind. An image of a product catalog quickly flipped through its pages, stopping on one in particular. The device displayed on the page was called a—Commercial Food Vacuum Sealer! Price: six thousand yuan!

’I’ve already spent so much money, what’s a mere six thousand yuan? Buy it!’

Having made a quick decision, Xu An replied to Tang Wen: "Send me the event proposal and the budget request form. Set the end date for four days from now."

’Roger that!’

’[Event Proposal]’ ’[Budget Request Form]’

Just as expected of Tang Wen—fast and efficient. She had already prepared the proposal and form while waiting for his reply. After reviewing both documents, Xu An replied with the two letters "OK". About five minutes later, Tang Wen sent him the draft of the post she was about to publish.

’TA-DA! We’ve heard that so many of you are interested in our Hellish Braised Flavor! So, I went out on a limb and begged the boss to approve a giveaway of one hundred pounds of Hellish Braised Flavor! We’re planning to draw two hundred lucky fans to receive a free portion! (Due to climate and preservation issues, this is limited to friends within Haiyang Province). We’ll select the thirty people with the most likes on this post, the thirty with the most comments, the thirty with the most shares, and then randomly draw another one hundred ten...’

’The event itself is fine, but the scope is wrong. How could Tang Wen make such a basic mistake? She must be too excited.’

"Change the scope of the event to be nationwide. Add a special note that remote areas are also eligible to participate."

Tang Wen was baffled by Xu An’s message. ’Wait, the giveaway I proposed was specifically limited to Haiyang Province! It’s braised food! How can we ship it all over the country? It’ll be rotten by the time it gets to them!’

She checked with Xu An three times in a row, and each time, he insisted that "the event is open to participants nationwide." Tang Wen was out of options. She had said what needed to be said and tried to persuade him. There was nothing more she could do. ’To all the fans outside the province,’ she thought grimly, ’please take care of your health!’

As she published the post, Tang Wen’s mind was racing with worries: ’What if the braised food goes bad and stinks? What if a customer gets sick? What if the boss comes to me tomorrow and says the scope was wrong? Will we get raked over the coals by fans for changing the rules last minute? Will the boss make me the scapegoat? Will they dock my bonus this month...’

Finally, Tang Wen came to a single conclusion: the boss had lost his mind.