A Day of Media Frenzy

At seven o'clock in the morning, the kitchen of Dongbei's flagship store was already brightly lit.

A dozen chefs dressed in brand-new white uniforms and top hats stood in front of the worktable, their expressions as stiff as mannequins in a shop window. In front of them were washed vegetables, sliced meat, and live fish swimming in tanks—everything was arranged neatly, like soldiers awaiting inspection.

Store manager Li Wei paced back and forth in the aisle, clutching a walkie-talkie, his forehead covered in sweat.

"Fish! Check the fish again! They must be alive and swimming!" he yelled into the walkie-talkie. "When the camera pans over, grab the most energetic one!"

The young apprentice by the water tank quickly reached in and stirred the water, startling several crucian carp, which darted about and splashed water all over the ground.

"Knives! Knives must be shiny! Cutting boards must be new! And work clothes—" Li Wei turned and pointed at an old worker's collar, "Old Zhang, your collar isn't turned up properly! Buttons all the way up!"

Old Zhang is in his fifties and has worked at Dongbei for twenty years, starting from a small roadside kitchen, then moving to the central kitchen, and finally being transferred back to the store to "perform." He silently straightened his collar and his lips curled down slightly.

"Listen up, everyone," Li Wei said, his voice shrill with tension as he stood in the center of the kitchen. "The media will be here at eight o'clock sharp. Headquarters requires that at least three dishes be broadcast live: scrambled eggs with tomatoes, stir-fried vegetables, and braised fish. Have you all memorized the procedures?"

No one answered.

"Old Zhang, say it again!" Li Wei called on him.

Old Zhang cleared his throat and, reciting a lesson, began. "First, show the ingredients—tomatoes must be cut into evenly sized pieces, eggs must be beaten fresh, leafy greens must be washed one by one, and fish must be caught and killed immediately. Then heat the pan with oil, add the ingredients, stir-fry, season, and serve. Throughout the process, maintain a smile, interact with the camera, and say, 'Our ingredients are delivered fresh daily,' 'Controlling the heat is very important.'"

"Yes!" Li Wei nodded vigorously. "That's it! Also, if reporters ask why we used scissors—"

He paused, and everyone in the kitchen stared at his face.

"Just say," Li Wei swallowed, "That the scissors are for quickly cutting open the packaging of fresh ingredients to ensure hygiene."

Someone in the corner chuckled.

Li Wei glared at him, but couldn't see who it was. He wiped the sweat from his brow. "In short, there can't be any mistakes today. Headquarters is monitoring the whole thing, and Chairman Zheng is personally watching the big screen. Whoever messes up is fired. Understand?"

A few scattered "I understand".

At 7:40, the first group of media arrived.

TV reporters carrying cameras and microphones, social media bloggers holding phone stands, newspaper editors with notebooks... a huge group of more than thirty people squeezed into the kitchen. The air conditioning was strong, but with so many people, the temperature immediately rose.

"This way, teachers!" Li Wei forced a smile. "Let's start with the food display area—"

"Manager, can we film the cooking process directly?" A young female reporter wearing black-rimmed Glasses interrupted him, "Viewers would prefer to see the actual cooking."

"Yes, yes, let's film the operation first!" others echoed.

Li Wei's forehead started sweating again. "Okay, okay, let's get started. Old Zhang, prepare to make braised fish chunks!"

Old Zhang walked to the stove. Cameras immediately surrounded him, five or six cell phones and three video cameras were pointed at him. He took a deep breath and scooped a crucian carp out of the water tank—his movements were a little stiff, the fish thrashed in his hand and almost fell to the ground.

"The fish are so fresh!" one blogger exclaimed loudly. "Look, everyone, they were just caught!"

Old Zhang pressed the fish onto the cutting board, picked up a knife, and with a flash, the fish head fell to the ground. He scaled, gutted, removed the internal organs, and cut it into pieces... His movements were practiced, but he remained expressionless throughout. He didn't even care when fish blood splattered onto his apron.

"Master, how many years have you worked at Dongbei?" A social media blogger held his phone close to his face.

"Twenty years." Old Zhang didn't even look up.

"So, do you think Dongbei's ingredients are fresh?"

"Fresh," Old Zhang replied mechanically. "Delivered daily."

"Is it all freshly killed and prepared?"

Old Zhang paused for a moment, his knife still in his hand. He looked up at Li Wei, Li Wei frantically tried to signal him with his eyes.

"... The core elements were all done on-site," Old Zhang said, reciting his rehearsed lines.

"What about the non-core aspects?" another reporter pressed.

