Sales on Fire

It was ten in the morning on Ning City's food street.

Today was Sunday, and tomorrow was the Dragon Boat Festival. With three days off in a row, many people had gone out to spend money over the holiday.

Many of them passed through the food street on their way, intending to buy some shaobing to take home. Though many people didn't like eating it, how could they celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival without shaobing?

As they walked, an unusual, delicate fragrance drew them in, and they gradually gathered outside the Food Flavor Pavilion.

Ten huge vats stood in a row outside the entrance, the kind restaurants used to cook congee. Wisps of fragrance drifted from the steaming vats.

A large sign stood at the entrance:

[Legendary food returns to the jianghu]

Someone stepped forward and asked curiously, "Excuse me, what tasty food is in there?"

"There are zongzi cooking inside."

The one answering, of course, was Xiao Bing, the Food Flavor Pavilion's poster girl.

"What are zongzi?"

"Zongzi are food people ate during the Dragon Boat Festival in ancient times."

"Isn't shaobing what you eat for the Dragon Boat Festival?"

"No, back when people lived on Earth, they all ate zongzi."

The same conversation played out again and again, and Xiao Bing explained without growing tired of it. She believed her brother. In any case, nobody now knew what people had actually eaten for the Dragon Boat Festival back on Earth.

Perhaps the gimmick was enticing enough, for quite a few people had gathered outside.

Before long, some foodies paid on the spot. Ignoring the heat, they grabbed their zongzi and started gnawing on them.

Xiao Bing hurriedly stopped them. "Hey, hey, you have to unwrap the leaves before you can eat them. The end of the string is right here."

It wasn't very difficult. Once someone had demonstrated, the customers behind them quickly learned how.

The foodies stood there and began eating. The novel food tasted quite good, and the customers who tried it kept nodding and praising it.

"Oh, this tastes really good. It's nice and light."

"It's made of glutinous rice, and there are red dates too."

"Good, good. I'll buy a few more to take home."

"So this is what they call zongzi? Didn't people online say they were baked?"

With those foodies leading the way, the customers who had been waiting to see no longer hesitated. They lined up one after another to buy some, and soon a line more than a dozen people long had formed outside the Food Flavor Pavilion.

And more people kept joining it.

Only then did Lu Yuan's heart settle. When all was said and done, zongzi were just glutinous rice with a little of the delicate fragrance of zongzi leaves, and he had worried whether the Hua People of today could still accept their taste. Judging by today's response, some things might be forgotten, but they would never disappear. They would always flow in a people's blood.

Auntie Zhang, the manager, was relieved too. She had spent a considerable sum buying a large batch of glutinous rice and red dates overnight. Since nobody sold zongzi leaves at all, the leaves they were using had been picked in the park by Xiao Bing and her brother early that morning. To make way for the zongzi, Chef Wang hadn't had time to continue making his flaky-crust shaobing either.

After going to such expense, if sales were poor, the boss would surely dock her pay-a whole lot of it!

Now, seeing the crowds lining up, she not only wouldn't be scolded, but could even rub it in the boss's face!

After trying them, many customers promptly bought some more to take home, as few as three or five, or as many as a dozen or more.

One zongzi sold for ten yuan, and no one should complain about the price. This was the only place selling them, with no other branches! Apart from labor, the cost was practically zero: just some glutinous rice, red dates, and leaves. Once the first batch of three thousand zongzi sold out, that would be more than thirty thousand yuan.

What's more, the second batch was still being wrapped.

Manager Auntie Zhang was delighted.

Chef Wang was a straightforward man. He wasn't jealous of Lu Yuan's cooking skills, but the zongzi themselves puzzled him greatly.

Why did a simple combination of a few common ingredients win such widespread approval from consumers?

He often developed new dishes himself; the flaky-crust shaobing, for instance, was his creation. Chef Wang knew full well how troublesome it was to introduce a new product.

Once a new product had been developed, it first had to be tasted by others in the trade, then tested at an established, successful store. Only if six months of sales showed a stable, long-term revenue could it be rolled out on a large scale across all the stores.

Lu Yuan hadn't done any of that. He seemed to have known from the start that the zongzi would sell like hotcakes?

Why was he so confident?

Xiao Bing, who was serving customers out front, had no time for such thoughts. She was busy to death. Although she was surprised by how amazing her brother had been today, it wasn't anything beyond imagining.

For as long as she could remember, her brother had been impressive in her eyes. He could tie her shoelaces, braid her hair, and even take toys down for her from very high cabinets.

He could do just about anything!

In the kitchen, Lu Yuan directed everyone to hurry up and wrap the zongzi. How quickly they were selling outside had taken him completely by surprise. He had only known that something no one else had would surely sell well, but with hundreds of people lined up outside, he had truly never seen anything like it!

But no matter how hard everyone worked, they still couldn't keep up with sales. After all, zongzi took a long time to cook. The scene outside was already getting somewhat out of control.

First, more and more people joined the line, which twisted and turned until it actually wound around the street several times.

Then many young people took out their phones and started posting short videos. In less than an hour or so, a great wave of foodies looking for excitement began arriving at the food street, clamoring to buy "the legendary zongzi." Self-media really was advanced these days, and there were more people looking for amusement than there were humans in total!

The zongzi were selling so quickly that they couldn't be made fast enough, and the customers outside were getting more and more crowded.

Some people bought many at once and resold them outside.

Unable to squeeze forward, the people at the back began chanting together:

"We want zongzi! We want zongzi!"

The scene was on the verge of spiraling out of control.

Just then, a luxury car sped over and screeched to a stop at the entrance to the food street.

Jia Shengnan came hurrying over with a few of his employees.

Manager Auntie Zhang was so anxious she was about to cry. "Boss!"

She had planned to take the opportunity to rub it in his face, but now the area in front of the store was as crowded as a city besieged by zombies. She felt that, with the store in such chaos, the boss would surely kill her.

Jia Shengnan didn't waste any words. He looked at the crowd outside the store, then at the employees inside who were so busy they were crying.

"Bring in more people!" he ordered his employees loudly. "Transfer the staff from every store here immediately, hurry!"

The employees immediately began making calls.

Only then did Jia Shengnan turn to the stunned manager. "What are we short of!?"

"We're almost out of glutinous rice!"

"There aren't enough pots!"

"We can't wrap them fast enough!"

"We don't have enough cashiers!"

The employees, frantic with work, all shouted at once, no longer caring whether he was the boss or not.

Jia Shengnan made proper arrangements for each issue.

It had to be said, this successful entrepreneur had a few tricks up his sleeve. After he arrived, everything began running in an orderly fashion.

In less than half an hour, the first batch of more than thirty employees arrived on a bus. They entered the store, rolled up their sleeves, and got to work.

The glutinous rice and other ingredients followed. Though the rice needed soaking, they would have to make do for now. If they didn't get another batch out of the pots soon, the zombie army outside might just tear the store down.

The resourceful Jia Shengnan also managed to bring in a few police officers at short notice to help maintain order outside.

During all this, Jia Shengnan spotted Lu Yuan. He still didn't know what had happened, and was merely a little puzzled about what his daughter's classmate was doing in his store, so he simply nodded to him.