Chapter 130: Hai City Fast Food Association?

Chapter 130: Chapter 130: Hai City Fast Food Association?

The next morning at work, Xu An called everyone together for a brief meeting and announced that Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant had seven new employees.

After a simple welcoming ceremony, they plunged into their busy workday.

Everyone set to their tasks: washing vegetables, chopping ingredients, and cooking.

Liu Daxi’s team of seven was split into two groups. Liu Daxi led three of them in the kitchen of store number three, while the other three worked with Zhou Qi in the kitchen of store number two.

As for Xu An, he was finally free from his duties as a chef. He could now be a hands-off boss!

However, it was their first day, so Xu An was a little worried.

He had learned from their conversation yesterday that, aside from Liu Daxi, the other six had gotten their hotel jobs through a government support program. They had good skills, but no experience cooking large-batch meals.

So Xu An was mentally prepared to step in if any of them couldn’t adapt. After all, you had to give people time to adjust.

But Xu An’s worries proved unfounded. The new chefs were a bit rusty with their first batch, but they started getting the hang of it by the second. By the third, they were already quite proficient.

Once he confirmed the seven had settled into their work, Xu An sat down behind the cash register with Granny Xu to go over the restaurant’s earnings since the beginning of August.

He hadn’t realized it until he ran the numbers, and the result was a shock. Without him even noticing, the restaurant’s liquid capital had grown to nearly 60,000 yuan.

That was a huge sum of money. It needed to be planned out carefully.

Many ideas flashed through Xu An’s mind: insulated food carts, a new storefront design, updated packaging...

Each one seemed urgent, yet at the same time, it felt like they could all wait a little longer.

In the end, Xu An’s pen landed on updating the packaging. Finding a manufacturer for custom packaging would be much cheaper than buying it from the wholesale market. Anything that could lower costs and increase profits was naturally a top priority.

’I wonder how that designer from TaoBao is doing,’ he thought.

Just as Xu An was thinking about it, his phone chimed with a new message. He pulled it out and saw that, coincidentally, the TaoBao designer had just sent over the draft sketches.

There were three sketches in total, each with a different style.

The first was a chibi-style character wearing a chef’s hat, holding a spatula in its left hand and giving a thumbs-up with its right. Below the character was the name "Xu’s Fast Food" written in a conventional font.

The second featured a semicircle drawn with a brushstroke. In the center was the character "Xu," rendered in an elegant, flowing style, giving it a simple yet profound feel.

The third depicted a full moon, with the character "Xu" carved out in a hollow, large seal script style. Below the design was the name "Xu’s Fast Food" in a neat font, giving the whole logo a nimble and light, yet stable, feel.

Xu An stared at the third logo. It felt familiar, but he couldn’t remember where he might have seen it before.

He even went online to search all the well-known restaurant chains, but he didn’t find any that used a similar logo.

’Maybe some restaurant or viral shop in the future used a similar logo, and I just happened to see it then, which is why it feels familiar,’ he mused.

After his search came up empty, Xu An stopped dwelling on it and chose the third logo, asking the designer to develop it further.

At 10:30 AM, the grand squadron of delivery riders arrived at Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant.

After growing for so long, the number of riders had increased from the initial ten to the current seventeen.

The other two who had joined the delivery team with Zhang Dezhen had already found permanent jobs and left. Although the pay couldn’t compare to delivering for Xu’s Fast Food, their new jobs offered stability and peace of mind.

But there was no shortage of new recruits. The novel job of being a rider for Xu’s Fast Food had become well-known in various job-seeking and part-time work groups across Hai City. People who were temporarily unemployed and looking to make some money to tide them over, as well as those who could only take on part-time gigs, all set their sights on Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant.

It was no exaggeration: if they didn’t limit the number of riders, Xu’s Fast Food could easily have thirty to fifty people on its team.

After loading all of the day’s lunch boxes into the small truck, Xu An and Xu Guosheng set off on their daily delivery run. As always, their last stop was the Aisha Clothing Company.

Their contact person was still Luo Min. However, she now had two assistants with her and no longer needed to count and verify the orders herself. She only had to issue the receipt. From the looks of it, she must have gotten a promotion.

Nowadays, four-fifths of the employees at Aisha Clothing Company chose lunch boxes from Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant for their meal, while of the remaining one-fifth, half opted for a meal subsidy and the other half chose Yipin Xiang Fast Food Restaurant.

Just as Xu An was coordinating with Luo Min, a familiar van pulled up in front of them.

The new manager of Yipin Xiang Fast Food Restaurant got out, greeted everyone politely, and then opened the back of the van. He took out a pitifully small number of lunch boxes—only eight—and stood off to the side to wait.

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew into the van through its wide-open windows, snatching up several flyers that were sitting on the passenger seat.

The flyers fluttered out of the vehicle on the breeze, twirled in the air a few times, and then, with a sudden change in the wind’s direction, one of them plastered itself right onto Xu An’s face...

"What the heck is this?"

Xu An pulled the flyer off his face. He was about to crumple it up and toss it when he saw the bold headline: "The Hai City Fast Food Association Launches Delivery Service Event!"

’The Hai City Fast Food Association? A delivery service event?’

’What is this? I’ve never heard of it...’

Just as he was about to read the flyer’s contents more closely, the new manager of Yipin Xiang Fast Food Restaurant rushed over in a few quick strides and snatched it from Xu An’s hand. "My apologies, my apologies," he said, full of regret. "I didn’t close the window properly."

