March 15th, Thursday.

Pei Qian arrived at Slackin’ Internet Café, and after finishing breakfast, he sipped his coffee while considering the situation with his other businesses.

“Hmm… feels like it’s been a while since I’ve heard any news from Cold-Faced Girl.”

“Wonder how things are going there lately.”

Pei Qian’s impression of Cold-Faced Girl was still from a month ago, when Tenda’s various brick-and-mortar businesses began expanding into the capital. Pei Qian had specifically instructed Rui Yuchen to open a Slackin’ Delivery store directly across from a Cold-Faced Girl outlet.

By now, this store should have already started official operations.

Cold-Faced Girl had always been one of Pei Qian’s key projects that he paid attention to, but recently his main energy had been focused on Rabbit Tail Streaming. Plus, the capital was too far from Jingzhou to visit frequently for inspections, so he was somewhat behind on information.

However, Pei Qian wasn’t worried. It had only been a little over a month, and there hadn’t been any major news about Cold-Faced Girl circulating online.

If Meng Chang were still serving as Cold-Faced Girl’s boss, he would need to be more vigilant, as Meng Chang was too good at making things happen. But now that Meng Chang was no longer in charge, Cold-Faced Girl’s original employees should have lost their fighting spirit and be living aimlessly each day, right?

Still, to be safe, Pei Qian searched for “Cold-Faced Girl” on his phone.

However, a video that had just been released last night on the AiLiDao website appeared prominently.

“Street Vendor Life: Episode One”!

This video had “Cold-Faced Girl” in its keywords, and seemed to be getting quite a lot of attention on the AiLiDao website, which is why it showed up in the search.

Among the various messy self-media posts riding the popularity wave and talking about Cold-Faced Girl’s decline, this video stood out as refreshingly unique and out of place.

Pei Qian was stunned.

What the hell was this?

He quickly clicked on the video to watch.

The video began with an old city wall. The blue bricks below the wall were covered with moss, and a fine drizzle was falling steadily as evening approached.

Pedestrians on the road looked hurried, but in the streets and alleys of the ancient city, many small shops were bustling with customers. Even the light rain couldn’t extinguish the vibrant atmosphere of everyday life.

Accompanying the video, a steady male voice narrated:

“The atmosphere of everyday life is found in the soy milk and fried dough sticks at the corner shop, in the sweet potatoes roasting on the stove, in the lamb skewers at the barbecue restaurant, in the grilled cold noodles at the street stalls…”

“Four directional foods, all just a bowl of human fireworks.”

“Chinese food culture has a long history, and many night markets have become famous throughout the country. Night markets are gatherings of delicious food and great places for setting up stalls.”

“Every night, amid the bustling crowds, streets, alleys, and markets are the environments many people cherish most. Only when surrounded by this atmosphere of everyday life can many people relax their tense nerves, forget the day’s fatigue, and freely release their emotions…”

The video wasn’t short, about 30 minutes in total.

The film was shot in Chang’an, basically divided into three ten-minute segments. The first part briefly introduced Chang’an’s local food culture and famous local delicacies; the second part focused on a particular street, mainly introducing some small shops and vendors with good-tasting food, discussing their life experiences and hardships; the third part introduced their exclusive dishes.

The entire film emphasized a sense of everyday life, with all scenes shot at night when markets and street stalls were busiest, with various diners coming and going. When filming the food, close-up slow-motion shots displayed the color, aroma, and flavor of the delicacies in all their glory.

At the beginning, the video’s tone was relaxed and leisurely, with diners at street stalls laughing heartily, infecting the viewers; but in the second part, when discussing the life experiences of store owners and vendors, there was a touch of sadness; finally, when showcasing the food, the previously restrained emotions were all released, pushing viewers’ emotions to a peak.

At the end of the video, a Cold-Faced Girl logo appeared on a black screen, with a small line of text below: “Cold-Faced Girl Food Laboratory, bringing you the authentic taste of local flavors!”

…

Pei Qian checked and saw that this video had been released yesterday, and by now had become extremely popular, with views already exceeding one million!

The dense bullet comments in the video demonstrated its popularity.

“This made me drool!”

“As a local from Chang’an, I didn’t even know we had these delicacies…”

“Some famous restaurants aren’t actually good. But some nameless stalls in the streets and alleys are incredibly delicious!”

“The production team put in effort; this film is made with genuine sincerity.”

“Everything looks so delicious! I must try these when I get the chance!”

“I always thought these vendors with such busy businesses must make a lot of money, but now I know that most of them started setting up stalls out of life’s necessities. It’s not easy for any of them.”

“I’m quite moved; down-to-earth films like this really touch people!”

“Watching made me hungry, but I’m not in Chang’an, so I can’t eat these!”

“Was this film made by Cold-Faced Girl? What’s happening with Cold-Faced Girl, transitioning from restaurants to making documentaries?”

“I remember Cold-Faced Girl used to trend every three days, but they’ve been silent for a few months and I thought they were done for. Didn’t expect them to release such a documentary!”

“Cold-Faced Girl gives a much better impression now, or is that just my imagination?”

