Pei Qian immediately opened his phone and searched for “Cold Noodle Girl” on Baidu.
However, he didn’t find much useful information—just entries like “Cold Noodle Girl – Baidu Encyclopedia,” “The End of the Cold Noodle Girl Myth,” “Essential Reading for Entrepreneurs: Cold Noodle Girl Business Plan,” and similar content.
These results were basically from several months ago, with no current information.
“Useless Baidu!”
Pei Qian silently complained again and decided to be more direct by calling Qi Yan, the current person in charge of Cold Noodle Girl!
Since taking over Cold Noodle Girl, Pei Qian had consistently avoided having too much interaction with the business.
Apart from approving the Street Food Competition, Pei Qian hadn’t given Qi Yan any clear instructions.
Not only that, but when Rui Yuchen’s Slackin’ Delivery expanded to the capital, Pei Qian had specifically instructed Rui Yuchen to open a store directly opposite Cold Noodle Girl, intending for Slackin’ Delivery to steal all of Cold Noodle Girl’s customers.
Pei Qian also hadn’t allocated extra funds to Cold Noodle Girl or opened new branches, instead keeping expenses at the slightly below-average level needed for a single store to operate normally.
This approach was clearly influenced by the lesson of Slackin’ Delivery.
Back then, Slackin’ Delivery had been consistently losing money, so Pei Qian kept funding its expansion. After expanding until it nearly covered the entire Handong Province, suddenly one garbage classification initiative changed everything!
Moreover, considering the powerful observer effect that seemed to follow him, Pei Qian was terrified that if he gave Cold Noodle Girl even the simplest instruction, Qi Yan might misinterpret it and the business would suddenly explode in popularity.
Although this Cold Noodle Girl store had been consistently losing money, Pei Qian had resisted the urge to invest in opening more branches.
It must be said, the restraint had been quite difficult.
But this precisely demonstrated that Pei Qian actually had high hopes for Cold Noodle Girl!
It was exactly because he hoped this money-burning tree would grow smoothly without problems that Pei Qian had been so careful not to give it too much attention.
But now, Cold Noodle Girl, which had been left to fend for itself, was about to turn things around?
How was that possible?
Pei Qian couldn’t accept this reality at all.
But Mr. Li’s message definitely wasn’t sent without reason—something must have gone wrong!
The call connected quickly.
“Mr. Pei?” Qi Yan’s voice was pleasantly surprised; clearly, receiving a call from Mr. Pei after several months was unexpected.
The background noise on the call was quite chaotic.
There were electronic sounds announcing when orders were ready for pickup, customers moving around and talking—it sounded quite busy.
Pei Qian’s heart sank as he realized the problem was serious.
Shouldn’t the Cold Noodle Girl store be extremely quiet and deserted?
But since he could only hear sounds without seeing the actual scene, Pei Qian still clung to a sliver of hope.
“How are things over at Cold Noodle Girl?” Pei Qian asked.
It was already after ten in the morning, and Qi Yan was at the Cold Noodle Girl store. The seats were about 70-80% full, people were queuing in a long line to order, and Slackin’ Delivery couriers were coming and going to pick up orders.
Looking at this busy scene and hearing Mr. Pei’s question, Qi Yan felt a warmth in her heart.
Indeed, Mr. Pei hadn’t forgotten about Cold Noodle Girl!
Over the past few months, Qi Yan and the Cold Noodle Girl employees had often fallen into self-doubt.
The store showed no improvement, online public opinion hadn’t improved at all, and Mr. Pei hadn’t assigned any tasks to Cold Noodle Girl.
Had Mr. Pei given up on Cold Noodle Girl? Did he have too many businesses to care about this one?
But after Rui Yuchen clarified things for Qi Yan, she finally understood—Mr. Pei hadn’t neglected Cold Noodle Girl but had been quietly making arrangements, waiting for the right moment!
Now, the Food Market had opened, and with Slackin’ Delivery’s support, Cold Noodle Girl’s reputation had turned around, and customer traffic had increased.
Mr. Pei calling immediately to check on Cold Noodle Girl’s situation—what did this mean?
It meant that Mr. Pei had been paying attention to Cold Noodle Girl all along, and as soon as the plan succeeded, he immediately called to inquire and verify, while also showing his concern!
Qi Yan immediately replied: “Please rest assured, Mr. Pei, everything is proceeding according to plan!”