Then the new manager stuffed the flyer into his pants pocket, turned back to his van, and rolled up the window, not leaving even the slightest crack.

Xu An smelled a conspiracy. The flyer was most likely aimed at his restaurant; otherwise, why would the man be so nervous?

The headline led Xu An to an outrageous and absurd thought. ’Surely the fast-food restaurants of Hai City haven’t all teamed up to go against me, right?’

Unfortunately, the flyer had appeared too suddenly, and the other manager’s reaction had been too quick. He hadn’t seen anything other than the headline.

Xu An’s gaze fell on the new manager’s bulging pocket, and an impulse stirred within him. ’I wonder if snatching a flyer counts as robbery?’

Luo Min had seen the whole exchange. Noticing Xu An’s gaze, she thoughtfully finished filling out the receipt and handed it to him. "Boss Xu, here is today’s receipt. Please keep it safe."

After taking the receipt and saying goodbye to Luo Min, Xu An returned to the truck. Through the window, he saw Luo Min and the new manager chatting and laughing together. They seemed to have a very friendly relationship.

He couldn’t help but sigh internally. ’Back in the day, I was Luo Min’s "little sweetheart," and now that someone new has come along, I’ve become "Madam Niu." Ah!’

On the way back, they were halfway there when they found the road they had come from was blocked off, with several excavators at work inside the barricades.

The road was closed, so they had to take a detour.

Xu Guosheng turned the steering wheel, taking a detour onto an outer public road and continuing toward Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant. He started chatting with Xu An about the recent happenings, big and small, in their village.

For example, Third Granny had gone to another wedding; Fourth Uncle was leaving early and coming home late every day, and no one knew what he was up to; and Uncle Dongliang had quit his job at the construction site to work with Second Grandpa, and would most likely be his successor...

Just as the two were deep in conversation, Xu An’s phone chimed with a message from Luo Min. It contained two images.

He tapped the first image to load it. A moment later, the loading icon finished its animation and disappeared, revealing a clear photo.

The first thing he saw was the familiar headline: "The Hai City Fast Food Association Launches Delivery Service Event!"

Below the headline was a photo of the Hai City Fast Food Association’s president—an old acquaintance of Xu An’s, Ren Peng, the owner of Yipin Xiang Fast Food Restaurant.

"Anzi, look over there!" Xu Guosheng’s sudden shout rang out beside Xu An. The truck had pulled over to the side of the road and stopped.

Xu An followed Xu Guosheng’s gaze and saw a small stage set up in a little plaza. On the backdrop behind the stage, several large characters were written in a flamboyant, calligraphic script: "Hai City Fast Food Association!"

Standing in the center of the stage was none other than Ren Peng, the owner of Yipin Xiang Fast Food Restaurant.

In front of the stage, several long tables had been pushed together to form an extra-long one. It was covered with a red cloth laden with eggs. Propped up on top of the eggs was a cardboard sign that read, "Get Three Free Eggs!"

"...To better give back to the people of Hai City, more than thirty of our fast-food restaurants have joined forces to establish the Hai City Fast Food Association! Starting tomorrow, all orders will be delivered right to your door! Whether you order one meal or two, whether you live in Hai City’s East District or West District, as long as you place an order with any restaurant in our association, we’ll deliver it to your doorstep!"

After saying this, Ren Peng paused. He waited until a smattering of applause broke out from the audience before continuing.

"To celebrate the founding of the Hai City Fast Food Association, our members have discussed and decided! The first fifty customers to order get their meals for free! The first one hundred customers get their meals for half price! Customers after the first one hundred will still enjoy a ten percent discount! This offer is limited to one order per person, and a maximum of two meals per order!"

Hearing words like "free" and "half price," the citizens queuing for eggs finally grew enthusiastic, offering up cheers and applause. Many started shouting, asking how to place an order.

Ren Peng looked down at the restless crowd below the stage, a satisfied expression on his face as he raised the microphone to his lips.

"Text the meal you want, the quantity, the restaurant, your address, and your phone number to 138-xxxxxxxx! The first fifty to text get their order free! The first one hundred get it for half price!"

As Ren Peng finished speaking, more than a dozen pre-arranged staff members walked into the crowd with flyers. The flyers in their hands were immediately swarmed and snatched away. In their eagerness, many people used too much force, leaving red scratch marks on the staff members’ exposed skin...

"Want to go down and take a look?" Xu Guosheng asked, turning his head toward Xu An.

"No, let’s head back," Xu An said, slowly shaking his head. He pulled his gaze away from the chaotic crowd and focused again on the flyer in his hand.

Ever since the documentary *Visiting Fast Food Restaurant* had aired, Xu An had been mentally prepared, knowing that other people would eventually target Xu’s Fast Food’s delivery model.

He just hadn’t expected Ren Peng to be able to unite so many restaurants for a joint event. And from the looks of it, the effect was quite remarkable.

Xu An pulled out his phone to check the locations of the restaurants on the flyer. They were widely distributed, covering almost the entirety of Hai City. The two areas with the highest foot traffic, the Hai City Library and the Red Brick Creative Park, were now completely surrounded by these competing restaurants.

Sigh.

Xu An let out a soft sigh, folded the flyer, and put it away.

It looked like he had a tough fight ahead of him.