“What does that last line of text mean?”

“I checked, and it seems Cold-Faced Girl is building a food laboratory to search for delicacies from all over the country, recruiting people, buying recipes, and turning these local foods into Cold-Faced Girl menu items.”

“Really? That’s great! When will these new items be available? I’m in the capital and will definitely try them when I have time!”

The netizens’ attitudes were very positive, and even their attitudes toward Cold-Faced Girl had greatly improved!

Although news had previously broken that Tenda Group had taken over Cold-Faced Girl, there had been no news since the street food competition, and it had gradually faded from public view.

Internet trends come fast and go fast, and most netizens have the memory of goldfish.

Many people’s impression of Cold-Faced Girl was still stuck on “Meng Chang,” “trending topics,” and “tasteless grilled cold noodles,” so seeing this video was a refreshing surprise!

Strictly speaking, it was hard to define whether this video was a promotional film or a documentary.

On one hand, it was promoting food and Cold-Faced Girl’s food laboratory, but on the other hand, it was using documentary techniques to film various details, giving a strong sense of authenticity.

On video websites, food has always been a topic that easily accumulates popularity. Many big content creators in the lifestyle section with millions of followers built their careers on food content.

So, this well-produced, sincere video immediately accumulated extreme popularity and sparked widespread discussion!

The various details shown in the video gave people a sense of a factual attitude, naturally creating more goodwill toward the already partially redeemed “Cold-Faced Girl” brand.

The video was a hit, but Pei Qian felt dizzy.

When was this video filmed?!

The video was posted from Fei Huang Studio’s official account, so clearly Huang Sibo and his team were behind it.

More importantly, what was this Cold-Faced Girl Food Laboratory all about?

Pei Qian instantly felt a sense of crisis.

He had already suffered losses from a food laboratory before!

To make Slackin’ Delivery burn more money, Pei Qian had also asked Rui Yuchen to build a food laboratory to regularly develop new menu items.

He thought it wouldn’t greatly improve Slackin’ Delivery’s taste, but unexpectedly, this food laboratory developed many special dishes, including fitness meals, “Food·Harmony,” and others, making indelible contributions to turning Slackin’ Delivery from loss to profit!

People can’t stumble over the same stone twice.

Cold-Faced Girl’s food laboratory was clearly of a similar nature to Slackin’ Delivery’s food laboratory, and it was even more dangerous!

Because Slackin’ Delivery’s food laboratory relied mainly on their own exploration, the failure rate for developing new menu items was very high.

But Cold-Faced Girl’s food laboratory was quite special—they sent teams across the country to search for delicacies, then made videos to promote them, recruited the chefs or bought the recipes, and directly copied them!

This efficiency was definitely much higher than developing recipes themselves!

And from the reactions in the bullet comments, most people were quite receptive to this approach.

Cold-Faced Girl had been criticized mainly because of poor taste.

If Cold-Faced Girl could really recreate the taste of special foods from around the country—they didn’t need to be identical, just about 80% similar—there would definitely be plenty of people wanting to try them!

This promotional film appeared to be promoting street food and celebrating food culture from various regions, but it was actually advertising for Cold-Faced Girl!

Pei Qian suddenly felt a strong sense of crisis.

The failure of Slackin’ Delivery was still fresh in his mind. What if Cold-Faced Girl followed the same path?

Just thinking about Cold-Faced Girl opening stores all over the country like Slackin’ Delivery made Pei Qian feel like a mouthful of old blood was stuck in his throat, ready to spurt out at any moment.

“Stay calm, stay calm.”

“Think carefully about how to deal with this food laboratory.”

“Simply shutting it down is definitely not appropriate; there’s no suitable reason. Perhaps… I could try a different approach, turning big profits into small profits?”

“Even if we can’t maintain losses, earning less might be a solution!”

Actually, Pei Qian wasn’t too worried about a single store.

Like the Nameless Restaurant, although it was very popular, it could only serve a limited number of customers.

As long as they couldn’t open chain restaurants or expand and replicate without limits, the profits generated would be limited.

Unfortunately, Cold-Faced Girl was a fast-food model that could expand and replicate without limits. Once the food laboratory’s new menu items succeeded and Cold-Faced Girl’s stores started making profits, new branches would inevitably open, without a doubt.

So, could he find a reason to disrupt Cold-Faced Girl’s current model?

After much thought, Pei Qian suddenly had a bright idea.

“Got it!”

“Split up Cold-Faced Girl!”

“Just open a new project to restrain Cold-Faced Girl and compete for resources, and that will perfectly limit Cold-Faced Girl’s development!”

“Establish a ‘Snack Market’ in Jingzhou, and poach all those vendors from various regions that Cold-Faced Girl worked so hard to recruit, letting them continue to set up stalls.”

“Provide them with the best environment for their stalls and the best benefits.”

“As long as the conditions here are better, they naturally won’t mess around with Cold-Faced Girl or research new menu items for them!”

“Even if this snack market becomes popular, it won’t open chain locations, and it can only serve a very limited number of customers, so the profits will be completely within a controllable range!”