Old Zhang stopped talking and continued cutting the fish into pieces.

The camera then shifted to another chef—who was making scrambled eggs with tomatoes. He was cracking eggs, chopping tomatoes, and heating oil in a pan. The process seemed normal, but observant people noticed a pair of scissors next to the bowl of eggs.

"Master, what are these scissors for?" someone asked.

The chef's hand trembled, and he almost dropped the eggshell into the bowl. "Oh, this... is for chopping scallions."

"Aren't scallions chopped?"

"Cut... cut faster, more hygienic." The scissorsmith, sweating profusely, quickly put the scissors back into the drawer.

But the scissors soon reappeared.

At another workstation, a chef preparing stir-fried vegetables took a package of "Premium Choy Sum" from the refrigerator. The transparent packaging bag was printed with the production date: November 3, 2025. Shelf life: 180 days when frozen.

The chef naturally used scissors to cut open the packaging bag and poured the bok choy into the drain basket.

"Wait a minute!" The female reporter with black-rimmed Glasses rushed over, her camera pointed at the packaging bag. "This date... November of last year? Frozen storage?"

The chef froze, his hand still in the gesture of pouring the food.

Li Wei rushed forward and blocked the camera. "Teacher, these are our stock items for display! They're not for today! The bok choy we're using today was delivered fresh this morning—"

Before he could finish speaking, another blogger had already squatted in front of the refrigerator and opened the door.

A blast of cold air hit me.

The cabinet was neatly stacked with dozens of transparent packaging bags: bok choy, broccoli, diced carrots, corn kernels... Each bag was printed with a production date, the most recent being three months ago and the oldest being eleven months ago.

"Is this also a display item from the inventory?" The blogger looked up, the camera zoomed in on Li Wei's face.

Li Wei opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word for a long time.

The chaos at the flagship store was just the beginning.

At 9:30 a. m., more than 200 Dongbei stores across the country simultaneously flooded in with media and bloggers. Some stores were well-prepared and performed convincingly; others were flustered and made numerous mistakes.

In a shopping district in East China, a food blogger was live-streaming the process of cutting pork belly. "Look everyone, how beautiful the marbling is, it must be fresh—" Before he could finish speaking, a pool of blood appeared on the cutting board.

The barrage of comments flew by:

"There's way too much blood!"

"Is this how fresh meat thaws?"

["The master's face turned green, hahaha"]

At a community store in South China, a chef demonstrated how to make freshly wrapped wontons. The filling was pre-made meat filling taken from the refrigerator. As soon as the chef scooped out a spoonful, sharp-eyed viewers noticed that the packaging box was printed with "Special supply from Dongbei Central Kitchen. Please use within 24 hours after thawing."

The worker frantically tried to cover the label, but the camera had already captured it.

At a service area in Southwest China, the situation was even worse. The manager bought a few live fish from a nearby market, but because they had never killed live fish before, the fish slipped from the chef's hands and thrashed on the ground, causing the scene to get out of control. In the end, the fish were killed, but the kitchen floor was a mess, with blood mixed with fish scales, and several cleaning ladies were squatting on the ground frantically cleaning it up.

A blogger recorded this scene and captioned it. "Live fish are being killed in Dongbei's kitchen. The fish: I was terrified."

At noon, the first wave of videos began to circulate online.

At first, the comments were relatively restrained, mostly neutral headlines like "First Day of Dongbei's Transparent Kitchen: Reporters Go Directly into the Kitchen." But soon, netizens began to create their own interpretations.

A blogger edited together footage from multiple Dongbei restaurants, adding upbeat background music. In the video, all the Dongbei chefs share a common action: using scissors.

Cut open packaging bags, cut open cling film, cut open sauce seals... Scissors appear more frequently than spatulas.

The blogger captioned the post. "Dongbei's kitchen magic weapon—scissors. First, cut open the packaging; second, cut open the freshness barrier; third, cut open your understanding."

The video quickly garnered over 100,000 likes.

Another blogger made a comparison video: the left side shows a scene from Dongbei's promotional video of "chefs carefully selecting fresh ingredients," while the right side shows a scene from today's live stream of "chefs using scissors to open frozen vegetable packages." The caption reads, "Promotion: Carefully selected. Reality: Carefully cut and opened."

Another blogger made fun of the post. "Mom feeds her one-year-old baby broccoli meant for two-year-olds, and tells him to eat more because it's good for staying young." The accompanying picture is a close-up of the production date on the broccoli packaging.

