Afternoon.
After a busy morning, Qi Yan finally managed to arrange most of the things she had planned earlier.
She had officially hired these excellent vendors as Cold Noodle Girl’s food consultants. Zhang Yahui immediately agreed, while other vendors were still hesitating, saying they would give their responses after considering for a few days.
Obviously, quite a few vendors had families to support and needed to fully communicate with their families before making this decision.
However, Qi Yan was very certain that for both Cold Noodle Girl and the vendors, this would be a win-win decision.
These food consultants would all go through formal hiring procedures. Qi Yan also planned to learn from Slackin’ Delivery and was considering setting up a small food laboratory first, which would include professional chefs, excellent food stall owners, and nutritionists specifically responsible for chemical testing and nutritional balance, all working together to develop new snack products.
Slackin’ Delivery was Mr. Pei’s business, and Slackin’ Delivery’s practices must have received Mr. Pei’s approval.
Learning from Slackin’ Delivery to create a food laboratory – Mr. Pei should be very pleased with this, right?
Although she had never met Mr. Pei in person, Qi Yan still roughly understood Mr. Pei’s intentions based on her understanding of him.
A food laboratory was also very important for street food.
Meng Chang compared street food to domestic fast food, which wasn’t entirely wrong, but at the same time, one must clearly recognize that street food had a long way to go before becoming true fast food brands.
Those foreign fast food brands appeared simple on the surface, consisting of nothing more than fried chicken, fries, burgers, and so on, but in reality, the entire supply chain, techniques, and product development capabilities behind them were not to be underestimated. They had accumulated experience over ten or even dozens of years – something that couldn’t be caught up with overnight.
Perhaps it was precisely because Meng Chang was very clear about this point and felt he couldn’t possibly achieve it that he ultimately chose the path of hyping concepts and making quick money.
There’s a saying that goes: there are only two ways in this world – the right way and the easy way.
Meng Chang chose the easy way, while Mr. Pei chose the right way.
Qi Yan felt that since Mr. Pei had found a solution to break the deadlock, giving Cold Noodle Girl a chance for rebirth and pointing out a clear path for this brand that had been terminally ill, she, in her position, must carry out Mr. Pei’s will.
Although it wasn’t clear what Cold Noodle Girl would develop into in the future, at this moment, Qi Yan suddenly felt full of confidence in it!
After finishing her tasks at hand, she got up to get a cup of coffee and took a look at her colleagues’ work conditions in the office area.
Overall, the situation was quite complex.
Besides its stores, Cold Noodle Girl also had an office area, renting workstations in an office building near the stores. Meng Chang was quite willing to spend money on appearance – coffee, drinks, afternoon tea, snacks, fruits, and everything else were fully provided, and the work environment was very good.
After Tenda took over, everything remained the same, with no signs of cutting benefits, which pleased everyone.
But looking at everyone’s current work conditions, they were quite varied.
Some people were obviously slacking off, looking confused and somewhat lost; while others, though ambitious and wanting to do something, didn’t know specifically where to start.
After Cold Noodle Girl changed owners, most of the original marketing activities were basically canceled, and these people responsible for marketing activities were fully focused on organizing the Street Food Festival. But now that the Street Food Festival was over, they naturally had nothing to do.
There were also some people who were full of worries about Cold Noodle Girl’s future.
They might not have seen that article and didn’t know Mr. Pei’s plans for Cold Noodle Girl’s future. They just felt that judging from the current state of having nothing to do, the company would collapse sooner or later, so they were just passing time day by day, showing a rather negative attitude.
Qi Yan felt she needed to find a way to boost everyone’s morale.
She had received enlightenment and inspiration from Mr. Pei and now had some ideas. But these ideas all required others to execute and cooperate with. If everyone’s attitude continued to be this negative, then even if Qi Yan assigned work tasks, they wouldn’t be completed well.
To boost morale, she needed a proper opportunity to make everyone genuinely convinced.
Just giving speeches and pumping people up would definitely not work well and might even backfire.
Qi Yan thought about it – that article would be perfect.
The reason her colleagues currently lacked fighting spirit and felt confused was mainly that they weren’t clear about Cold Noodle Girl’s past, present, and future development. Once they read this article and understood Mr. Pei’s arrangements for Cold Noodle Girl, everyone’s work attitude would surely improve!
She immediately searched online for that author and was surprised to discover that just moments ago, this author had published another article!
And this article’s title was even more explosive than the previous one: “Cold Noodle Girl: Meng Chang’s Somersault Cloud, Mr. Pei’s Mountain of Five Elements”!
Qi Yan couldn’t help but be stunned – Cold Noodle Girl again?
Publishing two articles about the same topic in such a short time – was this author fixated on Cold Noodle Girl?
While bewildered, Qi Yan also felt somewhat puzzled.
