The Tide of Public Opinion Turns

Lao Xu of the "Speaking Food Truthfully" studio, had been staring at the anonymous post on his computer screen for two whole hours.

He's in his early fifties and worked as an investigative journalist for over twenty years. Three years ago, he left traditional media and partnered with several former colleagues to create this self-media account. The name is straightforward, and the positioning is clear: only tell the truth, only dig out the truth. The account doesn't have many followers, just over 500,000, but the engagement is extremely high, and the in-depth investigative articles he posts often get over a million views.

Last night, in the early hours of the morning, Xiao Chen, a young editor in the team, posted this in the work group. "Teacher Xu, look at this, a former Dongbei employee has revealed something."

When Lao Xu clicked on it, his first reaction was: credibility is questionable. The anonymous tip-off, without any evidence, and the fact that it involves a well-known chain restaurant, suggests it could be a smear campaign by a competitor or a former employee venting their anger.

But he still read it carefully. The details of the exposé were very specific: how many meal kits the central kitchen produces every day, 100% pre-made meals at service area stores, 40%-50% at commercial district stores, and the company requiring stores to insist on "freshly made" or face fines... as well as the inside story of how the recent service area video incident was handled.

Having worked in the catering industry for many years, Lao Xu knows how these chain enterprises operate. Central kitchens, pre-prepared dishes, and cold chain distribution are open secrets in the industry, known to everyone. But it's rare to see a company like Dongbei that fully promotes pre-prepared dishes while loudly advertising "freshly made," and then makes such a fuss over a single customer review.

He messaged Xiao Chen: "Check the IP address of the person who posted this, and look for any other corroborating evidence."

An hour later, Xiao Chen replied, "The IP address is from a proxy server, so I can't find the real address. But I searched for recent discussions about Dongbei and found something interesting—a food blogger filmed a video at a service area where two customers said Dongbei's fish was frozen. The blogger later deleted the video and apologized. And Dongbei reacted very strongly, even sending a lawyer's letter."

Lao Xu became interested. "Can the video still be found?"

"The original video has been deleted, but some netizens have taken screenshots of the conversation." Xiao Chen sent several blurry screenshots.

Lao Xu zoomed in to look. In the video, two young men were present. One said the fish was frozen and the meat was tough; the other said, "It's normal for the quality to be a little lower; it's centrally distributed from a kitchen."

It's this sentence: "Distributed centrally from the kitchen."

Would an average person use the term "central kitchen" when dining out?

Lao Xu's news sense was triggered. He asked Xiao Chen to continue digging deeper, while he himself began to contact the connections he had made when he covered the catering industry.

This morning, he received an anonymous email. The sender was a temporary email address, and the attachment contained several blurry screenshots: what appeared to be production records from some internal system, with dates, product names, quantities, and delivery locations—a dense array of numbers. There was also a cold chain logistics delivery slip, requiring a temperature of -18℃, with the recipient listed as "G60 East Gate Service Area Dongbei Catering".

The email body contained only one sentence. "Screenshot of Dongbei Central Kitchen production records, guaranteed authentic."

Lao Xu stared at the screenshots, his fingers tapping lightly on the table.

His twenty years as a journalist told him that these screenshots could be real or carefully forged. But the sender was clearly aware of the recent controversy and knew that "Speaking Food Truthfully" was paying attention to this matter.

He replied to the email, "How can I prove its authenticity?"

The other party did not reply.

Two hours later, Lao Xu received a phone call. The caller claimed to be a former employee of Dongbei and said he could provide more information, but he had to remain anonymous. Lao Xu agreed.

The voice on the phone sounded like that of a middle-aged man, speaking quickly and with a hint of nervousness, "Reporter Xu, I've read the articles on your account, and I know you dare to speak the truth. I've been holding back on the Dongbei matter for a long time..."

He recounted the construction process of the central kitchen, the internal disagreements when the company decided to fully implement pre-prepared meals three years ago, how regional managers falsified accounts to meet the "fresh ingredient procurement ratio" target, how store employees were required to memorize "standard scripts for dealing with customer inquiries," and the overreaction of the company's senior management after the service area video incident.

