Chapter 255: Mr. He, Are You Sure About a Direct 200,000 Price Drop

The blogger did his best to put on a calm and casual front, but his contorted face, constant drooling, and skin flushed bright red told everyone that he was on the verge of exploding.

Just as Bao expected, the blogger reached back in the next second and pulled out a bottle. Though the label was torn off, one could still tell at a glance that it was a Coke. He twisted off the cap and started chugging, GLUG, GLUG, GLUG.

From the first gulp to the last, it took him less than ten seconds!

If there was a Guinness World Record for the fastest Coke chugger, this blogger could probably place in the top three!

“Hiss… Is it really *that* spicy?” Bao slurped back his drool and muttered to himself. He was now a little tempted to try this Hellish Braised Flavor, but the price… ‘Forget it, forget it…’

Although he was thinking ‘forget it,’ his hands moved without the slightest hesitation. He hit pause on the video, opened Taobao, and typed ‘Xu’s Braised Shop’ into the search bar. As soon as he got to the homepage, he saw two rotating announcements.

“The 9,999 yuan price is a placeholder! The official sale starts at 8 PM! We ask all customers who have already placed an order to please apply for a refund! Thank you!”

“Grand Opening Event! The first ten customers to pay will get their orders for free! The first fifty customers to pay will get 50% off… All customers who purchase within the first twenty-four hours get free shipping!”

Bao’s eyes locked onto the two words “for free.” ‘With my family’s super-fast broadband and the hand speed I’ve honed for over twenty years, getting into the top ten doesn’t seem that hard… and that 9,999 yuan price isn’t the final one. Maybe I can actually afford it…’

‘Whatever, I’ll just add it to my cart for now!’

He tapped on the product page, and all five products available in the Xu’s Braised Shop appeared before his eyes.

‘Only five? That’s it?’

He clicked on the “Spicy Flavor” item and chose to add it to his cart. A pop-up page showed five different dish names, each option accompanied by a photo…

‘This seaweed looks pretty good! The beef seems nice too! Ooh, the duck feet are also tempting…’

Suffering from a bout of indecisiveness, Bao agonized for two seconds before adding every single option to his cart.

He didn’t spare any of them—Spicy, Hellish, Five-Spice, Savory Soy, Sichuan Peppercorn, and all the rest. His shopping cart was suddenly filled with over twenty items, each priced at 9,999 yuan.

「In the office of Xu’s Fast Food Restaurant.」

“Jiayi, what are the ‘add-to-cart’ numbers for the different braised dish flavors?” Xu An’s voice cut through the office, which was otherwise filled only with the sound of typing and the clack-clack of a mouse.

“Excellent. Hellish Braised Flavor: 1,600 cart adds. Spicy Braised Flavor: 1,250 cart adds. Five-Spice Braised Flavor… The grand total of items added to carts is 5,321!” Gu Jiayi rapidly rattled off the numbers.

The numbers jolted Xu An. Even if only two-thirds of those five thousand-plus cart additions turned into actual orders, that would still be over 3,500 units—equivalent to three days of sales at the Xu’s Braised Shop during its peak!

A single vacuum sealer, even operating twenty-four hours a day, wouldn’t be able to handle that volume. They’d need at least three more!

‘Zhang Dezhen would have to stay at the shop and work all day just to complete that many orders. Nanny He and the others can’t possibly work around the clock, so I’ll have to hire some temps or part-timers to help with packing. I need to sign a partnership contract with SF Express, otherwise the shipping fee will be a couple yuan more expensive per package…’

The pen in Xu An’s hand flew across his notebook, row after row of text filling the blank page.

“Boss, the prices have all been changed. Should I sync them to the Taobao Store now? The update tool has about a ten-second delay, so I suggest uploading eleven seconds early!” Gu Jiayi reminded him as the clock ticked closer to eight.

“Then upload the prices at 7:59:49!” Xu An shot a quick glance up before lowering his head and continuing to scribble in his notebook.

“Got it!”

7:59:46… 7:59:47… 7:59:48…

Gu Jiayi’s finger gave the mouse a light click. A pop-up window appeared from the update tool, a progress bar at the bottom.

20%… 38%… 63%… 94%… 99%… 100%. Upload complete!

BEEP BEEP BEEP—

Hearing the tone indicating a successful upload, Xu An quickly grabbed his phone from the desk, lit up the screen, and swiped down to refresh the product page. The items priced at 9,999 yuan just a second ago instantly changed to 5-40 yuan.

The very instant the product prices on the Taobao Store were successfully updated, a DING-DONG, DING-DONG sound began, ringing in the ears of everyone in the office like a torrent of pearls falling onto a jade plate.

The sound, which would have been unbearably noisy on any other day, sounded exceptionally sweet and beautiful at this moment.

Xu An and the others all shot up from their seats and gathered behind Gu Jiayi’s chair, their eyes collectively glued to the order data on the backend dashboard.

Gu Jiayi’s finger lightly tapped the right mouse button and selected the refresh option. The backend page flashed, and the order numbers after the product names jumped from zero to double digits!

On the second refresh, the order numbers for all flavors shot up, almost neck and neck, and were about to break one hundred.

On the third refresh, a gap began to appear between the order numbers for the different flavors.

On the fourth refresh, the Hellish Braised Flavor and Spicy Braised Flavor had pulled far ahead of the others.

…

Finally, the Hellish Braised Flavor, at an astonishing speed, left the other flavors far behind it. In just half an hour, its order count broke four digits! And it was still climbing!