Chapter 252 - 217: Boss Xu, Another Collaboration?

Chapter 252: Chapter 217: Boss Xu, Another Collaboration?

"Jiayi, is the Taobao Store registration complete? Are the images and materials needed for the storefront design processed?"

"The Taobao Store just passed its review. The materials for the design are all ready, so I’m starting on it now!" Gu Jiayi paused, then added, "But there’s one problem. After a product is created, it gets listed immediately. We can’t meet your requirement to have everything go on sale together tomorrow at 8 PM..."

Hm? Xu An frowned slightly, took the mouse, and looked over the current operational rules for a Taobao Store.

He eventually discovered that Taobao hadn’t yet rolled out a "scheduled listing" feature. You couldn’t pre-list items. Once a product was edited and confirmed for upload, it would appear directly in the product list, available for selection and purchase.

"Set up an anti-sniping price," Xu An said decisively after reading the fine print.

"An anti-sniping price?" Gu Jiayi was a little confused. She could guess the meaning from the name, but she wasn’t sure about the practical details.

"...Set the product price to 999 yuan... hmm... let’s make it 9,999 yuan." Xu An was afraid some rich person wouldn’t think twice about 999 yuan and just buy it. ’But 9,999 yuan is almost ten thousand. That should at least make them hesitate, right!’

After hearing Xu An’s explanation, Gu Jiayi understood immediately. After discussing a few more details with Xu An, she got to work.

Xu An moved and appeared behind Tang Wen. He asked, "Tang Wen, how’s the response to the social media post about last night’s TV news report?"

"Very good. Compared to terms like ’100x Compensation,’ the views and shares are a bit lower, but the comment data is still strong," Tang Wen replied quickly. "Right now, it has 130,000 views, 2,900 shares, and 5,300 comments. The numbers are quite good."

"Excellent. Next, according to the plan, we’ll direct the account’s traffic to the Taobao Store. Let’s set the time for 2 PM. That’s right when everyone’s afternoon nap ends, and they’re about to start their pre-work slacking-off time." Xu An turned his head to Gu Jiayi. "Jiayi, can you finish the storefront design before 2 PM?"

"Yes, no problem!" Gu Jiayi gave Xu An a big ’OK’ hand gesture.

"Good." Xu An looked at Tang Wen again. "Have you found a suitable photographer and editor?"

"I have. He’s coming over tomorrow morning. We’ll try him out for three days, and if it’s a good fit, we’ll sign a long-term contract." Tang Wen quickly pulled up the photographer’s information. "Although he’s self-taught, he’s a regular at all sorts of exhibitions, so he’s very skilled at shooting and editing. My only worry is whether he can adapt to our shop’s filming requirements. After all, it’s quite different from what he usually shoots."

Tang Wen clicked the mouse, and the image on the computer screen changed to the next one. "This is the backup candidate. He has experience shooting in the food industry, but his rate is three times higher than the first guy’s."

"Mm, very good." Xu An nodded. "Let’s give the first photographer a try. If he doesn’t meet our requirements, we can contact the second one."

With that, Xu An took a step and walked over to Wang Fulong. He picked up the documents on the desk and asked while reading, "How big of an impact did this food safety issue have on our partnerships?"

"Even though the clarification was timely and we had official backing, there was still an impact." A gloomy look appeared on Wang Fulong’s face, as if he were mourning his lost commission. "Of the companies from the Hai City Machinery Equipment Exhibition that were interested in partnering, two canceled because they felt we were too high-risk. Both were large companies with eight hundred employees..."

HSSS—

Even though Xu An had braced himself the moment the incident occurred, hearing this result still made his heart ache.

’Eight hundred people! Two large companies with eight hundred people each! Even if we only worked with them for a month, the net profit would have been over a hundred thousand.’

’Now, those orders... are gone!’

Xu An was grinding his teeth in frustration. ’Don’t let me find out which son of a bitch reported us. If I do, even if I can’t kill you, I’ll stuff you in a sack and give you a savage beating!’

’No, for losing such big orders, one beating isn’t enough. It’ll take at least eight or ten beatings just to feel like I’m getting a little interest back.’

"...We had high hopes for the elementary school bid we recently participated in, but after this incident, our shop was removed directly from the shortlist." Wang Fulong took a dramatic pause. "However, after the news report came out yesterday, three local Hai City companies proactively approached us wanting to sign employee meal contracts. Once their internal processes are complete, we’ll have a deal. They’re scheduled to start receiving meals next Monday. Two other companies have just submitted their applications and are currently awaiting a response."

"Not bad, not bad at all! That’s the best news I’ve heard in the last two days!" Xu An smiled. "Have you found a bid specialist? If not, I’ll post a job opening on a recruitment app."

"I have. A kid from my relative’s family. I asked him to come and try it out. I’ll train him personally. If he really can’t adapt, then we can post a job opening."

Wang Fulong smiled a little sheepishly. After all, this wasn’t his own shop, and bringing a relative in to work so casually did have the feel of forming a clique.