"Chairman Zheng... that's Chairman Zheng Dong. He values the words 'freshly made' more than his own life," the voice said. "But the more he does this, the more pressure his subordinates feel. Even though they're using pre-prepared ingredients, they insist it's freshly cooked. Customers aren't stupid; can't they tell the difference? Negative reviews are piling up, customer traffic is dropping, but the higher-ups just won't listen. Instead, they think it's our fault for not implementing it properly."

While recording, Lao Xu took notes. "Do you have evidence? Like internal documents, meeting minutes, data reports?"

"I took some things with me when I left," the other person said, "But I don't dare send them to you directly. You can look for them... Dongbei has three cold chain logistics partners, one of which, ' Shunda Cold Chain, ' has delivery records from my hometown. Also, although the central kitchen's production system is on an intranet, the technician responsible for data backup had a conflict with the company last year over overtime pay..."

The phone call lasted for twenty minutes. After hanging up, Lao Xu sat in his chair, motionless for a long time.

His notebook was filled with keywords: central kitchen output, cold chain delivery records, internal rhetoric, regional manager fraud, Zheng Dong's paranoia...

These pieces of information, taken individually, may not be strong enough, but when put together, they form a clear logical chain: a catering company, under the pressure of industry trends and costs, chose the pre-made food model, but couldn't let go of the "freshly made" brand image. So, it made one set of external statements and implemented another set of internal statements, and when faced with questions, it chose to suppress them forcefully instead of communicating honestly.

The recent service area video incident was the trigger for this.

Lao Xu opened the document and began writing.

He thought about the title for a long time and finally settled on, "Dongbei's 'Fresh' Lie: Central Kitchen, Pre-made Meals, and an Overly Aggressive Crisis PR."

The article is structured in four parts:

Event Recap: Service Area Video, Blogger's Apology, Dongbei's Strong Response.

Anonymous whistleblower information and supporting evidence: whistleblower information from a former employee, screenshots of production records, and cold chain delivery slips.

Industry background: The trend of pre-prepared meals in chain restaurants, the balance between cost and efficiency, and the gap in consumer perception.

In-depth analysis: Why do companies choose to lie? Why do they overreact? And what are the long-term damages to their brands?

He wrote with restraint, using objective language and citing verifiable facts as much as possible. When he got to the second part, he processed the blurry screenshots, hiding specific numbers and codes, and only keeping the parts that could illustrate the point. He added qualifiers such as "allegedly" and "according to the whistleblower" before the anonymous revelations.

At 4 p. m., the first draft was completed. He sent it to the other team members for review.

Xiao Chen replied, "Teacher Xu, should we wait for news from K? Didn't you say you still haven't received the internal script documents?"

Lao Xu replied, "We won't wait any longer. The existing chain of evidence is sufficient to support the core argument of the article. Moreover, public opinion needs time to develop, so releasing it now will allow us to capitalize on the current buzz surrounding Dongbei among netizens."

Another colleague on the team, responsible for legal review, asked, "Professor Xu, regarding the accusations of 'falsifying financial statements' and 'falsifying accounts' mentioned in the article, we only have one side of the story and no concrete evidence. Are there any legal risks involved?"

After thinking for a moment, Lao Xu changed that part to. "Several former employees have reported to this account that Dongbei is adjusting its accounts to meet 'fresh ingredient procurement ratio' targets. This account has not been able to obtain relevant financial documents, and this claim needs further verification."

The article was finalized at 6 PM.

Lao Xu clicked "Publish".

At 7 p. m., the article was simultaneously published on the "Speaking Food Truthfully" WeChat official account, Toutiao Account, and Zhihu column.

Within ten minutes of its release, it garnered over 10,000 views.

The comment section exploded.

"Finally, someone dares to speak the truth!"

"I knew Dongbei's reaction was off; he was definitely hiding something."

"Are those production record screenshots real? If they are, Dongbei is engaging in false advertising!"

Where are the people who support Dongbei's rights protection efforts? Come out and show yourselves!

"As someone who works in the restaurant industry, to be honest, this situation at Dongbei is all too common. But there aren't many who are stubbornly holding on like they are."

"So what that guy at the service area said was true? The fish in Dongbei is really frozen?"

The article was quickly shared on Weibo, Douban, Hupu, Xiaohongshu, and other social media platforms, sparking widespread discussion. On Weibo, the hashtag # Dongbei Catering -madeFood# saw its readership surge from hundreds of thousands to five million in just one hour.

