The moment I entered the shop, I knew why Bai Liu had specifically come to pick me up.
She had reserved the entire coffee shop, which was packed with various media holding cameras and equipment. I immediately spotted Yang Ping sitting in a corner seat holding a large bouquet of flowers, and beside him were seven or eight unfamiliar faces I’d never seen before. Upon seeing me, they all stood up at once, each also holding flowers.
“They’re family members of No. 29’s past victims, plus a few who couldn’t make it from out of town.”
Han Sha said softly: “Hearing that the nature of the case changed, they specially came to thank you.”
Song Nanshi widened her eyes and whispered behind me: “Boss, you’re so amazing. Back at the funeral home, only the biggest leaders would have this many people bringing flowers.”
“…”
I couldn’t be bothered correcting Song Nanshi right now. Bai Liu gently pushed me from beside: “Go on, without you persistently staying in that house, this case couldn’t have been overturned. They all came for you.”
In the moment I hesitated, those victim family members holding flowers had already surrounded me with tears in their eyes. Yang Ping even directly embraced me, sobbing uncontrollably: “I knew it… my sister wouldn’t commit suicide, she wouldn’t. Boss Bai, thank you. The police told me earlier that if you hadn’t persisted in staying in the house, they wouldn’t have been able to find evidence to overturn the case so quickly.”
“For this matter you should mainly thank Officer… Officer Xiao He. He’s the one who persisted in investigating the case. I just…”
Just persisted in wanting to make some money.
I felt guilty being praised like this, but the victims’ families were already emotional. One young woman even held me and wailed—six years ago, she had lost her only brother in No. 29.
The long-standing gloom of suddenly losing loved ones had pressed on many people’s hearts like a stone. Though this long-delayed justice might not completely heal the pain, at least the truth about No. 29 should belong to them.
This sudden “thank you meeting” finally ended with Bai Liu uniformly arranging cars to take people to the precinct for supplementary statements.
After only the media remained in the room, Bai Liu’s expression changed, saying coldly: “Today’s events—you can only publish them when I let you publish them. If I find out any of you leaked it early and disrupted police work, I will definitely sue you into bankruptcy so you can never work in this industry again. Understand?”
“…Looks like Bai Family Hot Sauce should change bosses.”
Han Sha chuckled quietly behind me.
After sending away the swarm of media, I was somewhat confused: “Sis, how did you…”
Bai Liu lit a thin cigarette and glanced at me: “Doing business with a haunted house has risks. Your success was built on these people’s suffering after all. I was already considering how to resolve this issue, but fortunately the result is good now. I’m just afraid that person at home might pull some other tricks later. To avoid giving people something to gossip about, we need a safety net first.”
Han Sha snorted with laughter: “Quite clever. Though making money from a haunted house, you also gave the victims the truth through it, so this shop’s foundation is completely clean now.”
“As soon as the police issue their reinvestigation announcement, I’ll have them release the news. Captain He said it’s just a matter of these couple days.”
Bai Liu finished her cigarette and came over to pinch my face like a boss: “Everything that needed to be done is done. Rest well these two days. When you reopen, I want to hear your weekly financial reports. If you can’t make the numbers, Yang Zi, I will hold you accountable for past investments.”
“…”
“Huh?”
Too much had happened in one day. My brain had completely crashed by now, staring at her incredulously: “Big sister, No. 29 just solved a case, it’s not like it was blessed. How could my little broken shop possibly…”
Before I could finish, Bai Liu was already shaking her head to interrupt me.
“Your little broken shop is about to be blessed.”
She winked at me: “In a week I’ve invited the deputy abbot of Luohan Temple to perform a ritual for you. This time I’ll livestream the whole thing for that person at home to see, specifically to annoy him… You definitely won’t let me down, right?”
Me: “…”
Facts proved that Huangliang Yimeng and Luohan Temple indeed had some unusual connection.
This time my sister directly donated a new bell to Luohan Temple. The donor list included not only Bai Family Hot Sauce and Huangliang Yimeng, but also the names of all No. 29’s victims.
Bai Liu said: “Every New Year from now on, everyone who comes to Luohan Temple to ring the bell will pray for them, hoping that if there’s an afterlife, they can have a good destination.”
As expected, under my sister’s financial power operation, the Luohan Temple ritual a week later was extremely grand. Under the temple’s guidance, all victim families offered lamps before Buddha. As the truth about No. 29 was revealed by media as man-made, Huangliang Yimeng’s haunted house nature was completely transformed. When reopening, all the dessert packaging in the shop was changed.
Han Sha suggested I change all the exorcism sets to blessing sets, plus add special charity sets. The charity sets included lotus flower pudding cakes I made and lotus heart-clearing drinks. With third-party supervision, all proceeds from charity sets would be donated to a common account for victim families.
After all preparations were made, on opening day, Bai Liu attended in formal dress as Executive President of Bai Family Hot Sauce. Not only that, she also invited many food blogger influencers and famous Yujiang pastry masters as taste testers, completely confirming speculation that the Bai family was the shareholder behind Huangliang Yimeng.
Of course, initially I was unwilling to let these two be associated.
Mom’s hot sauce had already been crowned with the Bai family name. I originally didn’t want her cakes to also bear the surname Bai. A few days before opening, I awkwardly raised objections with my sister, but she shut me up with one sentence.