"Fine. Just let me know if you need anything."

Xu An didn’t mind. The bid specialist’s job was to organize bidding materials and run errands, freeing up Wang Fulong’s time to handle the actual bidding process. The important thing was that Wang Fulong had someone he could work well with.

After assigning everyone their tasks and direction, Xu An returned to the cashier counter at Shop No. 1. His butt had barely touched the chair when his phone rang.

"Hello, Brother Liu. What’s up? Ordering braised food? No problem. How much are you planning to purchase today?"

"Two hundred and thirty jin? Okay. It’s the first day back in business, can you sell that much? Should you take a little less?"

"Alright, fine. You’ll still pick it up from Xu’s Braised Shop at 4:30 PM, right? Okay, no problem!"

Liu Zhaowen’s business had also resumed normal operations. After being forced to close for two days, everything was back to normal.

To be honest, aside from losing several bids, the impact wasn’t that significant in other areas. At least, the impact on Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant wasn’t major.

After the local Hai City station’s news broadcast ended at 7:30 last night, Xu An had contacted Ye Ning to reopen the online ordering service for Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant.

Because he didn’t have a computer at home, Xu An waited until the next morning, after dropping Xu Kang and Xu Le off at kindergarten, to return to the shop and check the orders in the backend system.

He had no idea what to expect, but one look was all it took to shock him.

The moment the webpage reopened, twelve orders had flooded in. All of them were placed at exactly 7:30:05 PM!

Over the next half hour, orders grew rapidly at a rate of almost twenty per minute before the pace finally slowed. As of 8:00 AM, there were a total of 2,137 delivery orders for the day.

This was nearly a thousand fewer orders than before the shutdown, but for the first day back, Xu An was already quite satisfied with this number. It was much better than he had expected. ’At least we’re not starting over from scratch.’

「At Yu Liang’s home.」

The two days that Xu’s Braised Shop was in trouble were the happiest, most euphoric two days of Yu Liang’s life.

Of course, he wasn’t excited because of Xu An’s misfortune, but because of his account! In just those two short days, it had become a standard "Big V" account with 100,000 followers!

Riding the wave of hype and media influence from the past two days, he had landed two gigs. It wasn’t a lot, but the two jobs together paid 23,000 yuan! That was equivalent to his previous four months of income!

Though ecstatic, Yu Liang knew perfectly well that he had only gotten these numbers by piggybacking on Xu An’s popularity. It would be very difficult to maintain this level of hype with the kind of content he used to make.

In other words, if he wanted to maintain this popularity, he had to come up with some new gimmick.

And that was precisely the problem. If he were capable of coming up with new gimmicks, he wouldn’t have been just a minor blogger with a little over 10,000 followers before.

Just as he was scratching his head, trying to think of some content to maintain his popularity, his phone suddenly buzzed. He glanced up and saw that the "Xu’s Catering" account had posted a new update.

’Ta-da! The packaged food license and all other necessary certifications have been approved! Xu’s Braised Shop, under our Xu’s Catering brand, is officially launching online sales! Friends who are interested in our braised foods can head over to the TaoBao app~ And let me let you in on a little secret: the [Hellish Braised Flavor] that everyone’s been curious about will also be listed for sale tonight at 8 PM along with the other braised foods!

To thank everyone for your support these past few days, the first ten customers get their orders for free! The first fifty customers get 50% off! The first two hundred... get 20% off! And for the first 24 hours... free shipping on all items! ...’

’Hellish Braised Flavor?’

’The hype around that seems pretty good, too. Maybe I should do an episode where I personally taste-test the Hellish Braised Flavor? A lot of people would probably be interested in that, right?’

Although he thought it was good content, during the seven-day grand opening event, Yu Liang had seen far too many reckless warriors try the challenge. Just watching them had left a lingering fear in his heart...

’Maybe I should think of some other hot topics first. I’ll keep the Hellish Braised Flavor as my top backup plan.’

While he was thinking, Yu Liang opened the TaoBao app. He typed the three words "Xu’s Braised Shop" into the store search bar. In the list of shops that appeared, he had to scroll down past four others before he saw the familiar logo of Xu’s Braised Shop.

He clicked on it and saw five products listed on the virtual shelf. The moment he saw the prices, the corner of Yu Liang’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch.

’9,999 yuan for 500g? This isn’t braised food, it’s solid gold!’

Before the twitching in his mouth could even stop, a new idea popped into his head. ’Didn’t I want to create another viral hot topic? This price... isn’t this a perfect choice? Combine this price with the Hellish Braised Flavor topic, and it’s a guaranteed viral hit!’

’But, I should probably discuss it with the boss of Xu’s Catering first.’

Yu Liang quickly opened his QQ chat window with Xu An and sent him a message.

’Boss Xu, want to collaborate again? How about I promote the Xu’s Braised Shop on Taobao for you, free of charge?’