A netizen posted a screenshot of the article under Dongbei's official Weibo Dongbei the hashtag #ShowOffYourDongbeiFreshMeal#, commenting. "Stop showing off, explain this first?"

The number of likes on that comment skyrocketed, quickly rising to the top of the trending comments.

Dongbei's operations team was clearly caught off guard. At 7:20, the official Weibo deleted the post about the check-in activity. At 7:25, a new statement was released:

[Regarding the false articles circulating online today, our company solemnly declares: the content of the articles is maliciously fabricated and seriously inaccurate. Dongbei Catering has always adhered to the business philosophy of "fresh ingredients, cooked to order," and all stores use fresh ingredients delivered daily. We have reported any acts that defame our company's reputation to the police and will resolutely protect our rights through legal means. We urge netizens not to believe or spread rumors.]

After the statement was released, the comment section completely spiraled out of control:

"Call the police? Call them now! Let the police investigate how many meal kits your central kitchen produces every day!"

"Daily delivery of fresh ingredients? Is -18℃ on the delivery slip the temperature for fresh ingredients?"

"The screenshots in the article are fake? Then do you dare to release the production records of your central kitchen?"

["Support Dongbei reporting this to the police and catching the rumor-mongers! -- 50 cents a post, please delete the part in parentheses"]

"Upstairs, your price has been revealed."

At the same time, netizens began to spontaneously "find evidence".

Someone dug up a negative review from a few months ago on Dianping: "Dongbei's food tastes worse and worse, like reheated ready-made meals." At the time, this review only had a few likes, but now it has been featured on the store's homepage.

Someone posted photos they took at Dongbei store, pointing out that the freezer in the kitchen was piled with packaging bags with the words "Dongbei Exclusive".

Someone combined screenshots of a conversation from a service area video with the keyword "central kitchen" from the article to create a meme. "When you tell the truth, the company says you're spreading rumors."

Some people even tagged the Market Supervision Administration and the Consumer Association, demanding that they intervene and investigate.

Public opinion is like a snowball, getting bigger and bigger.

8:30 PM, Dongbei headquarters, Zheng Dong's office.

The curtains were drawn tightly shut. Zheng Dong sat behind his desk, his face ashen. The article "Speaking Food Truthfully" was open on his computer screen, and next to the page was the Weibo trending list, with # Dongbei Catering -madeFood# already climbing to seventh place.

Zhao Bin, Li Li, Wang Qian from the legal department, and several other senior executives stood in front of the desk, but no one dared to sit down.

"What's the deal with this article?" Zheng Dong tapped the screen with his finger.

Li Li's voice trembled slightly. "Chairman Zheng, we... we just saw it too. The article was published at six o'clock in the evening; it spread too fast, we didn't have time to react..."

"No time to react?" Zheng Dong stared at her. "What's the PR department doing? Is their media monitoring just for show? This article is so long, it's been out for over two hours, and it's already got millions of views, and you're only reporting this now?"

"We... we did monitor some discussions about pre-cooked meals before, but we didn't expect someone to compile such a detailed article..." Cold sweat beaded on Li Li's forehead.

"Are the screenshots in the article—the production records and delivery slips—real or fake?" Zheng Dong turned to Zhao Bin.

Zhao Bin paused for a few seconds before speaking with difficulty, "The image... is very blurry, and the content is unclear. But the format looks somewhat like the interface of our internal system. However, it could also be a forgery..."

"Maybe?" Zheng Dong raised his voice, "I need a definite answer! Is it really our stuff?"

The office was deathly silent.

Wang Qian said cautiously, "Chairman Zheng, from a legal perspective, even if the screenshots are genuine, the other party obtained trade secrets through illegal means, and we can file a lawsuit..."

"What's the point of a lawsuit!" Zheng Dong slammed his fist on the table. "The whole internet is talking about Dongbei using pre-made food! Will a lawsuit shut them up? Will a lawsuit make customers believe that we 'freshly made'?"

No one dared to speak.

Zheng Dong stood up and paced back and forth behind his desk. His breathing was heavy, his chest heaving like a trapped beast.

"Have you found out who that anonymous whistleblower is?" He stopped and looked at Li Li.

"They're... they're still investigating," Li Li said softly. "The 'former employees' mentioned in the article are too broad a term. Dongbei has had quite a few employees leave over the years..."