Even more sarcastic netizens started making up jokes:

"My second uncle has been paralyzed for ten years. Ever since he ate Dongbei, he's been running away—because they were so bad, he got so angry he stood up."

"I'm planning to open a Xibei next to Dongbei. I'll cook Xibei dishes Dongbei can't, and I'll cook Xibei dishes Dongbei can. In short: Dongbei, stop cooking, I'll do it."

"My impression of Dongbei's transparent kitchen: Except for the customers who eat freshly slaughtered food, everything else is pre-prepared."

"This time I'm standing on Dongbei; Lin Feng's side is packed with people, I can't squeeze in."

3 PM, Dongbei headquarters monitoring center.

Zheng Dong stood in front of a wall full of screens, his face ashen.

The screen was divided into dozens of small squares, each showing a live feed of a different store. Some stores were orderly, with chefs smiling and stir-frying food for the camera; others were chaotic, with reporters chasing after store managers asking, "Are frozen vegetables considered fresh?"; and some stores simply had black screens—either due to equipment malfunction or the store manager secretly turning off the cameras.

Zhao Bin stood behind him, holding a tablet, his voice trembling. "Chairman Zheng, public opinion monitoring shows... the negative sentiment has increased by another five percentage points. Right now, the entire internet is playing the 'scissors joke' and 'frozen vegetable stalks' meme..."

"Turn it off," Zheng Dong said.

"What?"

"Turn off all live streams." Zheng Dong turned around, his eyes bloodshot. "Now, immediately."

"But Chairman Zheng, this is only the first day. If we suddenly shut it down, the media will..."

"I said turn it off!" Zheng Dong shouted.

Everyone in the monitoring center was startled and fell silent.

Zhao Bin quickly gave the order over the walkie-talkie, "All stores, stop the live stream immediately! Turn off the cameras! Say it's an equipment malfunction and we need technical support!"

One by one, the screens on the wall went black.

Finally, only the flagship store footage remained— Old Zhang was still stir-frying food at the stove, but the media presence had dwindled significantly. Someone summarized to the camera. "Today's live broadcast of Dongbei's transparent kitchen has come to an end. We can see..."

The screen went black.

The monitoring center fell silent. The only sound was the hum of the machine's cooling fans.

Zheng Dong stood there, staring at the dark screen wall for a very long time.

Then he turned around and walked out of the monitoring center without saying a word.

The sound of footsteps echoed in the empty corridor, growing fainter and fainter.

7 PM, Lin Feng Apartment.

Lü Yi sprawled on the sofa, laughing uncontrollably while clutching his tablet, "Boss, look at this! 'Top Ten Bizarre Behaviors in Dongbei Kitchen'! Number one: The Scissors Blessing Ceremony—every dish must first be blessed by scissors!"

He handed me the tablet. On the screen was a compilation of clips edited by a comedy blogger: chefs from different stores were holding scissors, cutting packaging, cling film, sauce packets... accompanied by temple chanting music and golden light effects, it actually looked quite convincing.

Lin Feng glanced at it and continued reading the report K had sent him—the penetration progress of the funds pool in the Northern Myanmar industrial park had reached 92%, and the first phase of transfer was expected to begin next week.

"Boss, don't you think it's funny?" Lü Yi asked.

"Ridiculous." Lin Feng didn't even look up.

"Then why aren't you smiling?"

"I've had my laugh."

Lü Yi pursed her lips and continued scrolling through videos. After a while, she said again, "But honestly, Dongbei is really in a bad situation this time. They tried to clear their name, but the more they tried, the worse it got. Now the whole internet is mocking them."

Lin Feng hummed in agreement.

"Boss," Lü Yi suddenly sat up, her eyes shining, "What do you think Zheng Dong is thinking right now? Is he kicking himself for it?"

Lin Feng finally raised his head and glanced at Lü Yi.

Outside the window, night has fallen, and countless lights are twinkling in the sky.

He recalled the scenes he had seen on the surveillance footage during the day: the chef's stiff smile, the manager's cold sweat, and the crisp "snip" sound of scissors cutting open the packaging.

And then there's Zheng Dong standing in front of the screen wall, and the last Back View of him turning away.

"He's probably thinking," Lin Feng said slowly, "Where exactly did this pair of scissors begin to cut?"

Lü Yi didn't understand. "What do you mean?"

Lin Feng didn't explain, and lowered his head again to look at the report.

On the tablet, another new video has topped the trending list. The title is. "A Visit to Dongbei Central Kitchen - Oh wait, I mean 'Food Pre-processing Center'."

The number of likes is skyrocketing.