Chapter 133: Aiming Too High

Chapter 133: Chapter 133: Aiming Too High

Zijing Garden construction site.

Qiao Xingguo was hard at work. The coworker next to him saw their foreman get called away, so he suddenly stopped what he was doing, sidled up to Qiao Xingguo, and asked secretively, "Old Qiao, have you heard?"

"Heard what?" Qiao Xingguo replied nonchalantly.

"I heard they’re not going to give out box lunches anymore!" The coworker’s voice was filled with excitement. "They’re going to give us cash instead!"

Qiao Xingguo froze. It took him a full five seconds to process the news.

’This seems a little too incredible, doesn’t it? Just giving out cash?’

"For real? Where did you hear that?"

"Don’t you worry about where I heard it. The news is real. It’s happening in the next day or two. Just you wait and see if you don’t believe me." The coworker shot him a smug look before returning to his post to get back to work.

Qiao Xingguo watched him go and shook his head, figuring he was just spouting nonsense. He turned back and resumed his work.

But soon enough, the cheap speakers installed on the construction site seemed to have been turned on, emitting a piercing ZZZT-ZZZT sound. The workers all stopped what they were doing, straightened up, and looked around.

’What’s going on?’

The workers didn’t have to wait long. The piercing static from the speakers vanished, and a man’s somewhat distorted voice rang out.

"Good morning, everyone! After internal review and discussion, Xuguang Real Estate Company has made a new decision."

SHHHRIP—

The sound of a page turning could be heard, and then the man’s voice spoke again.

"Starting tomorrow! The construction site will be issuing a meal stipend in place of box lunches! Next, I will explain how the stipend will be distributed..."

This news was like an atomic bomb dropped on the crowd, causing an uproar. Waves of clamor rolled across the construction site.

Qiao Xingguo stared blankly at his smug coworker, then turned his head to look blankly at everyone else.

’How could this be so sudden? There was no warning at all.’

But on second thought, he started to feel happy.

’Getting cash is great! I can eat whatever I want from now on! And if I don’t feel like eating, I can just save the money!’

The huge wave of noise from the construction site carried across the street to the nearby shops. Everyone knew something must have happened on the site, but they didn’t know what.

The owners of several nearby fast food restaurants came out of their shops and stood at their doors, looking around.

Thanks to the man’s tip-off from yesterday, Xu An guessed what had happened as soon as he heard the commotion.

’It’s being announced today, which means that starting tomorrow, all the workers at Xuguang Real Estate’s construction sites will be eating out.’

’The long-idle tricycles will finally be put to use again. And old employees like Xu Lili and Liang Dani will have to head out to the construction site entrances.’

’I’ll take it easy on the first day. A hundred meals for one site should be enough. That’ll be just right to make up for the orders snatched away by the Hai City Fast Food Association.’

’I wonder how long their current collaboration will last once they hear the news about the construction sites?’

During the lunch rush, a crowd of workers appeared at the entrance of Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant.

They were all carrying the box lunches that had been distributed at the construction site. Instead of going inside Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant, they stood outside, craning their necks to peer into the shop.

’The person serving food at the counter is new, the people working in the kitchen are new, and the person clearing the tables is new, too. Did the place get a new owner?’

After scanning the restaurant, they saw Granny Xu was still sitting behind the cash register. Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief and swarmed around her, asking what dishes would be available tomorrow...

Most of the workers asking were familiar old faces.

「In a private room at the Haitian Hotel.」

Over thirty fast food restaurant owners from the Hai City Fast Food Association had gathered to celebrate the great success of their recent food delivery venture.

After deducting costs for discounts and labor, every restaurant present had made a net profit of at least three hundred yuan from today’s delivery orders.

For a chain with multiple locations like Yipin Xiang Fast Food Restaurant, their extra income for the day was over five thousand yuan.

This left everyone overjoyed, and they all remarked that they had definitely made the right move.

Around the dinner table, glasses clinked as everyone toasted each other. The atmosphere was cheerful and harmonious.

After downing another full glass of baijiu, Ren Peng suddenly stood up. Seemingly half-drunk, he began, "I wonder if everyone here has heard a piece of news?"

As soon as he said this, everyone present knew what Ren Peng was about to say. The private room instantly fell silent, and they all looked at him with mixed expressions.

"I’m sure you all know by now!" Ren Peng waved his hand grandly and announced in a loud voice, "All of Xuguang Real Estate’s construction sites are switching to a meal stipend model!"