"Then narrow it down!" Zheng Dong interrupted her. "How many people meet these criteria: those who know the central kitchen's production data, those who know the details of cold chain distribution, those who know the internal scripts? Investigate them one by one! Check call records, social media accounts, recent financial situations! I don't believe we can't find them!"

Li Li's face turned pale, and she could only nod. "Yes, I'll arrange it right away."

"And that ' Speaking Food Truthfully ' guy," Zheng Dong looked at Zhao Bin, "What's his background? Find out. Contact the platform and have them delete the article. Contact their manager and have them delete the post and apologize. If they don't cooperate..."

He paused, his voice as cold as ice. "Let them know what the consequences are for offending Dongbei."

Zhao Bin replied, "Understood."

"Furthermore," Zheng Dong sat back down in his chair, crossing his hands on the table, trying to calm himself down, "The official statement has been released, but it hasn't been effective. We need a more direct response. Tomorrow... no, tonight, we'll arrange a live stream from the kitchen. We'll find several flagship stores and have the chefs chop and cook vegetables live, broadcasting the whole process live. Let customers see with their own eyes that we cook to order."

Li Li hesitated for a moment. "Chairman Zheng, if we're doing a live stream... what if something unexpected happens..."

"Then we need to have a contingency plan!" Zheng Dong said. "We'll choose the most trustworthy restaurants, the most skilled chefs, and the simplest dishes. The entire process, from the ingredients arriving to plating and serving, will be broadcast live. I want everyone to see that Dongbei's 'freshly made' is not just empty talk."

"Yes." Li Li quickly wrote it down.

"And another thing," Zheng Dong concluded, "Contact the media outlets we've worked with before and get them to write positive reports. Find food bloggers to make restaurant review videos. Keep the online trolls flooding the comments section to suppress the negative ones. In short, I need to see the public opinion shift within 24 hours."

The crowd responded in unison, "Yes."

"Go out." Zheng Dong waved his hand.

The group of people felt as if they had been granted a pardon and hurriedly left the office.

The door closed, Zheng Dong sat alone in the darkness.

The light from the computer screen shone on his face, flickering between bright and dim.

He reopened the article and read it word by word. The cold, hard numbers, the jarring screenshots, the incisive analysis...

"Dongbei's 'Fresh' Lies"

These words were like a knife, stabbing into the softest part of his heart.

He recalled that twenty years ago, when his first small shop opened, he was sweating profusely at the stove, carefully stir-frying each dish. When customers said it was delicious, he smiled like a child.

Back then, "freshly made" wasn't just a slogan; it was an everyday reality.

What about now?

He closed his eyes.

My phone vibrated; it was a message from Lao Xing: "President Zheng, we've found Lin Feng's address: Building 3, Room 1202, Splendid Garden. Do we need to take any further action?"

Zheng Dong stared at the message for a long time.

Then he replied, "Stop for now. Wait until things calm down."

He put down his phone, walked to the window, and drew back the curtains.

Outside the window, the city lights shone brightly, and cars flowed like a river.

How many of those lights are actually Dongbei's brand name?

How many of those people were his customers?

He suddenly felt a little tired.

At the same time, at Lin Feng Apartment.

Lü Yi lay on the sofa, three phones simultaneously displaying different pages: Weibo trending topics, Douyin topics, and Zhihu discussions. He watched with great interest, occasionally chuckling to himself.

"Boss! It's blown up! That article is trending! Dongbei is getting a lot of flak!" he shouted excitedly.

Lin Feng sat at the dining table, with K's latest report in front of him: the penetration progress of Dongbei's internal meeting system has reached 70%, and it is expected that the recordings of recent meetings can be obtained tomorrow morning.

He looked up and glanced at the heated comments on Lü Yi's phone screen.

"Um."

"Are we just going to stand by and watch?" Lü Yi asked, "Aren't we going to add fuel to the fire?"

"No need," Lin Feng said, "The fire is already strong enough."

He closed the report, opened the article "Speaking Food Truthfully" and quickly skimmed through it.

It's very professionally written, with a clear chain of evidence and insightful analysis. Although the screenshots of those production records were provided anonymously by K, the author clearly verified and supplemented them.

Public opinion has begun to reverse.

But Zheng Dong will not admit defeat.

Lin Feng looked out the window. The night was deep, and the outlines of distant buildings were faintly visible in the darkness.

He knew the real storm was yet to come.