“You and I both have the surname Bai. We can’t dig that person’s genes out of our DNA, just like you can’t change the fact that Guan Yinli No. 29 was a haunted house. But now that even a haunted house where four people died can become a 4.6-rated internet famous shop in your hands, so what if it’s surnamed Bai? It is surnamed Bai, but from now on, it’s also Bai Liu’s Bai, Bai Yang’s Bai.”
Just like that, my sister’s pyramid scheme talent successfully activated again. That night we had a long-overdue drinking session together. The next day when I woke up, my sister slapped that opening ceremony plan right on my face.
This time, Bai Liu was clearly determined to win.
On opening day, to prevent me from being overwhelmed, she even sent several veterans from the factory to help. This operation completely disregarded the family’s face—most likely, the board of directors had already given her quite an earful.
Under these circumstances, Huangliang Yimeng’s business couldn’t possibly be bad.
On one side was overwhelming marketing from internet famous shops, on the other was news of No. 29’s major criminal case breakthrough. In the first week of opening, nearly every day until our inventory sold out, there were over a hundred people queuing at the door, including some who came specifically from out of town, driving over 200 kilometers just to eat a piece of cake.
To serve the surging customers, Song Nanshi, the three kitchen machines in the shop, and I had all given our utmost effort, but even so we still couldn’t meet the shop’s demand. Plus after He Jian’s “accidental resignation,” the shop was always short one server. Eventually, I could only discuss with Han Sha and Bai Liu to implement the ultimate pretentious method of internet famous shops.
Reservation system.
Huangliang Yimeng released reservation vouchers for various sets based on daily maximum inventory capacity, totaling 180 portions. Reservations opened at 10 PM every night, and entry required a reservation number.
In the past, only the biggest internet famous shops in the industry dared to use this ultimate weapon. A few months ago, I never imagined my little broken shop could become a prestigious reservation-only shop.
On the first day of releasing numbers, all Huangliang Yimeng staff gathered on the first floor staring at my tiny phone screen.
It had been a minute past ten o’clock. Song Nanshi was as nervous as checking college entrance exam scores, whispering: “Boss… should you refresh?”
I thought she didn’t need to remind me—I’d been frantically hitting refresh since 10:01, but for some reason, my phone just showed a white screen.
Forcing Han Sha, this middle-aged office worker, to work overtime at this hour clearly infuriated him. Seeing this, he rolled his eyes: “What exactly gave you two the illusion that becoming reservation-only would affect business?”
I thought if you’d also closed seven shops like me you’d have PTSD too. After hitting refresh dozens of times, finally at 10:02, small text appeared on the booking page.
Today’s reservation numbers are sold out, please try again tomorrow.
“…”
I even doubted I was seeing things for a moment. After refreshing twice in shock, it was still the same text. I couldn’t help but stare in amazement: “That was only two minutes!”
Han Sha’s face was full of the pain of being a nanny, saying helplessly: “Boss, you’ve opened so many shops, how do you still not understand? Hunger marketing is the most effective marketing method for internet famous shops. Believe it or not, if you don’t expand for three months and only release this many numbers daily, within five seconds every day the numbers will be sold out?”
Having been poor too long, I still felt somewhat unreal about being able to make money this easily. Seeing this, Han Sha smiled: “If you don’t believe it, just try. Make exactly this many portions daily, not one more. As long as you can guarantee quality, your business will only get better and better.”
Though Han Sha had major issues with character, in business matters, he really lived up to my sister’s judgment.
For the next three days, I tried what Han Sha suggested, strictly making only the reserved portions. Even when customers wanted to order more on site, I didn’t make a single extra portion. Just like that, after three days, Song Nanshi and I timed it with a stopwatch and found that Huangliang Yimeng’s 180 reservation numbers were sold out at exactly 10:02 PM.
…
I had to admit that contemporary internet famous shop management models were profound things, comparable to Double Eleven discount rules, and I was only scratching the surface.
After tasting success, I continued the routine of not making a single extra portion daily. But soon I discovered that Huangliang Yimeng’s next weak link might be the boss’s brain.
For two consecutive days, the inventory I prepared didn’t match the quantity customers ordered the next day. Though being short just one or two portions was still manageable for emergency fixes, making mistakes while busy due to insufficient staff was unavoidable. This made me start considering whether Huangliang Yimeng needed to immediately hire someone new.
After all, once business got on track, not only were we short-staffed in both front and back during the day, but with more customers, the post-closing hall cleaning work was also very difficult for Song Nanshi alone. These past two days, to clean up all the garbage left in corners and crevices, Song Nanshi had no time to help me prepare the next day’s inventory.
He Jian couldn’t possibly return to work, and I couldn’t expect Han Sha to sell his charm.
It seemed I really needed to put hiring on the agenda soon.
After another day’s business ended, I was thinking about what kind of job posting I should write to attract some reliable handsome guys and beautiful women… specifically the kind who wouldn’t want to deceive me.
As I was lost in thought, suddenly the copper bell at the door rang. I instinctively said: “Today’s business hours are over. Would you like to make a reservation for tomorrow…”
Before I finished speaking, the person had already handed me a cup of milk tea.
I looked up to see He Jian in plain black clothes standing before me. He seemed to have just come out of a nearby electronics store, carrying a whole bag of items, smiling at me.
“Boss, do you have time now? I came to handle resignation procedures and also to apologize.”