The others in the room remained silent, quietly waiting for Ren Peng to continue.

"We went to all the trouble of establishing the Hai City Fast Food Association, and today we’ve seen our first signs of success. Everyone made a good bit of money."

Ren Peng’s gaze swept across the room, taking in everyone’s expressions.

"This is a long-term business. Those construction sites will be finished in half a year or a year at most. Once the work is done, they’re gone. I’m sure you can all tell which is more important, right?"

Then, Ren Peng began to paint them a grand picture of the future.

"I’ve been looking into it lately. The food delivery industry already exists in other provinces. They’ve even founded companies and designed their own websites and apps! Go look it up—they’re getting investments in the hundreds of thousands, millions, even tens of millions! Our association has a great future. There’s no need to hurt our good relations over the pocket change from those construction sites!"

Ren Peng then launched into a grand speech about the future development of the Hai City Fast Food Association, expanding from Hai City to the neighboring cities, then across the entire province, and eventually beyond Haiyang Province to the whole country.

"Everyone here! You’ll all be founders in the future!"

Maybe it was because they had too much to drink, maybe the atmosphere was just right, or maybe they were genuinely moved by the blueprint Ren Peng painted. One by one, they spoke up in agreement, even joining Ren Peng in dreaming about the future. The room was once again filled with an air of harmony...

「Old Place BBQ.」

This barbecue restaurant was near Liu Tong’s home. The food was good, the prices were reasonable, and it had always been a great spot for Liu Tong to get together with his friends.

The day before yesterday, after buying some marinated food from Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant, Liu Tong had strongly urged his boss to try the combination of marinated food and apple cider vinegar.

After tasting it, his boss didn’t say whether it was good or bad. Instead, he spoke to Liu Tong earnestly, as if sharing a great confidence, "You’re still young. Don’t aim too high. You need to take things one steady step at a time..."

’How was my proposal aiming too high? How was it impatient for success? How was it rushed?’

’Isn’t this just a normal, proper, ordinary, and common marketing suggestion?’

Although Liu Tong felt that the marinated food plus apple cider vinegar idea was very viable, the decision was in his boss’s hands. He didn’t have the final say.

So, the matter was dropped.

But the more Liu Tong thought about it, the more indignant he felt. So tonight, he had invited a friend out for barbecue and beer, and to complain about his weirdo boss.

The barbecue was ready! The beer was ready! The friend was ready!

"My stupid-ass boss actually set a sales target of a hundred thousand cans for this month! And he wants me to sell thirty thousand of them myself in half a month!"

He took a bite of a chicken leg and then a swig of beer.

"If I can sell over thirty thousand cans in a month by myself, maybe he should just give me his job!"

His chopsticks reached for a plate of dark, saucy pork stomach that his friend had ordered. He picked up a piece and popped it into his mouth.

"That dumbass... I gave him a perfectly reasonable marketing plan, and he tells me not to aim too high. If you don’t try something new..."

The expression on Liu Tong’s face suddenly froze. He turned and spit twice onto an empty patch of ground beside him—PTOO! PTOO!—getting all of the pork stomach out of his mouth. He took the beer his friend handed him and took several large gulps—GLUG, GLUG—finally washing away the strange taste.

"What the hell is this? Is it a new dish? Why does it taste so weird!"

His friend found this odd. He picked up a piece, chewed on it, and then glanced behind Liu Tong. With a strange expression, he said, "It tastes fine to me!"

Now Liu Tong started to wonder if there was something wrong with his sense of taste. He picked out a small piece and put it in his mouth. Three seconds later, he spit it out again.

Liu Tong was baffled. ’Is there really something wrong with my sense of taste?’

’But my taste buds seem perfectly normal when I eat anything else!’

He thought about the marinated food again. His boss hadn’t said whether he liked it or not after trying it...

"Come with me to Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant for lunch tomorrow. I’ll show you how delicious an eight-yuan meal with three dishes and a soup can be." Liu Tong added the second half of the thought in his head, ’And I’ll have you try their marinated food, too, so we can see if there’s really something wrong with my sense of taste.’

"Alright."

After the restaurant owner who was clearing the table behind Liu Tong walked away, his friend picked up another small piece of pork stomach and put it in his mouth. He chewed once but couldn’t stomach it. He grabbed a napkin and, pretending to wipe his mouth, spit the piece into it. He had to eat two skewers of green beans before he recovered.

’It really is disgusting.’