“Since yesterday, Cold Noodle Girl’s customer flow has increased significantly, and these past two days we’ve basically been at full capacity!”
“I randomly interviewed some customers, and they all expressed satisfaction with the taste of the new food items, saying they’re quite good for fast food!”
“I’ve also set up several TVs in the store playing the ‘Street Vendor Profiles’ documentary, which incidentally promotes Jingzhou’s Food Market.”
“Overall, based on the current situation, Cold Noodle Girl will soon be turning a profit!”
Like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, Pei Qian was speechless for a long time.
He was completely baffled.
Hadn’t he completely ignored Cold Noodle Girl?
How could it suddenly become popular?
This was outrageous!
What was even more frustrating was that Pei Qian himself had never provided any guidance to Cold Noodle Girl. Without having given any instructions, he naturally didn’t know exactly where the problem lay. The business was making money inexplicably, and he had no way to diagnose and treat the problem…
“Very well.”
Pei Qian quietly hung up the phone.
Goodbye!
He thought this was a money-burning tree, but he had completely misjudged it!
Pei Qian slightly regretted his decision—if he had known this would happen, he would rather have opened several more stores to lose more money!
But then again, that wasn’t right either. If he had opened more stores earlier, wouldn’t all those stores be making money now…
Now there was only this one store. No matter how profitable it became, even if it reached the level of some foreign fast food brands, a single store’s monthly net profit would be at most a few hundred thousand yuan.
After all, while fast food stores have high turnover, their gross profit margins are relatively low, with fixed costs for raw materials, rent, utilities, and staff wages.
Making a few hundred thousand extra per month, for Pei Qian who had money to burn, was no longer something worth getting too excited about.
With the settlement period approaching, there was no point in continuing to fight with Cold Noodle Girl. It was better to use the time to check on other businesses that needed more attention!
Meanwhile, Qi Yan looked at her blank phone screen, puzzled: “Mr. Pei?”
He hung up so abruptly?
If everything at Cold Noodle Girl hadn’t been going so well, Qi Yan would have thought Mr. Pei was angry.
“Indeed, for Mr. Pei, Cold Noodle Girl turning a profit is clearly expected—he just needed to ask once to understand the situation, no need for further discussion.”
“Taking things up and letting them go—that’s the mark of a magnanimous entrepreneur.”
“But this also means… everything is going according to Mr. Pei’s plan. I thought I’d done a lot, but I haven’t created any surprises for Mr. Pei.”
“It seems I need to continue working harder. Cold Noodle Girl’s current level is far from enough to impress Mr. Pei. I should follow Rui Yuchen’s advice and continue implementing Mr. Pei’s plan, continue building the Cold Noodle Girl brand, and open more stores!”
Qi Yan silently made her resolution.
The talent in various departments of Tenda was outstanding—first she met Rui Yuchen from Slackin’ Delivery, then Zhang Yahui, Bao Xu, and Liang Qingfan from the Food Market.
Each of them was far more accomplished than herself.
She definitely needed to work harder to live up to her position as a Tenda manager and not disappoint Mr. Pei’s expectations!
…
After hanging up, Pei Qian calmed himself down a bit, went out for brunch, and then took a car to the Tenda Experience Store at Jinsheng Plaza.
According to the previous arrangement, the large screen outside the experience store should be completed today, and Jinsheng Plaza would certainly heavily promote this, inevitably increasing foot traffic in that area.
As for what the situation would be after this increase…
Pei Qian didn’t dare to imagine; he could only go see it with his own eyes.
The road was slightly congested, making Pei Qian reflect once again on Jingzhou’s traffic.
Fortunately, the traffic jam wasn’t too serious, and soon Pei Qian got off at the entrance of Yuanda Tiandi.
Then he saw the huge crowd.
People were packed shoulder to shoulder!
Many were wearing jerseys from various GPL League teams, carrying supporter merchandise, and some even had team logos painted on their faces. Everyone was beaming with smiles.
“Which team do you favor in the finals?”
“Is that even a question? Definitely EK! Jiang Huan will absolutely win the championship this time!”
“Ah, it’s a pity that H4 Club faltered at the end of the spring season. Otherwise, if the spring season had replayed the World Championship scene, a showdown between Jiang Huan and Huang Wang would definitely have been spectacular.”
“What about you? Which team are you supporting this time?”
“Me? I don’t support either team in the finals. I’ll always support DGE!”
“Right, no matter who wins the championship, victory always belongs to DGE!”