Because she knew very well that this author only wrote articles with real substance and wouldn’t write two or three articles about the same thing or repeatedly ride on a single hot topic.
From this perspective, this author was leagues above those marketing accounts.
Writing about Cold Noodle Girl again but starting a new article must mean the author had found new content and perspectives.
But the article “Cold Noodle Girl’s ‘Breaking’ and ‘Building'” had already detailed the differences between Meng Chang’s and Mr. Pei’s business philosophies. On the topic of Cold Noodle Girl, it seemed to have been written quite thoroughly.
This new article, with its references to “Somersault Cloud” and “Mountain of Five Elements” – what was this all about?
Were they making a Journey to the West adaptation here?
With curiosity, Qi Yan clicked to read the article.
…
The article began by briefly mentioning the previous two articles: “Cold Noodle Girl’s So-Called Internet Thinking is Nothing But Putting on Airs” and “Looking at Cold Noodle Girl’s Breaking and Building Through the Street Food Festival.” These two articles had respectively predicted the bankruptcy of Cold Noodle Girl under Meng Chang’s leadership and the series of changes Mr. Pei would implement after taking over Cold Noodle Girl.
The author specifically included links to both articles, serving as a recap and giving readers a hint: I’m not riding on trends or kicking someone while they’re down. When Cold Noodle Girl was at its peak, I had already raised doubts. My articles are packed with real content, completely different from those marketing accounts that cobble together information from the internet!
Then came the main text.
But before that, the author specifically used a brief passage to inform readers that this article would be different from the previous two.
“Due to the content’s nature, after careful consideration, the author has decided to adopt a different writing style, reviewing the entire rise and fall of Cold Noodle Girl from Meng Chang’s perspective. This may include the author’s personal subjective views and narrative techniques, but I can guarantee that all key plot points align with objective reality. If there are any inaccuracies or errors, I welcome everyone’s criticism and corrections.”
Reading this, Qi Yan was even more surprised.
The previous two articles were written from an observer’s perspective, mainly consisting of objective statements and analysis. Although the articles themselves contained wit and humor with some memorable “divine metaphors,” overall they followed a more traditional writing style.
But this time, the author was going to write from Meng Chang’s first-person perspective?
Qi Yan became even more convinced this article was extraordinary and continued reading.
…
“November 8, 2011, was a Tuesday. On this day, a young man named Meng Chang came to the building of Yangcheng Venture Investment in Jingzhou, preparing to make this place the starting point of his career.”
“He had a very grand plan and a very catchy slogan, but what he truly thought and felt in his heart, almost no one could guess.”
“Meng Chang should be a person with a histrionic personality, and his acting skills were quite impressive.”
“But he didn’t know that more than two months later, when he looked back on this Tuesday morning, his heart would surely be filled with regret.”
“Cold Noodle Girl from its establishment, to becoming popular across the internet, then to being questioned and dimly failing – this perfectly embodied that ancient saying: as swift in its rise, so swift in its fall.”
“Before Cold Noodle Girl, no one imagined that such an internet-famous food brand that burned money so spectacularly would fail so quickly and so thoroughly.”
“And Cold Noodle Girl’s doomed fate seemed to have been sealed from this Tuesday morning.”
“Meng Chang chose Yangcheng Venture Investment as his first target for a simple reason: he thought this was where money was easy to get.”
“Although in the near future, Meng Chang would be called the ‘perfect entrepreneur,’ at present he wasn’t yet qualified to sit at the table. His resume was impressive, but apart from that, he had nothing. Resume and eloquence alone weren’t enough to support his dreams and goals. Other investors would give him money, but this money would surely come with unlimited joint liability agreements or buyback clauses, which Meng Chang couldn’t accept.”
“In fact, Meng Chang only ever received one ‘hot potato’ of money throughout, and only incurred debts of a few million, completely incomparable in amount to those entrepreneurs who owed hundreds of millions.”
“But other entrepreneurs signing similar agreements wasn’t necessarily due to recklessness – they might still believe in their startup’s success; Meng Chang not signing similar agreements wasn’t necessarily due to caution – he might have been clear from the beginning that his entrepreneurship was just a performance: after the glory, nothing but a mess remained.”
“As Tenda Group expanded, the ‘God of Investment’ Mr. Pei, who never failed in any investment, had decided to shift his energy elsewhere. Yangcheng Venture Investment would follow the rules he established, methodically investing in those startup companies according to the plan, and this gave Meng Chang an opportunity.”
“Meng Chang successfully obtained the money and extensively capitalized on ‘Mr. Pei’s investment’ as a marketing angle, even organizing a special press conference to present Cold Noodle Girl’s bright prospects to investors. From this, one could see that Meng Chang’s enthusiasm for marketing had become deeply ingrained in his character. He pursued popularity at all costs, completely disregarding potential future backlash.”